Flying By the Seat of Your Pants:

There will always be experts, and opportunities to learn. People who know nothing and people who know everything. Teachers who teach. Preachers who preach and the guy next to you who has been there, done that. Everyone has questions about everything, and everyone expects answers to everything. Whether they’re correct or not.

Do you remember your public speaking course? No one likes public speaking. It’s one of those things you hold off until it’s the last possible option. I remember my instructor’s assignments involving the research of specific information, then turning it into some mumbo jumbo to recite in front of the class. I had absolutely no interest in being in front of a group of people and presenting information I only knew based on memorization. I maintained a B average for the class, not because I cared about the speech but because I cared about the grade.

For our last assignment, after months of repetitious memorization, my teacher gave me one heck of a surprise. She said, “Stand up in front of the class and I will give you a random topic.” “You’ll have ten seconds to start.”’ “Wow, us!”

The topic: A conflicting purchase. ?So, flying by the seat of my pants, I ran through the story of purchasing my first car. Which cost less than a thousand dollars, had an almost blown head gadget and a hood held down by bungy cords (you can see my conflict here) to which smoke poured out continuously. That is, until one day, two hours from home at a gas station with a recently purchased Snickers bar in my hand, that car burst into flames and burnt to the ground. I ate my snickers on the gas station’s rotted wood bench and watched the Linn Missouri fire department put out the flames with a smile on my face. See, the car had lasted me two years! My crap car was worth the money after all. Regardless of whether the story was true or not, and it is true. I had never had a better audience that semester.

Insurance sales is like a public speaking class. You’re communicating to an audience that generally has no idea what the heck you’re talking about, but they’re trusting that your speech is the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Funny how in your first several years, you’re hoping it’s the truth too. What leaves your lips is memorization based on previous experience, which you haven’t had a whole lot of yet. Once your audience exits the building, you’re on the phone calling your underwriter like, “We can write this class code, right?” We are expected to know everything. Then we turn to our underwriters expecting them to know everything, and they turn to their supervisors expecting them to know everything. “Who’s supposed to know this stuff?”

We are supposed to know this stuff! Too often we reciprocate that obligation to another person instead of taking responsibility for our own advancement. Too often we make our problem someone else’s problem. Not because we intentionally wish to create disrespect, but because we are afraid we will do it wrong or look stupid. Here’s the thing, even the experts do things wrong. Their expectation is not to know everything, but to learn from everything, especially their mistakes. When you speak with no passion in front of your audience about a topic you have only memorized, you lose your audience. When you’re authentic in your speech, your audience wants more. Grow a passion for what you do, and it will show in the way you speak. Remember, you’re not stupid, someone just learned it before you. - Michelle

“ If you think education is expensive, try ignorance.” – Andy McIntyre

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