How Can Individuals Overcome Speech Impediments? Presentation Review 1: Vicky Davison

Do you struggle with fear, doubt, and worry in your public speaking? Do you find it difficult to connect with your audience and deliver presentations that leave a lasting, positive, unforgettable impact? If yes, then let's dive in the world of public speaking and presentation skills with your host, Eric Edmeads. Welcome to the Unforgettable Podcast with guest host David Wood.

Today we've got a slightly different type of episode and one that we'll be doing many of, and that is a presentation review or presentation breakdown. What is going to happen is we're going to introduce you to a woman who gave a talk in front of live audience, and then you're going to actually get to watch her video, and then we're going to come back and talk a little bit about what we've observed and learned. So, David, today we're talking about Vicky Davison.

To give context, when she arrived in Estonia, she was terrified. She was frozen. I mean, we're talking about not even holding the mic. She had her back to the audience. This is how crazy this journey is, right?

Yeah, it was really tough. Everybody has a different level of comfort with speaking, ranging from totally excited about it down to phobic. And she was at the very lowest level. And it's really challenging when somebody has that because it's not something they created, usually in a moment. It's something that has been conditioned into them for a very, very long time.

Yeah, sure. And I know we keep going back to the feedback, and the role that feedback played in this transition was so important. Right?

Yeah. You know, what I saw with her is this thing that I talk a lot about with this, and that is that her fear was actually amplified by her desire. If she had no desire to communicate, she wouldn't even be afraid. It's like if you're not thinking of jumping out of the plane, you're not afraid of jumping out of the plane. And she really had that. So it's a funny little dichotomy that the more afraid someone is, the bigger breakthrough they're about to have. And, boy, she did that.

Yeah. So you should be noticing inside yourself what that fear is, right?

Yeah, absolutely. So in this presentation, I don't want to give too much away, but she's talking a little bit about the transformation that she, and frankly, her family went through around speech impediments. So you can imagine that not only was she afraid of public speaking, but she was also dealing with overcoming speech impediments. So it's a pretty good talk. Let's take a look At Vicki now.

Hi. What's your name? Hey, Manuel. What's your name? Hey, Neelima. What's your name? Hi, David. My name's Vicki. But when I was growing up, I always thought it was. That's what my father called me. Because he had a speech impediment. He had a stammer so he couldn't say the words properly. That was his speech impediment. I had a lisp. A lisp. Rewind to my teenage years. When I was at school, I would wake up, pull the blanket from over my head to see how cold it was. This was Scotland. We didn't have central heating. Then I would reach out and I would get my school uniform and pull it into bed, where I would get my school uniform on. And then I would get out of bed. As I said, we didn't have central heating. It was cold. I would then go downstairs. Third and fifth steps always creaked into the kitchen where my dad was. And I would say, hi, dad. And he would say. And he was often by the kettle. And he would say. And I would say, yes, please, coffee. And then he would point at the window. My cat was at the window, wanting to be in. I used to feed the cat. I would let the cat in. Cat was called Cassius. So I would let the cat in. Come on, Cassius. In you come. Come on, Cassius. I'll give you some whiskers for breakfast. This was our morning breakfast. Anyway, I would go to school, dad would go to work. Dad was an accountant. I don't know whether he was an accountant because the numbers didn't judge him or because it began with a vowel and not a consonant. But that wasn't his dream. Do you want to know what his dream was, really? He wanted. He really, really wanted to be a. He wanted to be. He wanted to be a pilot. He wanted to be in the Air Force. Can you imagine? You're in a plane, you look back, there's fire or something. It's like, pick up the radio. Forget it. His second choice was to be a. To be a. His second choice was to be a teacher. Can you imagine? Anyway, this didn't work. So he became an accountant. As I've said, numbers don't judge. Then this went on. He was my age, he was still an accountant. He still lived in the same house with the creaky steps. And somebody said. Somebody started a singing group in the village. So he joined. And we all thought, singing, dad, okay. But he loved it. And he could sing. And one day, the choir, the singing Leader said to him, you can sing, but you can't speak why. And my dad was quite clever. He was quite intelligent. He thought about this a lot. And he finally realized it was to do with the breathing. In fact, I think he started singing when he answered questions. And that was his breakthrough, when he realized the breathing was the key to this. So once he realized when you breathe in, you relax. When you breathe out, noise comes out. We do it all the time. We just don't think about it. And suddenly, my father realized he could speak, he could have a conversation, he could answer. So fast forward, I went to visit him. I came down in the morning, got up, threw the quilt back. We had a quilt. Now we had central heating. I could get dressed outside of bed. Came down the stairs, still creaked into the kitchen and saw my father. Hi, dad. Hi, Vicki. How are you? I'm fine, thank you. Would you like some coffee? Yes, please. And I said, dad, what did you just say? He said, good morning, Vicki. That was the first time he said my name in full. First time I heard him say my true name. I gave him the biggest hug of my life. And that's why I'm here, because I understand the power of speaking and what it means to you, to me, to all of us. So thank you all for everything. Thank you. Thank you, Eric. Thank you, everybody.

Vicki, I am so deeply proud of you. I wish people who weren't here this week could have seen where you started. You were beautiful. When you entered this event, you were radiant. And I remember that first time seeing you, you were frozen. You were locked in. And seeing your physicality, your movement, your gestures, I am just so proud.

Hi, Vicki. There were a lot of things I really enjoyed about this presentation. But the one thing was how at the very end, you took us into that emotion. And even I started to well up. So I really, really appreciate that. Well done in every way. I said it to you this morning. What did you do? Who are you? And where exactly is Vicky? It was so neat to see you come out and play with us. It really, really was. And I've seen a couple of iterations of this, and you've made it better and better each time. You're playing with the physicality, you're playing with the timing. You're really doing a great job. It was so much fun. And I love the way you've tied it into a poignant message. Exactly that. The power of communication. And one of the ways is that one of the things I feel about it is that many people who maybe don't have a speech impediment, Also have a hard time speaking. And so this story kind of is resin, is. It's possible to resonate to it for everybody. So I think it's a great, great story. Great, well told, great message. Thank you very much. Congratulations.

Thank you.

Wow. That was incredible.

Goosebumps.

Yeah, I remember. I mean, it brought it right back. I remember watching it happening live. No less emotional. Now, that's a big moment. Yeah.

And her physicality, the body, the way she was able. Because remember the journey she came through. But to use her body in that way was remarkable to watch.

Yeah. And, you know, the fearlessness that she demonstrated. I mean, the difficulty that she had speaking and that her father had speaking, and really utilizing that in the talk to actually, like, demonstrate the stutter. And the way she did it, it was like. It made me feel afraid. It made me feel how difficult that must feel. She really executed that well. Yeah.

And feeling her emotion afterwards, it's almost like, you know, for all these years, she's suddenly been able to tell a story that's been inside of her and releasing it so other people can come along. It was remarkable.

Yeah. So this is a really good example of somebody who, five days earlier, had been really, truly terrified of coming anywhere near a stage or even holding him. I remember even when I first handed the microphone to her, she pulled her hands back. She was just not. Not in. And I want to remind you that a very important thing to remember about that is the more nervous someone often feels, the stronger their passion or desire is. And so that's a clue. There's a clue there that there's a voice that wants to be heard. And then in this talk, what we really saw is somebody who was absolutely willing to do what it took to get the message across. The physicality, the walking around the stage, the play, acting it out. Outstanding. It's so important to remember with Vicki that she had a passion to get this message out, but she had a tremendous amount of fear stopping her. I still remember on the very first day trying to hand her a microphone and have her pull her hands back. And so it's really wonderful to see her feeling fully expressed and getting her message out. And so I want to remind you, what we talked about in the last episode is that everyone has Rembrandts in the attic. You have life experiences, you have wisdom, you have perspective that is infinitely valuable, that's priceless to the right people. So please make sure to remember to let your stories out, share them with the world.

Any last thoughts just on how people hear when someone comes that far. The audience was all in with her and because of who she is and how she is. So that authenticity piece just showed up again, right?

Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you very much for tuning in for that. And Vicky, well done. It was real honor to see your talk again.

So that's it for today's episode of Unforgettable. Hello, never die to or wherever you listen and subscribe to the show. One lucky listener every single week who posts a review on itunes will win a chance in the grand prize drawing to win a private $25,000 VIP day with Eric Edmeads himself. Be sure to head on over to Unforgettable show and pick up a free copy of Eric's gift and join us on the next episode.

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