Dynamic Communication!

I spent all of last week intensely developing my skills as a public speaker at the Ken Davis Dynamic Communicators Workshop. From Sunday to Thursday, I was up at 6am everyday and working through 16 hours of lecture, speech preparation, and speech delivery/critique with 120 of the country's finest new communicators.

The setting was amazing! We lived and worked at the Billy Graham Training Center, The Cove just outside of Asheville, NC in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

The experience itself was probably the most intimidated I've ever been about speaking in public. Every evening, from 6pm to 9pm, I'd be in a room with seven other students and our leader, delivering a speech and then having it critiqued by the 8 of them for 10 minutes. My group was comprised of several long-term pastors, a counselor, and several men from the corporate world. How intimidating to stand before them, deliver a speech, and then ask, "What can I do better?"

It was certainly challenging, but mostly, I was affirmed that I have a lot of ability to effectively communicate to groups of people--if--I'm willing to work hard at it an invest the time and energy to speak well. I learned the value in critiquing videos of yourself after you speak, the value of practicing aloud in front of a mirror, the value of clearly outlining the message you want to communicate, and the value of presenting it in a style that is entertaining and engaging!

So. We'll see how much I've learned this Sunday, when I present about the YD at my church in Arlington, and next week, when I encourage students to attend the Deschutes River Rafting Trip.

Also...the weekend was great, because I was able to visit with Havaleh, my best friend from Coshocton...we travelled around her hometown of Charlotte and sampled some fine soul food at Mert's.