If we are Facebook friends, you may have seen me share last week that after her first Shakespeare in the Park experience, my daughter has become a HUGE fan of the Bard. Daily she asks to watch Shakespearean movies on TV, she prays for me to take her to see more Shakespeare and has even started rubbing her hands and saying, “Out, spot, out!” – her rendition of Lady Macbeth’s famous monologue.
When I asked her, “Sweetie, what do you like about Shakespeare?” she responded, “Makes me think.”
Rewind a few months back. My daughter watched me set-up a makeshift filming area in my office and it sparked one of her favorite games. She takes the tall lamp by my bed, shines it against a wall, stands in the shadow cast by the light and holds a microphone she makes out of Play-doh and pretends she is giving a speech.
Since then – my daughter breaks out into “play speech” many places we go – including in my favorite café, as pictured above.
While at 2-years old my daughter doesn’t have a lot of words to make an improvised speech, she uses a couple of the words she does possess to great effect. “Be happy,” she says – over and over again. “Be happy.”
And really, isn’t that the crux of it all? We want to step into the spotlight to speak because we want to make people think. And we want to make people happy.
Unfortunately, the further away we move from our toddler years the more complicated we make the art and practice of speaking. And…the further away we unnecessarily get from our ‘why.’
Whenever clients, readers, colleagues or friends tell me they feel like their speaking (or the business of it) has become hard, I always ask, “Why do you want to be speaking?” Or, “What’s the legacy you want to leave with your speaking?”
Irrespective of whether the person’s answer is “to make people think and be happy,” or something complementary yet distinct, the difficulty of it begins to melt away.
So I’ve got a quick ask of YOU. Would you please leave, as a comment on the blog, your big ‘why’ for speaking?!
I want to know. And I have a hunch that when you rearticulate it, whatever resistance or struggle you are experiencing might start to soften.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________
Are you looking to bring your business more meaningfully (and profitably) online?
Are you in search of a close-knit community of online entrepreneurs (led by a leader who knows how to facilitate community and provide tech know-how)?
If you answered YES to either of these questions, I encourage you to sign-up for my friend and mentor Nathalie Lussier’s upcoming webinar.
Nathalie was instrumental in me developing and launching Your Spotlight Talk and doubling my business revenue in 2015. And in her upcoming webinar, she will share:
- How to stop wasting time on the stuff that doesn’t produce results, with a simple process for finding your business’ next best learning and implementation “edge”
- The easiest way to overcome the “working all the time but not earning enough” trap we all face, so you can finally afford to hire smart people to help you grow your business
- What to do when you’re procrastinating or you find yourself troubleshooting tech stuff that’s outside your comfort zone, so you can get back into profitable mode
Nathalie runs a variety of online training programs and communities, including Heartquarters Insider. I am an affiliate of Nathalie’s programs because of the profoundly positive impact they’ve had on me and many of my clients. This means that if you sign-up for any of Nathalie’s free training through one of my links and ultimately enroll in a paid offering that I will receive a commission.
Again, here’s the link for Nathalie’s webinar coming up on May 11.
