Are you a speaker?
Your response to that may matter more than you think
Are you a speaker? I’ve come to realise that question is heavily loaded. Sometimes we say “I’m not a speaker” in response to a request, but what we mean by that can be relative to the question. Most of us would agree that we’d be more likely to shy away from opening an event to 5,000 people than delivering a PowerPoint to 10 people at work. Yet many will find both scary, even if they’d say yes to the second one.
There are many types of professional speakers – keynote speakers, inspirational speakers, and after-dinner speakers to name a few. But if you’re not a professional speaker, what does the idea of being a speaker means to you? What I see too often is that when we say “I’m not a speaker” what we’re really doing is removing ourselves from the possibilities. Hidden within the “I’m not…” is our identity. When we say “I’m not a speaker” we tell ourselves “I’m not built for this” or “I’m not capable of doing this”
When I changed the phrase
You might know, or be surprised, that I began my confident speaker journey almost by accident. It certainly didn’t start with a belief that I could. I didn’t see myself as a speaker in any respect. If I could avoid presenting to three people I would, and I didn’t see speaking as a possible future for me. To me, speaking well was a black art that people were born with. Sure, I could get some tips, but that wouldn’t make me a speaker!
Guess what! Those tips didn’t really make me a speaker, but there were two things that did. First, by learning skills to be more effective as a speaker, I realised that rather than being a black art, it was a range of layered skills. Some of those skills I had but hadn’t acknowledged, many I had to develop, but all were possible to learn. However, the biggest boost was realising that I had to change my mindset. Once I began to believe I was a speaker, it was as if the barriers had come down. I knew I wasn’t the speaker I wanted to be yet, but the difference was, I now knew I could change that.
I now believe that everyone is capable of becoming a speaker, although we need different types and levels of support so that can happen. Developing skills is part of that change, but so is changing how we identify ourselves, as a speaker or not.
Starting 21st July, I’ll be running the Softly Inspired Summer School. I’ll be sharing six different ways to level up your speaking. It’s for any woman who runs a business, because speaking about what we do isn’t optional.
All live sessions are online, with replay available until the end of September.
Join now for just £45, we start 21st July – you can find more information here