From the course: Communicating with Confidence

Confident communication is a skill

From the course: Communicating with Confidence

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Confident communication is a skill

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- We are immediately going to dive into the deep end. Do you know what the most common question that I get asked on social media is? This is, hands down, the most asked question. "Vinh, people who can communicate confidently, "is it a gift or is it a skill?" You know, just a few years ago, I would've never shown anybody this video. I'm going to show you a video of me from 10 years ago to prove a point. Let's roll it. Hey, everyone. Welcome to my garage office/home where I sleep, everything. I just have to make this video. I think I said my name was Vinh already, I'm not sure. But I've pressed record and I'm just... Oh, gosh, watching that video back gives me the heebie-jeebies. You might not know this about me, but English is my third language. When I was young, I first learned Vietnamese. "Vinh la nguoi vietnam, sanh o nouc uc." And then the second language I learned is a rare Chinese dialect called Teochew. "Owa si ticheow nang." I didn't learn English fluently until I was about eight years old. And not being able to communicate and speak English well, it made me the target when it came to the bullies. School was actually a really tough time for me. I mean, why do I share that story, and why do I share that video of me from over 10 years ago? I share it with you because I want you to know that, for some people, the ability to communicate confidently, sure, it may be a gift, but for me, it's a skill. And if you're here because you're also like me and you're not born with the gift of the gab, I want you to know that, after you go through this course, you will have all the knowledge you need to become a more impactful, a more influential, and a more confident communicator. So many of my students think that they are stuck with the way they communicate, and they make judgments like these. "I sound so monotone. "I'm not charismatic. "My communication style is so flat, Vinh. "I'm not a good storyteller." And they make all of these judgments about themselves as if they're permanent. And I don't mean to get philosophical with you, but nothing is permanent in this world. Not even a darn permanent marker is permanent. And you know what else isn't permanent? The judgments you make about yourself and how you communicate. Let me, let me explain. You see, the way you communicate right now is just a series of behaviors. So let me ask you a question. Can you change a behavior? Yes, yes, you can. So, what does that mean? It means you can change the way you communicate. I lived in the USA for about five years, and my favorite state is Texas. And I apologize to all my Texan friends in advance. I'm about to change a few behaviors to change the way I sound. Here we go. I'll count myself down in three, two, one. I've always wanted to be a cowboy. Since I was a little child, I wanted to learn how to ride a horse, and I wanted to be like Clint Eastwood. Oh gosh, that's such a bad, bad Texan accent. I could choose to sound like that for the rest of my life. I mean, why did I do that example? I did it to prove to you one thing: the way you speak is just a series of behaviors. And as you go through this course, you're going to learn new behaviors that you can adopt and try out. And you're also going to learn that I'm terrible at doing accents. Listen, don't be so attached to who you are in the present, that you don't give the future version of you a chance.

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