We were lucky to catch up with Poojitha Palaniswamy and Rasika Selva recently and have shared our conversation below.

Poojitha and Rasika, thanks for taking the time to share your stories with us today We’d love to hear the backstory behind a risk you’ve taken – whether big or small, walk us through what it was like and how it ultimately turned out.

Taking the leap to push for the creation of Archers was something that was definitely a challenge. We were so passionate about this project, about creating this community for the art of public speaking, but it involved a lot of faith in ourselves to bring about.

It all began during our time at YLP, a public speaking program offered by Toastmasters Intl. that a local non-profit, Tamil Sneham, had put on for interested kids in the community. Both of us had previous experience speaking and presenting, but our love for the craft and the comfort we felt when in front of people was created only during this program. That was because of the community we had – we were able to smile a lot easier when talking and laugh a whole lot louder without worrying about what the audience thought. Every single one of us in the program had developed this sense of confidence to be ourselves when we were up there. So when we said we wanted to start Archers? There was a lot of pressure.

There were so many factors we had to consider – how many people would even be interested in something like this? Where would we hold meetings? How would we fund our project? How can we provide the richest experience to our members? As founders, we wanted to not only create something that properly represented the way we felt about public speaking, but a community that lived up to the support and inspiration we received at YLP. We wanted our members to leave with that same feeling of pride and excitement that we felt in front of an audience, and we knew it was possible – it just meant we had to be willing to take the risk of starting, and believe in our vision enough to make it true.

One of the things we knew would be a challenge is bringing people to Archers – especially people that have already been in programs like YLP. There is a certain lack of credibility that comes with starting anything new, especially due to the fact that we are so young – people want to see evidence of success before they join something. We needed people coming in to show that success, so we would say that our biggest risk is definitely investing so much of our energy into a project that we knew we would have to fight to make it seem “worth it” and fight to even get people to show up.

Poojitha and Rasika, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Both of us were just students who got nervous when giving a class presentation. However, as we engaged in speeches and presentations as well as programs like YLP along the way, we realized how crucial of a skill public speaking is. So we began simply talking in front of people any chance we got whether it was a couple sentences or a whole speech. As we did this more and more, we realized not just the importance of the skill but our love for the craft. And we wanted others to feel the same way.

Archers Gavel, more than anything, is a community of middle and high school age students that are passionate about the art of public speaking. Archers meets bi-monthly and is structured through a Toastmasters approved meeting method. Our aim is to provide digestible public speaking instruction and knowledge to our members, as well as a space for them to practice those skills and put themselves out there. We also provide a more competitive space and leadership opportunities for our members who are interested.

We are in the process of extending our reach beyond just our local club, and eventually hope to build more of a network of Gavel clubs similar to ours.

We often hear about learning lessons – but just as important is unlearning lessons. Have you ever had to unlearn a lesson?

A motto that we have always grown up with is that if something is meant to be, it will happen. That’s how our parents, teachers, mentors, and friends all assured us when something went wrong or we doubted ourselves. It was almost as if we began believing that things will happen naturally. That if we just told a couple people that we created a space for them to speak, they will. Because that’s how our entire lives have been, we were the first to raise our hands to a question or to speak. It was only after starting this club and trying to develop this, did we realize that everyone learns differently, that if we wanted someone to come up and share or act out their story we needed to push them. As leaders we could no longer just rely on the motto that they will if they wanted to. We had to keep assigning our members speeches even after some flusters and hesitations. The truth is, at the beginning of this journey, we had not realized that, we kept assuming that people would naturally volunteer to speak, naturally show up. It took lots of quiet meetings and awkward silences to answer the question “who wants to go first?” for us to unlearn the lesson that things will happen naturally. We began pushing people up there again and again, and we have seen it pay off.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

One of the most rewarding parts of being a creative is definitely seeing the impact of not only your performances, but your leadership. One of the greatest gifts of public speaking is your audience – the ability to impact them and connect with them on a human level. It is so gratifying to see a smile in the audience or their rapt attention and engagement with what you’re saying.

Public speaking is an intuitive art. That means you have to tune into your environment and the people around you, and you have to realize that what you may have set in your mind as a good plan or a good idea of how things should go, may not come into fruition. You have to be willing to change on the spot. You need to let go of your ego and do what it takes to pursue your purpose and not your method. It’s the same with being a leader – you have to listen to your members and adjust to them in ways that would benefit them. When you do, beautiful things happen.

One of our members, who was so nervous and uncomfortable with the public speaking environment at the start of their journey, has now become so much more confident in not only their public speaking abilities but in themself. That is the power of public speaking and of Gavel. Seeing someone overcome their fears and rise in confidence makes what we do worth it. It is moments like these that drive us. I remember that when they got up there and began speaking, we looked at each other so proudly – we just knew we were both thinking the same thing and it was such an emotional moment for both of us.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://linktr.ee/archersgavel
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/archersgavel/