Public Speaking Can Become Your Breakthrough

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 Edmies. Welcome to the Unforgettable podcast.

Years ago, I started writing a book on public speaking, and I did it with some resistance because I really felt like, how do you learn public speaking from a book? You know, like it needs to be sort of more of an experiential type of thing. But then, you know, as I started writing it, I realized, no, there are some strategic and, you know, there are some key points that really can be taught that way. And then ultimately somebody should find somewhere to practice those things and get feedback about them. So I thought, okay, I'm going to write this book. And at first I wanted to call the book the Stage Effect because that's what inspired me to write the book is this idea that when you stand in front of an audience, you create this magnetic attraction. The truth is, I can tell you right now, four out of five businesses will fail before they reach five years. I'm willing to bet that 80% of the one out of five that made it, the leader is a speaker. They might not be a professional speaker, but they speak well inside their business. I think that is the biggest differentiator. So the Stage Effect creates this huge value proposition. So I thought that's going to be the name of the book. But then I realized that if somebody saw that title on the book, they, I don't know what that means. They need to think about it. And it was like, it didn't. I would, if I explained it, people would buy the book all day long. But if they didn't get to hear the explanation, the book wasn't self evident. The title wasn't self evident. And then one day I was on stage talking about the power of public speaking, what have you. And somebody asked me why I think it's so important to become a speaker. And I said, well, because you're only ever one talk away from the next big breakthrough of your life. And they said, what? And I realized I'd said something that was important. You know, every night again on stage you say something go, we better, we better capture that. And well, we captured it. And it was this. And that is the idea that at any given point in time, you are one well constructed, one well delivered talk away from untold benefits. We don't, we haven't. It's even hard to predict. I often refer to, you know, Simon Sinek doing one TEDx talk and it just exploding his career and resulting in New York Times best selling books and so on. Brene Brown went through the same thing. She even describes the whole process in her YouTube, in her YouTube video or sorry, not YouTube, Netflix special, to be clear. And by the way, the entire reason she has a Netflix special is because of one talk she gave. So now I'm like, that's it. That's the title of book we're gonna. It's one talk away. And then one day I was getting ready to do an event in Germany and it was gonna be the largest at that stage, the largest audience, live audience, people, audience that I'd ever faced. And I was, I was in the shower where all great ideas come, right? And I was in the shower and I suddenly thought the book should be called Unforgettable. It should be called Unforgettable because that's the goal, that's the emotional state, that's the purpose. The purpose is to deliver unforgettable content and maybe even to be unforgettable yourself. And the minute I felt it, I was in a warm shower. I got goosebumps all over my body. My body's telling me there's something here to pay attention to. Then I went off to the event and I get to this event, it's a massive stadium, 10,000 people. So I walk in and there's the VIP area that we get to go to as speakers and stuff. And I walk in there and there's this guy walks up to me, he's got the black VIP wristband. And he walks up and he goes, Eric Edmeads. He goes, I haven't seen you for years. I didn't even know you were speaking at this event. Now I'm even more excited that I'm here. And it was really sweet. Like, you know, I haven't done a lot of stuff in Germany, so it's. Yeah, I'm used to that in other countries. It was kind of nice. And then he goes, yeah, last time I saw you speak was five years ago in London. And he says, I'll never forget you told this story. And he starts telling me my story that he heard five years ago. And at the end he goes, it was unforgettable. And again, goosebumps over my body. And I was like, that's what it's all about. And so I arrived at that title. The book was largely written at that stage, but it truly was. It truly is what the whole thing is about. And so the book describes what being an unforgettable presenter is about. It talks about how to structure your content so that it is unforgettable. It talks about the type of energy and presence that you want to establish on the stage so that you yourself are unforgettable. And. And I think for many people, it's going to be a game changer. It's really going to help them differentiate themselves. Whether they're in business, for example, and want to be one of the one out of five that makes it, or they want to go raise money from venture capitalist. The ability to tell a story changes everything. Or maybe it's because they have a big social cause, you know, they want to reduce the use of plastic or they want to afford their climate change agenda or whatever it is that they're focused on. Their ability to speak eloquently is going to have every. In fact, it might be the one thing that could save the damn planet is that people can speak properly. And then even on the other side, speaking of saving the planet, it strikes me these days that many of the people that are in political power aren't necessarily the right ones, sometimes, in some places, occasionally. And that there are. You know, if we take a look at the way the US Was supposed to be governed, it was supposed to be government for the people, by the people. And the only reason the people aren't doing that is because nobody taught them how to put their ideas out there in an eloquent way. And so I think that by helping people become really great speakers, by helping them deliver unforgettable material, they're gonna. Something like what Barack Obama did. He delivered one talk. One talk as a basic stage. What was he, a congressman? I think, Senator, I can't even remember now, but one talk that he delivered. And Michelle Obama references this in her book. She says they sat having dinner in the White House. Now, I listen. I did not come for money. And I very often find myself in a really nice hotel or find myself in business class in the airplane. And I sometimes have this feeling in my body. It's like they're going to catch me. I feel like I don't totally belong. Well, you got to know Michelle and Barack must have had that feeling in the White House like, oh, they're going to catch us. But they. And she talks about that, and she says that they often refer back, the two of them sitting, having dinner, to that one talk that he gave. And after that talk, suddenly people started asking about national policy, and that put him on the national stage, and that led to the White House. And I think there are a few people out there that really should be having their voices heard and having the right impact.

So that's it for today's episode of Unforgettable. Head on itunes 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 episod.