An Accountant, a Comedian and a Parrot went to the HMRC...

Dear

This month, it’s all about me: a true-life case study.   What I’ve done, what it’s done for me and what it could do for you.

I’ve been up to funny business. No, not embezzling clients’ funds.  I’m talking about learning a new trade:  stand up comedy.  Culminating in a live stand-up session at a night-club where I launched a one-woman assault on the stereotype of us accountants as just boring number-crunchers.

Stand-up! You exclaim. That’s brave!

Here’s how brave: at my own wedding reception, I didn’t dare take the microphone! So how come public speaking has become for me, a key marketing activity?

I evolved from shrinking violet in three stages.

• I identified a fear – and confronted it.
• I focused on it consciously and overcame it.
• I turned it into a pleasure.

I call this Blended Living™.  If something is unavoidable, learn to enjoy it!  And make it pleasurable by capitalising on strengths, not fretting over weaknesses.

So let’s get back to my comedy set: what have I taken from it that could benefit you?

• I learned not to be demoralised by other people’s fears. ‘Carol, that’s so scary!’ means the speaker’s scared, not Carol.
• I improved my presentational skills. Onstage, I had my NLP skills to massage my listeners with pace and timing.  But to make my message stick – to be effective rather than just efficient – I had to entertain.
• I confirmed another NLP tenet: modelling.  All skills can be isolated, analysed, developed and learned. That’s exactly what we did!
• I knew my material by heart, something previously unthinkable for me. Mind-mapping, which I teach as a core thinking tool, allowed me to memorise my 10 minute comedy set flawlessly.
• In so far as I had nerves (NLP helped control them) they were positive, boosting adrenaline and energy, and fuelling my anger (see below).
• What a launch-pad for future presentations!
• What a store of advice to offer you!
• Most of all, I was so angry about the ‘boring accountants’ stereotype that I had a real sense of pride and mission in attacking it!

Not that I anticipate sainthood in the New Year’s Honours: we accountants already have a saint.

In fact, although Ken Dodd’s attorney George Carman observed that ‘Some accountants are comedians, but comedians are never accountants’, the two professions actually share a saint. 

You better believe it!  Just google ‘accountants+comedians+St Lawrence Jewry’.

And don’t forget to email me at theaccountantscoach. for help with your presentation and public speaking fears. 

I’m here to help!

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