To share effectively, and maybe develop a career in motivational speaking, I knew that I needed to get better at speaking in front of groups of people. Thus, I signed up for a three day course in March 2006 with Speak Easy. While I was extremely nervous, I was also very excited about what I learned in the course. One of my teammates from 2005, Susie Gallucci, encouraged me to do this. She has been so very helpful in sharing her experiences with me. Thanks Susie! (http://www.susiespeaks.com/). Thanks also to Kip Coombs for answering my questions about Speak Easy!
The course turned out to be even better than I had expected. I entered the room on that Monday to find out that my class consisted of myself and five other businessmen. I was by far the least experienced (or worst, to put it more bluntly), but with two wonderful and patient instructors, (Doris and Pat) I feel like I learned a lot and even made some huge improvements. Most of the exercises were designed to help us with our style and presentation. They videotaped almost everything we did which I found extremely helpful. While I realized that I still have a lot to work on before I truly feel confident speaking in front of groups, I am excited that I now have specific areas to focus on. Speak Easy also offers a course in content that I hope to take in the near future as well. I cannot say enough about Speak Easy and how helpful it was for me.
In April 2006, I attended my first United States Olympic Committee Athlete Advisory meeting in Colorado. Each Olympic sport has an athlete representative as well as an alternate (who takes the place if the first representative cannot make a meeting). For triathlon, Olympian Victor Plata is the main rep. In the fall of 2005, I was elected to be the alternate. Victor is now in law school and could not make the April meeting giving me the chance to attend.
The meeting was an incredible experience! The Olympic Assembly was a weekend full of meetings and activities at the Hilton Torre Pines in beautiful La Jolla, California. While I truly enjoyed all of the speakers there that weekend, I especially enjoyed the session with Michael Josephson from the Josephson Institute of Ethics. I later found out that he has a program called Character Counts (www.charactercounts.org). I ended up taking the Character Counts seminar in October. I was certified at a conference in Tennessee, which will allow me to be a character coach.
At the end of the Olympic Assembly weekend, we had another Athletes Advisory Council meeting and once again I thoroughly enjoyed it. I love working with and learning from the other athletes. This time my roommate for the weekend was a 2004 Olympic Silver medalist in rowing named Kate Johnson. I absolutely loved hearing about her experiences at the 2004 Olympics in Athens!
This past November all of the hard work was put to a test as I spoke at the Pace Academy Booster Club Fund Raiser. That is me with their mascot in the picture.
