Recently I had the wonderful opportunity to share my experience as a professional copywriter… To a group of NANYANG Polytechnic (NYP) 1st year students. it has been a while since I did a public speaking engagement, but it was still an enjoyable experience nonetheless.
What’s more… it got me thinking back about my own poly years… as i stepped back into a school environment that seemed like a distance memory now. (Talk about reminiscing)
Personally, I think I have to say kudos to all the staff and lecturers involved in this event. It is never easy to get professionals to set aside some time in the afternoon to talk to students. It’s probably even more challenging getting the students to spend their Wednesday afternoon attending talks when they could be out and about.
Yet, you could tell the team really took the time and effort to reach out to the various professionals and experts. When I reached the poly, I was introduced to Raymond. A lecturer in the poly who was in charge of helping me with anything I needed for the event.
It was quite interesting listening to him share about his experience in the school, the subjects he teaches, and also how NYP is constantly looking for new ways to integrate learning with real life experiences. I also learnt from him that each of us were assigned an individual lecturer for the day. (Talk about great service)
They really wanted us to feel comfortable in delivering great value to their students.
An Opportunity to Give Back
And that brings me back to the goal of this entire event… As a way to help their students bridge the gap between what they were studying with practical and real world application, the poly decided to seek professionals who could come down to share on what we do.
So the team put together this first ever Communicate event. An afternoon that saw over 10 professionals who rely heavily on the different communication skills in their career.
Each of us presented a one hour lecture or conducted a 2 hour workshop to give them a sample of the working world. For myself, I briefly covered on my favourite topic, copywriting and some of the elements of persuasive writing. It was a fantastic opportunity to get them thinking about sales, persuasion, and business building. And hopefully this will inspire them to start thinking about their own futures.
Having the Students in Mind
The truth is, not many professionals may want to invest their afternoon speaking to students. It isn’t exactly a productive use of time in a practical sense. After all, we’re not there to do business networking, prospecting, or anything along those lines. We’re there just to deliver value to students. The minds of our future.
Yet by the end of the afternoon, as I made my way back, I couldn’t help feeling really great about the day. Being there, it wasn’t about the dollar and the cents. It wasn’t about business building activities. And it definitely wasn’t about marketing funnels or any other things I usually focus on. Instead, it was really a day to empower these students. Even making some new friends along the way.
And the small token they gave was a nice gesture as well.
So was it a productive day?
You can bet on it.
Would I do it again?
You can count on it.
