Public Speaking at “Speak-Up”

14.05.20 - words by Kofi Nelson

At the beginning of the year, I was given the opportunity to deliver a talk at an event, based on a topic of my choice. The opportunity was presented to me by Jaheed Hussain, a graduate Graphic Design student from the University of Salford and the founder of Fuse. At first, I was slightly hesitant to deliver a talk, because I never deemed public speaking to be my “thing” and I never thought that I would have anything interesting to share with people. But then I thought to myself, “How many times have I been left to deliver group presentations on my own, because the rest of my group didn’t show?” It was in that moment that I told myself that I could do it. The event I was to deliver the talk at was called “Speak Up”. That’s exactly what I intended to do.

In the days leading up to the talk I was about to deliver, I felt incredibly anxious and would even struggle with sleeping. These feelings were accompanied by the negative self-talk playing over in my head, telling me that I could not do it and that no one would care about what I have to say. Whilst I was preparing for the talk, I recall turning to a fellow classmate and expressing to them how I felt during the time. They understood my feelings, but still encouraged me to go ahead with it. On the day of the talk, I received a message from Jaheed to say that there may be a chance the event could be called off due to the Coronavirus. And in that moment, I felt a sense of relief. Although the cancellation of the event was not confirmed, the idea of that happening put me at ease, as I thought to myself “maybe I won’t have to deliver my talk after all”.

The event was amazing and anybody who did not attend missed out big time. I’m not just saying this because of I was a part of it. I met some great people that night, from the other speakers all the way through to the people who came to hear our stories.

The response to my talk was overwhelming. I had people approach me afterwards, offering congratulatory hugs and handshakes because they resonated with what I spoke about. I also had people sending messages through to me via social media along the lines of “you’re a really good speaker” and “keep in touch, we should collaborate in the future”. Prior to this event taking place, I had convinced myself that my experience would be completely negative but after the event, I realised that could not have been any further from the truth.

When opportunities like this present themselves, should you choose to accept it, preparation is very important. From planning what I was going to speak about through to seeing the location that I was going to speak at, I had to consider the best ways to communicate with the audience. In the future, public speaking might be something I do more of and if that is the case, I would challenge myself to find new and exciting ways to engage with the audience.

—

Image credits: Grace Maisiri

Follow more of Kofi’s work over here.