2-Minute Tip: Scientist-Philosopher-Author
To grow as a speaker, develop your path along 3 aspects. This is a framework you can use immediately to become more effective quickly. You have to be a scientist, a philosopher, and an author.
Be a scientist and conduct experiments in your preparation and on stage. Figure out what works for you. What is the right level of energy? What gestures feel most natural? How do you relate most effectively with slides? You have to experiment to uncover what is most natural and effective for you on stage.
Be a philosopher and ask why. "Why?" is the most powerful question you can ask as you build a talk. Why are you speaking? Why you in particular? Why should your audience care? Why bring that up? If you can't answer those and similar questions well, then you have more work to do.
Finally, be an author, and chart the course of your life. We tell stories in our talks because it helps us connect with our audience. It can be bigger than that, though. You need to develop the story of your own life. Where have you been? How did you get where you are today? Where do you go from here. Craft that story to become a more effective speaker.
Post Tip Discussion: Meet Tim Pahuta
One of the great things about speaking is that it's a skill that you can apply to a wide array of fields. It's a skill you can develop early in life or later in life. Skills and experiences from different areas of life can inform your public speaking, as well.
That's one of the things that comes clear in this conversation with retired pro athlete Tim Pahuta.
I especially like Tim's approach to defining the direction his life.
Bio
Tim Pahuta spent 7 years as a professional baseball player before transitioning into a career in sales. As Tim navigated this journey of self-discovery. What h ultimately realized is that it’s not about figuring out who he is; it’s about creating who he wants to be.
Then he found Life Mapping.
Life Mapping and the coaching program that accompanies the map are tools used to create a new story- about the person he's becoming, the life he wants to live, the challenges he faces and reasons why it is important to overcome them.
Tim's have been creating this story using his Life Map for over a year now and helping other people use these same tools to develop their own stories for the past six months.
He makes his living as a speaker, author and coach- focusing much of his efforts on training other coaches to use Life Mapping within their own practices.
The Inspire Café
I had the honor of appearing on Kathy De La Torre's The Inspire Café podcast. She started the podcast to understand what makes a person resilient. She explains her motivation like this:
I am fascinated with the stories of human resiliency…. What makes these people tick? What became their turnaround, ah-hah moment or the trigger that caused them to pivot, shift their thinking and turn away from their dark moment and face the light? The idea of people actually putting into practice of making lemonade out of their lemons, turning a negative into a positive, is remarkable.
Regular listeners know that I am a stroke survivor.
Last week, I talked with Kathy in detail about my stroke, stroke in general, and why I started the Strokecast podcast. It's the latest version of my origin story.
I'm truly humbled to be on Kathy's show, especially when I look at the other folks she's interviewed.
Links
Tim Pahuta website | |
Life Mapping | |
Tim on LinkedIn | |
Tim's Baseball stats | http://www.milb.com/player/index.jsp?sid=milb&player_id=446110#/career/R/hitting/2012/ALL |
Tim on Facebook | |
Tim on Twitter | |
Tim on Instagram | |
Benai Brown on The Power of Vulnerability | |
Bill on The Inspire Café |
Call to Action
- What do you think of Tim's story? Let us know in he comments below.
- Check out Tim's Life Mapping tool by visiting his site. You can find that link above.
- Be sure to subscribe for free to 2-Minute Talk Tips so you never miss an episode.
- And of course, as always…don't get best…get better.