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Let me let you in on a little secret about debates.

When the audience is undecided, and doesn't have the knowledge to be able to determine a debate winner, they subconsciously declare the person with the most poise, the most confidence, and the better speaking style to be the winner.

That right there is the power of being an effective public speaker: you can take a crowd of people who are not even entitled to an opinion on a subject and make them swear up and down that you just bested someone on it.

In my case, when I talk to people who have been following me for a long time, there are two places they will overwhelmingly have first heard me: (1) when I was fill-in host on the Peter Schiff Show, which all those years ago was a terrestrial radio show on a bunch of stations nationwide; or (2) they came across my speeches on YouTube.

I've been a public speaker for over 30 years, and I cannot begin to tell you the doors that skill opens for you: not just more speaking invitations and higher fees, but a larger audience, more clients, and opportunities you can't even imagine now. Not to mention, if you're one of the best communicators at your firm, your future there is probably more secure than if you aren't.

A speech I gave at the Mises Institute in 2003 turned out to be the origin of a book in 2005 -- a thought that would never have crossed my mind had an audience member not suggested it. The book went on to win a major prize, and I was even invited to address an organization whose leadership despised me. All because of one speech!

Not to mention, it's a skill no AI platform can displace: nobody is going to attend a lecture, or a rally speech, or a corporate presentation, delivered by ChatGPT.

But in the wrong hands, it's a disaster.

Flatter people the wrong way, or get them into a misplaced rage (like Orwell's Two Minutes Hate), and the results won't please anyone.

This is why you owe it to the causes you believe in to be able to communicate your ideas in ways that make people sit up and take notice.

I myself have watched people -- friends of mine even -- who have by far the better of the argument lose debates because their opponent was charming and articulate, while they themselves were stumbling over their words, or unable to find just the right formulations to put their opponent away. I'm sitting in the audience mumbling arguments for them under my breath.

In college I participated in a program in which we'd go from school to school doing mock debates before student audiences: this was 1992, so we had a Clinton, a Perot, and a Bush.

Yes, dear reader, I was George H.W. Bush.

And you know what people told me?

You are a much better George H.W. Bush than he himself is.

It's all the more impressive to be good at this because virtually everyone is terrified of public speaking. To excel at it is to impress at a very high level.

I used to think it couldn't be taught, that speaking skill was just something you were born with. Then I started listening to people who teach it and I had to admit: it can be done after all.

Jeremy Anderson, for example, has made a career out of speaking to schools, teachers, professional development events, and the like, and he actually knows how to teach what he does.

I've seen speaker training before and at least in my experience it's totally wooden: gesture like this, look at the audience like that, etc.

That kind of training is going to make you a nervous wreck as you try to convey your message while also monitoring your every move.

You want to be trained so that all those things just flow naturally.

You want to be the guy the audience is relieved to hear from, because they just sat through three people boring everyone to death by reading their speeches off a piece of paper. You have sat through that yourself, dear reader. You know how awful it is, and how happy you are when someone who's truly in command of the room finally takes the stage.

Why shouldn't the guy in command of the room be you?

Jeremy is offering a free series on how to put together a talk that will leave people spellbound, as will as how to speak with confidence and authority.

Our cause sure needs good speakers, and in your professional and private life you won't be sorry you're a good speaker, either.

On your deathbed you will not say, "I sure am sorry I learned how to be a good public speaker."

Enjoy:
 
Tom Woods






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Tom Woods · PO Box 701447 · Saint Cloud, FL 34770 · USA