The speaker's secret

Ever find yourself trapped into 'saying a few words' at an event when you had no warning and no time to prepare anything? Here's a simple formula that I learned from Dale Carnegie:

1. Start with a story that is vaguely connected to what you think you can talk about. You can think about the next step while telling the story because you only need a small portion of your brain to tell a familiar story. People love a story. It is a concrete something they can grasp easily.

2. Cast your mind about for a general principal you can derive from the story. Start drawing the general principle while you think of the close.

3. Your close should be a call to action, based on the general principle. Finish.

MY EXAMPLE:

It's funny how we develop little rituals in our lives. For instance, if you've ever been self-employed then you'll know that you spend most of your time overloaded with things to do. But more than twice or thrice in my career as a self-employed copywriter and strategist I found myself paralysed by fear because the work seemed to dry up. I just sit there staring at the wall waiting for the phone to ring... etc. (Dramatic detail omitted)

Eventually fear of the consequences of not doing something about it overcame my fear of doing something about it. Instead of staring at the phone, I picked it up and started calling people who had given me work in the past. And by the end of the morning I was overloaded.

Strange how ever two or three years I had to go through the same ritual to relearn the same old lesson: phone sotps ringing, stare at phone and fret, fret furiously, finally pick up phone, all's well again.

I wonder do you have a similar ritual in your life? Wouldn't it be better if we made a habit of picking up the phone regularly instaed of waiting until it stops ringing?

The End