CEO of the Public Speaking Academy, Bilal Jamil, inspired audiences as the keynote speaker at the Capital Business Hub networking launch event. International speaker and Executive coach for royal figures and political elite, his portfolio includes high end law firms, the financial sector and SME’s. With a reputation for high impact results, Bilal has helped businesses generate millions through proven step by step systems that enable people to share their story on stage in order to transform their business immediately.
How did you fall into public speaking?
It’s a very common fear, and was one of my biggest fears as well. I learned early on in my career in the civil service, those who are great communicators are the ones who are climbing up the ladder, and as a young man in London, I wanted to get promoted to a level where I could own my own property.
The Civil Service isn’t really the place for ambitious people traditionally, by observation I noticed there were people who were leaders in the organisation who were great orators and story tellers, people who could share their message with large teams and big departments.
The seeds were planted when I faced an audience of about 85 people and they were rolling their eyes at me and I failed miserable. I thought at that point, I want to deal with this, and that when I started my speaking journey, I started to invest my own money into it and get coaching, it’s a journey that’s taken me 15 years.
How did your journey begin?
It’s a positive journey that began in a negative space, I was so driven to get leadership roles and I got to an assistant director level faster than any one of my peers. I got back to Sheffield in my in my 30’s and get married and there my life turned around. The partner that I was with wasn’t right for me and we had great difficult, as well as difficulties at work. It was a very low point in my life. The passion I had towards sharing my voice and building my confidence got decimated.
It took me a period of time to recover and about 3 years later I decided I was going to give up my job and give up on my marriage and end all these different toxic elements of my life and I decided I was going to restart. As far as I was concerned, that was my turning point.
How do you define success?
Success is not a destination, it’s a journey. It’s your ability to be consistent, it’s your ability to give and you need to be able to give rather than simply having expectations and a lot of people in business seem to operate from a trade position and are transactional. If you love what you do and are passionate about it, then that translates into consistency. One of the things I learned early on is to be present, and what I mean by that is seeing opportunities, observing things, seeing what is working and what isn’t and being present enough to adjust to that. You must listen to the clues and you must be open to them.
How do you combat those nerves initially?
In the very early days it was through sheer practice, being able to expose your-self to that situation on a regular basis. Get yourself in front of crowds, in speaking clubs and get yourself practicing in environments that provide that experience. If you’re in a business space, put your hand up and ask that question, get that mic. towards you and expose yourself as much as you can. Through repetition, you begin to learn.
Another key factor to learning is to have mentors, one of the people who I have consistently referenced is an American Motivational speaker named Les Brown, and in my eyes, he is the best motivational speaker who ever lived. He speaks with great gusto, is very authentic, very genuine and his words have power. He dug people from the deepest despair and turned it into opportunity and I think that’s where there’s true magic. I aspire and model myself, to an extent, on him.
Do not ever be put off by people who seem to be doing a lot better than you or are a bit more mature in the market than you. If you sit down and start to compare yourself, you will never get started. It’s about you, you need to focus on the people that you serve and be passionate and dedicated about it. There is stuff that I do that no one else does, results I get that no one else gets in the world and energy that I bring that no one else can, there is a unique selling point that you can put on a global scale and that is my brand.
Are the biggest transformations you see in your clients simply down to confidence?
I think confidence is a bi-product and comes as a consequence for your internal reason for doing something. When your calling is greater than your fear, you will make the transition. You’ve read about mothers who have achieved super human strength ad people who have climbed the tallest mountain and swam in the deepest oceans – they’re calling and purpose was so vivid that it gave them clarity.
Is it difficult to keep that energy up?
Yes of course it is, the first thing to consider is you can’t expect anything that’s worthwhile to be easy. If you’re not committed or willing to put the time or resources in, then there’s no point. If there’s anything that worth doing, its worth doing through trials and tribulations.
You need to surround yourself with good people; you need to have a support network and be able to make time for yourself. Have that lie in and look after yourself. Invest in you. You are the company you keep.
I was speaking to people in my community, and I would hear things like, ‘well I don’t want to help that person because he won’t help me’. I believe in abundance and I believe there is more than enough for anyone. When you give, you don’t just get, you create. If you’re giving 100% you’re pretty much guaranteed that there’s something greater around the corner.
