TAN KWAN HONG

There are many times in your life when you have a great business idea, a meaningful cause that you support wholeheartedly, or a deep and insightful story to share, and you wished that more people can get to listen to you, or even better, be influenced by the goodness that you wished to share. Therefore, rather than speaking to one person at a time, influencing only one person at a time, wouldn't it be much more effective if you have the necessary skills to reach out to more people and influence more people within one speech?

Many great influencers of the world are great public speakers, ordinary people who leveraged on the power of public speech to deliver extraordinary contributions to their communities.

Mahatma Gandhi conveyed his conviction to free India from their colonial rulers through his speeches. If he were to avoid speaking in public and instead, chose to speak one-on-one with his friends over multiple coffee sessions, there will be no massive and rapid outreach, and India will take forever to gain its independence!

During his time, there were perhaps many other people in India who would have preferred an independent India, but no one spoke out. It took a public speaker to stand up and influence the masses, and then be remembered in history for his contributions.

Martin Luther King spoke out in avocation of racial equality, conveying his dream of an equal society where Blacks (African-Americans) and Whites will co-exist together with mutual respect. Likewise, if he were to speak about his dreams on a one-to-one basis and not through a public speech that reaches out to the entire nation, then racial equality might take forever to manifest!

Many other examples of great leaders exist throughout the course of history have demonstrated the importance of great public speaking and oratory skills. Great ideas, coupled with noble intentions and brilliant ideas, all combine to become a powerful force.

Public speaking is the leverage that helps you influence more people, reach out to more people and make the world a better place. Public speaking is the indispensable puzzle piece within the gamut of influence.

In this world, there exist many great thinkers with great ideas, intelligent people who had powerful, meaningful and wonderful contributions that can influence to the world. Unfortunately, they did not dare to speak up, and their ideas died with them. Don't be another one of these people. Use public speaking as the tool to influence more people in your workplace, your department, your organization, your community, and if destiny forbids, the world.

Public speaking is one of the most essential and powerful skills that can help you become a person of greater influence. Leaders of great influence, throughout history, are leaders who excelled tremendously in public speech. Take a moment to recall some of these great leaders of massive influence: Mahatma Gandhi, the leader who, through his speeches (and actions), liberated India and brought the country to Independence; Martin Luther King, the leader who fought for racial equality, a role model who believed that African Americans can co-exist peacefully with Whites; Lee Kuan Yew, who through his speeches, galvanized support from all races and generations in Singapore, brought the country to independence, and then transformed the country from a third world nation to a first world metropolis.

Of course, there are many more leaders, many of whom are exceptionally talented in public speaking, who used their remarkable speeches to influence and change the world, for better or for worst. Abraham Lincoln, Winston Churchill, Adolf Hitler, Mao Zedong, and the list goes on...

And while you might believe that the pervasiveness of the Internet might reduce the importance of public speaking, and especially, on its role in the game of influence, think again. During the modern, high technology era, the ability to speak in public has all the more become a skill of colossal value.
One brilliant example is Steve Jobs, well known for marketing his Apple products through his speeches that reached millions of people worldwide!

Steve was a marvelous example on how effective public speeches can lead to astounding sales results through the power of influence. In one speech, Steve was trying to introduce to the world his revolutionary MacBook Air, one of the thinnest and lightest laptop in the world at the time of its launched, built as a lightweight laptop for the ease of carrying around (as compared to its predecessor, the MacBook). In the middle of his speech, he demonstrated the significance of this thinnest by pulling out the MacBook air from an envelop! The audience was immediately convinced and roared into a thunderous applause. Such is an example of influencing people through public speeches.

Barrack Obama's persuasive and inspirational speeches reached out to millions during his electoral campaigns, and were broadcasted through the media and the Internet.

Randy Pauch, a Carnegie Mellon professor who, unfortunately, had contracted cancer in his forties, delivered his famous "Last Lecture" to his students, and to millions more worldwide. Millions have watched Randy Pausch's "Last Lecture" online. His inspirational speech was then developed into DVDs and into a bestselling book that was sold in more than 35 languages worldwide.

Millions more around the world watched the famous TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) talks and TEDx talks through webinars and videos.

Such is the power of technology in amplifying the influential impact of public speeches to audiences and raving fans throughout the world. The value of public speaking and its significant relevance towards developing you into a person of influence cannot be simply discounted, especially in this day and age.

Finally, you have got to understand that no matter how knowledgeable a leader is, how intelligent the leader is, or how good and compassionate his intentions are, any inability to communicate will limit the outreach of his message. Good public speaking is based on good private thinking, and public speaking is the tool that amplifies your message to the world.

Let us consider the following question: Is there a correlation between how wise, knowledgeable and intelligent you are, and how well you speak?

Often, when I asked my participants attending my workshop on what are the requirements needed to be a great speaker or trainer, knowledge as a factor would often emerge. In other words, many people believe if you want to be a great speaker, if you want to earn the right to stand on stage and give a speech or lecture to an audience, you will need to be a subject matter expert on the topic you are speaking about.

To a large extent, they are right. As Scott Berkun mentioned in his book Confessions of a Public Speaker, "All good public speaking is based on good private thinking." The acquisition of greater knowledge and wisdom can potentially improve private thinking, earning the speaker the right to stand on stage and address the audience on topics he is knowledgeable in.

Hence, to a good extent, this relationship implicitly implies that one has to acquire knowledge first before speaking about this knowledge as a speaker.

However, here is the good news! The inverse relationship can also be true: It is possible that you can speak about a topic (the knowledge) first, and learn about it at the same time or thereafter!

How can this be done?

According to Edgar Dale, a prominent American educationist who developed the Cone of Learning (see the following diagram), the best way to learn is by doing the real thing, or by simulating the real experience. If we do so, 90% of what we learned potentially gets retained after two weeks.
However, in the event that an opportunity to do the real thing or simulate the real experience isn't available, the next best way to learn is via doing a presentation, giving a talk or through active participation in a discussion. Via these methods of active learning involvement, about 70% of information we learned gets potentially retained after two weeks. And if you realize, these modes of active learning involvement all pertain to public speaking! In other words, public speaking helps you learn better!

This is the reason why universities and schools are so active in encouraging their students to speak up in class these days. Vocalization of ideas, initiating debates and discussions and giving presentations in the classroom are often encouraged in these modern institutes, departing from traditional learning methods such as rote learning and the memorization of facts.

In contrast, according to Edgar Dale's Cone of Learning, only 10% of information gets retained via reading after two weeks!

I'm not trying to imply that reading is bad. Rather, we learn better by what we speak about, especially in situations where an immediate opportunity to "learn by doing" is absent. Hence, whenever we learn something new from our books, start speaking about it to somebody, as soon as possible. For example, if you read about a new method of managing your finances, then tell a friend about what you have just read at the best available opportunity. Teach somebody about the new knowledge you acquired, or enter into a discussion about the topic.

If you often discuss about Korean dramas or the latest Hollywood blockbusters with your friends, these are the information that gets retained. If you discuss about relevant and insightful knowledge that has significance to your personal and career goals, then these vital information gets retained. You will remember better what you speak about, so if you speak about topics of value, you remember better the topics of value.

In conclusion, according to Edgar Dale, we tend to learn better by what we "do", followed by what we "say", and we retain lesser information when we "hear", "observed" or "read" about these information. When absent the chance to do the real thing or simulate the real experience, we can use public speaking as a learning tool to enhance our knowledge retention rate by about 7 times, just by speaking about it. Be a valuable lifelong learner, learn public speaking.

If you are an entrepreneur who wants to massively scale your business, public speaking is the indispensable tool that can multiply your income! This is especially so when you are in the education industry or are highly sales driven.

A simple example illustrates the point. Imagine that you are a sales professional who used to deliver sales-pitches on a one-to-one basis. In other words, each time you deliver a sales pitch, you deliver it to only one person at a time. Your conversion rate is 30%; for every 10 people you pitch to, only 3 will buy your product. Each sales pitch requires one hour of your time, and on average, each customer who purchase from you buys 1 gadget each. Thus, 10 hours (through 10 pitches) is needed to sell 3 gadgets.

Imagine if you can pitch to 100 people at any single time because of better public speaking skills. If you deliver the same one-hour pitch to 100 people at a time, and even if your conversion rate declines to 10%, you only took one hour to sell 10 gadgets!

That is the power of public speaking, and selling on stage.

Even Robert Kiyosaki, the multi-millionaire entrepreneur and real estate investor and best-selling author of the Rich Dad Poor Dad series of books have given his testimonial on the power of public speaking. In Chapter Thirty-Three in his book Rich dad's Guide to Investing, Robert recounted a conversation with his rich dad:

"After I began to overcome my fear of selling, rich dad had me join the Toastmasters organization to learn to overcome my fear of speaking in front of large groups. When I complained to rich dad, he replied, "All great leaders are great public speakers. Leaders of great businesses need to be great communicators. If you want to be a leader, you must be a speaker." Today, I can speak comfortably to tens of thousands of people in convention halls because of my training in sales and my early training from the Toastmasters organization." (p. 321)

Robert Kiyosaki further advised:

"First, develop the skill to overcome your fears, to overcome rejection, and to communicate the value of your product or service. Second, develop the skill of speaking to large groups of people and keeping them interested in what you have to say." (p. 321)

Therefore, if you want to multiply your income and amplify your presence, learn public speaking, and be the best you can be at it. If you are a corporate employee, learn to sell your ideas and proposals through powerful presentations during board meetings. If you are a CEO, learn the best practices of delivering inspirational speeches to better engage your employees and shareholders. If you are a sales person, master persuasion to sell your products and services to many more people. If you are an activist, learn public speaking and use it to spread your message. If you are a businessman, use public speaking to influence potential customers. You get the point.

I define 'Life Skill' as a skill that you will need for your entire life. For example, eating is a life skill, a skill that helps you survive. The mastery of languages is a significant life skill, for without the understanding of any language, communication will be tremendously difficult. Arithmetic is a life skill, for it makes counting possible. And other life skills include reading, writing, critical thinking skills, creative thinking skills, intrapersonal skills, interpersonal skills and more. These are the very fundamental skill sets that you will need for life. These are also the essential skill sets that will allow you to improve your personal and professional lives. Hence these skills are called 'Life Skills', simply because it is a skill so fundamental to your life and that which you will need for life. The earlier you learn these skills, and the better you learn and master them, the greater your life will be, all other things remain equal.

While talking is a life skill, public speaking is the life skill that will improve your life. This is because public speaking is simply, speaking in public. Public speaking can include any scenarios that require you to speak in public, at one-to-one scenarios, for example, when you approach the staff standing behind the counter at a fast-food joint to order your meal, or when you approach the a stranger to ask for directions. But great speakers go beyond speaking to just one person (a one-to-one scenario), to speaking in front of tens, hundreds or thousands of people (a one-to-many scenario). This is amplification, the power that is waiting for you to harness!

Whether you are looking out for new business opportunities, looking out for a new job to satisfy a career switch, seeking to meet new people, or perhaps you are still studying hard in school, your investments into honing your public speaking skills will amount to one of the safest and wisest investments that you can make on yourself. This is because public speaking is a skill so widely used, such that it is tantamount to a transferable skill that you can utilize in diverse contexts throughout your life.

As long as there are human beings, and as long as you need to communicate to people in public, regardless of whether it is a one-to-one scenario or a one-to-many scenario, public speaking will always be a life skill that you will need for life. At the very least, public speaking is a transferable skill that will benefit you regardless of your age, your race, your nationality, your career, or your seniority in your organization (whether you are a junior executing, a manager or a CEO, chances are, you will need to give presentations and speak to people).

Hence, the earlier you master the skill of public speaking, the better your life will be. And the better you master public speaking, the better your life will be as well. The benefits of public speaking are just to vast to mention in a single article.