 Hey guys, welcome to today's podcast. Thanks again for the precious gifts of your time and attention. Today I want to speak especially to all of you out there who think of yourself as a communicator, whether it be public speaking or online content creation, whether that's to tens or tens of thousands of people, it doesn't matter, this episode is for you. The clip you're going to hear is from my communication masterclass, an event I did live for 15 years around the world and is now an online video course. I'm going to be speaking to you here about the importance of remembering your beginnings, why you got into what you are into. I think when you lose connection with why you want to communicate to us, with why you want to have a voice to us, then our voice gets lost and merges into everyone else's voice and we lose our distinctiveness because your distinctiveness is attached and rooted in your original reason for wanting to have a voice to us. Hope you enjoyed the episode today. Don't forget to share with me when you're listening. Send me a comment at Polskam in UK. Don't forget to subscribe if you don't already. Recommend to someone if you're appreciating this podcast. Leave a review. Love to hear from you. Enjoy. Thank you. So my beginnings were frustration at how badly simple things were said, both in the education system and in talks that I would listen to by people on TV or people in church context or the public speaker, the preacher, whatever it was. And I thought, man, this could have been said so much shorter and so much simpler. Not realizing those frustrations I had were the beginnings of the awakening in me that I was supposed to do something about it. I've always believed that one of the ways to find your passion in life is to follow your frustrations. Whatever makes you angry, whatever makes you upset, whatever makes you frustrated, whatever makes you cry, whatever makes you happy, sad, angry, outraged, whatever does that in a consistent way is a clue to why you're on the planet. I didn't know that then, but looking back is why beginnings are important to track. Looking back, they were the early beginnings, the early signs, which maybe all you have is that. And I'm telling you, it was as basic as that because some of you an experience in what I'm saying, but you don't think it's anything to do with communication. And it is. It's everything to do with you are supposed to do better than them. There's frustration you have is because we want you to do this in a way that doesn't frustrate us when we listen to you. So that was my beginnings. I look back now on my awakenings to what I do now. I still now get angry, frustrated. I still do all the time about how badly some things are said. I'll never lose that. And I don't want to ever lose that because I think it's part of the fuel for me to keep lifting my game and not becoming one of those people that complicates something that really could be quite simply said. If you are someone who is in any form of communication, then this online course is for you. This episode is a part of Paul's communication masterclass, which is now an online course with over seven hours of material. And until January 1st, 2021, we are offering our podcast listeners an exclusive 40% off this communication masterclass course. So if you are interested in finding out more, go to PaulScanlan.com forward slash podcast offer. And hey, whilst you're listening, why not take a screenshot and share with Paul on social media at PaulScanlan UK. We always love to hear from you and thank you again for listening. My communication began primarily in the church world. I think where you began your first public speaking, whoever first gave you a microphone, whoever first gave you a platform, whatever you call it, whoever first gave you attention matters, the context of that. For some of you, it may have been a career, it may have been a business, a job, a role, a position, a title that demanded that you speak to a group of people. But for me, it was just talking to people in a church context, sitting around in a group in a chair similar to this, I suppose. That's why maybe this chair brought back memories for me of sitting down, chatting to people in a room. That was the beginnings of my public speaking. And then eventually I began to speak to entire congregations. And then I was the main speaker and then I was the leader. And I was the one that was deciding what to speak about and how to communicate it and what I wanted to come because of what I talked about. And then it became a massive part of my leadership, was communication. I think I'm grateful looking back for starting off in the church world. I tell you why I'm grateful and it had its challenges too, which I'll mention. But I'm grateful because I began to communicate because I genuinely wanted to help people. I genuinely had a love for people. I wanted to say something that helped people figure things out, that helped people get wisdom for life, that helped people get answers to things that perhaps they were struggling to think through and get answers to. I wanted to help people. And I think because I began communicating not for pay, not for a salary, not for a job. I wasn't obligated. I didn't have to do it. I just loved helping people. And I'm glad for that because I still do what I do now for the same reason. Now it's my profession. Now it's my living. Now it's what I primarily do all over the world and have done for decades. But I still fundamentally do it for the same reason. And if I ever get frustrated, fed up, tired, exhausted, and I do with what I do, I remind myself that I don't do this for anything other than the service of people, because I love people. So the reason you do what you do in terms of communication, it matters for you to trace that back. And it matters for you to bottom that out, because whatever the reason is you communicate to us, whatever, whatever you are speaking to us matters for you to stay rooted in. It matters for you not to journey far from that. It matters for you not to swap that out for something else. It matters that you stay rooted in. And again, I want to say the best communicators in the world are that because I think they love people. I think they are servants of us and their communication is geared towards serving us. And so they don't try to be clever or impressive or slick. I think we're all tired, aren't we, of slick presentations, whether it be a politician or a business person or someone selling us something or these online marketing companies that are giving slick presentations to sellers, the next great health drink or the next lotion or potion or whatever it is. These slick presentations, I think we're all tired of that. And I think what we want is people to be themselves and to trust us about that. And I'm going to come to that in a moment when we're getting to our first session about how it matters where we speak to people from inside us. Well, thank you again for taking the time to listen to this podcast. We really appreciate you. And so why not let us know what you think of it by sharing a review or letting one of your friends know about it. And don't forget to take advantage of the 40% offer which expires January 1st, 2021. Go to PaulScanlan.com forward slash podcast offer or click the link in the show notes. Thank you again and have a great day.