“Although I have been a teacher all my life, I was often crippled with speaking in front of others, especially my peers and large groups of adults.”
shares Hélène Musso, trainer, facilitator, coach and the founder of Public Speaking Demystified for Zero to Dream Job readers.
I am originally from France and have lived in England all my adult life.
My ideal job at the beginning of my career? Had no clue!
I think life and work is constantly evolving and at times you have to try things out before they really become ideal. I think we are work in progress and as long as we are prepared to learn and explore then the journey is more important than the actual end job/goal.
I used to teach Drama in schools and colleges and developed my expertise as a trainer and a facilitator. I have had over the years, a love hate relationships with teaching as it can be so demanding and time unfriendly!
I loved teaching but crippled with speaking in front of my peers and adults
I was often crippled with speaking in front of others, especially my peers and large groups of adults. I appeared confident to others but was crying out with fear inside and I was looking for a way to solve that anxiety.
Then I discovered self-development through Damsels in Success originally and then trained as a NLP coach and practitioner at John Seymour NLP, in Bristol. The training was life transforming and made question my whole being and my own values and principles.
I have realised that apart from Science and Maths, I can and could teach anything or train anyone! I am fascinated by human interaction or lack in interaction and overall psychology and I realised that my whole existence has always been to help other people to become more confident in their own abilities and to support to develop their communication skills and their overall happiness in the mix.
I help people to communicate what they want without manipulation
I am like a fish in water literally when I train small groups on soft skills related matters, especially public speaking/ communication/ speaking with confidence. I just delivered a workshop for Winning women on “Communicating with Confidence”. I created a course on Being comfortable with your audience” for the Essex Coaching group and I am working with an educational consultancy on a course about NLP for educators.
I am quite creative and like when I am given the opportunity to use my spontaneity. I believe in the value of interactive and inclusive training where people can express equally and are valued for that and they can develop their skills in a safe, although challenging at times, environment. I like working with others and contributing to their work and am currently exploring and developing further joint ventures with likeminded coaches, educational agencies training agencies and schools.
I used to feel guilty when I was idle and at times still do!
The biggest obstacle that I had to overcome was finding the balance. For me it is all about life work balance and it is often very difficult to find it. As a teacher and now as a coach and trainer, there are times when I seem to be working all the time and then there is time when nothing happens and I do very little work.
I used to feel guilty when I was idle but now I use that time as recharge, renew and as a way to acknowledge that I am a human being and not a doing machine! My greatest difficulty is that I like a variety and people to interact with, so if both are taken away I end up not doing much. When I train I feel a sense of giving. My courses are very upbeat and my enthusiasm usually rubs off and I like that effect I have on people.
Visit Helene page if you want to overcome your fears of speaking and get the confidence to have a voice in your personal and professional life.
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