Podcasts about toastmasters club

I always enjoy having the opportunity to speak with business professionals and leaders. Fidel Guzman not only is such a professional, but he also works in the corporate training arena teaching his company's employees and leaders about leadership and continuous improvement. Fidel comes by his talents honestly. He grew up in an environment where he needed to learn and grow. He secured a Bachelor's degree and an MBA both from Northeastern Illinois University where he graduated Summa Cum Laude. Fidel started out wanting to be a kindergarten teacher, but he ended up taking a different road. He went to work for a company where he helped people progress within various industries. The company he worked for was bought by ION Group in Chicago, IL. Fidel flourished and became the Manager of Internal Training for the company. Mr. Guzman is quite adaptable and can train people within the organization even though they may well have their own expertise in different industries. Fidel and I talk about everything from leadership, the future of corporate training and we even take time to explore how AI is and will become more a part of his work and the work we all do. When not working Fidel has various outside activities. His most loved efforts go, of course, into being part of a family. He also serves as Vice President of Education for Toastmasters International. He loves to be involved in Mixed Martial Arts. He keeps quite busy at a variety of activities and clearly loves the challenges he gets to address along the way. About the Guest: Fidel Guzman is a dynamic and enthusiastic Learning & Develoment professional with a proven track record in instructional design, project management, and training development. With a Master of Business Administration from Northeastern Illinois University, where he graduated Summa Cum Laude, Fidel has consistently demonstrated his commitment to excellence and continuous improvement. His extensive experience spans various industries, including finance, telecommunications, and fitness, showcasing his versatility and adaptability. Currently serving as the Manager of Internal Training at ION Group in Chicago, IL. Fidel and his small but mighty team facilitate onboarding programs and training initiatives for over 13,000 employees globally. He has experience developing comprehensive new hire onboarding curricula and career progression pathways for multiple departments, ensuring effective and innovative learning solutions. Fidel's leadership extends beyond his professional role, as he actively participates in numerous company committees focused on community volunteer events, work-life balance education, and diversity, equity, and inclusion. Fidel's passion for personal and professional development is evident in his certifications, including “Creating a Coaching Culture” from SHRM and “Coaching Skills for Leaders and Managers” from PMI. Fluent in both Spanish and English, he leverages his bilingual skills to connect with a diverse audience. Outside of his professional endeavors, Fidel enjoys podcasting, judo, triathlons, hiking, and poetry, reflecting his well-rounded and adventurous spirit. In addition to his professional achievements, Fidel has a strong commitment to volunteerism and community involvement. He is serving as the Vice President of Education for Toastmasters International and has been an MMA class instructor and coordinator at St. Bruno Elementary. His dedication to helping others is further demonstrated through his role as an academic tutor at Berwyn Public Library. Ways to connect with Fidel: (1) Fidel Guzman, MBA | LinkedIn New Podcast- The Hero in the Mirror on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/44xD76FcF5YFMNyuigFmBm?si=2so3OWJdQby6F91ZaY1AUg The Hero in the Mirror also on Youtube: (3) HerointheMirror - YouTube About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog. Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards. https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/ accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/ Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below! Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can subscribe in your favorite podcast app. You can also support our podcast through our tip jar https://tips.pinecast.com/jar/unstoppable-mindset . Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts. Transcription Notes: Michael Hingson ** 00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson ** 01:21 Greetings, everyone. I am Michael Hingson, and you are listening to unstoppable mindset where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet, and today we get to do the unexpected. And of course, what the unexpected is is anything that doesn't have anything to do with inclusion or diversity. So that's most things you know, in a lot of ways. Anyway, our guest today is Fidel, and am I pronouncing it right? Guzman, yes, you got it. Oh, my goodness. Comes from listening to Guzman's who play baseball. Okay, I'll take that. That's a way. So Fidel reached out to me some time ago. We're going to be doing some speaking to his company ion. But in the meanwhile, I also convinced him that he had to come on unstoppable mindset and talk with us, tell us about himself, tell us a lot about what he does and why he does it, and help to contribute to our general theme, which is that we're all more unstoppable than we think we are, and we usually underrate ourselves. So we we try to improve by discovering that more people are unstoppable than we think they are, and that we thought they were. So that works out. Well, Fidel has a degree in business. He has a Masters of Business Administration. You graduated sigma cum laude, which is pretty cool. And I did cum laude, but I didn't get to do sigma or Magna, but that's okay, but that's okay anyway. Fidel, I want to welcome you to unstoppable mindset. We're glad you're here.   Fidel Guzman ** 02:56 Michael, it's a pleasure to be here. Thank you for having me.   Michael Hingson ** 03:00 Well, my pleasure, and I'm looking forward to to chatting and talking about some businessy things and anything else that you want to talk about. So let's start this way. It's always fun to do this. Why don't we start by you telling us kind of, maybe, about the early Fidel growing up and some of that stuff, and what got you started down the road of life as it were.   Fidel Guzman ** 03:20 Yeah, yeah, that's all right, yeah, let's let's go back. Let's go back to where it all started,   Michael Hingson ** 03:25 long time ago,   Fidel Guzman ** 03:30 definitely. So I'm born and raised in Los Angeles, Compton, Huntington Park area. I come from Mexican parents. They they they came here to the United States to give their their family a better future. Some first generation Mexican American, very proud. So actually, we do have a little diversity in here on this call. Oh, good. There we go. Yeah. So first generation Mexican American, my family traveled a lot when I was young. My dad's a truck driver, so wherever there was work, he would take us along. So we grew up and raised Los Angeles. I was seven or eight, then we ended up going to Mexico for a couple years, in Dallas, then St Louis, and then we ended up here in Chicago, here in the Midwest. Wow. Winter, the winters here were a bit surprising and tough. When I was in elementary school, I remember the first snow that I saw. It was, it was beautiful. After two weeks, I was like, All right, when is it? When is it gonna go away? And I was in for the the rude awakening that it's gonna it's gonna stick around for, for a few months or so, yeah, but I've had, you know, since then here, here in Chicago, we started to grow our roots. And I have five brothers and a sister. So I have a big family, a big Hispanic family, and I went to high school. My freshman year, I went to Lane Tech. Tech for all my folks who are familiar with the Chicagoland area. And then I ended up going to transferring over to Morton West in Berwyn. After I graduated high school, I went to Northeastern Illinois University, my alma mater, I got my undergrad in business management and marketing, and also got my Masters in Business Administration. So I am a proud double alumni from Northeastern Illinois University, and I really owe this, this community of Northeastern Illinois University, a lot with respect to the great teachers that they have there, the community that they try to build, and the friends and that I made along the way, as well as the education, of course, that helped, really helped me expand my career opportunities. After I graduated from Northeastern Illinois University with my undergrad, I started my first real corporate role inside of backstop solutions. And backstop solutions was a still, you know, it was a great company to be a part of lots of mentors. If I can, actually, I would like to give a quick shout out to a few mentors that I had along the way, such as Deanne Falk, Richard fu our CEO, our legacy CEO, Clint Coghill, Sarah Schroeder, and the current head of learning and development under ion. Alexander Lloyd and I really want to thank them for all their mentorship and leadership, because it's really helped me get and grow to the person that I am today. So with that, yeah, I am the manager of internal training at ion. We came I came in via an acquisition, when backstop was acquired, and throughout that period, like I was, I had some some free time, so to say, and ended up getting my Masters in Business Administration.   Michael Hingson ** 06:48 And so along the way, did you get yourself married and all that? Oh, my   Fidel Guzman ** 06:52 wife is going to kill me. Yes. Along the way, sorry about that. No, yeah, yeah, of course, yeah. Can't forget, can't forget about those significant others. But yes, I am married. My wife has a master's in occupational therapy, so she's in the medical field, and I'm in, like, the business learning and development side of things, so our conversations are pretty interesting, as well as our perspectives on things. I also have a daughter. She's 16, going on 17 people are usually very surprised when I tell them the age of my daughter, but had her early when I was in my early 20s, so young dad and she was a blessing. I wouldn't, wouldn't have it any other way.   Michael Hingson ** 07:33 That's that is great. Why did you decide to go into business and study business in college.   Fidel Guzman ** 07:42 So interestingly enough, when I got into college, I wanted to be a kindergarten teacher. I wanted to be cool Mr. Guzman, because I also really I love kids. I love working with kids. I was also a mixed martial arts program coordinator and instructor at an elementary school on the south side of Chicago for three years, and that was during my undergrad. And I taught all grades kindergarten through eighth grade, some of the basics in boxing, wrestling, jiu jitsu and kickboxing, so a bit of both. But as I was going through through my clinicals, as I was going through the the Yeah, the education aspect of it, I ended up wanting to switch majors. So I was like, I was like, hey, there's probably a lot more opportunity, a lot more opportunity for growth inside of the business segment. So I ended up switching my majors to business management, marketing, and somehow learning just found its way back into my life. So a lot of the stuff that I learned from some of those, those preliminary courses in in education. I mean, still, still resonate to this day, right? Understand your audience. Understand which students are visual learners, which ones are experiential learners. Which one need more repetitive exercise to to drill something in? So, yeah, the universe did not, did not lead me too far away from, from from teaching and being an instructor, and here I am. I know   Michael Hingson ** 09:08 that feeling well. So a couple things. First of all, I was born in Chicago, but we moved to California when I was five, but in Chicago, you start kindergarten at the age of four. So I went for a year to a special kindergarten class that my parents and others advocated for, for premature, blind kids, because there were a whole bunch in the Chicago area during the whole baby boomer area, a number of children were born prematurely and given a pure oxygen environment, which caused them to lose their eyesight. And so the bottom line is that happened to me among others. And so I went to the Perry school. I don't even know if it's around anymore. Somebody told me it wasn't around anymore, but that's where I went to school. And went there for a year of kindergarten, learned braille and other things. And then we moved to California. So I always wanted to be a teacher as well, and I came at teaching from a different standpoint, as you did. That is to say, Well, I wanted to be a teacher. My first job out of college wasn't directly teaching, except I ended up having to write training materials and do other things like that, and then I ended up going into sales, and what I learned is that the best sales people are really teachers. They're counselors. They guide and they help people, especially when you're dealing with major account sales, they help people look at products. They teach about what their product does and the really good sales people are brave enough to admit when their product might not be the best fit for someone, because it's also all about building trust. And good teachers are concerned about building trust as well. Of course.   Fidel Guzman ** 10:57 Yeah, one of my teachers when I was close to graduating, you know, one of the things that you know this teacher, Dr funk, if I remember correctly, he instilled in us, if you're able to synthesize what you learned and explain it to a five year old, you've done a good job. Like you, you you yourself understand that particular concept or that particular topic. And I really took that to heart. So now, you know, and a lot of these roles, if, from the the main instructor, I want and need to be able to explain it, you know, to my kid, to explain it in in simple terms. And, of course, you know, expand on it if needed. But, but   Michael Hingson ** 11:40 it ultimately comes down to you can provide all the information you want, but they have to teach themselves, really, and they're not going to do that, and they're not going to listen to you if they don't trust you. So trust is a vital part of what we do,   Fidel Guzman ** 11:56 exactly spot on,   Michael Hingson ** 11:58 and I have found that that developing that trust is so extremely important. I learned a lot about trust from working with guide dogs, right from the very first guide dog that I obtained back in 1964 when I was 14. It was all about building a team and I and although I didn't know how to really externally, say it necessarily, until many years later, internally, I understood that my job was to build a relationship and that I was going to be the team leader, and needed to be able to gain trust, as well as trust my teammate in in what we did. So worked out pretty well, though. So, you know, I was that was pretty cool. So what does ion do? What is ion?   Fidel Guzman ** 12:49 Yeah, I yeah for sure. So ion is a essentially, you can, you can think of it as a software company for the investment community. We provide a number of different platforms for them to streamline their processes and track information, or be end users of that of data.   Michael Hingson ** 13:07 So people buy your software and do what   Fidel Guzman ** 13:11 they can either leverage the data that's being provided to them, or they can include data within specific platforms.   Michael Hingson ** 13:20 Are you starting to see that this whole concept of so called AI is valuable in what you do, or, as I am working with that yet,   Fidel Guzman ** 13:30 yes, definitely, we are big on streamlining processes and making sure that we're maximizing the best use of everyone's time, and AI really has a really important component in that. So for for learning and development, one of the ways that we're using AI is for content creation, so whether it's just creating a simple outline for a course or starting to use that to create slides, but there, we're also taking a look at the way AI can be used on a regular basis to provide feedback for reps like let's say someone finishes a demo. If they want to do some self reflection, they can leverage AI to get some feedback on what worked well what didn't. Was there enough engagement? How was my use of technology, so on and so forth. So not only is AI being used from, you know, creating content, but also as, like a ad hoc instructor and and way to generate feedback,   Michael Hingson ** 14:31 well, and it offers so much versatility, you can really have it go many different ways. So it is very possible it can be an instructor, as you say, an ad hoc instructor, but it really can present its information in a good teaching way too. So you can have conversations with it. You can do the same sorts of things that you would do with a teacher. I think that AI clearly, is here to stay, but I think. Think over time, AI is going to evolve a lot. I am not of the opinion that AI will replace people for a variety of reasons, but I think that it's here and it's up to us to be smart as to how we use it.   Fidel Guzman ** 15:14 Definitely. I think one of the the tips that we always give people is AI does a really great job of a number of different things, but it's always going to need that human touch at the end of at the end of the day. So don't just take don't just take some content that AI has created and take it to heart. Make sure to review it. Make sure to put that personal touch on there and have it speak your language. Have it really resonate with the audience as well, especially that, oh, go ahead. Or also just on Super mechanical, super scripted,   Michael Hingson ** 15:49 well, and I think as AI grows, it's going to try to emulate, or we're going to use it to try to emulate people more and more, but it still isn't going to get to the point where it truly is me or you, and we do have to put our mark on it. I've used it to help create several articles, and what I've done when I do that is I'll tell it what I want it to write about, and let it do it, and it comes up with some pretty good ideas that I incorporate into the article, that I create, between what it provides and what I add to the mix. And it really should be that way. Exactly what I've really found interesting is the number of people like in classrooms, who say teachers, who say, you know, it's really harder and harder and harder to tell when a student uses AI to write a paper or if the student is doing it themselves. And the first time I heard that, immediately, my idea of what to do was something like this, let the student use AI if they want to, let the have ai do the whole paper. What you ought to do is to have one day after all the students turn their papers in, where you bring each student up to the front of the class and say, defend your paper. Now you have one minute if they don't really know, yeah. I mean, if they don't know what's going on, then they're not going to be able to do very well, and they fail.   Fidel Guzman ** 17:19 Yes, I am a big proponent of comprehensive exercises and also public speaking. How well? How well can you articulate the thought that you gave in that paper? Right? Some of those different talking points, right? Can you convey the same message in front of the classroom?   Michael Hingson ** 17:38 Yeah, and, and, you can tell if a person is just not necessarily a great public speaker, they're nervous, as opposed to whether they know the subject. And those, in a sense, are two different things. But you can use the fact that students are at the front of the classroom to help make them better speakers, too, which is a good thing.   Fidel Guzman ** 17:59 Yeah, no, yeah. I agree with you. If they are using AI, just, you know, turn around a paper, have them present in front of the classroom. Yeah, let's, let's talk a bit more about your paper, yeah, and, and really have it be an interactive exercise. I think that's really where the end goal is going to be, now that AI has really taken over the way the classroom dynamic has changed. So having more of those interactive exercises, really taking a look at comprehension, whether somebody really understands that topic, and giving giving students and an audience an opportunity to discuss, how do we how do we create a hive mind mentality around this particular topic, especially in a classroom, right whether, whether that's in a school setting, in academia, or whether that's in a corporate setting, inside of an office.   Michael Hingson ** 18:54 Several months ago, we had a guest on unstoppable mindset, who's an executive leadership coach in Northern California who was a major proponent of AI. And when he worked with companies, and especially with presidents and leaders who were stuck on how we evolve and how we grow, he would bring AI into all those meetings, and one day he was dealing with one such situation where he told the president, you got to use you ought to use AI to get some great ideas. The President took that to heart, called his senior leadership staff in and said, take the rest of this day and create ideas about how you think we ought to do things better, and so on, and use AI to do it. And when everyone came in the next day, they had a lot of innovative and creative ideas, and all loved the fact that he encouraged them to use AI. And that led to. Us having a discussion about, is AI going to really take over the jobs that people do? And both of us agreed, no, AI won't. Ai can't replace anyone. We can fire somebody and then put AI in their place, which doesn't really work well. But what is a better thing is let ai do what it does well. So example that he gave was say, you have autonomous vehicles. As autonomous vehicles become more and more prevalent, like trucks that are delivering supplies, like shipping vehicles and so on, let the autonomous vehicle drive, but the driver needs to still be in the cabin and needs to be behind the wheel, even though they're not doing anything, because they are going to let the autonomous vehicle do what it can do. But you can give those people other assignments to do for the company that will keep them busy and do things that otherwise might not be done quite as efficiently. So the bottom line is, you keep people busy, you use the autonomous vehicle, and it's a win win situation all the way around.   Fidel Guzman ** 21:08 Yeah, great. I I've heard something very similar to that, and maybe if I can, if I can synthesize this, it's going to be that we want to remove manual task out of people's times, and we want them to focus on more higher value add activities. Do   Michael Hingson ** 21:29 you think that's fair? I think that's true. Isaac Asimov, years ago, the science fiction writer, wrote a really wonderful science fiction story about a young man who lived in a society where everyone had a particular job to do, and you were matched with your talents. And so there you you're you take a test when you're, like, eight years old and or or even younger, and that starts you down the road of what it is you're supposed to do for the whole country. And then you take another test several years later, and that locks you into what you're trained to do. So you always do the same task, but you do it well, because that's what you're trained to do. Well, this kid was in the whole process taking his tests, and he just wasn't comfortable with what was going on. And eventually he ran away. And what, you know, he he took the last test, apparently they looked at him kind of funny when they looked at the results and he didn't like what was going on. And he just left. He said, I'm not going to do this. I don't, I don't. I don't want to be an engineer. I don't want to do whatever it is that they want. And they eventually caught up with him, and they caught him, and they said, Why'd you run away? And he told them, and then said, No, you don't understand what just happened. Some people in society are the people who create the tests, create the processes, and don't get trained to do a specific thing, because they're the innovators and the inventors that keep society going, and you're one of those kids, and this was like, what, 50 years ago that he wrote that? So it's, it is, it is really interesting, but, but very true and, and the reality is, we can be as creative as we choose to be, and some people are more creative than others, but there are always tasks that we can find for anyone to do, and that will make them very happy,   23:40 absolutely, definitely.   Michael Hingson ** 23:42 So it works out. You know, it does work out really well. Well, a question for you. You have a leadership philosophy, needless to say, and you lead a lot in instructional design, what, what are the core principles, or what are the things that kind of make up how you teach leadership, and what it is that you teach people to do, and how do you go about team development?   Fidel Guzman ** 24:13 Yeah, I think some of the core principles that I that I really focus on with learning and development and instructional design. Number one, it has to be collaboration. It really does take a community to put some some really good training sessions and training opportunities in place, and it's really leveraging all the expertise from different subject matter experts. Give them a chance to share their perspectives and their insights on certain things, but also, really, just to enhance, you know, the the use of these training programs, because people are more keen to listen to like, oh yeah, this guy's a subject matter he's an expert in this particular. Their space and for them to to hop on. So I think that collaboration aspect is, you know, getting the Lean In from managers like, hey, this training is important. Your employees are going to benefit from this training, whether it's just for to develop their their education, to develop their career, whatever that may look like. But I want to say one of the, the first guiding principles is going to have to be collaboration. The second one is going to have to be most likely continuous improvement. As we start to roll out a lot of these different training sessions, whether it's public speaking, whether it's product training, whether it's industry training, if we roll it out, we keep our ear to the ground and make sure that we're receptive to the feedback. We take a look at what works well, what doesn't work well, what needs to be tailored. How can we, how can we also manage this across different time zones? So ion is super global company, I want to say, over 13,000 employees in over 13 plus countries. So also managing what those training programs look like for everyone, for everyone, across the board. So besides the collaboration, besides the continuous improvements or the I like to also say that the Kaizen, the Japanese philosophy of Kaizen, right, making those small improvements, the last one I want to say is going to be innovation. How can we incorporate, right? We were talking about AI. How can we incorporate some of these ladies, latest tech trends into what our training delivery looks like, whether it's something as simple as, how do we include more polls throughout a lecture to keep people engaged and participate? How do we include knowledge checks at the end of every session to make sure that people are walking away with some of the key takeaways. So, yeah, collaboration, continuous improvement and innovation. Yeah, how do we stay innovative and stay creative? I think having having some fun, staying creative along the way Definitely, definitely resonates with your audience as you're trying to do different things and trying to keep things as engaging and and fun as possible.   Michael Hingson ** 27:06 What do you say to someone who says, Look, I've really learned all I need to learn. I'm not really interested in learning anything new. That is, I know, isn't that? Yeah, but you hear it a lot, I'm sure, or too much. I   Fidel Guzman ** 27:22 think some people get comfortable right, like, Hey, I'm comfortable with what I know. And learning does require a certain level of mental energy, and it also requires a certain level of you being willing to take on a new challenge, to take on and learn something new. So to them, I would genuinely ask, what's your interest? How can we supplement what this interest looks like? You know, what are your interests in other avenues? And I think that will plant a seed to let them know that learning and development should be something learning, right? Just learning in general, it should be something that you should do throughout your life. I recently started a podcast called the hero in the mirror, and I wanted to take a moment and actually, thank you, Michael. I don't know if you remember our initial conversation. But we were talking, we were talking about, you had asked me, What ideas do you have? What are you working on? Are you working on, any books, any podcasts? And I had mentioned, I was like, Hey, I actually have an idea for a podcast. And you pause for a moment, and you were like, what's stopping it? Yeah, and it was, it was kind of like, it kind of took me back. I'm like, What? What is stopping me? Right? And sometimes, and in coaching, we call it interference, like you're you probably have a fear of failure. You have a fear that something's not going to go right, or this task seems enormous, that you don't know where to start. Yeah, so making small, small mental changes, making small steps, I think, definitely add up. Since then, Michael, I've had I've had three episodes. I've had some great guests hop on and share their story of resilience and triumph. And as I'm starting to do more episodes, I'm I'm hearing stories of people willing to have that, that mindset of, I want to continue to learn, I want to continue to expand on the person that I am and make myself well rounded in these different, different areas. So So, long story short, if somebody says I don't, I don't need to learn anything, there's always room for growth. There's always room for interest, what, what interests you, and how? And how can we follow that interest and and supplement it with some some training content.   Michael Hingson ** 29:49 I know, for me, I'm extremely comfortable with what I know, and I'm extremely comfortable with what I've learned, but I'm also very uncomfortable in knowing there's a lot of stuff I don't know and that i. Still need to learn. So I love to learn right from the very beginning, when I first discovered the internet, I regarded it and still do, no matter what there is with the dark web and everything else, I think the internet is a treasure trove of information, and it's so fun to discover new things online. And there's so many ways to go. We've got so many places where we can go get books that we never had access to before all of us. There's so many places where we can go to learn about organizations, about people. They're just so many wonderful things, and it's only one way, because I also think there is a lot to be said for real personal interactions, but I think the internet is a wonderful treasure trove that gives us the opportunity to learn a whole lot that we don't necessarily know about, subjects that we don't know anything about.   Fidel Guzman ** 30:55 The Internet is a double sided sword. It is. You can find information that will support right? Maybe you know an opinion that you have on the other side of that, you can find lots of information that does not support independent opinion that you have. And also it's a rabbit hole. Soon as you start going out that rabbit hole. But the one thing I do appreciate from the internet is the channels of communication that it's built. Yeah, and I'm appreciative of being able to have connected with you on LinkedIn, and that's turned out to us having this podcast here today.   Michael Hingson ** 31:34 I think that for me, I'm not as interested on going online and in finding something to change an opinion as much as I am finding something that will tell me about something that I didn't know as much about. Now I might change my opinion from what I thought it might be, but I I really love to try to really get as much as possible into dealing with facts or substance to teach me things, and then I'll form my own opinion from that. Yeah, you know what I'm saying. Of course,   Fidel Guzman ** 32:11 gets a good grounding of all the all the materials, synthesize it yourself.   Michael Hingson ** 32:19 Yeah, I think we should do that. I think we have to be the one to synthesize whatever it is we're dealing with. That's That's our responsibility, and that should always be the way it is, which is, and I don't want to get political or anything, but which is one of the reasons that I say any politician who says, Trust me will be the first person I won't trust until I verify. I am a firm believer in trust, but verify. I don't care who it is. I think it's so important that we really take the time every single person needs to take the time to study what's going on, and and, and really look at all sides of something. I think that's important. I listen to newscasts regularly, and I like to listen to newscasts from all sides. Some I find why I don't want to listen to them very much, because of what they do or don't do, but I still think that it's important to really understand all sides of a subject.   Fidel Guzman ** 33:29 Absolutely, I totally agree with you.   Michael Hingson ** 33:32 So you know, I think it is kind of neat to to have that opportunity, and I think we learn so much when we take the time to really study. I'm amazed. I was at a restaurant once, and my wife and I were there. We were talking about newspapers and what we get from newspapers or online, and our waitress came up and Karen said, so do you read the newspaper? And this woman's 30 years old, and she says, No, I don't. I don't have time, you know. And how little she learns, because she doesn't really seek information, which is too bad.   Fidel Guzman ** 34:07 Yep, you people have to be receptive. People have to be receptive to to gaining new bits of information. And sometimes people are just happy knowing like you, like you mentioned earlier, just happy knowing what they're what they know, just comfortable in in their own space, until some more power to that, more more power to them, more power to them,   Michael Hingson ** 34:31 until something happens to disrupt the happiness and surprises them, because they really didn't learn enough to know that that was a possibility. Yep, I never thought I would be doing a podcast, but when the pandemic occurred, I started to learn about it, and learned all the value of it. Now, I had been at our campus radio station at UC Irvine for six years, and I was program director one year, so I understood radio, and when I started learning about podcasts. They went, this is really pretty cool, and I had never thought about it, and had never been interviewed on a podcast, but I realized I know what I can can do with this, and I know that I can sound intelligent on the air. And so I started to learn about it, and here we are now, just today, actually, we published online and in YouTube episode 324 of unstoppable mindset since August of 2021 Congratulations, Michael. Well, thank you. It's a lot of fun. We actually went to two episodes a week in August of 2022 Oh, wow, because we had such a huge backlog. Yeah, and I don't mind having a huge backlog, but it was growing way too much. So we went to two episodes a week, and and it's a lot of fun to to do it. And as and as I love to tell people, for me, the most important thing is I get to learn from every single person who comes on the podcast. It's so neat to be able to do that, of course. So it works out really well. Well for you, what kind of challenges have you faced? What have you done to overcome challenges, and what are some of the biggest challenges you faced, and how you did you deal with them?   Fidel Guzman ** 36:17 Okay, yeah, that's great. That's some of the questions I use on on my podcast, here in the mirror. So I'm on the I'm on the other side of that chair today. Yes, no, it's good. It's good. It's a good question. So I want to say, you know, there are, there are three main, three main challenges that really stand out for me. One I'm very vocal about, and that is my speech impediment, my stuttering problem. It was really bad when I was little kid. I had a speech pathologist. Even now, talking to you on this podcast, I have to be very conscious with what I'm saying. Some of the listeners might might have caught it in the beginning when I get too excited about a particular topic, or if I haven't formulated my thought yet, but the speech impediments is something that has really made public speaking a passion for me. It was hard for me to have a voice when I was a little kid, I used to try to raise my hand and answer a question when I was in elementary school, and the teacher would be like, All right, next one like you had, you had your turn. And so I, you know, I've struggled, you know, to have a voice. I struggled with just completing sentences, and the way that I overcame that is through a speech pathologist that really gave me the confidence to believe in myself. I remember one exercise she gave me one day is she grabbed me from my classroom. She would pick me up from my classroom every Tuesday and Thursday, and she picked me up one day, and I was kind of down in the dumps. I didn't really like going to the class. We weren't really advancing much. And she's like, Hey, we're going to try something different tonight. Different today. She's like, today I'm going to have the order of pizza. And I was still a little little fat kid, like fourth or fifth grade, so I was like, oh, yeah, I'm all for it. What's going on here? And she was like, but the catch is, you need to order this pizza without stuttering. And you know, right away, kind of my heart dropped. And she's like, okay, like, don't, don't worry, we're gonna practice exactly what you want to order. And she's like, What do you want? And I'm like, Well, I want a large pepperoni pizza with an RC, a two liter RC Cola delivered to McPherson Elementary. And she's like, okay. She's like, write it down. I'm like, Alright, great to like, write it down again. I must have written it like, 10 times. She's like, No, now practice it. So about 15 minutes of doing that, she was like, All right, I think you're ready. She hands me the phone and, you know, I pick it up. My heart's in my throat, and I'm just like, like, I'm like, hi, you know, I want to order a large pepperoni pizza with a two liter RC Cola delivered to McPherson elementary for Fidel Guzman, and I was just astonished. I hung up the phone. I was happy for two reasons. Number one, I was going to get some pizza. Number two, I was able to say it a complete, full sentence without stuttering. And she she really believed in me and instilled in me that confidence that I could overcome this. But it wasn't an overnight success. It still required me go going to the speech pathologist, you know, throughout my elementary school, throughout all those years, and even as an adult, continuing to practice and hone that in in high school, doing presentations, in college, doing presentations. So right now, I am the VP of education for our America's Toastmasters Club, and this is one story i i always tell people, and they're like, No, you don't stutter. I'm like, if I get too excited, I'll lower my words. But that was that was one challenge, that was one challenge, and it's. Is it's still something I have to be very conscious of. And I've caught myself a couple times earlier in this podcast where I kind of mumble a little bit or get caught up in a particular word. But besides that one, I want to say that the second one was more of my in college. In college, I struggled paying for school. I mentioned I'm first generation Mexican American, and I was one, one of the first, first of my brothers to attend college full time. And I did all I could to make ends meet, two, three jobs, just paying for tuition. Financial aid was great, you know, it really helped me with a portion of that, but a lot of it really ended up, you know, being due onto me. And then I had my daughter, and it was just a struggle. I was like, How can I be a dad? How can I be a student? How can I work on my career? And I had gone to a financial aid workshop, and the one thing that stood out in this workshop was when they were talking about scholarships granted in high school when you're about to graduate, they talk to you about it, but it doesn't. It doesn't really materialize until you're until you receive that bill. Yeah, you're just like, hey, here's, here's a $2,000 bill for this college class. And you're like, oh, man, this is, this is not, this is not cheap. It's pretty expensive. And the one thing you know that stood out was, you know, let the scholarships, and they started talking about scholarship applications, and I found that there were a couple common denominators with the scholarships. Number one, they wanted two letters of two letters of recommendation. Number two, they want an essay. What are you going to do with your degree? How are you going to make a positive impact in the community? And number three, sometimes, typically an interview. And so I ran with it. I was like, they want two letter, letters of recommendation. They want one essay. They want an interview. No problem. And I made that my part time job. On the weekends, I would just apply, apply, apply. And I started getting some small wins. I started getting a $250 scholarship here, a $500 scholarship there, $1,000 scholarship, you know, here, and all of it started to add up, and it started to gain momentum. And I was lucky enough to get, get, get accepted for a number of different scholarships and complete my my college education, and even, you know, be strong willed enough to go back and do it again and try to try to get my masters. So those were two, two big ones, but I'll pause here and see if you have any questions around those two challenges for me. Michael, no,   Michael Hingson ** 42:41 but I I really admire what you did. You You made a choice and you followed it through. And I think that's of course, the whole issue is that we have to make choices and we need to follow through. And if we find that, we need to refine our decisions. We do that. I know when I was a student and a program director at the university radio station, I wanted everyone to listen to themselves. I thought it was a great idea to have everyone listen to themselves on the air. And the way you do it is you record it and you give it to them. And I didn't anticipate how hard that was going to be, because for me, I was used to doing it for myself, yeah, but I I didn't realize how much resistance I was going to get from literally everyone at the radio station, they were not interested in and I'm thrilled about doing it at all. What I and the engineer at the station did eventually was to put a cassette recorder in a locked cupboard, and whenever the microphone was activated, the recorder would go on. So, you know, you didn't have to hear the music. You just wanted to hear yourself talk. And we, we really took a major step and said, You have to listen to these recordings. We gave each person a cassette. We expect you to listen to these recordings and improve accordingly. What I didn't say much was, I know what it's like. I'm my own worst critic, and I have to listen to it, so you guys do now. I've changed that, and I'll get to it in a second, but we pushed everyone to do it, and it wasn't long, not only before we started seeing improvement, but before the people themselves started recognizing that they were really getting comfortable listening to themselves and that they were taking this to heart, and by the end of the year, we had people who were loving it and wanting their cassette every day or every week, and also a. Some of them went into broadcasting. For me, what I learned, and it took many years before I learned it is I'm not my own worst critic. I shouldn't be negative, as I said earlier, I'm the only one who can really teach me. I'm my own best teacher. And I think when you make that mind shift from being your own worst critic to your own best teacher, it really puts things in a much more positive light. And I've said that before on the podcast, and I will continue to say it, because I think it's a very important   Fidel Guzman ** 45:29 concept. We actually have a similar exercise for our America's Toastmasters Club, where we'll we'll record some speeches, and we'll have people listen back to their recorded speech. And a lot of people say like, man, it's cringe to hear yourself on the on the other side, on the other side of those iPhones, but it is a very useful exercise. You get a better understanding of your your filler words, your eyes, your arms, your vocal variety, your body language. And if you're looking to be a great, I don't want to say public speaker, but if you're just looking just to speak better in general, even when it's an on a presentation, on a call, or if you have to give up a toast at a wedding or a quinceanera, for you to be able to, yeah, critique yourself and gather feedback from your from your own recording   Michael Hingson ** 46:23 well. And the reality is, the more of it you do, and the more you listen to it, having been up there in front giving the speech, you also see how people react. And if you continue to observe and listen to the recordings as you go forward, you will improve, yeah, for sure, which is which is really important. And one of the things that I try to do regularly now is to record talks. When I go and give a speech somewhere, I will record it so that I can listen to it and I enjoy it, because I discover Did I really say that I shouldn't have said it quite that way, but I'll do better next time. But listening to it helps such a tremendous amount,   Fidel Guzman ** 47:13 especially with those filler words. So when you really listen to the recording, you'll be like, Man, I use a lot of likes or SOS or ands or buts, and if you want to speak eloquently, it is, I mean, like anything, you just gotta practice it. You gotta practice it, and you have to be receptive to that, the feedback. And you have to also celebrate the small wins. One thing I am a big proponent on is celebrate the small wins. Yeah. So if you are able to do your your first speech at a Toastmasters clubs like we, we give you tons of accolades, because it is not an easy fit, an easy feat. If you're able to do the second one, even better. You're, you're progressing, and you're, you know, you're increasing your understanding of some of the fundamentals of public speaking. Yeah, so you're preaching to the choir here.   Michael Hingson ** 48:05 Yeah, no, I understand. Oh yeah, it's good, but it is really important to do, and it's fun to do. If you decide to make it fun, and if you decide that you want to become a better communicator there. There are lots of us and all that sort of stuff that people do. I've heard some people say that's really not such a bad thing. Well, I've got to say that I've never really been used to having a lot of us. And you know, there's a guy out here who I don't think he's alive anymore. He used to be a sports announcer out here. His name was Jim Healy, and you may have heard him when, well, out here in Los Angeles, anyway, he was on K lac, and he had somebody, well, he had a recording of somebody, one of the sports jocks, and he announced that he was going to play this recording, and what you're going to hear is this guy in 60 seconds say, you know, 48 times, that's and he did what's amazing, that   Fidel Guzman ** 49:17 when you when you get to Some of those, it's like, what do they say? Nails on a chalkboard? You're like, Oh, yeah. Like, what are you trying to say? Just, just say it. To say, to say the damn thing.   Michael Hingson ** 49:30 Yeah, talk a little bit slower and just say it.   Fidel Guzman ** 49:33 One thing that I'm trying to be conscious, more conscious of is pauses, like those deliberate pauses, those deliberate pauses to collect your thoughts, like I often need, just to collect myself, but also to build suspense the message and the message that you're trying to give, especially when you're in front of a group of people, in front of an audience, and you're pausing there, they're just like, oh, what? So what is he? What is he gonna say next? What's up? What's going on with this pause? So it's also you have this arsenal of tools when it comes to to public speaking and to engage with an audience and to keep them, to keep them interested in what your next thought is going to be. What What am I going to say next? How am I going to, you know, align this topic to something else that I want to discuss.   Michael Hingson ** 50:24 I love, yeah, I've discovered the value of pauses. You can make a pause last too long, and one of the things you learn is how long to make a pause. But I love pauses. They really do add a lot of value. There they get. Well, you talk a lot about continuous improvement, and clearly you you really love the whole concept. What's an example of a project where you instituted continuous improvement, and how do you make that happen? Thanks, Michael.   Fidel Guzman ** 50:56 Let's pause again. Yeah, right. I know. Yeah. All right. Michaels, Michaels, throw me. Well, not much of a curveball, but yeah, no, that's good. So I know continuous improvement. And one project that I worked on, I want to say one that comes to mind is last year I hosted a series of product boot camps. And what these product boot camps really were, were product training and networking opportunities within ion. I had just gone through the acquisition of backstop into the into the ion family, and I saw a need. I saw a need there for some product training. And what I did is I started to coordinate with subject matter experts, hence the collaboration and community principles that I have with learning and development. And started to piece together a boot camp. So a series of training sessions, and we discussed location, we discussed different components that we can include on there. We discussed remote hybrid in person, what some of those options were, and we had about, I want to say, five or six of these boot camps in 2024 and what I noticed is that for each of the boot camps we would tailor it a little bit, because each of these different products that were under specific umbrellas were for certain audiences, you know, for certain segments of the business. So we had to, I had a template, but we had to tweak that template a little bit. Who do we want to come in here? Who do we want to come in for this particular topic? When do we take breaks? If it's in person, you know? Do we take longer breaks if it's in person? How do we include some interactive components to it? How do we test people's knowledge, whether it's through live polls, whether it's using an LMS platform to do knowledge checks? How do we create a certificate based program around this? And for each of those, it was a learning experience. It was a learning experience because we, every subject matter expert, is different, right? You're building different relationships with different people, and even their style of talking or their style of teaching on a particular topic is going to be different. So those continuous improvements throughout each of those boot camps really started to to resonate and just to showcase themselves. And for each of those, we had a similar template for all of them, but we made minor tweaks to make sure that it was as engaging and and thoughtful as possible.   Michael Hingson ** 53:36 Wow. Well, that's pretty cool. Um, and I think that the very fact that you would make the tweaks and you recognize the need to do that was pretty insightful, of course, because for me, I know when I speak, some people early on told me you should write a talk and you should, you should just give that talk. I tried that once. I didn't like what I sounded like when I read a talk, and I haven't done it since. And I also realized that I do better, and sometimes it isn't necessarily a lot, but when I customize every talk so I love to go early and try to hear speakers who speak before me, or get a chance to meet people at an event, because I will learn things invariably that I will put into the talk. And sometimes I'm tweaking talks up to and including the start of the talk, and sometimes I will tweak a talk when I'm speaking and I'm getting the impression just from all the fidgeting, that maybe I'm not getting through to these people, or I'm not really doing this in the best way possible. And I will change until I get what I expect to be the audience. Reaction, because I know what an audience is like when they're fully engaged, and I also know that not every audience is the same, so I hear what you're saying. I think it's important to do that.   Fidel Guzman ** 55:13 Yeah, for you to be able to do that on the fly, kudos, kudos to that. But yeah, we you got to be able to understand that audience, understand that audience, understand what's what's going on, the dynamic of that, of that situation. So you're, you're a veteran at at this, so no surprise there.   Michael Hingson ** 55:31 Well, that's a lot of fun. Well, what do you do when you're not working you, I know you're involved in various activities and so on. So what do you do when you're, yeah, not an eye on writing, doing, training, stuff and all that.   Fidel Guzman ** 55:45 A number of different hobbies. My wife calls me the Energizer Bunny, because I'm always running around doing something, but some of my main things is right now judo. I did wrestling in high school, and I did mixed martial arts when I was getting my undergrad. And I love martial arts. I think iron sharpens iron. It's good to be around a good group of, good group of people, people who are who are like minded, people who are looking to continue to develop themselves. And yeah, if you're in a room full of tough guys, you have no other choice than to start to be a tough guy yourself. So I love martial arts. I did a couple Judo tournaments, judo and jujitsu tournaments last year, where I placed. And let's see, besides that, triathlons, I love to run, I love to bike, I love to swim. I did my first triathlon last year. I really enjoyed it. I thought it was a phenomenal experience. I mean, it's two three hours of non stop movement, but it was, it was great just to be part of that, of a huge event like that, besides the martial arts and the constant running and swimming and biking, the last thing I want to say is writing and poetry. I have started to compile all all my poems. Hopefully, in the next year or so, I'll, I'll launch a small book of poems. And, yeah, I'll keep you, I'll keep you posted on that. But I do, I do like to write on the sign, you know, hopefully a book of poems. And, you know, since since having my daughter, I've always liked children's books. I would, I would love it if I could launch my my own series of children books, and I'm working on a couple templates with that. So, yeah, stay staying busy, staying busy, physically active, but also mentally   Michael Hingson ** 57:40 active. So you haven't written any books yet. I have a   Fidel Guzman ** 57:44 couple ideas, a couple ideas of what, what kids books want to do, but you don't have any books published yet? No, none yet. None yet. Well, we're anxious to see that happen. You got, you got it, you're gonna, you're gonna light that fire. You're gonna light that fire as well. No, and again, right? I do appreciate you for for really, really motivating me to start my own podcast, because you had really said, like, what's stopping you? Like, like me, I'm stopping myself, you know. But even yet, yeah, even like, you know, being an author, I know that you're an author, you know, I would love to have a conversation offline with you. You know what that publishing experience was like, because I think that's my biggest interference right now with that, is like, I don't know where to start with the publishing. I know I can self publish. I know I can go through publishers and like, the internet, like we said, a double sided sword, yeah, you have information that tells you you should just self publish, and then you have other bits of information. Was like, You should go through a publishing company and just like, where do I Where do I choose? But I think that's why having mentors, you know, and getting to network with people who are experienced, such as yourself, and these different avenues of public speaking and being a keynote speaker and having a podcast, being a podcast host and being an author. I think, I think it's great, and you are definitely an inspiration to me. Michael, well, thank you.   Michael Hingson ** 59:11 You're familiar with Jackson Hewitt, the accounting and tax company. You got it? Okay? So I can't remember whether it was night, whether it was 2016 or 2017 but I got invited to go speak at one of their events, and I did. And while I was there, I met a woman, and I didn't know what she did, and she she, she worked at a Jackson Hewitt, and I just happened to say, what do you own of a firm? Because most of the people there were supposed to be company owners. And she said, No, maybe someday. And I said, why not? You ought to own a company. You ought to you ought to become a company owner. You'll go further Anyway, last year, she sent me an email, and she said, I've never forgotten that, and I think it was like a year later, or two years later, she's. After I and she met, she said, I got my first company, and I now own 10 branches. Wow. Back, I said, that's pretty cool. Oh,   Fidel Guzman ** 1:00:09 Michael, Michael, you are just making ripples in the universe. Just ripples doing something. Yeah, that's good. I don't want to get too religious, but you're doing God's work, man, well,   Michael Hingson ** 1:00:18 I hope so. You know, expect Hill. Hill. Guy, guide, or she'll guide, yeah, but so what do you think is the future of work, of workplace training and learning?   Fidel Guzman ** 1:00:30 Yeah, I think we, we touched a little bit upon this. But you know, AI, you know, definitely, how can we leverage AI for content creation, creating outlines and also using it as feedback. But I also want to to bring back the the in person training. I know we've all gotten very comfortable with, you know, doing stuff remote, but similar to the example that we talked about earlier, where that teacher was like, oh, all these, all these kids are using AI for these papers, and how do I really test their comprehension? That's, that's something you know, that in person activity, yeah, I think definitely has a tremendous amount of value, not just for the instructor, but for the end learner. Yeah. So I think, I think a mixture of like, okay, great, you know, how can we use AI to create content? How can we use it to provide, you know, feedback for people to continue to improve on certain areas. But how can we bring back that in person component?   Michael Hingson ** 1:01:38 Well, see, oh, go ahead,   Fidel Guzman ** 1:01:39 yeah, to, to to unify. It was probably that pause, that to to unify, to unify a vision, you know, a vision of of continuous improvement. You know that to unify, that vision of what a team might be aiming for, yeah. So, yeah. So, I think, I think, you know, long story short, it's going to be, you know, leveraging a bit of AI and still bringing back that, that in person aspect. Well,   Michael Hingson ** 1:02:05 you know, I I've done virtual presentations as well as, of course, lots of in person presentations. I much prefer in person to virtual but my main reason for that is that I can tell what the audience is feeling. I get a lot more information if I'm doing an in person talk than I would get if I'm just doing a virtual talk. Now I've done it long enough that I mostly can do pretty well at a virtual talk, but it's still not the same, yeah, and I still don't get exactly the same information, but I can do virtual talks, and I do and it, and it's fun and and I can play games with it, because I can always turn my video off and really drive people crazy. But you know what? What advice would you give to an aspiring leader who wants to to evolve and make make changes to their organization or to themselves and so on.   Fidel Guzman ** 1:03:06 So advice I would give for aspiring leaders. I think the the main one that I really focus on is opportunities and challenges. Be ready to embrace any opportunities that come your way, but just know that each of those opportunities, it's going to come with its own set of challenges, and be prepared for both, and be okay with dealing both at the same time. And you know last, but you know not least, is that there are there are lots of stories of triumph, and to really curate yours. What does your story of triumph look like? What is your passion and how does, how does all of that connect?   Michael Hingson ** 1:03:53 And it may be evolving, and it may be different in five years than it is today, but both memories are important, yeah, which is cool. Well, Fidel, we've been doing Can you believe we've been doing   Fidel Guzman ** 1:04:08 this for over an hour? Time flies and you're having fun,   Michael Hingson ** 1:04:12 absolutely. And I really appreciate you being here and being a part of this, and I really appreciate all of you who have been listening to us and watching us. We're really excited that you're here. I hope that this has been valuable for you as well, and that you've learned something. Fidel, if people want to reach out to you, how can they do that? I   Fidel Guzman ** 1:04:31 want to say LinkedIn, feel free to reach out to me on LinkedIn. What's your LinkedIn identifier? You can find me as Fidel Guzman, comma, MBA, and I'll also give you a link so you can, you can accompany it alongside this episode, yeah, but feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn. That's going to be the easiest way to get in touch with me. And I'll also have some links if you want to check out my podcast. And hopefully I'll have, I'll have that book of poems out, yeah, soon.   Michael Hingson ** 1:04:59 Well, that will be. Good. Well, thank you again and again. Thank you, all of you. If you'd like to reach out to Fidel, I'm sure he would appreciate it. I would, and you're welcome to reach out to me.

They say most people would rather be in the coffin than giving the eulogy at a funeral.  The fear of public speaking is a real thing and feels an awful lot like the fear of being a first-time landlord.  Toastmasters is a great organization who helps build confidence in not only public speaking, but in life.  Recently I was asked to speak about rentals at a Toastmasters Club called “Money Matters” and the meeting was all about rentals.  In fact, the meeting was so much about rentals, that I have asked two of the Toastmasters from the Money Matters Club today to join me in a roundtable of rental questions.  Hear us discuss many topics that we didn't get to during the meeting.  Enjoy!

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MY 1,000TH EPISODE!!!Good Morning! Today's Witness is about me and my journey with this podcast. Today is my 1,000th episode. I can hardly believe it! Back in 2019, I decided I wanted to change my career. I had my undergraduate degree in psychology and my Master's degree in Special Education. I was a teacher at a DoD school in Turkey for 2 years when our son Sam was born. Tony and I had both decided before having kids that I would stay home with them when we did have them. So, from Turkey we moved to New Jersey, where we stayed for 5 years, and we had two more boys, Noah & Ryan. I stayed home with the boys through our stay in New Jersey, our move to Germany, and our move to England. When we moved back to Massachusetts, our boys were in 6th grade, 4th grade, and 2nd grade. I decided to try to go back to work.I was a licensed teacher in NJ, but needed to take the tests in MA to get my license. While I studied for the tests, I decided to substitute teach. Once I got my license, I applied for a few jobs, but all of my teaching experience was now at least 10 years old. I also realized that although our boys were in school they were struggling with things and I couldn't really get a traditional teaching job because I never knew when I would have to go to school to pick our son up from school, or when one of our kids would refuse to go to school and I would need to stay home to watch him.I started trying to figure out what I wanted to do. I had done a lot of personal development stuff in the years from 2015, when we moved back to the states, to 2019, when I decided what I wanted to do besides being a wife and mother. I had been talking to a lot of people who were unhappy with some aspects of their lives, and yet they felt stuck. They felt like there was nothing they could do about it. I knew this wasn't true. I knew there was always something you could do to either change the situation you are in or change who you are in the situation. I decided to become a life coach so I could help people get unstuck. I wanted to help them overcome their challenges so they could live a happy and fulfilling life.I looked through several programs. One day, I found the Life Purpose Institute. They had a program where you could become a life coach and a spiritual coach. This was perfect for me as my heart really lies in the spiritual coaching, but I also still wanted to help people who were stuck with life issues as well. The program consisted of 60 hours of training. I took the 5-day intensive with four follow-up classes. After doing peer coaching, practice coaching, and taking a final exam, I was finally certified in December of 2019. I made my marketing plan and I was all set to go out and do workshops at local churches and local libraries. I was all set to build this business, and then three months later Covid happened and we were all stuck inside. No workshops, not speaking engagements, my marketing plan went out the window.It was also difficult because as I was learning how to have my own business and work from home, I also had my husband and three kids at home with me. I figured it out, I got some clients, and I was on my way. In June of 2020, I started a blog. Each week, I would write an article, sometimes about life coaching, but they mostly turned out to be Spiritual in content. I found out that writing about Jesus and my faith came pretty easily to me, much to my surprise. I say I was surprised because just a few years earlier, I was asking the Lord why I was the only person in my family who couldn't write. My siblings are all great writers. I have two siblings who have published books. My younger siblings are all really good at writing poems. It was just me who felt like I couldn't write. Either God changed that, or I just hadn't found what I liked to write about yet.In 2020, in the month of May, I decided to go on Facebook Live every day. I thought if I can't go out and get the word out about my business, maybe I could do it on Facebook. At this time, my brother Danny reached out to me and said if I wanted to speak in Public, I should join the Toastmasters Club, which teaches people how to do public speaking and also gives you lots of opportunities to practice. I was nervous, but I decided to give it a try and found out I really liked it. I even won awards in their annual speech contest three years in a row.For Christmas in 2020, my brother Danny and his wife Jess gave me a Blue Snowball iCE microphone so that I could have it if I wanted to go online or if I wanted to do a podcast. I was so excited. I spent the next few months trying to figure out what to call my podcast, what type of podcast it would be, and so on. My friend Kim helped me come up with the logo for it. I was so excited to see that it was actually happening. At this point, I have been listening to the Big Life Podcast with Pamela Crim for over 3 years now. She does a daily devotional podcast, and it is amazing. You should definitely check it out. I decided that I wanted to do this too. I decided each day  I would take a scripture verse and relate it to real life somehow. I was all set to go.Except for the fact that I had no idea how to start a podcast. I didn't know what website to use, what program to use to record it or edit it, how to upload it, or get it out to all the podcasting websites. Luckily, my brother John and his wife Rebecca had been doing a League of Legends podcast for about a year at this point. They actually had another podcast about movie reviews. So, I asked if they could get on a Zoom call with me and teach me. They were happy to help. So, after some help from them, I was able to find some free music on the internet to use to begin and end my podcasts. I wrote my intro and outro, and I was ready to go.My first episode was released on June 16, 2021. That was a Wednesday. It is funny looking back because I remember thinking I should start on a Monday, but at the same time, I didn't want to wait any longer. I just wanted to start. Now, almost four years later, I have reached my 1,000th episode. It has been such a fun journey. The podcast has evolved over time. During February 2022, my prayer group decided to do an online Life in the Spirit Seminar. The people who attended said that what they liked best about the seminar was listening to everyone's experiences about certain topics.This is when I decided to add “Witness Wednesdays” to the podcast lineup. Every Wednesday, I was hoping to get a different person who would talk about how God was working in their lives. At the beginning, I got a lot of different people. I have also given a lot of the witnesses myself, which was great because it helped me to look at the various events in my life and see how God was working in all of them! Then I discovered the PopWe website from Matthew West and his Father, along with the Global Awakening website and the Encounter Ministry's website. God is definitely still working powerfully in this world, and so there is no shortage of testimonies out there talking about it.The next change came when I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me to add the words of prophecy that we receive in my prayer group to the end of each episode. I felt like the Lord wanted me to get His word out to more than just those in our prayer group. I also hope that if we get used to hearing what the Lord's voice sounds like and the types of things he usually says, we can better discern when it is not the Lord's voice speaking to us. We will hopefully be able to block out or ignore the enemy's voice more easily. If you want to receive a daily email with these Words from the Lord, email me at Catherine@findingtruenorthcoaching.com. They really are amazing. It really helps us to get to know the Lord in a different way. It helps us to see him in another light. It also usually happens to be just what you needed to hear that day.I want to take this time to thank every single person who has listened to even just one of my episodes. It means the world to me that you would take the time out of your day to listen. Thank you to those who have reached out over the years to share your testimony for Witness Wednesday or have just reached out to encourage me and let me know you like the podcast. I am so grateful to God for each and every one of you. Sometimes I will write a podcast, and I think it doesn't even make any sense, and then someone will reach out and say that the podcast really spoke to them. The Holy Spirit is good like that. He knows what people need to hear and speaks through me. I am well aware that it is not I writing these podcasts alone. I am aware that the Holy Spirit is working through me, and I am so grateful that God is willing to use me.My goal when starting this podcast was that I could help those who listen walk more boldly in their faith. My goal is to help everyone learn more about what it means to have the Holy Spirit living inside of you. I want everyone to discover the power they have living inside of them. The devil doesn't want you to know. He wants you to feel alone and weak. This is not the case. You are never alone as God never leaves your side and you are not weak. You have the same Holy Spirit that Jesus had living inside of you. The same one that empowered Jesus to do all of the miracles. The same one that raised Jesus from the dead.Did you know that Jesus didn't do any miracles before He was baptized? That is because He chose to only use the human part of himself, along with the Holy Spirit to do miracles. That means that you have that same power living inside of you! What are you doing with it? How are you using it? How could you be using it? John 14:12-14, “Very truly I tell you, whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.  And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.”Did you hear that? “Whoever believes in me will do the works I have been doing, and they will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.” Think of the most amazing thing that Jesus did. That thing that you just can't believe He could do. Then reread that verse. Do you believe in Jesus? Yes, then you can do the things he did and even greater things. This is the whole point of this podcast. I hope that if you have been with me for a while now, you are starting to realize this to be true. I hope you are starting to understand how powerful you really are. The enemy doesn't want you to know this, and I am hoping that enough of us start using the power the Lord has given us, and then others see us and they join in, and before we know it, we are all living in the power of the Holy Spirit. Can you imagine how different this world would be if we were all aware and living in the power that the Lord gave us?I love each and every one of you. I am beyond grateful for your support. If you are listening and I don't know you, I would love to get to know you. Please reach out to me through email at catherine@findingtruenorthcoaching.com. If you would like to give your testimony, send me an email. It really doesn't take a lot of time and could really help someone else out. If you would like prayers, send me an email. It would be my pleasure to pray with you over the phone or add your prayers to my list of prayer requests. Thank you again for listening and for celebrating this momentous occasion with me!! www.findingtruenorthcoaching.comCLICK HERE TO DONATECLICK HERE to sign up for Mentoring CLICK HERE to sign up for Daily "Word from the Lord" emailsCLICK HERE to sign up for my newsletter & receive a free audio training about inviting Jesus into your daily lifeCLICK HERE to buy my book Total Trust in God's Safe Embrace

Episode 58 Stagefright, or even a little relunctance to stand up in a meeting and express ourselves, can be inhibit our growth and advancement in our jobs. Toastmaster is a perfect place to overcome that anxiety. I'll tell you about a great place to overcome all that here in Lexington, Kentucky. Bluegrass Region Voices and Views...hosting conversations with creative and inspiring people and spotlighting engaging activities, organizations, and places around the Bluegrass Region of Kentucky. You can find complete show notes, links, and photographs on my website at: https://www.bluegrassregionvoicesandviews.com/club Thanks for listening. -Tom Hailey    

Episode 14 of 'Connections' features the amazing work of the Frankston Toastmasters Club. It's a fantastic local club that aims to help you develop the skills and confidence you need to effectively express yourself in any situation. https://1851.toastmastersclubs.org/

Unlock your full potential with Join the Toastmasters Club at Your Work! This podcast dives into the transformative power of workplace Toastmasters clubs, helping you sharpen public speaking, leadership, and communication skills—all in a supportive, professional environment. Whether you're looking to ace presentations, lead with confidence, or connect with colleagues, we'll provide practical tips, inspiring stories, and actionable insights to help you thrive. Tune in and discover how Toastmasters can elevate your career! CONQUER SHYNESS

Noel Aldrich and Karsten Singh of Northfield Toastmasters Club talk about an open house on Tuesday, November 12, 6:30 p.m. at the Northfield Public Library to help learn to communicate better and grow leadership skills. The Toastmasters Club normally meets the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of each month, 6:30 p.m. at Northfield Chamber of Commerce.

 Noel Aldrich and Karsten Singh of Northfield Toastmasters Club talk about an open house on Tuesday, November 12, 6:30 p.m. at the Northfield Public Library to help learn to communicate better and grow leadership skills. The Toastmasters Club normally meets the 2nd and 4th Tuesdays of each month, 6:30 p.m. at Northfield Chamber of Commerce. 

Today's guest is Pramoda Vyasarao! Pramoda is a leadership and communication coach, he has 20+ years of experience in big tech, wrote the book “Beyond Your Limits”, and runs a course called Communication Engineering With Pramoda, we will talk about what good communication looks like, especially for engineers and managers, how it impacted his career and the career of the leaders he helps. Here is what we talked about: (02:05) Introduction (02:51) The Toastmasters Club (07:12) Engineering Communication issues (10:18) Communication through Pramoda's career (13:28) The TALL framework (19:11) Evaluation vs Information (20:44) The TALL framework: Asking (34:19) The GROW model (36:18) The TALL framework: Listening (38:05) The Path to action (46:04) From feelings to facts (50:38) The TALL framework: Leadership (53:51) Get a coach! (55:28) Mentoring vs Coaching (58:39) Beyond your Limits: a look on Pramoda's work Learn more about Pramoda's work: Communication Engineering course: https://www.changesmith.me/communication Beyond Your Limits book: Amazon — You can also find this at:

Join us in "Women Power in Languages" as Urmi Hossain (@urmihossain) takes us on a journey through the power of language learning! In this laid-back conversation, our Bengali-Italian guest shares her inspiring story of becoming a polyglot, speaking an impressive 4.5 languages. She also opens up about her experiences as a dual-nationality immigrant and how the Toastmasters Club can be a game-changer in mastering fluency. Enjoy the video? Don't forget to give us a thumbs up!

Kelly Leibold and Ethan Schumann in the studio Wednesday for La Crosse Talk PM teaching radio talk show hosts how to speak better. Or trying to, anyway. Leibold is the president of the La Crosse Area Toastmasters Club and Schumann is public relations with the group. Throughout the show, we discuss what the Toastmasters is, exactly, some of the fun things they do at the bi-weekly meetings and go through some of the things that help make a person a better speaker — including radio talk show hosts. The La Crosse Toastmasters meet the second and fourth Tuesdays in Room 430 of the La Crosse County Administrative Building downtown.  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Grace Empowerment 101 DevotionalsToday's episode will be a bit different. My friend and fellow Toastmaster has just published a book titled Grace Empowerment 101 Devotionals. You can find this book on Amazon, and I will place a link in the show notes if you would like to purchase it. I met Marina through The New Life Toastmasters Group. She started this Toastmasters group over 10 years ago, and I am so thankful for it, as I learned so much from it.For those of you who don't know, Toastmasters is an organization that trains people to do public speaking—or any kind of speaking. It is also really good for people who need to learn to communicate better at work or learn to be more calm giving work presentations. Marina is a volunteer work coach for many people, including college students just finishing up their degrees and looking to go out and find a job. Marina is also an integral part of her church family. She studied at the Chinese Semlink Theology Seminary College Certificate Program for four years and is now the Sunday School Coordinator at her church.Marina is a talented woman who loves Jesus. She has such a passion to bring Jesus's love to everyone she meets. She also runs Alpha courses at her church. Alpha emphasizes the essentials that all denominations agree on. Alpha creators believe that what unites us is infinitely greater than what divides us. I hope you enjoy her devotionals as much as you do. She is a phenomenal woman of God. If you are on Facebook and would like to follow her you can find her at Author Marina Grace: Life Lessons, Panda Flash Cards. I will place a link for that in the show notes as well. Today I will be reading 5 of her devotionals to you so you can get a sneak peak as to what you will find in her book.#69: Just BelieveIn Luke 8, a synagogue leader named Jairus came and fell down before Jesus. He pleaded with Jesus to heal his dying daughter. Without hesitation, Jesus rose and accompanied Jairus to his home. As they approached, someone informed Jairus that his daughter had already passed away, and there was no need for Jesus to see her. But Jesus comforted the grieving father, saying, “Don't be afraid; just believe, and she will be healed.” Ultimately, Jesus miraculously restored the daughter to life.Reflecting on this story, I realize that my faith in Jesus is essential for my job. When I encounter challenges in my projects, my heart sometimes feels overwhelmed. However, I remember that God, my heavenly Father, has a purpose for assigning these tasks to me—even when they are not easy. If the projects were straightforward, there would be no need for a Senior Principal Software Engineer like myself. This is my career journey.Dear God, please grant me unwavering faith in You. Open doors to help me resolve the issues I face. I trust that You will never abandon me, even in the most challenging situations. Your purpose is to shape me into the likeness of Jesus Christ. Pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.# 70: My sole priority"When Jesus taught His disciples how to pray, He said: 'This, then, is how you should pray:‘Our Father in heaven, hallowed be Your name. Your kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.' (Matthew 6:9, NIV)This prayer sets the direction for my remaining life. Since God is my heavenly Father, He will provide all my needs on earth. I don't need to worry about my possessions, my job, or my service for Him. My sole priority is to serve His kingdom so that His will is done on earth. May everyone hear His word and follow His teachings, leading them to be baptized in the name of God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.Dear God, please empower me through the Holy Spirit to speak the right words at the right time and be Your hands and voice. I pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.#71: Little faithJesus taught His disciples not to worry:“Consider the ravens: They do not sow or reap, they have no storeroom or barn; yet God feeds them. And how much more valuable you are than birds!” (Luke 12:24, NIV)As I grow older, I find myself easily succumbing to worry. The realization that so much is beyond my control weighs heavily on my mind. I meticulously plan, fretting about work, time management, church responsibilities, and even my health.Two weeks ago, I reached out to my church's prayer team, seeking their intercession for three sequencing Sunday events: facilitating a Sunday school class, delivering a children's ministry sermon, and hosting a Toastmasters Club meeting. But life took an unexpected turn—I tested positive for COVID-19 on Saturday. Suddenly, I was confined to my home, relying on online conference tools. Yet, remarkably, everything unfolded smoothly. My church family rallied, setting up laptops and equipment to ensure the events proceeded seamlessly.In this experience, I learned a profound lesson: God anticipates our needs even before we voice them in prayer. He orchestrates every detail of our lives, weaving together circumstances beyond our comprehension. There's no need for excessive worry; instead, we can trust in His providence.Dear God, grant me unwavering faith to rely on You fully. As I strive to do my best, I surrender the rest to Your capable hands. In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.#72 Answered prayerJesus taught:“So I say to you: Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and the door will be opened to you.” (Luke 11:9, NIV)I am a mother of two daughters. Before they entered college and decided on their majors, I did not force them to choose any specific field. I provided them with one guideline: they needed to select a major that would lead to job opportunities after graduation. If they were interested in an art major, they had to choose a second major to enhance their employability.After that, I sealed my lips and prayed for them every day. Now, my elder daughter has a business administration major with a concentration in operations management. My younger daughter followed our advice and pursued two majors: biomedical engineering and biology.It is entirely by God's grace and mercy that both daughters successfully graduated. They both found jobs within a few weeks after graduation.Dear God, thank you for hearing our prayers. Please give us strong faith to pray to You for guiding and protecting my family. Pray in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen.#73: Be a faithful servantWhen the apostles asked Jesus to increase their faith, Jesus told them the story of a hardworking servant returning from the field. The master immediately instructed the servant to cook and wait on him. After the servant completed all tasks, they should humbly say, “We are unworthy servants; we have only done our duty.” (Luke 17:10, NIV)Related to me: I recently worked from 6:00 AM to 5:00 PM. When I returned home, my husband asked me to cook, and I found myself resisting. How could I transform my attitude into that of a humble servant?Reflecting on Jesus' actions during the Passover feast, I am reminded of His profound love for us. He stood up, poured water into a basin, and washed His disciples' feet. In doing so, He set an example for us—to serve one another with humility and love (John 13).Dear God: Please grant me a humble heart to serve others for Your sake. Increase my faith, knowing that every task You assign has a purpose to shape me into the likeness of Jesus Christ. I pray in His name. Amen.#74: Peaceful HeartJesus said: “Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life?” (Matthew 6:27, NIV)In this season of life, I've come to understand that very little is truly within my control. As a software engineer, my job demands quality results, and achieving that involves constant testing and ensuring everything meets the mark. Additionally, I strive to complete my work early, allowing room to handle unexpected surprises.Yet, I despise last-minute surprises.Recently, God has been teaching me to loosen my grip on life—to trust Him fully and embrace a more abundant existence. Each morning, I begin with a simple prayer:"I ask God for success, as Jesus Christ did.I seek good surprises from Him."And remarkably, this practice has granted me a peaceful heart throughout the day. I can focus on my work without fear of uncertainty.Dear God, grant me unwavering faith to pray to You each morning. Thank You for bestowing upon me a tranquil heart and entrusting the entire day to Your care. In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen.Thank you so much, Marina, for sharing your expertise and your love of God with us. Thank you for being real and sharing your life with us. Thank you for all you do for Toastmasters, for your church, and for all those you career coach for free. You are remarkable! If you want Marina's book, CLICK HERE to purchase the book. Please also follow her on Facebook or LinkedIn. CLICK HERE for her Facebook page.Dear Heavenly Father, I ask you to bless everyone listening to the episode. Lord, I also ask you to bless Marina in a special way. I ask you to bless all she is doing to bring others to you so they can come to know your love. Lord, help us all have this deep desire to bring others to you. Help us share your love and light with others as well. We love you, Lord, and ask all of this in accordance with your will and in Jesus's holy name, Amen!Thank you so much for joining me on this journey to walk boldly with Jesus. I hope you enjoyed hearing a few devotionals from my friend today. Also, thank you all for your prayers for Noah yesterday. It was a long day, but the doctor said the surgery was excellent. It went better than planned, and he thinks Noah will be very happy with the results. We know this is all thanks to God! Please continue to pray for a pain-free and speedy recovery. I look forward to meeting you here again tomorrow. Remember, Jesus loves you, and so do I! Have a blessed day!Today's Word from the Lord was received in January 2024 by a member of my Catholic Charismatic Prayer Group. If you have any questions about the prayer group or about these words please email CatholicCharismaticPrayerGroup@gmail.com. Today's Word from the Lord is “Come closer to me, my children. This year, come much closer, and I will reveal my heart to you. I will show you where you need to go.”

In this episode we sit down with Elly Liao. Elly is an eternal optimist and advocate for spreading love and kindness throughout our world. With a belief in the transformative power of love, balance, and purpose, she guides individuals towards happier, more fulfilled lives, both personally and professionally. Growing up as a 1st generation Taiwanese-American in the South, Elly's early experiences in her family's restaurant instilled a strong work ethic that shapes her coaching today. Now based in sunny Jacksonville, FL, she serves clients nationwide and internationally as a Board Certified Coach through her company "ENSPIRd". A perpetual learner and self-development enthusiast, Elly is passionate about diving into meaningful conversations, devouring new insights from self-development books, and being in the Toastmasters Club. Enjoy Elly's story of growth and grit!Website: https://www.grit.org/Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNYFCl9ZQw6opYuNsm48euwInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/gritdotorg/?igshid=NzNkNDdiOGI%3DTiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@grit.orgFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/Gritdotorg/Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/company/grit-org

Discover the art of culinary reinvention and personal growth as we take a whimsical journey from kitchen to character development. This episode is a veritable feast for the soul, steeped in the rich broth of history and spiced with the zest of self-improvement. Gather 'round as I recount transforming holiday leftovers into a delightful ham and corn chowder, a tradition rooted in the pragmatic gastronomy of the Great Depression. Then, we'll meander through the curious alleys of perpetual stews and nursery rhymes, finding resourcefulness in the most unexpected places.Taking a break from the simmering pot, our conversation shifts to the exploration of life's flavors and fears. I'll share my offbeat encounter with buffalo wing soda and a chili that's a symphony of chocolate, cinnamon, and beans, challenging the palate with the unexpected. We'll also dive into the essence of motivation, arming ourselves with strategies like 'fear setting' to confront our trepidations head-on. Listen as I detail a Toastmasters Club experience that proves with a plan in hand, the once-daunting task of facing our fears becomes a well-chartered journey.As we near the end of our time together, we don't shy away from the weightier ingredients of life's stew. We tackle the overarching struggle with burnout, perfectionism, and aligning work with values, stirring in anecdotes and insights to motivate and ground you. The episode is ladled with pearls of wisdom on managing overwhelm, the fortitude of support systems, and the significance of gratitude. There's no recipe too complex, no ambition too grand, as we serve up a blend of nourishing thoughts and energizing encouragement to inspire your next steps, both in the kitchen and beyond.

This episode is the second part of a special focus of the Georgia Tech Research Podcast on the 50th anniversary of Section 504, the federal law that became the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The host of this episode, J. Denise Johnson Marshall, ADA Compliance Coordinator at Georgia Institute of Technology, calls this series “a very special podcast for us at Georgia Tech.” The guests for this episode are representatives from Georgia Tech's Employee Relations Dept., Captioning and Description services, the CARES Employee Resource Group, and the Excel program. This episode is in conjunction with the creation of a special award at Georgia Tech.  As a part of Georgia Tech's commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, the Office of Equity and Compliance Programs – ADA Compliance established an award called Advocates for Accessibility. The Advocates for Accessibility award recognizes individuals who have actively worked to improve accessibility for people with disabilities in the Georgia Tech community.   The guests for this episode are representatives from Georgia Tech's Employee Relations Dept., Captioning and Description services, the CARES Employee Resource Group, and the Excel program. Thank you to our guests from Georgia Tech's Employee Relations Dept.(Langston Jackson), Captioning and Description services (Sheryl Ballenger), the CARES Employee Resource Group (Asha Hagood), and the Excel program (Kenneth Surdin), and our host Denise Johnson Marshall.   TRANSCRIPT: Announcer This is the Georgia Tech Research podcast presented by GTRI. Join us as we move forward one research story at a time.   Announcer The views represented in these interviews do not reflect the views of the organization. They are anecdotal views of individual experiences.   Eric Klein Welcome to the Georgia Tech Research Podcast presented by GTRI. This podcast highlights research and opportunities around Georgia Tech and the Georgia Tech Research Institute. Today's episode titled Beyond Compliance is in recognition of the 50th anniversary of Section 504. This is the Rehabilitation act, which became law in 1973. My name is Eric Klein and today's host is Denise Johnson Marshall.   Denise Johnson Marshall Welcome to the Beyond Compliance Podcast. I'm your host, Denise Johnson Marshall, Director of Equity and Compliance Programs and also the Institute ADA Coordinator, and I'm part of the Office of Equity and Compliance Programs. Today we'll be highlighting the individuals that are behind some of the services that you may or may not know about at Georgia Tech and GTRI that help to impact the lives of individuals with disabilities. Today you'll hear from employee relations, captioning and description services, the CARES Employee Resource Group, and finally, the Excel program. Let's take a break from this podcast to listen to more about departments that we want you to get to know.   Asha Hagood Get to know CARES ERG the CARES at GTRI Employee Resource Group is an inclusive community for employees who identify with having a visible or invisible disability, caregivers for individuals with disabilities, and allies of the community. Our mission is to create space for issues around accessibility by amplifying the conversation around accessibility inequity and by providing educational opportunities around accessibility compliance. We're seeking to grow our membership and have several cochair positions that could use your ideas and your voice as we gear up to provide information sessions and other fun events. If you're interested and are an employee at GTRI, please reach out via our contact form on Webwise. Cares and other ergs are listed there under the Communities tab.   Denise Johnson Marshall Now that you know a little bit more, it's time to get back to the podcast. Our first guest for the Beyond Compliance podcast is Langston Jackson. Langston is the HR Compliance Coordinator for Employee Relations on our campus. Welcome, Langston.   Langston Jackson Thank you for having me.   Denise Johnson Marshall Can you briefly tell us the role of your office and briefly your responsibilities?   Langston Jackson My office has several responsibilities. One of them includes the administration, Americans with disabilities reasonable accommodations process for employees. We administer that. The office is also responsible for coordinating the development of the Institute's Affirmative Action Compliance Program, as well as the administration of the university's impartial board of Review Appeals process and Procedures.   Denise Johnson Marshall That's very interesting can you tell us a little bit about what elements of an employee's job responsibilities do you consider when you're considering reasonable accommodations? And also, could you define that a little bit for us? What are reasonable accommodations?   Langston Jackson So under the ADA, a reasonable accommodation is basically a modification or adjustment to the job or the work environment that allows a person with disability to still perform the essential functions of their job. The essential functions are the major components of the job duties. Minimal parts of the job duties are not considered essential functions. It is the functions that take up a large part of the job aspects.   Denise Johnson Marshall Do you have any examples of that?   Langston Jackson Yes. For example, individual that's a courier, their essential functions may include driving, whereas your most administrative functions would not include that. That would be in office work. Accommodation for a courier would have to take into consideration driving requirements, whereas most individuals, they don't understand that ADA does not contemplate how they get to and from work. So what the ADA does take into consideration is the essential functions that they're taking when they are working.   Denise Johnson Marshall So who decides what is essential? What isn't essential? You had an example of a carrier, and it may be essential to be able to get back and forth as far as those other types of tasks. Who decides what is essential?   Langston Jackson What will happen in the accommodations process? My department will send a request for essential functions and job analysis forms to be completed by the employee supervisor. We typically ask that they return those documents to us within five business days. Those forms break down into percentages what the job duties are. We ask that they give us at least four and that the supervisor breaks them down into percentages for us to review and to consider in the accommodations process.   Denise Johnson Marshall So what should an employee with a disability expect when they're going through this process?   Langston Jackson It's an interactive process. It requires give and take from the employee, the department, and from our office. We obtain the essential functions in the job analysis forms, and a key component is another form called the medical certification form. That form gives us what the condition is. It gives us an idea if this is a temporary or permanent condition. It lets us know what the limitations are for the individual, and it also gives us recommendations for the accommodation for the employee that will help them best perform the essential functions of their job.   Denise Johnson Marshall What type of guidance does your office give to the Georgia Tech larger community, such as maybe supervisors or HR business partners?   Langston Jackson With regards to our interactions to supervisors and the HR business partners, we first and foremost try to make sure that they are aware and are sensitive to the accommodation for the employee. What we like to do with all of them is to ensure that we've gone over the process and the Americans with Disabilities act with them so that they understand certain requirements and certain things that the department will have to supply to the individual. What we often find is that individuals that haven't gone through this process before, we explain everything with regards to the essential functions, the medical certification form, and then we like to go over any questions that they may have. It's really a give and take. At the end of the day, we try to establish that the department can make their recommendations as well, and we're letting them know also what the employee is asking for.   Denise Johnson Marshall So what is the best way for an employee to contact you if they just have questions or they want to get the process started?   Langston Jackson Anyone wishing for additional information may contact the office at employe-erelations@ohr.gatech.edu. Again, that's employee-relations@ohr.gatech.edu. They can contact me directly by email at ljackson98@gatech.edu.   Denise Johnson Marshall As our listeners may or may not be aware, we are also celebrating the 50th anniversary of the Rehabilitation act of 1973. With that in mind, are there any final thoughts that you have on your office's mission and goals?   Langston Jackson As we're celebrating the 50-year anniversary of the Rehabilitation act of 1973, we recognize the many strides that have been made and that there are many more that we still can improve upon for employees with disabilities. My office is proud to continue in advancing this work forward and here to assist and guide all employees at Georgia Tech with the provision of reasonable accommodations.   Denise Johnson Marshall Langston, thank you so much for taking the time out to briefly talk about your office and what you do.   Langston Jackson Thank you all for having me. Thank you for all that you do for the employees here at Georgia Tech.   Denise Johnson Marshall Let's take a break from this podcast to listen to more about departments that we want you to get to know.   Kendra Brown Get to know the center for Inclusive Design and Innovation the center for Inclusive Design and Innovation, also known as CIDI, is housed within the College of Design at Georgia Tech. The accessibility experts at CIDI have decades of experience in user centered accessibility research and delivery of services to help individuals with disabilities. CIDI's overall mission is to improve the human condition through equal access to technology based and research driven information services and products for individuals with disabilities. With its rich history of providing accessible solutions to an underserved community, CIDI has positioned itself as a leader in accessibility and inclusion. CIDI is committed to promoting technological innovation and addressing unmet needs by providing accessible and inclusive environments for all. Maintaining dynamic partnerships with universities, state agencies, publishers, nonprofit groups, and corporations allow CIDI to continue to expand its expertise and further advocate for accessibility in Georgia, across the country, and internationally. For more information about CIDI, you can visit their website at www.cidi.gatech.edu or you can contact their customer support team by phone at 404-894-7756.   Denise Johnson Marshall Now that you know a little bit more, it's time to get back to the podcast. Our second guest today is Dr. Sheryl Ballenger. Dr. Ballenger, thank you so much for being a part of our second Beyond Compliance podcast.   Sheryl Ballenger Thank you so much for having me. I'm excited to be here.   Denise Johnson Marshall Dr. Ballenger is the Manager for Deaf and Harder Hearing Services as a part of the center for Inclusive Design and Innovation here at Georgia Tech. Dr. Ballenger, can you briefly tell us about your role within CIDI and your responsibilities?   Sheryl Ballenger Yeah, I'd love to. I am Manager of our captioning and describe media services as part of CIDI. This is a unit that started in 2011 when CIDI was interested in entering into being able to provide services for students who were deaf and hard of hearing. My background being an interpreter for the deaf one point, and also with a degree in deaf Education, made it a good fit for me. We were able to then begin having captioning for classes for students in different colleges across the Board of Regents, as well as captioning videos that were used in educational environments. First series that we actually captioned was a welding series for one of the technical community colleges in Georgia.   Denise Johnson Marshall That is very interesting. When we often see captions or audio descriptions, we know that it's there, but we really don't understand what it takes to get there. Can you tell us a little bit about that process?   Sheryl Ballenger Sure. First of all, we're going to look at video captioning or caption Media, whichever way you would like to phrase that. Basically, that involves media access. Most of the media that we do work on is for education purposes, but we also serve nonprofits and other groups that post media to their websites and want those videos captioned. There's also speech to text systems and there's two main ones that are used. The first would be CART. CART, and that stands for communication access, real time translation. This requires a skilled stenographer who's using a stenotype machine and is writing at a near verbatim speed. No matter how fast the speaker is speaking, they're keeping up with them. And then another speech to text system that we use is called either Cprint, the software or Typewell. This type of captioning is meaning for meaning. The Cprint software was developed by National Technical Institute for the Deaf. They developed the Cprint software about 20 years ago or so in a way to make sure that there was a meaningful way for captions to happen for deaf students. The Cprint software actually uses a qwerty keyboard and is something that most people already have skill with to be able to provide once they do CPrint training.   Denise Johnson Marshall How do you know what is appropriate to use in which instance   Sheryl Ballenger That's determined by the user. If a student attending college will consult with their disability services office together, they, with their disability services coordinator can work out which would be the best for their use. CART does require near verbatim English skills, so that would be somebody who is a very strong reader and who can read to learn. And that's a different skill than just reading for enjoyment. Reading for learning is difficult for some people and then Cprint because of the way it was created by the technical institute for the deaf, because it's developed for a meaning based representation of what's spoken, is typically more of a form that's understandable by people who don't have the ability to really learn everything from reading and want to see that language put in a way that's more understandable. Transcripts are also available for both services, CART or Cprint, so they also kind of serve as a double accommodation so a student can have real time access with CART or Cprint, plus they get notes afterward that they're able to then use for studying later on. You kind of mentioned audio description. It's not really one of the speech to text systems at all, or captioning, but it is used on videos. Audio description is visual information that describes the action, what's being shown on screen, what graphs may include, that kind of thing.   Denise Johnson Marshall So if I'm a department and I have an event and I want to get it captioned, what would be some of the things that I would need to take into consideration? More specifically, what is the difference between closed captioned and open captioned?   Sheryl Ballenger Well, if you're planning an event, first thing you're going to want to do is put out a statement letting your participants know that you're going to have accommodations available. Usually one of those accommodations would be we're going to offer captioning, and when it's an event, it's usually cart because that's more near verbatim and that's what most of the audience is going to prefer not just people who are deaf and hard of hearing. Use cart people who need a little more support to understand what's going on, use Cart as backup for listening once it's determined that Cart is going to be provided as a coordinator or event planner, then you would need to contract with an agency that supplies cart. Once you have contracted with an agency that's going to supply your cart, you're going to need to make sure that the event, whether it's online or in person, has good audio and connectivity for connecting. If it's going to be with a remote service provider. In most cases, that's going to require testing in the beginning just to make sure that you are connecting and that the audio is nice and clear and that the cart captionist is able to understand and hear clearly.   Now you asked about open or closed captioning. Those terms refer to the video captioning or caption media. When video captions are created, the choice is closed or open. Closed captioning means that the user will need to turn those captions on or off. If they choose to use them, they'll turn them on. So YouTube provides a way for turning captions on on a video. Televisions and things that people view screens always have a way to turn captions on or off. But in some cases, when you're showing videos that may be projected on a screen that are used for general information purposes, captions for those need to be open. So open captions are always there, they're burned onto the video. Those captions are not chooseable. You can't turn them off or turn them on.   Denise Johnson Marshall How much time does it take for audio description and what does your team do.   Sheryl Ballenger Regarding the time of how long it takes to have a video captioned or to set something up, or to have audio description added to your video. Video captioning that is accurate starts with a transcript, a correct transcript with punctuation, correct spelling, speaker identification and sound effects if there are any in the recording. Typically, that takes seven to 14 business days. For us at CIDI, section 508 calls for captions that are accurate and synchronized. That means there can't be anything that's not correct in the captions. For audio description, we start with viewing and writing a script of the action or visuals that may be in a film. The script is revised several times to ensure that it is both succinct and that it conveys the essence of the scene that is appearing on the film. Then placement of the lines in the script is determined. We don't want to make a video become longer or too much longer than what everyone else is going to view? Because that wouldn't be fair. We have to find places to fit the description in in the nonadio segments to make sure that audio described film meets our standards and what we want to see. As far as good audio description, that typically takes three to six weeks or so depending on the length of the video and the content.   Denise Johnson Marshall Can you tell us what is the difference between automatic captioning that you may find on a lot of video conferencing platforms versus real time captioning?   Sheryl Ballenger Accuracy is important here. If you were having a low stakes meeting, maybe it's just a small group. The employee is very familiar with everything that's going on in the unit, knows all of the types of systems that are used. This is not a training event. This is just a conversation that's going to happen between employees. Then that might work for using an automatic type captioning service such as something that's included in Zoom. But if you're talking about high stake settings, then the auto generated captions are not appropriate. The problem with auto generated captions is that they do strive for the best guess. If it didn't quite comprehend a word, the system didn't understand the accent of the speaker. It's just going to throw in a word that makes sense in that sentence. But that may not actually be what was spoken and it could actually lead somebody to understand the wrong thing. When we did some tests on some of the auto generated systems that are used in the US, the very best platform scored at 89% accurate. That means that 11% is still inaccurate and it's not fair to the user who's depending on these captions to miss out on 11%.   Denise Johnson Marshall What is the best way to learn more about captioning, audio descriptions or just ways to make your content more accessible?   Sheryl Ballenger The best thing you could do is to just use it. When you watch YouTube videos, turn on the captions if you create content of your own and post to YouTube. Google Help has information where you can learn how to caption your own videos and you'll actually be contributing to the media that's more accessible for everyone. When you do that, you can attend movie theaters that offer caption devices. They even have described audio devices that you can check out from the customer service area and listen to during the movie. All television and subscription service broadcasts now have captions. Most of the subscription services also have descriptions added.   Denise Johnson Marshall Are there any final thoughts that you may have for the Georgia Tech community on your office and your mission?   Sheryl Ballenger Our mission at CIDI is to improve the human condition through equal access to technology based and research driven information services and products for individuals with disabilities. Part of what we do at CIDI is to make sure that we offer many services as well as we conduct research and accessibility. We also house Georgia's Tools for Life program, which is an Assistive Technology act federally funded program. Part of the fun they get to have at work is to use some of these great assistive technology tools that are available and show them to individuals who are interested in learning more about them. Our website is cidi.gatech.edu. That is cidi.gatech.edu.   Denise Johnson Marshall Dr. Ballinger, thank you so much for being a part of our second Beyond Compliance podcast.   Sheryl Ballenger You are so welcome. I enjoyed being here.   Denise Johnson Marshall Let's take a break from this podcast to listen to more about departments that we want you to get to know.   Kendra Brown Get to know the Office of Disability Services for Students. The Office of Disability Services, or ODS, collaborates with students, faculty and staff to create a campus environment that is usable, equitable, sustainable, and inclusive of all members of the Georgia Tech community. If students encounter academic, physical, technological or other barriers on campus, the Disability Services team collaborates with the students to find creative solutions and reasonable accommodations. ODS, located in the Smith Gall Student Services Building, also known as the Flag Building Suite 123, is passionate about providing support and resource information for students with disabilities at the institute. For more information, visit our website at disabilitieservices.gatech.edu or email us at dsinfo@gatech.edu. That's dsinfo@gatech.edu.   Denise Johnson Marshall Now that you know a little bit more, it's time to get back to the podcast. I'd like to welcome our third guest today to the Beyond Compliance podcast, and it's Asha Hagood. Asha is the Senior Project Support Specialist with GTRI. Welcome, Asha.   Asha Hagood Thank you so much for having me.   Denise Johnson Marshall Can you tell us a little bit about your role and your responsibilities?   Asha Hagood As you stated, I work as a project Support specialist Senior on the Organizational development team, and I lead the team's quality assurance efforts for all of the content that we push out, and I also do some program management within that role. We administrate some great programs in support of employee growth and development, like the Career Link program, Job Rotation, Toastmasters Club, and we sit within the Employee Experience team under GTHR. We contribute to the organization's strategic vision by providing high quality, impactful learning experiences. Things that we develop are primarily for our GTRI audience, but we also support campus efforts. Additionally, I'm the Executive sponsor or Chair for the CARES ERG. ERGs Being employee resource groups, I stepped into that role in May of this year.   Denise Johnson Marshall Can you tell me a little bit more about the CARES Employee Resource Group and a little bit about the mission?   Asha Hagood All of the ERGs were established in 2020 in conjunction with a GTRI 2020 Strategic plan. Overall, mission and purpose of all of the ERGs is to facilitate an inclusive work environment, thereby promoting a sense of community and belonging at GTRI, and to create a shared space to strategically impact change. There are a few ERGs cares is one of six ERGs. Apart from functioning as a beacon for employees who require accessibility solutions, as well as for those who are advocates for the accessibility community or caretakers, I like to think that our mission is to cultivate thought leaders in the realm of accessibility and accessibility awareness. We help provide insights to influence decision makers to keep accessibility front of mind One of our members made the point recently that accessibility provisions and mindfulness may seem like an extra step now, but it could and should become a part of your workflow if you create content or manage people.   Denise Johnson Marshall Can you tell us about some of the resources that you provide to employees with disabilities? What are those specific resources that the ERG provides?   Asha Hagood Our strongest resource right now is ourselves and the lending of our voices for employees who may need them. We're a group of about 25. Some folks might be hesitant to speak up about an accessibility need. They may not want to self-identify or be considered a squeaky wheel, but we'd consider it a win if that hypothetical employee will reach out to cares and ask us what we could do to support them. And that support could look like putting them in touch with resources such as CIDI Centers for Inclusive Design Innovation. They're a tremendous resource. As well as the Georgia Library Service, the GLS is also under the USG umbrella. The GLS serves people who are blind or print impaired. Or I could put them in touch with your office or with Dr. Anne Harris. If they're meeting with resistance or running into brick walls, the support of our group could give them a second wind. CAREs could help move the needle.   Denise Johnson Marshall And, Dr. Harris is the compliance advisor who works with our guests that we had on early Langston Jackson.   Asha Hagood Yes, yes, indeed. We've partnered with Dr. Harris on some initiatives, such as the Self Identify campaign. That was an important initiative. The data that bears out from that initiative can help us to launch some programming that would be meaningful to the folks at GTRI.   Denise Johnson Marshall In the CARES ERG. Do you have meetings or is all the information just found online.   Asha Hagood We have a monthly meeting with our members, and we discuss different initiatives that we want to roll out, and we do publicize that within some channels at GTRI. We do a notice to remind members to attend the meeting and to also invite others who just may be curious to come on and attend the meeting as well. Aside from just using the group as a resource or a touchstone, we've got a tip sheet up on our WebWise intranet site and we're going to add some other content there soon. And we're also going to host a screening of the critically acclaimed film Crip Camp, so stay tuned for that.   Denise Johnson Marshall If I work for GTRI and I'm a manager and I wanted to connect an employee to the group, what would be the best way to do that?   Asha Hagood They can search us up on WebWise. Under the Communities tab, all of the ERGs are listed. We have a contact form there. They could reach out to us via that form, or they could reach directly out to me. Asha Haygood by email or slack.   Denise Johnson Marshall That is great. This is definitely a model for the Greater Georgia Tech as well, and it's a great way for us to close out our 50th anniversary of the Rehabilitation act of 1973. As our final question, do you have any final thoughts for us? Just about your program, its mission and its goals.   Asha Hagood I would like to note that we are looking to grow our membership, so that is always a goal. Every voice that comes on board contributes to more diverse thought and reinvigorates our mission. So we're looking for some co-chairs in a couple of areas, and they would serve as the primary contact for outreach and maintaining partnerships and also community engagement. And they would serve as the primary contact for communications, marketing and those related activities. That's what I'd love to leave you with. And also, I thank you so much for extending an invitation to come and chat. Conversations like these will help ensure that accessibility is a forethought and not an afterthought, as one of our cares members recently stated.   Denise Johnson Marshall Thank you. We're happy to have you. And just one final thing, can you just remind all of GTRI again? What is the best way to get the information on this particular ERG or any of the ERGs?   Asha Hagood To get information on any of the ERGs, you would go to the webwise page, and that's GTRI's intranet. Under the Communities tab, all of the ERGs are listed. If you're interested in ours, you would click CARES Erg and that will take you to our page and our resources and my contact information.   Denise Johnson Marshall Thank you so much. I appreciate your time today.   Asha Hagood Thank you so much again Denise for having me.   Denise Johnson Marshall let's take a break from this podcast to listen to more about departments that we want you to get to know.   Kendra Brown Get to know the Office of Equity and Compliance Programs the Office of Equity and Compliance Programs is here to educate, identify and illuminate systemic and institutional barriers to equity and inclusion at Georgia Tech while creating a culture beyond compliance. Our office provides support and investigates matters involving accessibility compliance issues. These issues can include physical or digital accessibility barriers on campus, disability, discrimination, sexual harassment, and sexual violence. Additionally, we provide resources to pregnant and parenting individuals. As a part of our mission to educate the campus community about our office and the work that we do, we offer a series of trainings and workshops. This is to ensure that our campus partners have the tools to support the institutional strategic plan of expanding access and creating a diverse, equitable and inclusive environment. We invite you to collaborate with us as we work together to build a better Georgia tech. To learn more or submit a report of compliance issues, visit our website at diversity.gatech.edu/equityandcompliance.   Denise Johnson Marshall Now that you know a little bit more, it's time to get back to the podcast. I'd like to welcome our fourth guest to the Beyond Compliance podcast. We have Dr. Ken Surin. Ken is the Director of the Excel Program. Welcome, Ken.   Ken Surdin Nice to be here, Denise.   Denise Johnson Marshall Ken, can you tell us about the area of your role within the CEISMC program and then specifically about your responsibilities?   Ken Surdin Excel at Georgia Tech is a program within CEISMC. It's a four year certificate program for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities, and it falls under the classification of Inclusive post-secondary Education.   Denise Johnson Marshall For those who may not be as familiar, can you tell us exactly what is the CEISMC program? Your overarching program that the EXCEL Program is a part of.   Ken Surdin Within Georgia Tech is the center for Education, Integrating Science, Mathematics and Computing. EXCEL is part of that program. EXCEL was started in 2014 and we had our first group of students, a group of eight in a cohort, begin in 2015. There's about 260 programs across the country that are IPSY programs. EXCEL is one of about 40 4 year programs that offer Pell Grants, on campus housing, inclusive clubs, internships and is designated as a comprehensive transition program by the Department of Education. I am the founding director of that program going into my 10th year. Like a lot of directors across Georgia Tech, I am writing grants and raising funds for program needs and scholarships so that we can make sure that our program is both equitable and accessible to students that may not otherwise be able to afford college and be able to attend Excel.   Denise Johnson Marshall Can you tell us a little bit about the history of the Excel program at Georgia Tech, and then also a little bit about some of the other similar programs in higher education that we may have modeled ourselves after or we've exceeded the expectations.   Ken Surdin Great question. Excel was birthed out of the College of Business by Terry Blum, who was the former dean of the College of Business and the founding director of Georgia Tech's Institute for Leadership and Social Impact. Also, Professor Cyrus Auiden from the School of Mechanical Engineering both had a son and a daughter who had an intellectual and developmental disability, and they saw this growing movement across the country of inclusive programs and they thought, Georgia Tech has a standard of excellence. Why not have a program at Georgia Tech that could be as good and hopefully better than any of the other programs that existed out there? They really helped birth the program and then they hired me about a year in advance of having any students on campus to develop all aspects of the program. I had a year to do it and work under the structure of being a pilot program under the provost office. That really is the incubation of EXCEL. Also say that what makes us unique is that most programs like EXCEL across the country are housed within special education centers within a university or college, and they're typically liberal arts institutions.   Ken Surdin Georgia Tech is not a liberal arts institution and the fact that we came out of the College of Business and are now in CEISMC really shows how entrepreneurial the mindset was in creating EXCEL. In fact, all the staff and faculty that are involved with EXCEL have used design thinking to develop the courses, to develop competencies and curriculum and measurement of our outcomes so that we can track individual students progress, students as a cohort's progress, and also our program's progress to make sure that we are constantly under a continuous improvement model. I think that really sets us apart in terms of the programs across the country is the fact that we're tracking what we do, throwing out what doesn't work and improving what does.   Denise Johnson Marshall It also sounds like an asset to have that type of thinking with this program. If there is a student out there who wants to work or volunteer for this program, can you tell us how they could do that? And then also, what does the whole selection process look like?   Ken Surdin Absolutely. We have a full-time mentor coordinator. His name is Luke Roman. He's been with the program for six years. He helps recruit students to work with our students as mentors and coaches. He will take a phone call or an email. You can reach out to him. You can reach out through our website and find out more about how to be involved with the program. I'll also add that the feedback from many of our mentors over the last nine years has been that the experience has helped them in their co-ops and their internships and also gain employment after they graduate. They've been told that employers often ask them about their EXCEL experience, and the reason is that employers are looking to hire people that are collaborative, that can work in groups, that can work with people that may see the world differently, and who are able to quickly understand when somebody may not understand something they're saying and pivot and rephrase what it is they say so that they communicate clearly. They believe that working with EXCEL students has taught them how to do that. Another thing I'll add is that Georgia Tech degree seeking students are the hiring managers and employers of the future, and the fact that they're working with our students means that one day they may be in a position to hire them because they're aware of their gifts and their capabilities and their assets can help carve a job that might be appropriate for them.   Denise Johnson Marshall Sounds like a great asset to be located exactly where we are. Through your ten years of being the director of EXCEL, what would you say are the top three experiences that participants have said have been the best part of their time with the program?   Ken Surdin I would point to students talking about gaining greater independence and independent living skills by living on campus or in many cases, private dorms just off campus, being involved in the community of Georgia Tech, gaining friendships within the program among mentors, improving their social skills, which is an asset for gaining employment, something that we do through an evidence based social skills course that we teach and in which degree seeking students act as mentors. Employment and the opportunities that they gain through their internships on and off campus are something that students get really excited about. And finally, convocation or the graduation ceremony, which is really the cherry on top for all of our students.   Denise Johnson Marshall What does EXCEL's Career placement program look like?   Ken Surdin Great question. I'm glad you asked that. We have three full time career advisors staffed at EXCEL faculty and staff. They teach career courses starting the first semester that a student arrives on campus. Students do internships every semester after that at a minimum of seven internships. Give you an example. I had a cohort of eleven students graduate and they had 96 internships between them by the time they graduated. Their students are taking career courses, participating in internships on campus, at Barnes and Noble, at CIDI, at the Dean's office. They're also participating in internships and paid jobs with over 100 employers that we work with, the Center for Disease Controls, National Center on Birth Defects and Developmental Disabilities. I've had two students intern there. I've had four students intern at Georgia LEND. I've had students intern at Fulton county government, and on and on and on. I could talk about the internships they're involved in. Another thing I'd like to add that sets Excel apart from many programs is that we actually track our graduate employment outcomes from year to year. 93% of our graduates are currently employed. If you look at Bureau of Labor Statistics for 2022, only 21.3% of people with any disability were employed in America, and it was about 19% for the population that we serve intellectual and developmental disabilities.   Ken Surdin The fact that we're at 93% shows that our students are motivated and capable of working and that opportunities need to be put before them so that they can show those capabilities and be participants in the world of work and their communities at large.   Denise Johnson Marshall Are there any final thoughts that you want the Georgia Tech community to know about your program and your mission?   Ken Surdin Yeah, sure. Our mission is Excel at Georgia Tech, providing an innovative, inclusive college experience for students with intellectual and developmental disabilities, awarding professional education certificates, and preparing students for employment and fulfilling lives. One of the other aspects of the program that's really important, especially when it was being founded, was that Terry Blum and Cyrus Aidun wanted to make sure that the program fit within the strategic mission of Georgia Tech as a whole. Improving the Human condition was front and center, and this program definitely supports Georgia Tech's mission and their values and their ethics. One thing that many programs don't do, that we do is provide a whole year of transition courses to prepare students for life after college that cover seven key areas of transition. So, for example, housing. Where are you going to live? Transportation. How are you going to get back and forth to where you live and to your job? Where are you going to work? Health and wellness, Technology. Just some of those, to name a few. But we work on developing a plan for the students, also working with the families to understand what level of support the students will need when they graduate so that they can succeed in the world after college.   Ken Surdin I often say that we are preparing our students for the world of work and to be full participants in their community. But the world of work and communities are not prepared for our students. If you enter with a disability in our program, you're exiting with a disability from our program. And all the challenges that exist for people with disabilities in the world still exist when you graduate from college. We may be better preparing our students for life after college, but all of those challenges are still there as a nation and a state, and as communities, we still have a long way to go to make sure that these students are successful post-graduation.   Denise Johnson Marshall One last time, how can individuals contact you, your office, your program? If they want to know more information.   Ken Surdin You can contact us at excel@gatech.edu. That's excel@gatech.edu.   Denise Johnson Marshall Ken, thank you so much for your time today. It was great to hear about the program and its continued growth.   Ken Surdin Denise, it was an absolute pleasure to be on this podcast and I wish you all the best and hope that you keep doing it.   Denise Johnson Marshall Thank you. Let's take a break from this podcast to listen to more about departments that we want you to get to know.   Kendra Brown Get to know GT Human Resources employee relations at Georgia Tech individuals with disabilities have an equal opportunity to pursue education or employment and to have access to campus programs, activities and services. If you are an employee or visitor and you have a disability and need assistance, we are here to help. The purpose of Georgia Tech Human Resources Employee relations is to one, coordinate, facilitate, and monitor the interactive reasonable accommodation process, or RA plan, which may assist qualified employees in performing the essential functions of their position and two, coordinate Georgia Tech compliance with the employment requirements of the Americans with Disabilities act, or ADA, and with other related laws, policies and procedures and three, ensure qualified persons with disabilities have full and equal access to all terms and conditions of employment, regardless of disability and four, educate staff on their rights and responsibilities under the Americans with Disabilities act and provide technical assistance as needed. For more information, please visit our website at ohr.gatech.edu/disabilityservices or email us at employee-relations@ohr.gatech.edu. That's employee-relations@ohr.gatech.edu.   Denise Johnson Marshall Now that you know a little bit more, it's time to get back to the podcast. Thank you for joining us for our Beyond Compliance podcast. This is the end of our series of the 50th anniversary of the Rehabilitation act of 1973. Join us for future broadcasts on beyond compliance.   Announcer And thanks to everyone joining us for this episode. For more information on this episode's guest and additional resources, check out the show notes for this episode and feel free to contact us via email at podcast@gtri.gatech.edu. If you aren't aware already, please note that the Georgia Tech Research Podcast is now available on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, and Spotify. Tell your colleagues and others who might be interested in Georgia Tech research to subscribe and tune in.    

Welcome of Part 3 of Stepping into Leadership Series! In this episode we welcome Bhadresh Patel.  Bhadresh Patel, at the age of 24, is an individual who has recently assumed the prestigious role of President at the Toastmasters Club in Queens, located in Kingston, Ontario.  Alongside his commitment to Toastmasters, Bhadresh serves as a Financial Service Representative at easy financial. Prior to his current position, Bhadresh garnered valuable experience as an IT Service Analyst at Zycom Technology for two and a half years. Throughout his career, Bhadresh has demonstrated exceptional dedication and a passion for delivering exceptional results. Bhadresh's leadership style is characterized by his unwavering belief in leading with love. He firmly believes that love, compassion, and understanding are vital ingredients for effective leadership. With this mindset, Bhadresh aims to inspire and empower individuals to reach their full potential, both within the Toastmasters club and beyond.   

Womenlines is thrilled to introduce Janani Chandran, a passionate advocate for returnship programs and a strong proponent of diversity and inclusion. With her extensive experience as a Senior Product Manager at Rakuten Asia, Singapore, Janani brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the table. We are honored to have her share her insights and valuable advice on successfully relaunching one's career after taking a break. Listen to the captivating interview above, where Janani recently joined Charu Mehrotra, the founder of Womenlines, on the renowned show “A Spotlight on Exceptional Professionals.” During the interview, Janani shared valuable insights and guidance for women seeking to rejoin the workforce after taking a break, whether due to motherhood or caregiving responsibilities. Her expertise and experience in this area provide invaluable advice and inspiration for women navigating their professional journeys. Janani has accumulated 18 years of extensive experience in managing full cycles of complex IT projects across various industries, including Payments/Digital, eCommerce, and Mobile Applications. Throughout her career, she has excelled in project, product, and program management, as well as business analysis and requirements gathering. With expertise in stakeholder and vendor management, production support, and team building, Janani has demonstrated her ability to thrive in cross-country team environments, particularly within the APAC region. Janani's commitment to diversity and inclusion is evident through her active participation as a champion in the Rakuten Tech Inclusion Group. She has also successfully managed a Toastmasters Club, further showcasing her leadership abilities. Janani's passion lies in mentoring young engineers, helping them settle into their work roles, as well as supporting women returning to the workforce after maternity breaks. Witnessing their success and enabling them to pursue their desired careers brings her immense satisfaction. Within her professional roles, Janani wears many hats, including people manager, product and project lead, mentor, trainer, and QA tester. Her exceptional communication skills, coupled with her ability to connect with individuals at all levels, set her apart. Janani is highly regarded as a skilled orator and frequently serves as a host for various corporate and community events.

What are the cultural differences between East and West?How do you navigate cultural differences if you move countries?How different are East and Western cultures in terms of education and workplace environments? Are you adaptable and open-minded enough to live in a country whose cultural is very different from your origins? What does the Geert Hoefstede cultural dimensions teach us about cultural differences?Peter Kim is an Assistant English Professor at Kookmin University, specializing in South Korea-US Relations. This is an elective that he created as part of the English curriculum at the university.He is an experienced Assistant Professor with a demonstrated history of working in the education and government sectors. He has veteran experience in International Relations, Policy Analysis and Korea-U.S. relations (with an above-average knowledge of spoken Korean). Peter is a strong education professional with a M.A. focused in International Affairs from Georgetown University. Key Points and Time Stamps:[00:04:54] - top 3 benefits and lessons he learned from being a member of Toastmasters International[00:06:16] - the best Toastmasters Club for a Korean professional planning to improve their English proficiency[00:08:29] Differences in East and West education systems and the role played by corporate conglomerates and universities in maintaining the current status quo[00:13:45] the Principle behind the 10,000-Hour Rule[00:14:44] Differences in Eastern and Western organizational cultures[00:16:39] Geert Hoefstede's cultural dimensions and how they apply to Korea and the US[00:17:40] Foreigners adjusting to Korean work culture[00:20:29] How being adaptable and agile benefits you[00:22:39] Does Korean work culture engage in executive leadership coaching[00:24:00] The advantages of the Confucianism compared to Western democracy and capitalism[00:27:04] Advice for parents who migrate to different countries[00:28:28] Advice for Western professionals landing jobs in Korea[00:29:31] Advice for Korean nationals landing jobs in the USConnect with Peter:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-kim-6139a72/Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/peterkim0920/Additional Resources:"Cultural Differences In The Workplace" w/ Jaekun Cho"Languages, Accents And Perceptions" w/ Perdita AndrewsConnect with me:LinkedInFacebookInstagramLeave a rating and a review for the Podcast:iTunes: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/cultural-differences-between-east-and-west-w-peter-kim/id1614151066?i=1000611302313Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/episode/6HjK4qQonycl048OPohouyYouTube: https://youtu.be/MCyhU7uFX64

You know how to speak, but do you know how to apply Your Voice as your most powerful business tool? Your style of communication ensures your next promotion, clinches the next deal OR prevents you from reaching the top. Often you only need to discover what is holding you back. 00:39- About Mariette Richardson and her journey. Mariette Richardson is an international performance coach, concentrating on the improvement of public speaking resulting in the delivery of top-class presentations for winning over the audience and closing deals. Qualified to Bachelor's degree level with extensive experience in the media industry, she offers professional coaching for any speaking role. Since she has presented on television herself, she is well versed in camera and microphone techniques which is a most sought-after skill in online communication. She comes from a family knowledgeable in voice production and drama techniques, (her father was the President of his Toastmasters Club and her aunt owned her voice training studio). --- Support this podcast: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/tbcy/support

Two experienced toastmasters Liam Quinn (president of Thomond Toastmasters) and Josephine O'Brien join Joe to highlight the benefits of improving your public speaking. Thomond Toastmasters club can help you develop better communication and leadership skills in all areas of life. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Host Tricia Pritchard sits down with Cameron Suorsa to discuss a nonprofit educational organization that teaches public speaking and leadership skills.Earlybirds Toastmasters Club # 2255 (toastmastersclubs.org)

What it's Like Being President of a Toastmasters Club. The role of the Toastmasters Club President is to lead and support the club, ensuring that it operates effectively and fulfills its mission of helping members improve their communication and leadership skill --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/letstalktoastmasters/message

How to Get in The Practice You Need to Become an Accomplished Public Speaker   In this podcast, I'm talking about practicing your talk. There isn't a more accurate phrase than "practice makes perfect." Listen in while I share some great tips to help you get the practice you need to perfect your speech.   Resources:   1. I told you I like to share a resource with my listeners in each podcast. I jotted down 57 + speaking events accepting speaker proposals right now! Links included + a video tutorial on how to best use the list. Start submitting proposals today! https://charlijane.com/call-for-speakers/ 2. Find a local Toastmasters Club here https://www.toastmasters.org/find-a-club    3. Join us in our free speaker Facebook community, Grow Your Speaking Biz Facebook Group  https://www.facebook.com/groups/GrowYourSpeakingBiz   If you enjoyed the Podcast and have time, I would LOVE and appreciate a review. This will help me out :)    Thank you so much! Keep Inspiring!  ~ Wendi   CharliJane.com

Karsten Singh and Rich Graves talk about the local Toastmasters Club and the Open House to welcome new members scheduled for Tuesday, October 25, 6:30 p.m. at the Northfield Public Library.

Karsten Singh and Rich Graves talk about the local Toastmasters Club and the Open House to welcome new members scheduled for Tuesday, October 25, 6:30 p.m. at the Northfield Public Library.

Meet Melanie Taddeo. Her parents always encouraged her to be the best that she could be. That attitude shined through when, at the age of 21, she experienced a stroke that left her paralyzed on her left side and totally blind. Her drive helped her to regain the ability to walk. Also, she regained some of her eyesight.   Melanie will tell you that she is a teacher and loves to impart knowledge. In this episode, you will get to hear how she crashed through barriers when school principals and others would not give her a job after discovering she was blind. As many of us have experienced, Melanie found that no matter her capabilities and experience, the only thing prospective employers considered was that she was blind.   Melanie's story proves how incredibly unstoppable she was and is. I hope you will find this episode as inspirational and thought-provoking as did I.   About the Guest: Melanie Taddeo is a passionate advocate for inclusion who at the age of 21 suffered a massive stroke that left her completely paralyzed on her left side and legally blind. After years of therapy, she was able to regain her independence and go on to become the first legally blind teacher to graduate in Ontario.   She is a certified special education teacher with over 20 years of experience in program development, fundraising, community outreach, volunteer management, and public speaking. Melanie founded Connect 4 Life and Voices 4 Ability; V4A Radio based on her personal experience of the lack of programs that promote independence for people with disabilities. She has made it her goal to help empower others to achieve their dreams despite the challenges they face.   Melanie has assisted hundreds of people through Connect 4 Life's programs such as the first broadcast training program for individuals with disabilities: “An Accessible voice in Broadcasting”, life skills training program, and public speaking. Melanie's passion is evident in everything she does to ensure that each client sees their abilities and not only their disabilities.    Melanie published her first book in 2019. “My Unforeseen Journey Losing Sight Gaining vision.   Melanie has been a Toastmaster for eight years achieving her, Distinguished Toastmaster (DTM), and was the recipient of the Member Making a Difference award (MMAD) in 2020, and now using her speaking to inspire others across the globe as a champion of inclusion,    Melanie empowers entrepreneurs, professionals, and community leaders to embrace challenges and how to overcome unforeseen change with dignity, and ease.   Most recently Melanie has created a company called gaining vision, to help promote inclusion across the world, ensuring that every person feels heard, seen, and valued just as they are.      Her story is proof that despite adversity success is possible with hard work and perseverance.         To learn more please visit www.connect4life.ca    WEBSITE: www.melanietaddeo.ca   http://gainingvision2020.com  FACEBOOK PAGE   https://www.facebook.com/gainingvision/  TWITTER   @gainingvision  INSTAGRAM   @gaining_vision  YOUTUBE   Gaining vision with Melanie Taddeo Nxumalo    About the Host: Michael Hingson is a New York Times best-selling author, international lecturer, and Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe. Michael, blind since birth, survived the 9/11 attacks with the help of his guide dog Roselle. This story is the subject of his best-selling book, Thunder Dog.   Michael gives over 100 presentations around the world each year speaking to influential groups such as Exxon Mobile, AT&T, Federal Express, Scripps College, Rutgers University, Children's Hospital, and the American Red Cross just to name a few. He is an Ambassador for the National Braille Literacy Campaign for the National Federation of the Blind and also serves as Ambassador for the American Humane Association's 2012 Hero Dog Awards.   https://michaelhingson.com https://www.facebook.com/michael.hingson.author.speaker/ https://twitter.com/mhingson https://www.youtube.com/user/mhingson https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelhingson/   accessiBe Links https://accessibe.com/ https://www.youtube.com/c/accessiBe https://www.linkedin.com/company/accessibe/mycompany/ https://www.facebook.com/accessibe/       Thanks for listening! Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page. Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!   Subscribe to the podcast If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app.   Leave us an Apple Podcasts review Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.     Transcription Notes Michael Hingson  00:00 Access Cast and accessiBe Initiative presents Unstoppable Mindset. The podcast where inclusion, diversity and the unexpected meet. Hi, I'm Michael Hingson, Chief Vision Officer for accessiBe and the author of the number one New York Times bestselling book, Thunder dog, the story of a blind man, his guide dog and the triumph of trust. Thanks for joining me on my podcast as we explore our own blinding fears of inclusion unacceptance and our resistance to change. We will discover the idea that no matter the situation, or the people we encounter, our own fears, and prejudices often are our strongest barriers to moving forward. The unstoppable mindset podcast is sponsored by accessiBe, that's a c c e s s i  capital B e. Visit www.accessibe.com to learn how you can make your website accessible for persons with disabilities. And to help make the internet fully inclusive by the year 2025. Glad you dropped by we're happy to meet you and to have you here with us.   Michael Hingson  01:21  Well, hi, once again, and welcome to unstoppable mindset. I am excited to introduce you all to Melanie Taddeo . And Melanie's gonna tell her story. I don't want to give it all away. But Melanie has everything that we could ever expect to have in an unstoppable mindset podcast. She has a great story. She has unexpected life challenges that she has chosen to deal with. And she did deal with them. And she has all sorts of other things that I'm sure we're going to talk about. She's an advocate, dealing with persons with disabilities and all sorts of other stuff. And rather than saying all sorts of other stuff, and then living it to your imagination, Melanie, welcome to unstoppable mindset.   Melanie Taddeo  02:04 Thank you so much for having me, Michael.   Michael Hingson  02:07 So here it is a late afternoon for me and an early evening for you. You're in Toronto or LLC and Ontario, right? Correct. Yes. And we're out here in California. So we traverse the three major time zones of our two countries. And so you Have you had dinner? Not yet. I will. I will start cooking after this is over? Well, let's get started. So why don't you tell us a little bit about you kind of your, your early years and all that stuff. And we'll go from there.   Melanie Taddeo  02:42 Wonderful. So I'm the eldest of four girls, my dad is Italian descent, and my mom is Canadian, and a little bit of Irish and English in her background. But I was raised in an amazing loving home, where everything was encouraged, reach for the stars, hard work ethic possibilities and be a great role model for my three younger sisters. And that sounds like a really comfortable life. But it can be challenging at times, of course, because you know, you want to be the perfect daughter, whatever perfect was, but in your is a child that's the impression was given work hard. Of course, you had choices be a doctor or lawyer. I didn't either. But that's okay. But everything they taught me was about equality. And everybody's equal everybody, although there may be differences in our friends, all of us are the same inside and really to focus on that and not seeing differences. And I appreciate that now. Now, this was the mindset they taught me yet in their generations. Decision. How   Michael Hingson  03:46 old were you when this was was being taught to you?   Melanie Taddeo  03:49 Oh, from age five, up so   Michael Hingson  03:53 in school and so on, you are already thinking of people more as equal than probably a lot of kids did.   Melanie Taddeo  04:01 Yes, definitely. And, you know, it's, I'm so thankful for that. Because, obviously, we live in a very multicultural area of Mississauga. And we, it was really great, because, you know, although there are different types, sizes, you know, different genders, all these different things, and of course, you know, different backgrounds. We just were all friends. And that was a great mentality. And I'm really happy my family instilled that in me at that age.   Michael Hingson  04:28 Did other children have any kind of an issue with that? They tend to view people the same way. How did all that work?   Melanie Taddeo  04:37 You know, it was interesting, I think, looking back reflecting back, perhaps there was some definite biases there. But as children, you just think, Oh, they're mean. And that was about it. And I don't want to be their friend because they're mean, but it was never about oh, you're this or that. But it was just that unconscious bias or the way that they were they were raised. But we all play together. We all had great opportunities to learn about one another. And I appreciated that. Even individuals with disabilities, you know, there was a special class back then you might exam not going to age myself. But back then there was different separate classes. But they were just kids, there was nothing different, which I really appreciate that. My family always said, you know, no matter what family you know, sticks together, we always work towards a common goal. Set your goals high. Again, remember that lawyer and Doctor kind of mentality. I reached for the stars, everything I did in my life was to be a teacher, because that was my dream. I wanted to be a teacher, I was that girl that settled her stuffed animals to the front of the room to teach them, you know, the ABCs. I loved it. So everything my volunteer work growing up, as I started to get older, 13 and up was all right around kids. And I wanted to teach that was my dream.   Michael Hingson  05:57 So when you were when you were growing up? Did you have many friends who had any kind of disability? Do you remember? It was they were in different schools?   Melanie Taddeo  06:10 It mostly Yes. But for me, it was just, you know, it wasn't even on my radar, to be honest, at that point. Actually, that's not true. There was a young man down the street that lived there, and he had Down syndrome. But he just used to ride his bike around and he was just the boy like, we called him by his name, Jay. And that was that. But again, everybody was the same. So it didn't dawn on me. But again, reflecting back, I now recognize that, but it was never said to me, oh, this person has Down syndrome. It was just he was Jay. And it was a good thing, because I feel it taught me so much about seeing past the disability. So that was thrilling years, great. Life was really great.   Michael Hingson  06:57 So you went through? Well, I guess would be high school and all that. And you still wanted to teach   Melanie Taddeo  07:04 everything. Actually in high school I used to I got into art. And I found my passion. I had a mentor in high school teach me about art. And I was able to do all these beautiful paintings and drawings. And my creative side came out and I was on cloud nine. i My mentor at the time said I can retire if somebody one of my students goes to university for art, like that's me. And again, I did everything working in art galleries, that sort of thing, just to get experience. And I put together an amazing portfolio and was accepted to go to university for Arch. Again. It's a big joke on me in the future. But this point I was living the dream, teaching art and summer camp. And just loving my spare spare time was painting and drying and really absorbing all the arts.   Michael Hingson  07:53 So you went off to university what university I went to York   Melanie Taddeo  07:57 University, which is in Toronto. At first I committed and then I lived in residence. And it was a great opportunity. It was very well known for their art program, top notch professors and had great facility and I was just experimenting with all the different techniques and styles and just really trying to get my feet footing because I encounter a world would be an art teacher that was my dream. Best of both worlds.   Michael Hingson  08:25 So I get the impression that something happened along the way to change all that.   Melanie Taddeo  08:31 Yes, yes, it did. My fourth year university, I started to develop migraines. And everybody kept saying lots of stress from University. I'm thinking I'm studying art, what kind of stress do you have during kid paid by campus, really. And they kept giving me medication to numb the pain. But till one morning, I couldn't lift my head off the pillow. Finally I said there's something wrong and I went and they did MRIs they did CAT scans. They said no, nothing showing. And so one day, they saw something behind my eyes. And they said well, there's something there. And they diagnosed me with pseudotumor servi. And really just means there's a fake tumor. Yeah. But it was a misdiagnosis. It was a sign of a stroke. So they sent me for the eye operation to relieve the pressure from the optic nerve. And they kept me in the hospital and I was lethargic that was throwing up and they said all this anesthetic, it's this it's that it's the other they sent me home. And I was at my parents house recovering. And they had to go the family doctor and I'd still been really really sick and not well. And I couldn't see out of my eyes when I woke up. So they had the bandage. And they say Oh, it's okay. It's part of the surgery, it's going to come back. And so I had to call the family doctor for a checkup for them to test the eyes. And again, remember remembering that they said oh, you're going to be able to see Don't worry me He's fine. It's just they're swollen, they're going to come down. And I remember having to get showered. And I was like, come on, Melanie get given the shower, and I said, okay, okay, okay, just a minute I sit on, see the toilet and just rest. Basically, my mom had to shower me, and I'm a very modest woman, I would never let that happen. But I was just really out of it. Got to the top of the staircase, and I was like, Okay, go ahead and go down. I'm like, Oh, the house was spinning. And I said, I think I'm gonna go down on my bomb. So I said, at the top of stairs, and I started to go down. And mom's like, move your left side. Melanie said, I am. What do you think I'm stupid. And I would never talked to my mother. But I had had a stroke at the top of the staircase. So this struggle of be completely paralyzed on the left side and legally blind. So I was in a coma for two weeks. And I tell you, everybody, you can hear everything going on when you're in a coma. So please talk to us. I heard everything I heard. I had the last rites. I heard the doctors told my parents, I wasn't going to live to plan my funeral. I heard them basically say, if I survived, I would be a vegetable. Of course, I also heard everybody's deepest, dark, darkest confessions. So again, be careful what you share. My little sister came to me said, I'm so sorry, I stole your case of peach gum, because I kept it in my bedroom, you know, extra case, throw it in your bag every day. And when I woke up, I had remembered everything. And so of course, I would question them. But during the coma, my dad put a Walkman. And again, I'm dating myself, but with music on my ears. And I remember the songs from that time. And again, all of the DJs everything was right there in my mind, because I could hear everything. And I knew it was going, I just wasn't awake.   Michael Hingson  11:48 So you actually were unconscious. So it wasn't just that you were paralyzed and could move. You're actually unconscious. But as you said, you could hear everything. Yeah,   Melanie Taddeo  12:00 that you couldn't communicate. And, again, my brain wasn't there. Apparently, supposedly, I was. You know, they kept saying she's not gonna wake up, she said, and that's a scary thing for a family to go through. But imagine hearing all this and wanting to say, Hello, I'm alive. I'm still here. So it was a very exciting time to reflect on but at that time it was. And so when I woke up, I couldn't see anything. And of course, I was intubated. So I couldn't communicate either. And they kept saying, use this for that and use because I could hear, so use a thumbs up for Yes, down for no. And they wanted me to use this bliss board of letters to point out and I couldn't see them and explain to my can't see anything, and my eyes were no longer bandaged. And this was it. So when I was finally out of the coma, or type still, during the coma, they did life saving procedure, where they inserted a catheter into the groin and inserted 1 million units of blood into my brain. And I was the second out of five in North America to survive. And that changed a lot because it relieved the blood clots, but it also added extra pressure to behind the eyes. So the optic nerves were permanently damaged, destroyed during this whole procedure. So yeah, welcome blind, Nigel to move. It was a very scary time, a very angry time.   Michael Hingson  13:25 So you were intubated, that must have been pretty uncomfortable, especially once you woke up?   Melanie Taddeo  13:30 Definitely I you know, especially because you have to learn to swallow again, not only the stroke, but having this to die for so long. It was it was just a very new process for me having to digest everything that had happened, as well as recover physically.   Michael Hingson  13:46 How long were you intubated once you woke up?   Melanie Taddeo  13:50 So I was in a coma for two weeks. And I'd say that was going to be another two weeks.   Michael Hingson  13:55 Wow. Yeah. My wife went through a situation in 2014, where she had doubled ammonia and acute respiratory distress syndrome, and was put in an induced coma. So she was intubated. But after two weeks, they said they they needed to remove the two but they did a tracheostomy so that she could, she could continue to breathe, but they kept you intubated for a month.   Melanie Taddeo  14:21 Mm hmm. Yes. And again, I am sure again, depending on the timing, how that was because again, I had long term, like they've cracked on my teeth, all that fun stuff. So it was you know, so lots of other things. And then of course, the raspy throat for quite a while. Yeah. But yeah,   Michael Hingson  14:38 yeah, it was. So you were totally blind.   Melanie Taddeo  14:43 Totally nothing at that point. And it was, you know, it was it was it was scary, because I couldn't see I could just hear people come in the room. I couldn't tell who's there. Of course, I got very used to people's voices. And that was a good thing because that's how I tend to, you know, really depend on my sense of hearing. But I also want to have us on one hand, so having to learn to do everything, feed myself, things like that just laying in a hospital bed alone. But being told that I was never going to see again that I was never going to get out of the bed, all those negative thoughts, and I'm a very positive person, I always had been with that positive upbringing. And I kept saying, no, no, I'm going to I'm going to do this. And they, they said, Oh, Melania, you know, stroke really affects you. You're the mindset of how you perceive things. And it's true, I understand that. So I always say I had stroke brain, it's not a medical term. It's a melody term, that I thought I could do everything I kept telling them. This was happening in July, I'm going to university back to university in September, I'm going back to move out on my own pictures to paint you exactly. In my mind that I just wanted to get back to normal, whatever normal was.   Michael Hingson  15:57 So what happened? Well,   Melanie Taddeo  15:59 I am a fighter. I'm a survivor, my parents will tell you I'm stubborn, but I'd like to say determine it sounds much nicer. And after a good kick in the butt from a chaplain of the hospital. I decided that I wanted to thrive instead of just survive, I stopped feeling sorry for myself. And, you know, there's a lot of time to think in the hospital. And you know, I had amazing family support, whatever they were petrified. Because of course, going through the I had regressed because I was scared to a little childcare my parents, mommy and daddy again. And I've just was it was just part of the stroke and part of the fear. But after the chaplain really brought it back home, he's like, if you want to go back to school, you can you know, you just need to really get your act together and work hard. And I went to a rehab hospital where I learned to walk walk again, I don't have use of my left arm still. But that's because I'm right handed and I kind of forgot it was there for a while. But I started walking again after you know, driving my wheelchair and to the wall several time, they said they had to repeat the entire hospital, the rehab center after I left because I kept couldn't see where I was going. So I kept ramming into walls and things like that. But I just kept a positive attitude got my independence back as far as I could physically walking first, of course, you know, with a quad cane, a single pain, and then without a cane. But then I had to come to terms with the fact that I was blind. I went through the denial. They had cniv with just cane National Institute for the Blind, come and see me with a guide dog and a talking watch. Like what are you here for? I don't need you. Well, Melanie, you're black. No not. And after going through that denial, I went to see an IV and learned how to navigate use my white cane, get around and cook independently and get my independence back. And then, of course being stubborn, as you know, as my family would say or determined. I went to teachers college I applied and because my grades were great. My volunteer experience was right up that I knew they had to give me that interview. And the interview went like this much. How are you going to do this with your disability? And how are you going to do that with your disability? Of course, in my mind, I don't have a disability, right. I'm like, fine. I said, I thought this interview was about my abilities and not my disability. Oh, well, they let me in. And my first day of teachers college, my professors are gone by Christmas. I said, Watch me. I had no idea what I was doing. I never went to school without eyesight. And I had to learn to put books on tape about having notetakers asking for accommodations. I knew nothing about this. But I quickly learned and Teachers College was only a year. It was intense. And even with my practicum I had to advocate for myself. So I learned a lot really, really quickly. Because I was determined to achieve this dream. I wasn't gonna let anything hold me back at this point, because that was my lifelong dream. I had to learn how to do things differently, though, because of course, I couldn't do it the same way. Well, you could do them. Absolutely. 100% I got very creative. I was teaching a grade seven, eight split art. And I had these goggles created for the students to see what I saw. So they could understand just a little bit of what I was seeing. And it was the best teachable moment I've ever had. Those students could empathize. They got a really great ideas of what they couldn't do what they couldn't do ask a lot of questions, which opens the dialogue for kids because they you know, they're there. They want to ask questions are curious, but they also are afraid of offending. And I was able to get them to try using doing art without their eyesight. Yes, I haven't blindfold themselves put some music on Okay, painters, and it was a really great experience at the beginning. And as well working with little kids and teaching them about abilities versus the disability, because of course at that time when I was teaching and Teachers College, there was the differences and there was really hard differences with people with this abilities into schools. So they're being made fun of and stuff like that. So I wanted to close that down fast. So it was a great experience. But the one thing I did face that was challenging for me is my professors thought that I should only teach special education. And I fought that tooth and nails. I ended up going into special education because I love it. But I was angry at them for putting me in that box.   Michael Hingson  20:25 So, you, when you were teaching art in Teachers College, what kind of art? Was it painting or sculpting   Melanie Taddeo  20:36 or helping and drying, believe it or not, and it was really getting them to teach the basics. And I had to teach myself, okay, how am I going to teach this concept now that I can't see, because after I, when I was in the rehab hospital, they had me trying to paint and draw. And first of all, the drawings was totally totally disproportion. So I thought, you know, what, it's all about interpretation and perception. So why not call it abstract. But I was still able still having the skill sets to talk it through. So I would help them with a verbal practice, okay, so we're going to, you know, take the charcoal and do this and walk them through it. And I said, Why don't you try and show me how you would draw this from your perspective. And then I would do a demonstration. And they'd be like, Oh, mister, doesn't look like that bowl of fruit? No, it doesn't, you're right, what does it look like, but this is my interpretation. So it was a really great eye opening experience for them. But I also really started to sway towards clay, and sculpture, and really get those tactile feelings. So for me, that's what shifted for me in my art, but I still had to teach the the elements of art. So being creative thinking outside the box, and getting the students to really listen, and be creative as well.   Michael Hingson  21:58 So when you were teaching, drawing, and charcoals, and so on, were you doing that, in part, because you still were going through some sort of a denial or?   Melanie Taddeo  22:10 Oh, okay. And wasn't it?   Michael Hingson  22:14 Right? Because that's, that's what you teach in the in art, right?   Melanie Taddeo  22:17 And that's the norm, right? Because I was normal, though, it took me a long time to really understand when I got to that acceptance stage, I was like, you know, I don't want to join it anymore. And that was okay, for me at that time, since then I've gone back to it, but in a very different way. So, but at that moment, it was working through the process of acceptance.   Michael Hingson  22:41 So you were you were totally blind, that that did change at some point. It did.   Melanie Taddeo  22:46 So I it's amazing. The brain is a amazing muscle, I'll call it. And so because my eyes actually are fine, this optic nerve that is destroyed, in my optic nerve wasn't passing the messages to the brain and what I was seeing, so technically, my brain taught itself how to see. Not well, but it's still going see some shapes. And I see some details. I can read large print, things like that. So I do have some usable sight. However, I also learned very quickly not to depend on that site, because you never know. So,   Michael Hingson  23:21 so how long after? Well, you were in Teacher's College? How long after that? Did you regain some use of eyesight?   Melanie Taddeo  23:29 It was actually a number of years after Teachers College that actually, yeah, okay.   Michael Hingson  23:34 Did you learn braille? I did. So you use Braille. Still?   Melanie Taddeo  23:39 I do not. i It's funny because I had when I was doing my additional qualifications. To teach individuals with a blind or partially sighted they, they you have to learn how to read Braille. So I mastered grade one like that grade to the contractions a little tricky for me, I'll be honest, but it was more visual, I was doing it because my fingertips are not so good with sensation. And, you know, of course, I can still teach it, but I don't use it myself and then still depend on that large print or a Sharpie marker. But I'm also learning but other technologies now to count on that instead of the print.   Michael Hingson  24:21 You think your fingertips and their ability to sense or read dots were affected at all by the stroke?   Melanie Taddeo  24:28 i Yes, absolutely. Even though it's my right side, I definitely feel it was that I noticed even though the stroke affected my left side, other sensations on my right side were diminished. So I think that was definitely part of it.   Michael Hingson  24:40 So that may have been an issue that if you didn't have a loss of sensation that may have helped with Braille.   Melanie Taddeo  24:47 Oh 100% And I think I would have definitely continued with it if it had been able to read it with my fingers because it is such an easy way to communicate and help with interviews like this. If you have no So whenever it would be great.   Michael Hingson  25:03 Yeah. Well, and it's important to be able to do that. And you're absolutely right. The The reality is Braille is the main reading and writing mode that blind people and a lot of low vision people use as well, because in general, it's more efficient than looking at letters unless you have enough eyesight to read to be able to do that comfortably. Yes. And so the problem is that a lot of people, on the other hand, never get to learn braille as children, because they're forced to try to use their eyes. I've heard just countless people say, if I'd only really had the opportunity, and really did learn braille as a child, I'd be a much better reader today.   Melanie Taddeo  25:47 I've heard that a lot as well. And then also, a lot of parents don't want their children to depend on Braille, which is mind boggling.   Michael Hingson  25:55 They don't want their children to be blind, and they won't deal with that. That's true, too. Which is, which is part of the problem. But Braille is still the, the means by which we read and write. But you, you certainly have dealt with it well, and you've dealt with it in some some very practical ways, since you really don't have the sensation to do Braille really well. And that's perfectly understandable. So you went off and you went to be a teacher, you went to Teachers College, and then what did you do?   Melanie Taddeo  26:25 I graduated as a first legally blind teacher to graduate in Ontario, which is a really big deal. Except nobody would hire me. And, you know, I've really struggled with that I didn't comprehend why. Because again, to me, there was no difference. It was just doing something differently. And creatively. I had a lot of great references, of course, because I was doing practice teaching at my old high school as teaching art. And of course, I have references. But once I put my application out to the boards, I get calls from the principal's and they'd be like, Oh, you're exactly looking for, you know, grade seven, eight split for RT, are you willing, and I Ghen, this is something I learned, but not you do not disclose your disability over the phone before getting to the interview, and I asked, Are you aware that I'm visually impaired? And they said, Oh, no. And of course, I said, What was that a problem? Well, not with me, of course, but will be with parents. And again, it wasn't a huge understanding advocacy at that point. But to me who better to tshirt, children with a disability than somebody that little one, just 24/7? So I said, Okay, thanks so much. So I didn't get hired. And I started to feel like what a waste, oh, my gosh, I'm never gonna get a job. You know, the whole pour was me pity parade thing. Stopped. And I thought, you know, what, I'm a great teacher, I was still volunteer teaching, and I was loving it. And I was coming up with really unique ways to teach and get around this, you know, safety thing. So I had all the answers down pat, and how to do things safely for everybody, and where I would be successful, and what different things I could do to bring to the table to add that little bit extra. And I started to talk to people, a lot of people with various disabilities. And they kept saying, you know, we want to learn how to be independent. Melanie, how did you do this? And I said, Well, it's easy. You just have to, you know, really put your mind to it set some goals. And so I thought, wouldn't it be amazing to have a charity, or a program known as a first it was a program to help individuals with different disabilities access, education and training, just as they are, despite their disabilities. And so I had run a learning center for adults with disabilities, just teach them life skills, help them learn to advocate for stuff, all the stuff that I had done to get my independence back. And that went on for three years. And that was great. But I learned a hard lesson. Like I'll use my own money for that. Not a good idea. So it didn't last long. And I then I have met a lawyer, and they're like, why did you start a charity to do the same type of programming, and that way you can seek funding and donations. Okay, so I did that. And in the meantime, I was trying to think outside the box other than life skills, what other skills should I be teaching when the programs you're talking to different people? And advocacy was a big piece. And then also, I needed something to share information because I can't read brochures, and I was like, No, you have to have a great brochure on it, but I can't read it. So I created voices for ability radio, which is the first 24/7 Internet radio station for about and by people with disabilities as a platform for us to have a voice and that was in Canada so I wouldn't be clear in Canada because there's many all over the globe but and so voices for ability radio was our A platform for people to share their stories, as well as those resources that I and my family found so hard to find after becoming someone with a disability, because nobody shared information. So this was an exciting journey that started 2014. And we still are up and running. And it's exciting. We now since doing voices learned that many people with disabilities love media. So what created a radio broadcast training program? And how to podcast so I teach that every day, it's a great thing. So I'm teaching just in a very different way.   Michael Hingson  30:34 Well, and there's nothing wrong with that. No, not at all. I've always liked to teach. And when I was getting my master's degree in physics, I also got a secondary teaching credential. And in a sense, the actual certifications in both cases, I have not used, I didn't really end up with major jobs in physics, although I did, and still do work with companies in terms of scientific technologies, bleeding edge technologies, and so on. And teaching, by definition, because that is something that all of us have to do, as you're pointing out. The reality is we're the best teachers for teaching about disabilities or persons with disabilities. Absolutely. And, and so it's important to do that. The other side of that is that we also, if we do it, well learn to sell we all become great salespeople, because we have to do that in order to break through the misconceptions and perceptions that people have about us. Absolutely. So we we have to do that and make that work. So your the radio and the internet program is still up and running.   Melanie Taddeo  31:56 It is yes, we act now virtual because of course with pandemic, a lot of our clients are high risk. So we had them sound during the pandemic and we were able to reach more people throughout Ontario. So for us that makes sense. So with a 20 week program, we teach radio broadcasting just the basics introductory, they created their own podcast and a demo reel and a resume and then we connect them we partner with a lot of broadcasters they come in and they share their expertise and teach them and connect them with internships after they graduate and help them get their start that's the starting point.   Michael Hingson  32:31 You teach them how to edit and and process what do you use for that Reaper? Okay. There is there and all the appropriate plugins and and scripts that go with it. Yes, Reaper is a wonderful thing.   Melanie Taddeo  32:48 Yes, it is incredible. And you know, it's funny because it took us from trial and error. We tried to das it. We tried all those other ones. It's just like, I can't do this. They're not gonna be able to do it. So yes.   Michael Hingson  33:01 Well, I go back, talk about not wanting to give away your age, but hey, I'm not shy. I'm Nora, my modest. I worked in radio at a campus radio station in the late 60s and early 70s. Actually up through May or June of 1976. And I can tell you that there is nothing like when you need to edit a reel of tape, cutting, splicing, putting splicing tape in and doing it in such a way that you really can bridge the sound very effectively. It is nothing like Reaper today.   Melanie Taddeo  33:35 Yes, it's amazing how far it's come the technology and it again, I can't even imagine how you did that. That's incredible.   Michael Hingson  33:44 Yeah, my wasn't the best splicer in the world. But I but I can use Reaper really well. So I'm very happy with with all the different things that one can do with Reaper, it is a great program. Yes. And it is accessible. And the reality is that it is possible to do editing and so on. And Reaper is something that not only blind but sighted people use, but they have the people who are involved with it have been very diligent about doing everything possible to add in scripts and do other things so that all the features of Reaper are available and accessible.   Melanie Taddeo  34:16 Yes, and it's so great because when we teach our students with who are blind, we do the shortcuts, but we don't do it just for them. We do it for everybody. It's faster guys. And they're like, Yeah, I did as well. This is great. I love that. And it's interesting because it's amazing because everyone's on the same level. And we do do some extra work for those individuals with screen readers, you know, because we've got to make sure that Jaws key commands aren't the same and all those fun things so but it's great.   Michael Hingson  34:46 There are some great Reaper listservs and most of the time is spent talking about doing things to create an edit music and I don't use it for that. I'm so I'm only doing simple stuff by hand. relative terms and that is for podcast. But it is amazing the things that I see people doing and, and all the things that we're learning and all the different things that are available. It's just pretty incredible.   Melanie Taddeo  35:10 It is it is. But I really appreciate the fact that they continue to update the accessibility with Asara and as somebody else. And there's even a group, I don't know if they're in Canada, or they're on national, where they're located. But Reapers without papers. And they're a group of young people that have all this expertise of a river. It's amazing. And they're a great resource.   Michael Hingson  35:32 And that's where all the music stuff comes from. Most Well, I think the main proponents of it are in England or, or in the British Isles somewhere. But it is all over. And there is a huge subscription list. For the for the Reapers with the help papers. It's pretty cute.   Melanie Taddeo  35:52 Yeah, no, I think it's awesome. It's a great resource for our guys as well. So it's, it's wonderful. It's a great experience, and I get to do what I love and watch individuals grow. And that's a dream come true.   Michael Hingson  36:05 So you're, you're teaching them, but do you still have a radio program or any kind of thing that you're publishing?   Melanie Taddeo  36:12 I have my own podcast, take another look podcast, with my co host, kereta Felix, and we talk about uncomfortable and difficult conversations. So that's what I'm doing, you know, because you have to lead by example, of course. And if you don't have a podcast, you're teaching podcasts like, how does that work? But I also, I did have a show on voices for ability for a long time, but just don't have the time to do everything. So I said, just take my content from the podcast and put on station so we're gonna get to that.   Michael Hingson  36:41 Well, there you go. See? And and the podcast is working. Well, how long have you been doing it?   Melanie Taddeo  36:45 Since January?   Michael Hingson  36:47 Oh, you're just you're?   Melanie Taddeo  36:49 Yes, we're newbies. It's interesting, because we wanted to start something new and different. And working together is a lot of fun. And of course, we have we just recorded our 25th episode. So it's exciting.   Michael Hingson  37:03 You're doing once a week.   Melanie Taddeo  37:05 We Yeah, they come on every Saturday, we meet together, we record two episodes, and then just launch them every Saturday. Yes, yeah.   Michael Hingson  37:13 Well, we just are ready to put up show 37 of unstoppable mindset, it goes up on Wednesday. And same thing, we're doing one a week, and we started in September. And we're we're pleased with the results. We've gotten a lot of people who listen, and I hope that the people who are listening to this will definitely reach out as you get the opportunity to and let us know what you think of this. But we're having a lot of fun doing the podcasts. And hopefully we'll be able to teach other people the value of doing their own. It's all about telling stories, isn't   Melanie Taddeo  37:45 it? It is really isn't it, but a platform to be able to share your story to inspire others to educate others, there's so many opportunities, and really just have a conversation with the world about things that others don't know about. It's a great opportunity. And I've learned a lot from your podcasts, Michael, hearing all the different guests and different perspectives, I think it's a great opportunity for everybody.   38:07 So is Connect for life still in operation?   Melanie Taddeo  38:10 It is it is that's where I teach. So I teach students connect for life, the charity that I started. And it's great because not only are we doing the broadcasting class and the life skills class, where we have started up intro to public speaking course. And again, for individuals with, with, you know, some difficulties with being able to see, confidence sometimes could be but any disability can generalize. But so we have an introduction to public speaking course where we just teach the basics and get them comfortable and get them confident to be able to share their story because that's what advocacy is all about and being able to ask for things in an effective way when they need it. And then we also have our Connect for wellness program, which helps individuals cope with their mental health what's happening with being isolated, lonely, having a disability, and again talking about that so that they can get through anything they're struggling with.   Michael Hingson  39:04 So, in teaching public speaking, what's the most basic thing that you try to get people who are interested in becoming like public speakers? What's the most basic thing you work to get them to understand or what what kind of things do you have to overcome?   Melanie Taddeo  39:20 So first thing first is having a universal message that your audience can relate to your stories can be personal, but you always have to have that universal message. And please don't talk like this because it's really boring. vocal variety is everything. And for me, it's just about communicating and sharing stories, having that engaging connection with your audience. Because if you lose your audience right off the bat, they're not going to listen. So it's that universal message, tie it through so that what you're saying makes sense to people. And so that would be the main thing but then of course, you know, of course, in our state Your words don't mumble as well as to to clearly outline your speech or Keynote, whatever it is, so that you know where you're going with this and that people can follow easily. Those will be the main things.   Michael Hingson  40:10 read or speak from the heart and don't read a speech.   Melanie Taddeo  40:14 Exactly. And don't read, don't read, please don't read. Because that's terrible. It sounds awful, but connect with your audience have a conversation. And that's exactly speak from your heart. A lot of people speak best when it's off the cuff.   Michael Hingson  40:28 When I first started, when I first started speaking, after September 11, a couple people said you should write your speeches. Okay, I wrote a speech. And I read, it sounded horrible. And I read it to the audience. And it sounded horrible. They were very kind. But I listened to it because I like to record speeches, and then go back and listen to them again. And find that I probably learn more from listening to speeches, as well as going back and listening to these podcasts, which we do as we're running them through Reaper, to take out any little funny noises and throw clearings and all that. But I find that I learned a lot by doing that. And what I discovered was don't read a speech. Yes. And it's important. And the other reason, which most speakers get locked into a mindset don't do is the value of not reading your speech. If you are at a venue where you're speaking and you get there early, you never know what you might learn that you want to put into the speech to add value to it. You   Melanie Taddeo  41:38 got it 100%. And I think it's so important, because I think, you know, what I learned is, if you read a speech, you sound like you're reading a speech, you're not connected with the audience, and nobody knows what you've written. So here's the thing, if you know what you're talking about, just talk, have that conversation and connect with somebody. And like you said, you can add live and add things that just happen. So can be more relatable to your audience, because they were there for that. Sorry, perhaps they can relate to the topic because they're right there in the moment. But for people that are so focused on what they've written, they won't even go off script, and they lose.   Michael Hingson  42:20 And how boring is that? Or what?   Melanie Taddeo  42:22 Yes. And they only say there's three types of speeches, the one you wrote, when you delivered and the one you wish you'd delivered, right? Yeah. Wouldn't it be great just to deliver and be happy?   Michael Hingson  42:34 Yeah, I work really hard to get to the deliver the one I wish to deliver. And so that's why I love to listen to speeches, and so on, and why it's so important to do. But I don't know whether I've ever mentioned that on unstoppable mindset. I was asked once by a speaker's bureau to go deliver a speech to an organization called the National Property Managers Association. And I said to the speaker's bureau person, well, what is that organization, already having my own preconceived notion of what it was, but they said, what I thought, oh, it's an organization while the people who are in charge of taking people's properties and renting them out and so on. So, you know, do you have stories that you can tell him all that and I said, Sure, because, in fact, at the time that we were doing that we had rented, well, we had given a property manager a home, we were moving from one place to another, we're moving Southern California after Karen's illness. And so we had a property manager take over that. And then there were stories about that, not all positive. But I flew in to deliver the speech and got there very late the night before I was supposed to deliver a breakfast speech. So I got to the event on 1230. And I went to bed, got up in the morning, went down after taking my guide dog Africa outside because she has to go do her stuff. So we went in to do the speech, and it was breakfast. So I sat down and I was listening to some people near me speak. And something sounded off. So I said to one of the people, tell me more about the National Property Managers Association. Exactly what do you guys do and so on. The National Property Managers Association is an organization that is in charge of and responsible for anything physical owned by the United States government. Totally different? Yes. And I'm about 10 minutes away from speaking, whole speech has to be revised. And I'm not saying that to brag, but rather to express the importance of really learning to be flexible. Now as it turns out, I had negotiated government contracts and schedules and so on and had lots of great stories. In fact, it was a much more fun speech to give and did deliver a speech that everyone appreciated. He got to also talk about things regarding disabilities and other things like that. But the bottom line is that if you are locked into something so much that you don't pay attention to what's going on around you, you're going to get in trouble. Or you don't care, in which case, they're not going to want to have you come back.   Melanie Taddeo  45:23 Exactly. You would have got up until richer, original speech and they would have been sad about exactly. And probably wouldn't have said much, but probably wouldn't have invited you back. Yeah, no, exactly.   Michael Hingson  45:39 Right. Exactly. Right. They would, they would not have but, but it was fun. It was a great event, and enjoyed it and spoke to other divisions of it. So it was a it was a fun time. But I very much enjoy the fact that I believe it's important for me to learn more when I go to a speaking event than the people I'm speaking to, because that will help me in future speeches. And it's all about speaking from the heart. And it's all about learning to speak. And I can't even say extemporaneously because I know what I want to say. It's not like it's totally random. But I want to be able to be flexible. And that's what any good speakers should be able to do.   Melanie Taddeo  46:20 You know, it's when I ever talked to my students, oh, how do you memorize all your speeches, I said, Well, I personally, I write out my thoughts on the computer. And then I listened to it over and over again, I never ever go by what I write, but it's just the concepts I want to cover. And I may make point form notes, as I'm practicing, but it's just a matter of listening to it. And then I just put them away, and I just start talking. And that's the best speech when you start talking. Because I already know what I want to say, because I've written it down. And that's part of how I learned. It's just like, putting it down on something. And it could and then I'll just walk around the house talking to myself, my husband's like a UK. Oh, yeah, I'm just talking to yourself. And it works out just fine. And sometimes again, you get up and, you know, wait a minute, no, I'm gonna say this instead. And it just happens. And in the moment, so it is a great way. But it's important I find to teach the art of public speaking to anyone with a disability because they've got to be confident in what they're saying, because they want to win what what we what I like to do is to ensure that people feel heard and valued. And being able to articulate what you need and how you feel things like that is very, very important skill that not everybody does. Because that Oh, well. I'm just somebody with just blowing the whistle here. Yes, they do. They need to hear your voice. So for me, that's why we do that course.   Michael Hingson  47:50 Yeah. And by doing that, you're helping them to gain confidence. And the reality is people always say, well, aren't you afraid to get up in front of an audience and speak because why couldn't do that, I'd be afraid. And so I love to tell the story that after September 11, the first time I was invited to speak anywhere, was to a church service in central New Jersey, where they wanted to honor the people who were lost. So it was like two weeks after September 11. So that would have been? Well, it was the 26th. That was Wednesday, two weeks in a day later. And I said, Sure, I'd be glad to come they said, Well, you don't have a lot of time, only about six minutes or so. But we'd like you to come and tell your story. And I said, Sure, I'd be happy to do that. Then I asked the big question, how many people will be there, not 6000. So I learned pretty quickly, you don't be afraid of how large or what kind of what audience you have. You can you can deal with them. And it doesn't matter about the audience. If you connect, which is what you said earlier, it's all about connecting with the audience.   Melanie Taddeo  49:01 And again, knowing that they're there in an emotional state like you had just gone through and knowing that you can connect on that level, you can connect by celebrating the first responders or whoever you were the fire you're celebrating, and just really truly you're all there for a similar reason. And any conference any speaking engagement usually the people are there for the same reason, usually, but usually, you never know there's always that person that it may hit that may not know what you're talking about, or may really get something more out of it than you even expected.   Michael Hingson  49:37 And one of the things I love to do after speaking is take time to talk to people to to meet with them and so on course it's a blessing to have a book. That was the number one New York Times bestseller and, and also have a guide dog because what we do afterward usually is is there is a book table set up and I'll tie now Alamo black lap current eighth guy dog and tie him to the table. Alamo knows how to draw in people when it's all about petting him, of course. But but people come in, and then we get to chat. So whatever tool you have to use, but the bottom line is that people mostly really do want to interact. And you know, I've spoken at events, if you talk about politics and so on, that are completely opposite in view from the political views that I have to that I happen to have. But who cares is for me, it's not about politics, it's about about speaking and delivering messages. And one of the things that I generally do tell people is, like, I am perfectly capable, and probably will pick on Washington DC during this speech, but just let the record show. I'm an equal opportunity abuser. I go from the standpoint of Mark Twain who said Congress's Grandal benevolent asylum for the helpless, so they're all in the same boat. Yeah. So I said, you know, we could we could pick on all of them. And it's a whole lot of fun,   Melanie Taddeo  51:06 though, and again, adding humor, and it just breaks the ice. It says people at ease, and they know that you're just here to share a story. And then you're not going to get those people. Well, I'm on the side, I'm on that side. Right. Yeah. That that commonality. I love it.   Michael Hingson  51:20 And you know, a lot of people say, don't tell a joke at the beginning of a speech. Well, if, if you're telling a joke, just to tell a joke, then I agree. But if it has a purpose, and I have found some of those that are that are really very helpful to drive points home. So it's a lot of fun.   Melanie Taddeo  51:39 Yes, absolutely. And that's exactly it, it's the right time, the appropriate time, you get used to where that is. And yeah, it's just every speech is unique and different. Every audience is unique and different. So really, knowing your audience ahead of time, the best your ability is good thing,   Michael Hingson  51:55 even delivering the same speech at a lot of different kinds of venues. Each speech is different, and it should be different.   Melanie Taddeo  52:04 Yeah, you have to tailor it, even though you say,   Michael Hingson  52:07 even though it's basically the same speech, but every one is different. And that's what makes it fun, and also makes it great to listen to, because when I go back and listen to some of those speeches in here, how audience react or don't, then that helps me improve it for the next time. So thanks, that's pretty   Melanie Taddeo  52:26 good feedback, or the the response or having those conversations after always gives you that feedback. And you can just evolve from there.   Michael Hingson  52:36 Well, with speeches that I give today, I've learned what I should be able to expect from an audience if I'm connecting with them. And if I'm getting those reactions, then I know that I'm connecting. And if I don't, then I'm, I'm well, on the fly literally need to figure out what to do to make sure that I connect, and I've learned enough to be able to do that. But it is important to do that. And that's what a good speaker should do. Yeah. So you on the other hand, in addition to speaking have written a book, I have, tell us about that if you would,   Melanie Taddeo  53:15 please. So my unforeseen journey losing sight gaining vision is my book and it was published in 2019. I had been told for years, I should write a book, who would want to read my book. And I was listening to an audio book over the Christmas holiday in 2018. I received it and I was mesmerized. It was also such an inspiring book. And it's like, that's why you need to read a book. I'm like, asking the question, Who would want to read my book, he's like, you don't get it Do you don't understand how inspiring you are. So he planted a seed, and I didn't want the book just to be about me. I wanted something tangible for the audience. So the book is about unforeseen change in our life and how we cope with it, and some tangible resources for them to use for their own life. So everybody goes from preceding change, a breakup, a relationship, a death in the family, a loss of a job, let's say, the pandemic, and all of these things. But so the first part of each chapter is my story on a word. So it might be differences, beliefs, success, whatever the word of the chapter is the title of the chapter. And then underneath, I give some things that helped me cope with it. And that way the reader has a choice to add, try to apply it to their situation, or maybe it doesn't work for them. But I wanted something so people's could walk away, go wow, okay, now I can try this out my life, because these are the things that helps me. And it was such an amazing, cathartic process to write the book for myself, but also had my book launch the beginning of December 2019. And I plan this amazing book tour for 2020 and   Michael Hingson  55:00 You know what happened? You got to do it virtually. He   Melanie Taddeo  55:03 was this is it. I didn't actually do much of it to be honest, I understand. Yeah, I, you know, I still will do it. I, you know, I've got all these books. And but what was really great, we got to record the book and audio version, my friend ready for an audio book. And I've been talking a lot about it with different things. But it was a great help. In the pandemic, I had a lot of people say to me, your book, Can I order 10 copies for my friends because they need this right now. And who would have thought I didn't know anything about the pandemic, which was definitely a solution to coping with unforeseen change.   Michael Hingson  55:40 We've just started writing a new book I and a colleague, are writing a book that we are I originally wanted to call blinded by fear because people, when unexpected life changes come about, literally become blinded by fear and they can't make decisions. And it's all about learning to create a mindset where you can deal with unforeseen circumstances and, and be able to move forward. For the moment that we changed the title Carrie, my my colleague decided better title. So right now we're calling it a guide dogs Guide to Being brave, because I've had a guide dogs and so my whole life has been intermix with dogs. So we're going to have a lot of dog stories and other things in it. But the the issue is that people really do need to learn that they can deal with fear and sounds and deal with unexpected life changes. And that sounds like your book, very much talks about that, which is great. It really   Melanie Taddeo  56:37 does. And it's interesting, because I think we automatically assume okay, it's it's terrible life, oh my gosh, how could this? I can't get over it. But we all have that choice. And that's what I had to learn the hard way, that chapel, they came to me and said, Melanie, do you want to just survive? Or do you want to thrive and both. But we don't always have that Chaplain come to us. Sometimes we have worked struggling on our own and not knowing where to turn. And I had to learn a lot of hard lessons. And they weren't easy. So why not share? I wish I had had a book like this. Before this all happens.   Michael Hingson  57:15 When you published the book, was it self published or did a publisher partner publishing?   Melanie Taddeo  57:21 And it's interesting because I did a lot of research about publishing. And I knew nothing about writing a book. And I Okay, I could do the self publishing to a lot of work, and what if it sucked? So I wouldn't know. So I went partner publishing, and I had an angel publisher, and she was amazing. I created a new language. It's called Melanie's, so I use Dragon naturally speaking to me. And it doesn't take what you say. Not always, no, not all the time. So there was a lot of parts, she'd be like, What did you mean here? And then I'd have to go back. Okay, this is what I meant. And so we were caught through it. But she was such a great help in creating the structure of the book and then helping with editing. And she's like, Melanie, look, I wrote it, within eight months, it was just because it was all in my heart in my head. And it was just, I needed to put it on onto the computer, and just get it there. And she's like, this is easy. It's not a problem, just the deciphering of the Davinci Code you've written for me. And, but it came up beautifully and exactly how I wanted it. And it was, it was a great experience. You know, of course, partner push publishing costs money. So that's something I learned now that I kind of know what I'm doing, I would definitely hire an editor, and maybe Self Publish.   Michael Hingson  58:43 Yeah, the thing about self publishing is that you just have to be prepared to do all the marketing, but that's okay.   Melanie Taddeo  58:49 And I did a lot of that with partners publishing as well. So half and half, so it was good.   Michael Hingson  58:55 Don't think for a minute though, that even if you create a contract, and you actually work with a regular full time legitimate publisher, don't think you won't be doing the marketing still, because more and more, they're expecting the authors to do a lot of the marketing, they do provide support, and there's some value to it, but they do require you to demonstrate that you not only can mark it, but that you have a cadre of people to to help and that you have an audience that you can market to, which is cool.   Melanie Taddeo  59:25 And the thing is, who better to market your book than yourself. Because you know the story, you lived it, you've written it. So to me, that makes a lot of sense. And again, I think it's like you mentioned, if you do speaking engagement, you have your book, you can talk about that you can connect with people, and again, it's just making that circuit and I still have to do a lot of that because I haven't had the opportunity yet, as the pandemic starts to, hopefully cool down. We're hopeful I'm optimistic. Again, travelers become, again, something that we're able to do and I hope to go and take it across. Well, definitely to Africa to where my husband is from. So   Michael Hingson  1:00:06 we'll see how it works worse. Yeah. Now where is he from?   Melanie Taddeo  1:00:10 He's from Swaziland, which is a little bit north of South Africa. Closer South Africa.   Michael Hingson  1:00:15 Yeah. So it'd be great to go internationally. Yeah. You join Toastmasters along the way.   Melanie Taddeo  1:00:20 I did. Really when I started the charity. Yeah. So when I started the charity, I knew I had to talk a lot about it. And I'd have to talk to bigger audiences and be able to get my message across. And every single Toastmasters, I'm like, I don't need toast, I don't need to drink, I just need to talk. Like, that's what it's a

This week I let you listen to a speech I presented in one of my Toastmasters Club. The project was Creating a Podcast. I inform my club of the basics of starting a podcast. I will be back next week with an actual real episode. Enjoy and to become a better leader, communicator, & speaker go to Toastmasters.org to find a club near you. A production of Chetro, LLC https://linktr.ee/Chetro Find me on IG: @whatchetrothnksaboutit_Podcast & @chetro_llc Facebook: Chetro Speaks Twitter: @chetro Artwork: @thebougieprofessor on IG I am available for speaking engagements, mentorship, coaching, & panel discussions via chetrospeaks@gmail.com You can support this podcast by going to buymeacoffe.com/chetro --- This episode is sponsored by · Anchor: The easiest way to make a podcast. https://anchor.fm/app --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/chetro/message Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/chetro/support

In this episode of the Transformational Pathways podcast, Anu talks to veteran educator Susan Baxter. Susan, who is currently president of two Toastmasters clubs, namely the Podcast Pioneers and New York Storytellers, retells the story of how she first discovered Toastmasters. She also talks about how her membership has improved both her professional and personal lives. Susan's experience with Toastmasters has benefitted her immensely, and invites everyone to first determine their personal goals and then looking for the specific club that will match their interests. As Susan will tell you, there's literally a Toastmasters club for everyone, and they will help you achieve your goals if you are willing to put in the work. HIGHLIGHTSHow Susan discovered ToastmastersToastmasters can help improve both personal and professional livesTeaching in New York and joining multiple Toastmasters clubsA Toastmasters club for podcasters Why do you want to join Toastmasters?Toastmasters will help you achieve your goals if you work on itQUOTESSusan: "Toastmasters helped me be quite successful when I was dean and helped me feel much more comfortable doing my job and meeting people and cold-calling different CEOs to come and be a part of the speaker series." Susan: "When I put on that suit, that armor of who I am professionally, I can be at Lincoln Center and announcing the graduate school to the college president going, there they've met all the criteria and I mean, imagine all the people in Lincoln Center, all the parents and everything, packed, standing room. I can stand on that stage and do what I need to do as Dr. Baxter. But when I'm Susan, that's when the fears hit of, am I going to say the right thing. I don't feel that way when I'm Dr. Baxter." Susan: "If you're looking at Toastmasters, one of the things to consider would be, why? Are you looking at it to learn another language? There's a club for that. Are you looking at it because you're trying to lighten up a little bit, there's humorous clubs. Are you terrified of speaking in front of other people, then think about you want a large club or a smaller club."Susan: "You can do whichever way you want. There's not a wrong way, which makes Toastmasters work for anybody. And it is the best money you will ever spend to get support to improve not only your public speaking, but you make connections with people from every walk of life, and it's fabulous." Connect with Susan and in the link below:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/susancbaxter/Find out more about Toastmasters, visit https://toastmasters46.org/ and follow District 46 on:Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/toastmasters46/LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/toast-masters-district-46Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/TMDistrict46/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/toastmasters46/Twitter - https://twitter.com/district46tmPlease rate, review and subscribe!Toastmasters - where leaders are made.

Episode 31 featuring Wayne Grubaugh (District 37 Parliamentarian and Treasurer)  and Reine Smirz (Vice President of Public Relations) from the Gastonia Toastmasters Club. In this episode, we highlight a variety of topics including their mission to provide meetings and programs to those looking to further their presentation and speech skills, their current and future initiatives for expanding their membership count, their hopes and wishes for the coming years, and much more!To learn more about the Toastmasters Club, to get involved,  or to follow them on social media, click the links below:Website: https://5743.toastmastersclubs.org/Meeting Time: Thursdays at 7:00am - Warlick YMCA Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/64533226181Gaston's Great loves feedback, suggestions, or questions! Want to get in touch with us? We'd love to hear from you! Feel free to reach out to us by a method that is convenient for you.Website: https://www.gastonsgreat.com/Email: podcast@gastonsgreat.comPhone: 704-864-0344

Impromptu Speech - Chennai Toastmasters Club Meeting Impromptu Speech - You Tube #impromptu #speech #toastmaster #nagendrabharathi My Poems in Tamil and English are available at https://www.amazon.com/author/nagendrabharathi

HIGHLIGHTS28:05 How Adam ended up with Toastmasters after all of his experience in banking, the Royal Australian Air Force, and being an Intelligence Specialist.36:03 A Toastmasters club of which he was supposed to be president until the pandemic hit and how it affected the members and himself personally38:54 Service towards the people in Toastmasters and why it was fundamentally engrained into Adam's life43:04 Tactics Adam used to rebuild the club from shambles52:30 Adam's experience to convince young and hungry executives to join Toastmasters and why it's a mustQUOTES21:35 "I remember going to sleep one night in a pitch-black room and a rocket landed nearby and exploded. And the room went from pitch-black to as bright as the mid-day sun in a flash. As soon as it was over, I rolled over and went back to sleep. That's how you got used to it ... It was normal."28:36 "I lacked a lot of self-confidence and I really needed to improve my ability to communicate, and my leadership skills. And I remember someone recommending Toastmasters to me. So I joined the Toastmasters club in Wollongong, which sadly no longer exists. Its name was Collieries Toastmasters Club."37:47 "To give people a break from what was happening with the pandemic, in March, April, and May were particularly dark times here in New York. To give people a reprieve was my objective, to give people that space to grow. To be supported and to discover who they could be, was my plan. It was not easy but it was a lot of fun."39:00 "If you're in a better position than someone else then help that person to achieve, to succeed, to learn, to grow, and develop. I've always believed in it."41:45 "I knew the pandemic wasn't gonna last forever, I knew it was gonna finish at some point ... but I wanted to set those people up for success. I wanted to give them that foundation on which they could step forth and become better people before this was all over, or during it."Connect with Adam in the link below:LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-cole-pmp%C2%AE-pmi-acp%C2%AE-csm%C2%AE-270987158Find out more about Toastmasters, visit https://toastmasters46.org/ and follow District 46 on:Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/toastmasters46/ LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/company/toast-masters-district-46Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/TMDistrict46/ Please rate, review and subscribe!Toastmasters - where leaders are made.

Welcome to The Know Show. Every week, Andrea T Edwards, Tim Wade and Joe Augustin review the news that's getting everyone's attention, as well as perhaps what requires our attention. We'll talk about what it means to us, the world and we hope to inspire great conversations on the news that matters to all of us. This week we'll be joined by Arishta Khanna, founder of YakYak Global, a TEDx curator, reinvention strategist for individuals and entrepreneurs, and current President of Toastmasters Club of Singapore. Our theme this week is: why we've got to do better for girls and with International Day of the Girl Child on October 11th, we're going to talk about why it's never been more important to focus on real action that will ensure opportunities for the next generation of women. The Know Show is based on Andrea T Edwards Weekend Reads, and covers the climate crisis, Covid 19, topical moments in the world, global politics, business, social issues and passion/humor/history. Join us. #TheKnowShow #UncommonCourage

Impromptu speech - Chennai Toastmasters Club Impromptu Speech - YouTub #impromptu #speech #toastmaster #nagendrabharathi My Poems in Tamil and English are available at https://www.amazon.com/author/nagendrabharathi

Evaluation speech - Tamilootru Chennai Toastmasters Club Evaluation speech - youtube #evaluation #speech #nagendrabharathi #toastmaster My Poems in Tamil and English are available at https://www.amazon.com/author/nagendrabharathi

Toastmasters is a global public speaking organization that has significantly helped me improve in MANY areas of my life. The lessons I learned from Toastmasters may surprise you, though; they're not ALL about public speaking!!In this video, I'm going to share with you 3 lessons I learned during my time in Toastmasters. Toastmasters is a public speaking organization that is designed to help you become more confident in front of others while speaking, while teaching you important Leadership and self development skills in the process. Toastmasters helps you overcome your fear of public speaking and continue to sharpen your communication and speaking skills. ►

In this episode, our 9th episode, we talk with Julie Ulstrup, of Fort Collins, CO, USA who has been a member of Toastmasters International since 2017. Julie earned her Competent Communicator Award in the Legacy Education program, presented at TedEx Cherry Creek Women in 2020, and is Past President of her Toastmasters Club. In this episode we discuss: International Convention Big Idea Competent Communicator Award Julie Ulstrip can be contacted via: >Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/JulieUlstrupPhotography >Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/julieulstrupphoto/

In today's episode, we visit with a president of a local Toastmaster's club and learn some of her secrets to speaking before an audience.  After listening to our guest, it's clearly obvious, great benefits are waiting for you in your local Toastmaster's club!  So don't hesitate, become great...sign up with your local club and master the art of speaking before an audience.  We were lucky to hear it first hand from our guest, Ms Renee Clarke. So happy to have her here so Let's CONNECT!

Dara Connolly practiced Tae Kwon Do for 15.5 years and held a Blackbelt. She even taught martial arts and self-defense classes. Yet, when it came to the business world, she felt frustrated and unheard. After the company she worked for fired her for taking time off to recover from pneumonia, even though she was a top salesperson for them, she channeled her frustration into starting a movement out of her garage to help women in her neighborhood be seen, be heard, and be respected. Dara's garage movement turned into a program that she developed, called Kurukula (named after the Tibetan goddess of empowerment), which taught women to exude the ultimate body confidence with useful skills to thrive in our modern world. The author of three books, she is president of her Toastmasters Club after only a few years of involvement. She was recently featured on a Ted Talk (South Lake Tahoe Tedx). “If you want to be a leader, you have to use your voice,” she says.Her website is: https://www.daraconnolly.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Gary Dennis from WKTW Syracuse interviews Dr. Odell Glenn for 16 minutes and 20 seconds.  Dr. Odell Glenn is described as a community leader. He explains what he does and how he maintains.  Dr. Glenn explains how he got to be a full-time caregiver for 2 lovely parents.  Gary Dennis can relate to some of the things said about caregiving because of personal experience.  Dr. Glenn explains how "chemical engineering" is a diverse and versatile degree.  He explains how he integrated caregiving into his life to complete the doctorate. He explains how "essential oils" play into his research dissertation.  Dr. Glenn is involved in supporting Alzheimer's disease research by supporting the association through walks and 5-K runs to ultimately find a cure.  There are indeed support systems out there.  One should seek and find them in their area. He is also a part of the "TOASTMASTERS CLUB" at "The Univesity of South Carolina". He explains how that club supports him as far as public speaking.   A prayer is given to all caregivers at the end. Look Dr. Odell Glenn up on www.ogcaregiving.com and purchase the book.

Gary Dennis from WKTW Syracuse interviews Dr. Odell Glenn for 16 minutes and 20 seconds. Dr. Odell Glenn is described as a community leader. He explains what he does and how he maintains. Dr. Glenn explains how he got to be a full-time caregiver for 2 lovely parents. Gary Dennis can relate to some of the things said about caregiving because of personal experience. Dr. Glenn explains how "chemical engineering" is a diverse and versatile degree. He explains how he integrated caregiving into his life to complete the doctorate. He explains how "essential oils" play into his research dissertation. Dr. Glenn is involved in supporting Alzheimer's disease research by supporting the association through walks and 5-K runs to ultimately find a cure. There are indeed support systems out there. One should seek and find them in their area. He is also a part of the "TOASTMASTERS CLUB" at "The Univesity of South Carolina". He explains how that club supports him as far as public speaking. A prayer is given to all caregivers at the end. Look Dr. Odell Glenn up on www.ogcaregiving.com and purchase the book. --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/odell-glenn-jr/support

"And it's a real skill to be able to distill your thoughts and message:  what is it that I want to say, what structure is best to put around this and then how you say it. And it's one of those things in life that can be easier said than done." Elaine Lynch.     If you are curious about how you can improve your communication skills this episode is for you.  Elaine and I talk about Toastmasters International - the organisation where leaders are made.  She explains how joining a club is a supportive, enjoyable and affordable way to develop communication and leadership skills.  We chat about the hands-on learning environment as well as the structured educational programs, the format of the meetings and the unique identity of each club.  We also talk about other aspects like mentoring and networking.  Toastmasters International is a global organisation with over 360,000 members across 145 countries - there is probably one near you.   Elaine Lynch is a Corporate Treasury Services Manager based in London.  Elaine qualified as a Chartered Accountant in Ireland and relocated to London in 2014. She is also President of a London based Toastmasters Club, City Limit Speakers.   Connect with Elaine on LinkedIn   Resources: Toastmasters International https://www.toastmasters.org/    City Limits Speakers https://www.meetup.com/City-Limits-Speakers/ 

Join me for our second episode of What Would Amber Do? In this episode I interview Fatima Gould, an incredible Coach, Entrepreneur, Speaker, published Author, Mom and President of her Toastmasters Club.Listen in as we discuss:- Impact of uncertainty and why hope matters so much- The value in creating the different phases of your life- How to create your own legacy in life- Faith, confidence and knowing- What if creating the life of your dreams does work out?- The difference simplicity makes in achieving your goals- Journeying into loving yourself and healthy serviceFatima shares her journey of hope and faith, and her transition from a 30 year career in Information Technology to create a legacy of her own, for herself, her husband, children and generations to come.For more information on Fatima Gould visit her at www.iamoverthewall.com or check her out on social at the following: Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/FatimaGould Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/IamoverthewallTwitter: https://twitter.com/IamoverthewallLinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fatimagould/If you enjoy the show, please share with your connections, and leave us a review on your favourite podcast platform. If you want to connect with Amber to be a guest on the show or for any other reason reach out at info@amberhowardinc.com!

The Bilingual Toastmasters Club in Los Angeles is a place where Spanish speakers of all levels can come to practice giving speeches. In this episode,  Adam Torres and Jorge Rabaso, Insurance Optimization Specialist and Founder at Jorge Rabaso Financial Protection and Toastmasters Club Founder, explore Los Angeles' bilingual toastmasters club.Follow Adam on Instagram at https://www.instagram.com/askadamtorres/ for up to date information on book releases and tour schedule.Apply to be interviewed by Adam on our podcast:https://missionmatters.lpages.co/podcastguest/Visit our website:https://missionmatters.com/