First Public Speaking Session ✅

Good morning everyone,

I hope you’re having a fab start to the weekend 🙂

A couple of weeks ago, I went back to the Henley Business School to do my first ever bit of public speaking. We’re going to take a look at how it all went and whether it’s something I want to do more of moving forward in today’s blog.

Hello and Welcome to Sweeneys Blogs!

At the start of October, I returned to the Henley Business School to speak at its 2024 Placement Awards Presentation Evening. For context, I went to study at the University of Reading for four years, completing an undergraduate degree in Management with Information Technology. The Henley Business School is a part of the university, hosting its Business and Real Estate programmes, among many others.

Speaking on a panel with three other former coursemates (who are all good friends of mine, too), we reflected on our placement years: the highlights, the challenges we faced along the year, how they shaped our current careers and a whole host more. Hosted by Andrew Hull, who used to lecture us all, it was brilliant to each share some snippets of our journeys, with the hope that these reflections and teachings can help inspire future students.

Being my first time doing public speaking, I was worried that my stutter would go crazy and that nobody could understand me. However, I had loads of people come up to me afterwards saying that I was really clear and helpful, which was wonderful to hear 😊

As a student, I found so much value in sessions like this, and it was an absolute pleasure to replicate that for future cohorts. I used to love going along to these sessions, I found them such brilliant places for learning, networking and socialising with like-minded people who were all looking to maximise their potential wherever they possibly could.

If you told me ten years ago that I would get up on stage, in front of a room filled with students, lecturers, employees and more, talking about myself and how far I have come over the last couple of years, I would never have believed you. Thinking about my progress with my speech and overall confidence, I am so proud of my journey so far and, while I still have a long way left to go, I am fully confident that I will continue to better myself with each passing day.

A huge thank you to the Henley Business School Alumni team for asking me to come back, I can’t wait to get involved with more of this kind of thing moving forward 🚀

Here’s to more public speaking, and to showing that with or without a stutter, you can achieve anything you want to in life. I’ll be sure to keep you all updated with any other public speaking things I get involved with heading into 2025 – it’s going to be a great adventure.

That’s all for today’s blog, what do you think? Would you like to see more blogs like this? Are there any topics you’d like to see me cover over the next couple of months?

I’d love to hear your thoughts ⤵️

Thanks for reading and I hope you have a lovely day!

James