Founder
Al Lee, our founder, has been a public speaker for decades. He has given many hundreds of speeches, presentations, radio broadcasts, and trainings for business, issue advocacy and educational events. He has trained sales staffs how to effectively present products and ideas both in written and oral formats. He has also been a father of the bride twice and a guest at many weddings at which he observed many Parent-of-the-Bride speeches.
He has developed a unique course to help you compose and deliver a great FoB speech.
The Speech
Father of the Bride (“FoB”) speeches are akin to, but not exactly the same as, most other types of speeches. In many ways they are easier; but that is only true if you understand your objectives and your audience’s expectations–and if you are well enough prepared to feel comfortable speaking. Unfortunately many wedding speeches are awkward and clumsy. Many speakers probably would do anything to avoid watching themselves on the video afterwards because it only reminds them of how out-of-place they felt while speaking in front of the audience.
It does not have to be this way! With a little training and some simple exercises anybody can greatly increase their speaking skills and, importantly, their confidence. He can look forward to watching the video and remembering how thrilled he was to be able to express his pride and his love for his daughter and new son-in-law and his wishes for their future. And, just as important, even Mom will proudly show it to friends and family.
The Problem
Wedding Planners and Coordinators are very talented folks dedicated to designing and producing the most beautiful and flawless event possible. They do a magnificent job of managing every detail with one notable exception: the wedding speeches. It is the one part of the entire event that they have no control over and is usually left up to chance. Fathers and mothers of either of the couple are not typically experienced or trained how to write or how to present a good wedding speech. The same is true for best men, groomsmen, brides of honor, and other bridesmaids, as well as other family members who are asked to speak.
Our service helps polish that one rough spot in the wedding. We believe that anybody can train themselves, with a little help, to do a terrific wedding speech.
We can help you change what is often a low point in the beautiful event into one of the most memorable high points. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. Let’s make the most of it!
What’s Been Missing?
What should you do and what should you not do in the wedding speech? Actually, there is plenty of information you can find on the internet and most of it is pretty good. So, why are most wedding speeches still not very good? Because just knowing the information does not result in a good speech. You must apply it by training yourself to do it. That is why we created this course.
True, there are a few things you might learn from this course that you won’t find elsewhere; but the real difference is that we will have you actually doing the things you learned. And it will happen very quickly. You will be amazed at your own progress.
The Biggest Mistake
A few words about humor in your speech.
If we had to define what is the biggest mistake most wedding speakers make, it would be: They try too hard. They feel a lot of pressure to do well and to not be boring, so: they try too hard to be witty, or funny, or eloquent–or to let you know that they are a good parent, or that they “understand” their kids, or know “inside” information. They miss the entire point of the speech or toast. It is for and about celebrating the couple, not themselves–not anyone else. In their efforts to be clever and interesting they often embarrass, or worse, offend, the very persons they are toasting. This occurs all too often. We’ve all probably watched this happen many times and let it pass without comment out of kindness toward the speaker, who is often so glad to be done speaking he is not even aware what just happened. And it is so easy to avoid with just a small adjustment to the speaker’s focus.
The Course
This course is specifically designed to be easy to follow for even the most inexperienced public speakers; but, even a good speaker can benefit from it. It is not a general speaking course, rather, it focuses on the skills you need to compose and deliver a good wedding speech. It is designed to be done piecemeal over a time period of 30-90 days; but could be done in even less time if necessary. Of course, the more time you have the better.
The lessons and exercises are designed to be done alone. The course employs a training strategy borrowed from martial arts and other athletic training; first it presents a technique with a simple explanation, then it encourages you to develop the habit of employing that technique through practice and repetition. You will not only learn what to do and what to not do, you will reflexively do the right things. You will naturally start using these techniques without even having to think about them. At the same time, you will be composing a great tribute specific to your daughter and her new husband, and it will be uniquely from you; not a “canned” template speech.
By the end of this short course, you will have written, and will be able to deliver a Parent-of-the-Bride speech that is far better than the typical ones you may have heard–even if you’ve never spoken in public before. We coach you step by step.
Who Needs This?
This course is for students who have little or no experience speaking to groups. In many cases, though, even experienced speakers could benefit from it. Baseball hitters with the highest batting averages spend more time in batting practice than they do at bat!
It is also worth noting that your wedding speech is not the same as a business or sales presentation or an educational lecture. Your goal is not to impart information, not to support your position, and not to convince people to buy anything. It is to express your heartfelt feelings. Many of the strategies and techniques used when speaking for business purposes are inappropriate here. Even an experienced public speaker should approach the wedding speech a bit differently.
This course is focused on wedding speeches, so it does not waste your time on the things you will not need that would otherwise be addressed in a general public speaking course or salesmanship training. Every moment is spent on what is important for you to write and deliver this one very special speech.
Who Does Not Need This?
If you are comfortable speaking before a gathering of people and have a good idea what you want to say and are confident that you can prepare yourself, this course is not likely to be of much value to you. A FoB speech should be from the heart, the words should be yours. We are here simply to help fathers express their thoughts and feelings effectively, If you feel you can do that yourself, you do not need us and we wish for you a terrific wedding and a great FoB speech.
Getting Started
To get started, just enroll in the course by clicking the “Quick Start” button. The computer will keep track of your progress through the course. Each lesson will give you an explanation of a tactic or principle and will ask you to do some homework. The homework almost never involves writing. It involves speaking–usually when there is nobody around to hear you! Your results from this course are directly affected by how many times you do these exercises. Repetition is key to developing good habits.
We do not recommend your getting “constructive criticism” from your family members. Though it might be well-intentioned, it is often more harmful than beneficial. It is easy for a comment from someone close to you to trigger self consciousness even if the comment is technically correct. Also, isn’t it nice for them to first hear your words when you actually are saying them to your guests?
If you feel you need personal guidance from a live human coach, there is a link you can use to schedule an online, live conference call with one of us (the Quick Start package bundles one live session in with the course). Of course, there is a separate cost for this; but it is your choice whether or not you want such live coaching.
