Destroying the Fear of Public Speaking

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One of my greatest fears was public speaking.

ILOCOS NORTE

I can still remember my first public speaking competition back in the 4th grade here in the Philippines. I’m not sure why my teacher entered me into this speech contest. I think they call it declamation.

I froze. I forgot my lines. I still came in 5th place.

HONOLULU

Then I moved to the United States right after that. I didn’t speak English well. And when I finally learned to converse in English, I was made fun of because of my immigrant accent.

If you had Filipino accent, the local born kids would make fun of you for being different. Yeah, you couldn’t be part of the cool kids’ club.

I was always conscious about speaking English for fear that someone would make fun of me. In secret, I practiced.

I watched a lot of television. I listened and repeated the words. I read books. I read and read.

At the end of the 8th grade, I mustered enough courage to audition for our high school’s drama club and theater group. Surprisingly, I made it, and this would be the catalyst to my public speaking career.

I became more confident. I won first place in a dramatic festival. I became class president. I joined the debate team. I did more theater. I became honor society president.

SEATTLE

In college, I became a writing consultant, a debater. I became an impromptu speaking champion of a major debate and forensics tournament. I became the commencement speaker of my class.

LAS VEGAS

After college, I became a branch manager, staffing manager, and sales and marketing director. These jobs entailed a lot of public speaking as I had to do a lot of training and business to business sales and marketing.

METRO MANILA 

I moved back to the Philippines. Don’t ask me why. It must have been more fun in the Philippines. Yeah, that’s it. I co-founded an English school. I have done classroom training, corporate training, university training, private training, and train the trainer.

So if you were to ask me, do I still fear public speaking? Not anymore, although my heart always palpitates a few seconds before my presentations.

When people ask me, could I really become a good public speaker? Can I really improve my English to your level?

YES and NO. Yes, if you are willing to put in the effort. Massive action. NO, if you are just taking a class here and there.

YES, if you decide if this is going to be the one thing that will take you to your dreams.

NO, if you decide you are just going to try it.

QUEZON CITY

I live in QC now, and I have so much more to learn about English and public speaking.

I’m at that stage again where I am having so many fears starting anew with other adventures. But if I did it in English and public speaking, I’m sure I could do it again in another industry.

I just have to.

To all the people who are doubting themselves, keep telling yourself you can. Eventually, that belief in yourself turns into something way more than you had expected.

I can.

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American Institute for English Proficiency

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The prestigious American Institute for English Proficiency, located in Makati and Quezon City, is the Philippines’ leading service provider of English language training, specializing in English proficiency, communication, grammar, writing, American accent, confidence building, standard test preparation (IELTS/TOEFL), critical thinking, personality development, career development, and public speaking.

We have innovated English language learning in the Philippines by offering special courses that will not only teach you how to speak English well, but also to think more analytical or critically.  Further, we offer you a learning experience that promotes cultural exchange and a lifestyle of learning English.  You will not find any English learning institution with higher standards and better staffed than we are.

ADDRESS
Makati: 227 Salcedo Street, Suite 2G
Quezon City: 131 Timog Avenue, 3rd Floor

WEBSITE
American Institute for English Proficiency

CONTACT NUMBER
(+63) 0917-850-3456

EMAIL
success@iamchrisdelacruz.com

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Sales and Marketing Techniques Workshop

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I have conducted several sales and marketing workshops over the years through the company I co-founded, American Institute for English Proficiency; however, many of these workshops revolved around the core service, which is English and communication skills.  When a client wanted to have language skills training and found out that I am also into sales and marketing, they would ask me to create specific English and communication modules related to sales and marketing.  In the English language training world, we call that ESP or “English for a Specific Purpose.”

I have always been involved in sales and marketing.  I can trace it back all the way to when I auditioned for a theater group back in the eight grade; I suppose that is a kind of sales pitch, isn’t it?  And right at the end of the ninth grade in high school, I ran for class president and won.  I did several campaigning strategies, so I suppose that is some kind of marketing as well, right?  From leading school organizations to being in debate and speech competitions, I have always done some form of persuading, be it in oral or written form, which is what sales and marketing is all about.  And for 12 years, I had been the general manager and head of sales and marketing for the company I co-founded.  And after college, I moved to Las Vegas where I became branch manager for one Fortune 500 company and a staffing manager for another Fortune 500 company, both of which involved lots of sales and marketing; and before I came to the Philippines, I was a sales and marketing director within a market territory for yet another Fortune 500 company.

Business Development, Sales, and Marketing Workshop

Participants of my first ever Sales and Marketing + Business Development Workshop

As a result, I have gained so many invaluable experiences and lessons through the years.  I have not only implemented successful sales and marketing strategies but have also committed lots of errors that taught me greatly.  And when I was hungry for more, I sought trainings and related workshops to help me augment my skills.

Last September 23, 2018, I finally decided to momentarily veer off from my normal English and communication training and shared what I had learned in sales and marketing as well as business development throughout the years.  I had been so familiar with conducting English proficiency, public speaking, grammar, writing, business correspondence, and other English related topics.  I had been working with major local and national corporations as a corporate trainer.  This time, I wanted to take a leap into conducting training for a totally different topic because I wanted to grow.  I wanted to go beyond what I thought I could do.  I had been feeling that I had reached a stagnant point in my training career, and to have a foray in another topic, course, or module would make life more challenging once more.  I needed to be awakened.

Chris, Kassy, and Ben

So for one day in September, after all the years of doing sales and marketing myself for the companies I worked for and the company I co-founded, I was finally able to help others who needed to improve their skills.  What was even more fulfilling was that there were a few struggling entrepreneurs who attended the event because they wanted to have a specific feedback on what they were doing and what they were not doing well.  I also realized that the way I conducted the training was quite similar to how I normally conduct my English and communication skills training: fun, engaging, dynamic, and critical all at the same time.  I like to have a mix of value and entertainment.

I covered several topics including branding, social media marketing, guerrilla marketing, corporate narrative, email marketing, search engine optimization (SEO), and best practices in customer service and handling sales objections.  I also invited a few guests who covered different topics: Kassy Pajarillo who discussed the power of using LinkedIn as a marketing tool, Ben Francia who discussed website development and Google marketing techniques, and Jon Oliquino who covered current industry practices in sales.  It was an awesome day of collaborative efforts.

Overall, it was so worthwhile venturing into the world of sales and marketing.  The feedback I received was overwhelming.  The participants were able to get all of these learnings for free; two participants actually gave Php 500 each because they felt that it would help cover at least the facility use.  One participant even mentioned that the training he had gotten in his company in the last nine months he was with them paled in comparison to what he learned from the day’s session with me and my guests.

I will definitely be conducting another training, so if you are interested, make sure you follow me on my social media accounts and visit my website again soon and be on the look out for more details.

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