Lewis Howes

I had no money, no skill set, and no purpose.

And I knew that I was afraid to speak in public.

That was a big fear of mine growing up.

If you've ever been afraid of public speaking or speaking in front of a group of people, then you know how that feels.

Leave a comment below if you have.

And for me, I was just like, I'm sick and tired of feeling scared about speaking in front of a group because I couldn't speak in front of five people without stuttering and stumbling and feeling insecure and worried what people would think about me and feeling stupid and not enough.

All those fears crippled me and didn't allow me to speak in front of people.

I'd have to spend like a month preparing to give like a two-minute speech in school because I was so afraid of what people would think about me.

I just would dream like, man, wouldn't it be amazing to speak in front of big stages, but I don't know how to do this.

And what I did is I started with small groups and daily practice.

I would go to a weekly Toastmasters meeting and I would force myself to get up every single week and speak for at least two minutes.

and I was with a small group, I had accountability, and then I would practice daily, daily little practices of how I was going to give my next speech the next week.

And that, over one year, I did it every week for a year.

And I tell you, I was a completely different person by the end of the year.

I was unrecognizable.

The first time I got up and gave a speech,

at my Toastmasters class.

I had a cast on because I was wearing a cast from a surgery I had playing football.

I had a cut off sleeveless shirt because my shirt didn't fit over the cast.

I had my hand raised up like this because that was the position that the cast was in.