Professional Speaking

The other day, I had a most unfortunate visit to my dentist for a tooth that had been bothering me for quite some time. For at least 3 weeks is what I’d say the length of time was, and it was really starting to bother and annoy me, especially because it hindered me from yelling talking at my kids, and from having coherent business calls and conversations as I needed to. So the day when I had to postpone a business call in lieu of dealing with this tooth pain,  I knew I had to do something about it because it was starting to hinder my work.

When I called the dentist’s office, they actually got me an appointment right away, more like in the next couple of hours for this sore tooth. I was happy, very happy for the appointment, but not too happy to actually get the work done that may have been needed. Why is that, you wonder? Why is it that I waited so long and dreaded it so bad to see the one person (doctor) who could make all of this pain and discomfort go away AND who could get me back in shape so that I could get back to work?

I’m afraid of dentists. Yes, I’m a big baby and I’m afraid of needles, pain and hurting.

Some may call it the white coat or the lab coat syndrome, but whatever it is, I just get all nervous and scared whenever I have to go to the dentist for anything, even including cleanings!!

Well, the dentist was very nice, very informative and understanding of my fears. He explained everything to me and what he would need to do to get things fixed up for me. Diagnosis: a cracked tooth that needed 1. another filling, or 2. extraction. Needless to say, number one is the route that I insisted on going, although he cautioned me that I would probably need more work done on that tooth later (a root canal, crown, etc.)

To be perfectly honest, I was just glad, glad, glad, that I was able to leave out of the dentist’s office with the SAME amount of teeth that I had when I got there. Although I’ll have to go back in a few weeks, at least now I have some kind of idea of what’s going on and what I can expect when I go for my appointment. I won’t be nervous, scared or antsy. Even if he wears a suit or his dentist’s jacket, I‘ll be perfectly fine and relaxed and let him do his job. After all, I have some conference calls to return and lots of yelling talking to do!

Quite often, many of my friends are mildly surprised when I tell them that I am also a professional speaker, in addition to my writing and blogging business. They seem surprised because, they say, it takes a lot of courage and confidence to speak in front of people, and they feel that it’s something that they cannot comfortably do. But for me, I thoroughly enjoy public speaking since I love to talk anyway, and to do it in a setting where people actually WANT to hear what I have to say is such a motivator for me!

Of course, when I first started speaking, I was a bit nervous when I got up in front of others. But shortly after I joined the professional speaking organization at Toastmaster’s, I learned quite a few tips and tricks that helped me to quickly acclimate to speaking confidently in front of others. Although in the Toastmaster’s setting, students are allowed to use their notes, props and to sometimes glance at their computer monitors, after a period of time where they get to use and hone their speaking skills, they find themselves relying on those things less and less.

As for speaking topics, I enjoy finding and speaking on those things that interest me A LOT. It’s much easier for me to craft a speech and easier for me to add humor and anecdotes to my speech. In essence, the more comfortable I am about talking about the things I know, the more comfortable I am in delivering the speech.

My future speaking goals include participating in another local Toastmaster’s club and securing other speaking clients on my own. I’d like to also use my blog and other resources to start a tutorial on helping new speaker’s get started in the business and setting their own goals for a speaking future. Stay tuned and see where we go. It should be a fun ride!

Guest post written by Cady Wainwright

I love to make all kinds of little treats for myself and my roommates. But we all like to do that so it’s not like I’m doing all the work or paying for all the ingredients for this stuff. But honestly though, when it’s this hot out during the summer, the last thing that I want to do is eat a hot cake or pie. (One of my roommates is really great at making pies!)

I really wanted to make some popsicles a few nights ago, so we went online to see if we could find some decent recipes for them. When I was doing that, I ran across the website www.WIRELESSINTERNET.net and after I looked through ti some I showed it to my roommates. After a roommate meeting we agreed to change over our internet service to it, so I took care of that.

The popsicle recipe that I found just sounded so delicious that we made it right away. They disappeared so fast because they were so good! I think I’m going to make some more soon.

The right, and best response that customers expect:

5/9/2011