Emily Edgeley - Public Speaking & Storytelling Coach

🙋🏻‍♀️ Want to speak at a Conf... but you don’t even know what you’d talk about!?
 
I see this play out a lot. 
 
People then put this in the ‘Too Hard’ basket and another year passes by where no action is taken. 😬☠️

The thing is, everyone has something interesting they could talk about. 
 
You just need to know *how* to find a winning talk idea.
 
I’ve helped countless clients do exactly that (and then shape it into an amazing talk). However, previously, this support has been limited to people working with me privately.

Now I’m making this more accessible. 🙌 
 
If appying for / speaking at a Conf is on your wish list for 2026, this is for you.

I’ll be sharing more details with those on my Mailing List in the coming days. If you’d like to stay informed, comment YES below and I’ll send you the link to signup.

2025 by numbers......

Thanks to everyone who placed their trust in me last year. 🙌

It means the world to me to continue doing what I love.

Looking forward to supporting more individuals + organisations in 2026. 🤸

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✌🏼 Hey I'm Emily, ex-Cybersec turned Public Speaking Coach

⚡️ I help people (in Cybersec) to communicate with more clarity, impact & confidence. Whether that's at work or a conference. In writing or verbal.

📩 If you (or your organisation) would like my help to boost your influence, brand & business outcomes, let me know.

Storytelling helps with SO many things.

If you’ve been following me for a while you’ll know I am low key obsessed with the art of storytelling.

So I wanted to share the Top 10 things I think storytelling helps you to do:

1. Inspire
2. Build rapport
3. Connect the dots
4. Make things relatable
5. Share the bigger picture
6. Influence behaviour change
7. Tell the story behind data points
8. Make a message more memorable
9. Paint a picture of what the future holds
10. Bring to life the real drivers behind a change

What did I miss!? What else would you include?

The *easiest* way to make a talk more engaging?

>>>> add QUESTIONS.

Why do I say this is this the easiest way?

Because any content you *already have* can easily be *turned* into a question.

(i.e. You don’t need to source any more content as such)

Here’s 3 simple examples:

1️⃣ MAKING A POINT
Ask people to ponder it first.
E.g.
This is without a question: “Storytelling is so powerful. It’s more relatable, memorable and persuasive than facts alone”
VS
With a question: “Why is storytelling is so powerful? There may be a lot of things in your mind, but to me it comes down to this triad. They’re more relatable, memorable and persuasive than facts alone”

2️⃣ SHARING A STAT
Ask people to guess it first.
E.g.
This is without a question: “Here’s a Poll I did on LinkedIn which explains when people feel they learn the most in life. “
VS
With a question: “I did a Poll on LinkedIn which explains when people feel they learn the most in life. Here were the options I provided. Before I share the results, I want you to tell me, where you would vote?

3️⃣ SEGUEING
Turn a boring segue into an invitation!
E.g.
This is without a question: “Let me show you the bad pitch I was talking about”
VS
With a question: “So that bad pitch I was talking about – I actually have the video. Want to see it!? Ok great, let me show it to you.”

.....and yes before you wonder, these can absolutely be used in group environments (even though they feel more 1:1 conversational)!

P.S. I’m planning on writing an Article and creating a Cheat Sheet with a heap more scenarios. Let me know if this would be useful?

Also, if you have an aspect of an upcoming presentation you want my input on (to turn it into a question), comment below and i’ll share some ideas. 🤓

How I spent my Birthday this week:

- Out for (Italian) lunch with Zara 🍝
- To the nail salon with Zara 💅
- Out to Nobu with the fam 🍣
- Yummy handbag cake! 👜🎂

It was lovely 🥰 💜

3 things to completely avoid when presenting.....

1️⃣ TOO MANY KEY MESSAGES
Imagine every different key point you're making is a container / ball.

How many do you have in your talk(s)?

If it's 1-3, your audience will be fine to remember that. If it's in the order of 10-20, or even more, your audience is going to be completely overwhelmed.

2️⃣ A ONE-WAY DOWNLOAD
Are you talking at people for your who presentation!?

That is not normal, nor is it engaging. It's a one-way ticket to ensure your audience will tune out.

Make sure you include interaction of some sort when you're presenting. It will make your audience feel far more involved and it will increase engagment, buy-in and retention.

3️⃣ DEATH BY POWERPOINT
No-one likes text heavy slides. They're the worst.

Plus, they're highly distracting for your audience. People will be tempted to read, which means they won't be following along properly to what you're saying. A complete no-no!

Make sure your slides are like a Billboard (in that they're highly visual and take only a few seconds to glance at and comprehend).

Q - Which one of these do you need to avoid moving forward!?

😲 Is it possible to engage & entertain an audience, without uttering a SINGLE word!?

Yep! Here's some undeniable proof of this:

The King of Tik Tok (Khaby Lame), who has the most followers on the platform (over 153M) doesn’t speak in his videos - ever!!!

So, how did he amass such a staggering number of followers......? He communicates using the most universal language of all - BODY LANGUAGE.

I break down the 3 specific techniques he uses in this post.

P.S. Have you ever seen Khaby's videos? If so, what do you think of him and his approach?

🎪 CIRCUS OZ! We took Zara to her first circus this week, on Wed, for Zozzie's birthday.

The last circus I had been to was Cirque du Soleil, before COVID hit. So it was good to see one of our home grown acts this time.

If you haven't been to either, Cirque du Soleil is a lot more about the costumes and theatrics and it's a big production. Whereas Circus Oz was a silly, slapstick circus act that was far less polished. I think they even consider it part of the comedy festival.

In typical Zara style though, she had to get involved in the act somehow. 😅

Instead of sitting down watching the show, she went into the aisle, dancing to the music and whirling "Flo the Flamingo" around and around. 🦩 🤷‍♀️

I think I need to get her some circus skill lessons.

Have you been to a circus before? If so, which one?

3 generations of leopard-print fans 🐆🥰

International Keynotes can be scary to deliver.

But getting a coach to help you, can make the whole process so much less stressful!

With this client, I helped them craft the speech from start to finish. This included:

> Defining what would be an appropriate objective for that audience & topic
> What to say in the talk and when (including how to open and close)
> How to make it more interesting
> What stories to tell and how to craft them well
> Then giving feedback during practise runs

I'm obsessed with getting my clients the outcome they're after. I live for the epic feedback they get after the deliver their talk. WHOOP WHOOP!!

That's why I do what I do. 👌

P.S. If you have an important conf talk coming up and you'd love someone to bounce ideas off and help make it more targetted, engaging, impactful and less stressful, let me know.

This is one of my key services, so i'd be happy to help. Nobody even has to know you've engaged a coach, unless you want them to.

🙋🏻‍♀️ Wanna know how to close a talk with real PUNCH!?

The closing of your talk should be both clear and compelling.

>> CLEAR - Your audience need a clear direction for what they need to be doing with this information after your talk. This is called the Call To Action.

>> COMPELLING - Just knowing what to do isn't enough though. You need to give them the motivation to do it as well. Summarise what they're moving away from and why + summarise the benefits. i.e. The carrot and the stick.

This is the perfect combination to end your talk in a punchy and memorable way, the generates inspired action afterwards.