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Virtual Learning Program: Public Speaking for Personal Branding

Happy new year 2023 to each one of you! I hope you ended 2022 with enormous satisfaction and are ready to begin a fresh start in 2023. Talking about beginning something in 2023, you could start by learning new life skills that will shape you to be the better version of yourself this year. Life skills? What is that? It is a skill you possess that could help you adapt to your surroundings and overcome the challenges that you might encounter during your life journey.

One of the important life skills that could prepare and equip you to face your life challenges is public speaking. Knowing that it is an essential life skill, Act Global hosted a virtual study session with Anggun Elza Mayanti, the first runner-up of Puteri Pendidikan Indonesia in 2020, on Saturday, January 14, 2023, with the theme of “Public Speaking for Personal Branding.”

Anggun Elza is a high-achieving individual who has won first place in Puteri Pemberdayaan Perempuan Indonesia and the first runner-up of Puteri Pendidikan Indonesia in 2020 while still studying at one of the notable universities in Indonesia, Ciputra University. Through the study program, she shared her perspective on seeing public speaking as one crucial skill that could change someone’s life in many aspects, including everyday life and career. According to Anggun, the ability to communicate well in public will impact an individual’s confidence and how they see their self-value significantly in a positive manner. Moreover, she added that when people have good public speaking skills, it would automatically leads them to increase their critical thinking abilities. However, she also recognizes that there are no instant results, which prompts her to educate the audience on public speaking in the study program.

Source: https://instagram.com/anggunelzaa?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=

Anggun began the study program by defining public speaking for the participants. She explained that it is typically understood as an engaging way to speak in front of a large audience. She did not say that it is a wrong way to interpret and understand public speaking, instead, she emphasized that it is not just a conversation skill used in front of many people only but also applicable when having a one-on-one conversation, as it is a skill to invite your interlocutors to have an interactive discussion.

Following that, she continues to invite the participants to read a sentence to demonstrate their public speaking ability, which is a great way to start the lesson because it allows the participants to demonstrate their ability and participate actively in the discussion rather than just as passive listeners. The interaction between Anggun and the study program’s participants was lively as she managed to gather the participants to interactively discuss the topic. Moreover, she also provided feedback on how the participants performed during the demonstration and showcased the proper public speaking strategies, such as clear articulation, the appropriate tone for specific words, and the suitable facial expression to use when speaking in front of an audience. This method used by Anggun created a conducive yet fun study environment for the program’s participants. 

After she finished the public speaking explanation session, Anggun continued to explain to the participants the importance of personal branding to strengthen and balance their public speaking skills. As mentioned by Anggun, personal branding is how you display yourself to the public, the way you want people to see you. In short, it is your image in public. However, she noted that personal branding is not something you could just make up like fictional characters; rather, it should accurately reflect your actions and future intentions. In other words, your branding should define you.

Finally, Anggun ends the session with an amazing quote on personal branding, which is “personal branding is not something you can build within one night like the tales of a thousand temples, but it is a long life learning that should constantly be done as long as you are still living in this world.” It is how Anggun shows the participants of the Act Global study program that there is nothing in this world that could be created instantly, every good result that you have seen around you always has a rocky process behind it, so trust the process, believe in yourself, and keep raising your self-worth by learning new skills.

Written by: Finfin Nataly