When I first started speaking,
I was horrible.
REALLY horrible.
But I practiced again and again,
taking every opportunity to speak
and I became better.
I’m still not a great public speaker
(especially in front of large crowds).
I’m more comfortable with the written word
than with the spoken word.
But I can sell a project in.
Peter Sims shares
“The best advice I ever received
about going “from suck to non-suck”
as a public speaker came from
former New York Governor Mario Cuomo.
Cuomo visited Bowdoin College
during my senior year,
and I was the student assigned
to show him around.
Scott Hood, who led Bowdoin’s communications office,
and I picked the Governor up
at the airport in Portland, Maine.
Making conversation on the 40 minute drive back
to Brunswick,
I asked him how he’d become
such a good public speaker.
He graciously shared the story
about how he started speaking publicly
in law school
and was a terrible speaker
until he started
1) talking about things he believed in passionately,
and
2) knew his material extremely well.
I now routinely share that advice today,
with one addition:
know your audience.”
Practice every chance you can.