Public Speaking

My Ice Breaker #TM

Garth Beyer

Hello fellow Toastmasters,

I know this is supposed to be about me, and it will be, but for a moment I want it to be about each one of you. What I want you to do is to take 20 seconds and ask yourself who are the five most influential people to you. Who do you look up to, admire, respect. Is it bill gates and his generosity, or is it Jillian Michaels or Tony Horton and their healthy fitness attitudes, or maybe just your grandma. Go ahead and take a moment to write the names down on the backside of the ballet sheet or just memorize them.

I was asked just the other week to name the five people who influence me most. I came up with

Brian Tracy

Zig Ziglar

Seth Godin

Oscar Wilde

And Tim Ferriss

Maybe you have heard of these people and maybe not. I won’t say you should know them because we are all focused in a different direction in our lives. The reason I wanted you to do this activity was because I believe that everyone should be living their passion. The biggest reason why few are living their passion is not because they “cant”. The universe would never hold you back from doing what you love. The reason is that few know what their passion is.

No one can answer “what is the point of life” for themselves. I had you participate so that if you don’t know what your passion is, I may have lead you one step closer because what I want you to do later  is to sit down and find a common factor between all of top 5 influencers to you. While it may not lead you directly to the point of life, it may make finding your passion much easier.

What my top 5 influencers have in common is that they are all authors and public speakers. But they all bring their unique qualities to the table. Zig Ziglar is motivating and full of wisdom, Brian Tracy is light and gives you the baby steps to life success, Seth Godin forces you to view all angles the and specializes in marketing, Oscar Wilde gives you a flash of history and a bit of romance, and Tim Ferriss is all about making yourself the experiment and breaking status quo.

Unlike these influencers, I have a “problem”. I have too many interests and specialties and goals in life. Last time I counted the number of life goals I had written down, it was over 250. I love to learn new languages like German and French, I love to travel, Parkour, write poetry, try new experiences, live a healthy lifestyle and countless more. All of which I look forward to sharing with you in future speeches.

I hope it’s clear that all of the characters I mentioned, and hopefully I am included with them, live by the quote “Think twice before you speak, because your words and influence will plant the seed of either success or failure in the mind of another.” By Napoleon hill

Can you begin to tell what my passions are yet? I hope it’s clear that I love to motivate, inspire, and encourage people to live the lives that best suit them and their goals in life. Just as well, I love to write and be a financial advisor and a goal consultant. And I do so, right now, by blogging on my website at GarthBox.com where my focus is to get you out of your box one life lesson at a time. And I am a firm believer in walking your talk, practicing what you preach and all the other clichés about following the advice you give to others.

But I wasn’t always like this. I had a rough childhood. I don’t remember ever seeing my parents kiss and they were divorcing before I could make the connection. I had an older brother that could have been the perfect role model, but became addicted to drugs and alcohol. My two closest friends that filled the positions of my brother went into the military and the other moved to Texas.

All of this left school to be the only place I could enjoy since it was away from what I was supposed to call “home”, I still had friends there, and of course there were plenty of ladies to chase after. It was not until my sophomore year that I was ready to really educate myself and focus at school instead of using it to cope.

It was my sophomore year that I was able to participate in the Running Start Program where I spent my junior and senior year attending Rock Valley College in Rockford, Illinois. In the end of the program, I, along with 43 other students, ended up getting our associates degrees two days before our high school diplomas. It was during my two years at college that I began to take responsibility for my life. I began to learn and understand many of life’s lessons and knew where I wanted to go in life.

And here I am. I just moved to Madison from Illinois nearly six months ago. On a side note, I said earlier that I practice what I preach and the reason why I make a great financial advisor is that I am already reaping the benefits of money management. VERY few 18 year olds have the finances or maturity to accomplish the goal of living on their own and supporting themselves without the help of a family or loan.

Now, I am going to be attending UW-Madison in the fall. I am going to major in mass communications and journalism and minor in marketing.  As much of a believer I am in a formal education I joked on facebook the other day that people should like my status if they learned more from Google than from school. There are great benefits to having a formal education, but even greater benefits from self-education and gathering informal credentials.

This is where my self-improvement self-educating attitude comes from and the reason I provide out-of-the-box life lessons to everyone. It is also the reason why I joined Toastmasters. I took a speech class in college and, not only loved it, but rocked it. I think giving speeches is one of the coolest things a person can do and something that is great about it is that not too many do it. Sure there are plenty of variables to it, but the main reason few like public speaking is simply, fear. I told myself once before that one of my missions in life is to overcome fear without hesitation. As uncomfortable as it is to put yourself out there, I do it. Because I live my life by the quote I have tattooed on my back, “If you don’t try, you fail”.

Thank you.

Reactions, Responses, Tips and Testimonials

After giving my first speech at Toastmasters and receiving very positive feedback, I thought I would share it with you. I am putting this up for other Toastmasters and public speakers to view and consider as a proficient piece of work to use as a bit of a guide. I also wanted to share it along with the feedback I received from the club and my evaluators feedback as a Testimonial. At the end I will share some tips about Public Speaking and why my speech was as great as everyone said it was.

“All the greatest lessons in life, are simple.”

My speech ended after 8 minutes and 30 seconds. What I posted above was the hardcore draft I wrote and practiced from. For the most part I stuck to my plan but deviated a few times to make it more casual and not ‘stuck to script’. I wrote up my speech on Monday and practiced it Monday – Wednesday. I suggest taking at least three days to practice your speech, especially if your time is limited with a full-time job. The following is the feedback provided on the ballots.

“I enjoyed your speech. I thought you had a very engaging intro. I liked the organization. You make good eye contact.”

“Excellent job. I like how you introduced the topic by asking the crowd to list their influencers. you are already a proficient speaker. thank you for gracing us with your energy and your knowledge”

“I like your courage of overcoming fears. Thanks for sharing your passion of life. I believe you will be a great public speaker”

“So open and energetic! Love that! Enthusiasm is what we love and want for ourselves. Just a tough long, maybe, a little meandering at the end. But so enjoyable!”

“Got us engaged with a great questions activity. Very well dressed as a presenter. Very comfortable. notes seemed to be well laid out. You have a great voice and great diction and I think this is something you will benefit from”

“Very nice speech. we got to know what you are looking for in your life”

“Good organization of speech, good eye contact, good use of humor, i liked the personal sharing, maybe more of it”

Now I have to laugh. On the backside of the last evaluation ballot there was written “Steve Jobs Barack Obama”. (Remember, I asked everyone to write names of the people who influence them on the backside of the ballot sheet since I was the only one giving a speech that day). Next is the evaluation required in the workbook.

“Very confident. Good eye contact, comfortable, easy presence. Mentioned a # of life goals, talked about your childhood and how that influenced you – good taste of what you are about. Well prepared. Very clear and appropriate volume. Very good opening with audience participation and pauses. Nice conclusion with body gestures – moving forward with body  when you were talking about ‘putting yourself out there’. Glanced at notes once. Possibly incorporate more gestures. Liked Everything! Good intro, bring in audience participation and also your interest in motivation – by asking us to live our life passion.”

To say the least, I signed up for my next speech for the next meeting and hope to share it with you as well. Now for the best part of the post, public speaking tips for you!

  • The greatest action you can take to make it seem that you are not reading from a script is hand gestures. You have to take the audience’s focus away from what you are saying, and have them focus on how you are saying it and presenting it. The impact you are making is far more important than the words you are sharing – show it.
  • Have you made a past speech that you knew you rocked AND have a picture of yourself from it? Frame it and put a sticky note next to it with the reasons you know why your speech was excellent. Look back on it to remind you what you did perfectly and should focus on for your next speech. (You can see mine in the picture above. I have written “Graduation Speech” – Not Nervous – Prepared – Large audience – Motivational – So many more to come – *signed*)
  • Exploit nervousness. The day of my presentation, I can get really nervous. Unlike others, I use it to my advantage. You can too! I do not try to repress the feelings of nervousness – I pull as much of it out. I let myself get sweaty or shaky and lose my appetite. By the time I am finally up to give my speech, I wore my nervous system out. I tell myself before I begin speaking that I have been nervous all day for this, so now its time to be confident.
  • Practice makes perfect. WRONG. It is perfect practice that makes perfect. When you are practicing your speech, go all out. Set up the area you are practicing to look as much like the area you will be presenting in later. Imagine the audience you will be speaking to. Exaggerate all hand motions and gestures as well as raising and lowering the volume of your voice. Do not memorize the words in your speech, memorize your speech – everything about it.
  • Lastly (Have to save more lessons to share next time), people forget the biggest principle about speeches. The intro and conclusion better be the hardest hitting and MEMORIZED. I guarantee that if you memorize an incredible intro and conclusion, no one will care how you presented the fluff of your speech. For that matter, the intro and conclusion cover the simplified version of what is in your body. What does every person in the audience want, whether they show it or not? Quick Compact Convenience.

Stay Positive and Slice The Bread (A lot smoother than breaking ice)

Garth E. Beyer

How To Become 3+ Billion Times More Connected, Successful, and Happy

Garth Beyer

If I asked you who taught you to speak English, you would say your parents.

If I asked you who taught you how to think, you would say your parents.

Am I wrong when I say that people who teach you language, teach you how to think?

 

I doubt the educational system realizes the greatness they are producing by requiring the youth to take language classes. I even more so doubt that YOU realize the greatness.

  • Learning a different language than your native tongue opens your mind to the possibilities of exploring the world.
  • Hearing a language makes you feel connected with the world even in your home town.
  • I love Improv, so knowing another language allows me to really work new personalities and different cultures into an Improv show. I can imitate Hitler in a humorous way, I can reenact the German language parts of movies, I can create any type of German person I want, all because I learned another language.
  • With another language, you rarely learn negative vocabulary, so you do not know how to produce negative feelings – Stay Positive
  • As a more fun reason to learn another language, you get to become someone else. You have just opened another path that you can walk while you walk your current path. A double life of excellence. You can make up a common German or Italian name (Mine is Gregor, in German).

While language gives you a new way of thinking by having you analyze, articulate, write, and explore a certain language, it does something far greater for you.

On the base level, you open your mind to growth, the more you understand about language, the more you can comprehend about life. Yet there is something even greater… not only does it expand your mind for greater understanding, but it expands it to “Not understand” — Not understand why so many people limit themselves in their learning. It compels you to “not understand” why people can think they can be one of the most successful people on the planet without being able to talk and understand the lifestyles of people on the other side of the planet. The reason I am writing this post is because I do not understand why anyone is content with knowing one language. Language allows you to connect.

If you talk to a woman in a language she understands, that goes to her head.
If you talk to her in her language, that goes to her heart.

Which person do you think learns more and is more successful? The person who only knows english and can only connect with less than 3 billion people? Or the person who knows two, three, four, five languages that can connect with 6+ billion people. Twice as many as the single language speaker. The ability to speak and connect with 1 billion more people than you can now, would dramatically improve your life. Traveling would not be a dream, it would become a reality. Job opportunities would open across the globe. You would be exposed to millions of more women and men to find your true love. (Maybe you wont find someone in a foreign territory, but when you find one near your home place, you can serenade her with the language you now know!)

A Manual Aptitude For An Einstein

With language, you are not only open to connecting with billions of people, but also billions of books and information. With a better understanding of the world and the endless amount of knowledge it provides, you can become a genius.

Language is the archives of history. – Ralph Waldo Emerson

In the world of learning a language and how to think, it does not matter what “success” is to you. The fact is, that no matter what success means to you, learning another language will get you there 3+ billion times faster with 3+ billion times greater of an experience, a journey.

Learning a language is like being born again. You are now able to make all the decisions you made in your native language. But this time, you can make the right ones.

 

Stay Positive, and 3+ Billion Times More Positive Than Before

Garth  E. Beyer – Like Confucius, “In his speech, he wishes to be sincere”

Improv-e Leadership: A Toastmasters Collaboration

Garth Beyer

Making leaders is a lot easier than most believe — and it’s FUN. It is not so much about teaching others how to become leaders. I could write hundreds of posts about leadership that you will shake your head in agreement with. Although, even after reading all the leadership lessons, I know that you still wont be a leader. Why not?

Improv Leadership was the theme I created at last nights Toastmasters meeting, as I was the designated Table Topics Master. I, just as you are doing now, have been studying all the leadership lessons and qualities I can get my eyes on. We all know the most successful people in the world were great leaders.

Leaders create legacies.

Note: You will need to understand the art of Improv before reading further. Click here to get the definition or visit my post on Improv Writing. You can skip your exploration of the art of Improv if you feel you are capable of getting your creative juices flowing.

All leaders were creative, without the skill they could not have created a legacy.

As a member of Improv Anonymous in Illinois, I learned to play a game called “Story Story Die”. The leader of the group would ask the audience to come up with a situation and an object and then create a quirky title out of it. Then the game begins as “Once Upon A Time..” and the leader would begin to point at each member of the Improv group. The Improv member who the the leader points to would have to start telling the story, focusing on the audience suggestions. In the middle of telling the story, the leader would then point to another member and they would have to take up where the last member left in the story. When one member takes too long to respond, has no clue where they are in the story, says something ridiculous, or flat-out chokes — everyone laughs and yells out “DIE”. The leader then asks the audience how they want them to die: poisonous snake bite, death by dandelions, thinking too hard about why the sky is blue, etc. The member acts out their death and the game continues until only one person remains. Then they have to successfully end the story. There you have it, the theatrical game of “Story Story Die”.

The Humorous Way To Open Up And Find Your Personal Leadership Qualities

Normally this activity is outrageously funny because the topics are ridiculously crazy and the members of the team are experts at humor. However, for the Table Topics, I wanted to turn a fun activity into a fun semi-professional learning experience. Thus, I joined Improv with Leadership. I opened the floor with the game and made sure everyone would try their best to revolve the story around leadership. Here is a short synopsis of it, written by our Toastmaster of the evening.

“Garth performed his first table topics, “Impromptu leadership.”  As a group we told a fun Piece-by-piece story (with the pieces being very short from each member) about a group of hikers (Kevin) on the Appalachian trail (Matt) who find themselves confronted by a hunter (Xiao Lei), stumble upon an heretofore unknown desert (Shirley), become confused and start hallucinating (Chris and others).  Joan plucks out the map and realizes they are just a half mile from shelter and storms off (Margaret), but they don’t have enough water to get there (Jill), and they all perish (Garth), because they don’t have good leadership.”

During the story told by all the Toastmasters members, I did not have anyone “Die” so I had to make all the characters in the end die. It’s Improv; make it up as you go.

Leadership Cannot Be Taught, Leadership Comes From…

As I said, you can teach someone all the qualities of a leader but that will not make them a successful leader. Leaders become leaders because they recognize their best qualities and exploit them. It is not about teaching leadership, it’s about bringing out the leader within. So after the story, I began asking questions to have members of the meeting acknowledge their own independent leadership qualities. I asked questions like the following:

1. Who is a leader to you and why?

2. What would you do if the club, job, or organization that you are part of, made you the leader for a day?

3. Tell me a story of a time when you had to take the lead.

4. Define leadership.

5. Who wants to be a leader? What are you doing to ensure you continue to grow and develop as a leader?

6. What three qualities do you think a leader must have?

7. What advice would you give to someone going into a leadership position for the first time?

Now I think you should answer the questions yourself. Realize that becoming a leader is not something you can become by reading books, listening to cd’s and attending seminars. Becoming a leader comes from within. When you realize your greatest potential, your best qualities, what YOU define as leadership, only then can you become the greatest leader of all — The Leader of Your Self

2028 Election Won Primarily From Public Speaking

Garth Beyer

I was interviewed by Rockford Register Star when I was in the Running Start Program and was asked what I wanted to be when I was older. I told them I aimed to be the youngest President in history. That means I would be 35/36 in 2028 depending which day in November the election is held since my birthday is 11/6/92. I am putting this in the Public Speaking section because I came up with a public speaking strategy for my campaign.

Unlike all Presidents, I would visit states more than once.

First Visit: Talk about the people, talk about myself and talk about my plans/goals/etc.

Second Visit: Respond to questions from people after they had heard my presentation.

I also have an alternative I would try if that seemed to not be the most beneficial technique.

First Visit: To listen to what everyone wants, to hear questions they have and to talk with the people personally.

Second Visit: Answering and discussing the questions and concerns they want to know about rather than going off about this or that when half of the listeners do not understand what I am talking about.

The point is to get to know them and be prepared. Do you realize that the best beginners of public speaking do this? Before they have to present, they are NOT practicing their speech in the back, they are out with the audience getting involved. They are performing the best preparation a public speaker can perform: Knowing your audience.

 

Stay Positive and Connect First, Then Speak

Garth E. Beyer

Greetings Speech To Other Classmates

Greetings Speech To Other Classmates

Garth Beyer

I was scanning through old documents on my computer and came across my first opening speech for my Speech class. We all had about two minutes to talk about ourselves and connect with each other. Here is what I shared.. of course this is my outline, the speech had to be partly impromptu. But preparation is key!

Now, this is the story all about how
My life got flipped-turned upside down
And I’d like to take a minute
Just sit right there
I’ll tell you how I became the prince of a town called Belvidere.

Well, really I would like to begin by sharing a quote by a famous band, Silverstein . “If you don’t try you fail.” Growing up I developed a positive attitude toward life and with that came an endless amount of opportunities. Now I wont blabber on about all the various opportunities I have been given, but  will share just one. Being a relatively smart person I was one of fifty students that grasped hold of the opportunity to take college courses as a junior in highschool.  For all those wondering, I do not attend highschool at all, strictly only at the college each day.  The program is called Running Start which you may have heard of. I jumped on the opportunity,  passed the college admittance exam, and attended meetings for the program, and that is where I saw the girl of my dreams. One year later in my senior year of highschool, and my sophomore year of college, i had a best friend who has been so for just over a year, and who is also my girlfriend for 5 months and counting. The point of the story, if you do not grab hold of opportunities that life sends to you, you do fail because in a single opportunity, may lie a hundred more, and one out of that 100 just might be love.

I have to admit that I did not share the cheesy love part of the speech. I went on to talk about the importance of taking every opportunity to be successful. So what do you think?

Stay Positive and Strong With Your First Opening Speech

Garth E. Beyer

Slap In The Face Elevator Speech

Garth Beyer

For everyone who does not know, an Elevator Speech is like taking an entire encyclopedia book set and turning it into a one page slap in the face. I call it a slap in the face race because those who can summarize themselves or their business to get their listener to act the quickest, wins. The typical elevator speech summarizes

1 everything you do*

2 everything you are made of*

3 everything the listener should consider

4 everything you envision*

5 everything you achieved*

5.5 every reason the person you’re talking to should quit whatever job they have and come work for you

*Note: I always remind people that an elevator speech should encompass both your business and yourself because the listener may love your business but not like you and vise-verse. It is not only about getting someone to fall in love with your business — winning them over and having them fall in love with your purpose is just as important.

How To Start Writing An Elevator Speech

Molly Gordon advises you to jot down words and phrases that stand out most to you and promote yourself and your business. She then has you pick two of the words or phrases and reflect upon them to create part of your elevator speech. Almost the same as breaking down an encyclopedia isn’t it? Just as you, if I were given enough time to use a thesaurus to find words that made my blog sound as if it were rated #1 in all countries of the world, I could. Unlike Molly, I don’t want you to choose two out of the hundred words you think of. I want you to choose two words that encompass the hundred words you wrote down and the thousand you didn’t. Once you have accomplished this, you have the basis of your elevator speech. Now you can do the same for the 5.5 variables of an elevator speech that I provided above. Make a list for each variable and then finding two words or phrases that encompass everything on your list, do not use the best two achievements. Why not? Because you can gloat about specifics after your elevator speech is up.

How To Get Off The Elevator… With Your Investor

Personally, I do not have an elevator speech, not because I hate time limits and restrictions. I think having time restrictions on everything in life allows you to live it to the fullest (Pareto Principle). I do not have one because I do not see an elevator speech as being a pitch to sell an idea. I do not see it as a challenge which the only reward is getting a chance to have a longer conversation at a later time. The true point of an elevator speech is to get your listeners to forget about the thirty seconds. What I bring to the table with every new idea is the goal of forgetting the time limit. Every meeting I go to, especially the ones with a time limit of 15 min, 30 min, or an hour, I make it a goal to be there longer. Whether I am with there along with the other members, or just the boss — I am there after the meeting “ends”.

At one job interview I had, I was told that I had 30 minutes because they were meeting others to interview as well. Before the day of the interview, I told myself that I was going to be there for 45 minutes. I told other people as well because I know the power in telling people that you are going to do something. (Fear of disappointing the ones you love is a strong motivator) The next day I checked my phone for the time as I left the Coffee shop where the interview was held… 45 minutes exactly. I promoted myself and connected with the employer enough to get them to forget about the time limit. Success

Why Bother Having An Elevator Speech

If it does not make sense to you yet, an elevator speech is “one of the most effective methods available to reach new buyers and clients with a winning message”, says Bloomberg BusinessWeek. You might be thinking how you are going to work hard for everything in life and there are no easy rides to success like an elevator. I was once told that the elevator in life is always broken — I was going to have to take the stairs. How true is that? We will always have to work for our success, hence the “stairs to success” or “steps to success”. Although I look up to the one who told me that, I have to argue that the elevator is always there but someone is always on it already. You can’t argue that you wont get your chance to take the elevator at a hotel no matter how many people are using it. Your time will come. I am positive that each and every one of us gets at least one chance to use the elevator..

Will you be ready to go on?

Stay Positive and Prepared

Garth E. Beyer

Who Writes for Writers?

Garth Beyer

A writer is someone who writes. Or is it?

Eliot Rose seems to express it as something much more than someone who simply writes.

It is sort of obvious the difference between a Writer and someone who writes. What I want to know is who writes for writers?

Every career in the world has someone writing on them. The politicians have journalists swarming over them like they just battered their bee hive. Even small home improvement business’s have writers discussing their products in articles and people online blogging about their experience at the business and videos of their products. (More often funny than promotional) Even the common person has people writing for them, that is how we get both non-fiction and fiction books. I ask again, who writes for writers?

The answer slightly touched my mind as I was reading blogs at ProBlogger which is mainly a collection of guest posts. Guest posts?

Many blogs use guest posts instead of interviews. The blog will let someone who they think has something worthy to say and relates to their niche to write a post for their blog. This is best promoted when the guest blogger is someone of extreme significance and is well-known. The ability to impact readers works just the same for someone who simply has an interest in what the blog naturally discusses.

Then I was wondering how negatively effective it is to have a guest post that has nothing to do with your niche. Sparingly, it could throw people off track, inspire a new idea, change perspectives, and simply remind people why they come to your blog. Of course the guest blog would be different than what your niche is, but that doesn’t mean it can’t still be something your passionate about. (Ex. Your niche blog is Public Speaking. You also have a passion for exercise but never blog about it. Guest blogger comes and writes a blog on fitness.) Now you get a chance to create a connection between fitness and public speaking. Let’s see how good you really are as a Writer. Proving that you can make those sort of connections interesting would attract all the more writers.

Now instead of attracting readers who have an interest in Public speaking, you now attract readers who’s niche is fitness but have a passion for public speaking. Viewers go up. Well I gave my answer for the question, “Who writes for the writers?”     What’s your answer?

Stay Positive and Go Out And Write For Other Writers Too (someone has to)

Garth E. Beyer

“Two is better than One. Especially when Two can multiply your followers”

I am looking for Guest Bloggers that write about life lessons. You can email me at TheGarthBox@gmail.com