I Was A Nurse. It Made Me A Better Speaker.

When I left healthcare and moved into coaching and speaking, I was done with my clinical background.

I figured that none of it would be useful in my new work.

Other than for credibility and authority.

The whole “ran my own podiatry business, was a team leader, worked in A&E” thing.

I didn’t think that any of the skills developed in these roles would be useful now.

Of course, I was totally wrong.

When I was preparing for a speech at a PSA conference in 2024 I started to see the dots.

I was thinking about what I could share from my clinical days that would be relevant to a speaking audience.

Not the things I had learnt about speaking, but in clinical spaces.

Things like presence, rapport and authenticity.

Presence was about being in the moment, aware of what was going on and being able to adapt.

Rapport was about connecting with someone quickly, when they are scared and have questions, and to make them feel safe.

Authenticity was about knowing who you are and bringing that to your work to create trust.

You might call them soft skills and perhaps they don’t have a clear reflection on the bottom line of a business, but by Thor’s hammer they matter.

These skills are central to speaking.

While I built them in clinical settings, I get to bring them to speaking and the stage.

Of course, sweet bugger all of this was planned.

I didn’t leave nursing and think “shit, all that will make me a great speaker one day”.

There was no clear strategy.

Most of it was made up and created out of necessity.

A business need, or a getting better patient outcomes, or just because it seemed like a good idea.

It all adds something.

Accumulates.

Greater than the sum of its parts and all that.

Everything just kind of came together and worked.

Which I suppose is the point.

The stuff from your past is relevant now.

Maybe not in the way it was, but it still counts.

Those jobs that you thought were a stop gap.

The weird skills you learnt that made zero sense then.

The things you did before you found your thing.

Many of them are more useful than you think.

I say many very precisely, because some are far less useful.

In healthcare you need a qualification for everything.

That mindset catches me out occasionally, but once I saw it, it allowed me to be more creative.

Presence, rapport and authenticity.

They are still here.

And they pop up whenever I speak, host or coach.

The clients I work with often think that their background is not relevant to their speaking.

They feel like they are starting from scratch.

They’re not.

They are always sitting on more experiences, content and stories than they realise.

Stuff that will connect with an audience in a way that technique can’t.

Audiences do want things that will help them change, grow and transform.

But they also want to feel some connection to the human saying the words.

Your past gives you that.

Think back over your life - jobs, relationships, things you’ve done - what have you discounted that is actually really bloody useful?