If you have hearing loss, have you thought about giving a talk or presentation in your community? Even if the thought of public speaking makes you nervous, or if you think you might not be good at it, you may still have an itch or even a burning desire to talk to other people about hearing loss.
If so, that’s wonderful—because many people need to hear from you!
Hearing loss is on the rise, with unprecedented numbers experiencing its impact on their lives, especially on their relationships. But while information on hearing loss is widely available, most of it focuses on hearing aids and there’s a great deal more to living well with hearing loss. And nothing beats the power of hearing the experiences of a person who has something to share about a more successful hearing loss journey.
But speaking about hearing loss doesn’t merely benefit other people – you should feel satisfaction, even joy, in doing it.
I have been an international speaker on hearing loss for 30 years, and for the last six of them, most of my workshops and talks have been virtual. When the pandemic hit, the world moved online, making workshops and talks accessible to a worldwide audience. Virtual presentations are especially helpful for people with hearing loss – we can control the volume, stream to our hearing devices, adjust the view for easier speechreading, display captions and use automated notetaking.
Yet virtual talks, as wonderful as they are, diminish the potential power of in-the-moment, person to person eye contact and emotional connections that can create magic in live sessions, especially when it’s a smaller audience and a shared space.
Over the past few months, I have returned to my roots, giving talks to small, local groups. I loved it. There was more eye contact and shared laughter. People felt comfortable in asking questions that they might not ask online. Few of these mostly senior people had participated in online workshops. They didn’t belong to hearing loss organizations that offer webinars and, unfortunately, most hearing care professionals don’t tell their clients about these resources.
The live presentations I gave were requested by seniors’ groups and libraries. The attendees not only craved information, they were able to vent their frustrations in a group of people who understood what they are going through. They shared tips with each other and they laughed.
We need more people like you who can talk to people in their community – local clubs, libraries, seniors centres, places of worship, etc. If you’re interested in giving talks on hearing loss, maybe for the first time, I have a few tips to help you find an audience, develop your presentation and even what to do on the day. These will be in my next article.
In the meantime, don’t let a negative inner voice talk you out of it. “Who would want to listen to me? I’ve never given a talk before. I wouldn’t be good at it.” Here’s the thing: you may not knock off anyone’s socks in your first presentation(s) but don’t forget why you’re giving this presentation. You have something of value to offer, and at least one person in that first audience will leave with a potentially life-changing insight into their hearing loss life. And that one person is all you need to be successful.
Anything worth doing takes effort and practice. You will get better at it!
Also in my next article, I’ll share a few presentation anecdotes that were nerve-wracking – such as balancing precariously on an orange crate and feeling a microphone battery pack work its way down my underwear as I spoke – and why those moments simply add character to the joy of speaking.
