Jim Rohn said, “Communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know.” I recently watched a televised interview with the cast of the popular reality show
Duck Dynasty. The interviewer commented that the cast members never watched the show to which one of them replied, “We don’t have to watch it. We live it!”
In a similar vein, a longtime family friend wrote about how he was given the opportunity to deliver a keynote due to a scheduling conflict on my father’s calendar. Several days before the speech, he asked my father if he would look over what he planned deliver to the group. My father told him there was no need to review. “Either the words are in your heart, or you are not ready.”
People want to hear what’s in our hearts because it’s the truest example of how we feel about something. And the only way to truly
feel something is to have experienced it. That’s why the most powerful speakers and mentors are the ones who have not only talked the talk, but have actually walked the walk, and therefore have the strength of conviction that comes with experience. If you are scared to give a speech, it may be because you don’t believe strongly enough in your topic.
Now this doesn’t mean that you forgo preparation just because you can emote about an experience; on the contrary, preparing
how you are going to deliver your beliefs is almost as important as the experience itself. It simply means that, if you lack experience, no amount of preparation will replace it. Without experiential conviction your talk is just theory, and theories are like opinions: everybody’s got one.
Content is king and experience breeds excellence; and a heart-felt belief is the most powerful voice in the universe.
Jim Rohn said, “Communication is 20% what you know and 80% how you feel about what you know.” I recently watched a televised interview with the cast of the popular reality show Duck Dynasty. The interviewer commented that the cast members never watched the show to which one of them replied, “We don’t have to watch it. We live it!”
In a similar vein, a longtime family friend wrote about how he was given the opportunity to deliver a keynote due to a scheduling conflict on my father’s calendar. Several days before the speech, he asked my father if he would look over what he planned deliver to the group. My father told him there was no need to review. “Either the words are in your heart, or you are not ready.”
People want to hear what’s in our hearts because it’s the truest example of how we feel about something. And the only way to truly feel something is to have experienced it. That’s why the most powerful speakers and mentors are the ones who have not only talked the talk, but have actually walked the walk, and therefore have the strength of conviction that comes with experience. If you are scared to give a speech, it may be because you don’t believe strongly enough in your topic.
Now this doesn’t mean that you forgo preparation just because you can emote about an experience; on the contrary, preparing how you are going to deliver your beliefs is almost as important as the experience itself. It simply means that, if you lack experience, no amount of preparation will replace it. Without experiential conviction your talk is just theory, and theories are like opinions: everybody’s got one.
Content is king and experience breeds excellence; and a heart-felt belief is the most powerful voice in the universe.
4 comments
Stewart
Hello to every , since I am in fact keen of reading this blog’s post to be updated on a regular basis.
It includes nice stuff.
traceyjones
Thanks John!
John Boyd
Great post, I agree.
Mark Armstrong
Truer words were never spoken: there’s no substitute for conviction. If your heart’s not in it, you’re lost.
Your heart is in everything you write, Tracey, which explains why your posts have such power.