My advice to those who doubt themselves...

It’s been more than 18 months since me and my co-founder started our journey of business - and what a ride that’s been.

Back then, I thought I kind of knew what I was doing.

How quickly the demands of business and the steep learning curve that comes with it teaches you the only thing that you do know, is nothing.

Growing up one thing I really struggled with was speaking in public.

It just wasn’t something I was comfortable with or felt I could do.

I didn’t believe I could talk passionately nor convince people eloquently enough to give me the time to, well, listen to me.

In fact I still remember the instance of my mother yelling at me for not coming down from my room to speak to guests - it was my way of hiding from having to have conversations with groups of people.

Whether it was confidence or competence, it was something that really weighed me down.

18 months ago I started my business with my co-founder. And being in business, I had no option but to find a way to learn how to speak, present and passionately convince people, I was worthy of being listened to.

I had to find a way to push past the belief I had that I wasn’t good enough.

So that’s what I did - I began to try to learn the skill.

I used to watch presenters, presentations, and public speakers and then dissect their message - from time, purpose of message per slide (if they were using a slideshow), to use of imagery to text, tone of voice, and story.

I did that over and over again until I believed I could learn the formula of being good at just ‘speaking’.

Below is a picture that shows what I used to do - from number of slides on the left, to details and descriptions of content, broken down - my way of dissecting and learning good practice.

Fast forward 18 months, I’ve now presented to the likes of Unilever, Omnicom group, Human Appeal, with few hiccups (other than one with Facebook where I briefly sounded like Kermit the Frog due to a bit of nerves ????).

And that leads me to say one thing.

If you’re passionate about what you do, don’t let your self-doubts stop you from chasing your dream.

Having a purpose for what you do, if it's big enough, will force you to find a way to master -and if not master - learn, apply and then overcome your weaknesses.

Because, simply put, anything can be learnt.

You just have to want it enough.