TJ’s Insights

There is great comfort in mediocrity when it comes to public speaking. It is easy to joke around with your colleagues about how you “hate” speaking in public and that you “just want to get through it.” To publicly admit that you like speaking and that you think you are good at it is heretical in most quarters.

Often times, when I am coaching my clients on how to be better speakers, one of them will have a breakthrough. For the first time, this person will have seen himself or herself give a great speech; one that is interesting, memorable, and filled with passion (with nary a bullet point on a PowerPoint slide in sight).

Imagine you have to leave your home, hop in your car, and drive to the grocery store to pick up a quart of milk. That’s not a highly dramatic or challenging endeavor, is it?

But what if you tried to do that when you were 12 years old? Then, it would have been terrifying. Why? Partly because it would have been against the law. Partly, because you had never done it before.

Would you be nervous about playing a high stakes tennis match on center court at Wimbledon? Of course you would. But what if you were playing someone who had never won a tennis match before, never hit an ace, never knocked a winning forehand? In fact, what if you were playing someone who had never played tennis before in his or her life, and wasn’t especially athletic?

Now, you aren’t so nervous, are you? Especially if you play tennis every couple of months.