I Have a Dream

I dream of traveling the world to speak to audiences about technology, leadership, and personal development. The past five years, I have worked hard at becoming an excellent speaker. However, being a great speaker is only part of the equation.

What it Takes to be a Professional Speaker

In order to be a professional speaker, you need a combination of speaking skill, knowledge, and marketing.  I have the first two, but I am struggling at becoming a marketable speaker.

You Can Help Me

One of the top ways to be recognized as a marketable speaker, is to be seen speaking at major events. An event that I have always wanted to speak at is South by Southwest (SXSW), a music, film, and interactive media festival. The SXSW event is a key event for me, because it lets me reach a young, technologically savvy, and forward thinking audience.

To help me, you can vote for my proposed presentation for the event.

What you need to do:

1. Visit http://panelpicker.sxsw.com/ideas/view/3264
2. Register on the site in order to vote
3. Vote for my presentation
4. Leave me a comment after you vote

If you vote for me, you rock.

If not, then that is OK too.

Thank you for your support!

In the past year, the visitors and subscribers to mytoastmastersblog.com has grown exponentially and I am thankful for each and everyone of you that has taken an interest in my writing on public speaking, professional speaking, and Toastmasters.

If you are new to the blog, or maybe just scanned a few early articles, here are a few of my most popular posts. I hope that they serve as a great introduction to my writing, Toastmasters and the topic of public speaking mastery:

Toastmasters

How to be successful in Toastmasters – Part 1 of 2

How to be successful in Toastmasters – Part 2 of 2

Why Toastmasters Makes Sense in a Down Economy

Technical Aspects of Speaking

Educational Moment – Handing over control of the lectern

How to Nail an Introduction

How Rude: Don’t Be a Content Thief

Speaking Mastery

Quit Navel Gazing: It’s About the Audience

Epic Failure: How to Not Connect with the Audience

Being an Excellent Speaker

Speak to be Remembered and Repeated

Keep on speaking,
Chris Elliott

The Toastmasters Word of the Day for November 18th, 2008 is:

Manifesto

photo credit: Janex & Alba

manifesto

Noun
1. A public declaration of principles, policies, or intentions, especially that of a political party

The CEO of our company will be delivering his manifesto today.

To get a copy of my new Special Report, “Make Money? You’re Not a Mint: Suggestions For Earning Money Online and Offline.” Sign up for my free newsletter!. In addition to the report, you will get occasional newsletter only tips on speaking, professional speaking, and special offers. Don’t worry, I don’t sell, rent, or share subscribers.

My Dear Readers,

I apologize if you have commented on a post and it has not shown up. I get so much spam on the blog that I do not have the time to scan through all of the blocked comments looking for valid comments.

In the future, if you are commenting or linking to my blog, please use the contact me link located in the About Me section of the site to send me an e-mail and let me know if your comments and/or link backs are not showing up.

Thank you for helping me keep this site spam free.

Regards,

Chris Elliott

WARNING! There is nothing educational in this post. However, I am working on Darren LaCroix’s Get Paid to Speak by Next Week today, so I might have some inspirations to post about speaking professionally in the next few days.

Taking a break from Get Paid to Speak by Next Week, I logged into Google to check my mail and feed reader. As I was doing so, the Top Recommendations caught my eye. I guess Google thinks I need to start reading my own blog.

I am a superstar in my own mind!

If you are attending the District 40 conference this weekend, I will be attending the Sunday session so look for me and say hi. I will likely be wearing a black suit with no tie and a Champions Edge Pin.

My readers, it has been a few weeks since I last posted. I know, that is not good for a blogger, but I have needed to take a break from blogging to refresh my perspective and get some ideas for blog posts.

Hopefully not many of you have abandoned me, but I just needed to get away for awhile and renew and refresh myself. Also, I have made $0 from blogging. Since I am not making money from doing this, I have had to focus my energies at work and on projects that do allow me to make money. This is causing me to have less time and energy for this blog.

I will be back to posting soon. Until then, check out the archives. There is some great stuff there.

My dedicated readers and guests,

It has taken half of the day to get this theme installed, but I think it was well worth the effort. I encourage you to fully test out the new layout, click on the links, and leave your comments on the new theme.

What’s new?

1. Ability to subscribe to the blog by e-mail
2. Improved look and feel
3. Better support of IE
4. Cleaner interface to social networking links
5. Tabbed Recent Comments , Posts, and Most Commented
6. Tag Cloud and Summary Footer

I was really lucky to have found the lightbreaker theme on wpthemesplugin.com. After only a few hours of modifications, I think I have set up the blog to be much more accessible, shareable, and SEO friendly.

Please let me know what you think and if you like it, please don’t keep my blog a secret.

WOW! Just last night I was reading Guy Kawasaki’s, “The Art of the Start: The Time-Tested, Battle-Hardened Guide for Anyone Starting Anything.” Imagine my surprise this morning when I had an e-mail from Guy saying I had been listed on http://speaking.alltop.com.

Though I am researching and working on a couple of new online ventures (hence reading Guy’s book), I welcome the challenge of posting more to satisfy the new readers that alltop.com is bringing in.

Thanks Guy!