Things to remember:

• Every single thing you do is marketing.
• Nothing you do is immune from the impression you make.
• Sweat the small stuff and the big stuff will follow.

I gave the leadership speech, “Don’t Be a Goldfish” again. It was my second time. I think I delivered more depth and detail to the analogies this time. The club seemed to have enjoyed it quite a bit.

I personally enjoyed a few things that I heard during the hour and a half I was there. Here are a few:

1) During something that they called the “Educational Moment”, which is a 2-3 minute mini-presentation by a member educating the rest of the group about something in particular, the lady delivering it said she went on a Kristy-cation” in which she vacationed by herself. I liked that.

2) The word of the day was “Prattle” which is defined as meaningless sounds. It’s a great word for a Toastmasters meeting which can have lots of prattle if the participants aren’t careful.

3) During one of the speeches, I learned you can sleep with sharks at the Oregon Coast Aquarium. How cool is that? www.aquarium.org/education/sleep-with-the-sharks

1. Accountability
   Rising above the circumstances and taking ownership to achieve the desired results.
2. Growth
   Knowing what areas you need to develop in and always striving for improvement.
3. Professionalism
   The level of excellence that we must uphold at all times.
4. Integrity
   Doing the right thing no matter what. Even when it’s not the easy way.
5. Communication
   Conveying information clearly and effectively.
6. Focus
   Practicing self-discipline in attending to a task.
7. Confidence
   Being comfortable and sure in your knowledge and skills.
8. Initiative
   Self-motivation to do what needs to be done.
9. Engagement
   Being fully committed to the client, team and project.
10. Knowledge
    Striving to learn, expand and to turn information into insight.

The homework for the team was to create a 3-4 minute presentation and choose 3 qualities from The Leadership Wheel and…

–Describe the quality and what it means as a leader
–Describe what it means in their work
–Describe how the company demonstrates this

We will be meeting again in March and I get to hear everyone’s presentation and we’ll also cover the first leadership quality, “Accountability”.

I was impressed with the group today, the topics that were covered by the kids was outstanding. I gave a speech called, “Don’t Be a Goldfish” in which I compared how being a leader was nothing like being a goldfish.

I love being at Future Stars and watching the kids grow and gain confidence. It’s a treat.

I was the only speaker for the meeting and I talked about how important communication and leadership skills were in the workforce.

I gave a speech called “Give It Your All!”. It’s about how you should give it your all in everything you do in your life, or you shouldn’t even bother doing it. The story is based on a personal experience in my life.

They tried out a new format this time. It was a “Ted Talks” style day. There were 11 speakers all speaking 18 minutes each on various subjects. I was the kick-off speaker. I talked about teamwork and why it’s critical.

The day was amazing. There were so many wonderful speakers…Ryan Avery, Cleon Cox, Carl Cottingham, Jen Anderson, Bruce Rottink and many others.

Things to remember:

• Marketing requires a good strategy.
• A strategy is not a tactic.
• Be consistent and stick to your strategy.

The other “pros” on the panel where Jerry Fletcher, Sean Harry, Karen Landey and Joanne McCall.

I spoke about marketing strategy and touched a little bit on how to use non-traditional marketing strategies to be “sticky”. It was a fun night because after everyone on the panel each gave a speech, we sat at our own table and then we went into 20 minute segments where people came to your table, you gave them your handouts (mine were some very pointed questions about marketing strategy and also a format for starting a strategy) and they got to ask you anything they wanted to for that time before it switched to the next group.

It was a great turnout, and I had lots of fun meeting a lot of new people. The only thing was, after speaking non-stop for over 3 hours, my voice was starting to get weary.

We were having our first meeting of the year and combining with another youth group for a pretty large turnout.

The speech I gave was called “Peanut Butter and Jelly”. I talked about how communication and leadership go together like Peanut Butter and Jelly. The kids loved it. Especially when I did a demonstration about how important good communication is. I asked them to give me detailed instructions on how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. After a few misdirected commands and a few laughs, they quickly understood the importance of good communication.

If there was any way to gauge if the speech went well, this was it: One kid came up to me after the meeting and thanked me for inspiring him. That was impressive.