Public speaking used to petrify me. My performance anxiety would get triggered when I had to speak in front of a large group of people. I would feel nervous: my voice would shake, I would avoid eye contact, and get visible red marks on my neck, due to stress. As English is my second language, I would worry about people not understanding me due to my accent, grammar, and pronunciation. Consequently, I would forget what I wanted to say and start rambling. Occasionally, I could put on a mask and perform my memorized speech, but this felt artificial. However passionate I am about my research and future career; it will have no impact if my work cannot be shared with wider audiences in an engaging and attractive form. Undoubtedly, public speaking is necessary for career advancement, developing authority and credibility, building our professional profile or our brand. Hence, I could not continue feeling tortured each time I needed to face an audience. I found a variety of public speaking courses online. I became particularly interested in The Public Speaking Academy in Sheffield because this is a local provider with an impressive resume and a large offer of various public speaking courses. As opposed to the typical postgraduate development training of how to prepare an academic presentation or present a paper at a conference, Public Speaking Academy is more business, media, and political profile oriented, addressing its offer to this type of clients. Selecting the course provider appropriate to my needs was important, because within my research and my further postdoctoral career I want to be able to work and effectively communicate with such audiences.
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Good public speaking courses are very expensive. Some argue: waste of time and money. I was extremely motivated to take the course and start my personal and professional development. I negotiated the price for several weeks and succeeded - was offered executive 1-to-1 coaching for half price. The training providers were so impressed with my enthusiasm for public speaking that they have kindly offered me an additional weekender public speaking workshop ‘The Big Stage' for a small fraction of the cost. Unfortunately, learning everything about public speaking during one course is impossible, this will be a lifelong journey. I used my 1-to-1 coaching to identify my strengths and continue to develop my own public speaking craft based on this strong foundation.
I was researching online and found a variety of public speaking courses. I became particularly interested in The Public Speaking Academy in Sheffield because this is a local provider with an impressive resume and a large offer of various public speaking courses. As opposed to the typical postgraduate development training of how to prepare an academic presentation or present a paper at a conference, Public Speaking Academy is more business, media, and political profile oriented, addressing its offer to this type of clients. Selecting such course provider was important, because within my research and my further postdoctoral career I want to be able to effectively communicate with such audiences. I was also looking for something different from typical TED or corporate media preparation courses. Rather, I sought more personalised experience because I wanted to start developing my own, authentic leadership profile. I decided to engage with the 1-to-1 executive coaching pathway to challenge myself, therefore address my fears and anxieties. This can be very personal. Because I was very specific in what I wanted to work on, 1-to-1 was specially designed to my learning needs and my desirable learning outcomes, taking into consideration my neurodiversity and that English is my second language. ‘The Big Stage’ was not originally planned, but this was a perfect way of complimenting my individual coaching. ‘The Big Stage’ was a public speaking workshop experience where amongst business representatives and other professionals I could practice my newly developed public speaking skills. Learning public speaking only through 1-to-1 coaching is not possible. It is extremely important to practice in a safe environment, in front of a supportive group.
I was engaged in a series of in-depth 1-to-1 sessions working on my communication skills and I was involved in a group of business executives practicing our public speaking skills in a friendly, supportive but challenging environment.
During my 1-to-1 coaching I was identifying and reflecting on my fears, unhelpful thoughts, and strengths. Based on this deep psychological work, I was learning how to develop my own public speaking craft (this is known as 'creating your own confidence kit' or 'personal speaking survival kit'). I went through the list of my personal fears and anxieties with my coach so I could master my inner dialog of how to switch off my unhelpful thoughts and relax my mind. Being way out of my comfort zone, and confronting myself within unfamiliar public speaking environment was extra challenging for a neurodivergent, non native speaking, socially anxious individual as myself. During this phase of my training I also worked on the technique of building momentum and using rhythm so that my speech would flow, be remembered and my audience would feel involved. That is known as speaking with presence and charisma therefore creates a real impact.
During 'Big Stage' phase of my public speaking experience I was practicing my new skills in front of a friendly but unfamiliar and demanding group of accomplished business executives. Practicing in front of a group was a key point because I was provided with some honest but supportive feedback. I was also encouraging members of the 'Big Stage Challenge' group when they were struggling and needed constructive feedback themselves. During the individual and 'Big Stage' group engagements my feedback was similar: that I have a positive energy and that my strength lies in my authenticity. I was working on using this strength to build my authority through authenticity. Although it may sound trivial, the most important piece of work I did was developing the habit of thinking 'what does my audience need' and speaking with structure so that my audience would understand my message. I was also working on how to focus my attention broadly across the room or speak to separate people in the audience and keep switching my attention from one person to another to get everyone involved which is called 'engaging and impacting any audience' skill. Speaking with charisma and consciously using my energy to make impact costs... loads of energy :) Impactful, memorable, engaging public speaking is harder than I originally thought! By the end of each day I felt exhausted. Finding additional sources or inspiration and motivation was necessary :)
I enjoyed my major breakthrough moment: my understanding that public speaking is about an energy exchange with my audience. This helped me speaking with presence and charisma so that my audience memorise my passionate message (which is also known as speaking in 3D). Another gain was understanding the principle that the better the focus the better the leader. From now on, if I want to convey a message, I will maintain eye contact with my audience, I will speak directly to my audience, and I will slow down my words, break the message down into pieces and then slowly repeat it (which is called building a memorable message strategy). What I really enjoyed was learning how to relax about making a mistake. We all do mistakes. It is fine to make a mistake. Now I know that if I make one, I have the rest of my speech to recover. Next time I make one, I have my backup plan: I will not get distressed, I will not give up but I will approach the rest of my talk as my second chance.
Most challenging was the realisation of how deep psychological work must be undertaken in developing strong public speaking skills. For example, it might require working on our fears, complexes, traumas, or our low self-esteem. My public speaking training inevitably challenged me to address my own personal vulnerabilities. I was not aware of this aspect while planning to improve my public speaking skills! During the 'Big Stage' group workshop I also witnessed a very successful business executive who almost burst in tears from stress while on the stage, in the spotlight, practicing talking to the audience (the rest of our friendly group) about his holidays. If anyone wants to do proper work on themselves - I advise making sure that you chose a reputable coach and you are in a safe environment.
I probably already did but I am unaware of it yet. My PREP experience definitely inspired me to further work on myself. I do not want to be a one trick pony! I am currently in the process of practicing in front of the mirror, specifically working on maintaining eye contact when I speak and a leader style body posture. I also watch stand-up comedy in my spare time – to observe how comedians read their audience during a performance and adapt to their audiences' emotions. My next challenge is to learn how to deal with a heckler and less friendly audiences!
No, but it definitely compliments my future career skills. This PREP public speaking experience made a huge impact on my professional journey and strengthened my professional profile and brand. It provided me with an extremely valuable base to improve my confidence therefore authority in order to build my leadership. More specifically, this public speaking experience gave me the insight to develop my confidence by teaching me how to speak with authority, work with my audience's energy and emotions, as well as how to use my passion and enthusiasm to convey a message. It also helped me to discover my strength (which is authenticity) and how to utilise it to develop my credibility which makes a real impact. On a personal level, PREP experience benefited my self-awareness and self-esteem through helping me to better understand myself and my audiences. This inspired me to start developing my individual, authentic public speaking style.
Public speaking used to petrify me. If those worries resonate with you, I have some good news to share. A Postgraduate Research Experience Programme is also a good opportunity to start working on ourselves. I applied for a PREP award to cover my 1-to-1 public speaking coaching. This also included 'The Big Stage' public speaking challenge so I could practice my newly developed skills in front of a live audience. Once I was lucky to secure the funding, here comes another challenge. Good public speaking courses are very expensive. Do not be shy to negotiate the price. I successfully did. I strongly recommend selecting the right training course and provider for your needs, being specific with your coach on what you want to work on and what skills you want to gain, and using what you learn as a platform for your ongoing self-development. Unfortunately, learning everything about public speaking during one course is impossible, this will be a lifelong journey. Most importantly, make sure you are prepared to challenge yourself and be way out of your comfort zone. Otherwise it will be waste of your time and money. For this reason selecting a reputable coach or training provider is crucial.
Form completed: 27 Oct 2021