THE BOSTONSPEAKS MISSION

Oh, that’s easy. Bananas. I use two in my morning oatmeal, a few for snacks throughout the day and I have the best banana storage bowl to keep them in. Maybe I need more banana bowls now?

Believe it or not...Desperate Housewives!

 In this order: 😂🤔🤪

🎤 My zipper was open during a keynote.

🎤 Zipper was open again when I was moderating a panel and I was sitting on those high chairs.

🎤 I scheduled two different workshops at the same time in the same location.

🎤 I prepared last minute for a talk when I had 2-3 months.

🎤 I went over 20 minutes during that talk above because I didn't prepare.

🎤 The material went well in the past so I didn't adapt to the new audience. I gave the same material. It bombed big time.

🎤 I spilled water on my pants 5 minutes before I was going to do a talk in front of 500 people. I decided to go back to the room to change pants but midway I decided to go back on stage because it was too late to change anything.

Whenever I look back at these failures, I only think one thing:

"The master has failed more times than the beginner has even tried."

My wife would think: "Why did I marry you?"

Who do you think is right?

What got me interested in public speaking was a public speaking competition that I entered. You see, growing up in an Asian family, we don't say I love you out loud, we don't hug. Even around the dinner table, we would never talk. I'm an introvert and so I did not know how to express my feelings nor did I think I needed to express my feelings.

It was in college when I saw a public speaking competition and the only reason I entered it because it was for three thousand dollars and I was a broke college student. It was senior year; I needed some money. So, I entered the public speaking competition-I don’t even remember the topic, something about college- and I practiced my butt off for that whole week. 7pm till 2am almost every single day. I would say the same lines over and over again. Do the same body language over and over again.

Something magical happened to me when I was on stage that day. You know when you get into the zone? I got into the zone for the first time on that day and I fell in love with public speaking.