A public speaking trainer from Birmingham, Alabama, USA, has proved that he is quite the vocal virtuoso.
Patrick O’Mara holds the record title for the most speeches in 24 hours after delivering 32 different 10-minute impromptu speeches.
Each speech was unscripted, spontaneous, and unique to all other speeches.
Patrick decided to attempt the record after seeing an article on LinkedIn where a local food truck company broke the record title for the most corn husked in one minute (team of four).
He thought the record was interesting and called the record holder to ask him about it.
After learning more about the application process, Patrick decided he wanted recognition as a Guinness World Records title holder to promote his public speaking business.
Patrick applied to set the record and in November 2022, received approval to go ahead with his attempt but quickly realized he couldn't do it alone.
Attempting the record didn’t just involve delivering speeches, he had to work through a number of logistical challenges that appeared one after another.
He decided he needed help and contacted Dr. Patrick Murphy, the Goodrich Chair of the University of Alabama at Birmingham J. Frank Barefield, Jr. Entrepreneurship Program.
“He worked with students majoring in business and entrepreneurship and the students needed a project to develop their real-world entrepreneurship skills,” said Patrick.
“Dr. Murphy agreed to assign me to a team of six graduating seniors who would use this experience as their class project.”
Together, Patrick and the students found more than 30 different venues that agreed to let Patrick use their location meeting space, and arranged for over 10 people to attend each presentation.
They also created a marketing campaign to funnel pre-registered participants into a database that Patrick could later track and email.
Patrick delivered his speeches in all kinds of venues - from gyms to museums, and everything in between.
To come up with content for his speeches, Patrick used fortune cookies.
“Since each speech needed to be ‘off the cuff,’ I chose to use fortune cookies to provide me with topics,” he said.
“At each venue, I’d open up a new fortune cookie then create a 10-minute speech off of whatever the fortune cookie said.”
The fortune cookie topics ranged from 'how not to give up' to 'the practice of being patient'.
Patrick says although he always gets nervous prior to delivering a speech, a few minutes into his speeches he would begin to feel good.
“I was very pleased with the audience interaction and feedback,” he said.
Many folks thought my messages were inspirational, and some wanted to get pictures with me.
Patrick says the best part about his record achievement was being “in the zone” and creating new 10-minute speeches for each audience.
“I was able to apply a public speaking framework to each speech,” he said.
“This allowed me to tap into a part of my mind that kept me talking coherently about anything that came up.”
However, Patrick admits that he did run into some challenges during the record attempt.
Before his first speech, he opened a fortune cookie without a fortune and twice opened a fortune he had already seen.
“Many of my fortune cookies referenced ‘friendship’,” said Patrick.
“After a while, I was running low on friendship material!”
Patrick also says he was so wired with emotion, energy, and passion, he got choked up a few times on certain types of content and personal stories.
Despite the challenges, Patrick says going after the record title was worth it.
“Though my initial motivation for pursuing this world record was work-related, it quickly evolved to where I could use this experience to improve my own public speaking skills,” he said.
“From that point, it became a personal quest to see if I had what it takes to break a record, and if I was willing to work hard enough to do so.”
In the future, Patrick would like to deliver a TED Talk in 2024 titled “A Spoonful of Sugar Helps the Message Go Down,” and hopes to create a keynote speech about his Guinness World Records experience.
He also says although he would never attempt this record title again because of the logistical challenges, he would try his hand at the most push ups in one minute (male).
“Like the old saying… which probably has been shared in a fortune cookie… ‘The journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step’,” said Patrick.
As long as I focused almost solely on the task in front of me and didn’t allow myself to get too overwhelmed by the end result, the work that went into this attempt was mostly manageable.
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