Welcome to 5 Minute Speech Coach. 5 Minute Speech Coach is an audio course to help anyone get better at public speaking through consistent practice.
Before we go any further, let’s take 3 deep breaths together. If you can, try to breathe in four counts - breathe in for four counts, hold it for four counts, breathe out for four counts, and hold again for four counts. This is called Box Breathing, and it’s a helpful tool we’ll come back to later.
Ready? [pause]
Okay, let’s get started. Today’s lesson is an introduction to the public speaking system we’ll use during this course. You can use it for anything, from a training, a media interview, or even a tough conversation with a friend. It’s called GAPE -- or, Goals, Anchor, Practice, Evaluation.
You can use GAPE to prepare for situation that calls for you to present your ideas effectively, whether you have 5 days or 5 minutes.
G stands for Goals.
A stands for Anchor.
P stands for Practice.
E stands for Evaluation.
I’m going to say it again, and explain a little more about what each step means.
G stands for Goals -- Your goals. What is the point of this conversation for you? Why does it matter? What are you trying to accomplish?
A stands for Anchor. Your anchor is the grounding deep truth that you will come back to over and over again to guide your responses in this conversation.
P stands for Practice. Practice is how you’re going to make sure you get more comfortable with using your anchor -- no matter what’s going on in the conversation.
E stands for Evaluation. Your evaluation is how you’ll know if you achieved your goals or not, and what to do next.
Okay that’s GAPE!
A quick note: for the rest of the course, I will refer to whatever you’re preparing for as a conversation, regardless of what it is. I use the word “conversation” in this training, and not say, presentation or interview, because at the end of the day, that’s what you’re preparing for, even if you’re going to be the only person talking. You’re trying to connect with whoever you’re addressing.
Usually I will end each episode with an exercise for you to do. Today, instead, I recommend you take this time to decide what you’re going to use the GAPE system to prepare for.
Is it a job interview? A press conference? A tough conversation with a friend? If you’re having a hard time thinking of something, check out some of the ideas in the show notes or available on the website.
It should be a specific, real life scenario you’re dealing with -- a lot of these exercises are centered around the specific feelings and emotions that come up for you in the moment of public speaking.
The other thing I recommend is that whatever you pick is important to you - that doesn’t necessarily mean you’re addressing a lot of people.
In fact, I think this system is best when you use it the first time for more intimate conversations where you think you might have a hard time getting your ideas across.
That’s it for today -- next time we will go over the first step in the GAPE system, Goals.
