My rainbow idea started with an image of sharing, spreading, and connecting. I had that idea while on holiday in the isolated Cevennes region of France in August 2016. The image came during my morning journal writing inspired by Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way which I had found  in a box of discarded books on a street corner in San Francisco in June while attending David Nihill’s hilarious and informative FunnyBizz conference. I am not a member of the gay community, but perhaps the many rainbow flags of San Francisco were still present in my subconscious and surfaced during my journal writing. In fact, at that time I had zero fascination with rainbows or the symbolism behind them. I even had to look up rainbow on Wikipedia to verify the colors of a rainbow and the order they appeared in. I know this because I wrote, “The colors of the rainbow. No pink! Interesting discovery from Wikipedia” in my morning journal. I was that dumb! On the next page, I drew myself in this image

and wrote,

This is me sending out my rainbow – a rainbow to be received by others as there are always two ends of the rainbow and others can see too and join in the spectacle – receive the beauty, color, energy….love. This is an image to help me go forward and improve my WOW and NOW, to improve my Magic Powers of Creativity and Giving.

That image, born out of a deep desire to connect better with an audience, with life, and my creative source, has led to my blog, my workshops, my training of TEDx speakers, and now, I am proud to announce, the World Speech Day. Yes, my idea has now spread from my journal to the newly released World Speech Day guide to Speaking in Public:

WOW!!! By sharing, my rainbow idea is spreading and connecting. It even appears, through no influence of mine, on the cover of this guide. Inside, on pages 40-41, you find a section entitled Go Beyond where I describe how using the idea of rainbow colors can improve your connection with an audience. I am really excited to know that my idea is now available to speakers and students of public speaking all around the world via this exciting event and the generosity of the author, my friend and fellow Toastmaster, Evelina Judeikyte, as well as the great people behind World Speech Day.

The next World Speech Day is on March 15th, 2018. There is still time to find out about the events happening around the world and get involved. Thanks to this excellent new guide to speaking in public, March 15th will be an international day for sharing rainbow speeches too. Where will you be sharing your rainbow on March 15th?