After fifteen years of wearing a tie every day, when I moved to Austin over a decade ago, I quickly joined the tie-less southern casual work dress code kind of laid back style of the modern era folks. I love Texas, but it's clearly too danged hot here to be any other way.
Here I am with Peter Fonda, giving away a Harley at a charity fund raiser weekend. It is always an honor to brush elbows with greatness from any genre, and Pete is the kind of artist that puts his heart into making good things happen. At the autograph table, he told me about the various body parts he's signed at biker rallies over the years. He is a really happy sort, always smiling.
Winning a Toastmasters speech contest in 2006. After this win, I competed at the seven-state regional level. Didn't win there, but I probably learned more from not winning. Competing calls for focus, energy, and a willingness to accept the rulings from those judges on that day. It's comparative by nature, so it's not for the thin-skinned.
I remember feeling in the zone on this day. Being on stage can be very natural work, if you have a plan. I encourage everybody to have a good time, and to stay on mission, whatever that is. The audience enjoys things more when the speaker is relaxed, engaged, and having fun.
2011. When a speech echo carries for five years, you know it's got something. I repeated a 2006 speech in 2011, which ended at the TM semi-finals in Las Vagas. What an honor to compete with 9 others at the world conference! That speech, with a lesson about how much we eventually clarify our memories about things and people, has been good to me. It's been greatly re-written over the years, but then, so have I.
ScottyB
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