I am that type of a person, who has performed in every single school event, and even still at work I’m the one raising my hand and wanting to speak immediately after a question has been asked. Yet I am nervous every time I decide to open up my mouth. Within the impulsive mind of mine, I do have the urge to say something that would impact or inspire others.
“Little did I know what a journey I was about to embark on!“
My colleague Samuli Pöntinen introduced the idea of attending a MySpeaker Rhetorich course. Knowing my history of being easily excited about learning new stuff, I wanted to join in. Little did I know what a journey I was about to embark on!
Your typical training? No way!
I had imagined a course plan of listening to a presentation for an hour or two, then doing a couple of short exercises and off we go with that information and experience – and life would carry on the same.
MySpeaker Rhetorich is not one of those courses. Our group was invited to the collaborative platform that offers a wide range of analytics of your speech to improve your rhetorical skills and impactfulness. We then started off coaching with an introduction, meeting everyone live. We experienced an inspirational session where we learned the Rhetorich© Model, a framework of what makes speech impactful. We talked about emotions behind a performance, our fears of public speaking and shared expectations for the course.
Talking the talk
Fast forward to this day writing this blog post. In between, I’ve received a 1-on-1 coaching session based on my personal analytics from the platform, given a 10-minute speech about roller derby to my fellow course attendees and coaches, and have put in multiple hours learning more stuff on MySpeaker Rhetorich online course material.
“I was not prepared to realize my purpose in work life during a speech course – but here we are!“
In only a few months of time, I have been able to grow my self-confidence as a speaker. I have practiced and planned a speech that I will be performing at a seminar in September. The speech is a Roller Derby Case Study: Creating a successful team from scratch – and how we managed it. Without the MySpeaker Rhetorich course, I don’t think it would’ve evolved to the level it is now – and I still have time to practice with all of the material I received during the course. I managed to strengthen my own voice and message! I was not prepared to realize my purpose in work life during a speech course – but here we are!
Rhetorich escalates action
“MySpeaker Rhetorich course and its attendees may have changed Yle company culture!”
What else has happened? Things tend to escalate, and this was no exception. I sat down with a colleague one day and found myself thinking: our work community is filled with amazing thinkers and speakers. We travel around the globe giving speeches and having world-changing discussions with other companies and other thinkers. Why don’t we embrace this knowledge sharing within our company? And that is how Yle Tech Talk was born. From a 5-minute conversation with a colleague to bursting the idea to another colleague – and boom – there it was.
Yle Tech Talk will be held for the first time ever on November 9th, 2023. It is an event for Yle co-workers, by Yle co-workers. It is a time and place for us to learn from each other. Its purpose is to inspire our colleagues in finding their own voice and letting everyone know what and how they think. It is a platform to share ideas and knowledge.
In conclusion, MySpeaker Rhetorich course and its attendees may have changed Yle company culture! I can’t thank you enough for this journey that has only just begun. I know I will kick ass with my speech in a seminar abroad, and being able to bring it back to my company in November, makes me super happy.
This article was originally published in May 2023