Why Speak?
Public Speaking Advantages After 1 Minute, 1 Month, and 1 Year.
Tell me sufficiently why a thing should be done, and I will move heaven and earth to do it! Check out the public speaking advantages: even just one minute after the speech is over, public speaking opportunities are investments with higher returns than Donald Trump's real estate and, if you read this site, less risk than driving down the street.
One Minute
The Risk? At the end of your speech, someone will be waking up from a good nap.
The Benefits?
Service. One minute after the speech is over, people are thinking about what you said. You made their lives better.
Personal Analysis: Every speaking opportunity is also an opportunity to evaluate yourself, to see where you are in life. As organizations and individuals come to understand this aspect of public speaking, they become motivated less by doing and more by living. Check out this Silicon Valley Junto Pre-Meeting Exercise (.pdf):
The speechmaker is given no more than three minutes and is instructed to imagine that, as soon as the talk concludes, he or she dies. My friend said that the speeches were uniformly riveting, but, more notably, they were surprising. The men and women charged with the honor of giving these speeches clearly thought hard about what was most essential for them to say, and often it wasn't at all what you might expect from a senator, a world-renowned physicist, or a CFO. - Eugene O'Kelly
Overcoming Challenge: One minute after the speech, the research, preparation, and the speech itself becomes a memory. The experience and challenge becomes part of your being.
Impact: Look in the eyes of your audience. There, you see the impact of your words.
Applause: 'Nough said.
One Month
The Risk? Someone won't remember your speech.
The Benefits?
Career: Your [employer] [customers] [other person] began to see how your speech improved the business or how the knowledge you gained improved you.
Education: The research for your speech? It's had time to sink in now, and you have more knowledge and broader understanding.
Routine: You've used people's responses to become more efficient/effective at the subject of your speech (sales, marketing, organizing, calibrating, understanding, working, etc). Your day-to-day routines have improved.
Personal Effect: Even now that the initial impact has past, people are actually using the things you talked about, because you talked about them.
One Year
The Risk? None.
The Benefits?
Interpersonal: You know more people, be better connected in important circles.
Personal: You better understand others points of view.
Entrepreneurial: Speaking opened paths to further your career or business.
Realization: everyone you gave the speech to has realized how important it was to them, and it's made their lives better!
Success takes speech. Check out the rest of the site to be sure your 'speaking investment' pays off.
