Leveraging Someone Else's Experience

 When you speak from experience, does it have to be your own?

Last week, my husband went on an extended bicycling trip across Nebraska.  I used his experience to answer a table topics question for which I won "best table topic" and to give a speech (at a different meeting) for which I won "best speaker."

I often encourage people to speak from their own personal experiences, but leveraging the experiences of others can be powerful as well.  In the case of my husband's experience, I contrasted his experience of being out in nature, biking, and camping with my own of being in a house with air conditioning and a bed.  I strove to make his experience interesting, even though I wasn't sharing it from first hand knowledge.

For the prepared speech, I got stories and information from my husband.  I got to learn more about his trip and then share it with others.  I even got pictures from him that he was willing to share!  I practiced not only my presentation skills, but my listening skills as I found out what my husband found most interesting about his trip.  Being able to understand and convey the ideas of others is perhaps even more valuable a skill than being able to convey our own ideas.

My challenge for others:  combine your experience with the experiences of others to get a more complete picture and tell a more complete story.  Leverage someone else's experience for a fun way to step beyond yourself and give a compelling presentation!