Episode Transcript
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Bryan Cox (00:01):
Hello everyone and
welcome to the first episode of
the Speak On Purpose podcast.
My name is Bryan Cox and I'vebeen teaching and preaching for
many years and I've alwayswanted to share my thoughts on
communication, share my failures, share my success, and some of
(00:24):
those things I've learned alongthe way, and hopefully, this can
help you if that is somethingyou're wanting to do.
Maybe you teach a class, maybeyou're a preacher and you speak
every Sunday.
I know how difficult that is.
Maybe you lead a meeting everyweek, or maybe you just want to
know how to convey an idea in away that can make a difference.
(00:46):
Now a simple definition I cangive you for the Speak On
Purpose podcast.
Basically, we say you know it'snot just communication, you
know it's a conversation, andwhat that means is that we speak
on purpose.
Okay, another definition I'llgive you.
This may help you.
It's about using words toinspire and move people to
(01:09):
action.
That is what I've always wantedto see happen in my life.
When I give a sermon or when Iteach, I want to not just talk
and give information.
I would love to seetransformation.
I would love to see peopleactually take action and see
them change their lives, becausethat's where the power is, and
(01:30):
we give great speeches and I'veheard so many in history and I'm
going to play a few of them andthen we'll talk about them.
Some of the greatest speechesyou've ever heard in history
made such a difference, so let'splay a few of those you've ever
heard in history made such adifference.
FDR (01:46):
So let's play a few of
those, and then we'll talk about
it.
First of all, let me assert myfirm belief that the only thing
we have to fear is fear itselfNameless, unreasoning,
unjustified terror whichparalyzes needed efforts to
convert retreat into advance.
JFK (02:08):
We'll light our country and
all who serve it, and the glow
from that fire can truly lightthe world.
And so, my fellow Americans,ask not what your country can do
for you.
Ask what you can do for yourcountry.
Bryan Cox (02:33):
I get chills every
time I hear those speeches.
FDR in 1933, gave an amazingspeech to the country.
You don't have to fear, youknow, after the Great Depression
, I'm sure times were verydifficult.
We can only imagine what thatwas like.
And then John F Kennedy'sspeech.
(02:54):
I know many of you have heardthis before.
You know, I think he, from whatI've read, he spent two months
putting this speech together andjust put every word in its
right place.
He was very meticulous inmaking sure it was what he
wanted to say.
And that famous quote that's notwhat your country can do for
(03:14):
you, but what you can do foryour country.
It's so powerful and motivatingand we remember those.
They're history makers, and somy point and my goal with this
podcast would be to help me,help you, help those who teach
and lead, that we can makehistory by helping others, by
speaking great words and greatencouragement and inspiring our
(03:39):
students.
You know our congregation, withhope and faith and love, and
I've seen it.
I know it's possible.
I want to show you the otherside, though.
I want to show you the contextof a great speech, and this
one's going to challenge you now.
So don't leave me here.
Okay, I'm going to throwsomething at you.
You won't understand whatyou're hearing at first, but I
(04:03):
want you to listen to it, andthen we'll talk right after that
.
Listen to hear.
(04:36):
And if you didn't know, that wasAdolf Hitler, honestly one of
the best speakers in history.
Honestly one of the bestspeakers in history.
He did so many things tomotivate and inspire his people.
In fact, I'll translate hiswords here I believe was All
these years I have devoted mylife to the service of the
(04:59):
people.
He said Give your vote yes forme, then stand up for me as I
stood up for you.
And he did that everywhere hewent and the people followed him
and they followed him into warand millions lost their lives.
That's the power of a greatspeech, the power of words.
(05:19):
You know, communication, we saythis is more than just a
conversation.
It's actually a weapon of massdestruction or it can be a
symbol of peace.
You know the Bible talks aboutthat.
I love what the Bible saysabout words in Proverbs 18, 21.
It states the tongue has thepower to tear people down and
(05:51):
bring them death.
So we want to inspire peoplewith our words, encourage people
with our words, bring peace,and bring hope.
So I want to play one for you.
The last one I'll play for you.
That, I believe, does that verything.
This is amazing, one of myfavorite inspiring speeches I've
(06:12):
ever heard in my life.
So take a listen.
Martin Luther King (06:19):
I have a
dream that my four little
children will one day live in anation where they will not be
judged by the color of theirskin but by the content of their
character.
I have a dream today Letfreedom ring.
(06:44):
And when this happens, when weallow freedom to ring, when we
let it ring from every villageand every hamlet, from every
state and every city, we will beable to speed up that day when
all of God's children, black menand white men, Jews and
(07:05):
Gentiles, protestants, andCatholics, will be able to join
hands and sing in the words ofthe old Negro spiritual free at
last.
Free at last.
Thank God, almighty, we arefree at last.
Bryan Cox (07:22):
Yes, that's what I'm
talking about.
That's an amazing, amazingspeech in a very difficult time.
You can tell that Mr Kingreally believed in what he was
saying.
and it.
He was very passionate, youknow, about what needed to
(07:47):
happen in our country and itmoved people to action.
You know, I've always been toldthat.
You know, it's not aboutinformation when we teach or
speak or lead.
It's about transformation.
It's about making a differencewith your words that impact
people to move to actually dosomething.
(08:08):
And that takes emotion.
People have to become emotionalto do anything.
It's not just an informationdump, it's an emotional thing
for people and I think that'sthe power we have with our words
, that we can transform.
You know where we are, whereveryou may be, whatever you do to
teach or speak or lead.
(08:32):
Tell you my story, about why I'mdoing this.
Why would I take the time to doa podcast?
And I promise you I'm nottrying to be Simon Sinek or John
Maxwell, as a or as a you.
I'm not trying to be SimonSinek or John Maxwell.
I'm not that at all.
I've learned pastor, pastor,them.
They're incredible people, butI just have a story of my own
(08:55):
and I feel like I can help thoseout there that maybe are
struggling and need to know howto teach, speak, lead better.
I'm still messing leader, upteacher, probably noticed I'm
saying um and doing all thosethings.
I still struggle with that, butfor me know, I just want to be
(09:16):
real and tell you my story andhopefully it helps.
I've been in ministry for almost30 years.
I started off as a worshippastor, became an executive
pastor and then was a seniorpastor, and I've recently
stepped down and retired, and sothis is my turn to just share
(09:39):
my story with you and why Ibelieve it's so important for
you as a person.
If you're a leader or teacheror speaker, you need to
understand some things that youhave power.
You know and I know.
If you're a pastor, you havethe power of God with you, and I
know that.
But you have a chance toinspire and encourage.
(10:00):
It's not just information, it'stransformation, and I had to
learn that the hard way.
I remember a few years back,when I was just starting to
preach, I never thought I'd haveto do that.
I was the worship pastor.
You know, worship pastors, wejust sing.
We don't talk much.
What you hope the pastor hopes,the worship pastor doesn't talk
(10:21):
that much.
But when I became executivepastor they had asked me hey,
can we preach some?
And I'm like, oh no, I'm notsure about that.
I have been on stage for manyyears, so sure it's not a
problem.
So I worked on it.
I got my outline together, gotsome scripture together, really
(10:41):
worked on it really hard.
I mean, how hard could it be?
Right, I just get up there andsay a few things and I was wrong
.
But I got up there in front ofpeople and I started teaching
and I basically was reading myoutline.
You know, I began to read it andevery now and then I'd look up.
(11:02):
I feel like I'm doing prettygood, I'm reading the outline,
I'm doing pretty good, I haven'tmissed a word.
And then I look up and I lookat the audience and they look
miserable.
on her phone.
I even saw somebody in the backof the worship center reading a
(11:23):
newspaper.
This is how boring I was.
life-changing it'swrong with these people?
Don't they hear what you'resaying?
And it's almost like Godwhispered to me they're not the
problem, you're the problem.
You haven't paid attention.
Now you're saying a lot of goodthings.
(11:43):
You're reading a lot of goodthings.
You're reading a lot of things, information is great, but
there's no to trying say, and soI had to step back a say hold
on, what does that mean?
can I get through to thesepeople?
You know, and I kept for solong thinking it was me, or,
(12:06):
excuse me, that it was them thatwas the problem, when it really
was me, that I wasn't reallyworking hard, I wasn't really
paying attention to getting theidea where it needed to be, I
wasn't being creative in storiesand some people like stories,
some people don't, but for me Iwant to relate what I'm teaching
(12:31):
to your life, because for me,the greatest thing that can
happen for you as a teacher isthat your students or your
congregation, when they walk outthe door, they begin to live
what you've been teaching.
It becomes application then,and once that happens, it's life
changing.
And that's what great words andgreat speakers and what God can
(12:53):
do.
This some of may not.
You know you may not be aChristian.
I get that, that's okay, Iunderstand, but my desire is
that you would be one.
Okay, because I believe God andHis Spirit plays a big part in
how we help others, and so Iwould encourage you to do that
(13:58):
of .
of But for me, I didn't want tolive idea?
(17:21):
h T I didn't want to becomethat boring pastor.
three-question thing not for meso much, I love seeing people
change.
I love helping people.
I always have.
That's why I've been inministry for so long.
It inspires me when I seeothers get it, when I see others
change and make a difference.
So I want to take this podcastand I want to analyze you know
certain ways we speak.
You know and how we can puttogether a great speech or how
we can put together a greatsermon, or you know what can we
do to make it better.
So that's what I'm going to doon the next couple episodes.
We're going to break out someways to do that.
So I want to give you just aquick, what I believe a short
three question thing you can dotoday.
This is like something you cantry now.
That's not really difficult,that I do all the time, and
we'll break all these out in alater podcast, but this is
something that's really helpedme just in the beginning,
learning these three things.
There's three questions I justwant to give you.
It's simple, three questions.
You ask this what do you wantthem to know?
Okay, that's the first one.
Second one what do you wantthem to feel?
Very important.
And third one what do you wantthem to do?
Now we start with a no.
You've got to clearly defineyour idea.
This is what's really hard forme, and I had to understand that
I need to narrow down my ideato one sentence.
The more narrow you get withyour message, the easier it is
to communicate and the easier itwill be for your audience to
take in and becometransformation not just
information.
So what are you trying to say?
What is that big idea?
Second question is what do Iwant them to feel?
You see, I've learned thisFacts don't motivate people.
Emotions move people to action.
So we want them to feelsomething when we communicate.
What is it you want them tofeel with the words you're
sharing?
And then, what do you want themto do?
What is the action you hopeyour communication creates?
What do you want them to do?
If you don't have a clear, dothey're not going to do anything
?
You're not clear at all.
You need to work on those threequestions what do you want them
to know?
What do you want them to feel?
What do you want them to do?
There's many more ideas we canbreak out and I want to take a
few books on communication inour upcoming podcast.
I want to talk about someincredible speakers and how they
outline, how they put together,uh, either a presentation or a
sermon, and I believe I can help, because it's helped me so much
.
Uh, so many great uh speakersout there and communicators out
there that had been willing toshare their ideas and how they
do things.
So I just want to get I want tothank you for being with me
today.
Thank you for joining me forthis first episode of the Speak
On Purpose podcast.
If you enjoyed today's episode,please subscribe on your
favorite podcast platform.
We'll be back next week withanother conversation to talk
about your communication andhelp bring it to the next level,
so you can help make historywith your words.
Wherever you are today, use yourwords to speak life.
Well, if you made it this far,I want to say thank you for
listening and give you a sneakpeek into next week's episodes.
Here's what's coming up.
There's a book I love.
It's on communicating and thathas changed me.
It's changed the way I teachanything a team meeting, a
sermon, even a simpleconversation.
The book is calledCommunicating for Change, from
Andy Stanley.
Some of you may know him.
We will break this out andbegin to learn one of the ways I
know to outline or put togethera presentation, one of the best
ways I know.
It's going to be a lot of fun,so make sure you join me next
week and we'll talk to you soonAgain.
(17:41):
Speak life with your words.