The Public Speaking Cards made for our Communidad.
Public Speaking con Cultura is the perfect tool for anyone looking to improve their speaking skills. Our prompt cards are designed specifically for our community, providing culturally relevant topics and prompts to help you feel confident and prepared to take the stage.
Meet the Author
Yvonne Armenta is a First Gen Latina & Introverted public speaker of 10+ years. She was born and raised in San Francisco, CA and is incredibly proud of her Mexican roots. Her speaking career began as keynote speaker for education-based conferences, while in college.
After receiving her Bachelor of Arts in Media Studies and Native American & Indigenous Studies from UC Berkeley, she began her 8 year-long career in tech in the Experiential Marketing, Internal Communications, Social Impact, & Community Management spaces. Later receiving a Masters in Business Administration from San Jose State University, Yvonne grew passionate about doing business differently.
In a world that still too often misunderstands introversion and overlooks the lived experiences of First Gen Latinas, Yvonne looked to shine the spotlight on her experiences as a public speaker. Taking a culturally affirming approach she guides her community to love, reconnect, & practice the art of public speaking through thought provoking conversations, speaking engagements, 1:1 consulting, group workshops, and content creation. She believes her upbringing and cultural traditions are the very things that have guided her in creating her unique speaking style. Yvonne calls this, Public Speaking con Cultura.
A Guide to Practice your
Public Speaking con Cultura
Every powerful connection starts with a story. It can be hard to give voice to everything we’ve lived through. This section is meant to help you uncover the stories that make up your lived experience, so that you may be reminded to use them as a tool for connection in your public speaking. Tap into your senses (touch, sight, hearing, smell and taste) to bring every story you tell, to life.
Body Language is “the process of communicating nonverbally through conscious or unconscious gestures and movements.” More than 70% of all communication is nonverbal. This means that your posture, gestures, facial expressions; every single movement across your body, matters. This section will explore various aspects of body language to help you become more aware of what your nonverbals are communicating, and also the power that giving yourself permission to get out of your head and into your body, has in transforming your public speaking.
Were you ever told you’re too loud? That “calladita de vez mas bonita”? Or too quiet? That “your ideas are great, but that you should speak up more”? Voice inflection has everything to do with el ritmo de tu voz. These cards are meant to give you the practice to elevate your voice con ritmo, y a tu manera.
Reciting positive affirmations can be a powerful tool in your public speaking journey, and even more powerful, internalizing them. As you recite your affirmations of the day, take a moment to convert the affirmation into a question. This is meant to help you reflect on where you are in terms of believing the affirmation to be true.
Shops The Cards
Inspired by our Cultura
Yvonne centers her work around Public Speaking, con Cultura and I wanted to capture the essence of that in this piece. As an artist, my creative process starts with a central theme or element that then inspires the rest of the piece. In this case, I began with the microphone at the center and designed every single aspect around it, by hand, to bring an uniqueness to it that resembles the uniqueness each speaker embodies when they take the stage.
Each element of Yvonne’s vision (chisme, emocion, movimiento, del corazón) is represented in the art. I hope that alongside these carefully crafted public speaking practice prompts, you’re inspired to embrace the art of public speaking and our culturas’ essence in how you practice the art. Like public speaking,your unique experiences are what brings the art to life. This artwork is meant to be interpreted uniquely by you. And, everytime you see this piece, you're meant to see something different; discover a new element that ties back to your public speaking, con cultura.
Con mucho amor,
Gabriela Torres
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