On Speaking Terms

My Other African Queen~

My Two African Speaker Ladies

I've been blessed to work with wonderful human beings in my practice; my two recent women were exceptional in their courage and results.

One flew in from Sierra Leone to testify about FGM and other serious abuses of women and girls in Africa.

The other came to work with me in New York and they both gave their speeches in San Francisco two weeks ago.

Did they have stage fright?  Yes, each in her own way had a lot of inner-resistance to comes to terms with.  One was terrified at the idea of presenting, the other got quite scared at the last minute.  But both were well prepared and were able to overcome their fears.  Many people were in tears as they spoke (this surprised me a bit, as it wasn't my intention when writing their scripts but they have compelling, harrowing stories)  And after, many people approached them to exchange cards and talk...always a good sign.

To me it clearly shows the value of preparation.  No matter how anxious they might have felt, they had to follow the steps in the script writing and rehearsing.  That is what led them both to success last Monday night.

My Friend Tried Again & Succeeded!

There's nothing like a good follow up to a bad story.  My previous post concerned a friend who was unable to deliver a paper to his class.  He said he literally had "feet of clay" and could not walk into the room.

Two weeks ago he let me know that he had another one coming up, and this time wanted to prepare properly.  He asked if I would coach him, and I said I would.

The total amount of time spent on it was minimal...about 4-5 hours.  We took a lot of time at the very beginning, to explore the possible choices of what to say and what to exclude on his topic.  This was a fertile and useful step, because it allowed him to strongly connect with his beliefs on the subject.  The hook was in, so what followed (time, effort, anticipation) were all channeled into his enthusiasm for making his points.

He had the time to sift through his ideas, pick the most salient, and then to write them for the spoken word.  He also took the time to rehearse his piece, and this allowed him to have a sense of ownership that he had not been able to have the first time... when he wrote the whole piece the morning of the delivery.  That might work for him once he's got much more experience under his belt, but not yet.

I got a call from him right after he got out of the class, and I could tell from his tone that it had gone well.  He said that he felt so different this time, and noticed that he wasn't nervous as he was speaking.  This, from the guy who had walked away from presenting his paper  just one month before.

Put your energy into your preparation and you will never regret it.  Learn how to prepare well.  Make the world a better place, one speech at a time.