How NLP Helped Max Brown to Win Class President

by Al Wadleigh

In his freshman year, Max Brown wanted more than anything to be class president. But his intense shyness and fear of public speaking prevented him from winning. When he got up in front of a group he would stutter, his face would flush, he would feel faint and dizzy and he felt overly self-conscious. Not a state conducive to winning an election.

At the end of the NLP Comprehensive Practitioner Certification Training we have a Guest Day where people come in with real problems and our students work with them in a supervised context as part of the certification process.

Max chose to participate in our Guest Day to work with his fear of public speaking. It changed his life. He was guided through three NLP processes: the Phobia process, the Circle of Excellence, and some timeline work. Max went through the summer feeling like nothing had changed.

When he returned to school in the fall as a sophomore he ran again for class president. This time when he got up to give his speech he looked out at all those people and thought to himself, “What’s the worst thing that could happen? I could make a fool of myself.”

And then he thought, “Oh well.” And he went on to give a great speech without any anxiety and hasn’t had any anxiety since then. He was elected class president and credits NLP with helping him to gain the resources that helped him win. Max now routinely speaks in front of groups of people with confidence and ease.

Max is now 17 years old and a Junior at Fountain Valley High School in Colorado Springs. He has applied what he learned during the Guest Day to other areas of his life such as managing his class work and taking tests. He has also started to do peer counseling and wants to develop his leadership skills and writing ability.