Speaking Busybird Publishing Open Mic Night #104
By Laurie Smale
On Wednesday 18 September 2024, I attended the Busybird Publishing Open Mic Night #104 and shared some information about fear and procrastination and delivered a Magic Minute ‘snake’ story.
Special thanks to Kev Howlett for the use of this Live Video Footage from Facebook and Les Zig for being the Facilitator of the Open Mic Night.
Transcript
A newer attendee to Open Mic but I notice like when he reads a lot of what he reads resonates with the crowd because he’s speaking from the perspective of a writer who really connects with other people going through the similar frustrations and aspirations so everyone please welcome Laurie.
Story called fear and procrastination. You’re just going to wing.
Yes, just going to wing it.
This is my third third time up here and I must say that every time I come here and you folk have the courage to come up here and speak I walk away with a little bit of inspiration and having learned some insights of some sort.
So, that’s what I do. I help people have the courage to uh face their fears and speak before groups of people and now they’ve earned the right to do it.
And that stems from when I was about 13 I left school uh because I couldn’t understand maths.
Now that’s hard to get your head around that this little boy was so terrified of maths, I just ran away from school, worked in a junkyard, and for the next four decades that haunted me and I was condemned to work in factories and all the rest of it.
In the end, I did get over it and I wrote books on the subject of overcoming fear. Now fear’s fear, doesn’t matter what it is, but that’s what it is and um I ended up being a speaker before groups and helping other people to stand up like I am today and make the most of who you are because this is all there is of you really.
There ain’t no more.
So um one of my books is Finding me Finding you, the other is How to take the panic out of public speaking, and the other one is How to be a conversational success.
So they’re all you got to be right first before we can do any of those things.
You’ve got to be okay not perfect but okay.
So I um come to a dead end. I was, humbly I say, I had a name. I was out there for four decades but I was living in the old world without computers or social media. I didn’t get it. It was a terrible fear. So I said, “I’ve missed the boat!” And I didn’t go there for 20 years. I said, “No I can’t do it!”
Then, I met Sue Ellson.
One of the foremost authorities, (she comes here) on LinkedIn and changed my life.
Now I have my own blog on social media. it’s called Laurie Smale’s Magic Minute and they’re little snippets of life that uplift and inspire people. Little stories. I want to share one of them now to you. Oh yeah, watch out for that! Laurie Smale’s Magic Minute. Okay.
I have to put a story in 59 seconds. I have to have it, a beginning, a middle, and an end. It’s got to mean something. It’s got to not look like I’m rushing. This one’s called, Don’t push your luck!
So there we were. Me and my two brothers mushrooming in the back blocks of Seaford, about 1960 when we came across this magnificent snake. It was a copperhead a very deadly snake but I was mesmerized by the golden glow of its body and his body was about as thick as my little 9-year-old legs.
And then I did something absolutely crazy.
I got my big steel basket and I pushed it down on top of the snake. Why did I do that?
And the snake didn’t like it. It wanted to escape and it put its tail around my ankle and it started to lever itself out and I thought. “Hey. I was picking mushrooms two seconds before. Now I’m fighting for my life!”
And I said, “Hurry!” to my brothers who were off getting a stick.
I said, “Quick! It’s head’s getting out!” Then the the basket moved. Its head got out I thought, “I’m a gonner!
But the snake took off into the bracken fern and don’t, don’t dice with danger.
Don’t push your luck.
Just leave things be and go on your merry way.
That’s my philosophy in life.
So I’m Laurie Smale, until my next Magic Minute.
So that’s how I end. So I want to leave you with a little thought.
A little thought is that if you’ve got something that you’re afraid of, something that you haven’t got the courage to do, I was 78 nine months ago when Sue got me going. And if I can do it, you can do it. Thank you.
So you said you were 78 nine months ago. Talk about age.
Nudging 80, yeah.
Seriously, jeez I thought. Nothing like it. No, in energy, I thought you’re like in your 50s. I’m not being facetious for a change. Have you ever looked at me so cynically? Well done.
SPEAKING // Last night, I spoke at the 🕊️ Busybird Publishing Open Mic Night #104 🎤 about fear and procrastination and delivered a Magic Minute ‘snake’ story.
Watch now at https://lauriesmale.com/blog/speaking-busybird-publishing-open-mic-night-104
Special thanks to Kev Howlett for the use of the Live Video Footage and Les Zig for being the Facilitator of the Open Mic Night.
I will be at the next Open Mic Night #105 on Wednesday 16 October – hope to see you there!
#lauriesmale #lauriesmalespeaking #magicminute #busybirdpublishing
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