How I’m different- Entertainer

How I’m different – I have an entertainment background

This is one of a series of videos about how and why I’m a bit different than the typical speaker coach and speaker. And in this one, I’m going to talk about my entertainment background. So you may have watched the one already where I tell my story and how I started out as a scientist and worked in corporate for a while. And then a bit disillusioned with the way that my career was heading, I decided that I would take singing lessons and then become a professional singer. And that’s what I did. So there are quite a few speaker coaches who are, who come from the world of acting. You don’t find so many who come from the world of singing. And what I found that singing gives to me as a speaker coach, and also as a speaker is an understanding of course of the voice.

I can help you work on your voice and your stage presence

So that means that I can help you with exercises to make your voice more powerful, or to give you more clarity or resonance in your voice. And then also the knowledge of what it takes to be an entertainer, because speaking can be seen as a performance. You’re in a situation where you’re having to behave a bit differently than usual, which is a performance. And as somebody who’s been performing on stages for the last 15 or so years in venues around the world. I can certainly help you with some of the feelings that come up and some of the stage management issues that could be useful to you as a speaker in terms of what happens if you suddenly feel a bit wobbly or a little bit nervous, mid presentation, or how to deal with the audience that might … an audience that perhaps is … perhaps you’re there to deliver a upbeat presentation and the audience for some reason, are very down. Lots of bits and pieces like that, which I’ve learned to manage over the years as a professional entertainer, I of course can help you with, as your coach.

I work with the similarities between public speaking and singing

I’m trying to think if there’s anything else that I should tell you about with my entertainment backgrounds. I think that’s it really. But years of experience being on stages with all sorts of different audiences and even though it’s not the same as speaking, it’s very similar. And typically what’s funny is when I would share with people that I am a professional singer, so many people would say, “Oh wow, that’s really interesting. I would have loved to have been a singer.” Or, “That was my dream when I was a kid.” But it’s very rare to find somebody say something like, “Oh, I’d love to be a speaker.” Okay? So there’s this perception of singing is being a bit glamorous and fun and enjoyable. And speaking being hard work, something to avoid, very much around sort of work orientated rather than pleasure. And what I love to do is to get people to see how similar speaking and singing are to each other. And therefore some of the sort of exciting aspects of being a speaker that sometimes people miss and they think, “Oh yeah, singing is so glamorous.”

I can help you view public speaking as a pleasure rather than a pain

And it’s this, that, and the other. There are so many parallels between the two. So one of the things that I can do is show you some of those and to help you to see what an amazing opportunity it is to get in front of an audience. And in actual fact, I do have a short course, which is it’s an online course. It’s about an hour long, 45 minutes long, and it’s free. And it’s sharing some of the things that I’ve learned as a professional singer and helping you to take those learnings, those insights, and apply them to your speaking. So if you are interested in that, let me know. I can actually send you the link to that, to sign up for it. But I hope that this was interesting. And I’ll see you for the next one. Take care.

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Shola Kaye is an award-winning speaker, author and professional speaker coach with clients around the world. Her work has been mentioned in Forbes, Harper’s Bazaar and on the BBC.
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