The art of public speaking

Whether you are new to the art of public speaking, or have been doing this for years you should know that this is not easy. The art of public speaking is much more than just being good on stage. Pay particular attention to where you are on your journey.

“I see it all perfectly; there are two possible situations — one can either do this or that. My honest opinion and my friendly advice are this: do it or do not do it — you will regret both.”

The words belong to notoriously angsty Danish philosopher Søren Kierkegaard, who had a very tough time getting to terms with existing in the first place. Being him must have been really tough. Although he wasn't a public speaker (one of his pseudonyms was Victor Eremita - The victorious hermit), his words have something to tell us about the art of public speaking.

But what does it have to do with speakers?

Well, we need to build careers, and that means doing. Presumably, then we're going to regret whatever we do. I for one, know that feeling. There are so many things you could choose to do at any point in time. Maybe social media, websites, cold-calling, free gigs or community building is what you consider most important right now.

But all of those risk being a complete waste of time, if you do them at the wrong time in your career. And that is the problem with the boilerplate systems for speaker career building that are plentiful online.

They do not take into account where you are in your career. What works for someone who is doing 60 speaking engagements per year, may not work for someone new.

We all love the art of public speaking

Probably, what happened here is that someone tried something to build their career, and realized that it worked well for them. Then that person decided, that this knowledge would be worth a lot of money to other people who share the dream of becoming a speaker. They are right, of course. But the outcome is dubious.

And they are wrong at the same time for the simple reasons that different speakers are rarely in exactly similar situations. Being aware of this helps you with the art of public speaking.

Other people, may not experience the same effect. Not even medicine works on everyone, and that is - pardon my honesty - a lot better researched than most speaker-success boilerplate systems.

The boilerplate systems are not scams; they're systems sold without taking the starting point seriously. I don't think it is out of a lack of will, but mostly because no one knows. No one has had that central repository of data before, to get these insights from the international speakers.

Now Speakers loft is getting there. It's going to be a long journey, but very much also worth it. We can't free you from the angst that comes with human condition (for some) - but we can find the right path to grow your speaking career, and that matters too.