Em Stroud, Keynote Speaker, Emcee & Corporate Clown Coach On The 5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Work on your breathing, and not just for public speaking. If you only work on your breathing when you’re public speaking, it won’t work. You need to be conscious of your breath on a day-to-day basis so that when you’re standing up and delivering an amazing talk, your breathing will be effortless and will enable you to manage your nerves.
At some point in our lives, many of us will have to give a talk to a large group of people. What does it take to be a highly effective public speaker? How can you improve your public speaking skills? How can you overcome a fear of speaking in public? What does it take to give a very interesting and engaging public talk? In this interview series called “5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker” we are talking to successful and effective public speakers to share insights and stories from their experience. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Em Stroud.
Em Stroud is a Corporate Clown Coach for the brave and the curious. Using a vast array of tools from both the personal development world and business improvement techniques, which includes those mastered from the art of clowning, Em encourages businesses and employees to “work well, play harder”. Her clients include a roster of CEOs of SMEs and global businesses for whom she delivers keynote speeches, emcees events and coaches to address staff happiness and wellbeing.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
No, thank you for chatting with me! It’s a pleasure. I grew up in Surrey where I attended an all-girls school and excelled at sports and music.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
As I mentioned, I excelled at sports. That was until I got a back injury, subsequently ending my sporting days. However, this did mean that I found myself on stage. I was given a role in a school play, which was Hard Times, there is one comic role in it, and I got it!
From that moment on, I decided that standing up on stage was for me. I studied Theatre & Performance at university and then went to drama school to study acting professionally.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
Back in 2017, I was invited to a fruit-themed lunch. Me being me, I decided to go dressed as a banana. I had to get a taxi with the suit on and the taxi driver refused to believe I was anything other than a banana salesman.
After lunch, I went out to the streets of London. The banana outfit allowed people that would never outwardly talk to me, to talk to me. Following this, I began to use the hashtag #bemorebanana, which led me to think more about how we can have more fun in our life. I then did my first Ted Talk dressed in the banana suit.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
Hmm, let’s think. During one of my speaking gigs, I didn’t tell anyone what music I wanted to play when I walked on stage. The conference had a lot of powerful music, so I trusted them! Oh, and they also gave me a Britney Spears-style microphone.
They ended up playing an R&B track, which is so not me, I cannot begin to tell you! I smoothed up to the stage with this ridiculous R&B track and a Britney Spears-style headset on. So, learn from my mistakes. Make sure you have the equipment that’s going to serve you. I like a handheld microphone, it’s what I work with well. Oh, and always make sure you know what music you want them to play, and what works for you.
None of us can achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person whom you are grateful for who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
So many people have got me to where I am today. If I was to look at where I am right now, I would say my amazing coach Dr Mandy Leto.
I remember about five, or six years ago, we were sitting in a room, and she asked me a simple coaching question which at the time was humbling. Questions like, where did I want to go?
She didn’t let me answer with what I thought she would want to hear. She pushed and she delved deeper. It was that moment that led me to where I am now.
You have been blessed with great success in a career path that can be challenging and intimidating. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path, but seem daunted by the prospect of failure?
If you want to become a speaker, trust your stories. A lot of people overthink getting up and just doing it. They overthink that they’ve got to be perfect. None of it is about being perfect. It’s all about practice.
Give it a go. Do some small gigs so you can learn the craft. I’ve been doing the craft of speaking and performing for 20+ years and I’ve learnt that you can’t bypass rehearsal. You need to rehearse without audiences, you need to rehearse out loud, which most people don’t do in business. And most importantly, be kind to yourself.
What drives you to get up every day and give your talks? What is the main empowering message that you aim to share with the world?
This one is easy. I’m talking about my purpose, that is the biggest gift. I’ve always wanted to serve my audience and give experiences to provide them with a sense of some of the things that I’ve learned along the way.
My main empowering message is, I want the world to laugh more, think more and play more, and not sideline those things. This is something people often only do at weekends, if at all and yet they are the three vital steps we all need to do more of to lead a fulfilling life.
You have such impressive work. What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? Where do you see yourself heading from here?
My ‘Laugh Think Play’ movement is launching. We want to make the world feel better. We are just starting, but we are going to have multiple programmes within the group where we will work with businesses and individuals that want to develop that practice. We want a ‘Laugh Think Play’ Festival, where people can come and spend time revelling in these three things. We want to have ‘Laugh Think Play’ publications; we will even have an app! Part of our remit is that 10% of our profits will go to charity too.
I’m also working on getting funding for my film, Reframed. Reframed is my autobiographical story about how I’ve ended up where I am today. Hopefully, it will help other people Laugh, Think and Play and have the courage to look at who they are and reframe their life.
Can you please give us your favourite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
My favourite ‘Life Lesson Quote’ is tattooed on my arm, and it was the first tattoo I ever got.
It says This Will Change. This quote resonated with me during a 10-day silent meditation retreat, because it’s true, everything will always change. You can feel the saddest that you’ve ever felt or the happiest that you’ve ever felt, and it will always change. On my left wrist, I can always see these three words.
The retreat allowed me to understand that I wanted to become a mother. So, that was a change!
In life, we get so caught up with success and failure. But none of it is permanent. So, for me, this is the most evocative phrase because it reminds me that if we just live in our present, then that’s the best gift that we can give to ourselves.
Ok, thank you for all that. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things You Need to Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker?” Please share a story or example for each.
1. Work on your breathing, and not just for public speaking. If you only work on your breathing when you’re public speaking, it won’t work. You need to be conscious of your breath on a day-to-day basis so that when you’re standing up and delivering an amazing talk, your breathing will be effortless and will enable you to manage your nerves.
2. You need to think about how you want to show up. This is about more than just your content. Normally these are singular, emotive words. For me, my words can be Engaged, Motivate, Fun, Calm, Curious, and Educate. I’ve chosen that this is how I want to show up. It will mean that my voice and body language will reflect on these words, and you must be conscious of those choices as much as you’re aware of what you’re putting into your talks.
3. Less is more. Many speakers try and put so much content into their talks. It is better to be clear and give space to some of your expertise and knowledge rather than trying to put all of it in one. Leave your audience feeling like they’ve taken stuff away. But also let them leave wondering what else he/she/they have. By doing less, you are far more likely to be grounded and deliver your talk in the way you want.
4. Keep things simple. I’ve worked with speakers that can be unbelievably complicated. Be human. What is it that you want to say? What is your core message?
5. Tell stories to demonstrate your point. In a society where data takes priority over words, try building in colour and emotion to drive your message home. Your story is your truth, about your information, that is yours. Other people will then find the human truth and relate to it.
As you know, many people are terrified of speaking in public. Can you give some of your advice about how to overcome this fear?
Firstly, remember that your audience wants you to succeed. There isn’t any audience that I’ve ever spoken in front of that doesn’t want you to be brilliant. So, just remember this to overcome any fear you may have.
Take hold of your breathing, because fear is all in your head. You may think it’s going to go wrong, they won’t like you or you’re not good at this. Just breathe, get back into your body and get back into what you know.
Practice is honestly a massive thing — practice in safe places. Practice with people that make you feel secure. Don’t suddenly throw yourself into doing a gig in front of 1,000 people. Nobody would ever try and run a marathon without training. Maybe even listen to other people’s TED Talks and ask yourself why you like them. Not the content. Why do you like how they delivered it?
You are a person of huge influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
The movement I have set up already! The’ Laugh Think Play’ movement is a group that wants the world to laugh more, to think with more kindness to themselves first and then to each other.
Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have lunch with, and why? Maybe we can tag them and see what happens!
Thom Yorke. His work as the lead singer of Radiohead and many other projects. He has used art and his music to shift and change people.
He uses his platform to get people to think about things from a different perspective. I’d love to meet him because as I’ve grown, he’s grown. I’d love to get his take on ‘Laugh Think Play’.
Are you on social media? How can our readers follow you online?
You can find me on Twitter @emmastroudldn and Instagram @emmastroudldn. I also have an Instagram for my podcast which can be found at @clowningaroundpodcast.
You can also follow us on Instagram at @laughthinkplay and to join our movement sign up at www.laughthinkplay.com
This was so informative, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!
Em Stroud, Keynote Speaker, Emcee & Corporate Clown Coach On The 5 Things You Need To Be A Highly… was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
