Public Speaking / Academic and Business Success

Many people suffer really intense emotional trauma when faced with the prospect of speaking or performing in front of an audience. While others feel the pressure of meeting a monthly sales quota or find trying to satisfy a demanding boss, teacher or client to be their biggest challenge. Far to often living in these times we find ourselves faced with situations that force us to deal with high levels of stress. And an inability to handle stress and the accompanying anxiety can have very detrimental repercussions. It may cause everything from a drop in our performance all the way to serious health issues.  And far to often it has more to do with how we perceive and frame and think about things than it does with the actual circumstances themselves. If we want to survive and thrive and prosper we better learn to develop the skills and attitudes we need. The world is not about to change just for our well being and happiness  and so that leaves it up to us to make the changes we need to make in order to fully enjoy and experience life.                       And the earlier we learn these skills that are required the better. what better gift could we give our children than the opportunity to learn how to speak in front of the class or how to prepare mentally and emotionally for a test or exam. Because these are things that can be learned and it is actually quite easily. Things that they will be able to use not only right now but all throughout their lives in so many areas that go beyond school. Once learned and put into practice they will in very short order become habitual patterns of behavior to the point that they begin to use them automatically and effortlessly. What better gift than to teach them how to handle everything in their lives, everything from social interactions to career based and everything in between. Imagine if you had been able to travel through your life without fear and without anxiety better equipped to handle everything and anything that comes up. Unfortunately we can not control what may happen and at some point every single one of us will likely be afraid of something or lose someone we Love or be faced with some sort of unforeseen challenge. Nothing is ever promised to us and nothing is ever certain. And so we must learn to do the best whatever we can to fortify and to strengthen and to prepare ourselves for whatever may come our way. And that starts with what is going on inside of us ,inside of our minds. Because what we think and how we think determines what we believe. and what we believe will determine how we behave. And what we think and believe and how we behave will make us who we are. And that makes all the difference.                                                                                                                                                                                                               So I have spoken a lot so far about how great it is to learn these things at a young age and that is absolutely true but what is also true is that at any age it behooves us to better ourselves and be lifetime learners. Because at any age once we learn something we can not unlearn it. Now that is not to say that we can not forget it because if we do not use something and put it into practice and reinforce it until it becomes automatic and our default mode of behavior we can in fact forget about it. If you don’t water the plant and give it some attention it will wither and die but once yo see how well something works and how powerfully effective it is you will use it and you will fight not to lose it. So now I would like to share a story with you.                                                                                                                                    Once upon a time there was a man who was in his early fifties and had lived a charmed life and was very fortunate in so many ways. Anyway he had some unexpected things happen in his life which caused some changes. One of the changes was that he found himself suddenly in a situation which required him to speak in front of a group of twenty or thirty or more people. And a very interesting thing happened. Now this guy had spoken to people all his life. One or two or five or six but not thirty or forty at a time. And he had no fear of people and had never had any social anxiety ever in his entire life. And so when put in that situation of standing in front of a group that large, with all of those eyes focused squarely on him, with all of those people and all of their attention, in a quiet room filled only with the sound of his own voice and a funny thing happened. By funny I really don’t mean funny in a humorous sense but more like funny in an odd or unusual way. you see he began to notice that he really did not know where to put his gaze, where to look or who to look at. and he also suddenly did not know what to do with his hands, where to put them and suddenly he felt unnatural and awkward. and then although he could hear his voice saying the words he wanted to speak what he was thinking and saying to himself was things like “Uh Oh what if I have something in my nose and look foolish”, or “what if i say something dumb, i will sound stupid and they start to laugh at me” and “OMG! my stomach is turning and my hands are shaking and what if they hear my voice shaking and quivering and…”.                                                                                                                                                                                                                    And I knew they could hear my voice shaking and quivering because I can hear it myself. And even though no one laughed , I still felt deflated and I felt foolish and I felt weak. And this would not do, and this would not fly because THIS was NOT who I AM! And I knew right away that I would have to change! I am a MAN and this is NOT how a man is supposed to behave. And you what I found? I found that change is very, very easy to do. Provided you have a big enough why, and I had a big enough why, And I could and I would and I did change! And it was easy, well pretty easy anyway because I was determined and I was ready. And if you are ready and when you are ready I can show you just how easy it can be. Just how easy you can change too. Because I am certain , absolutely certain I can help you and you can Do It too! You can go from feeling afraid or even panicky to excited and even exhilarated.                          I am absolutely certain that when we are done and when you look back six months after you change you will think that was actually pretty easy, not hard at all. And when it comes time for you to speak in front of a crowd you will not feel like you Have to do it because you will Want to do it. And that’s because it will be Fun! And that may seem hard for you to believe but i know it and would Love to show you how so let’s do it. Let’s get it done. When you are ready, and when you are ready, Call Me!

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   Frank first opened his own business he imagined how great life would

be when he was his own boss. He never thought it would feel like he had to answer to every customer he had in order to stay afloat. It almost felt like he now had a slew of bosses that had control over him. And what about Jim who is simply overwhelmed in trying to make his sales nu