My First Public Speech

Many people assume that I’ve been doing speeches for years; they assume this because I happen to be quite good at speaking. But the truth is, I’ve never done a public speech in my life, until the first-ever JP Conference this past July, at the age of 40.

For the last decade, I have been making video content online which has been composed of commentary, rants, and interviews. My first videos, as you could imagine, were horrible, as I didn’t know how to speak well; but over the years, I improved my speaking skills by literally talking to myself, practicing as if I were doing interviews, running a seminar, or making a speech in front of a live audience. Sounds crazy, I know, but that’s how you get good at speaking: Just like a boxer will “shadow box” with an imaginary opponent to hone his skills; you must speak to an imaginary audience to hone yours.

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Who Motivated Me?

Who motivated me to practice speaking?

The answer is, one of the greatest orators in history: Adolf Hitler.

Like myself, Hitler was a war veteran who loved his country, but didn’t have much talent, aside from painting. However, he did have passion and a deep sense of patriotism, which lead him on a great journey. I’m similar to him in a sense, that I’m very artistic and creative, and I can make music and write well, but aside from these two things, I’m not a professional or expert in any field. However, my passion and patriotism has also led me on similar journey, in a struggle against the same enemy.

There was one entry in Mein Kampf that really struck a cord with me; and it was what Hitler realized about himself after doing his first speech in front of 111 people:

. . .We had organized the meeting in the Munich Hofbrauhauskeller (not to be confused with the Munich Hofbrauhaus-Festsaal), a little room with a capacity of barely one hundred and thirty people. To me personally, the room seemed like a big hall and each of us was worried whether we would succeed in filling this “mighty” edifice with people.

At seven o’clock one hundred and eleven people were present and the meeting was opened.

A Munich professor made the main speech, and I, for the first time, in public, was to speak second.

In the eyes of Herr Harrer, then first chairman of the party, the affair seemed a great adventure. This gentleman, who was certainly otherwise honest, just happened to be convinced that I might be capable of doing certain things, but not of speaking. And even in the time that followed he could not be dissuaded from this opinion.

Things turned out differently. In this first meeting that could be called public I had been granted twenty minutes’ speaking time.

I spoke for thirty minutes, and what before I had simply felt within me, without in any way knowing it, was now proved by reality: I could speak! . . .

“I could speak” was also something I realized about myself, after years of making content and going viral over and over again across the world, reaching millions of diverse peoples with my rants and clips. But never have a done a speech in public before, so I didn’t know what to expect when I first stepped up to the podium at the JP Conference. This was my chance to see if could really speak.

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The Test

To challenge myself and see what I was made of, I decided to do my speech without any notes, bullet points, or a topic in mind. I had built enough confidence over the years to just “go with the flow,” and pretend this speech was no different than what I’ve done thousands of times before in front of a webcam, blocking out the fact I was speaking in public, and treating it as if I were doing this speech from my office.

I walked up and spoke off the cuff, producing a speech from my heart and soul. I think I did okay for my first go, but know I could do better next time. It was supposed to only be 10 mins, but I went on for 20.

I now present my first public speech to you, to see what you think about it:

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