PART 5. I BRING IT EACH DAY
Chapter 26. FLUENCY IS WON
I'm fluent, but I still work on myself.
Cure is a bullsh*t word, right? Because I beat my stutter, right? I'm fluent, but I still work on myself. Not for stuttering stuff, right? But I work to have high confidence in my speech. Like, I want to kick ass, right? Like I want to be very smooth, right? There's sometimes when I'm super smooth, and sometimes when I'm human, and it's just an okay day, right? But I sure have a lot of good days. In public, they're all good days. In public I have all good days now. It's my f*cking playground, and it can be yours too. You got to put in the time, and you got to learn to talk to people.
What I'm teaching you is not magic. It may seem like it, but it's the real world way of how I beat my stutter and how I remain fluent. Because there's no cure. So what you see is what you get. I bring it each day. That's why I also record content out in public. Because this level of extreme fluency can't be faked.
Showing what's possible
So I recorded the first one tonight inside of my Publix, which is a grocery store chain in Florida. It was a short one. So when I was inside there, 2 people gave me like a little quick glance, cause I just walked in, recorded it in front of people, and I just left. But what I want to do is show you real stuff. I went back into Starbucks and I recorded something new. It was about 3 minutes, and it was one take, and I bought coffee, and the same cashier was there, so she was the one who took my Starbucks order again.
I can talk for 30 minutes in public with a camera on me. I can walk by a hundred people. I can do anything. These are the secrets that I'm sharing. I'm not here to brag, but I am here to prove, and I'm here to rub your face some in my success. In hopes that you will be driven again. But the Starbucks went well. I see why no one does this. I see why no one's recording long form in public, I mean, they who teach the stuttering stuff.
I just grabbed my phone. I just held it in front of me, and it recorded on both cameras, so I'm walking around holding it in front of me. I did it in a way where I tried to not look like I was doing what I was doing. So I can blend in. It's the entire time, right? There's no script. So it's just walking around talking about stuttering in front of people. But for me, it's the showing what's possible. It's all unscripted, obviously. That used to be the hardest part. I recorded 3 times in one day, Don. 3 times.
Am I 100% perfect? Nope, I don't pretend I am.
Am I 100% perfect? Nope, I don't pretend I am. I'm like 99 fluent. If perfect speech is a 1 and the worst stutter is a 10, I lived in the 6 to 8 range for most of my life. I live in the zone of a 1 now. My system for overcoming stuttering works for me every f*cking day, in every f*cking way.
Airplanes, football games, bars, parties, approaching women, grocery stores, getting lunch, gym and workout classes, at school classes or work meetings. Literally, every f*cking where. It works every day in all places. That's how you know stutters can be beaten. At my best, my speech is great, but I'm never going to be a natural 100%, the smoothest talker in the world. Now, I have a great style. I love my style, and I've worked on it.
It's one conversation at a time.
That's the thing, man. There's no perfect. But I think that's the magic in the sh*t that I'm going to share with the world. It's that it's consistent. It delivers consistency. It's consistency when you don't know what's going to happen the next moment.
Fluency is won. Each day you win it again the next f*cking day. 'Cause it's a battle. It's one conversation at a time. What's a fluent day, right? It's bullsh*t that when you have one day, you'll have a bunch. F*ck that. It's the real world, man. That's where I deal. It's a new conversation with a new person on a new day. You got to be fluent then and there. You got to produce like on the spot. Which is why I say that you got to fight each day. You got to win it each day. Is it easy? Are you f*cking kidding me? No. Am I doing it? Yes. Are you doing it? Are we all doing it?
The fluency that you bring, or that someone brings, on a Tuesday, they still have to bring it again on a Thursday, if they want to have great speech. There's no cure. So the fluency that I bring, the fluency that we bring, must be brought again.
Most of the time it's subconscious, because I've done it for so many years
Fluency really is a lifestyle. It's working on beliefs. It's working on practicing. It's working on how to have a conversation. None of the stuff that I tell you I just made up and don't use. No, it literally helped me be fluent, and I still do this stuff. Most of the time it's subconscious, because I've done it for so many years. But I still do it.
There is no greater feeling in the world than talking smoothly
The thing about speech and stuttering is, there is no greater feeling in the world than talking smoothly. Than talking without effort. I love this daily. In fact, I love talking to people! I used to not be this way. In fact, I used to hate talking to people.
But you can kill it where it's not a problem. It's more than it does not hold you back, right? It's the killing of your stutter that makes you into a superhuman, because it takes slaying this big fear. In doing so, you become brave as f*ck. It's just part of it. Once you beat your stutter, you can play in the big leagues, like me. But to do that, you got to fight, you got to battle. It's kind of a game.
Some of my friends who know me now, they say, oh, Craig talks a lot. The reason is, is because, why? It's because for 20 something years I couldn't. It was 24 of real stuttering. But like, imagine that you could talk like this, which I believe you can. Wouldn't you talk a lot, my friend?
I woke up this morning feeling very grateful, feeling like today could be the best day of my life. I'm not going on an exciting trip. I'm not flying first class, but I get to go about my day with my earned fluency, and therefore it becomes an adventure. It becomes an exciting day because I make it so.