“Being a confident orator has gotten me into rooms I’ve only dreamt of. How you speak changes everything,” says spoken word artist Dr Esperance Luvindao.
To help others achieve similar success, Luvindao established an international public speaking institution, dubbed ‘Speakers Globe’, which has a unique curriculum, focusing on public speaking.
The academy, now in its third year, has 200 students from Namibia, South Africa, Zimbabwe and the United States of America, among others.
She told Youth Corner her students include professionals like lawyers, CEOs, managers, marketing executives, teachers, entrepreneurs, doctors, medical students and accountants.
The school takes on the form of a fully-fledged academy. There are three levels to the training: beginners, intermediate and advanced, with each level encompassing six months’ worth of training. Certificates are given upon successful completion.
“The aim is to establish the largest public speaking school in the world and train the world’s greatest speakers,” said Luvindao.
A medical doctor by profession, Luvindao added that for a salesman, public speaking will influence their ability to sell; a lawyer, the ability to get their client off; a doctor, the confidence that their patients have in them; an MC (master of ceremony) or presenter, the influence – whether they will be hired again; whereas for a student, it may make the difference between passing or failing that assignment.
“The emergence of social media platforms like ‘Clubhouse’ has reiterated the importance of speech, a social media platform where all that matters is what you say and how you say it has reminded many that public speaking is of utmost importance,” shared Luvindao.
She has been speaking publicly since she was 16 years old – with exposure to debate – which had led to her teacher at St Paul’s College then recognise her potential and advising her to focus on perfecting her spoken and written English.
Under her academy, she has trained and continues to train the likes of well-known speaker Sam Shivute and others. The Miss Namibia beauty pageant also roped her in to train the contestants on public speaking, a contract that came about as a result of years of hard work and dedication.
“I started listening to TedTalks every day – three per day. I didn’t only listen to what they did right; I listened to what I felt they could improve on. By doing so, I had begun to accumulate a vast amount of knowledge on the skill of speaking – like how to avoid the use of fillers (the ‘ums’, ‘uhs’ and ‘ers’). I also learnt commanding your stage, stage presence, improving your content,” said Luvindao. She did a postgraduate in public speaking; she is pursuing her second public speaking qualification.
Luvindao pointed out that some of the biggest mistakes people make when they speak include using fillers, lack of confidence, not investing in the improvement of knowledge to have more content, thinking that speaking fast and with an accent is speaking well, and trying to speak like someone else.
– psiririka@nepc.com.na