"Pick up your pen and write a different story." Public Speaking World Champion, Verity Price

WEBVTT - This file has cues.

00:00:00.060 --> 00:00:04.740
Hey, how are you?
And if you say you're fine, I'm gonna

00:00:04.740 --> 00:00:10.260
assume you mean, like, the acronym.
Freaked out, insecure, neurotic,

00:00:10.620 --> 00:00:13.920
and emotional.
So,

00:00:13.920 --> 00:00:18.180
have you heard the term life quake?
Well, in this podcast,

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we talk about life quakes, those
unpredictable seismic shifts that,

00:00:21.750 --> 00:00:25.950
in time, lead to profound
personal growth and empowerment.

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Here you can expect heartfelt stories
that reveal both the joy and the

00:00:31.740 --> 00:00:38.040
discomfort of unexpected change.
And I think you're gonna like it

00:00:38.040 --> 00:00:40.950
here.
My name is Shawn,

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and this is something shifted.

00:00:49.950 --> 00:00:54.570
Today's story belongs to Verity.
Your life is a book.

00:00:54.570 --> 00:00:57.570
If you're not enjoying the read.
Pick up your pen and write a

00:00:57.570 --> 00:01:00.650
different story. That's next.

00:01:09.320 --> 00:01:12.200
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There's a saying that you regret
more the things you didn't do

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than the things you actually did.
Sometimes we use the saying to

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justify big, bold moves like
splurging on a luxury item or to

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excuse some outlandish behavior.
But in reality, the things you didn't

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do, the what ifs, the could have,
would have, should haves.

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The if onlys can haunt you for a
long time.

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The biggest regrets I have is a 23.
You don't really tell your

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parents how awesome they are.
How many of us can honestly say

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that we were showing our parents
gratitude in our younger years?

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And why would we?
For most of us in our teens and

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20s especially, were finding
ourselves in this great big world

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and life is full of possibilities.
We live fast and hard,

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with little capacity to
appreciate what and who we have.

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My dad was he was a character.
He was 48 when I was born, so he was

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a much older dad back in the 70s.
That was like really geriatric.

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So I had this older dad.
He was tall, he was skinny,

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he was bald.
He would when you'd pick me up,

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people thought he was my grandfather.
So as a teenager I was always like,

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oh, it's so uncool.
But now, looking back very.

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He can see clearly how cool her
dad actually was.

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So he was reading any book around
the power of the mind, you know,

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Think and Grow Rich or How to Win
Friends and Influence people.

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And then the poor man were trying
to share it with his opinionated

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teenage daughter and, you know.
So come on, dad, like, really?

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What do you know?
So he actually took to writing

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me letters and he would leave
them at the top of the stairwell

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in our house.
You know, if I'd been in a

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particularly bad mood or a real brat,
and he'd be like, it's very hard

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living with a 16 year old, and I
can see you going through a lot.

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And then he'd give me all this
advice going,

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maybe this will make sense later.
And he just did that relentlessly.

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At the time, Verity didn't realise
the value of these letters.

00:05:03.750 --> 00:05:09.300
I mean, she was just 16,
but her dad stuck with it,

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kept writing her letters, knowing in
his hard earned wisdom that these

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things will be important in time.
I mean, I speak about my dad a lot.

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The man's had world acclaim in
speeches I've done because he

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really was such an inspiration.
Verity was 24 and pursuing a

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music career as a songwriter in
London when her dad became ill.

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My sister and and my mom didn't want
to tell me that my dad was so sick.

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He they thought he had flu,
so they were downplaying it to me.

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But something in me just was like.
And I was about to go to Scotland

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with friends and my dad said,
go have fun. That'll be amazing.

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And then I thought, you know what?
I'm going to surprise them.

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But with just a few days before
Verity was supposed to fly out

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and surprise her family back in
South Africa, she had this

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overwhelming sense of dread.
Three days before I was meant to

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leave, I had this bizarre feeling
and I kept phoning my mum to check

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on my dad and I'd phoned him on
the way to hospital, you know,

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and and said, dad, are you okay?
I'm worried about you.

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And and my dad,
with this quirky sense of humour,

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had said, don't worry.
You know, I love breakfast in bed.

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He just was an absolute card.
But despite her dad's attempts at

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making her feel more comfortable and
that things were going to be okay,

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Verity still had this uneasy feeling.
And eventually I got hold of my mom

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and she was sobbing and I was like,
what's happened?

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And she said he had a stroke in
the ambulance being transferred.

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I managed to get off the phone and
get on a flight in December from

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London to Cape Town that night.
Change my ticket was unbelievable.

00:07:01.940 --> 00:07:04.700
Friends dropped everything.
Some of them ran out of their jobs

00:07:04.700 --> 00:07:08.240
just to get me to the airport,
and that was the longest 13 hour

00:07:08.240 --> 00:07:12.110
flight of my life.
Verity spent those 13 hours

00:07:12.110 --> 00:07:16.100
strapped into a seat thousands
of meters up in the air.

00:07:16.430 --> 00:07:20.900
She was making her way home without
knowing what reality would be waiting

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for her when she lands, not knowing
if her dad would be able to greet her

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when she touched down in Cape Town.
And I was shaken to my to my core.

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And we had a week with him and
it was really rough because he

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was paralysed.
So this very verbal father that

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I'd had could just look at me
with his eyes, and he was totally

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paralysed from the stroke.
He couldn't speak,

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he couldn't swallow.
And yeah, it was deeply,

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deeply traumatic.
Watching that and having to

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realize that he was never going to
see me do anything with my life.

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You wouldn't walk me down the aisle.
He wouldn't meet my children.

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He had a living will. He was someone.
If it's my time, it's my time.

00:08:02.750 --> 00:08:07.190
But yeah, it was. It was really hard.
And that living will, we had to

00:08:07.190 --> 00:08:12.650
override it because it had stipulated
that there would be no tube feeding.

00:08:12.650 --> 00:08:14.480
But I think when you sign
something like that,

00:08:14.480 --> 00:08:17.600
you think you're unconscious.
At that point, he was fully awake

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and aware, and we didn't know if
he was going to survive or not.

00:08:20.810 --> 00:08:24.320
And we realized it wasn't for us
to choose that.

00:08:24.320 --> 00:08:27.320
It's not if he you could see he
was hungry. It was. Yeah.

00:08:27.320 --> 00:08:32.900
It was a really, really hard week.
Veritas dad had contracted a

00:08:32.900 --> 00:08:37.700
staphylococcus infection in his
heart, which caused those flu like

00:08:37.700 --> 00:08:43.460
symptoms when he initially fell ill.
That infection went on to cause

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a stroke.
And because of the stroke,

00:08:46.480 --> 00:08:49.750
the doctors were not able to
operate on his heart.

00:08:50.260 --> 00:08:55.510
And after what was a really,
really hard week, there, it his

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father passed away. It threw me.
I went from being a very upbeat,

00:09:01.150 --> 00:09:05.920
bubbly girl to someone who struggled
with small talk at, you know,

00:09:05.920 --> 00:09:08.530
because everyone was still partying
and was still going to bars and

00:09:08.530 --> 00:09:11.560
clubs, and I actually couldn't
do it anymore because I'd really

00:09:11.560 --> 00:09:15.730
seen the the reality of life
that we lose the ones we love.

00:09:19.660 --> 00:09:23.890
There it is, the baby in the family.
She was in her mid-twenties when her

00:09:23.890 --> 00:09:29.350
dad passed away, while her siblings
were in their late 30s and had grown

00:09:29.350 --> 00:09:33.970
up lives that they needed to return
to to make sense of this loss in

00:09:33.970 --> 00:09:40.840
their own way. So when they left.
Verity stayed and I was with my mom.

00:09:40.840 --> 00:09:43.000
I mean,
I actually the minute I got home,

00:09:43.000 --> 00:09:46.240
I got into her bed and I slept in her
bed with her for months because I

00:09:46.240 --> 00:09:50.800
couldn't handle the pain of seeing
her having lost her life partner.

00:09:50.800 --> 00:09:53.470
So I think I took that on because,
you know,

00:09:53.470 --> 00:09:58.630
my sister and brother had left, and
so I was the one who stayed at home.

00:09:58.720 --> 00:10:02.650
Verity sense of loss carried
over into her work.

00:10:02.800 --> 00:10:05.260
I think I processed it through
my music.

00:10:05.260 --> 00:10:08.950
I wrote a song about him forever
and me, and it was really just

00:10:08.950 --> 00:10:12.430
celebrating the lessons he taught
me and how he'd guided me.

00:10:12.820 --> 00:10:18.310
At the time of her dad's passing,
Verity was a songwriter, and what she

00:10:18.310 --> 00:10:25.030
really wanted was to be a singer.
But fear had held her back and

00:10:25.030 --> 00:10:28.060
her dad knew this.
The last letter he ever wrote me.

00:10:28.060 --> 00:10:30.610
I was living in London,
too afraid to start singing,

00:10:30.610 --> 00:10:34.120
feeling sorry for myself.
And he took the time to write me a

00:10:34.120 --> 00:10:38.800
four page letter about how all the
people in our family my brother,

00:10:38.800 --> 00:10:41.320
my sister,
other examples had turned their lives

00:10:41.320 --> 00:10:47.250
around and that I had that choice.
Verdi's dad had always believed

00:10:47.250 --> 00:10:51.450
in the power of the mind,
and this was a way of being that was

00:10:51.450 --> 00:10:57.120
modeled to her from a very young age.
We were a very cerebral family,

00:10:57.120 --> 00:11:01.260
so it was always these big dinners
around our dining room table and

00:11:01.260 --> 00:11:04.470
talking about the power of the mind.
Both my parents were into it,

00:11:04.470 --> 00:11:09.210
my brother and sister were into it.
So from a young age I was watching

00:11:09.210 --> 00:11:13.200
the people I loved and admired play
with manifestation, play with.

00:11:13.230 --> 00:11:15.630
They were doing affirmations.
I mean, this is coming out of

00:11:15.630 --> 00:11:19.230
the 70s and 80s.
They had all those tapes that

00:11:19.230 --> 00:11:22.080
people used to listen to.
So I was brought up with that.

00:11:22.080 --> 00:11:26.400
And so while his death shook her to
her core verities, dad had given

00:11:26.400 --> 00:11:32.490
her 24 years worth of lessons and
countless number of letters about

00:11:32.490 --> 00:11:36.630
believing in the power of dreams.
And I didn't know what to do.

00:11:36.630 --> 00:11:39.960
But I also knew that I could not
live a life rooted in fear, and I

00:11:39.960 --> 00:11:43.350
couldn't live a life where I was
putting my dreams off till tomorrow,

00:11:43.350 --> 00:11:46.710
because my dad's death had shown me
that tomorrow is not guaranteed.

00:11:46.920 --> 00:11:52.260
And so I did at that point make
a very strange decision a few

00:11:52.260 --> 00:11:56.670
months after he died.
And that decision was to run the

00:11:56.670 --> 00:12:02.040
Knysna Half Marathon with a friend.
I don't run, I'm not very fit.

00:12:02.040 --> 00:12:04.710
But I said yes because it would
give me something to do.

00:12:05.880 --> 00:12:10.530
Grief can make you do strange things.
Although Verity said yes to

00:12:10.530 --> 00:12:13.680
doing a half marathon,
the thought of actually training

00:12:13.680 --> 00:12:19.620
for it was exhausting.
And she did what many of us do.

00:12:19.950 --> 00:12:24.210
She started listing all the excuses
why she wouldn't, couldn't,

00:12:24.210 --> 00:12:29.070
shouldn't do the half marathon.
But then she remembered a book by

00:12:29.070 --> 00:12:34.200
Paulo Coelho called The Pilgrimage.
And that's when Verity decided that

00:12:34.200 --> 00:12:41.330
she needed her own pilgrimage.
So rather than run the Knysna Half

00:12:41.330 --> 00:12:46.610
Marathon, she decided to walk the
Camino de Santiago across Spain.

00:12:46.820 --> 00:12:49.760
And so, in my mind,
I thought it was easier to walk

00:12:49.760 --> 00:12:56.120
800 k's than it was to run 21.
And I made a decision in a day.

00:12:56.120 --> 00:13:00.410
I signed up to go and start walking
on the six month anniversary of

00:13:00.410 --> 00:13:04.640
my dad's death, and what would
have been his 72nd birthday.

00:13:05.270 --> 00:13:09.920
And that was the hardest thing
I'd ever done.

00:13:09.920 --> 00:13:13.550
I did it on my own,
but I did it in his memory,

00:13:13.550 --> 00:13:18.020
and I did it to show myself that I
could finish something I could start

00:13:18.020 --> 00:13:21.680
and I could finish something hard.
And I called it a journey for the

00:13:21.680 --> 00:13:25.850
soul and the souls, because my word,
my feet were a mess at the end.

00:13:25.940 --> 00:13:29.480
But when I got to Santiago and I
could look at a country and go,

00:13:29.480 --> 00:13:32.930
wow, I've walked across that.
I can walk onto a stage,

00:13:32.930 --> 00:13:36.440
I can take a chance, I can try.
And I came home and that's when

00:13:36.440 --> 00:13:37.640
I recorded a demo.

00:13:45.140 --> 00:13:49.490
We make this show as a labor of love,
and because we believe stories

00:13:49.490 --> 00:13:52.820
about possibility are what the
world needs to hear.

00:13:53.030 --> 00:13:56.180
And we'd love it if you left the
show a five star review and

00:13:56.180 --> 00:14:02.000
followed something shifted on Apple
Podcasts or on Spotify or wherever

00:14:02.000 --> 00:14:06.920
you listen to good podcasts.
Go ahead and share this story of

00:14:06.920 --> 00:14:09.590
possibility with someone you love,
too.

00:14:12.470 --> 00:14:16.850
So Verity walked the Camino de
Santiago, and she returned with a

00:14:16.850 --> 00:14:21.290
new vision for her music career
to record her demo and finally

00:14:21.290 --> 00:14:24.200
conquer her stage fright.
Now, Verity had dabbled with

00:14:24.200 --> 00:14:27.680
visualization and tapping into the
power of your mind, manifesting

00:14:27.680 --> 00:14:31.550
your dreams when she was younger.
It's actually how she came to be

00:14:31.550 --> 00:14:34.460
in London as a songwriter in the
first place, and one of the

00:14:34.460 --> 00:14:38.440
clearest examples of tapping into
the power of her mind for Verity

00:14:38.470 --> 00:14:43.300
happened four years earlier.
When she was 20, she attended a

00:14:43.300 --> 00:14:46.090
workshop with her sister and heard
the story about someone who'd

00:14:46.090 --> 00:14:50.650
written a letter to the future as
if something had already happened.

00:14:51.130 --> 00:14:53.860
I was struggling to work out how
to get into the music industry

00:14:53.860 --> 00:14:57.640
because I was writing lyrics,
but I was struggling with the music.

00:14:57.640 --> 00:15:00.190
My music was a bit.
It was sweet, but it wasn't great.

00:15:00.190 --> 00:15:03.820
And I was like, oh, I just need to
find someone who is great with music,

00:15:03.820 --> 00:15:06.640
struggles with lyrics,
has a record deal so I can get

00:15:06.640 --> 00:15:10.660
my words out into the world.
And so K, my sister said, well,

00:15:10.660 --> 00:15:13.570
why don't you write a letter?
So I was like, okay, why not?

00:15:13.570 --> 00:15:17.140
And I went home and I still remember
I dated at the 20th of November

00:15:17.140 --> 00:15:22.600
and it would have been 1995.
And I said, dear perfect music

00:15:22.600 --> 00:15:26.830
Writing partner, I'm so excited I met
you tonight at LA made unbelievable

00:15:26.830 --> 00:15:29.260
that you have a record deal.
I put it all in there and said,

00:15:29.260 --> 00:15:32.110
like, I can't wait to make music
with you. Love, Verity.

00:15:32.110 --> 00:15:35.670
And I put it in my drawer and I
got on with exams at university.

00:15:35.670 --> 00:15:39.510
And when the 20th of November came, I
was actually far away from Cape Town.

00:15:39.510 --> 00:15:41.610
And I remember going, oh,
I was meant to be at Le Made

00:15:41.610 --> 00:15:45.360
like that didn't happen.
I got back a week later and one

00:15:45.360 --> 00:15:48.600
of the friends I'd been there
with like phoned up and said, oh,

00:15:48.600 --> 00:15:53.670
let's, why don't we go to Lamda?
It was 1995, and the vibe that night

00:15:53.670 --> 00:16:00.660
at Le Made just wasn't giving.
So Verity and her friend decided

00:16:00.660 --> 00:16:03.990
to leave.
But as they got up to walk out

00:16:03.990 --> 00:16:07.350
the door.
A guy came running after us and said,

00:16:07.350 --> 00:16:09.210
are you girls going?
Don't you want to come have a

00:16:09.210 --> 00:16:11.640
drink with me and my friend?
And we were like, oh my word,

00:16:11.640 --> 00:16:14.400
not this.
And then something in me went,

00:16:14.400 --> 00:16:18.210
just say yes.
So we said okay and we went over

00:16:18.210 --> 00:16:21.120
and he had this quiet little guy
sitting next to them and he said,

00:16:21.120 --> 00:16:22.680
this is Tom.
And we're like, hi, Tom,

00:16:22.680 --> 00:16:24.720
nice to meet you.
And he says, Tom is the lead

00:16:24.720 --> 00:16:28.470
singer of Black Diamond.
And I was like, what?

00:16:28.500 --> 00:16:31.230
And we chatted and I said, you know.
And he said, no, I write the music.

00:16:31.230 --> 00:16:34.950
I really struggle with lyrics.
Just like Verity had written in

00:16:34.950 --> 00:16:38.280
her letter two months earlier.
I don't think I've ever told

00:16:38.280 --> 00:16:42.510
this story before,
and I was like, no ways.

00:16:42.510 --> 00:16:46.740
And I was in the BMG studio as a
week later I wrote lyrics for

00:16:46.740 --> 00:16:50.040
two songs for them and one of
them was called southbound.

00:16:50.070 --> 00:16:54.870
That band became Semi Sane.
Tom left and it was the lead song for

00:16:54.870 --> 00:16:59.400
Big Brother when it first came out.
My jaw dropped when I first heard

00:16:59.400 --> 00:17:03.300
this story, and variety goes on to
say that she learned a very valuable

00:17:03.300 --> 00:17:09.690
lesson through this exercise in 1995,
and that is to be very specific

00:17:09.690 --> 00:17:13.140
about the details.
Now, the only thing I didn't

00:17:13.140 --> 00:17:17.190
stipulate in my letter was that I
got writing credits or royalties,

00:17:18.840 --> 00:17:24.480
but I got exactly what I'd asked for,
and I think because I'd done it

00:17:24.480 --> 00:17:27.360
in such a playful way,
not really thinking it would work,

00:17:27.360 --> 00:17:31.490
there was just no resistance in
the way of that manifesting,

00:17:31.490 --> 00:17:34.550
but it was freaky.
And that's the kind of stuff that,

00:17:34.550 --> 00:17:37.130
like, my family had encouraged
and we played with.

00:17:37.130 --> 00:17:39.800
And, you know, I've tried it
many times with the lottery.

00:17:39.800 --> 00:17:44.090
It's never worked,
but there's been a few times where

00:17:44.090 --> 00:17:47.810
that's the influence and that's the
magic they've helped me create.

00:17:48.140 --> 00:17:51.980
So with the visualization and
the positivity that her parents

00:17:51.980 --> 00:17:55.460
instilled in her, together with
the experiences of the universe

00:17:55.460 --> 00:18:01.040
responding to her dreams and the
confidence she slowly forged on that

00:18:01.040 --> 00:18:06.080
800 kilometer walk across Spain,
Verity knew she wanted to get

00:18:06.080 --> 00:18:08.750
over her stage fright.
They might move to America.

00:18:08.750 --> 00:18:11.720
Had followed a man to America,
as we say, great life choice.

00:18:11.720 --> 00:18:14.960
But it got me there and I was having
to tell people I was a singer and

00:18:14.960 --> 00:18:18.950
I was trying to get things going.
So the person who helped me get

00:18:18.950 --> 00:18:22.640
over my stage fright was a singing
coach in America called Joe,

00:18:22.640 --> 00:18:27.110
and he was this African American man,
retired Motown singer, looked like

00:18:27.110 --> 00:18:31.160
James Brown, absolute Character,
and I went to Joe for lessons because

00:18:31.160 --> 00:18:34.280
I still was incredibly nervous.
I lacked confidence,

00:18:34.670 --> 00:18:37.850
and he was like, Verity, I'm not
going to teach you how to sing.

00:18:37.850 --> 00:18:40.040
I'm going to teach you how to be
confident.

00:18:40.460 --> 00:18:43.880
I was like, okay, well, good luck.
Let's see how you do that.

00:18:43.880 --> 00:18:47.840
And Joe's way of teaching
confidence was to make anything

00:18:47.840 --> 00:18:51.170
that could go wrong go wrong.
He would interrupt me.

00:18:51.170 --> 00:18:53.060
He would turn up the music,
turn down the music,

00:18:53.060 --> 00:18:57.020
knock over the mic, shout at me.
And every time I would lose my place,

00:18:57.020 --> 00:19:00.470
he'd be Verity.
When things go wrong, just keep on.

00:19:01.220 --> 00:19:04.790
And at the end of my three months
with him, I wasn't sure if the

00:19:04.790 --> 00:19:07.910
lessons were working, but I was clear
my relationship wasn't working.

00:19:07.910 --> 00:19:11.600
So I came home and something had
worked because I had the courage

00:19:11.600 --> 00:19:16.250
to get on stage.
And Joe was right. She'd done it.

00:19:16.250 --> 00:19:20.150
Verity had overcome her stage fright
and had slowly started building

00:19:20.150 --> 00:19:24.170
her music career by gigging around
Cape Town, and in order to take her

00:19:24.170 --> 00:19:28.720
career to the next level, Verity
knew she needed to record an album,

00:19:29.140 --> 00:19:34.210
but she didn't have the 300,000
odd rand to make that happen.

00:19:34.480 --> 00:19:37.630
And I got stuck at that point
where I think a lot of people get

00:19:37.630 --> 00:19:40.750
stuck going. There's my dream.
Here's an obstacle.

00:19:41.080 --> 00:19:45.070
Life's not fair, people. Why me?
And I was that person,

00:19:45.070 --> 00:19:49.270
and my dad would not have been proud.
Like I got into a proper victim state

00:19:49.480 --> 00:19:53.140
and I stayed there for two years.
And then eventually I was like,

00:19:53.140 --> 00:19:55.240
I either have to give up or have
to get creative.

00:19:55.240 --> 00:19:59.350
Something needs to shift.
And that was when I sat down with

00:19:59.350 --> 00:20:04.300
my sister K, who in our family,
she does all the hard work.

00:20:04.300 --> 00:20:06.640
She's the oldest, she'll tell
you she does all the hard work.

00:20:06.640 --> 00:20:11.050
It was at this point that Verity and
K rolled up their sleeves and did

00:20:11.050 --> 00:20:15.400
what their dad had taught them to do,
use the power of their minds.

00:20:15.430 --> 00:20:19.330
This time they turned to the six
Thinking Hats by Edward de Bono

00:20:19.330 --> 00:20:22.540
as a problem solving framework
to raise money.

00:20:22.570 --> 00:20:27.010
We did 30 minutes of using this
amazing framework for thinking, and I

00:20:27.010 --> 00:20:30.370
came up with an idea to ask people
to buy an album I hadn't recorded.

00:20:31.240 --> 00:20:34.240
Now everyone will go, oh,
that's crowdfunding now.

00:20:34.240 --> 00:20:37.150
And I'm like, yes,
but in 2005 that was called crazy.

00:20:37.300 --> 00:20:42.250
Like no one had done that before.
But the obstacle and finally

00:20:42.250 --> 00:20:47.080
realizing I couldn't stay stuck,
pushed me to shift poster to find a

00:20:47.080 --> 00:20:52.150
way to solve that problem and to take
action on a crazy idea and really

00:20:52.150 --> 00:20:57.220
take a chance with possibly failing.
But I was so excited to see if I

00:20:57.220 --> 00:20:59.500
could get people to buy
something that didn't exist.

00:20:59.500 --> 00:21:04.780
But we sold 2000 copies of nothing in
25 countries. We gave 10% to charity.

00:21:04.810 --> 00:21:09.490
We released it in 2007 and I
didn't become famous for music.

00:21:10.060 --> 00:21:12.400
Everyone was like,
come speak to us about innovation.

00:21:12.400 --> 00:21:15.100
I was like, that's not the plan.
I'm trying to be a pop star.

00:21:15.220 --> 00:21:19.630
So with all the positive thinking,
the manifestation using the power of

00:21:19.630 --> 00:21:24.120
her mind, you might be wondering,
did Verity make it as a pop star.

00:21:24.810 --> 00:21:28.650
So I was very disappointed the
music career didn't take off,

00:21:28.650 --> 00:21:32.550
but I really started to grapple
with depression, with anxiety.

00:21:32.850 --> 00:21:35.670
And for anyone who knows the
Enneagram personality thing,

00:21:35.670 --> 00:21:38.040
I'm a for.
And for those that don't know

00:21:38.040 --> 00:21:42.060
that Enneagram personality thing,
a four is an individualist.

00:21:42.060 --> 00:21:45.630
They're a self-aware, sensitive,
emotionally honest,

00:21:45.630 --> 00:21:50.820
creative people, but they can
also be moody and self-conscious.

00:21:51.030 --> 00:21:55.380
So shame is my is my friend often in
the back seat and sometimes in the

00:21:55.380 --> 00:21:59.670
driver's seat if I'm not careful.
So I really struggled with my life.

00:21:59.670 --> 00:22:01.290
Doesn't look the way it's
supposed to look.

00:22:01.290 --> 00:22:05.340
And it was my ego's idea of you
meant to be famous.

00:22:05.340 --> 00:22:09.000
The world is meant to love you and
choose you and say yes to you,

00:22:09.000 --> 00:22:12.660
and then you'll be happy.
And my soul was going, no,

00:22:12.660 --> 00:22:15.960
actually, this was showing you
how to do things differently.

00:22:15.960 --> 00:22:19.740
And now you have the opportunity
to help other people solve their

00:22:19.740 --> 00:22:24.630
problems, because I had to have
the grace to let go of the ego's

00:22:24.630 --> 00:22:29.370
dream and step onto the soul path.
And then my life became so much

00:22:29.370 --> 00:22:31.650
easier.
The biggest lesson I learned from

00:22:31.650 --> 00:22:35.280
that was that your ego often has one
idea of what your life should look

00:22:35.280 --> 00:22:41.940
like, and your soul has another.
The journey to her soul path was

00:22:41.940 --> 00:22:45.450
also a steep climb.
But by now you know that Verity

00:22:45.450 --> 00:22:50.250
doesn't choose the easy route.
She doesn't do the 21km when she

00:22:50.250 --> 00:22:56.340
can go 800km.
Verity Soul path led her to the World

00:22:56.340 --> 00:23:01.440
Championships of public speaking,
and this would be her stage.

00:23:02.370 --> 00:23:07.800
I had entered in 2012,
not understanding the scope and

00:23:07.800 --> 00:23:12.060
of how huge this contest was,
with 35,000 contestants from 150

00:23:12.060 --> 00:23:16.560
countries. I competed again in 2015.
I got as far as the Western Cape

00:23:16.560 --> 00:23:20.810
level where I came third, and then at
that point I put a lid on it and

00:23:20.810 --> 00:23:24.170
thoughts, but of a fixed mindset.
And then something shifted for

00:23:24.170 --> 00:23:28.580
me in 2020.
And the man who became the 2020

00:23:28.580 --> 00:23:33.680
world champion, Mike Carr.
His speech was about innovation

00:23:33.680 --> 00:23:37.040
and his message was the victory
is not in the result.

00:23:37.040 --> 00:23:41.390
The victory is in the try.
And I think we all like when you hear

00:23:41.390 --> 00:23:43.910
a message when you're ready for it.
And I was like, I'm not even

00:23:43.910 --> 00:23:49.130
trying with this contest.
And a week later I had to do a

00:23:49.130 --> 00:23:53.060
little speech at my club,
and I shared a story about my mum

00:23:53.060 --> 00:23:56.150
growing up would always say to me,
Verity, we need to leave the

00:23:56.150 --> 00:23:59.930
world better than we find it.
And I would get again as a

00:23:59.930 --> 00:24:03.740
tempestuous 16 year old. Oh, come.
On, mama, what do you know?

00:24:04.130 --> 00:24:06.320
And I wrote a speech about how
actually,

00:24:06.320 --> 00:24:09.980
that is how I've lived my life. She.
She'd succeeded in drilling it

00:24:09.980 --> 00:24:11.720
into me.
I suddenly thought,

00:24:11.720 --> 00:24:13.880
that's a contest speech.
That's a speech that could do

00:24:13.880 --> 00:24:18.170
well in a contest.
And like, seconds after thinking

00:24:18.170 --> 00:24:21.800
that, a voice inside me said, you're
going to be the next world champion.

00:24:22.400 --> 00:24:24.560
And I got goosebumps because I
was like, no, come on.

00:24:24.560 --> 00:24:27.380
Like 35,000 people.
No one from Africa has ever won that.

00:24:27.380 --> 00:24:31.820
That's ridiculous.
And so Verity set out to become

00:24:31.820 --> 00:24:35.930
the world public speaking
champion in 2021.

00:24:36.230 --> 00:24:40.580
And so I started working three
months before the first contest

00:24:40.580 --> 00:24:45.380
with this single minded focus to
bring the trophy back to Africa.

00:24:45.560 --> 00:24:48.830
So it is the hardest I've ever
worked on anything in my life.

00:24:48.830 --> 00:24:52.670
We're talking 3 to 4 hours a day
writing speeches, delivering them

00:24:52.670 --> 00:24:55.970
at online clubs, getting feedback,
paying for coaching.

00:24:55.970 --> 00:25:00.620
Varieties, life experiences and
the immense amount of effort was

00:25:00.620 --> 00:25:03.290
starting to pay off.
By the time I won the Southern

00:25:03.290 --> 00:25:06.050
African level,
I had 12 countries going.

00:25:06.050 --> 00:25:08.480
We think this is going to be the
first time someone brings this

00:25:08.480 --> 00:25:12.230
home to Africa. No pressure.
I was like, come on,

00:25:12.230 --> 00:25:14.660
this is ridiculous.
80 years and no one's won it from

00:25:14.660 --> 00:25:18.070
this continent and only five women.
That has to change.

00:25:18.190 --> 00:25:21.730
With each new opportunity to
deliver the same speech.

00:25:21.760 --> 00:25:26.620
Verde's confidence continued to grow.
And now she found herself in the

00:25:26.620 --> 00:25:30.460
semi-finals of the World Public
Speaking Championships.

00:25:31.330 --> 00:25:34.150
Eight speakers in the world.
I was the only woman left standing

00:25:34.150 --> 00:25:38.860
and the only speaker from Africa.
It's my speech about my mum got me

00:25:38.860 --> 00:25:45.010
into the finals. For the final round.
Speakers are asked to deliver a

00:25:45.010 --> 00:25:48.850
brand new speech, something that
nobody has heard before.

00:25:49.090 --> 00:25:53.500
Verity had the chance to tell a
very special story.

00:25:54.340 --> 00:25:58.450
And I had a second speech ready that
I'd been working on for 100 days

00:25:58.480 --> 00:26:03.370
about my dad and about that last
letter he wrote to me before he died.

00:26:04.480 --> 00:26:08.890
And I gave it everything,
and it was life changing to hear

00:26:08.890 --> 00:26:12.070
the news that I'd actually won.
These speeches were such testaments

00:26:12.070 --> 00:26:16.990
to my parents that I cried so much
while rehearsing them and hoping they

00:26:16.990 --> 00:26:20.260
could hear how much I love them.
And my speech that I won with

00:26:20.260 --> 00:26:22.750
was literally saying,
your life is a book.

00:26:22.750 --> 00:26:25.780
If you're not enjoying the read.
Pick up your pen and write a

00:26:25.780 --> 00:26:29.650
different story.
So it was about being the author

00:26:29.650 --> 00:26:33.640
of your life.
And so, even though Verity might

00:26:33.640 --> 00:26:36.970
have regretted her teenage
feelings towards her dad,

00:26:37.270 --> 00:26:42.400
she made sure to tell him how
cool he was in many ways, since.

00:26:43.030 --> 00:26:48.880
He did a lot to process that in the
years after he after he passed,

00:26:49.120 --> 00:26:56.290
I wrote it as a song and it was
the what I wanted my dad to know

00:26:56.290 --> 00:26:59.680
was how much he taught me.
And thank you for teaching me to

00:26:59.680 --> 00:27:03.190
live life with nature's tools.
You know, speak other people's

00:27:03.190 --> 00:27:06.640
tongues, don't stick to stupid rules.
Do as you would have done.

00:27:07.060 --> 00:27:09.790
But it really was.
He taught me how to live lightly

00:27:09.790 --> 00:27:13.300
on the world, how to live,
but also live lightly with humour

00:27:13.300 --> 00:27:17.550
Humor and connection to others and
to have a reverence for nature.

00:27:17.820 --> 00:27:21.450
And I told him that, you know,
he just could squeeze my hand

00:27:21.450 --> 00:27:24.840
and look at me.
It's easy to think you've got time.

00:27:24.840 --> 00:27:28.380
So I think he had an inkling.
But wherever he's looking down

00:27:28.380 --> 00:27:30.780
from now,
I think he's got a very good idea.

00:27:33.750 --> 00:27:37.500
Verity Pryce works in the
competitive industry of public

00:27:37.500 --> 00:27:41.610
speaking and facilitation, helping
others write their own stories.

00:27:42.210 --> 00:27:45.090
She lives in Claremont with her
husband and little boy.

00:27:45.600 --> 00:27:48.210
And you can listen to this song
she wrote for her dad,

00:27:48.210 --> 00:27:56.790
Forever in Me on Spotify.
Thank you for listening to this

00:27:56.790 --> 00:27:59.940
episode of Something Shifted.
We make this show as a labor of love,

00:27:59.940 --> 00:28:03.210
and because we believe stories
about possibility, it's just

00:28:03.210 --> 00:28:05.400
what the world needs to hear.
We'd really love it if you would

00:28:05.400 --> 00:28:08.700
share this episode and be part of
that shift for someone else, too.

00:28:08.700 --> 00:28:12.540
And if you really like the show,
go ahead and leave it a five star

00:28:12.540 --> 00:28:17.070
review and follow something shifted
on Apple Podcasts or on Spotify.

00:28:17.430 --> 00:28:20.430
You can also leave a comment if
you're using Spotify mobile.

00:28:20.460 --> 00:28:23.490
I read them all and respond
there too.

00:28:23.730 --> 00:28:27.330
Don't forget to use my code
shift 50 at checkout when you

00:28:27.330 --> 00:28:32.190
place your very first order on
Yukos and you'll get 50% off.

00:28:32.400 --> 00:28:36.510
You can join my mailing list 321
shift and start the week off right

00:28:36.510 --> 00:28:39.450
with three things for your mind.
Two things for your body and one

00:28:39.450 --> 00:28:41.940
thing for your soul.
Every second Sunday.

00:28:41.940 --> 00:28:45.630
Plus, you'll automatically go into
the draw for giveaways and have first

00:28:45.630 --> 00:28:49.200
dibs on tickets to live events.
To all of the links to all of

00:28:49.200 --> 00:28:51.420
the things that I've mentioned
are in the show notes.

00:28:51.750 --> 00:28:55.560
Big thanks, as always to my executive
producer for additional writing,

00:28:55.560 --> 00:28:59.700
Rhonda, and of course to you for
believing in possibility.

00:29:00.090 --> 00:29:06.240
My name is Shawn and this is
something shifted by.