When you keep adding more and more context, detail, caveats and exceptions, it doesn’t make you sound smarter.
It makes it seem like you’re thinking out loud, which sounds mid-level.
If you find yourself rambling, catch yourself and say:
“If you remember ONE thing from what I’ve just said…let it be this.”
Then give one takeaway. That’s it.
How you end matters more than how you start.
Priscilla Leigh
I help PhD students excel at research communication and smash the 3MT.
You can be technically correct… and still be lacking something.
What’s that something? Not your ideas, but your voice.
Before people process what you say, they process how you sound. Pitch. Rhythm. Pace. Breath. Your whole auditory fingerprint.
They may not consciously know they are doing it, but their brain does!
That’s why competence alone doesn’t guarantee influence.
“I can’t work here.”
My reaction to a colleagues voice.
Nothing to do with their competence.
Nothing to do with their character.
Just their voice.
Purely emotional, instant and involuntary.
And here’s the uncomfortable truth:
Your voice is doing the same thing to other people.
Before your ideas are understood…
before your slides are processed…
People feel something about you.
You don’t get weeks for them to adjust.
You get seconds.
What are they feeling when they hear you?
Free training in bio.
You can prepare everything…And still feel you missed the mark.
If you prepare for one audience
and a different one shows up, it’s likely not to resonate.
The thought process of your audience determines everything.
This is what the success of your talk rises and falls on.
Most people focus on the wrong thing.
Confidence.�Delivery.�Presence.
None of that matters if you miss this:
Your audience.
What do they care about?�Why are they listening?�What do they need?
Get that right… and everything else improves.
The more you focus on yourself, the more nervous you feel.
The best way to relax is to focus on the people in front of you.
What do they need to hear?
That’s when clarity emerges.
The more important the idea…
The faster most people say it.
And that’s exactly why it doesn’t land.
If it matters, slow it down.
Give it weight.
→ Link in bio (free training)
The more important it is, the faster you say it (mistake!)
The more important the idea, the faster most people say it. That’s exactly why it doesn’t land though! it matters, slow it down. Give it weight. And wait.
Link in bio (free training)
21/10/2025
From feeling frazzled about presenting to not just owning the room but landing herself a potential collaboration! 🙌
What I love most about this message is the reminder that developing your public speaking skills is never just limited to one area e.g. your viva or that ONE presentation or that ONE conference. What you learn and implement transfers into multiple areas and can pay dividends (quite literally!) in many areas.
If you want to experience that same shift, from anxious to assured, DM me and let's make it happen 😉
20/10/2025
If you’re a PhD student, you probably started your research because you have a passion for your topic. You want to dig into it and get stuck in. But you quickly realised that doing a PhD is not just what you know, but about COMMUNICATING what you know...and that might thrill you a bit less. Nerves. Sweaty palms. Foggy thoughts. Tangents and rabbit holes. Blank stares and yawns.
If that sounds familiar, you’re in the right place!
This page is for PhD students who want to:
💡Speak about their research with clarity and confidence
💡 Communicate complex ideas WITHOUT dumbing them down
💡 Beat impostor syndrome and show how competent they really are
💡 Not put their audiences to sleep whilst doing so.
I’m Priscilla Leigh — author of How to Smash the 3-Minute Thesis and The Young Leader’s Guide to Public Speaking.
I help PhD students and researchers become confident, compelling communicators — as a psychoaudiologist, I help you understand how the auditory system of your audience works, so that can inform your communication.
If you want to feel more confident, more in control, and finally proud of how you sound when you talk about your work — follow along.
You're doing brilliant work, and the rest of us want to hear it. Everything here is designed to help you reveal your research well, so we the world, can revel in it!
🔗 Ready to speak so people listen? DM me to book a free Strategy Session.
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