Earlier this month, I announced I would begin teaching public speaking classes starting in February. I indulge in compulsive preparation. So before I could possibly feel comfortable teaching a class, I needed to be absolutely certain I had the material right.
I’ve attended several speaker training classes over the last several years. Each was targetted at engineers prepping for a large corporate presentation. Everyone was in the same boat. Everyone was super motivated. Everyone had at least a skeleton of a presentation. This really isn’t what I expect from the people who will be taking my class. Some might be in this position, but I certainly don’t expect them to be. So it doesn’t make sense to recreate the same environment in which I learned my public speaking skills.
Last night I had the good fortune to have a dry-run of Day One of the class with four great students: Brent Simmons, Laura Savino, Paul Goracke, and Doug Russell.