Scaling Up Business with Bill Gallagher 093: PJ Brady - Become a Master at Public Speaking
Are you afraid of public speaking? Have you tried it in the past because you understand the benefits, but you don’t feel 100% confident in your ability yet? Well, this episode is for you! Today’s special guest discusses how you can get over your fear and become masterful — not just great — at public speaking.
PJ Brady was the Vice President of Europe, Middle East/ Pakistan, and Africa for the Entrepreneurs’ Organization and is currently the Founder of 42 Walls, where he helps people inform, inspire, and influence others.
Not everybody was born reaching for the mic, but PJ grew up being a theatre kid. Through his experiences volunteering for a non-profit that specializes in developing community broadways, he was able to teach his fellow volunteers how to get comfortable being in front of a group of people.
The biggest barrier to achieving greatness often happens within your own brain. If you want to get comfortable being on stage, then you have to be comfortable in your own skin first. You can learn how to bullshit everyone else, but you can not bullshit yourself and that is one of the reasons why speaking in front of an audience is so terrifying.
The biggest ‘bullshit test’ you can do on yourself is to look yourself in the mirror and rehearse your story. Bill recommends retelling your story 10 times in that mirror to see how it feels. For him, when he did it, it was the fifth or sixth time when things really began clicking for him.
People have told PJ that this mirror exercise is the most awkward thing they’ve ever done. Some people even walk out during this session. People hate it. However, there’s a silver lining; once people finish this exercise, they feel much more comfortable in their own skin and progress gets made.
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