#03: Embrace the mic: A guide to owning the spotlight.

Hello Superstar,

Welcome! I can't believe this is my third newsletter; I am filled with so much joy from being scared and not knowing what to write or share. I get ideas that amaze me, and I always look forward to the next thing I share. How exciting! I would love for this month's newsletter series to be centred around uplifting and supporting women through sharing my personal experiences and tips for growth to my learnings and insights from the Gender Diversity Module I am currently enrolled on; I am happy to see how it evolves. Let's go!

Before we proceed, I have a question for you to reflect on. Do you remember the first time you gave a public presentation? You probably fell under the spectrum of, “Success, It was bad, I did not do a great job at all, and I dread giving public speeches to date”, or you are like, “Success, I did an amazing job and got good applause for my performance”. If you reflected on that question, that's wonderful. Do not worry if you are afraid of delivering a public presentation because that is what I am here for today. I am inclined to share my personal experience and tips to help you, who would be giving a speech, moderating a virtual or physical event and is probably confused about what to do because I remember navigating that season of my life beautifully whilst embracing the emerging challenges and new levels of growth.  

I categorised this into the 3Ps: Preparation, Practice, and Presence, and let us look at them briefly;

• Preparation: You would have heard this quote: If you fail to plan, you have planned to fail. As cliche as it may sound, you don't need to ignore the preparation stage, especially when you have not done this multiple times. The preparation stage can include brainstorming different ideas, reading widely, writing your speech, planning and checking external needs like your outfits, internet and access to electricity if it is a virtual event and you dont live in a country with constant power supply, and reflecting on your knowledge and even style of delivering a speech; you could go further by considering asking yourself the following questions?

• What is my role in this event? What are my expectations and deliverables for this event?
• Who would be attending the event? -This helps you significantly in planning your speech because how you would speak to a younger audience would be different than when speaking to older people, so you should also tailor your speech to the event goals.
• What is the aim of this event? Researching the host organisation to understand what they have done, I would say reading the “About us page” and knowing critical points about them, which you could also sprinkle in your speech.
• How do I ensure a smooth transition between the different sessions on the agenda and maintain the room's energy? - This question is essential for you to reflect on if you are hosting or moderating the event so you can brainstorm ideas for five-minute icebreaker ideas and games and get back the audience's full attention just in case they are completely zoned out or tired. 
• Finally, what am I wearing for this event? How do I want to show up? You don't want to wait till the last minute to figure that out because what if your outfit gets bad? Like, mistakes can happen while ironing or even zipping your outfit. You dont want to enter panic mode searching for what to wear at that point, so I recommend planning. Plus, if it is a virtual event, my rule of thumb has always been that your camera should be turned on as this switches the atmosphere of the event; people connect better when they can see who is speaking to them; of course, there are exceptions to this like internet issues and technical problems with your device.

These questions would help you effectively prepare for the event, and from my experience, this would boost your confidence and capacity because you would feel prepared. Next, we will look at the second P, which is Practice.

• Practice: I feel like screaming Practice! Practice! Practice!. This must be considered. Even if you are done preparing effectively, you will want to finish what you have started, just like icing a freshly baked cake, to make it beautiful. My top tips would be practising in front of your mirror or with friends and family (they could give you good feedback or not) and recording yourself (audio or video) to hear how your voice sounds and also notice your body movements like moving hands or pacing around the room to check if what you are doing can be distracting. The edge that practising adequately gives you is the ability to spot mistakes and make the necessary improvements. It is a win-win situation, and no time is wasted. 

• Presence: I am sure you are wondering what my presence has to do with anything. It is vital; I classify this as fully immersed in your environment and blocking all distractions. It was a learning curve for me as well because you can be in a room, and it is like you are not there because you're completely zoned out or you have a shorter attention span and get easily distracted. It would affect your overall performance, like noticing who is in the room and navigating little issues that may arise. There are different ways to practise being present, but my top tip is to take a deep breath and write or document things around you. I learned this concept from my experience with YouthxYouth over the past two years.

Finally, this is not a shopping to-do list of what you should or should not do but can be seen as a guide to help you in your next public speaking event, and I would say if you feel scared, it is okay; my best quote is, “You got to feel the fear and do it anyway” It is my favourite from Bishop T.D Jakes. It is okay to feel scared; just do it because you can; give yourself the grace to make mistakes; you are enough and worthy of being in the room. I am rooting for you. Plus, let me know if you found this helpful, and share in the comments if you have additional tips.

I am excited to hear from you, and I am signing out by recommending my song for the week, a Christian worship song called Praise by Elevation Worship, which you can access here. Have a lovely week!

Sending Lots of Love,

Success.