For a ton of people, public speaking tops the list of biggest fears. Fortunately for me, I have always liked public speaking. My hands get a little clammy before delivering my message but overall, I enjoy educating people and speaking to small/medium sized groups is a great way to do that. Recently I began the process of becoming an SFMA instructor, and a speaking course through Thomas Plummer is one of the requirements to be considered for instructor status. After a lot of schedule balancing, I took the leap and attended a course in Rhode Island this past weekend.
Thom is a legend in the fitness world. He has spent over 30 years in the fitness business, providing consulting for gym owners and speaking all over the world on the ins and outs of the business. Before the course, I didn't know much about Thom which was probably a good thing, otherwise it would have been like playing basketball in front of Michael Jordan.
Public speaking for me has always been one of those things I liked, but didn't really have any method for doing it. I had an idea of what I was going to talk about, stood up and spoke, said 'thank you', and hoped for applause. What I learned this past weekend was a speech is crafted over time and requires a lot of thought and practice to be effective. It's not some 'written at 3 am' term paper you put together and smile when the B+ comes back across your desk a week later. How many times have you listened to someone speak and thought, "this guy doesn't know what the hell he's talking about"? If you have, you've witnessed and ineffective and poorly designed speech.
So after a short intro presentation by Thom, we jumped in the deep end. I'll save you the blood and guts, but let's just say I learned things about my voice and appearance that I had never considered. I learned that facial hair is a no-no and that I need to lose some weight. I learned how my movement affects the crowd and how increasing or decreasing my voice speed can cause the crowd to come with me, or turn and run. But the biggest thing I learned had very little to do with the mechanics of speaking.
I learned that your message is the most vital thing you own. Not the content of your message, but the 'why' behind what you do and how you do it. If you don't have the 'why', you don't have anything. Your passion and desire to transform it into tangible results is the key. People buy your products or services because they bought your story, not the other way around. People gravitate towards stories and people that they resonate with. You might think your story is boring or too edgy for others. Trust me, it's not.
Your story counts, make sure you tell people about it.
