Two months ago, I was invited to a Rotary Club meeting to give a talk about my personal journey with mental health, how MHFC was born and grew, and the future of MHFC.
The invite was from Caroline, who I’ve met a few times and is such a lovely lady, we get on very well, and she massively supports me and MHFC, so I agreed to the invite.
Even though I knew it was me talking to a small group of people, I still think I was a bit naive and didn’t quite realise what it was I was doing and how intense and anxiety provoking it would be.
The reason I’ve put the word speaker in inverted commas in the heading is because usually when people say or promote they’ve been a speaker, usually it’s to a room full of people, at least 50+, however mine was to 10 people.
I don’t want to put myself down, it’s just I know that’s what people (including myself) would think when seeing the term speaker used, I didn’t want to make it out that that’s what I’d done.
Speaking at events, companies and conferences is one of my future goals, and I guess this was a perfect introduction and stepping stone.
I was very surprised in myself for one big reason though, for the first hour or so, I was just sat listening to the meeting and not speaking very much, usually in these circumstances, in a room of strangers, not saying much, feeling anxious and also knowing I had to speak, I’d go into myself and start to panick, but I didn’t at all, at no time do I go into myself myself, start to worry or panick, so I was quite pleased about that.
Anyway, it was time to talk, and I hope I did myself and MHFC justice, looking back now it’s a bit of a blur, but I hope I didn’t come across as rushing when talking, which is usually what I do, or come across anxious.
One thing I learnt and need to change for future is eye contact, when talking to the group, I very rarely made eye contact, but when answering a question I did speak more directly to that person as I was answering them.
I just need to make eye contact in both circumstances, when talking to the group and talking to one person.
Everyone seemed to enjoy the talk and was very complimentary to me and MHFC.
I was very drained afterwards, but very pleased I’d done it.
My only regret was that the end of the chat was heavily on the expansion of MHFC, but I wish I’d have focused more on how MHFC has improved people’s lives and the impact it’s had on the community, since starting only 3 years ago from scratch.
I honestly don’t know what I had in my head for the talk and what I was asked to do, I only realised really when I saw the meeting itinerary and it said ‘SPEAKER – Ryan – Mental Health FC’, between this and then getting home, letting things sink in and realising I’d done a talk to the others by myself, only then did I fully realise what I’d done.
I’m glad it happened this way, as I think I would’ve felt a lot more anxious knowing what was coming.
Click here to read my previous anxiety posts.
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