TOP 10 iTUNES PODCAST
Want to own the room? Comedian and radio and TV presenter Viv Groskop talks to inspirational women about the secrets of brilliant speaking. They share the tips and tricks that will get you the attention you deserve.
How do you regain your confidence? Viv talks to the author, TV presenter, social media influencer and founder of fashion line Joanie, Dawn O’Porter, on finding your voice again. Dawn, who lives in LA with her husband the actor Chris O’Dowd and their two children, tells Viv with frank honesty about a dark time in her life when her TV career nosedived, how she lost her confidence and eventually wrote her way out of it. She shares her tips about holding onto self-worth when things aren’t going the way you want them to. She urges listeners to give themselves credit for the things that are going right – a relationship, friendships, children, work – rather than obsessing over what is going wrong. Her advice for owning the room is cut yourself some slack and allow yourself to draw strength from what is good. And be prepared to take a different direction if the one you planned has taken you out of the room entirely. As she tells Viv, the path doesn’t go in one direction and you may own and lose and own the room again.
Find out more about Dawn O’Porter’s latest novel, Cat Lady.
A new updated edition of Viv’s book, How to Own the Room is out now.
@vivgroskop
This podcast a concise, practical burst of advice and practicality from women from all walks of life — some famous names, some working behind the scenes — being grilled on a subject very few of them will have ever spoken before in detail: how they wield power and authority, where they draw their strength and confidence for public speaking, what they’ve learned from their biggest career setbacks and what “owning the room” means in their world. The podcast is a companion to Viv’s best-selling book How to Own the Room. She launched the podcast six months after she finished writing the book when she realised that she wanted to hear from as many women as possible about what owning the room meant to them.
In 2019 Viv interviewed Hillary and Chelsea Clinton — in this episode HRC reveals how she learned to overcome intimidation and bullying when she was in a public speaking class in her teens where all the other students were sports jocks. (It was supposed to be an easy class to pass.) And the temperature drops slightly when Viv asks Chelsea if her mother is running for election in 2020.
We’ve had Mary Beard (talking in the passenger seat of Viv’s seven-seater family VW Touran, Wotsits packets underfoot, as Viv drove her from Heathrow to Cheltenham as this was the only way we could fit into her schedule) on what it’s like to trounce Boris Johnson in debate, Nigella Lawson revealing how she overcame chronic nerves during her first TV appearance, Julie Andrews on dealing with difficult physical demands on set on The Sound of Music (she was repeatedly flattened by a helicopter in the aerial shots) and Monica Galletti on how she manages the transition from life as an introverted chef to speaking to camera on Masterchef.
