Are you looking to enhance your public speaking, refine your pitch, or become an exceptional moderator? Then you need to integrate your body, your brain, and your purpose! We recently had the incredible Ben Monday on the Speaker Shine podcast, and his insights prove that connecting with our physical selves is the key to unlocking mental and emotional success.

Ben’s work focuses on the holistic relationship between the brain (logic), the body (physical), and purpose (emotional). He emphasizes that while the 21st century is focused on cognitive change and changing mindsets, his belief is that it starts with the body.

Summary: The Body, the Pitch, and the Platform

Ben, who started his journey into public speaking through Toastmasters, is a powerful advocate for using physicality to influence how we think and feel. He shared that a simple act like standing up instead of sitting down can dramatically change your engagement, movement, and dynamicism. In fact, adopting better posture—shoulders back, chest up—brings an “aliveness” that is often missed when we sit back and relax.

His expertise extends to helping entrepreneurs and founders—particularly in Berlin’s startup scene—become better communicators. He provides rapid techniques for crafting a compelling presentation, including the powerful Three H Pitch Structure.

Furthermore, Ben details the extensive preparation required for effective event moderation and hosting. A good moderator’s role is expansive, covering everything from MCing and panel discussions to managing the entire environment (sound, light, temperature) to ensure the audience feels comfortable and connected. Ultimately, his goal as a moderator is to be an ambassador for the event organizer and ensure the speakers are the ones who shine.

3 Learnings to Elevate Your Presence

1. Embrace Somatic Awareness for Internal Change Somatic exercises (from the Greek word soma meaning body) focus on the lived physical experience. Ben explains that these practices build physical self-awareness, allowing us to shift the way we experience and do things, which subsequently changes the way we think. The simplest somatic shifts—like changing posture from a relaxed sit to an active stand—can immediately increase energy and feeling natural. Using the physical body, interacting with it, and utilizing it, allows us to change the way we think and feel.

2. Never Forget the “Help” in Your Pitch For startups, entrepreneurs, or any speaker looking for influence, structure is crucial. The Three H Pitch uses structure to keep both the speaker and the audience on track.

• Hook: Get someone in emotionally.
• Hope: What do you hope to achieve? What is the aspiration or impact you are creating?.
• Help (or The Ask): What do you need? This might be money, investment, community, access to knowledge/mentors, or sign-ups.

Ben notes that many speakers tell people about their great idea but fail to include the crucial “Help” or “Call to Action,” effectively wasting the opportunity.

3. The Moderator’s Spotlight Belongs to the Speakers While a moderator’s role is critical—acting as the connection between the audience and the experts on stage—their success is measured by the success of others. Ben strives to be so good that people walk away saying, “Wow, that was a great event. Weren’t those speakers awesome?” not “Wasn’t that MC wonderful?”. If the moderator steals the limelight, they are taking too much of the spotlight.

3 Actionable Takeaways for Future Speakers

1. Cultivate Connection Through Personal Research The red thread through success in hosting and moderating is connection. To prepare, Ben suggests immediately reaching out to guests on LinkedIn to build a bridge. Ask them to share something personal that people don’t know—maybe they are a volunteer firefighter, love baking, or collect turtles. Sharing these lighthearted, personal, and human details on stage helps the audience feel that vital connection.

2. Prepare to Be Less Stressed, Not More Confident Adrenaline, cortisol, butterflies, and sweaty palms are part of the pre-stage process. The last five to ten minutes before going on stage should be dedicated to relaxing exercises, not forcing confidence. Use somatic exercises to ground yourself: feel your feet on the floor, straighten your spine, and open your chest. Deep breathing into the belly, stretching the jaw, humming, and even jumping on the spot help create “aliveness” and move away from feeling small and contracted. When you are less stressed, ease and adaptability follow, and confidence comes later.

3. Live by the “Diva and Delight” Rule If you want to move forward in the moderation industry and get rebooked, heed this advice from one of Ben’s mentors: Be a diva on stage, but be a delight off stage. This means being great while performing, but also being helpful, easy to work with, following up, sharing, and giving thanks behind the scenes. Developing and keeping this connection increases your opportunities in life.

Are you ready to embrace the physical and philosophical shifts needed to shine? Start with your body, lead with connection, and watch the opportunities unfold!.

_{Note: This article was summarised using the transcript of the Speaker Shine Podcast Episode using Google NotebookLM}

Have you ever wondered if that quiet passion you put aside years ago still holds the key to your future fulfillment? Sangbreeta, a powerhouse in keynote speaking and neuroscience-driven behaviour, negotiation, and communication, certainly found that to be true!

We were thrilled to connect with Sangbreeta (also known for her must-watch TEDx speech, Transform Your Presence) to discuss her incredible journey—a reminder that your unique strengths are never truly lost, only waiting to be rediscovered.

Summary: From Shy Child to Global Leader

Sangbreeta’s professional path is a masterclass in trusting your inner voice, even when society—or big exams—tells you otherwise. She started out incredibly shy in kindergarten, preferring to “be the tree” in the background. Yet, with a gentle, encouraging nudge from her English teacher, Mrs. Souza, she found the courage to welcome all the parents at an event, marking the beginning of her public speaking journey.

Despite loving elocution and accumulating hundreds of competition experiences by age 13, she dropped her creative hobbies to prepare for big exams. Following a traditional trajectory, she studied Biotechnology, specializing in neuroscience, and later established a successful corporate career as an international manager in the Netherlands, even managing neuro-psychiatric drug trials.

But years into her corporate journey, with everything achieved “on paper,” a missing gap led her to revisit her childhood hobby. This act of validating her inner child and rekindling that spark was her “red letter day,” turning what was once a quiet wave into a powerful tsunami. Today, she focuses on long-term strategic development for leaders, offering a recently launched mastermind program to elevate performance, positioning, and purpose for those from mid-management up to senior executive roles.

3 Essential Learnings from Sangbreeta’s Journey

1. Embrace the Power of Elimination: If you don’t know exactly what you want to do next, focus on what you absolutely don’t want to do. This elimination process helps refine your path and cuts out the noise, guiding you toward fulfillment.
2. Mental Elasticity is Your Superpower: Motherhood forced Sangbreeta to learn flexibility and mental elasticity, minimizing the impact of failure and rejection. Life gets messy and raw—whether you are a parent or caring for family members—but challenging moments elevate you and force you to be real with your audience.
3. Coaching is About Self-Discovery, Not Just Solutions: Sangbreeta pursued coaching certification (ICF) not just for business, but to understand herself better. She learned to silence her “consultant brain” (which constantly offers solutions) to become a true coach, clearing inner biases and asking questions that ignite the client’s mind toward self-exploration and unique solutions.

3 Actionable Takeaways for Your Path

1. Revisit Your Red Letter Day: If you feel unfulfilled in a “cozy, comfortable career,” ask yourself: What activity brought you joy and made you feel “so alive and present” as a child? That childhood hobby might hold the key to your adult purpose.
2. Show Vulnerability Strategically: If you are giving an inspirational speech, first prove yourself to the audience by delivering 70% of your talk clearly and without excuse. Once your expertise is established, then share your vulnerable, real-life challenges.
3. Chase the Click, Not the Title: When seeking professional guidance or collaborators, prioritize bonding and rapport. Don’t just chase someone’s title or accolades; ensure you truly connect and resonate with their personality and values. This connection is fundamental for a successful relationship.

Sangbreeta’s ambition is to reach people across the world, build a community that empowers and inspires others, and ultimately bring joy into their lives. Her powerful story proves that even when faced with the toughest choices (like giving a keynote while your sick child is at the doctor), being tough, being real, and trusting yourself allows you to get it done—and that makes for a fantastic story worth sharing. You have it in you—go unleash that potential!.

_{Note: This article was summarised using the transcript of the Speaker Shine Podcast Episode using Google NotebookLM}

Martin, a native Dane, began his journey not as a gifted orator but as a “quiet kid” who was “shy” and “never really said much”. His teachers consistently informed his mother during parent-teacher conferences that Martin “didn’t say anything”. Academically, his grades were “pure rock bottom” in subjects like reading, writing, and math, making it “more impressive if he passed”.

However, Martin slowly realised he possessed an innate “gift of speaking”. He strategically leveraged this talent, focusing on coming across “confidently” during oral exams, which helped his grades rise “in all the vocal aspects”. Concluding that he could not excel at math or writing, he decided to focus entirely on developing his speaking skill, leading him to study rhetorics in high school where he concentrated on mastering presentation.

This groundwork led to a transformative two-year volunteer stint in the UK after high school, where he became a leader and was “forced to give more presentations” that “had to be top level”. His commitment reached its competitive peak after he was “tricked into Toastmasters” in 2019. Despite initially viewing the structured environment and precise timing as being run by “freaks” and “nitpickers,” Martin quickly took on leadership roles, serving as club President and Area Director for G4. He later won the European International Speech Contest, a victory that prompted his boss to give him a standing applause and led to a professional shift where he is now “fully in charge of communication” at his company.

3 Transformative Learnings

1. The Receiver is More Important Than the Messenger: A key principle Martin learned during his voluntary work was that “the receiver is more important than the messenger”. He realised that speaking cleverly is pointless if the audience does not understand the message. This understanding forced him to adapt his speaking style, shifting from a “rougher” delivery used in cities like Scar Bro and Harle to a more formal, serious, and reflective approach when interacting with people studying their PhDs in York.
2. Humans Connect Through Emotion: Martin’s acclaimed contest speeches were built on the fundamental belief that humans are “emotional beings” who “connect through emotions rather than rationality”. He believes that if humans were purely rational, everyone would have “six-packs” and be millionaires. To connect, he argues, speakers must “shock people”. This approach led him to slap the weighing scale in his speech, symbolising the emotional “slap” felt when stepping onto one.
3. Leadership Requires Moral Authority: Martin adheres to the concept of “moral authority,” learned in England, which dictates that a leader cannot preach what they do not practice. As a leader, whether in the church or as Toastmasters President, he felt obligated to “go all in” and “push yourself” if he expected his members to “go beyond” and excel. His focus as President was to establish a proper “chain of command” and ensure all officers were strengthened, rather than allowing one highly experienced member to retain all the knowledge.

3 Key Takeaways for Communication and Leadership

1. Continuous Innovation and Limit Pushing: To “stand out,” Martin resolved to “push all limits” and think about “what does nobody do”. He refused to start his contest speeches with the standard salutation to “grasp people at the end” and instead drove the audience on a “journey” from the beginning. He also embraced Steve Jobs’ quote that “creativity is simply connecting things,” applying this by forcing a link between seemingly unconnected ideas, such as relating obesity to achieving the “ultimate form” of a Pokémon.
2. Leverage Recognition for Professional Growth: Martin advises that winning a contest “can change” careers. His own career was profoundly affected when his boss discovered his European victory on LinkedIn, resulting in a standing ovation and his promotion to a communication leadership role.
3. Focus on the Next Skill Mastery: Having achieved the level where he feels he has “mastered the vocal” aspects of communication, Martin has shifted his focus to conquering the skill he once avoided: writing. This new challenge stems from discovering as an adult that he has “very bad dyslexia”. He is now actively studying writing and publishing frequently on LinkedIn to “make him [the quiet kid] proud” by mastering the written word.

_{Note: This article was summarised using the transcript of the Speaker Shine Podcast Episode using Google NotebookLM}