LaQuita Cleare Of Clear Communication Academy On 5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker

An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis

Storytelling Skills: As humans, we all have stories to tell, and these stories make you memorable as a speaker. Draw your audience into a personal story and allow them to take the journey with you. By using stories, you not only show us more of your personality, experience, and background, but you also become more relatable.

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 LaQuita Cleare.

LaQuita Cleare is a storytelling Magician with a background in Hollywood. She is the CEO of Clear Communication Academy, where she works with Fortune 500 companies, CEOs, Entrepreneurs and Public Figures to help them transform their speaking presence. LaQuita has worked in 50+ countries across 5 continents speaking at numerous prestigious schools and events including Harvard events, INSEAD Business School and Milan Polytechnic.

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?

Don’t talk to Strangers! This is something that parents say, yet I was the kid who never quite listened.

As a child, I was fascinated by communication. I talked to strangers, watched my parents interact, and even watched strangers argue in the street.

My mother put me in acting classes as a child and I fell in love with being on stage. On the one hand, acting taught me the catastrophic pain of being a 9-year-old rejected for a role. On the other, it gave me the confidence to speak in front of others.

Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?

As a naïve teen, I thought I would be a famous actor. I was living in a fantasy world as I thought I was ready for Meryl Streep-type roles before I even graduated from college. I got an agent and instead of the deep, heavy acting roles that I was looking for, I began booking corporate speaking gigs and industrial films.

I realized how much I loved speaking. I did eventually get some roles in Hollywood — and the things I learned from Hollywood really helped me so much as a speaker. Early in my career I began working with business leaders to level up their public speaking game.

Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?

Working around the world has meant adapting to many cultural differences.

Early in my career, it took me a moment to understand the different ways people interact around the world. In some countries, the audience is playful, fun, and interactive. In others, you wonder if you are even remotely interesting as you don’t get the same reaction.

I remember once speaking in an Eastern European country. I gave what I thought was an interesting talk, but the audience looked at me stone-faced. No one even cracked a hint of a smile.

I was almost frozen as I thought: Oh my God, what is happening here? My brain raced to find a solution, but I thought: This is a disaster. I finished speaking and wanted to run out of there quickly, thinking they hated it, when in fact, it was the opposite. I spoke with several people in the audience and was even invited for drinks afterwards. I’ve had many interesting cultural experiences like that as a speaker.

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?

I started speaking at a young age. At one of my first big speaking gigs, I made the mistake of trying to imitate a very well-known speaker who took the stage before me. Being young and inexperienced, I sat backstage watching like a hawk. It was quite laughable. I thought successful speakers should have a specific type of body language and gestures. And since they were successful, I figured I should change what I was planning and model them instead.

Long story short, my presentation was forced, and I lost everything that makes me unique and dynamic.

However, I learned a big lesson that I share with everyone today. You must allow your own personality to shine when you are speaking. Don’t try to be like other speakers no matter how great they may be.

None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?

There are many people who have helped me get where I am. My parents have helped me with unconditional support as I navigated a very tough career path.

I think part of what has made me successful is that I started out with a good base.

My grandmother often made me perform in front of the family when I was just a small child. At her house, in the lobby of a hotel, at the park…wherever she saw an opportunity she would push me to get in front of a crowd.

When I was finished, she would tell the family to give me money for my performance. I still laugh to this day when I remember my aunt handing me a couple of dollars for my “performance,” to which my grandmother replied, “Don’t be cheap, give that baby 5 dollars.” My aunt sighed as yet again she was forced to pay money for one of my performances.

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?

Find out what you are great at and amplify that. It may be your humor, the way you tell stories, or your ability to instantly form connections with people. Stay the course even when there are roadblocks. The roadblocks may be only in your head, or they may be real. However, as my grandma says, “There is more than one way to get to town.”

What drives you to get up everyday and give your talks? What is the main empowering message that you aim to share with the world?

I leap out of bed in the morning. I am committed to changing the way the world communicates, one speaker at a time. I want to help people realize the true power of their voice both in business and in life. This is my mission before I leave this world.

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 company, Clear Communication Academy, has been on the front line of leading people to become more dynamic speakers on camera and in a virtual space throughout the pandemic. I am excited that we launched an online course on public speaking in a virtual environment from videos, to presentations, to meetings.

I am also thrilled to be helping more business leaders tell their stories. I will be doing a multi-country tour where I will be speaking about storytelling and how to tell magical stories that have an impact.

As my company expands, I see myself getting more into media projects and continuing to develop other trainers to educate and inspire people with public speaking. To leave a legacy, you must share knowledge as much as possible.

Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?

“Leap and the net will appear. “John Burroughs

Everything is not always perfect; you are not always ready, and you do not always see the full staircase before taking a step. As a perfectionist, I often remind myself to leap. The net always appears in the form of a win or a lesson.

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. Ability to Have a Conversation: When you have a conversation, you connect, engage, and interact. Think about the last time you had a normal conversation. You may have laughed, smiled, and really listened to the other party. Chances are you were not nervous. However, the moment you begin to speak in public you forget all about the qualities of interaction. You become nervous because you are focused on presenting, and in your mind — it is a one-way performance. Public speaking is definitely a higher stakes conversation. Whether you’re speaking one to one or one to many, you still want to keep the engagement and interaction. Remember that public speaking is not a Shakespeare monologue.
2. Storytelling Skills: As humans, we all have stories to tell, and these stories make you memorable as a speaker. Draw your audience into a personal story and allow them to take the journey with you. By using stories, you not only show us more of your personality, experience, and background, but you also become more relatable.

I remember watching Brene Brown’s Ted Talk. She immediately hooked me when she started with a story about the first time that someone wanted to call her a “Storyteller“, and the horror she felt as an academic being called a “Storyteller.” As I listened to her, a small smile spread across my face. I instantly felt more connected to her because she shared a bit about herself.

3. A Powerful Hook: First Impressions Matter: Making a first impression serves two purposes.

The first is to help boost your confidence early on, which helps to combat fear of public speaking. The second is to grab the attention of your audience and to show them that you mean business. Suddenly, people lean forward, they look up from their phones as they realize that they don’t want to miss even a minute of your talk.

Making a first impression is all about the opening hook. Leave the boring, “Today, I am going to talk about X,” in the closet where it belongs. Would you be excited to watch a movie if they first announced, “The following movie is about a woman who falls in love with a man and then we will show you what happens next?”

Instead, they throw you into the scene or action to get your attention. As a speaker, you can do the same. Simply start with a story or an exciting question to hook your audience.

4. Dynamic Delivery Skills: It doesn’t matter if you’re the smartest person in the room or have very important information to share. If you deliver your message in a boring, dull way, you’ll put your audience to sleep.

Your delivery is a mix of body language, gestures, and vocal delivery. This is what helps to keep your audience engaged. The more you speak, the better you will become at delivery.

I once asked a client how long they spent preparing their speech, “4 hours”, he said. “How much of that time did you spend actually standing up and delivering it?” The answer unfortunately was 0. He had spent all the time deciding what he was going to say and stuffing his presentation full of information. When it finally came time to speak, he was nervous with uncomfortable body language in front of the audience.

Before speaking, stand up and practice EVERY TIME. Get comfortable standing, moving, using gestures, and taking the audience on a journey with your voice.

5. A Clear Message: I often ask people to tell me the main point or message of their speech in one sentence or less. Very few people can successfully complete this exercise. As a speaker, it is important to craft a concise, clear, and compelling message. Make sure to understand your overall message before you speak.

You can craft it in one sentence. Then you can craft an outline of your speech that covers all the points that you want to touch upon. This will make it much easier to stay on topic when you speak.

As you know, many people are terrified of speaking in public. Can you give some of your advice about how to overcome this fear?

Even professional speakers get nervous before speaking, but there are practical things that you can do to overcome fear.

1. Make sure to practice as much as possible.
2. Get comfortable in the space you will be speaking in. Arrive early and practice in the location.
3. Replace the negative self-talk and pressure with positive reinforcement. Get excited to share your message over doubting if people will like 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?

I would inspire people to listen more to each other. I think many of the problems in the world arise from lack of communication and in particular, listening. By listening, we can create connections, show empathy, show solidarity, make people feel seen and heard, avoid conflict, and so much more.

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!

Oprah, baby!! I think she is a fantastic storyteller and I love that as a leader, she is not afraid to be vulnerable or to share her story.

Are you on social media? How can our readers follow you online?

https://www.linkedin.com/in/laquitacleare/
https://www.instagram.com/laquitacleare/

This was so informative, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!