Social business specialist Yola O’Hara hopes her new role as President of Swindon Speakers’ Club will help spread the word and attract more members.
Yola, Managing Director of Visually Explained – which provides social media services to businesses – joined Swindon Speakers’ Club a year ago and plans to use her position as President to raise the profile of the organisation.
“I had identified a need to improve my public speaking some time ago. I wanted to work on my delivery, be better organised and better at timing,” said Yola. “One of Visually Explained’s services is training in social business, and I knew developing my public speaking would also help in this area, as well as with the presentations and talks that I give.”
The vision of VE, based in Royal Wootton Bassett, is to help businesses increase and maintain consistent, long-term brand visibility using social media, by transforming businesses’ attitude from social media to social business.
Yola said: “This can be a difficult concept to get across, so by developing my public speaking skills I am able to improve how I deliver a message.”
Swindon Speakers’ Club is part of the Association of Speakers’ Clubs. Members follow a programme, and – at their own pace – complete ten speaking assignments. Each assignment is focused on a different element of public speaking, such as use of hand gestures.
The club meets every other Thursday evening, currently online but when face-to-face at the Blunsdon House Hotel. There are three speakers each week, picking a topic of their choice, and the talks are evaluated. Yola’s topics have been as diverse as mental health and anxiety, the pros and cons of getting a puppy versus a rescue dog, education, travel and tattoos.
Yola said she was thrilled to have become President. “Many of us are prone to waffling or have difficulty explaining ourselves, and being a member of the club has helped me immensely. My goal is to raise the profile of the club, so more business people can benefit in the way I have.”
Yola manages the club’s social media accounts, including the new Instagram account, which already has more than 400 followers.
To find out more about Swindon Speakers’ Club, visit the club’s LinkedIn page https://www.linkedin.com/company/swindonspeakersclub/ or follow the club on Instagram. To contact Yola or the team at Visually Explained, visit https://visuallyexplained.co.uk/.
