‘You don’t necessarily need to have a sweet mouth to become an MC’

Paul Akingbola, popularly known as the Multilingual MC, is a seasoned compère, His ability to speak several international and local languages has stood him out in the over 200 events he has hosted worldwide.

Paul was crowned the 2014 World Public Speaking Champion in Leipzig, Germany and has since worked with several global brands and the crème-de-la-crème abroad and at home.

The global speaker, who is passionate about Africa’s transformation, recently published a book on how to excel as an MC.

In this exclusive interview with Iniobong Iwok, he reveals what young Nigerians who want to excel as an MC should do.

What did you do to excel as an MC?

Usually there is always an argument that great speakers are born, great speakers are made, the same way you hear great leaders are born or made. But I would say great leaders are born, some are probably made, some are born with talent but they are supposed to own that skill.

But the most important thing is that; they would have to hone that skill, the talent is there, but it would never take someone to do great exploits, there is always the place of honing the skill and getting better at it, most importantly, the idea of leadership or oratory.

Hosting an event is not going to be something that anyone is born with; there are skills involved to be able to manage an event successfully, it is not just to gather people and talk to them.

That is why I have written an MC book, to share some of the skills required to manage an audience by projecting one’s voice, physical appearance, rules surrounding some kind of events we have.

In a nutshell, it is not an inborn talent, you have flair for it, and it may come easy to you, when other people have struggled. It is a skill that is acquired overtime and with skill you will get better.

I have also had to take a lot of training, a lot of reading and learning; like following mentors. It is craved; it is a career that is learned, requiring a lot of competency, and resilience. It is just like having everything you need to succeed in the banking industry, I mean just like a banker or any other profession.

How has being multilingual helped your career?

That is an amazing question, being a multilingual person is a skill that I had to look inward for, it is a skill that I have to develop and it has stood me out in the more than 200 events that I have hosted in my career so far.

When you talk about hosting events across Africa, my French skill has helped. Even hosting events around the world, I have been able to relate with a diverse audience.

My French skill and other local languages that I speak helped me to relate more with my audience; thereby opening doors of international jobs or being able to host events of varied audiences.

Even in Nigeria and across Africa, it means instead of hiring translators, I would successfully do both. People do not joke with their language when you can relate with them you can earn their trust.

More places globally where you can relate with higher audiences around the world, in cases where there is competition for jobs, because I can speak two languages, I would be given the job.

What challenges have you encountered in your career?

I believe challenges are part of an entrepreneurial journey. I lived and breathed in anticipation of challenges. The general business environment is volatile, uncertain, and unstable and so because it is so, we have to put strategies to make the business grow and prepared for eventualities.

One of the things that have impeded the business environment is the natural resistance for change, when you are trying to innovate.

For example, we have software that is supposed to transfer the scope of the public health sector and we have had acceptance, despite efforts our system is still the same. I believe challenges are part of the entrepreneurial journey.

That is a major impediment, the resistance to positive change, when it affects how we traditionally do things can be resisted by the people.

How can I become an MC?

You don’t necessarily need to have a sweet mouth, you need to ask yourself, why do you want to do it? If it is for the money, good for you, so that you know what you need to be pursuing. But I would advise not to make it about the money first.

But for me being an MC was like a co-incident, like I stumbled on gold. It is a pact that I fall on and I stool on it and it begins to pay for me. It did not just start paying; when I said I like the idea of being an MC, I started developing myself.

What do MC do? Today Instagram or google is your friend, when you are looking for an answer, you can use the key world and get access to the answer.

What are the benefits of being an MC?

It is much, event money is free money. Particularly for MC people literally pay because you can talk. The same talk that you would have literally argued on a football field. Just like arguing with a friend about the outcome of a game in the premiership.

Because you can communicate, precisely, you can entertain people and do things that ordinary people would do among themselves.

I would say event money is for MC; what you need is to be able to talk. There are several other opportunities.

And people pay heavily for you to make their day. MC’s are paid high, even upcoming MCs are paid 50,000 in a show. That is what people work in a month to earn. You see people that earn N2 million, N3 million in an event because you can talk and entertain people.

Apart from that people give you luxury threats, places that you could not go by yourself. Clients are going to lodge you in hotels and give you luxury threats just for you to reach their event. What about access to crème de la crème in society? You have the opportunity to be a change-maker in society.