It has been said that the one experience most feared by most adults is that of speaking in public. Joyful Public Speaking is a workshop experience designed to facilitate personal growth by addressing issues that get in the way of speaking to groups with confidence and joy.

In any public-speaking experience, the successful speaker must connect with his or her audience authentically. To do that, the speaker must be emotionally present, and must connect his or her emotions with the intellect. Unless the speaker is an artful dodger, the audience will know if the emotions and intellect are out of alignment, thus engendering an unconscious mistrust of the speaker. In Joyful Public Speaking, the emphasis is on authenticity as the speaker learns to achieve this alignment through accessing his or her passion.

Singing is “outside the box” of what most people would normally think of in improving public speaking skills. However, for a person engaged in public speaking, the voice is extremely important. When considering effective communication, one can address a number of factors, such as inflection, tone, timbre, body language, and choice of words. These factors can be studied and practiced for years. However using one’s voice in singing is the quickest way to master this instrument and tool of human communication.

In connecting with an audience, the speaker often must overcome a number of internal obstacles, such as shyness, fear, anxiety and verbosity, to name a few. In dealing with these obstacles, the speaker must learn to stand in his/her personal power as he/she addresses the listener. Singing before an audience has proven to be extremely effective in helping a person work through these internal issues, primarily because it helps the singer find a direct access to his/her passion which is, for all of us, our source of personal power. When we sing through a personal issue, we “get it” in a way that seems to reach deeper into our subconscious than merely talking about the issue.

In Joyful Public Speaking, participants will:

• Be led through experiences and exercises that will involve the risk of becoming personally vulnerable.
• Have plenty of time to process their experiences with each other in a safe, supportive environment as they go along.
• Receive accolades and validation only as they move through fear and discover their personal power.
• Learn to speak improvisationally as they find new freedom to live in their passion.
• Have fun as they make their own journeys into self-discovery together.