See Me Speak

Bev Thompson

Growing up land-locked on the plains of rural Kansas does not provide many opportunities to speak to crowds of people — unless you find yourself in town talking about the weather. Bev Thompson remembers seeing her first tornado and likens her first public speaking experiences to being just as long-winded. She would get so nervous when she spoke she didn’t know where her next point was going to hit, or when, but she did know the damage that was done by not overcoming her shyness and nervousness. So from that point on — going toward the eye of the storm, her fear and not away from it — she immersed herself in learning the Art of Speaking.

After many high school and college speech classes and competitions in Oral Interpretation and Debate, her wish came true. For the past 18 years Bev has taught Speaking With Confidence, a course she created as an Adjunct Professor at New York University. “My right knee, to this day, still shakes when I present in front of colleagues and I think to myself, if it doesn’t wobble just a bit, something must be wrong.” Of course she knows that right knee is only shaking a wee bit after teaching, consulting, and training thousands of students and corporate clients and says with a glint in her eye, “if you aren’t just a little nervous when you’re presenting, it can’t be all that important.”

Bev Thompson believes that showing your human side and allowing yourself to be as authentic and real as possible when speaking in front of others is the only way to capture, maintain, and influence the lives of your listeners.