"The best investment you can ever make is in yourself."
Warren Buffet
In mid-October of 2017 I joined a public speaking course put together by the team behind London Real. It was led by Brian Rose, who's responsible for interviewing some of the most interesting people in the world in his London Real Youtube channel.
My public speaking skills went to a whole new level because the course made three things a priority. Facing and defeating your inner demons, having a library for reference and inspiration, and having a network of awesome people with the best attitude supporting you and have faith in you while you are having struggles in your journey.
The best way to get hungry is by losing. Because when youre hungry you dont have a choice.
I was always on the search of the best way to improve my speaking skills. Growing up as an introvert I knew it would keep me back from reaching my goals. So I needed a process that allowed me to continually develop myself. If I developed myself, I thought, it would allow me to successfully reach my goals.
One of these goals is to start a business. I joined a weekend business accelerator where the goal was to bring together a team of willing participants and have them buy into your startup pitch. the people with the best pitches would get to form a team, and those who didn't have a good enough pitch would have to join the teams. needless to say, I didn't have a good enough pitch. That was a huge moment for me. With my competitive nature, thats when i really regret not taking public speaking seriously.
So I tried out the local toastmaster club. I spent three months with them but wasn't happy with my progress. And then I saw Brian's ad on Facebook.
The speak to inspire course took me face to face with my old demons. These were things I never conquered and thus, kept me back. These were, social anxiety. low self-esteem. seeking validation from the wrong people. And many, many others which built up over the decades.
The second thing was having access to the awesome content that only London Real members have available to them. Using that content for reference and for good ideas, I was able to copy from the best of the best.
The third and best thing that the speak to inspire course offered was a network of awesome people with great attitude. They helped me stay on course and kept me accountable to my goals. Without them I would have quit on myself a long time ago, as is my common habit when doing difficult things. They encouraged me when I was beating myself up. They never doubted me. I hope that these people stay in my life for many years to come, to remind me to keep going even through the darkest days.
Because of this course I added to my goals. One is to be a keynote speaker in front of a large audience. And the other is to be an inspiring author of at least one book.