My speaking journey - from introvert to public speaker.

For a significant part of my childhood, I was introverted. My conversations were limited to people close to me, my good friends, handful of classmates and my gang of great cousins. Worse, I found out early that I was also not a 'team person'. My insecurity extended to my personal consciousness, seeking validation for the way others look at me. This discovery became evident when I found that I did not enjoy singing at the campfires as a boy scout and it took the pity of my good friends' mothers to fill up my blank job card on Scout's Week.

As I progress in life, with my limited education, I decided to take a stab at being a salesman upon the introduction of a good friend. Patrick was articulate, dresses well, confident and impresses customers. I asked how he acquired this skill and his answer was, practice, practice and more practice. I wanted to be Patrick. But first, I must learn the art of speaking.

To speak, you need contents.

Fortunately for me, I have a reasonable grasp of the English language and I read widely. This was to lay the foundation for my engagement with prospects and clients. Contents come from knowledge. I practiced and learnt how to speak with confidence. This skill can be mastered by everyone who is determined to communicate well. Till then, it was a person to person type of communications. The practices put me on my way to become a speaker in my own rights. My focus is to deliver the message clearly and in an entertaining fashion. No magic tricks, no bad jokes, no personal references, no religious nor gender subjects, no politics and I do not make a clown of myself singing or dancing on stage.

My sales career that opens up a world of communications.

I sold many things, subscriptions for magazines, advertising spaces in Arabic and Japanese dailies, stuffed toys, home decorations, insurance products and signages before I landed with my first serious job as a salesman for an international courier company. It was there that I was given the chances to speak in front of a team of 20 colleagues and was interacting with bosses from London to Australia. This further pushed me into broader frontiers of communications. I later joined a freight company and briefly, an airline. By now, I was in my element speaking freely and comfortably with clients of any nationalities. My personal confidence shot up a few notches. But going on stage is a totally different story, as I was to find out.

The first step on stage.

It is often one of the hardest. Nothing compares to the pressure and the uncertainty that can hit you when you first take to the podium. No matter how much you prepared, the fear of the audience's reaction to your speech grips you. Legs wobble, heart pounding, forehead forms beads of perspiration, mind all over the place, the preoccupation of the first words, the occasional brain fog and the fumbling of words along the way. This is the necessary evil to confront on the way to becoming a stage persona.

The First Break.

In 1997, there was an unspoken policy to address the falling rates of marriages in Singapore. One of the government agencies invited me to speak to 'afternoon tea participants' on the subject of marriage and its merits from a feng shui angle. I polished it by taking it from romance to starting a family. The audience, made up of young couples, lapped it up. Amongst them, a journalist, and by the next evening, one of the Chinese dailies splashed a full page color story of my presentation which would have cost me a sum I can never afford.

One song - many versions.

One must expect to be emulated when he becomes known to lead in the circuit. Change, update and upgrade the message all the time. It is a tedious but necessary process. I learn that this is the way to keep the audience and the stakeholders coming back for more. Juts like a hit song, a different music arrangement, the tempo, the style and the showmanship on stage makes the presentation worth the time and a listening ear. On the success of my first public speaking engagement, the opportunities open up and I am ready to take them on.

Collaborations and partnerships.

A singular brand cannot and will never find the resources enough to reach out without the help of others, especially the big sponsors. I could produce an article or a video in a crowded space in the feng shui market at an astronomical cost and force a targeted audience to chance upon it. I recognize that this is most ineffective, given the same things that everyone is doing by producing a video online, hoping for people to connect. It turns into a fatigue rather quickly and with bad players thrown in, they become a turnoff. I decided that I need to be different with the help of the big boys.

Year 2000 and the internet.

From the year 2000, things moved fast online. The internet was raging and the feng shui industry was not spared. Suddenly, everything is shared. There are no secrets anymore. The fate of a protected, secretive and exclusive profession was thrown open to the world. However, I look upon it as an upside. Why don't I leverage on something that others start to turn away from ? Use the internet to learn, communicate and share. It was a tedious and expensive process but today, this website is visited by 10,000 viewers monthly.

Collaborations and partnerships.

In any business, to do well, one needs to stand out from the crowd. But how do you and where do your start ? The first psychological victory is to ignore the noises and remove the 'veteran' and 'well known' from clouding your mind. Remember, there is a time for everyone. One day, the most seasoned and sought-after speakers will have to step off the stage. New blood will emerge and the future belongs to the crop of speakers who not only can educate, but entertain at the same time. I learned that for an unknown newcomer to the scene, your best efforts alone will never pay the dividends for what you invest. One way is to collaborate with anyone interested in your speaking abilities. Without being seen as biased, partner the small to the biggest in any industry. I started with small insurance agency owner who offered me an audience of twenty and eventually build it to an audience of 2,000 participants in a HSBC event.

Swimming and Speaking.

If you can tread water in a six feet pool, you will be ready for the open seas. To do well, you need to move forward. It applies the same to speaking engagements. Master the act of speaking comfortably in a small intimate group of five or six, and you will be on your way. Here's the trick. The sight and sounds can be intimidating in a ballroom filled with 1,000 diners, but if you are prepared and confident, treat it like you are speaking to the five or six in that small group. When I go on stage, I make use of the 'locking system' of engagement. I pick one participant each from the extreme right, one from the extreme left, one in the middle and two more from the back. All throughout, I make eye contact, switching among these five selected and treat it as if I am speaking to just five people in an audience of a thousand.

The future speakers.

With technology and AI advances, there is no place for mediocre speakers on stage, especially in Feng Shui. The future speakers are eloquent, sharp, witty and specifically knowledgeable in this subject. Information will be streamlined in order and for those who rely on traditional and outdated styles of communications will eventually be edged out of the business. Feng Shui wraps around how one analyzes and logically translates this to the consumer. It does not belong to a select few. Anyone can do it and what separates an ordinary practitioner from a successful one is one's ability to step onto the stage. If I can do it, you surely can.