13 November 2020
By Olga Smith
I joined the oldest public speaking club in London in 2004. People in my club were seasoned public speakers with very sophisticated English. I, on the other hand, had a very quiet voice, a strong Russian accent and monotonous speech. People always asked me to repeat what I said as they didn’t always understand what I was saying. On top of that, I didn’t have a job and had very limited resources which were depleting very rapidly in London. The level of my confidence was not the highest at that time. But I knew that I had to deliver my speech.
I prepared it and booked a timeslot for its delivery in the club. Everyone’s first speech in the club they called An Icebreaker. It is a speech where I presented myself to my club members. I vividly remember the night when I was presenting this first speech. I called it “Born behind the iron curtain”.
As I walked to the podium my legs were shaking. I had humming in my head, and when I finally faced the audience I could not see their faces. All the people looked to me like a big white mass. I had a short blackout. I was constantly thinking: I need to speak louder than usual so that people can hear what I say.
I started my speech. My voice was so loud that people in the front seats almost jumped. They were so surprised and looked quite shocked. I continued my speech and even started to smile towards the end of it. When I finished my speech I received a big round of applause. People in my club were so supportive and helpful, so positive and kind. Even now I can still feel enormous gratitude towards them.
I can compare this experience to jumping from a high cliff and being scared of the unknown, that was my fear - the unknown. On reflection, I can say that when I was overcoming my fear I felt so much alive and energised. The aftermath effect was that my confidence jumped to a much higher level. The 3 minutes speech was more effective for my confidence than anything else I had ever done. I continued to deliver my speeches and with each delivery, my confidence grew and grew.
I felt I would definitely benefit if I improve my pronunciation and someone in the club recommended that I take elocution lessons. The elements of elocution are voice control, articulation, and good pronunciation. Exactly what I needed to become a good public speaker.
I started my elocution lessons with a top speech and drama tutor Linda James in 2004. We started with mastering my RP ( Received Pronunciation). Then moved to intonation, stress, liaising - all that we teach in our books. In parallel, I had been delivering my speeches on a regular basis which was a great practice of all elocution techniques I had been learning with Linda.
In 2006, together with Linda, we co-authored our first elocution book. Later we produced four more books and converted them into apps. We have based our apps and books on years of practical experience and made sure to include all elocution techniques in them.
In conclusion, I can say that my first speech was the beginning of my success.
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