Mesha Page On The 5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker
An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
Confidence, personality, mental acuity, flexibility, and discipline.
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 Demesha Page.
Director of brand marketing by day and urban adventurer by night. Demesha is an ambitious marketing professional currently assisting with the launch of the ethical organization, “Art For Your Cause”(AFYC). This company is the first known “cause-based” E-commerce fine-art marketplace. https://afyc.com
Demesha is a brand ambassador and an excellent communicator with a passion for speaking. She prides herself on making sure people have the right information because it drives better results. Her background in brand strategy, partnerships, and professional development fuel her mindful but straight-forward approach.
Her résumé boasts a strong background in facilitating organizational implementations, presentations, material designs, and career development. She reports directly to the company’s CEO and collaborates with other executives to make high-level decisions regarding the direction of the company in order to drive sales and build brand awareness.
Ms. Page attributes her tenacity to her passion for making lives better for others. This passion has led her to challenge herself daily. She finds honesty, creativity, and dedication to be the most valuable qualities that contribute to her success. Always eager to learn and cultivate her skills, she continually strives to build on her professional expertise and stay in tune with the latest marketing strategies and trends.
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?
I was the first-born of 2 girls, raised in a small town in the Midwest called Joplin, MO. I was fortunate enough to be brought up in a small community with exposure to good ethics and core values which was just a way of life. I was a sheltered, soft-hearted, good kid with a very strict upbringing in my formative years. My father always pushed me to excel in school and taught me that failure is not an option. Although I was treated by others as the black sheep in my family, my Dad always supported me for who I was and played a significant role in my upbringing. I think that only made me stronger and pushed me to excel beyond expectations. He helped mold me into the woman that I am today. As a child of a broken home, in my teenage years, I eventually moved to Texas with my mother and sister.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?
After roughly 20 years in the healthcare insurance industry, I worked my way up the ladder starting out as a customer service phone representative and followed the trail to eventually becoming a Trainer. I had hit a mental roadblock in my career and was burnt-out. I felt that I had learned all there was to know in healthcare insurance.
After living in Hawaii briefly, I decided to move back to Texas. Due to my previous work experience with public speaking and facilitation, I was offered a job as a Marketing Director by the founder of AFYC. Looking for a breath of fresh air, I accepted the job offer and entered into the wonderful world of art and marketing. I haven’t looked back since.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
My position incorporates a lot of various duties and tasks to accomplish. One of those many duties is to find and recruit talented independent artists to partner with our organization. There was one particular internationally renowned artist, Nathan Rohlander. I first saw his work on ABC’s hit sitcom, “Modern Family”. He was one of my favorite artists that I had followed on social media for years. On a whim, I reached out to him via Facebook and requested a meeting with him. To my surprise, he said yes. Nathan is now a large contributor and partnering artist with AFYC.
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?
One person comes to mind immediately and that would be my training mentor, Nesrin Oliver. Earlier in my career, before I had attained any experience of my own as a trainer, Nesrin always brought 110% to the table when speaking publicly as a facilitator. She was mesmerizing! She was also like a mentor of sorts and taught me how to keep the audience engaged and how to make presentations fun and/or enjoyable. I accredit Nesrin with taking me under her wing and providing me with professional insight for the furthering of my career development.
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?
Follow your heart’s desires. Life is too short to be controlled by fear. If you have the mind and determination, you can succeed. Sure, it takes practice and effort…but all good things do. You have to convince yourself that you are enough and just go for it. In my opinion, failure is not an option because if you fail at something that means that you gave up trying. As long as you are consistent and disciplined in the pursuit of your dreams, you can master almost anything that you set your mind to.
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 am a brand ambassador and an excellent communicator with a passion for speaking. I pride myself on making sure people have the right information because it tends to drive better results. My previous experience as a trainer fuels my mindful but straight-forward approach. The message that I aim at sharing with the world (regardless of the subject matter) is to be pliable and open to learning or trying something new.
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?
I am the Creative Marketing Director for Art For Your Cause (AFYC) which is an online art marketplace. The organization is fairly new and the founder hired me to educate, create, and promote brand awareness in order to be fully operational by Summer 2022. I never get bored or complacent with this position. It is a large undertaking to help a company launch successfully. I wear multiple hats working for this organization whether it’s public speaking, business networking, creating content, etc. I am constantly thinking creatively about our brand even when I am not at work. It’s my passion.
In the future, I can most definitely envision myself working independently with my own business as a contracted Marketing Director with multiple clients.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
“Failure is not an option” because if you fail at something that means that you gave up trying. I refused to give up and just continued to improve and recreate myself with every bump in the road. Because of my tenacity, I was able to gather more knowledge, experience, and insight towards my career path.
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.
Confidence, personality, mental acuity, flexibility, and discipline.
What does it take to be a highly effective public speaker?
It takes confidence to speak to an audience (no matter it’s size). Confidence is key when speaking to your audience, no matter the size. Confidence or lack thereof, is the easiest thing to spot when you’re looking for it. Your audience is looking for credibility. If you, as the speaker, do not have confidence in what you are saying then your audience most definitely won’t either.
What does it take to give a very interesting and engaging public talk?
Be engaging. You have to keep your audience engaged whether online or in-person. Presentations are more effective when they are interactive and engaging. It not only keeps their attention, but the listener is on alert to stay focused on what you’re saying. Once you become comfortable with the content that you are speaking about, that’s when you’re able to just be yourself, let your personality show, and intermingle with some dialogue (when possible) to keep your audience interested.
How can you improve your public speaking skills?
Practice, practice, practice…and then practice some more! Nobody is perfect in delivering speeches without some preparation. When you practice repeatedly, you are building your own muscle memory. You want to be able to strongly grasp the subject matter so that you’re comfortable with your delivery. Once you become comfortable with the content that you are speaking about, that’s when you’re able to just be yourself, let your personality show, and intermingle with some dialogue (when possible) to keep your audience interested.
As you know, many people are terrified of speaking in public. Can you give some of your advice about how to overcome this fear?
Getting over your fear is just a mind game. Nothing physical. You have to tap into that mental space and rid it of the negative thoughts by replacing them with positive ones. Positive thoughts like, “I’m a badass, I’ve got this! I’m going to knock this out of the park!” …dwell on those thoughts…even if you don’t believe them. You have to mentally psyche yourself out by convincing yourself that you know enough, you have enough, and you are enough.
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 message that I aim at sharing with the world (regardless of the subject matter) is to always be pliable and open to learning or trying something new. Being open, flexible, and courageous has the potential to set your life on a better trajectory. The possibilities are endless!
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!
Sofia Vergara. She stars on ABC’s hit sitcom, “Modern Family” which is my favorite TV show of all time! I admire and look up to Sofia as a role-model to me. I just love her real life story of how she overcame illness and conquered prejudice and language barriers to become the powerhouse you see today. Through perseverance, she has created her own empire in spite of the obstacles she had to face. You see her brand everywhere from Pepsi, to Head & Shoulders, to “America’s Got Talent”, and the list goes on!
Are you on social media? How can our readers follow you online?
I am on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, and LinkedIn.
This was so informative, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!
