 grew up in rural Indiana in the 1980s. So it may not surprise you if you know anything about that era to know that I heard a lot about Larry Bird growing up. Larry Bird is a legend around Indiana which is a basketball crazy state to begin with and then to have a legend like Larry Bird hail from Indiana, from French lick Indiana. You know we got a lot of lessons related to Larry Bird. In particular we got a lot of lessons about Larry Bird's legendary work ethic and how hard he worked at what he did. Now Larry Bird had a lot of natural basketball skills there's no doubt about that but one of the things he was most known for as a basketball player was his effectiveness from the free throw line which may sound pretty you know unglamorous right free throws nobody's guarding you nobody's blocking your shot nobody's really harassing you and yet it's a hard skill for lots of professional players to master but Bird was one of the best ever and that came from his growing up his work ethic. Bird as legend would have it spent hours and hours at this very barn practicing free throws as well as other shots obviously and other basketball skills but he would spend hours every day practicing free throw shots because he felt like that was a skill that he could always improve upon and would serve him well. His work ethic in that area continued on in the NBA and we as youngsters in Indiana during his heyday in the NBA heard all about and if you work as hard as Larry Bird that you could do just about anything. Well I don't know that I was ever gonna make it as a professional basketball player the way Larry Bird did but there were some lessons to be learned there as much as I may hate to admit that today. The same can be said for public speaking a lot of people think well you know you're just either born of an effective public speaker or you're not you're either born with those skills or you're not and most people are not and while there is some truth to the idea that there are some folks who have some of those natural abilities that charisma that confidence that willingness to get up on the stage a little more naturally if you will a little more easily public speaking is a very learnable skill. Most people in fact start off with a lot of those nerves and most of the most effective public speakers that you've probably heard started off in very much the same spot many of you are at they're nervous they're anxious about getting up and speaking in public I can tell you that I was as a college student public speaking was one of the last classes that I signed up for I waited until I almost had to take it I was almost forced to take it because I was so nervous about it. The good news is that public speaking as I said is a learnable skill much like shooting a free throw there there are things that you can do that you can learn to become more effective at it and with practice it comes more easily so that's what I want to emphasize in this first video in the series for public speaking that we're going to take a look at here that we've called the building blocks of public speaking that's really what we're doing here we're looking to lay some foundation and build like you would a tower of blocks if you will toward those more advanced skills but we're going to start at the bottom here and and work our way up it's it's much like you don't feel it felt part of another analogy it's much like building a house I assume most of you live in a house or have lived in a house or live in an apartment or someplace like that it didn't just materialize like that though right didn't just show up looking like this pretty little house here on the street did it know it started with somebody building it and when they built it hopefully they started with the foundation they start with a good solid foundation to build upon otherwise things are just going to be rickety and fall apart very quickly so if you have a basement it may look a little different than this but if you don't then your foundation hopefully looks a little something like this little solid then once you have that solid foundation then you can start to put up a frame you can start to see some walls taking shape and and see where the roof is going to go and hopefully enclose those eventually right once you have that then you can move in some basic furniture and if you're starting out you probably just have some basic furniture I know when I was in college it was it was a probably a couch we got donated from some of these parents and I'm probably a large wire spool that we used as a table and we thought that was amazing right and so we have this basic furniture and then over time as you as you gather resources and the ability to purchase new things and you gather different tastes and things then you start to decorate a little more right you start putting things on the walls you start putting different little touches around that make it more of a home you put those those finishing touches in in addition to the furniture in the framework and things like that okay all of this is going someplace I promise I'm done with the analogies with the exception of the building blocks analogy here that we're going to talk about how do we do that same thing as public speakers how do we learn and grow our skills and abilities as public speakers well first of all we start just like we were with the house we start with the foundation you got to have that base layer that solid base layer or none of the rest of it's gonna stand and for us as public speakers that foundation very simply and I'm not being facetious here as far as I'm concerned is don't pass out don't throw up don't run away that's your baseline if you can do that in your first speech whatever your first speech is that you're giving if you can do that if you can avoid passing out throwing up or running away then that's a success you've made it you've demonstrated that you can in fact be an effective public speaker you have what it takes because you have the ability to get up and stand in front of that audience and just go for it right that's really what we're working toward here at the beginning so the foundation is just have the the ability to get up in front of that audience and do so without passing out throwing up or running away once we have that foundation once we have that baseline foundation then we can start to build some some skills we can start to work on that framework right we can start using the analogy that house again we can start putting up some framing for the walls and for the roof and things like that and by that in public speaking we're talking about things like topic selection organization and outline introduction conclusion supporting material source citation these are all really foundational fundamental pieces of a speech most people want to jump right ahead and say well how do I stop saying as much well we'll get to that we'll get to that that's part of it or how do I deliver a speech more smoothly again that's important and we're going to get to that but before we can do any of that we've got to have this framework in place of are you prepared have you selected an appropriate topic have you organized your speech really effectively is your outline prepared effectively do you have a good solid introduction and conclusion and all those types of things right that's the framework of your speech so that's going to be the next level that we work on once we have the ability to get up in front of that audience without passing out throwing up or running away then we need to work on some of these things like topic selection and organization and those types of things once we have a handle on those fundamentals and we've got our framework solidly there we've built in the walls in the roof and we've got everything enclosed then we can start to look at the furnishings we can start to look at what's going to make up some of the finer points of our speech and really take it to that next level what's going to take it from that base level you know first apartment in college where you've got the wire the large wire spools your table and and some you know boxes or crates as your easier is your end tables for your couches and things what's going to take that to the next level where you actually have furniture that matches and and fits in and home appropriately so for us the furnishings are going to be things like language using the best possible language that we can to deliver our message delivery and delivery method in particular what's going to be the most effective delivery method for us what about our connectives our transitions are those solidly in place how are we using our presentational aids and then our delivery I said we're going to get to that our delivery a basic vocal and physical delivery do we have an effective vocal variety are we able to remove distractions as well as we can as we're giving our speeches those are the things that make up our furnishings so that's that next level once we've got that solid framework of a good topic a good organization a good outline and that type of thing then we'll start to worry about some of these next level things and we'll work on that throughout this course then finally we get to the finishing touches right we've got our we've got a nice home we've got a good furnishings in there and we're really starting to pull things together in that way now we're going to look at some higher higher ticket items like how do we limit as I said unlike those are important things to do but they're going to come later on in the process so once we get to that point we've got all that other stuff set then we can start to think about how do I really focus on limiting these these things and how do I focus on owning the stage how do I focus on projecting that confidence what can I do to really establish to the audience that I have the confidence here that I have that charisma and those are things we can generate of course but we're going to worry about those later on down the road right those are higher level skills and as important as they are they're not as important if we don't first have that framework right doesn't do you any good to have you know all this fancy artwork if you don't have a wall to hang it on right or you don't have anywhere to put these nice things first we need to have a solid foundation then work through that framework right then worry about the furnishings and finally we'll put on those finishing touches that make us enough a really spectacular public speaker the good news is these are all again learnable skills there are things we can learn their things we can work on and they're going to come slowly they're going to come one piece at a time we're going to build one level at a time and focus on one level at a time and we'll get through all of them eventually here but we're going to take out one step at a time and not have to worry about it all at once right oftentimes two people will ask me you know well what do you need to do these things what is important how do you gain all of the stuff where do you get it all and I tell more there are three things the big three these are the big three things that are important if you're going to develop as a public speaker the first is some education you're getting that here you're you're taking a course theoretically right you're you're taking a course you're you're gaining some education here the good news is public speaking is very much it's sort of a black and white thing it's a list of dues and a list of don'ts and we're going to emphasize the dues and we're going to try and stay away from the don'ts you know at its core it's really that simple other aspects of communication are very complicated interpersonal communication for example is very much a lot of gray area there's not a lot of well if this happens then do that but public speaking it's not totally black and white but there's essentially a list of dues things you want to do and things you should do and and things you want to emphasize and then there's a list of don'ts things you want to stay away from things like removing distraction things like removing those vocal fillers like unlike and things like that that you want to try and avoid education will help you identify those things right will help us identify what are the dues what are the don'ts and we can we can progress toward those things then so you need some education first and foremost preparation and this is going to be largely on you you're going to be pressed into this in your course I'm sure but but preparation really comes down to you what are you willing to put into this right are you willing to do the work that it takes to be prepared to be an effective public speaker the beginning parts of that the those building blocks as you may have noticed were all really preparatory things topic selection organization outlining introductions and conclusions supporting materials those types of things are all things that come through preparation there's a lot of public speaking that happens well before the speech you know the speech is however long but you're going to spend 10 times that before the speech actually preparing it right and preparation is really important we're going to show you how to prepare what things you can do to prepare in the end it really comes down to your willingness to do so though so this one's pretty much on you largely on you preparation is largely on you once you get some education and some preparation the other thing that you need to mix in here is some experience you need to get up and speak you're going to have a chance to do that in this course and and any public speaking course that you're taking you'll have the chance to to get some experience I would encourage you to look for opportunities outside of your course as well whatever opportunity you have to speak in front of a crowd take it and I'll tell you though you're not going to have some moment where you're just like all of a sudden oh wow now I don't mind public speaking at all this is wonderful I really enjoy this and let me do more of it it's probably not going to happen like that but every time you speak it's going to get a little bit easier it's going to get that much easier and over time those little bits will add up and become a much greater comfort level with public speaking partly because again you've seen that you're not going to pass out you're not going to throw up you're not going to run away partly because you know now I'm prepared and if you're prepared there's no reason that you shouldn't enter this with confidence right no reason you shouldn't enter any speaking experience with confidence if you have prepared effectively and appropriately so through that experience you're going to gain that knowledge that I can do this I know what to do I am prepared and and you're going to have that that growth in self-confidence that you need to be able to do it more effectively a little bit each time so that experience is really key take advantage of every opportunity that you have to gain some experience so you throw all three of these things in the blender education the preparation the experience all of that together and all the sudden you're becoming a more effective public speaker one step at a time if you have questions about any of these building blocks or about you know improving as a public speaker or anything related to the public speaking process please feel free to email me I would love to chat with you about that in the meantime I hope you get out there and really take hold of that education make the most of your preparation time and take advantage of every experience opportunity that you have as a public speaker to continue to grow and to continue to build upon your own building blocks as a public speaker