10,000 Hours of Public Speaking
It takes at least 10,000 hours of practice to become a master of a skill, as Malcolm Gladwell detailed in his 2008 book Outliers. I haven’t read that yet but this concept speaks to me a lot on how I improved a lot on a skill that seems like the biggest climb to me — public speaking.
Those who know me from years before would describe me as the most silent girl in the corner of the room. I absolutely hate the spotlight, and would rather keep to myself instead of voicing my opinions and engaging in endless debates or discourse. When I speak, it would only be because of an extreme scenario that I disagree on, or if falsehood is being taken as fact and violates my belief in truth and honesty. In my experiences, though, this personality does not sit well, especially to people who still believe that speech is essential in selling yourself as the most qualified person to get the opportunity of being heard (on multiple times, I’ve experienced not being “heard” because my voice was not loud enough — literally and not literally). I understood this, and has put it in my long term goal to get out of this situation (of silence), not to get a position…but to improve myself. With that, my “success” was limitless.
Elizabeth Bennet, Pride and Prejudice (2005)
I was a sucker for conversational movies, and I’ve watched Pride and Prejudice multiple times. Elizabeth Bennet (played by Kiera Knightley) was kind of annoyed at Mr. Darcy when he said that he does not have the talent of conversing easily with people that he has never met before. This, of course, was an excuse. No one, should ever just say “I’m not good at this”, but try and keep on trying, no matter how awkward it would be. With constant practice, and 10,000 hours of effort, you’ll surely get better than how you are before.
And so I went, and tried stuff, and socialized. It’s funny now that I think about it, that even basic socialization was unknown to me. I was a closed door (and probably still a little bit now), I was not friendly. I would not want to be my friend, hahaha! But friends came, and welcomed the awkward me, and introduced me to life (travel, food trips, and coffee). And it became my normal — to socialize, and talk.
Startups and Pitching
At one point in my life, I tried doing startups. I wanted to work on things (as a software developer), and disengage myself with anything that has to do with speaking. But somehow, I ended up wanting to get some funding/sponsorship. I emailed my best pitch to Microsoft about a business idea and how I need some “free cloud services” to start up this idea. They connected me with the region head who was in charge of granting this to startup founders. He invited me over to the Microsoft office in Makati, to talk about it. Oh no. LOL!
I guess they wanted to verify if I was a real person, before they even give me any “free stuff”, and so I wrote down my pitch and practiced in front of the mirror for a whole day! I went to Microsoft and pitched (and my heart was pounding out my chest the entire time), and got the sponsorship! I was so happy. That was probably the bravest thing I did for a long time, getting out of my comfort zone. But I was rewarded, and realized, it was not that bad. Hey, I got some free cloud credits and Microsoft licenses!
Soft Skills Training
I was in my third company when I received an email invite to employees to lead some training for other employees on non-work topics (time management, and similar topics). They marketed it as an opportunity to improve on “public speaking” and you will be under the supervision of the more senior trainers. I asked my manager if I could sign up to which she gladly allowed me to. I had a small audience, but it was the first time I ever did more than 30 minutes of talking/teaching.
On all instances of the trainings, I spent time practicing (probably more than the average trainer would spend on practice). But I had a hill to climb. I was not privileged with natural charisma as a public speaker, and I had to repeatedly practice, so as not to embarrass myself. I rehearsed in front of my mom (who was an English teacher), and asked for advice on what I could improve on, and executed it on the sessions (with my heart still pounding). But I did it, and I was proud of myself.
Opportunities, and saying YES always
I don’t know why, but my managers always seem to volunteer me to do public speaking. Scratch that, I know why. Managers always know who needs to improve on something, and selected me because I was quiet (and also the newest member of the team). Hahaha! I was up for the challenge, and again…practiced more than the average presenter, and just did it.
There’s probably at least two more opportunities in Macquarie, where I was asked to speak (virtually as it was during the pandemic), and being bored with so much time, I said yes. I presented to managers and senior managers about a project that our team did. I presented about Ansible, a tool which my colleague taught me. It was more practice.
And with more time during the pandemic, I was reviewing for some cloud certification, and met Raphael Quisumbing, an AWS Hero who was always building and empowering AWS communities. He invited me to join a call for volunteers for a new AWS community — which eventually became AWS BuildHers+. As a volunteer, I was exposed more into the world of teaching (essentially public speaking), and it became such a natural thing to me to talk in front of a lot of people, my heart was no longer pounding.
My personality never changed. I am still shy, and I still prefer being in the corner. It’s still a big effort for me to talk. But I am now comfortable doing it if the situation calls for it, and to me, I’ve achieved my personal goal for myself. To a lot of people who helped me achieve this, I am forever grateful.
This is my 10,000 hours of practice.