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The power of practice
by Greg Smith

I’m tired! I just finished a busy eight-week schedule, delivering 10 keynote presentations! All of this time with live audiences has sharpenend my skills in a noticeable way. I feel more confident, more relaxed and more open to reaching deep inside to share my experiences and my current feelings with my audience.

Wednesday afternoon, I received a standing ovation at the Disability Program Navigator Training in Chicago, Ill. “You were outstanding,” said Michael Morris, associate director of the Law, Health Policy & Disability Center at the University of Iowa. “It was the perfect ending to our meeting!”

I flew back to New Orleans yesterday on a 6 a.m. flight, and then drove to Hattiesburg, Miss., in plenty of time to make my presentation for Pearl River Community College, but it made for a long day.

In Chicago, I endured a painful event after my speech which can be described as traumatic. On the airplane, I had the opportunity to lie down and sleep because no one was seated next to me. But being horizontal as the plane ascended caused problems in my ear. When I arrived in New Orleans, I was completely deaf in my right ear and had a tremendous headache. I could not get my right ear to release fluid, and the headache and deafness continued all the way to Hattiesburg. When I arrived, I took two aspirin, and rolled onto the stage.

Despite the headache, and despite the deafness, and despite the fatigue and the mental stress, I called on my inner strength, and delivered my speech. Ed Butler, the director of the Mississippi Council on Developmental Disabilities, has heard me speak numerous times.

“It was by far the best presentation I have ever head you deliver,” he told me after the speech. “You connected with that audience and you had them hanging on your every word. You had them laughing and you had them crying.”