Master Your Mind, Master the Room: The Power of PQ® in Presenting

We’ve all been there: heart pounding before a keynote, your inner voice whispering "don't mess this up" during a board meeting, or spending hours overthinking your slides.

Whilst most presentation coaching focuses on what your audience sees on the outside — how you stand, what you say, and how your slides look — the Positive Presenting Programme starts from how you feel on the inside. That’s the real driver of high-impact presenting and why I integrate Positive Intelligence (PQ®) into everything I do.

What is Positive Intelligence (PQ)®?

Positive Intelligence is about your mental fitness. Just as physical fitness determines your ability to climb a steep hill without reaching the point of exhaustion, mental fitness determines your ability to handle life’s great challenges without physical or emotional stress.

Developed by Shirzad Chamine and backed by breakthrough neuroscience, PQ® is based on a simple but profound truth: your mind is your best friend, but it can also be your worst enemy.

PQ® helps you identify the "Saboteurs" in your head—those internal critics that generate stress, anxiety, and self-doubt—and strengthens the "Sage"—the part of your brain that handles challenges with wisdom, empathy, and calm, clear-headed action

Why PQ® is the "Secret Sauce" for Presenters

You can have the best storytelling and the most beautiful slides in the world, but if your "Inner Judge" is screaming at you while you speak, your audience will feel that tension.

By weaving PQ® into our Positive Presenting Programme, we help you move from surviving a presentation to loving the experience.

1. Quiet the Inner Critic

Before you step onto the stage (or turn on your Zoom camera), PQ® helps you disarm the voices telling you that you aren't prepared enough or that the audience is judging you. As a result, you enter the room with a "Sage" mindset: focused, present, and curious.

2. Recovery in Real-Time

Mistakes happen. Sometimes a tech glitch occurs, or you lose your train of thought. Without mental fitness, these moments can easily trigger a spiral of stress. With PQ®, you learn how to recover your composure in seconds, treating the "gift" of the moment with calm rather than panic.

3. Influence Through Connection

Presenting isn't just about data; it’s about human connection. When you operate from your Sage powers (Empathy, Exploration, and Innovation), you build a deeper rapport with your audience. You aren't just "presenting facts"—you are influencing action.

4. Sustainable Confidence

Our alumni don't just feel better during the Positive Presenting Programme. As PQ® builds lasting neural pathways, they report sleeping better, worrying less, and feeling a "quiet power" that extends to interviews, high-stakes conversations, and their personal lives.

The Impact of Positive Intelligence

  • I came into this programme really doubting my ability to stick with it. Concerned that perhaps the application to my life wouldn't be compatible, that it came from a place which was too 'corporate' for me. It totally took me by surprise that it was so far reaching, having such a positive application to all areas of my life and to positively shape the lives of others around me by the changes that I can make personally and professionally. I would recommend it to friends, family and professionals. I feel like it's a medicine that I need to have a little of every day for the rest of my life!

    Hannah Adams, Associate Solicitor

  • Andrea is a very real, very empathetic coach. She is able to draw answers and solutions out of you, that you didn't even know you had by her clever use of curios questions. The course, is a very well packaged set of tried and tested tools with the added bonus of PQ reps and a coach that will engage the whole group in a way that you all feel very "in it together" and interested in each members journey through PQ.

    Sales Director, IT Software Company

  • I appreciated the flexibility of the program and the daily focus. And navigating the app was pretty smooth after I got the hang of it. And it was a great intro to the materials.

    Previous Positive Intelligence Participant

  • Weekly check-ins helped to hear how others were applying and learning when I was unsure — the range of options presented almost always hit home somewhere.

    Ann-Marie Coyne, Strategic Higher Ed Leader

  • I loved connecting with everyone in the group as that helped me stay focused on the program and gave me an incentive to continue.

    Graphic Designer

  • The PQ book/system are the easiest science-based path I have found to increase happiness, Relationships and productivity. Reading the book is good, but the practical structure offered by the program & app makes an enormous difference in actually following the recommendations. Doing the program in a group facilitated by Andrea White was a real treat. She brought organization, encouragement, personal experience, and offered tailored additional explanations when we had questions. Do the program, with Andrea White if you can.

    Cardie Templeton, Commercial Real Estate ownership, management and leasing

  • I wanted to say, THANK YOU. The last months without your PQ leadership and encouragement would not have been as transformative for me as they have been.  What you are capable of and did is create a safe space and place for strangers in different stages of vulnerability to explore and flourish. Not anyone or everyone can do that. You are one of the people in this world who can do that.

    Consultant, Change Management

  • The programme has been brilliant from the outset. I found the focus of the first 6 weeks really powerful, because we covered a lot of ground and the support from the group and from Andrea helped me to reflect and embed the learning. I immediately found ways to apply the strategies and saw really positive results! I found myself thinking very differently and more positively. Over time I have noticed big differences in my interactions with people and in my tolerance levels and stressThe programme has become a way of life for me. It isn’t like an additional extra that I have to find time for. It’s an integral part of my daily routine and thought processes. Thank you for helping me to find such positivity and empowerment!

    Senior Manager, Local Education Authority

  • This program has given a very helpful framework to gather together a set of skills and reflections that have been supportive to me. Its been particularly helpful to have some 'in the moment' mechanisms to help me pause and notice intense emotions, and help me take a moment to make sense of them before responding, for example in a work in environment where my judge/perfectionism might drive me to 'design' an unachievable work plan.

    Clinical Psychologist, NHS

Are you ready to present with clarity, calm, and impact?

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DISCLAIMERS: The coach identified here in is an independent member of the PQ Coach program, and not an employee, agent or representative of Positive Intelligence,LLC. The coaching program offered here in is independently owned and operated by the coach, and is not affiliated with or endorsed or sponsored by Positive Intelligence, LLC. PROGRAM CONTENT AND MATERIAL DO NOT CONSTITUTE MEDICAL OR MENTAL HEALTH ADVICE AND ARE NOT A SUBSTITUTE FOR PROFESSIONAL CARE, DIAGNOSIS OR TREATMENT OF ANY MEDICAL OR MENTAL HEALTH CONDITION