If you want to speak like a leader,
it really means one thing, you want to become a great public speaker.
Think of the best leaders of all time.
Whether it's government or business, it's very hard to imagine someone
like that who was an awful public speaker, or even a mediocre public speaker.
The greatest leaders in history, and even today, are also great public speakers.
In fact, great public speaking and leadership are synonymous.
Because part of being a leader is you have to lead groups of
people to take the actions you want.
If all you can do is speak one-on-one, it's very hard to reach a whole group.
So that's what speaking like a leader is really all about,
it's being a great speaker.
Now, what does that mean?
When you think of great leaders throughout history, and modern-day,
it doesn't matter if it's Roosevelt,
it doesn't matter if it's Churchill, Reagan, Clinton, John F. Kennedy.
Whoever your leaders are that you admire, they're all different,
different styles of speaking, and yet,
they're all remarkably similar when it comes to certain traits.
For starters, they all spoke with amazing confidence.
When you saw Roosevelt speak, or Churchill, or Clinton, or
Tony Blair, in recent times, they don't show a shred of doubt.
Nervous, you don't see hands shaking.
You don't see them say, well, I kind of think, maybe, sort of.
No, they speak with absolute confidence in their ideas, and that's contagious.
And I'm going to teach you how to do that.
The other big trait that they all share,
is the ability to talk about big ideas, complex ideas about the world,
but to talk about it using simple language that everybody understands.
Now, this is a big problem for a lot of people.
Because if you're a little bit insecure, the natural tendency is,
I'll show people how smart I am.
I'll show them how I know everything on this subject, and
I'll use big words, and I'll use acronyms, and I'll use fancy lingo.
That's what people do, who aren't leaders.
Leaders understand it's about helping these people.
It doesn't matter if it's investors for a startup.
It doesn't matter if it's voters, it's about helping them have the ideas that
you already have, and getting them to do something with you.
That's what leadership is about.
Winston Churchill, very learned individual,
wrote the ten volume history of English speaking people.
Would still pride himself in being able to give complicated speeches on foreign
policy during the war, never used a word with more than two syllables.
Because he understood, as he often told his staff,
there's a huge difference between how the eye processes words,
big words, versus how the ear processes words.
The ear really doesn't process big words,
it's better to keep it shorter words, smaller words, simpler words.
And those are some of the things that we're going to focus on in this course, so
that you can speak like a leader.
But the big picture of course is, you gotta be a great speaker.
That means people have to understand you, understand your messages.
Remember your messages, because you made them so compelling.
And know what you want them to do, and want to take the actions you want.
So you've gotta be a great speaker.
You've got to exude confidence.
And you have to have a message that people understand and can buy into.
Do those things, and you can learn to be a great public speaker.
And please realize, this is not something anybody's born into.
John F Kennedy was considered a horrible public speaker,
even as a member of Congress, as an adult.
He was considered a horrible speaker.
Read head down, hands shaking a little, he learned to be a better speaker.
Winston Churchill was considered a very bad public speaker compared to his father,
who was also a political leader and
was just great at thinking off the top of his head in the House of Commons.
Winston Churchill had to work at it, work at it, and practice, and practice,
and practice.
He wasn't a natural.
But he learned to be a great public speaker.
Ronald Reagan might be a role model for you.
People don't realize Ronald Reagan was a good speaker,
not just because of his acting background, but because when he had a major
speech like the State of the Union address, he would practice it.
Read it out loud for three hours a night, in the residency,
in the White House, getting familiar with the text.
Not to memorize it, he was using a teleprompter.
He would then spend an entire day of videotape rehearsal for
a big speech like State of the Union.
He did all that so he could sound completely confident and
relaxed with the material.
So these are some of the secrets of the greats.
And now, you're going to know exactly how to do it.
And if you follow this course, you're actually going to do this.
So that by the time we end you will, in fact, speak like a leader.