Last Tuesday, we hosted a massively successful Masterclass at our office in London. Take a look at these pictures of our crowd!
Guests were squeezing in through the venue doorway to catch a glimpse of our wonderful speakers at work. As usual, our founder, award-winning entrepreneur and TEDx presenter Rafael dos Santos started the event with a couple of networking exercises to get the crowd on their feet and amp up the energy of the room. Can you guess what these guests were doing?
In the first exercise, Rafael asked guests to explain what countries they’re from without speaking, to highlight the importance of body language in negotiations. Check out a clip of this exercise on our Instagram or Facebook!
Then, with the crowd laughing and energetic, our very own Business Development Executive Tanya got on the stage to deliver an introductory address. Take a look at her in action in the photo below:
Go Tanya! Tanya discussed the core of High Profile Club’s philosophy – that truly powerful entrepreneurs are rare and wise, like owls, but just need a little bit of help to become bright and beautiful, like peacocks. And that’s the mantra of High Profile Club: VISIBLE, CREDIBLE, and INFLUENTIAL. Each guest even got their own peacock feather to take home!
After a few more speakers, including pitches from High Profile Club members, Rafael dos Santos finally began his Masterclass on how to give TEDx talks. Rafael, who is a highly experienced public speaker, gave a TEDx talk in 2016 titled “What it takes to be a migrant entrepreneur” which has won awards and garnered more than 155,000 views on Youtube. In his TEDx talk, Rafael opens up about vulnerabilities and challenges he faced in his journey to becoming a successful migrant entrepreneur. He ends with the statement, “We are all migrants, we are all entrepreneurs, but above all, we are all humans.”
Guests were really excited to hear about his experiences with writing, practicing, and performing his TEDx talk. Said High Profile Club member Gesmay Paynter, “I’m very excited about this, because everyone wants to do a TEDx talk, and it would be nice to know how it works and how you can create your own one.”
Said guest Raquel De Mingo, “I want to see his tips on, in a nutshell, what presenting a TEDx talk is like: how to project your voice, how to address your audience, how to use your space…”
In the Masterclass, Rafael asked guests to open up about their own vulnerabilities in order to find the story most compelling about them. “It’s about love, humour, drama, and emotion,” said Rafael, about the TEDx talk writing process. Guests came up with their own TEDx headlines, including “How to perfect your ultimate self” and “How do you rebuild yourself after loss?” Eventually, guests revealed stories about themselves that came from places of deep vulnerability and emotional challenge. One guest discussed domestic abuse and how love can help one rise above it. One guest discussed finally accepting his true self only after years of bullying for enjoying women’s clothes. One guest discussed finding inner peace through bodybuilding to combat mental illness. Not only was Tuesday’s class informative, but also deeply touching for everyone.
Rafael also discussed important technical aspects of public speaking. “Don’t dance on stage,” he said regarding using the full performance stage. “But also don’t be a tree.”
And of course, the event ended with a networking session in which guests were able to meet like-minded, driven entrepreneurs and share tips and tricks. High Profile Club events are always great places to meet new people and hear creative ideas!
And that’s the reason guest Menaca Joji joined High Profile Club. “I wanted to become more visible and I have definitely become more visible. These kinds of events really helped, to know what journalists are looking for. It’s my dream to speak in a TEDx talk in front of everyone!”
By Christie Yu
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