This is the show for creative entrepreneurs who have a message to share and want to live a life of freedom. Learn how to grow your network and net worth, hear from exciting guests, and more. My name is Dylan Schmidt and Welcome to Digital Podcaster. All right, today, I want to talk about how I developed my speaking skills. I hear a lot of people talk about how they don't like the sound of their own voice. And you know what, I don't either, I don't really not a big fan of the sound of my own voice, but it's starting to grow on me. Now that I am like 60 Plus episodes into Digital Podcaster. I've got hundreds of videos made that I've made for social media at this point. While it's funny, it's changed on my podcast, voice sound, AI or hearing myself and my headphones right now it doesn't bug me as much as it used to. But what does kind of bug me or does get tired of hearing is my own voice. When I if I'm doing any editing of social media clips, just like geez, I hear so much my own voice, I'm tired of myself speaking, I just feel like I'm always talking. So sometimes at the end of the day, I just like to not talk. But that's not the point of this episode. The point of this episode is how I developed my speaking skills. And I really think that there were three things to developing my speaking skills, because I've been complimented on my speaking skills. And that's why I'm talking about it, I wouldn't actually have made this episode around this topic, if I didn't hear from other people to mention and compliment and ask me about my speaking skills. Because again, it's something I wish someone would have shared with me. So I'm almost in a way talking to younger Dylan before he started the podcast. But I just it also feels like one of those things, I need to get out there and share with anybody and it might be cool in 10 years to look back and be like, Oh, that was interesting, how I you know, share that. So number one, how I developed my speaking skills is I put myself out there, it is so easy to overthink things or plan conversations in your head. If you're anything like me, before you actually say something. And I did this for years, because it was almost like I had a lack of confidence or lack of faith. In the words, I was saying that I would actually be able to carry through with the thought, I do have an add brain, or it's ADHD or one of those, I don't pay too much attention to it. I feel like if I minimize it, then it won't be as big of a thing. But then the more I talk about it, I don't really talk about it much. I don't know, regardless, the doctor says that I don't think too much about it. That's probably I don't know. So anyways, the more you try to plan a conversation, the more you're like, Ah, how am I gonna say it, I'm gonna say it. At the end of the day, especially on a podcast, which is a more natural way of talking or content on social media is the more you kind of overthink things, the less natural it becomes. And I found it's almost like you get the less less of the effect that you're trying to go for, which is maybe more whether it's persuasion, or empathy, or just compassionate, you know, whatever it is, you the more you plan, the more it's harder to come across. Like this is something you just genuinely want to share with somebody. Because people can feel if you if I was reading off a script right now you would know. So yeah, just putting myself out there consistently. There's no way I could have practiced or got the amount of reps I got in by recording a podcast or and not releasing it, or making videos and not releasing them that I can get by just consistently just putting it out there. And that leads me to the second thing that's made a huge difference in developing my speaking skills, is I just keep showing up. There are so many reasons why I could find that I shouldn't show up. There's a million things I could be doing. But I just keep showing up. And it's almost like I'm showing up for that younger part of me, which I again, said like this is almost a message to the earlier part of me is there's a million reasons why I don't, you know, I could find out of showing up. And at first, it's incredibly uncomfortable to show up. Because typically when you're just starting out, and it was the case for me, nobody else is showing up. So you're showing up by yourself. And you feel like why am I publishing this thing? Why am I even sharing anything with anybody? And then like, slowly, one person will show up and then they kind of drift away and you're like, oh, yeah, you know, you don't like I don't want to put too much emphasis on this one person that showed up. And then that another person will show up, like, okay, cool. But it's funny, and then after time, people will start, you know, keep consistently showing up for you. The more you show up for them, and you're showing up for each other. And then you realize, when we're talking about speaking skills, it's more of a communication thing. You're simply just communicating with other people, which is cool. And to me demystifies the whole process because whereas before it feels like you're talking to everybody And then people start showing up and you start being able to put a face to who you're talking to. So you could think about them. Or you could actually have conversations with them. Because you're just simply talking to them, the more natural it becomes, right, the more you do it. And that goes to the third thing, which is, I'll act sometimes, like I'm speaking to one person. The, I don't know if people do I don't understand how people do this over, like, longterm. But apparently, people say they do this. I'd be curious if you do it. But also, I feel skeptical, I guess is what I'm saying is like, how do people hold the image of one person over different conversations? And again, I guess, because I've already shared in this episode, the Add brain. I can't hold one person's image I yeah, I could put up someone's image like next to my computer camera. I thought about doing that. But I haven't done it before. But I'll have different images of people pop in my head that I feel like I'm talking to. So that yeah, it basically comes and goes, but the main idea is, I'll have conversations to ground me, like I'm talking to one person, when I'm doing solo episodes like this, or when I'm making content for social media, because it is incredibly easy to just, you know, get so bogged out on the idea of talking to a camera, I get that. But like I was saying in the last reason, or biggest ways I've developed my speaking skills is through repetition, right. So it just gets less weird over time. And unfortunately, there's, you know, only time that you can use the developer thing, you know, you could, you know, develop, you can shorten that time curve, if you do a higher number of reps. Same does not apply for weightlifting, by the way, you can't jump from zero to 1000 pounds on your benchpress. overnight. But you could do you know, depending on what your experience and skill level is, you know, you could do 40 pounds, or, you know, you might have already started from a higher thing. So maybe 200 pounds or something, you know if your goal is to get better at it. But you got to also kind of be aware of where you're at where you're trying to go. And just accept the fact that it's going to take a little bit of time to get that naturalness that you want to have that you'd maybe see other people have. So letting go, that comparison is huge. I hope these the three things helped just to kind of recap, what they were how I developed my speaking skills. Number one, putting myself out there consistently. It's so awkward. So awkward. I don't know why I said it like that. And the beginning. Number two is just keep showing up. And number three is act like I was speaking to one person, when I talked about keeps showing up. I've mentioned it multiple times on here. But you know, I do like a daily news thing where I read off the script, right? And sometimes those get like a lot of views on social media. And I don't read the comments, I don't know people who like they have all these. They say what they want, I don't pay much attention to it. But that being said, it's still like this thing of just keeps showing up. And I find myself you know, it just becomes less of a thing, the more I've done it, which is cool. Because the more I do it, the more attention it gets, the less attention from me it gets because it's not like I was watching. Yes. Earlier today or yesterday, one of the first like news videos I did. And I sound more excited. I guess I sound like, huh, yeah, no, we're doing like, and then this happened. And this happened a little bit more enunciated and a little bit more. I don't know, emotional, I guess. And then these days, I do it very straightforward. I'm like, the top three news headlines of the day. It's very monotone. And the comments I have seen, they're like, hey, like, why are you like a robot. And it's like, that's, that's what this is. And that was my intention from the beginning. But I didn't really have that angle in the beginning because I just didn't have the reps in. But now it's like I spend less energy doing it, it gets a bigger result. And it's just less of a thing, which is is what it was intended to be in which I want it to be because I don't want it to be this whole thing of something. So yeah, that repetition is just key. And I just feel like compelled to tell you to if you had to, and you didn't feel like confident your speaking skills, but you went through an experience of something, I would bet you to feel a little bit more confident. For example, if you had never made a social media video and the first one you posted got 10 million views. I would bet you would feel a little better or different than someone who posted the first video and got 10 views, or one view or no views. Also, same thing apply if your first presentation you ever gave was for, you know, people, like 1000 people in a room in person, you'd be probably absolutely nervous. But, you know, once you got through it, you would feel, you'd be like, Oh, actually, I can do this thing. So we develop that muscle memory. That knowingness, too. I just want to point that out, because it's true. One of the first presentations and trainings I did on like a group coaching call talking about marketing, things like that. I was unbelievably, I was so overqualified, but like, unbelievably, like, who am I going to do okay with this, I was just unsure, I was lacking of confidence, because I had never done it before. And then when I was looking at the questions, people had submitted questions, and they paid a lot of money to be in this thing. And I was looking at the questions that were coming in. And I'm like, Yeah, I know the answer to this. But I wanted to over deliver and over Give, and it was like all this stuff. And what was supposed to be like an hour call turn into like two and a half hours. And they were all everyone was, like, so happy and nice and cool. But these days, I'm not trying to over answer because then I just know, the more information you give, the more confusing you make it. So it's really, I've learned a lot on the on the way too. So I know a lot of us want to over deliver to, which is a sign of not, you know, an expert doesn't always need to over deliver, it's just about giving you what you need to know, just felt compelled to share that. As a self proclaimed expert. I will not say guru, I'm not some guru. I don't even know what a guru is. Also, that's my call to action. For this episode, I tried to add a call to action every episode. I see a lot of totally unrelated. I see people out there that are like, not into gurus and things like that. But I would be curious, who in this is maybe a huge blind spot? who is guru like, is this I, I genuinely genuinely am misunderstanding like, this is like a cultural thing. I don't know who the Guru is, am I'm not I try to be a guru or something. I just try to share what I know. Most of the time. It's me trying to share what's most obvious. All of this episode is about developing my speaking skills, and then start talking about gurus. But if you know what, like a typical Guru is, or someone that is like a self proclaimed guru or something, I'd be curious to know, hopefully you don't say, it's me. I mean, I don't want to be, I'm not trying to do that. But like, that's not like all of you be like, hey, here are the podcasts, you're not trying to do that. I'm just genuinely curious. And it's something I have no outlet of asking somebody. So that's neither here nor there. Regardless, I want you to know that you can develop your speaking skills, you will get better at doing it, the more you do it. So I do hope you stick with it. And I do hope you push yourself a little bit more and more to get outside of your comfort zone and watch how that muscle memory develops and how much better you get and how that time decreases. And before you know it you're like, yeah, actually, I feel good. I could do this. You're almost like to lack of nervous and we want to make sure you're on your toes. Because it's good to be on your toes. You can use that nervous, anxious energy for good and translate that in the right way. All right. That's all I got for you today. I will talk to you soon. Hope you have a great rest of your day.