Henry Ford once said the following: “Anyone who stops learning is old, whether at twenty or eighty. Anyone who keeps learning stays young”. Take a second to think about what that really means to you. For myself, I feel like when it comes to your passion, you can never stop learning. If you think that you’ve gotten to a point where you know it all, then you cut your true potential short. In reference to Public Speaking, there is always someone you can learn from. Having a Public Speaking Coach is a great way to start. They can guide you from the beginning to the end. They can be there for every success and every mistake. But that’s only one way of learning. One of the top ways of learning is to study other speakers. You can learn from all sorts of speakers. I’m talking those who have been in the game for decades, as well as speakers who may not have as much experience as you. Don’t discount any of it, because you should embrace learning from them all. Your competition will be constantly learning and it will always be a competitive market.

Now, you may be thinking: How can I learn from a speaker who has less experience than me? My immediate reply to that question is: How could you not? It’s easy to have a lot of experience in your craft and think that you are better than those who are less experienced. While that’s somewhat of a valid point, it doesn’t mean that the less experienced can’t teach you a thing or two, including learning from their mistakes or shortcomings, because speakers of all experience levels tend to make the same type of mistakes from time to time. So how do they deal with adversity on their fairly new journey? Perhaps, they are having a hard time making it through their talk without stumbling over information. Are they apologizing a lot? If so, how is the audience reacting? Does it feel like they are giving out information too fast? If so, how does it feel as a viewer taking it all in? You see, you can get real specific and find many things that a new speaker can teach you, ranging from delivery to something as apparent as how they make use of the stage. There is always something you can be making note of. So don’t be oblivious to learning due to a fellow speaker’s lack of experience.

Studying highly successful speakers, whether you look up to them or not, should be a no-brainer. These can be speakers that inspire you in multiple ways or it could be a speaker that does something particularly special that really stuck out to you. It could range from charisma that wins over the crowd every time to storytelling that’s so detailed, you feel like you witnessed it. Someone I admire is Gary V. Now. His speaking style isn’t something I would want to emulate, but I have a lot of respect for his speaking style. I admire the fact that he always speaks his mind and people constantly resonate with it. He simply keeps it real and remains authentic, no matter if he is front of board members, at a conference or speaking to a small group of people while on the go. His delivery style is one of a kind and it’s constantly worked.  If you see a speaker display a trait that you really admire, study them. But don’t just make note of the final outcome. Do your homework and see if you can figure out how they are able to do whatever it is that you admire about them. If you want to be a great speaker in your own right, it’s ok to learn how others got to that point on their own journeys.

Ultimately, you want to master a particular arena or topic. It’s similar to how Dr. Fauci has become the go to medical expert on everything COVID-19. It also can be similar to how your local tailor has been in business for over 40 years and he or she has mastered tailoring every type of body size or fabric. You can literally become a go-to thought leader in any field if you constantly learn and work hard at it. You’ll have influences and people that you look up to, but you want to be remembered for things that you did specifically well. So it goes without saying that just because you may study other speakers, that doesn’t give you the freedom to copy them. You don’t have the right to copy their content. You don’t have the right to use their stories. You want to be your own person, not a bad copy of someone else. Just like with plagiarizing, you may get away with it for a while, but eventually it will catch up to you. And when it does, you reputation is forever tainted. Even worse, it may be totally ruined. So think things through. The goal isn’t to take a shortcut to greatness. The goal is to figure how other speakers became great, so that you can ultimately craft your own distinct path on your speaking journey.

Make your next presentation, your best presentation!

Sincerely,

Julian A. Leonard
(Founder of The JLeonard Group LLC)

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