A year after I started the Sales course I told one of the members about my experience with my mentor Ed the first time I spoke at a Lion’s Club meeting. They told me I inspired them to give speaking a go.
I wrote out the details for a 6-month training course and announced at the meetings and had more than 30 sign up and pay $150 for the course. I based the course first of all, on all the things I needed but couldn’t find when I started speaking.
Initially I invited specialists to come in to provide the educational component for the course. I had an image consultant talk about the attire speakers should wear to project the right image. I had an expert on body language talking about the subtle signs of communication. One of the consultants talked about how to use humor in their presentation.
After a year I developed enough self confidence to do all of the presentations myself. Not that I minded having others come in to share their expertise, but it was a challenge to find the right people at the right time for the scheduled lesson.
The speaking course was always the best attended of the three courses.