“It’s not you, it’s me:  Time to discuss our relationship.” Our effervescent Ericka Butler prepared us for a story of personal heartbreak.  (C&L Manual Speech #9 Persuade.)  “We need to talk, there’s plenty of blame to go round.  I take the Majority of the blame.”  Then she suggested we push the Reset Button.  She spoke of derivatives and how we all benefited financially.  She reported that many of us used our homes as ATMs.  She suggested that we had a need for fiscal responsibility in our own lives.  She also mentioned S&P down grading the USA credit level, Arab spring, Gitmo, insecure Politian’s seeking love and attention, lobbyists with agendas, and our nation being in a trench with the walls collapsing.  Ericka said it was time to push the reset button and fix things.  Ericka left us with three suggestions.  Cross-pollination of congress was one of them.  Ericka closed with “It’s me; I take the majority of the blame”.  We must nominate that lady for a political office! 

“The New IHOP” Once again the Audience had an erroneous title mindset only to have Linda Hall bring us to a new and different IHOP concept.  Linda celebrated her birthday with a special meal at IHOP.  She used language not only to communicate visual images, but auditory and olfactory with music (she even sang a little) and the smell of onions and chilies.  We went upstairs and downstairs at this two story IHOP, mentally wondering, while Linda spoke, just where this IHOP was located.  We met Linda’s friends from Indonesia, and Romania.  We finally learned, amid balloons, little Zachery, a fabulous meal, and a cake from Mozart Bakery that Linda’s birthday dinner gathering was at her home, the International House of People.  It was a nice twist and we all had a fun visit!

Following a seven minute break with delicious food and much visiting, we returned to hear “Are you not working at networking?”  Richard Kirby asked us if we were building a team to help us get what we want.  He encouraged us to get at least 25 people out every day looking out for us.  He spoke of the TEAM concept, Together Everyone Achieves More.  He told us to imagine what we could accomplish if we had 25 folks helping us.  He gave us four strategies: 1. Go one- on-one, strengthen your network relationships so they will keep you in mind.  2. Pay it forward by asking how you can help others, 3. Follow up on a timely and consistent basis and 4.Leverage LinkedIn by staying current so recruiters don’t overlook you.   By helping others get what they want out of their lives, you can achieve your own goals, according to Zig Ziegler and Richard.  By the way, this was Richard’s 10 Speech!  Congratulations Richard on completion of you CTM. 

Cindy Cannon served as General Evaluator and called on her team for their reports.  Mimi as acting president thanked Claudia for an excellently run program.  Business included the great news that Kelly Vandever had completed her club mentoring and other requirements and is eligible to receive her DTM on September 24^th.  Congratulations Kelly for a job well done as well as making us all so proud. 

No meeting Labor Day but be here September 12^th for another fine evening with the fine folks of Speakers Roundtable Toastmaster Club. 

Linda Hall led us down the bridal path with her speech, “The Little Black Book.”  We definitely felt we were in for some salacious stories, until she produced the club’s Guest Book, which just happensto be black with silver border scrolling. Linda did a thorough analysis of our guests, even built a spread sheetof those who had attended at least one time. Of the 142 signatures, she tallied 90 one time visitors.  Of these 90 club visitors, nine went on tojoin Speakers Roundtable.  These guests turned members are:  Cindy Cannon, Ericka Butler, Richard Kirby, Shea Ellison, Tom Nixon, Minola Robison, Mimi Williams, Craig Keyworth, and our speaker for the evening, Linda Hall.  In other words, 10% joined and became successful club members and officers! Our hearts swelled with pride until Linda mentioned the remaining 81 folks that we still needed to reach out to. Not to worry, Linda has this in plan. By the way, we found this club information much more interesting than some smutty little black book story. Didn’t we?

We were blessed to have David Flach deliver his “Cold Calling Success Part III: What to Say.” Members and guest hung on his every word, and wrote notes fast and furiously as David spoke.  He briefly recapped Part I:  Cold calling is the most effective and proactive way of reaching prospective clients, and Part II:  Pre-qualifying your prospect list until it is well meshed.  David moved right in to Part III:  What to say.  This part delves into creating and customizing scripts.  Yes, we’ve all had telemarketers call reading their scripts monotonously into our ears, but real cold calling is clear, concise and appeals specifically to the intended client.    We all use scripts.  Dave refers to the 2P’s; prepare the script and practice the script.  One script does not fit all prospective customers or their unique situations.  Next we learned that there were two types of script formats, the first is the live call. Part of this script includes your reason for calling, who you and your company are, the compelling reason why you are calling, and then agreement on the next action.  David acted out his side of a demonstration script. The second script is shorter and intended for a message machine or voice mail.  David’s presentation was loaded with encouraging, well thought out, and powerfully presented information.  We all went home with our heads bulging with David’s wonderful information, especially those members making cold calls this week.

Following break, Keith led us into Table Topics and “The Secret of My Success.”  Briefly, it went as follows:  Cindy Cannon:  Just do it! Shea Ellison:  Learning and growing.  Mimi Williams:  Meditation and affirmations.  Cindy Light: Do it anyway, don’t be afraid.  Donna Lange:  Fear is my friend.  David Flach:  Do what you love, love it back and deliver more than you promise.  Linda Hall:  Talk to people, use humor, and listen.  Iris Grimm: Do it.  Share yourself, expand yourself, make a contribution in life. Erick Butler:  Breathing!  Yoga, be in the moment.  Get the voices out of your head.  Merrilee Morris:  Attitude, ethics, and gratitude.  Keith Schroder:  Starbucks. Make a to-do list each morning over that first cup of coffee.  Accomplish what is on your list.

General Evaluator Mimi Williams called for reports from her team.  Cindy Cannon gave a thorough grammarian report of our so’s, you knows and ahs.  She commented on several interesting words that had been used during the evening. Iris Grimm had one full evening of timing and did an excellent job keeping us all on track.  Mimi felt we’d had an evening of ‘”great take a ways.” President Shea Ellison thanked Keith for a successful meeting.  See you next week!

Yes, it was back to school as members were called to order by our teacher, I mean Toastmaster for the evening, Manola Robison.   We found handouts at our seats exposing us to Homonyms, Homographs and  Homophones which had us stretching our verbal and creative skills.

Our first  speech was a eulogy, “Honoring a Beloved  Friend” by Merrilee Morris.  She was  dressed totally in black and had an open pine box containing a book.  We learned that we were honoring BOOK, whose demise after 2,000 years of profoundly enriching and changing our lives, would be a greater loss than we could imagine. We learned about BOOK’s earliest ancestors from 6,000 years ago and how BOOK was conceived in various places throughout the world.  Although BOOK was able to survive the birth  of Mass Media, BOOK had succumbed to the digital or e-book culture.  Reverently, Merrilee placed the lid on the pine box, laid a white rose on top, bowed her head and walked silently away, leaving a confused audience, wanting desperately to laugh raucously, but understanding the seriousness of a eulogy.  Rest in peace dear BOOK.

Fortunately, our second speaker, Donna Satchell left no one confused or adrift in her speech, “How Serious Are You”.  She asked us to think about our goals, to focus in on them, to ask ourselves what we wanted to accomplish.  She then told us of a special dinner date at the Cheesecake Factory where she learned there were definitely different levels of seriousness.  Donna developed her concept of the five levels of seriousness.  She went right to the first one, NOT SERIOUS where some folks can be all talk and no action.  She compared how she
talked and talked about going back to college, but did nothing while the years ticked by.  We then learned about EOE, or evidence of effort, which indicates you are doing little things to overcome self-doubt, get unstuck, and move toward your goal.  Margaret Mitchell and the possibility of not having Gone with the Wind brought her points quickly home.   Now we are seriously waiting for Donna to speak on the other unnamed four levels in her concept of “How Serious Are You.”

We had an eight minute break which was ample time to devour the delicious fruit pizza Manola brought.  (Definitely EOSE.  . . evidence of special effort!)  In the absence of our 3^rd speaker, the club agreed to evaluate a four minute talk Merrilee is preparing for a memorial service this September.  Then it was on to total fun Homonyms, Homographs and Homophones.

Ericka Butler and her evaluation team gave reports on how we handled the language (Richard Kirby) and how we did time wise (Craig Keyworth).  Following Ericka’s report we had a brief
discussion on membership, attendance, a more current contact list and the possibility of buying the web site, Speakers Roundtable.org.  Attendees were encouraged to contact members
who hadn’t been attending and encourage them to come to the next meeting.  Mimi Williams announced that she would be sending the next four week schedule out yet this evening.  We wrapped up yet another fun and informative meeting.

Manola Robison took us into a more somber mood with her speech, “Ethics in Our Lives Today.”  This was speech number 7, Research Your Topic.  Manola opened with a statement from the Wall Street Journal, lamenting today’s lack of ethics, that there seems to be no standards.  Somehow good people making tough choices sometimes lose their moral compass.  She quoted Kidder and the four ethical dilemmas: 1. Trust vs. Loyalty, 2. Individual vs. Community, 3. Short Term vs. Long Term and 4. Justice vs. Mercy.  She backed up her statements with current facts, stats, polls, testimony, magazines articles, even quotes from the Georgia General Assembly in supporting the decline of ethics.  Amid all the research stats, Manola included a personal story and some humor. In closing she encouraged each of us to help in restoring our societal moral compass. 

Toastmaster Craig kept us on schedule with a five minute break, hardly time enough to devour the beautiful fruit plate Manola prepared or scoff up the cheese and brownies that had also appeared. 

Our final speaker of the evening was Linda Hall, a lady 30 years in the insurance industry.  Her speech, “Best of Both Worlds” opened with a John F Kennedy quote on how he had had the best of both worlds, “Harvard educated with a Yale degree.” Linda spoke of her creativity and people skills and how she was able to weave them into a career in the insurance industry.  She told of interviewing in New York in a sneaker and a high heel after blowing her knee while taking the train.  After 6 ½ years she left NY and headed south, with no job in her pocket, but youth and faith.  Her temp agency positions still leave her confused as to what her duties actually were.  She did, however, land a position with H & H which is an Insurance Brokerage Firm, only to find four former co-workers from NY already working there.  Linda took a circuitous route to use her creativity and people skills, but she’s found her calling in the insurance industry. 

Craig called Claudia Brogan up for her GE/Grammarian report.  She commented on our excellent use of the language, though she did catch a few ah’s and a double clutch.  She was pleased so many folks used the word of the evening, astute.  As GE she suggested that we always introduce ourselves when opening a meeting and welcome members and guests into our space.  A thorough report, Claudia.   Thanks to everyone, we had a wow meeting.   

Congratulations to President Shea Ellison on winning the evaluation contest this past weekend.  We were not represented in the Humorous Speech Contest as Kelly Vandevier was out of town. Please see the posted schedule on this web site for next week’s (August 16) meeting assignments. 

Dwayne’s speech, “The Itzy Bitsy Spider” transported us all back to kindergarten as we shamelessly sought to out-sing each other via this tune. When we finished Dwayne asked what we had learned from this little spider. He referred to the spider as a small creature, big teacher. We learned of the spider’s perseverance and then we learned of Dwayne’s perseverance. He was on a Toastmaster winning streak, taking the title in Tall tales, winning in humorous and then going after the big one, International Speech Contest; and loosing. All of his expectations went whooshing down the rain spout when he came in second. He quoted Henry Ford saying “Failure is the opportunity to begin again more intelligently.” He spoke of the sun as hope and the bright belief that we will succeed. Perseverance is a key to winning; and yep, he did!

Craig Keyworth’s opened his speech, “Communicate Persuasively for Best Results” with a question, “Who here tonight had communicated persuasively within the last month, week, day.” We learned that all communication had some level of persuasiveness, verbal, non-verbal, body language or gestures, and appearance. How do we communicate a message to an audience effectively? Craig told us that during his talk he would discuss various elements that would help us improve our ability to communicate persuasively. He then spoke briefly on: audience, active listening, logic and emotion, objections and resistance, and lessons learned. Craig spoke persuasively on getting the best results through skilled persuasive communication.

Following an eight minute break and a nice variety of refreshments, we returned to our seats to hear Richard Kirby ask, “What Color is Your Career Book?” Richard has a five minute slot to present his latest book, Fast Track Your Job Search (and Career) to a group of career guidance professionals. Richard suggested it was hard to compress a book two years in the writing into five critical minutes, but, alas, a wonderful opportunity. Who does it help? Clients and community. Who benefits? Unemployed and underemployed. Those seeking job satisfaction. What’s in the book? Functional pieces of all you need to know. Where is it applicable? Primarily in the private sector. When is it needed? How is it structured? What are the myths? And there’s an exercise to help you determine what you are going to do. Richard used vivid power points and also passed out a colorful bookmarker to the audience with information about his book. Persuasive? Yes!

Our president, Sgt at Arms and General Evaluator, Shea Ellison, returned to the lectern to call on his team. Donna Satchell gently made us aware of our improper use of the English language. Mimi Williams was pleased to report that all speeches and evaluations fell within their designated times. David Flach, our videographer recorded speech pixels galore. We finished about five minutes early due to the fact that our fourth speaker was a no-show. This was an extra special evening as some folks who’d been absent due to work schedules and traveling returned to the fold. Great evening!

Please see the posted schedule on this web site for next week’s (August meeting assignments.

I opened the meeting on time as the Sgt@Arms, introduced myself as the Club President, and later came back up as the General Evaluator.

Cindy Cannon served as our Toastmaster of the day and did an outstanding job.  She tested a story she is planning to use as she embarks on regional training for Toastmasters International this fall.

Donna Satchell was our Grammarian who introduced the Word of the Day “convoluted”… however it was after Dwayne presented an absolutely Outstanding 5 – 7 minute speech!  It was one of the BEST speeches I have ever had the pleasure of seeing and hearing.  It is easy to see how Dwayne is a “World Champion” speaker.

Mimi Williams served as our Timer and David Flach was our camera operator – with Richard Kirby assisting.

Craig Keyworth presented a his upcoming speech he will be doing at an upcoming IT conference.

Richard Kirby told us about his new book and he received excellent evaluation that will help him improve when he performs at an upcoming conference for college placement officers at an upcoming event.

Our special guest speaker was unable to make it.  We were really looking forward to helping her improve as she prepares for the District International Speech Contest.

Next week Cindy, Manola, and Ericka are schedule to Wow us.

Have a great week everyone!

Shea Ellison
Presideent
Speakers Round Table

Ericka Butler as Toastmaster-coach for the evening did a fine job of keeping the meeting on schedule even though we had two speeches of 10+ minutes. Mimi Williams opened her speech on “Discovering Your Purpose” with a visual image of OPRA in a pink dress encouraging us to “get about the business of your life.” Mimi spoke to our needs of not only wanting to enjoy life, but wanting to make a difference in the world by making some unique and special contribution. We all have a purpose. Mimi encouraged us to do something we absolutely love doing. She spoke of her uncle and his marvelous gift of looking out for people. She gave us a work sheet with questions designed to help us find our pattern of joy, fulfillment, and happiness. Our purpose with be found somewhere in that pattern. Mimi has such a tranquil yet forceful delivery.

Keith Schroder jumped right into his speech with an internet quote. “You can give a man a fish and feed him for one day. You can give a fish a man and feed him for three months.” That’s “Not What You Would Expect.” From there we went to Keith’s dog, King, who’s bout with fleas resulted in a trip to the vet. We learned that Keith had to not only treat King, but also his cat and his entire apartment with Flea Powder-chemicals (which he hates) to get rid of the fleas. In his distress he searched the internet and learned that flea powder is not a poison, but a desiccant. Yes, flea powder dehydrates the larvae and they constipate themselves to death. Not what we would expect. The game of “not what you would expect” continued and ended with Keith advising us to take his mother’s advice to “not judge a book by its cover.”

David Flach’s follow up speech Cold Calling Part II – Building a Good Prospect List” was a crammed with great information. The first item on building a list is pre-qualifying your prospects. This includes visualizing and filtering the people you are calling. You should know who you are and who the clients are that you are currently serving. Also important, you should know who you are not. David spoke of scripting your calling message to stay on point; reaching the real decision makers; and spoke to his colorful handout illustrating his five business categories that target a prospective customer. To qualify, the target customer should fall into at least three of these categories. David then spoke on social media, all the on-line resources for searching and gaining knowledge on potential clients. This was a presentation totally packed with well-presented and thoroughly useful ideas for preparing a good cold calling prospect list: just what the members’ ordered.

Iris Grimm, General Evaluator, called for the timer and grammarian reports. She then gave an insightful summary overview of our meeting, right down to that major thunder clap. Both the Grammarian Report (Kelly Vandiver) and GE’s recap were exceptionally well done.

Please see the posted schedule on this web site for next week’s (August 1) meeting assignments.

Craig is preparing a presentation for ISACA (Information Systems Audit and Control Association).  Tonight he presented his introduction and overview entitled Communicate Persuasively for Better Results. Craig told the personal story of the changing corporate environment his company (Toyota) experienced while he was working in California.  His story demonstrated using story telling as a persuasive philosophy.  His recommendations are that you keep your stories to two to three minutes in length, staying focused on your objective.  He spoke on the roles that logical content and emotional decisions play when you are attempting to persuade someone or a group.   He stated he would cover seven of the many philosophies available in his complete presentation.  Craig had a lot of information shared in a practical way.  Craig’s handout was useful and contained many excellent sounding sources on persuasive presentations.

Toastmaster Mimi shared the importance and impact of good evaluations and educational goals in creating a great TM club before introducing David Flach, our second speaker.  David’s title Wanna Heat Up Sales?  Start COLD CALLING! Now that’s catchy.  David spoke to our reservations and hang-ups about cold calling.  He then debunked our misconceptions about cold calling.  Finally he shared with us that cold calling really does work when done right.  Some of his talking points were:  Commit to a certain number of calls each day; Tell someone, make yourself accountable; Build a targeted prospect list; Have a course of action or a guide.  David had a total of seven talking points which he plans to build in to additional club speeches.  Members are eager to have him in a follow-up speaking slot real soon.

Members enjoyed a seven minute snack break returning to volunteer for two Table Topic subjects.  Cindy spoke on what makes a good TM Club and guest Beverly Watson spoke on what her Toastmaster experience had taught her.

Following our General Evaluation team report, Mimi turned the meeting over to our president, Shea Ellison.  Next week, be on deck to hear speakers Iris Grimm, Cindy Light and Shea Ellison.  Dwayne Smith is the TM host for the evening.

President Cindy Cannon was first up to present her speech, “Claire.”  Cindy introduced us to her 99 year old grandmother whom she had visited in a nursing home.  (She died the day after she reached her goal of 100 years of age.)  Grandmother Claire had an 8^th grade education, was married to a plumber who gave her an allowance, and, because she lived across the street from the Franklin Mint, she invested her allowance becoming a multimillionaire.  Cindy found her old, bent, and suffering from severe dementia.  We met a menagerie of home residents and received information on dementia and Alzheimer’s disease.  It was a sad verbal visual to see these once productive, contributing people wandering alone and communicating via their private memories.  Cindy took us there. 

Shea Ellison came up next to practice his keynote presentation for a creative marketing conference.  We learned this would be an Interactive two track seminar, Track 1 Creative Marketing Tool Box and Track 2 Social Media 101.  Attendees were welcome to switch back and forth between sessions as well as use phones and IPods to twitter and post reactions and ideas.  Shea narrowed the marketing landscape to three consumer questions.  1.  Do I need any product?  2.  Do I need this particular product?  3.  Should I buy the product?  Among the top ten marketing trends Shea introduced the impact of the Baby Boomers on positioning your product.  He touched on niche marketing, product innovation and value innovation.  He also defined and touched on Social Marketing.  Polls indicate that consumers make most purchasing decisions based on word-of-mouth recommendations.  This was Shea’s first opportunity to present this material to an audience and he’d requested our frank and famous feedback.  Here’s wishing you great success, Shea!

Our seven minute break seemed to be more talk than eating.  Could that be because we ate prior to the start of the meeting or were  we compensating for our voiceless Toastmaster?         

 Ericka Butler closed the evening with her speech, “Well-Being:  Are you thriving or surviving.”  Ericka introduced us to the four categories of wellbeing:  Social, Financial, Community, Physical, and Career.  We learned, via a Gallop survey, that 66% of those polled felt they were doing well in one category while only 7% felt they were doing well in all five categories. Based on the book, “Wellbeing-The Five Essential Elements” we learned that the lack of career wellbeing could have a domino effect, impacting the health of the other four categories.  Ericka explained that it is “All about you!”  You can improve the health of your career by changing what you can control;  removing barriers; identifying where your career is lacking; finding your strengths; until you move into that 7% group who are satisfied with all five essential elements of wellbeing.   Ericka with your energy and joy, you have to be in that 7%. 

Our evaluation team under GE Kelly Vandever gave well observed reports.  President Cindy Cannon reminded us of club elections on June 6^st.  She has candidates for all offices but that of President.  Tom Nixon will chair the election of officers. PLEASE NOTE: WE WILL NOT MEET MAY 30 DUE TO THE MEMORIAL DAY HOLIDAY.  Wonderful news, Rui Li is returning to club in June.  She has been missed.  Please see our web site for the upcoming meeting assignments.  Get well quickly, Iris!

Steve Cohn used his 15 minutes to keep us all spell bound with “I Believe there is Hope.”  He jogged our memories by telling us that it was 14 years ago this month that the movie, Schindler’s List, ran for three hours on television, commercial free.  There was one silent intermission with just the logo of the Ford Motor Co. on the screen.  Steve introduced us to Oscar Schindler, his character, or lack thereof, his wheeling and dealing and how he came to give up his entire fortune.  Oh, yes, and to come to be buried in Israel.  Steve brought us from Poland to the United States, introducing us to Henry Ford and his passionate hatred for the Jews.  Ford published and distributed Semitic pamphlets, refused to hire Jews and then told us how it was rumored that Henry Ford had a stroke in 1945 while watching the liberation of the death camps.  In 1997 Stephen Spielberg asked Ford Motor Company to sponsor “Schindler’s List.”  It was an opportunity to right a wrong, to realize that words have meaning, and finally to come to the conclusion, that there is hope.  Amen, Steve. 

Still in Europe, Iris Grimm delivered a powerful talk on “Health Care – the German Way.”  She stated that the health of its citizens determines the wealth of nations.  Iris reminded us of how our club member, Jon, suffered needlessly for 18 months needing back surgery, but having no insurance.  She said the US government forces us to insure our automobiles, but not our bodies.  Her conclusion was that we are in dire need of health care reform in the U.S. She said we should look to Germany and the successful system they have in place.  Germany’s National Health Care Insurance consists of two types of coverage, Public and Private.  About 80% of the German people receive insurance through the public plan.  There is mobility between the Public and Private Plans.  The Public Plan is financed at 15.5% of wages with half of the cost  born by the employer.  Iris delivered a very passionate plea for health care reform in the United States.

Yes, in spite of a 15-20 minute speech and two 10 to 12 minute speeches, we took a seven minute break.  Who can resist when Manola Robison is Snack Master. 

 Our Final speaker, Cindy Light, spoke on “What Can We Learn from China?”  She gave us a brief and personal snap shot of China in 1976 when Chairman Mao Tse-Tung died.  The universities had been closed for 10 years and people had no hope but to be factory workers and stay poor.   Dun Shao Pin became the reformer-leader of China.  Cindy explains leaving her position as a college professor to be part of the creative business awaking of China.  We learned of the creation of two Special Economic Zones (SEZ) where foreigners were allowed to come in and use the land.  She told of working to streamline the special approval stamps from 25 different departments, making a six month process into one of two weeks.  In this position, she  issued over 3,000 business licenses.   Today there are 16 such zones where creativity, hard work, and risk are bringing an economic awaking to China.  Cindy feels the United States needs to be awakened.  That we can, through the use of money, creativity, hard work, tax incentives, and risk, wake up our economically sleeping country.  

General Evaluator, Mimi Williams, called the program an evening of educational excellence.  Introductions; excellent: speaker preparation; excellent: evaluations; excellent:  mind improvement; excellent.  She did suggest that we avoid speaker dialog with the evaluators.

President Cindy Cannon provided us with a list of tentative candidates for all 2011-2012 SRT offices but President and Secretary.   We need to wake up and fill these COZ (Club Opportunity Zones.)!  SRT needs you to throw your hat in those vacant zones so e-mail her now, heck, make it a phone call!