- How to become a great public speaker.
(upbeat funky music)
This is Dan Lok.
Welcome to an episode Boss in the Bentley.
On my way to work, on my way to meeting.
I answer your questions.
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about business, about life, about entrepreneurship
and building wealth.
Now today, I'm gonna talk about how to become
a great public speaker.
And I know a lot of people they,
they see me as a great public speaker.
I've been a TEDx speaker,
opening speaker twice in my career.
How do I become a great speaker?
Well, first of all,
let me take you to the early, early on
when I was getting started.
Back in when I was going through high school,
going through college,
during that time in high school,
because when I first came to Canada,
I couldn't speak a word of English.
So, English is not my first language.
I'm from Hong Kong and so my first language is Chinese.
So remember when I was going through high school
I had no friends,
because I was afraid to talk to people.
I was that invisible kid
sitting in the very back of the classroom,
you know what I'm talking about?
The kid that where you've
gone through a few semesters
and you don't even know his name.
I was that kid.
I would never put up my hand,
I would never ask any question.
Because I was so afraid,
I was so afraid to say something stupid.
I didn't know how to communicate,
I didn't know how to express myself.
I remember during the English class,
one time I had to deliver a speech, a presentation.
I was so terrified that I didn't want to do it.
That I would skip that portion
and I would hide in the bathroom
because I was so afraid.
I remember the time my high school instructor,
Miss Fellan, and Miss Fellan afterwards
grabbed me and say hey, Dan,
you've got to deliver the speech,
because if you don't do it,
I can't let you pass the class.
Just deliver it, I don't care how bad it is.
I'm gonna let you pass, but you gotta do it.
And if you're worried, no problem.
After school, come to see me.
I'll work with you crafting a speech
and you can deliver it in front of the class
and I'll let you pass.
And I said, okay, I'll do that.
So after class I stayed
and she helped me craft the speech.
And at the time, I was just talking about
some basic things.
I think I was talking about Bruce Lee,
if I remember correctly.
And I delivered the speech.
I remember I would go up to the front of the classroom
and my hand would shaking.
My knees are locked,
and I would be sweating
and my face looked pale,
and I just delivered the whole thing like,
read, not even delivered.
Just reading through it
and then it's done and I put it down,
and the people, like a couple of people clapped
and afterwards, and I thought to myself,
wow, I didn't die.
I did not die from that experience.
I'm still alive, okay!
This is good!
I'm still here.
And I want to thank, by the way.
I thank Miss Fellan for
kind of giving me the confidence.
Pushing me outside of my comfort zone
to be able to do this.
And afterwards,
that planted a seed in my mind.
I don't know somehow that planted a seed in my mind and said
you know what, maybe I want to overcome this fear.
I want to overcome this shyness.
I could just sense that it does not help me.
It does not help me in any way.
It's holding me back in life.
So, I joined Toastmasters.
If you don't know what Toastmasters is,
it's basically a non-profit organization.
It's all over the world.
You can go to a Toastmaster club
and you can practice your presentation skills.
I joined Toastmasters,
and I joined a club in Burnaby called Metro Speakers.
I joined the club and I just showed up,
and people were very friendly at the time.
Like, they're all great people.
And I showed up and I just practiced,
and I delivered my speech.
And I followed the menu, right?
You do an icebreaker,
a story-telling, humor of speech,
and I did all of that.
And I was so hungry that
I was delivering a speech every single week.
They have a meeting every single week.
So I was delivering some kind of speech
every single week.
I don't care if it's table topic
where you're doing impromptu speech,
I don't care if it is like hosting a meeting,
I would show up, I would help set up all of that.
And every single week I would deliver a speech.
And I've completed their program very, very quickly.
What took people like sometimes three, four months,
I got it done in a month, right.
And so afterwards,
people, 'cause after every single speech
people would give you a little form,
and they would give you feedback on
like what how's your delivery
and people started writing oh, good job,
awesome, excellent.
And then after six months in,
people start writing, oh, you are a natural at this.
You know, you've got talent.
Oh, wow, like great skill!
I'm like natural, talented,
what are you talking about?
There's nothing natural about this.
But, because of that I started getting
a lot of positive validation.
That oh, well, and people would come up to me afterwards,
great speech, Dan.
I mean, what you shared with me really touched me
or really moved me.
And I thought well, this is amazing.
And it's the first time in my life
I started to understand the power of words.
That being a good communicator,
the effect it would have on you.
And I started becoming more,
more confidence in myself.
Being able to communicate with people.
Because in high school,
I remember after school I would walk,
I would not make eye contact with people.
I would just have my school bag
and I would look at the floor
and would just walk like that.
I would just go home.
Through the hallway, past by the locker,
and I wouldn't make eye contacts with anyone.
I wouldn't talk to anyone.
That's the way I was.
Through Toastmasters it helped me develop that skill.
And later on, because I was so active in the club,
I got voted to be the president of the club.
And at the time,
I was the youngest president
for Toastmasters in my district.
I was probably, I don't know, 20, 22, 23.
And I lead the club.
I managed the club.
We became one of the most successful clubs
in our division, our district
that we have more members than anybody else.
We attract more than anybody else.
We have our waiting list.
Our club, every time we showed up,
like we'd produce some of the best speakers.
We won more awards than anybody else.
I'm very, very proud of that,
because I learned leadership during that period of time.
How to work with people,
how to communicate with people.
Although I'm the president,
but I'm working with people who were older than me.
Alright, all of their volunteers.
How to manage a group of volunteers,
that is not easy, right?
So through that period of time,
I learned my skill and I hold my skill as a public speaker.
And afterwards, it's because of my business
and people started asking me about
oh wow, as I was becoming more successful
in internet and digital marketing,
people started asking me
can you teach me?
I said, okay, so I started running a little workshop
where first it was like two, three people,
nobody showed up.
With my mom, like, including my mom,
two or three people,
and but it grew.
It grew to 10 people, 20 people,
and they brought their friends,
and 30 people, 100 people, 200 people,
and then it just got bigger and bigger and bigger.
So, I could tell you that, oh yeah,
you know, I'm born with talent or
I'm born to be a great speaker.
That's not the case at all.
I never, ever thought of becoming a public speaker.
There was the, you gotta think about it.
When I was a kid in school,
couldn't even pronounce words properly.
Couldn't even speak English.
That's the furthest thing away from my mind
to be a speaker, inspire people,
and making videos like this.
Forget that shit!
I was just wanting to learn enough,
be able to communicate enough,
that I could talk to people, that was it.
But since step-by-step as I was improving,
I was getting better, I was getting validation,
suddenly, one day I realized I have a gift.
It's only then I realized
maybe I don't have to be a perfect speaker,
but maybe something about the way I communicate,
something about the way I share my message,
it resonates with people.
It touches people's heart.
That's after many, many years later.
Then I realize, okay, maybe this is a skill
that I could further enhance
and turn it into
something that would help me,
but also change a lot of people's lives.
So it was not my intention from day one.
It was we tried and do that and do that,
and how do you become good?
Many years ago when I was training with my sifu,
Ted Wong, who is Beau Bridges' original student.
Someone was asking, well, how do I become Bruce Lee?
My sifu said, very simple.
You put in Bruce Lee hours.
How do you become a great speaker?
You put in the great hours.
Study other good speakers.
Look at their videos.
Attend their training, attend their workshops.
Look at how they deliver, how they present.
Try to mimic that,
it's okay in the beginning.
'Cause you can mimic, you can imitate
before you develop your own style.
Later you can develop your own style,
but first do all of that.
For every five minute on stage,
me on stage, I spend about roughly an hour
of preparation off the stage.
Every five minute on stage,
I spend about an hour offstage
just for me.
Even at this point.
Before I go on stage, I'm practice.
I'm practicing, I'm rehearsing.
That's what a professional does.
And most people, they don't practice enough.
You only get nervous when you only get
when you get to be afraid
of delivering that speech
because of lack of preparation.
But if you're well-prepared,
you practice a lot,
then you go up there and it's okay.
And when you do it enough,
when you do enough, when you do enough time,
now your brain knows, okay,
you know what you're doing.
Even if you have to deliver a speech like now
to really hundreds and thousands people
on camera, no script, you're okay,
'cause you're not so much focused on perfection.
Focus on connection.
Focusing on sharing, speak from my heart.
I'm not trying to think of
I'm trying to think of,
I've got to deliver every word perfectly.
That's not the point.
That's not what makes a great speaker.
A great speaker is about connecting with audience,
connecting with your viewer.
That's what makes you a great speaker.
It's not about telling the perfect story
or the perfect gesture, it's not about that.
People don't care about that shit.
That's what makes you a great speaker.
So if you want to be a great speaker,
put in the hours, join Toastmasters,
and you got to practice.
And study great speakers and you practice.
And it might take you some time,
it took me years.
But you know if you just showed up every day,
showed up, showed up, show up
and you keep showing up,
you will become better, I guarantee you of that.
And then one day you may be just like me.
You realize, you know what?
Maybe I have got a gift.
That maybe this is my talent.
Maybe I could utilize this.
Maybe I could use this to impact people
and help people and transform people's lives.
Maybe, just maybe.
So, hit the Subscribe button below.
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I hope that helps you.
If you have other speaking questions,
maybe the technical questions about
how to deliver a great speech,
how to tell a great a story, comment below.
Let me know what communication questions you have.
I'll take my time and answer the questions
in a later day when I go somewhere.
And check out the videos
on the right side as well.
Make sure you check all the new videos that we have.
We upload videos for you every single day.
Until next time.
I'll see you in my Bentley.