Speaking to Locals

While in Belize I’ve been trying to talk with local residents. I didn’t know why I decided to interview as many people as I could. I wanted to know what they thought of their country and what they wanted to see changed about their country.

The responses were consistent. They all wanted to see crime reduced. Sometimes speaking is with one person, inspiring a single person or talking with someone who merely needs to find encouragement in something or someone.

Speaking does not always have to be in front of an audience. Sometimes, speaking to one person and seeing the light dawn in their eyes and hearing they take action because of my words is as rewarding as speaking to a large audience.

I had a goal to find at least one person each day for the ten days I was in Belize and inspire or motivate them to have a better life. I wanted to leave my mark on the people I met there.

Here are some of the results:

• Phillip, a cab driver/musician needed a keyboard for his daughter. I found one in San Pedro and told him where to find it. I suggested he start a music festival to support the music community.
• Kareem, another cab driver wanted to have a retails store, but I told him how to start a business through eBay and not have the overhead. He got his first order for tennis shoes before I left.
• Brenda yet another cab driver wanted to build a senior facility for women and I told her how to get the service organizations behind it and raise the funds.
• Carla, the bar tender wanted to start an organization for abused women. I told her about Battered Women and how to get support and start the organization.
• Shaggy, the bar tender in San Pedro wanted to build a house for his mother in Chicago so she’d move there. I introduced him to Nickole who has the polystyrene material he wants to use and is in Belize.
• Nickole had severe back spasms and I used the Scalar Wave machine on his back and got the spasms to diminish. I also am getting him the contact for the plastic infused concrete that I heard about.
• Osmond the bellman at the hotel was in severe back pain and I was able to eliminate the back pain with the Scalar Wave Laser.
• Dolly the hotel store manager hadn’t met anyone in the four months she’d been living there. I found someone at the ferry building who was from her country and was able to introduce them so Dolly would feel more at home.
• Garbutt wanted to start a soccer league and I told him how to do it and how to involve the service organizations.
• Sarah who was a grandmother and worried about her grandson growing up in the environment wanted to do something but didn’t know what. I told her about our neighborhood watch system and she agreed to start one in her neighborhood.
• There were waitresses, store owners, employees and even a policeman I found something to encourage them, direct them and find a way of helping them.

Jitters

I don’t think most speakers can get through every speaking engagement without some level of nervousness. In fact I think it helps me to stay focused and deliver my best presentations.

Years ago I attend several Chi Gong classes and learned a couple of techniques that will help you over come the jitters.

The first technique is to balance your weight on your left foot. That will engage your right brain. Your right brain is your creative side and you literally can not be nervous when you are focused on the creative. When your weight is equally balanced or more focused on your right leg, you are engaging your left brain which is the critical thinker. When you are focused on your left brain you will think about “what are they thinking of me? “am I keeping their attention?” “do they like me?” or the worse one speakers do to themselves is “what if  I don’t  remember what I want to say?” Which is of course what will happen according to the Law of Attraction. Whatever you think is what you will attract.

Another technique is to press your fingernail to the end of either of your thumbs and it will stimulate your brain to give you more focus.

The plain and simple fact is that no one knows what you planned to say, so if you forget something or forget the order in which you intended, no one will know.

But when you let your audience see the real you and you can be vulnerable enough to let them relate to you, they will be more than generous. Typically they will assume you have to have expert status in your field or you wouldn’t be their speaker.