 I started the communication masterclass some years ago because I felt concerned that there was nothing available for communicators, especially emerging communicators, the next generation of communicators, not only in the church world but generally, generically. I was concerned that communicators in all walks of life, politicians and people in the corporate world, people in the church world, that we don't get better at this by ourselves, that if you have the gift of communication it is your gift and it doesn't improve by itself no more than any other gift does. I think especially in the church world we have been lazy about that development of gift assuming it'll just get taken care of in some sort of mystical way but we have to commit to growing ourselves for the benefit of those who are the recipients of our giftedness. If we were singers or musicians we will perhaps understand this much more readily than we do as speakers, as communicators but it is no different and I am committed and convinced as you probably know that a thing said well is just as much a work of art and just as much beautiful to behold and be part of and listening to anyone sing or play a piece of music or any other expression of communication. I had no help, I wish I had had a communication masterclass to go to when I started as a communicator. The day is really not about things you can find on the internet to do with technique. I found that technique was really not the things that I majored in struggle with nor what most communicators struggle with. We mostly struggle with confidence, with being comfortable in our own skin, we struggle with a sense of a right to be heard, we struggle with what it is that we feel we have to say and is that valid and is it an important you know thing to say to stand up and take people's attention. Therefore the day is really focused on helping you the communicator rather than speaking to you about the technicalities of communication. I figure if I help you to grow and help you to get better at what you do then what you do will almost be a secondary consequence of you becoming more confident and more clear in your communication skills and more intentional about that. So the day really is about helping you to learn how to speak from your heart. Something all the best communicators do that is why we feel such a great connection with the people we most listen to and follow as communicators is because when they speak they speak to us from their heart but that is not something I assume you can do or I would do. I certainly wasn't doing that. Who does speak from their heart? How do they know whenever does? Certainly politicians don't till they've retired and so I want to teach you and speak to you about the importance of speaking from our heart then I want to help you understand how to find your message. What is the thing that drives you to want to get up and risk rejection and risk to be misunderstood and risk people misunderstanding your motivations and so on and put yourself out there for opinion and judgment which is what we do we stand up as public speakers. There must be something that drives you to do that more than just having a great idea or a great subject and that is what I call your message your why that undergirds the what and the how and the who you may go on to talk about. I want to help you figure out what that is for your life. I want to help you understand how people listen because as a communicator we have to spend a lot more time in the shoes of people that we speak to than we just do in the shoes of ourselves as the speakers. How people listen is very complex and I want to spend some time in the day helping you understand that in this mystery of exchange of ideas between you and your audience or between a speaker and you as a listener there's some very complex things going on and I think understand that has made me and we make you a better communicator helping you understand the art of capture how to how to wire yourself to capture images mentally take a mental photograph then develop them into a concept an idea that transforms people's lives because of the way you captured it in the first place then help you figure out how to find your voice what is your voice it's not just a sound you make it's a distinctive signature note a vocal fingerprint only you have on this planet and I want the day to take time to help you to find your distinctive voice that there is an audience somewhere waiting for but I'll never find you until you find your voice it is simply a brilliant day the feedback we get from these days is phenomenal and people come expecting I think something very different more technique based stuff and go away delighted it wasn't that but go away feeling that they got to understand themselves and got to look inward and develop self-awareness of how to become much more of an authentic genuine heart-to-heart communicator which is I believe what all the best communicators have figured out so keep an eye on us keep tracking with us on social media where we are letting people know where these masterclasses are taking place around the world and I hope you can attend one with me very soon