Hello, Michael Williams here. I'm doing this video because I wanted to clarify a couple of things for you to help you out as you're working through the series seven steps to quickly achieve smooth, calm and confident speech. And I know some of you are saying, well, Michael, you're always told us to takes time. It's hard work. And so why don't use the word Quickly, quickly is relative. I can't tell you how many people I talked to who spend years, many of them spend years on my mailing list, right?

They spend years spinning their wheels, years, trying programs that promise quick results, fast results two or three days. Four days, things like that. people that buy devices that help and then all of a sudden it stops working. Why? Because as humans we often look for the fastest, the quickest way it's just human nature. I do it as well.

And one of the things you've learned And after doing this over and over and spending hundreds or thousands or 10s of thousands of dollars, wasting thousands of hours. One of the things I've discovered is you know what? I don't really want to do this. And that's probably the reason I should do it. This is let me put it like this. The fastest way, is often not the shortest way.

The fastest way is often not the shortest way. Have you ever typed in an address into your Google Map, or whatever map you use, it gives you a few different routes. And there's a route that's the shortest way but that's not always the fastest way. Sometimes the route that's longer is actually faster, because there's less traffic, the distance is longer. But in comparison, you get there faster. So what I'm telling you is that what I'm sharing with you is actually the fastest way it might not be Be the shortest, but it's the fastest, the quickest way to get to where you want to get, which is the smooth, clear, calm, confident speech.

And the reason is the quick is because it's scientifically based, it's based on how our brains grow, how they create new neural pathways, how we build and create and develop new habits, how we learn new skills, right? It's based on all of that. Speaking is a habit speaking is a skill. Thinking is a habit, thinking certain ways is skill as well, right? You can develop thinking skills. So all these things are things that you can develop over time.

So I want to encourage you in the series to keep that in mind as you're working on this stuff because you may be working and working and not seeing results yet, but remember, if you are working through the system, which scientifically based, you're working through the system, you're going to get results, you're going to get results, but you got to put the time and you got to put the time in. So what I want to do in this video is to clarify a couple of things for you. Number one, there are very skills and techniques that I talked about in the series. To make it easy for you, what you want to do is to focus, focus, and you can just take one skill or one technique and focus on it for one week or two weeks or three weeks, until you've got that skill down.

And probably two of the most important skills has to do with extending and blending. Why? Because those skills help help you gain and maintain control. They help you feel more relaxed, and they help you maintain airflow while you're speaking. They help you get into a rhythmic mode of speaking. And these are some of the things that I see Also speed, I often people speak right.

So when you start extending more of your words, you slow your speech down, okay? And you gain more control. And you may be able to speak fast around your friends, you may be able to speak fast sometimes. But then when you get anxious tone that fast speaking comes back to bite you in the butt, right? So you got to start slowing your speeds down all the time. I'm not talking about dragging, right, I'm just talking about you got to slow your speech down.

And you got to start creating a smoother way of speaking. So focus on one skill and when I say extending and blending, they can be two, but they can also go together. So I'm going to call that one skill, but if you like you can call them to focus on one skill or two. for a long period of time, it could be a week, could be two weeks or three weeks until you feel like you've gotten it down. Then you can shift to another one because I feel like you're over My while you told me to do this and he told me to do that you told me extend over here to tell me to use introductory words here. And so it's just getting too confusing is too much.

Focus on one. The other thing that you want to do and listen to this is you want to pick one specific situation once you listen to this pick one specific situation. And this is for anyone it's for professionals primarily, but also it could be for young people as well. Pick a specific situation where you struggle and take that skill and focus that skill. On that situation it could be answering the phone could be introducing yourself. So you say I'm going to master introducing myself so what do you do?

You take that one skill could be extending and blending. And you practice introducing yourself using introductory words extending and blending, maintain airflow, you practice it, practice by yourself, then you go out and you find a situation Like at a coffee shop or someplace else, and you practice introducing yourself, and you keep doing it, until you're able to do it smoothly, there's no other way. You have to get into that situation. And desensitize yourself to the anxiety, the anticipatory anxiety that you experience, right? You might anticipate it, you might become anxious about it, go in there and do it. If you mess up, then keep doing it.

Keep practicing doing it. Because you got to trust that this works because it really does work, right? hundreds if not thousands of people have used this and it really does work. Eventually, if not immediately. You got to figure out okay, what did I do wrong? What could I have done better?

Not so much to focus on what you did wrong, but to say, what did I do women? And I was thinking, I'm going to get stuck. I'm going to get stuck now. Okay, number one, got to shift those thoughts. starts to an excellent speaker. I always maintain airflow when I speak.

So shift your thoughts to me. Even if you get stuck, you still don't want to think I'm going to get stuck, right? Because then you absolutely will. So you think, okay, I always maintain airflow. And I'm speaking, I'm a smooth speaker. Then you go in.

Alright, let me start with introduction word or introductory sound. Someone asked you your name, you use an introductory word of sound, and you extend and blend your name. And what if it didn't go as smoothly as you'd like, but you recovered faster? That's a success, right? I just talked to someone that that happened to didn't go smooth. They like they recovered faster.

Now you keep doing it. And what's going to eventually happen is you're going to desensitize yourself to the anxiety, the anxiety is going to decrease. And if you continue to affirm that you're always speaking so you keep battling those thoughts and those thoughts begin to quiet down, you substitute them. Now, you're quieting the thoughts. You're desensitizing yourself, you're lowering the anxiety, you're recovering faster, or you're saying your name a little smoother, right? Either one, until finally, the anxiety is lower, you're not anticipating that you're going to get stuck.

And now you're beginning to say your name. Sometimes it happens much faster than that. And sometimes it takes longer. But you keep doing it. Because eventually trust me, just the way I said, it's going to work is going to work faster than that. Or it's going to work itself out like that.

So it's going to take time, but it will work. Because it's the way your brain works. The only way it doesn't work is if you think it's not going to work. And then you actually don't go out and try to introduce yourself or you don't practice, you don't practice, okay? So pick a skill. And I generally recommend extending and blending.

You pick that and you practice This that in your everyday speech when I say practice, I'm talking about formal practice by yourself in Indian practice that is practicing in your everyday environment. Now, what are things that you need to practice on? the free flow speaking exercise and step five? Okay? So we're talking, Step five, free flow speaking. Right?

Free flow speaking. So you want to practice that, however many minutes a day you like, just practice it with something else that you want to practice modeling. Some of you don't like modeling, but guess what? modeling is the way that you first learn how to speak. modeling is the way that we learn a lot of things. modeling is the way that athletes probably initially learn how to spit, how to play well.

They pick someone that they admire, and they model them and then they build their own skill out, right. So modeling is something that we started childhood and We do it all the way up through adulthood. modeling is extremely powerful tool for many, many reasons. So you want to pick a model. And you don't want to pick a model who speaks fast, who's like that, even though you might love the way they speak and you want to speak like them, don't do it, because it's not going to help you. In some cases, it may but in most cases, it won't.

Because fast speaking, let's say speed kills for the most part, when it comes to speaking, if you struggle with stuttering and coming anxious, you don't want to be a fast speaker. It's just not going to help you. Am I saying you can't speak fast sometimes? Absolutely. Sometimes, I speak fast. I'm speaking fast right now.

Right? I can keep on speaking fast. I want to speak fast this whole video, I could go and speak. And I might just run out of breath but I don't have to speak fast. So what I'm saying is that you have the ability to speak fast, but you don't have to and you shouldn't speak fast all the time. Okay.

So free flow speaking and then the second one is modeling. Some people spelt with two L's are spelled with one. And you can spend either way, modeling. So how should you ma? Who should your model which is do specifically, I'm going to briefly give you a rundown because this is included in the pro 93.0. It's a lot of information on modeling.

I generally encourage people to pick me as a model. Initially, modeling is not so that you actually end up speaking like the person it's a transition. Right? It's a transition it's a step to becoming a better you. So I generally say you're listening to my audios, go ahead and model me. I'm demonstrating everything that I want you to do.

Extending and flexing your voice using your face using your body as you speak. professional speakers you'll see them do all the same things that I do, just in different ways. Sometimes they are more energetic than I am. Sometimes they're less energy. Sometimes they inflict more. Sometimes they use their body more than I do.

Some people use it less than I do. That's not the point the point is not who's the very best speaker in the world, right? We each have a preference. And certainly you can find someone else who has a smooth way of speaking and model them. So you don't have to model me You can model someone that has a smooth way of speaking, who demonstrates and uses the skills that we've been discussing. Or you can model me, guy.

So when you model me, what you want to do is pick any of the videos in the series and take the first 30 seconds, memorize it. Use your name so if I say welcome, welcome, welcome. This is Michael Burgess, welcome, welcome. Welcome. This is whatever your name is. And you memorize it until you get the words down the first 30 seconds and you mimic my style.

So if I say this is Michael Williams, and welcome to step one that you want to say this is whatever My name is, and welcome to step one. Same voice info. same word extension Welcome to pause. Step one. If I'm doing something with my hand, you try to defy do something with my face, you try to do it, you don't have to use the same hand movement in the same eyebrow lift that I use at the same exact word. But if I do this, then you do that if I move my youth, if I use my hands, you use your hands as well.

If I inflect my voice, you inflect your voice. You want to mimic me, so that when you're watching your video, and yes, you should record yourself when you're watching your video. You kind of sound style wise, like me. Your rhythm is similar to mine. Of course, your voice will be different. If you have an accent that's going to be different.

We're not trying to get rid of your accent or change your voice, but style rhythm should match mine. That's how you model first 30 seconds. Then when you've got that down the record system After you play yours, you play mine. You don't have to speak as fast as I do. And these videos actually speak a little slower. So you should be able to match my speed but you don't have to.

So when your styles like mine, then move on and add 30 more seconds, and then continue to about a couple of minutes. What's gonna happen is you're going to be creating a new neural pathway, a new reference style, a new style of speaking, then your job is to go ahead and when you're speaking, say, Okay, let me model Let me speak like Michael speaks right now. That can be easy. Probably not. But you're going to want to do it right. Let me speak like Michael speaks, right when he said, Well, no, that's kind of odd.

When I'm in a conversation, well, you'll be able to just sit down, right? You're not going to be inflecting as much using your hands as much and giving the same kind of expressions when you're in a conversation, but you are going to need to speak with expression and with energy You're going to need to inflect your voice and use your body. In conversation. I'll tell you a brief story and then we'll wrap it up here. When I was working on my speech, initially, I was able to improve my presentation style within about six months where I could go, do a presentation for 45 minutes, no notes, and be flawless, right? And that was a time when I was struggling with my speech just all the way up till my mid to late 20s, early 30s even but I was able to do that the first six months boom because I Pratt unmodeled I practice presentations.

Then I went out and gave presentations to college students and in churches. So it took me about two more years or so to figure out how to smooth out my conversations. And the way that I figured it out. As I said, Man, I'm still struggling by breathing and getting stuck in conversation, but I can do presentations perfectly. What's the difference? A style.

When I would do presentations, I had more energy, the pitch of my voice and the tone of my voice was higher. I inflected more, I used more body language, right? I said, Okay, let me just do that in conversations. I don't care if it sounds a little funny, I just adjusted. So I started conversing speaking to people in conversations in a similar manner that I would use in presentations. Mind you, I created a presentation style that was a little more conversational.

So it wasn't like I was learning you have to do this. Like so that would be real funny in a conversation. So that's not the way I presented I presented more of a teaching style, but I still had a rhythm, rhythmic way of speaking. expressiveness took that and transferred it in my conversations and almost instantly my conversation Improve assessor. Okay, this feels like I'm a little preachy here like I'm sound like I'm presenting when I'm speaking to people, I need the modified down some. So I just worked on it until it felt and sounded more conversational, but still contain the energy that hated.

Does that make sense? rewind this, go back through this section again because this is very, very important for you very, very important. So in summary, what I want you to do is to pick a skill and focus on it. Pick a situation, like introducing yourself, answering the phone or certain words that you struggle with. Pick that situation and focus until you've got it then move on to something else. Don't try to improve everything at one time because that's not going to happen probably.

Then. Practice each day. How long hour a day is best. But if you can only do 10 minutes a day, then do 10 minutes. That's better than nothing. Right?

Infuse, embed practice throughout your day. There are people who if you really want to do this, when you're working, you will go out in your car and take a break and pull out your phone and practice in your car. So don't say that you don't have time to practice because you work, you have breaks, you have a lunch break. You don't have to take your whole lunch break, take 10 minutes, you can practice on your way home, you can practice on your way to work. You have time to practice if you really want to improve your speech. So if you look and you're not practicing, and just say I really don't want to improve my speech, let me just be honest, because if I did, I would make time even if it's only five or 10 minutes, even if it's just five or 10 minutes.

So practice, practice modeling, just like I just explained to you. Remember this formal practice and there's ambient practice and being practice is critically important. free flow speaking, extending your words and so forth. Whenever you're talking to somebody, whenever you open your mouth remember this, I say this in my programs, whenever you open your mouth is practice time. You also want to be proactive, go out and find or create opportunities to practice, make more phone calls, go to coffee shops, and once you spend all your money, but go Introduce yourself, create opportunities, where you have to speak. If you want to speak well, you have to speak more.

If you want to speak well. You have to speak more. And you have to desensitize yourself to those situations that normally cause you anxiety and trigger choppy speech. You have to there's no way around it if you avoid it. Then when you get in it, you're in it. Your system is not going to be able to handle it's going to fall back.

It's going to go to its fall back to its default. So you got to get in there and use what you've been practicing Right, which means you have to have been practicing, use what you've been practicing, and you got to fail. You got to keep failing until you succeed. Right? keep failing until you succeed, I guarantee you will succeed. Okay, hopefully this video has been extremely helpful for you.

I've given you some critical tips, techniques and strategies. If you have additional questions, please let me know I look forward to working with you. And remember, always remember, for those of you that are professionals, and you're out there and you're working through this program, and you've gotten to a place a plateau where you realize, okay, I've gone as far as I can go. And you need support. Go ahead and contact me. There's going to be email just contact me at that address.

And let's talk about how we can work together one on one in private coaching and I saw Mike was too expensive for some of you. It may be just out of your price range for others of you. You're going to spend the money anyway someplace. Save your money. I've had people save their money for months, save your money, right? It's worth it.

Invest your money in yourself. And you'll see a return and sometimes a lot faster than what you think you'll see a return in your career, as well as in your own mental health, you'll feel better about yourself. But you'll also see a return in your income often because you'll get more promotions, better jobs, better opportunities, and so forth. Does this make sense? So it's not about, you know, I don't want to, I don't want to spend the money or anything because you're going to spend it someplace, trust me, you aren't going to spend that money on the question is, are you going to spend it on yourself? You said, Well, no, I'm not spam spending on you know, you're not spending on me.

You're spending it on yourself. It's an investment in you. So if you don't see it that way, then don't contact me. You need to see it as an investment in yourself. And what I find is that the people who spend the most generally are the people who are the most serious and do the best. The people that do for free, often, they're not serious.

Because they don't have any skin in the game. They're just like, well, this is free. And so yeah, I'll try. And then if it doesn't work, oh, no, I didn't spend a few thousand dollars, I'm gonna make this work. Do you see the difference? Now if you live in a culture where you can't afford that, then you need to do the equivalent of that.

That is you need to sacrifice and save and get something that you are going to sacrifice so that you're going to say, I'm going to be really serious. And I have a lot of free programs. There's groups out there that you can get into I have webinars, we can ask them questions and evaluate you. You need to attend those things, too. I have little specials that I run sometimes that are fraction of the prices, I might run them a couple times a year. Take advantage of those.

So there's many ways that you can get access to me. But there's also ways you get access to the free content. Okay, so if you're out there, you're professional, and you want to Accelerate Your Progress you need accountability, evaluation and feedback and encouragement. Those are the probably the biggest benefits of the coaching thing. Go ahead and contact me okay. Look forward to seeing you soon.