The Sunday News
Sunday Life Reporter
TEDx Talks have since become a huge phenomenon. They are influential videos from expert speakers on education, business, health, politics and personal development.
Various organisations and individuals around the world host TEDx Talks in their countries to give experts the platform to share ideas and opinions with the world. The process of becoming a TEDx Talk speaker requires that one train with a speaking coach beforehand. Speaking coaches work behind the scenes with speakers to assist them in understanding and clearly articulating their message.
March 2022 TEDx Lyttelton (South Africa) is hosting Bulawayo-born Miss Noma as a speaker coach for their TEDx event. A career as a speaking coach is unconventional yet she is walking in fulfilment of her work, charting a path in this field. Miss Nomalanga Ndlovu, aka Miss Noma is forever bubbly, full of energy and outspoken.
Meeting her now, one would think she has always been this person, however, growing up she was a shy child with a vivid imagination but because of fear, many ideas went unexpressed. In high school, she decided to become a backbencher in most of her classes excluding literature. Thanks to her teacher, who constantly put her on the spot to present and become class representative, Miss Noma began to slowly come out of her shell.
In life, sometimes we need that one person to push us out into our potential. For Miss Noma, her literature teacher inspired her to become a lawyer. Lawyers are bold speakers, this learnt trait kick-started her career to become one of the best speaking coaches in the country. From working with industry giants in their customer training seminar to coaching high school debaters and helping executives prepare for grand stages Miss Noma has trail blazed in her profession.
Looking towards the March 2022 TEDx Talk what excites her is the topic, “What Now” as well as the diverse speaker line-up. The topic is brilliant given what we are experiencing globally, there is a lot of uncertainty and unanswered questions. Three years ago, nobody would have guessed that we would still be going through this pandemic. In essence, we are all wondering “What Now” at this point.
“My role with this year’s speakers is to assist each one in sharing their personal experience and expert opinion on what the topic means to them.
A lot of us hoped that this festive season would be a great holiday but yet another wave has hit and we are asking ourselves ‘What Now’. Every day we are boggled with so many questions that are causing people to be uneasy.”
One of the questions Miss Noma will be asking the speakers is how to survive in such an environment, how to move beyond uncertainty. How have they managed to survive and stay afloat, is it possible?
Lastly, the TEDx Talk process can be long and stressful especially for speakers, hence a step-by-step guide from each one’s speaking coach is key.
Every session with speakers is designed so that their ideas are clearly articulated to the audience. Frustration builds up within a speaker when they fail to articulate their brilliant ideas and concepts to the audience.
One important component to building and preparing for any talk is to have a clear end goal in mind. The main goal keeps you focused as you write and conceptualise.
It is not always about you as the speaker but about the audience receiving the message and the impact your message is going to make. As a speaker, one must always ask themselves why the audience is listening and what impact they will receive from your message.
Watch out and reach out to her on social media as she continues to share her journey.
