I was a shy kid. I mumbled. It was hard to speak. I would often have to repeat my words because nobody could understand what I said. If I had to speak in public, my hands shook. To make matters worse, my hands tended to dance around when I spoke. Shaking dancing hands will tend to distract people from your message
Fast forward to years later in adulthood. Mike and I took a trip back East to attend my ceremony in honor of my father. At the start of the event, my dad walked up to the podium and delivered a speech that was funny and wise. It looked as if he was speaking off the cuff. We even asked him later if that was the case.
He told us he practiced. He wrote out his speeches, and then he would recite them in the car when he was alone, off on errands. He told us he would go over a speech until it felt natural, until he knew it backwards, forwards, and inside out.
When we returned home, I went to my local women entrepreneur group and signed up to speak. Every meeting, one of the attendees would make a presentation about their business. I had put it off, but now I thought I could do it. I followed my dad's advice and discovered that I loved speaking in front of people. I just had to practice until I would write it in my heart, and then it was really fun. After that, I spoke at this women's group whenever I could. I presented at the Rotary Club. I've given talks to students. I turns out I love to speak about writing. I want to share what I know with people who want to write books. As with speaking, I believe the key is practice.