Artist Talks

Have you ever performed on stage or given a speech?

I haven’t performed on stage but I have given a few speeches. One thing that I have found is the more that I practice speaking publicly, the more confident and better I become. And of course I think it’s one of those things that are essential for the thriving artist, you need to be able to speak freely in a public setting, be it at a launch of a gallery exhibition or going on the radio to promote your work.

It’s obviously hard to practice public speaking without speaking in public but there are a few things that have helped me massively.

When I decided to pivot my career and embrace my creative side in late 2018, I didn’t know which direction I wanted to take, I just knew that I wanted to reignite my creative urges and see if it was at all possible to become a thriving artist. For me, back then thriving artist was being able to make a living doing what I loved.

That was a time when I was listening to a lot of podcasts including the Gary Vee Audio Experience. He inspired me to document my journey as I tried to uncover which way I wanted to take my career. This ended up becoming the Fork In The Road vlog, blog and podcast which I worked on everyday in between being a stay at home dad and doing my lawn mowing job to pay a few bills. But the act of talking on camera every day for 200 short 1 minute vlogs helped me so much. Especially when it came time to edit and I realised how many ‘um’s’ and ‘ear’s’ that I needed to edit out. I started to make a conscious effort not to do that. It also made me realise I had to Ip the speed and energy of how I talked, otherwise I’d sound half asleep.

All of these things are great to do on a regular basis. Because when you are opening your exhibition or talking on a podcast it will help you feel more comfortable and you might even enjoy it.