Embracing Imperfection: Megan Washington's Lesson in Public Speaking

Megan Washington's TEDx talk is not the example you would bring to a public speaking course.

She is terrified, center stage, in front of hundreds of people, stuttering. Moreover, she's reading her speech from an iPhone, shaking.

Yet Megan Washington is used to being on stage. She is a singer who has performed hundreds of concerts and won an APRA award, the Australian equivalent of the Grammy.

Beautiful at 28, wearing a leather jacket and a trendy dress, she struggles through one phrase after another, stumbling over every word as she reads.

But the audience in the theater doesn't laugh, they aren't bewildered; they are attentive and admiring her courage. In fact, as soon as she stepped on stage, Megan told everyone that she is deathly afraid of public speaking.

That's why she reads from her phone: she wants to remember her speech. The stuttering, however, is not due to fear; she's had it since birth. Despite this issue, or rather because of it, she faces her fear of public speaking.

She's at TEDx to show that stuttering is a problem but can be lived with, even with humor. And she's good at it. She communicates her ideas and doesn't hide the emotions she's experiencing. She talks about her story, the difficulties caused by her stutter, and the importance of music in her life. She shares funny episodes from her life, her childhood, and the therapies she underwent.

She manages to make everyone empathize with her problems. When you listen to her, it's as if you stumble over your words.

Then Megan sits at the piano, starts to sing, and transforms from a terrified public speaker into a confident singer. It's magic. Her presentation is one you will remember.

Fear and vulnerability are transformed into strength. The ability to communicate with the audience through her emotions is the winning key to her TED talk (viewed online over one and a half million times). It teaches you that you can be a great speaker without being distant and professional; the important thing is to be human, allowing everyone to relate to you and understand your point of view. An important lesson for our speeches: you don't have to be perfect to be great.