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The Business of Speaking

You might not think that being a good public speaker is a very needed skill in your particular ministry or line of work. But you witness, don't you? You probably also give 12 FS classes from time to time, or help host seminars, pitch appeals, present your work, and participate in performances and shows, all of which could be enhanced by your learning a few of the basics of public speaking.

To highlight this point even further, here's a foreword from the Lord:

Jesus: The Family needs those who are trained and educated in the area of salesmanship, public speakers, those expert in relating to people. The Family needs those who can host and teach a seminar, pull off a large-scale fundraising event, or organize a program for the top of their area. These are skills that you can't just pull out of a hat—you have to learn them, and studying the basics really helps!

If you want to become an expert or a professional in some field, then you're going to have to do some study and really show you're serious about it. That's why I've made [education] a requirement—so you can build on your God-given talents and inclinations and become professionals that I can really use.

Again, even if you don't have a ministry that requires a lot of public speaking, being exercised in the basics of good public speaking can only enhance your witness, presentation, and interaction, on any level, including at home. Now how could you not want that?

So without further ado let the journey begin…

What happens in the shower, stays in the shower

The first thing to realize is that if you're afraid of speaking before an audience, you're not alone! Some of the greatest public speakers of our day started out as extremely shy, private people whose main strength was that they refused to accept their speaking inadequacies. That being said, the outlook for your becoming a decent speaker, one who can actually feel comfortable before an audience, is rather bright if you'll follow a few simple procedures that can be helpful.

Let's begin your journey toward effective speaking by leaving out the "public" for the time being. There are several ways to go about this.

—First, go into your bathroom, take off your clothes, and step into a nice hot shower. With the water going full blast, open your mouth and say in a normal tone of voice, "Good evening, folks!"

Ridiculous? Not at all. One of your main problems as a speaker is that you don't speak enough. The more you speak out loud as though you are speaking in public (even if the "public" isn't present), the better you'll get.

(Editor: Of course, most of us live communally, so attracting a crowd during one of your shower monologs is possible if you get carried away. Heh. Something to be mindful of.)

—Next, while you're still standing in the shower, imagine there are some people before you and try a few "silly" sentences. You might say, "Good evening, folks. ... Unaccustomed as I am to speaking about world affairs while naked as a jaybird—I like it!" Complete nonsense, but very important as a first step in your effort to turn yourself into a good public speaker.

The main idea behind this exercise is twofold: (1) to get you into the habit of seeing yourself in the attitude and posture of a public speaker, and (2) to give you practice in hearing yourself speak out loud before an audience, even if the audience is imaginary.

Warning: Do not imagine you're addressing an audience of thousands. If you do, chances are you'll freeze! So limit that shower "audience" to just a few people, maybe a dozen or so old friends. After all, how many people can you crowd into one shower!?

—Now, try the exercise again in a slightly louder voice—but this time step outside the shower and watch yourself in the bathroom mirror as you speak. Keep loose and natural, and remember: What you say doesn't have to make a bit of sense. It doesn't matter, by the way, if you have to stop for a few moments as you wait for a thought to come to mind. Pauses are a key part of any good speech, so the sooner you get used to silent moments in your delivery, the better.

After you've spent a few days speaking out loud to your mirror, or under the cover of the shower water, you'll be ready to move out of your bathroom and into the world. But don't worry! You're not going to appear before a real audience yet. You're still in the "secret" stage of your speech making. At this point, though, I do want to put you in contact with a real person.

—Start with your family or a very close friend. You're not ready yet for practice in front of outsiders, no matter how much confidence your shower_speaking experience has given you. Effective public speaking is a step-by-step experience, with the first steps being as short and measured as possible. If you try to move ahead too quickly, you may fall flat on your face, lose whatever confidence you have gained, and be discouraged from continuing with the program at all.

It's best to start this phase of talking to real people slowly, just as you did with your isolated practice in the shower. You could start with your own family at the dinner table.

—To find something to talk about, look through the newspaper or a recent magazine and find a story that is full of human-interest details and doesn't try to be funny, preachy, or persuasive. The subject you choose should have enough length in the telling—perhaps a couple of minutes—so that there is an opening, a middle, and a strong finish. Now, tell the story in your own words. Your telling of the story should be continuous until its completion. Use this technique for a few weeks.

—Next, you should try to vary your "secret speaking" projects by choosing more difficult topics and then moving outside your family to try out your budding talents on friends and acquaintances you don't know quite as well. Before you get together with these outsiders, though, you may want to spend some extra time planning what you want to talk about. One approach might be to…

• Look over a recent magazine or newspaper article that you've read and pick out one news story with an interesting sequence of events
• Study it closely
• On a separate piece of paper, jot down what you consider to be the three or four most important points or facts in the article
• Finally, note your opinion of the event or editorial viewpoint you've read about. It's absolutely essential that an effective speaker have a definite position—a clear-cut set of convictions on the subject he's talking about. If you don't believe in what you're saying, you can't be a truly effective public speaker.
• It will also be helpful to go over, out loud, the points and brief opinions you've written down. Practice your "secret speeches" privately a second and third time out loud, just to be sure you can express yourself fairly smoothly. At this stage keep your talking short—only two or three minutes for your description of each article.

—When you've finished your third dry run, you're ready to get together with your friend. Sit down at the table with him, act natural, and talk about whatever you normally talk about for a few minutes. Then try telling your news story to him.

So how's that for a simple start. Not too bad, right? Don't forget too that there is plenty of help Upstairs available to you. Between the Lord, the keys, that host of helpers, and a little practice applying some of these techniques you should be well on your way to being a better—and perhaps eventually a great—public speaker.

Closing Thot

The reason that most people are afraid to speak publicly is that they're too self-centered. We each tend to constantly evaluate ourselves in light of what others think of us. And because our personal flaws are more exposed when we're speaking to 50 people than when speaking to one, we tend to become 50 times more worried about the image we're projecting.

The real secret of overcoming this self-centeredness is to focus on the other person, or on other people if you happen to be speaking to a group. Ask yourself, "How can I get my point across to the greatest number of people out there? What do I have to do to convince them that what I'm saying is really important to them?"

Focus on getting outside yourself when you face your listeners. Keep your eyes and your attention always outward, rather than inward. Get more interested and absorbed in your audience than in yourself. And soon you'll find yourself moving with the ebb and flow of emotions and reactions being emitted by your listeners. When you begin to sense this spiritual and emotional movement in your audience, you'll find yourself being catapulted into a new dimension of communication with other people. And you'll begin to think, perhaps when you're in the middle of a presentation, "This is exhilarating! This is fun! Why haven't I been doing this all my life?"

***

Dad: The greatest stars are those who don't know they're stars. The greatest men are the ones who didn't know they were great, at least they didn't feel great. What makes you REALLY great is the greatness GOD gives you—the SPIRIT, the inspiration.

You have to have the Holy Spirit which people recognize as something great. That's what the world today calls charisma, a kind of a mystical charm, a divine anointing, a supernatural fascination. That's what every really great musician, singer, speaker, performer, prophet or king must have, a divine anointing.

It's the power of God! He makes the difference between lifeless clay and the alive, pulsating energetic body of a human being! It's the breath of God, the anointing and power of God that makes the difference—and don't you forget it!

Without Him you're nothing! I don't care how much education you have, how much of an orator you are, if you haven't got the fire, it profits nothing! If you haven't got the fire I don't care how "good" a witness you are, how many verses you learn, how much you understand Bible Prophecy and can describe every Beast in the Book and hang a label on every horn! If you haven't got the fire, it's just cold dead icicles of facts and figures—no warmth, no heat! You'll never set anybody on fire without it! All you'll do is get them muddled up and turn them off.

The SPIRIT can turn it on, no matter what it is or who it is, and give it glory and glamour and life!—Beauty, joy and life and heat and everything.—You name it! It's the SPIRIT that makes the difference.

In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes. The Family International has no affiliation with the originators of this material nor is it endorsed or sponsored by the originators. This material is not to be sold.

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