The Two Keys to Speaking Success, Key Two

Key One of The Two Keys to Speaking Success is Confidence.  You have to have confidence in yourself, confidence in your subject matter, confidence in your physical appearance, confidence in all the little details that make a speech successful.  However, without Key Two - you are finished before you arrive at the venue!

A little background first.  At the close of my junior year in college, I needed an easy A.  Been there?  I was solidly in my major and needed a break in the schedule.  I decided to get that break, and the easy A by enrolling in Drama 101.  I was thinking, "How hard can it be?  I was in the theatre troop at my previous college before transferring."

The first assignment was a soliloquy from The Rainmaker (the movie starred Burt Lancaster and Katherine Hepburn, def worth a watch).  Since I had seen the movie, and as you'll recall I had no shortage of confidence, I figured once again, "How hard can it be?"  I found out.

A little more background will help set the scene:  I was in a fraternity at the time, and was dressed like the stereotypical frat (broadcloth button down, khakis, and topsiders / you get the picture). On the other hand, and all of my Drama classmates were Drama Majors who loathed frat rats.  Not much of a warm greeting on the first day of class.... (insert sound of crickets)

On the day of my long-anticipated performance I choked.  Not just the, "Hey Honey, couldn't you have cleaned the bones out of the fish?" kind of choke.  No, this was the Nuclear Choke.  The professor had to hand-feed me my lines!  It was the longest seven minutes in recorded history.  To top off the humiliation, my classmates, the Drama Queens and Drama Kings, laughed at me...openly. Yes, I was made to feel their scorn!

I swore that embarrassment would never happen to me again.  Ever!  Key Two to Speaking Success is Practice.

For the rest of that semester, I was a fraternally pledged, rehearsing maniac!  My confidence soared each class as I showed up just as prepared as my classmates, and delivered.  In a two-person treatment written by H.P. Lovecraft, I actually did better than my Drama major partner as voted upon by my classmates, and their applause was oh so sweet!

Since then, I practice using the Performance Method (see The 'Jerry' Method post), and practice, and practice, and practice some more.  I do not show up unprepared, ever.

When a speaker combines their own confidence (Key One) with sufficient practice (Key Two), speaking success is all but guaranteed.  These two keys can overcome a surly crowd, technical glitches, props that don't work, and LCD projectors that don't project.  I live by them, and hope you will as well.

Fearlessly,
JD