TeamAsia Training Masterclass: Powerful Presentations with Ma’am Monette Iturralde-Hamlin
By Kaye Chua
Ever since I was a kid, I have been constantly trying to overcome my fear of talking in front of a lot of people. When I graduated from preparatory school, I delivered my speech with my head bowed down because I was too shy. I joined a storytelling competition when I was in elementary and I got lost in the middle of what I was doing that I literally wanted to burst into tears while I was onstage in front of all the students and teachers.
Fast forward to college, I took up AB Broadcast Journalism in the hopes of finally gaining the confidence I immensely needed. I’ve been through numerous speaking exercises but I never really got rid of the anxiety before stepping in front of the crowd.
After graduating college, I felt more frustrated as reality smacked me right in the face knowing that I will soon be interacting with more people when I start working. (Yikes!) So rather than giving in to my fears and insecurities, I constantly tried to overcome them.
Last July 7, 2017, I had an opportunity to try something that’ll make me come out of my shell and that is to attend the TeamAsia Training Masterclass, which, for this month, is a whole-day public training on Effective Presentation Skills. It was my first time to attend a workshop that’ll help me become a better public speaker.
Ma’am Monette Iturralde-Hamlin, esteemed president and founder of TeamAsia, spearheaded the training. There were TeamAsians from each department who participated — James from Marketing, Erika from Accounts, Moi from Digital, Doms from Creatives, and me from Content. Since the event is open to the public, there were also participants from other companies and organizations that joined us.
By the start of the first session, Ma’am Monette gauged our presentation skills through a speaking activity. We shared the challenges we commonly encounter every time we had to do public speaking activities or presentations. It was amazing because Ma’am Monette was able to address all of them throughout the training and, with her guidance, each one of us surmounted those challenges along the way.
During lunch time, everyone paused to participate in the 12 o’clock Prayer for Peace in the Philippines
Ma’am Monette’s approach was so professional and warm as she walked us through becoming an effective presenter like her. She said it’s not just about being able to inform, or to educate and communicate. It is also about being able to influence your audience. According to her, influencing the audience’s view on a certain subject can mean two things: either you change their opinion completely or you simply strengthen an already existing view.
“You are your best visual aid”, said Ma’am Monette. She noted that human communication is 80% nonverbal and only 20% is verbal so it is very important to bear in mind that your mere presence speaks so much about yourself as a presenter. That even when your visual aids fail, you should still be able to carry on.
Ma’am Monette tells us that smiling at your audience instantly makes them feel at ease
During the entire training, I had numerous “aha!” moments. Ma’am Monette delved deep into various aspects that we needed to prioritize in order to execute our presentations well. She put so much emphasis on the POWER approach from the start of our training until the end.
POWER stands for:
P-repare
O-rganize
W-rite the first draft
E-dit
R-evise
She encouraged us to continuously practice all these steps in order to master the art of delivering a powerful presentation.
Ma’am Monette while discussing the P.O.W.E.R. approach
It was also fascinating when Ma’am Monette started talking about the kinds of listeners and learners in the crowd — the integrators, experiencers, doers, and thinkers. Knowing these allow us to strategize on the kind of approach that we will use for the type of crowd we will be facing.
Among the many, many things I learned that day, there are three things that struck me the most:
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Maintain a happy disposition.
Ma’am Monette helped us determine the causes of our fear when it comes to public speaking and what can we do to overcome it. It is true that fear arises from painful experiences in the past. And in order for us to remove fear, we must try to activate positive images in our mind. We must also realize that we, as presenters, do not look as nervous as we feel. The audience can only perceive what they can see and hear.
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Be sincerely interested in others.
Ma’am Monette highlighted the importance of smiling. Smiling with your eyes is an easier way to make your listeners trust you and make them feel they’re important. The audience can easily tell if you’re being genuine to them or not with the way you smile and look at them.
Ma’am Monette showing us how to smize! (smile with your eyes)
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A good listener is a good speaker.
Ma’am Monette noted that God gave us two ears and one mouth so we could listen and learn twice as much as we speak. It is deemed true to everyone even to us, as speakers, simply because listening is one of the most powerful tools human beings have for it is the way how we all learn and grow.
I went home with new learnings, realizations and a lot of other things to reflect on. All the lessons and stories that Ma’am Monette instilled in us are vital tools that we can all use in our different careers and endeavors in life. I work in Public Relations, and it was such a huge help that aside from being taught about becoming a confident presenter, I have also learned how to strategically organize my thoughts to convey messages that are a lot easier to digest by my audience.
It might still be a long way to go but I know I’m a few steps closer to my goal now. I am glad that the young girl who used to be very shy never stopped trying and now she has finally made improvements! I couldn’t thank Ma’am Monette enough for everything she taught us. I am definitely looking forward to more trainings like this and I hope to bring some of my friends and colleagues to join me next time, too!
