By Claire Doole, www.doolecommunications.com
“We are a new women’s networking group in Geneva and would love you to talk for 40 minutes about your career in communications”, says Valentine Honoré, the founder of the Curiosity Club.
My first reaction was, do I really want to talk about myself?
The second, was do I have anything to say?
And my third, 40 minutes is far too long.
You would think I would jump at the chance of talking to this group of women. But I have spent most of my professional life not talking about myself. I have always been most comfortable when asking questions as a journalist, or conference moderator, speaking on behalf of an organization or training people to speak in public or to the media!
Although the invite was out of my comfort zone, I thought it would be good to put myself in the shoes of the clients I train and coach in public speaking. They often tell me that they are also uncomfortable talking about themselves even though they know that personal stories help people connect.
Below are some tips and techniques on how I went about telling my story.
The audience is King (or in this case Queen!)
The key to impactful public speaking is making it audience centric. I thought about what this audience of mostly career women in their twenties to forties would want to hear that would be useful for them.
I divided my talk into the three main phases of my life - journalism, public relations and current career as a trainer and moderator. For each of these I came up with a life lesson that I felt would help these women advance their careers. For the record, my key messages were:
- Being good at your job is not good enough. You need to network.
- Be true to yourself. If you are not feeling empowered, leave your job!
- Know your own value, particularly when negotiating salaries or fees.
Storytelling builds connection
I illustrated the key messages with personal stories so that they would be memorable. Some of the stories were humorous or at least self-depreciatory, some revolved around unusual twists of fate and others were more poignant such as incidents of gender discrimination and worse. I wanted to be honest about the ups and the downs.
I added some insights on the state of the media, the rise of celebrity news and the spread of disinformation – subject areas that I have some expertise in, and some strong opinions!
Opening with impact
The Curiosity Club had chosen a great venue – le blé noir restaurant at La Comédie de Genève – the city’s premier theatre. I started with a few remarks about the reasons for my theatrical voice and a story about my short-lived career treading the boards.
At the start of a talk or speech, you should connect with the audience, by speaking about where they are at physically, mentally or emotionally. My theatrical voice had opened professional doors for me and I thanked the Club for opening their doors and inviting me to talk about communications in an ever-changing world.
Speaking without notes
You have much more impact if you speak directly to your audience, without any notes. I am always asked what you should do if you forget something. I always reply that the audience doesn’t know what you are going to say so won’t notice.
However, you can maximize your chances of not forgetting a key point if each point builds logically on the next. For example, I talked about covering the death of Princess Diana in Paris and this led me onto the challenges of being a female reporter and producer in an era where men filled most of the foreign correspondent roles in the BBC.
It helps too if you have a clear structure. I chose a chronological one from past to present.
Owning the stage
The stage was small, but I decided I would make every step count. I started and ended in the center. Stage left was my time as a journalist. Stage right my time in public relations and I moved between the two to illustrate a number of challenging transitions from journalism to public relations and back again.
Keeping to time
I had practiced and rehearsed my talk – saying it out loud like an actor as that helps the words stick. I thought it would be around 30 minutes, but in fact it was 37 minutes, as I responded to the reactions of the audience, and threw in a few more questions and thoughts as they came to me. This makes it sound even more natural and unscripted.
Still, 37 minutes is very long. TED talks are now a maximum 15 minutes, down from 18 minutes, no doubt to cater for people’s shortened attention spans. When I coach TEDx speakers, I usually advise 10 to 12 minutes. We all overestimate an audience’s ability to focus on what we are saying.
Amazingly, Curiosity Club members are, as their name suggests, innately curious and I asked them to tell me if they lost interest at any point. No one said they did, but remember we are in diplomatic Geneva!
It was however a lot of work to write the talk and deliver it without notes, even though this is what I do for a living.
Sitting still while moving forward
is the mantra of the Curiosity Club – an organization that works towards gender equality. The club holds meetings all over the world for women who want to exchange ideas, inspire each other and network.
I failed to network sufficiently at the start of my career, and only started when I set up my business. It is not something I now have a great deal of time to do, but networking with members of the Curiosity Club in Geneva last night was highly enjoyable and didn’t feel like work at all.
About Curiousity Club https://curiosity-club.co/en/about/
Curiousity Club Geneva https://curiosity-club.co/en/clubs/10572/
Author's bio
Claire Doole is a former BBC correspondent and international spokeswoman who is passionate about helping people communicate with confidence. Since 2006, she has successfully trained hundreds of professionals in the art of presenting and public speaking, talking to the media, managing communications in a crisis, and writing for the web. In addition, she has coached C-level executives and public figures to give powerful TEDx and TED style talks in Europe and the Middle East. A Swiss and UK national, Claire trains and coaches in French and English.
Claire is also a highly experienced moderator having facilitated panel discussions with government ministers, NGO activists, humanitarians and human rights specialists at major events.
Claire helps clients design their virtual, hybrid and in-person events and runs workshops on organising and moderating at events.
