Can you guess what the number one human fear
is? The dark? No, that’s #12. Dying? No, that’s #7. Heights? No,
that’s #2. The number one fear is... public speaking!!
Of course, trying to
find the source of this survey is difficult and it’s questionable as to how
scientific it was when taken (for example, my greatest fear is
running out of peanut M&M’s, but I digress...), so we
need to take it with a grain of salt.
Yet, regardless of whether or not
public speaking is the #1 fear, I think we can all agree it IS pretty high on the list.
Even when someone agrees to speak publicly about something there is a
natural fear going into it, and a question about how effective one will
be when they speak. And this gets to what I want to talk to you
about...
Public speaking at
your events! Too
many times I have seen ministries recruit volunteer speakers to share
their story, to talk about their involvement in the cause, to make an
ask, or even to MC the event, only to have it be a very stressful
experience where they are only half as effective as they could have been
with a little prep work.
Because of that, my next few blog posts are
going to be dedicated to helping you and your volunteer speakers to be
the best you can be when on the stage.
First off, we have to address this fear. Hear me...having
fear is OKAY so embrace it! Ian Tyson, a stand-up comedian,
said “The
body’s reaction to fear and excitement is the same...so it becomes a
mental decision: am I afraid or am I excited?” Address your fear
directly and early on and decide how you’re going to channel it.
Second, practice your speech, then
practice some more, and of course, practice. Frankly, if I asked people
how important practice was, 100% would say VERY important. YET, we
don’t do it nearly enough (if at all!). I like Scott Berkun’s take on why he
practices his speeches. In his book Confessions of a
Public Speaker, he says “I don’t practice to make perfect, and I don’t memorize...my
intent is simply to know my material so well that I’m very comfortable
with it. Confidence, not perfection, is the goal.” (Side note: this is
a great book you need to read!)
And that leads into the third point we need
to discuss, which is WHAT is it that your practicing?? To have
confidence in a message that is confusing and convoluted is not good!
But, you’ll have to wait until next time to learn about "shaping the
message.”
(BTW, for July, MIF is presenting a free workshop on Fundraising
Banquets where we’ll be talking about speaker effectiveness, so check that out to
expand on what I’m sharing here.)
I just returned from a Joni & Friends Arizona (J&F AZ) banquet and here’s the exciting announcement I made…
Hello! My name is Jonathan Roe and I work for the Mission Increase Foundation. Our foundation is located in six cities across the country and we’re connected with over 1,000 ministries.
We teach, train, and coach ministries in biblical development; and we also look for Christ-centered ministries to bless with grant money...
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Consider the nonprofit newsletter. All nonprofits, whether big or small, professional or amateur, local or international, competent or incompetent, must burst at the seams with news, because they all share newsletters with the world. Unfortunately, most of these organizations get it terribly wrong.My gripe? The incessant, compulsive, unwavering focus on the organization! “We did this, we did that, we will do this other thing”, and on and on. Memo to nonprofits: we don’t care about you...
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Tired of one sided relationships? You know those where you seem to give and give and the other individual seems to take and take. I don’t know about you but these really drain me!
The other day when I took my little girl to the park behind our house, I got into a conversation about this with another parent who had brought his daughter to play as well. He told me about a ten year relationship that he had with a friend in which he had grown so weary of. He said his friend always needed to...
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Last week, I wrote about coaching your champions to listen first to God's leading for your shared cause.
Next step? Listen to them to learn how they were directed. That got me to thinking about what scripture might tells us about listening. I did a word search for 'listen' on www.biblegateway.com. After scanning 413 results for about 37 minutes, here are just a few scriptural take-aways:- The verbs listen and hear often go hand in hand. David says, O Lord, hear my prayer, listen to my...
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