It’s been happening now – the out loud talking for an afternoon, an evening, and an abnormally early start (again) in the morning.
Talking out my presentation in my Professional Image and Business Writing seminar, is normal when it is preparation. No. The murmuring and gesticulation as I go about the daily routine of my life – is after the fact – not a rehearsal or reinforcement.
It’s the verbal version of the drafts I encourage my clients to write. “First”, I say, “get the raw ideas and then formative sentences down on paper.” Then I assure them of what I hold to be absolutely true, “The magic in writing, in communicating comes in the editing. It is refined in the revisions. That is where you find your true voice and the purest, most powerful message you transmit about yourself, or the products or services you are selling.
I can’t control this voice. It keeps coming out as if I have an audience. I feel like an NHL goalie who blocked so many shots on her goal in the semi finals, she is still flailing reflexively at imaginary pucks coming at her. All this despite her now unlacing post game in the locker room.
If rehearsing is exercising your essential voice, this must be exorcising it.
I’m reviewing and evaluating the amount of content I shared in yesterday’s Business Communication Seminar. I am evaluating whether the anecdotes were relevant, the opinions valid, the examples useful and the ratio of my speaking to their writing appropriate.
The icky and uncomfortable parts are getting pushed out the same way they got into my presentation – through my voice. The bits that were less than professional, not well thought out have to be purged. It is uncomfortable, but then sometimes the editing process – challenges.
The editing, because it was an interactive, out loud session must go on till both my discomfort is purged and the many unspoken messages I absorbed from the class are diffused.
