Episode Details

Have you been up ever been asked to do a talk at work what’s your club? Public speaking is one of our biggest fears. So maybe you turned down the opportunity, because you were scared of speaking in public or not confident of delivering a talk?

 
My advice is that you should take up the offer make sure, but make you are prepared, rehearsed and polished so that you give your audience value for their time.

 
Don’t be casual, because as Jim Rohn once said, “Casualness leads to casualties”. 
In fact, we would probably not have heard of Jim had it not been for a talk he gave to a local Rotary Club. He was already a successful businessman and a millionaire when he was asked to give a talk about his career and how he made it from a ‘farm boy in Idaho to Beverly Hills’. Jim accepted the offer and gave a great speech. As a member of Rotary myself I know that not all speakers really make the effort or prepare. Someone saw Jim and asked them to do another talk at a different club. Then someone approached him and asked him to give a talk at a corporate event and said he would pay Jim. Jim thought, “wow, I get paid to talk?”. 

This is how his multi-million dollar speaking& training career was launched. By saying “Yes” and making an effort to do a great talk he was spotted and things just took leading to a whole new career. I’ve seen many careers launched from one good talk. That’s right! I’ve seen people promoted because they were noticed giving a presentation to colleagues at work. 
I’ve even seen a young guy promoted because he was good at cricket!

Funny as it may sound, my colleague Colin was my admin assistant serving on me when we worked for Legal and General in the 1980’s. Our branch was asked to take part in a cricket match against one of our building society business associates. Colin been a young fit sporty type stepped up and volunteered to captain the team. He did a great job of organising fielders, selecting batsman and of course bowling people out and scoring a few runs. His prowess and leadership skills on the cricket field were noticed by the branch manager who not long after promoted him. In fact, he snobbishly commented that he was impressed with Colin, but we just need to teach him not to wear white socks to work! 

You might say that Colin got lucky, but the fact is he stepped up to the mark, took his opportunity and did his best. I don’t think for a moment the Colin thought that his performance would lead to promotion. It was just the type of guy that would give his all. Colin went on to have a wonderfully successful career in financial services. I met him a couple of years ago and we shared a few jokes about the good old days.

 
Talking about seizing the moment, I’m sure many of us remember Queen’s performance at the Live Aid fundraising concert, where lead singer Freddie Mercury stole the show. 
Many of the bands who came on throughout the day just played a few songs and walked off, but Queen prepared a brilliant medley. They knew they only had a few minutes to impress the audience and the millions watching worldwide, so they packed everything into that performance. I believe that the performance re-launched their career and turned Freddie into a superstar. 
I recently watched a documentary about the legendary Woodstock concert in America where an estimated one million people turned up to watch the great bands of the time. Frankly, most of the performances were disappointing and a bit of a let down. The poor Soundsystem didn’t help, but the main reason was that they were unprepared and really winging it. 

Then a British band came on stage who were completely different. They were professional, well rehearsed and gave an amazing performance. Anyone know who I’m talking about? 
The Who. Like Queen I think they (not so qu