Professor Stephen Hawkins and Billy Graham were in many ways at the opposite poles of thought on many subjects but they had one very important common attribute – they could both speak to audiences both small and large.
That learned ability was also shared by Dr Martin Luther King, John F Kennedy and Winston Churchill and many others.
Sadly, these luminaries are no longer with us in person but we still have their words, ideas, thoughts, principles and messages. How? Because they had learned the skill to be able to influence others with the power of the spoken word. That skill was essential in making them who they were. Without it, they would just have been talking to themselves instead of disseminating their ideas worldwide.
However, whether worldwide, countrywide or just within your own company or community – if you have the ability to stand up and speak, you will at a stroke be 10 miles, 10 months or 10 years ahead of your competitors, if indeed they succeed in getting their message out to anyone at all!
Speak Up and Speak Out
If you can stand up from the breakfast table, then you can learn how to stand up before a hundred people with a confidence and a smile because you will know who you are, what is your message and how to deliver that message with impact so that every member of your audience will leave the room remembering your words and your message.
Your confidence will come from the knowledge that you know your subject backwards, before you step onto that platform. You will be in command of your facts. Your message will be clear and unambiguous. You will be courteous and polite as you establish a rapport with your audience. And because of all these essentials, you will gain the respect if those who listen to you.
The ability to speak well in public automatically raises you from the rank of ‘Private’ to ‘Captain’ at a stroke. It takes you out of the crowd where no one can hear you to the top table where everyone will listen attentively to you as a person of authority in your subject: that subject can be anything in the world as long as you know your facts backwards and your message is clear.
