10,000 Women Liberia: Promoting your Business through Networking and Public Speaking
“Good morning. My name is Frederica and I’m going to recite a poem for you.” Frederica rocks back on her heels and twists her gold ring around her index finger.
“Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high
Like a diamond in the sky.
Thank you.”
Frederica returns quickly to her seat as the other 27 women in the room applaud her. However, Frederica isn’t off the hook. The other women in Frederica’s cohort start critiquing her ‘Twinkle” performance. One woman tells Frederica that she doesn’t seem self-confident and looks too nervous. Another tells Frederica to use her hands to emphasize her points instead of playing with her jewelry. Frederica gets back up in front of the cohort and recites “Twinkle” again with noticeable improvements. Her hands stay clasped in front of her without fiddling. She stands a little taller and speakers louder.
Frederica is one member of Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Liberia’s 7th cohort. On February 28th 2013 WCI conducted a public speaking and networking workshop. Especially in a country like Liberia, where in-person interaction and networking is so important, the role of effective communication and public outreach is an essential skill to develop. However, here, like every country in the world, public speaking remains as one of the greatest fears for women.
To address this challenge, WCI applies its expertise working with women running for elected office to the context of women business owners in Liberia. Here, WCI focuses on providing women with the opportunity to develop and hone their public speaking skills and craft and practice business pitches for different settings. With practice, feedback and support from their fellow cohort members, the group was able to overcome the anxiety and challenges of public speaking. They also learned to effectively and efficiently promote themselves and their businesses in any situation.
After introductions, the workshop opened with a discussion of the importance of networking. Monica Gadkari, WCI Country Representative in Liberia, asked for eight volunteers that she arranged into two rows facing one another. Next, she instructed each line to hold hands with the women next to them.
She pointed at the two women at the heads of the lines. “When you network with someone you aren’t just connecting to the person in front of you,” Ms. Gadkari said. “Look at the connections, the network, that the other woman already has. When you talk with her you connect to all these other people as well.”
The workshop gave each woman an opportunity to work not only on her public speaking skills but also on the business pitch that she could make at a networking event. The women split up into two groups and practiced their public speaking using poems, rhymes and bible verses to practice style and technique. Then the women each got a worksheet to practice their business pitch.
“Your business pitch has to be short- a minute or less,” Wyeatta Moore, WCI’s Junior Program Officer, told the women. “You need to explain what you do and what makes your business different from other businesses that do similar things.”
After writing down their business pitches on paper, the women committed the pitches to memory and split into two groups again. After each woman got an opportunity to practice her pitch once in front of the group, WCI video taped each woman and let her watch herself give her pitch. The businesswomen and the group got a chance to describe strengths and areas of improvement for each pitch.
The ability to effectively network, speak in public, and pitch their businesses strengthens both women and their businesses. At the end of the workshop each member of the 10,000 Women cohort left with a new and improved business pitch. In addition, each woman came away with a strong understanding of the importance of networking and public speaking. WCI empowers 10,000 Women cohorts not only by imparting skills to women business owners but also by providing them with the opportunity to use these skills at networking events. WCI networking events give women the opportunity to connect with other 10,000 Women cohorts, banks, government officials and prominent business figures in Monrovia. Look for another post soon about how the 10,000 Women put their skills into use at a WCI facilitated networking event!