FIVE MINUTES CAN CHANGE YOUR LIFE
Can you change the way you see yourself in five minutes?
As a copywriter, I’d like to think I’m pretty good with the written word. I’d like to think plenty of customers in Kingston, London and beyond think so too.
It seems I’m getting better with the spoken word too.
One of my business targets for 2019 was to try to start public speaking, to which end I joined the Professional Speaking Association.
I had found, to my surprise, that I quite liked speaking in public, either in networking events or delivering presentations. One or two people had said I should pursue it seriously.
I’ve been to only five PSA meetings now but the atmosphere is fantastic. As I said after my first visit, it was daunting to see, from the quality of speakers there, how far I have to go.
At the same time, it was inspiring to visualise how I might go about getting there.
Well, Saturday saw the London heat of Speaker Factor, the PSA’s annual competition for emerging speakers.
There were seven extremely good speakers also in the running. So I was intensely proud and surprised to be named the winner.
The national final stages are held at the PSA’s annual convention in Coventry in October and I’m looking forward to that already.
Speaking in front of an expert audience without notes or slides for five minutes was both an intimidating and invigorating experience.
I’d listened to a host of advice from experts, which can be summarised as follows:
The time will race by; don’t try to cram too much in.
Practise, practise and practise again.
Use metaphors and direct, instead of reported, speech.
Have a simple takeaway.
Make it clear why people should want to book you for speech.
That final concept, bookability, seemed to be very hard to define, even for the experts. Should I do a speech that was, in effect, a pitch for the sort of message I want to deliver in talks and workshops? That felt too salesy.
In the end I settled for telling a story from my own experience that illustrated the inevitability of change. With a quick mention of how I’d like to bring value to talks and workshops.
The time did indeed race by; five minutes is not long at all to make your point and display your stagecraft.
But the hours of preparation and practice paid off and I have to admit I really enjoyed the challenge and the experience – and the prospect of speaking more in future.
It was an extraordinary weekend, as England won the World Cup on Sunday in one of the most exciting cricket matches of all time.
I’ve now got a couple of months to knock a few rough edges off the speech, which I have to deliver again at the convention. The number of speakers who really do know what they’re talking about who have been in touch to offer their support and help has been touching.
And if you think I haven’t been on my social media platforms already to insert the words “award-winning public speaker”, then we really haven’t met!
If you’d like to know more about how I can help you with the written – or spoken – word, please get in touch.