Foreign.

Hello, welcome back to the Promoter podcast.

I'm your host, Felicity Furey, co founder of We Aspire, and I'm joined by the incredible Renee Wooten.

Tomlin is that we're going with now, Renee?

Yes, I love it.

Who is it?

Incredible aerospace engineer, former intern at NASA in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, fantastic speaker and all around great human.

Renee, where are you calling in from today?

Good morning, Felicity.

Happy Wednesday.

Happy hump day.

I'm calling in for Larrakia country today.

It's another beautiful day.

Whereabouts are you calling in from today, Felicity?

I'm on Gubbi Guppy country today and I just had a beautiful trip up to Bundaberg last week and it was, oh my gosh, the country up there is absolute stunning.

It was such a good trip.

So good to be connected to the land and sea up there, especially Bulgara Beach.

And oh my gosh, it was just like Australia, just endless beautiful beaches.

So I'm very grateful to be on this country that's been cared for for tens of thousands of years.

We're just coming off the back of NAIDOT Week.

Such an incredible time to celebrate indigenous Australians.

Renee, I know.

I'm going to touch on your speaking for that in a moment because today's podcast is all around how do you become a speaker?

This question that Renee and I get asked a lot, we do do a lot of speaking.

We both speak professionally.

But if you're not speaking professionally, this podcast is still for you because as a leader, it's super important to be able to communicate your ideas.

I actually think about leadership.

If you imagine like leadership and soccer as an analogy, a soccer player, the job of a soccer player is to kick the ball.

Kick, kick, kick, kick.

The leader is about having conversations.

So whether you're speaking on a stage in front of hundreds of people, you're speaking in with a small group, you're speaking in meeting or you're speaking one on one.

Communication is, I think, such a fundamental skill for a leader and super, super critical.

So while you might not go be presenting on stages, I think this podcast is relevant for anyone who communicates with humans, especially leaders.

So, Renee, what do you like, what is, what do you think about speaking as a leader?

Has it been helpful for you in your career mastering this skill?

Absolutely.

I actually think that the reason I've been promoted as much as I have throughout my life has been because can communicate clearly and build great relationships with people and I'm not afraid to go up the front of the room and and share my thoughts or share my project.

So.

And when I say I'm not scared to put my hand up to go up there, I'm always scared to put my hand up back.

To be honest, I'm always nervous.

I find it is such an adrenaline rush every time I go up the front of a room or get on a stage to speak.

But I really enjoy, I think, the challenge of going up and delivering, whether it's a keynote or just a presentation.

And I also enjoy being able to share my work and help people understand what I do.

So, absolutely, it's been exceptionally helpful for my career.

And I'd also like to do a cheeky little shout out to our fellow engineers to say that this is going to make or break your leadership experience as an engineer.

If you can communicate incredibly technical projects and information in a really digestible way for the broader business that you work in, I think that you will just go so far because it is a skill, and it's a skill that takes a lot of time and effort to build and develop.

And it's something that, you know, I would say.

I was just talking to Felicity last week during NAIDOC week.

I gave a speech with future women down in NAAM in Melbourne.

It was the best speech I've ever done in my career.

Now I've been speaking for about 15 years, so that's probably the first speech I've walked away from going, wow, that was really something that even inspired me while I was giving that speech.

I've never felt as energetic and probably just not enjoying the experience as much as I did.

So, you know, it's not something that you get and have the skills to execute on from day one or from, you know, that first opportunity.

It's something that you continue to hone and finesse and learn about and practice, and it takes quite a lot to become a really great communicator.

So, jumping into today's session, maybe we start with you, Felicity.

We'd love to hear your story on how you became a speaker and what are the skills or what are the frameworks that you use to deliver speeches today?

Gosh, it's such an interesting story, actually, because when I was growing up, I was petrified of speaking.

I think there was a real culture in my family around, don't big note yourself.

Don't talk about yourself.

Like, I got told a lot as a.

As a young kid.

Felicity, stop talking about yourself.

And I feel like I must have been a little kid who was really outgoing and really wanting to put myself out there.

And I Feel like that was really squashed, washed for me.

And I'm not sure, like, you know, if it was my parents or it was my broader family, but it was kind of, you know, that message was really, really strong for me growing up.

And then I got into high school and I would just go bright red when speaking at the front of the room doing an English oral presentation, I was absolutely petrified of it.

So I thought I must just be really bad at speaking.

Don't ever do it.

And then I was volunteering with Engineers Australia and this, the person who was supposed to be giving the speech was.

Was sick.

And so I think I got like 20 notice.

And it was, Felicity, you're at the front of the room now.

And I remember I was so petrified at.

It was Engineer's House in Brisbane and I was behind this lecture stand and just like reading, I was just so scared.

It must have looked awful.

And the heart was beating fast and I, you know, really struggled with it.

And then I again volunteered and then was the MC for the very first Power of Engineering event.

Again, I had my script.

I stood behind the lectern.

There's a really daggy photo of me somewhere, somewhere on the Internet presenting.

I'll have to show you later, Renee.

And again, I was petrified of it.

And I think a lot of the work I've done has been looking at those stories I have about myself.

What are those stories about speaking?

So I think a really good place for people to start is looking at, is there a narrative that you have about yourself, whether it's from your family or from an experience that you had or something that didn't go well, that gets in the way of you being a great speaker.

So from there, I did lots of presenting for school students.

Actually.

I'm such a nerd.

I have a spreadsheet on how many people I've spoken to and how many speeches I've done.

And I just cracked the 30,000 mark of people that I've spoken to, which I'm pretty about.

And yeah, been over a number of years.

And I started Power of engineering in 2012.

So it's been about 13 years that I've been speaking.

And I think a lot of it comes down to putting in those reps.

It's been on.

I've been on over 250 stages.

So it's been a lot of presenting and being on those big stages for me, like urinate is really petrifying and has been scary.

I do love the nerves and excitement.

Are kind of a similar feeling.

So I take that with me.

And I think if I am feeling a little bit nervous, like, even on this podcast today, I feel like there's the butterflies there.

But I think that gives you that edge and it shows that you really, really care about what you're doing.

So I think a key thing is, is really practicing.

And then when it comes down to what frameworks I've that I've used, I really recommend the work by Matt Church, who co founded Thought Leaders, and he's got a great book format framework called the Pink Sheet Process.

If you just Google Pink Sheet Process, it'll come up with resources.

They're all free to download, and they've been really, really effective.

And, you know, I know we talked about that the other week.

Renee, my two other quick tips before I get yours.

What the thing I always go to when presenting is intent over content.

We spend a lot of time thinking about, here's all the stuff I want to say.

But actually the first place to start is what's the intention of what I'm delivering?

So I always ask clients this I'm speaking for, what's the outcome you want?

What do you want to achieve?

And they might say something like, I want it to be inspiring and pattern, like, you know, relatable, those kinds of words.

Or they want people to walk away with a specific outcome.

Like, I want people to feel more confident about their leadership.

So that really helps me getting crystal clear on that intention.

Because if I'm on stage presenting and I feel like for such a long time I was so petrified about forgetting my work or forgetting the next thing I'm going to say, it's always a really grounding place for me to come back to.

Like, my intention today is to be inspiring.

And sometimes being inspiring looks like, hey, there's a typo on my slide.

Oh, my gosh.

Well, leadership is actually about failure, being vulnerable, and admitting mistakes.

What a great opportunity to present an example around leading.

So you can always come back to that intention.

And when you're focused on that, you get.

I get less stressed about the content.

And I think for me, really presenting, like you said before, Renee, around particularly technical stuff or things that are quite complex, I feel like it's kind of like this creative puzzle for me.

How do I present information in a way that has people really understand those complex things that I'm saying?

And my favorite thing to do in a presentation is to actually have it so that people don't need to work hard to think about what you're saying.

So What I mean by that is telling a narrative or a story where people aren't sitting there questioning, oh, does she mean that?

Does she mean like, they're in their heads, they're actually present with you.

So I feel like that's a real puzzle piece that I try to work out.

So, yeah, pink sheet framework's great intent over content.

And then how do you make it easy for people to listen to?

How about you, Renee?

What are your tips?

What a professional or even story about speaking.

I'd love to hear your story, how you got into it first, and then your tips as well.

Yeah, I mean, similar experience in that every speech still comes with a level of nerves and I think also a little bit of imposter syndrome.

And I think I've only really started in the last year to step into, oh, I understand now why people want to listen to me for such a long time.

While I spoke, I was always like, why was I hired for this?

Or, oh, surely I can't be adding that much value to a room.

And I find that quite interesting because I think the realization I've had is, you know, first of all, there's not many women in aerospace engineering.

There's not many female leaders in my generation in the aviation sector.

And again, there's not many people that have had the career experience I've had across the different aerospace players.

So actually, my unique proposition is that there is really no one else like me.

And it took me a really long time to realize that.

So I would even sit down and think about, you don't have to be uniquely the only person doing something, but I would suggest that there's not always.

Even.

Even if a market is, like, really saturated with a certain set of skills or a perspective, I think what needs to be realized is not everybody is willing to get up on a stage and speak about their experience.

So even if you have an inkling of interest or you're passionate about inspiring the next generation or inspiring groups of people, you know, give it a go.

Like, nonetheless, because it's.

It's.

It's hard to find really great communicators, and it's hard to find people that are willing to communicate their science, their engineering, or, you know, their skill set.

So don't.

You don't normally have to look too hard to understand why it's really adding a huge amount of value for you individually to be contributing your thoughts, your experience, your knowledge on a topic.

It took me the better part of 15 years to realize that.

But we're hoping by sharing our Experience on the podcast today, you will be able to get that kind of appreciation for yourself and the value that you have in sharing your voice.

Sorry, Renee, just on that.

I think it's also something that is super helpful for kind of the day to day leading as well, because whatever makes you unique on stage is what makes you unique in your role.

Like, I used to go into new jobs and I get put straight in front of.

I get put in front of the client straight away.

And I just, that was normal for me.

But then I've kind of realized over the years, oh, not every engineer just gets put in front of the client and gets asked to have a conversation.

So I think whatever your, it doesn't matter what your skill is or what your strength is, there's no one else like you.

And embrace that.

Like, if you actually find it really tricky to speak publicly, but you're great technically.

Okay.

How do you leverage your technical capabilities or that strength of yours to have better.

You stand out in a meeting, in a workplace.

It doesn't have to be on stage.

Yeah, and we've talked about this in previous episodes too.

Like how do you stand out as a leader?

It's, you know, just quickly rehash.

It's things like eye contact, presentation, clear communication, you know, having and being prepared, organized and having integrity in your work.

So there's so many pieces to that.

So please go back and look at what it takes to lead yourself in a previous episode.

But coming back to how do you become a speaker?

My journey really started with me being okay with stepping onto stages early in my life.

I can't really explain it.

I have one core memory as a child which my nan often reminds me of, which is, I still remember you got up on stage and you must have been in primary school and you were so confident in front of everyone.

And I just remember thinking, wow, I wish I was that confident.

And my nan told me that story so many times.

I was like, oh, interesting.

I could never really realize that that was her perception of me.

And then in university, that's when things really stepped up for me.

Because I was the only first nations female aerospace engineer in my class.

I got asked to give tours for a lot of student groups.

I. I don't know, I think I met a lot of interns throughout my experience interning at Qantas and through that, started running presentations and running these tour groups around different aircraft types.

And then all of a sudden I was offering them all the time to university and to my different social groups.

And then one day I sat down with a mentor who said, have you heard of Felicity Fury?

She is doing an incredible amount of work trying to inspire young engineers to pursue engineering studies or to become young leaders.

I think you should meet her.

So Fuller City and I then met, and then I started running speeches and industry days with the power of engineering to show school students what it was that we were doing with our careers and what opportunities were available to them.

So it's a bit of a mixed bag, to be honest.

It was through university, it was through power of engineering and volunteering my time and then through my job as well.

So I just kept getting asked and getting given these opportunities.

And then I think during COVID is when I formally created my business in public speaking so that I could start expanding the groups of people that I was interacting with and who I was engaging with.

I've never gone through any formal training with public speaking.

I've done a lot of YouTubing, a lot of googling to try and understand what makes a good speech and what makes a good speaker.

So I think, if anything, the majority of what I've learned is actually through you, Felicity.

And I know for a fact you've been through speaker bootcamps.

You've really invested in yourself in that way to try and build those skills and that knowledge.

So, yeah, no formal way.

I guess, that we're recommending today that you can become a speaker.

But certainly, I think the main point that we're trying to get across here is just stepping.

Stepping into that role.

Sorry.

And taking those opportunities when they present.

And if you're looking for them, letting people know that you're interested in doing that.

But understanding why you want to do that is really cool.

I think the why is a really big part of it.

A lot of people come.

Yeah.

Come up to me and say, oh, I'd love to be a speaker.

And I think really understanding that why is very powerful.

And you just touched on that, Renee, around making a bigger impact with others.

And that's the same thing for me, actually, it became okay.

Well, if I want to really change the perception of engineering for young girls and regional students in high schools, then if I become a better speaker, then it's going to be more impactful for them.

And so actually, in the early days, a lot of my speaking was driven by that intent to make a difference and make a bigger impact.

So I think I.

And I think people as misconceptions around, you know, getting paid as a speaker and lots of things like that.

Like, I would say that, yeah, for the first like, maybe even like six, seven years was all free, like just speaking, speaking, speaking.

I had no expectations around getting paid paid.

It was all about making an impact.

And then eventually I led to some paid opportunities, which has been really, really fantastic.

But for me it was really around how do I be the best speaker I can be?

And those, it actually helped me get over a lot of those nerves or a lot of those inauthenticities when presenting like I'm not good enough or someone else could do a better job or all of those, you know, all that self talk.

Because I thought, well, that's not actually going to serve the people I'm speaking to.

And so how do I become, yeah, this, this fantastic speaker for them.

And I think there's, in the world we live in today, you know, you need to be self promoting, you need to put yourself out there.

I do cringe at a lot of that stuff for me personally, because I think again, I think it comes back to that story and about being a young person and being like, don't big note yourself.

Don't stop talking about Felicity.

But I think actually the reason I do a lot of that is I know it's going to make a bigger and bigger impact and reach more people.

So that's really what drives me.

That's my why behind it.

And I think if you don't have a solid why or a purpose behind it, then it can come across as really inauthentic and you won't, you'll, you'll see that you won't continue to get that flow on.

Yeah, I couldn't agree more.

And just to add on my why.

So I grew up in a really regional small country town.

I think, gosh, there would have been 200 people in my town at the time, maybe a thousand maximum.

And when I came to Univ.

University, I realized how big the world was.

And I felt so empowered and impassioned to tell as many regional kids as I could.

I was like, there's a whole world out there, everyone.

You need to get out.

So my why became, hey, if Air Force cadets hadn't come along and I hadn't stumbled across a newspaper article when I was 15 to go and broaden my own horizons and figure out what careers were out there, you know, how are these other kids going to figure that out?

So my why became, you know, screaming from the, the hilltops and getting every opportunity I could with regional kids to say, come to the city, come to university if you're interested in learning more about xyz namely aircraft.

Come here and, you know, come and experience this because it's huge and it's going to change your life.

And so that was my wife for a long time was just tell as many regional kids as I could.

And that's why, you know, the volunteering with Power of Engineering was phenomenal, because it was connecting with regional kids, predominantly of a certain age, before they had to make decisions about what.

What they were going to study in year 11 and year 12, and let them know that, hey, if you study these subjects early, you could have potentially a great career in this region of the world or in this industry as well.

So for me, that was a huge driver.

I would say that that why still exists today, but my why has now changed based on my career path.

My why now is how do I influence leaders around the world that we need to transition from fossil fuels to renewable sources as quickly as possible to do as little damage as possible.

So my why is, I would say, at a global level now.

And it's something I'm incredibly hungry and impassioned to make sure people are aware of as quickly as possible.

And so what that means is, you know, we need to elevate diverse leaders as quickly as possible, which is why I run this podcast with you, Felicity.

I speak to as many organizations as I can now to make sure that we're leading, you know, thinking about people, but also country.

And I keep my job and continue to build my job as a leader in the energy transition in the aviation sector to make sure that I'm doing something about the energy transition so I can share that with other people around the world.

So my why has changed, but nonetheless, inspiring.

Getting up and speaking is really core to being able to influence people.

So you can have many whys, you could have one single why.

But I think as long as you know what that is, it's going to change how you turn up and why you feel you're able to overcome the nerves and the fear that comes with stepping onto that stage.

I think when you, while you're there, to really change the world around us or to influence people to make change in their life, suddenly the.

The fears that you feel don't feel heavy enough or scary enough to then avoid doing it completely.

Yeah, it's like the benefit.

It's like, I'm such an engineer, I'm going to go, cost benefit ratio, cost benefit.

That's it.

And, you know, like, very similar to you, actually.

You just reminded me that one of the people that believed in me early on was My physics teacher who said, you could be an engineer.

And I was like, what the heck?

You have to be super smart to be an engineer.

Like, whoa, if he thinks I can do that?

I thought he was a bit crazy, actually, at first.

And then I had another incredible mentor after we did our first Power of Engineering event, Believe in me and say, this could be a national organization.

And again, I was like, this lady's crazy.

What is she talking about?

And of course we went and did that.

So I think if I could, I can be that person and in that moment of I believe in you and you could do something that you didn't think was possible.

And for me, it comes back to my why around people's limitless potential and being and doing things that they never thought they could be and do.

If I can achieve that, then even if it's just one person from one speech, I think it can make such a huge impact.

Correct.

And honestly, you're not going to influence every person in every room.

And I think you need to go in with the expectation that one person changing one person's actions, changing one person's intent, or giving the confidence to lead better is the most you can ask for.

And if you happen to influence an entire room, then damn, you have done well.

That is the dream.

I think maybe that's why my speech from NAIDOC week last week was such a hard hitter for me because I probably have never had as many people come up to me and say, wow, that was truly insightful and emotional and inspiring for me.

And that's been off the back of.

I think I started speaking publicly in school, but probably around 2012 when I started all of this.

So 13 years of speaking, that sort of feedback, which is just exceptional.

So sometimes I think the final piece to bringing you to the stage is your mindset.

Mindset as a speaker again.

So that's knowing your why, it's having the courage to step into the room even though you're nervous and really believing in what you're trying to achieve.

Add anything to mindset?

Yeah, I think that they're really big ticket items to get clear on.

There is one thing I wanted to add, and this is.

It might seem like not a big deal, but I do want to talk logistics.

Maybe it's just the engineer nerd in me.

Again, let's do it.

Logistics.

Wanting to figure out how everything works.

But this is a big, big part for me.

The last.

Well, I went to Melbourne as well a few weeks ago to give a speech for International Women Engineering Day.

And the speech in a kind of, you know, like the office cafe areas where you've got the tables and things and you've got the coffee machine.

So midway through my speech, the coffee machine decides to clean out the milk frother.

So it was like for a good, I'm gonna say 60 seconds, which doesn't sound like a long time.

But when you're there presenting to a room and online it feels like forever.

And there's certainly been a lot of moments like that I've had in my speaking journey where things can throw you off.

And again, I think this is why the practicing is so critical.

When you're on that stage and something's happening, I just go, I've just got to back myself, just pretend it's not happening and be there.

But that's only been from a practicing.

But I think also understanding logistics really helps.

So often when I'm going into a speech just thinking about what do what, firstly, what do I need to do for me to prepare my environment and prepare myself.

So usually I used to be like, I'd fly to a speaking thing, I'd jam pack everything in.

Now I don't, I, I get to the destination, I have lots of time in advance.

Usually I like would book it with catch ups of people, but now I'll go to, if it's a hotel, if I'm traveling, I'll be in that hotel room and for me it's practicing out loud to the empty hotel room for, you know, the entire speech.

So doing a whole run through for me really helps the practicing my opening lines.

Like I will literally, like I know it's a podcast so people could be listening.

This will walk over to one side of a room, walk on the stage and actually practice the walk on and my first three sentences.

So I have just got that like down pat as a, as a pattern in my brain to do that, that and so if I go, okay, I know my walk through my, my opening line and then my closing line and I've done the practice that gives me that inner confidence.

Like I've done the work to be there.

The other part about the work I think is like they're booking you for you.

If you're, if you're doing a public speak or if you've been invited to speak at a, you know, town hall or a team meeting, they've specifically asked you to do it for a reason.

And so there's no point changing who you are, trying to be someone you're not.

Like, I go see these presenters on stage.

And I go, oh, my God, I just want to like her.

And then realize, no, I need to be myself.

So I think, and why I talk that about that in logistics is what do.

Who do you know?

How do you need to prepare kind of links back to that mindset to actually be present and be your best self.

The other part of logistics I think is important is understanding the room setup.

I'm so curious to hear how you navigate these things, Renee, or what you do.

But for me, I will go.

Like, I really love visualizing what the room looks like, particularly that stage walk on.

Am I going to be sitting in the audience and then walking up?

Is it going to be in, like, the cafe area?

Which is totally fine, but it just helps me think about how am I going to be in that space.

Is it going to be a conference center where I'm actually physically walking up to a stage?

Is it going to be more casual and intimate where it's a group of like 20 people in, say, a venue where there's no stage?

So that just really helps me prepare.

And thinking about.

The last thing I'll add to that is so it's funny, like, stuff that you don't think about until you sit.

Basically all of this is because I've screwed up all of these things before.

But sometimes when you're presenting on a stage, you'll be able to see your laptop or you'll be able to see the screen of your slides.

Other times the slides are behind you and so you can't actually see them.

Sometimes there might be a clock that you can see in terms of timing, but sometimes there's not.

Or I've gone to presentations where they've gone.

I'm so sorry, we're running over time.

Can you make your 40 minute speech 20 minutes?

That will be great.

Okay, thanks.

And you've got to go.

Okay.

How am I going to rejig that?

So understanding that setup of will I be able to see my slides?

Will there be a lectern?

I know some people like to use notes.

How are my notes?

Where are my notes going to be?

And then am I going to connect with that audience, with the, you know, like, all of those things I think makes such a difference because it just takes things off your mind leading into a speech setup.

Renee, how do you think about logistics?

Am I just like a total nerd of just like, like scenario planning, all the things that can go wrong?

Because literally so many things have gone wrong when I've spoken.

That's like the tip of the iceberg.

I could do a whole podcast of things I screwed up while speaking or things that have screwed up not my fault, but had to deal with on the stage in front of 1200 people.

Honestly, I'm learning from you right now.

I don't really think about that.

I think the way I manage all of that is arriving at the venue and making sure I have a couple of hours there before I go on stage so that I can see all of that.

But I would say I'm far more relaxed about preparation.

I think the things that really are important to me is I know my speech inside out.

So I've practiced practice, practice enough run throughs that if somebody took the script from me, I could navigate and speak off the cuff and still deliver something close to what I kind of written down.

I would say my biggest focus is the expectations of the client or the person I'm working, working with.

So who's in the room?

Who's going to resonate with that message?

What else do I need to know around the diversity of those people?

So, you know, some people in the room for the event that I spoke at last week were people that were in a jobs program and that were trying to come back into their careers.

Other people were very well established, long term corporate leaders.

And then there were young people in the room that were brought in from school.

So really my message had to be something that resonated with all of the different people that were in that room.

And I think that's why my speech actually was received so well, is because I ended up tailoring it specifically to what could every single person walk away with.

And I think the other thing I am always conscious of is how do I engage the audience.

So, oh God, I've tried a few things in this context.

So for me, my worst, the worst thing I think I could possibly do is go up on stage with a piece of paper and read from that paper and walk off stage.

That's not why or that's not going to make me feel like I've really had an impact.

The thing I think that I really look and try to achieve is how engaging have I been?

How have people enjoyed the experience of hearing me speak?

So did they have to put their hand up and answer a question?

Did I ask somebody to stand up and give me an example of how that worked for them?

Did I do something funny up on stage so that they laughed?

Like how can I make that a memorable experience?

And I think that's the thing that I really focus on at this phase in my speech, I think early on it was about just turning up and delivering a speech.

And then it was how do I make that speech more tailored to the people sitting in the room?

And now it's how do I engage people so that they have fun while I'm speaking?

So, yeah, I don't really consider the logistical piece as much as I probably should, to be honest.

I did, though, however, in my speech to go down to Melbourne in naam, I did have the option, for example, to fly in the morning of, or fly in two days earlier just based on the flight schedule.

And I, I suggested two days earlier because I wanted to be fresh, I wanted to be prepared, I wanted to have the time to be able to understand where the venue was, how I was going to get there.

And I actually walked there the day before as well to make sure I knew how to get there on time.

So, yeah, I think it, it's kind of looked differently for each event, to be quite frank.

I don't have a checklist that I refer to, but certainly I'm really concerned with how I show up and how prepared I am to be able to make it a great experience for everyone.

Yeah, I think that's super important.

And something that we didn't touch on in terms of how do you plan a great speech?

Is asking, yeah, what's the objective?

What's the intention?

And then who's the audience?

And really nutting down, what does that look like in the beginning?

Often, if I'm doing a new speech, I'll write down what do I want the audience to think, feel and do?

And just run through that as a bit of a framework, almost like a reverse engineer checklist of.

Okay, here's what I'm thinking for the speech.

Is that going to fit and is that going to work?

But yeah, I think it's all about maybe I just freak out a bit more than you, Renee, of what are the things that are going to have me be calm and be present?

One thing I found it depends on the event.

But I have gotten to events really early before and my intention was I'll get to the venue and I'll do a bit of a prepare and a practice and then I'll sit down.

But then the event organizer comes up and speaks to me for a full hour and sometimes it can be a bit awkward.

Also that has me freak out because I was going to use that time to prepare.

So I feel like there's also a bit of a balance of getting there too early versus around the right time.

I never ever, ever want to run late for any speaking things.

So if I'm there early, I might wait outside or around the corner in a coffee shop before I go in just because, just to make that preparation work.

So it's going to be different for everyone.

Even just, you know, the two of us, it is different.

And so I think again, practicing and trying out different things helps you figure out what going to work best for you.

Yeah, I would suggest getting to the venue either when you have to be there or the latest possible time to make sure you feel ready.

Because practicing on your own I think is far more important than sitting in the venue, being distracted and then starting to stress because you want to use that time to really keep, keep honing and practicing.

So that's a lot to think about.

I think the main takeaway from all of this is just start, just get opportunity.

Don't expect to be paid from day one.

When you speak to Felicity's point earlier she said that she volunteered for many years.

My experience was the same.

I think I volunteered for about 10 years.

So 2012 I started and I didn't get paid until roughly 2021.

So eight, nine years before it became an actual business for me.

So yeah, I think you got to do time but at the same time, if you can get paid sooner, go for it.

We both speak the Saxon Speaking Agency.

You can find them online.

There are multiple providers and agencies in Australia or globally, so reach out and find the best fit for you.

But that's who we speak with today.

So if you're looking for a fantastic speaker for your next event in engineering or women doing incredible things, you know where to find us.

So good.

I love it.

Renee.

So many great tips and I think, you know, everyone can use something from, you know, if you are just not just presenting, if you're presenting in a meeting, that can be a big deal.

If you're presenting for the first time, hopefully some of our tips around intent over content, thinking about your audience or even just some logistics could be helpful for you.

So and I love you just your point as well around engagement, a great thing to practice as you build your confidence.

It's not something I did at the beginning.

I would just read my script at the beginning and then as I've got more confidence, I throw in a few jokes and also a few hand raisings at the beginning.

And it's actually a really great litmus test of the vibe of your audience.

Because while you might do all the thinking and research about your audience, getting there on the Day.

The vibe can be totally different.

Especially.

Especially if you're like a 3pm speaker in a conference.

They've been sitting down all day.

You know, the energy is dropping.

You have got to bring that energy to the stage.

So I often will have the same joke in my speech or if I'm presenting with my husband, I'll say we have the same last name.

Don't worry, we're not brother and sister.

If you see us having a bit of a kiss or a hug, it's not weird because we are actually married.

That joke, some people, no laughs.

Some people, heaps of laughs.

So it's an interesting way to start a pre for us together because we can kind of get the feel for the room when we start off with that joke.

So, yeah, as you, as.

As we built.

I've built confidence over the years.

There have been some random jokes that I've thrown in and it is a good litmus test or, you know, the hand just on the hand raising as well.

It'll be like, who, you know, who agrees with this statement or who knew what they wanted to do when they finished school.

And often I'll get like two hands.

In a room of 100, you can kind of tell how it's going.

Sometimes you might make a joke.

Okay, everybody raise your right arm.

Everyone raise your left arm.

Okay, your arms are working.

Who's never going to put up hand no matter what I say?

See how the laughs go.

And then kind of you're off.

So there's always good tests to see how an audience is going as you build your confidence.

I feel like we've given a whole range of tips wherever you're at and you're speaking today.

So take what makes sense for you as always and ditch the stuff that doesn't work for you or isn't relevant.

Thanks so much, Renee.

I've loved learning from you around your speaking tips and yeah, can't wait to be on stage with you soon.

Somewhere in Australia or overseas.

Who knows with this global why around the aviation industry.

Thank you so much, Renee.

It's been awesome as always.

Thanks, Felicity.

Always a treat and I would not be here without you.

So thank you for.

Have a great day.

Bye for now.