Apparently, I’m not the healthiest Motivational Speaker to ever live.
For the second time in a couple of months, I’ve come down with a nasty throat problem. With 3 speeches and 4 workshops coming up in the next 7 days, I’m going to need a lot of Benilyn, water, OJ, soup, ice cream and of course J-E-L-L-OOOOOO!
OSSSA speech tomorrow with more exciting blog entries to come over the next 7 days…now back to lying down.
Thanks to the wonders/miracles of technology, I am going to have the opportunity over the months/years to come to give online Motivational Speeches for students in Singapore. These online speeches will be done through a webcam that sits at my desk and a headset phone to speak. Through these two inventions, I will be able to offer a little insight into my mind to thousands of students half way across the globe.
Previously, I have had the chance to speak for students IN China and that was definitely my career highlight. Now having the chance to work with students on a daily basis in Singapore, it will only help to show me even more why it is that I do what I do.
Does globalization/technology bring problems? Sure…just see me rant on cialis and spam! But the path that I am embarking on is just another example of how technology is helping to bring the world together. We have so much power at our hands, how we use it is up to us.
“With great power comes responsibility.” – Spiderman’s Uncle.
An unfortunate cancellation of the OSSSA Conference I was supposed to speak at this past weekend left me with a little bit more time on my birthday. Obviously, I would have prefered to speak for OSSSA, a fantastic organization that has recently fallen on hard times.
However, if there was one day of the year I would have prefered a cancellation to happen, certainly, my birthday and the Raptors first Play-off game in 5 years was the best time I could have imagined. I had the chance to watch my Toronto Raptors lose a tough one to the Nets during the afternoon…NOT the result I was hoping for on my birthday! But still great to see the Raptors back and Vince Carter struggling. (There go my New Jersey speeches for 08!)
Then I got to spend the evening with many friends from many different areas of my life. It was great to have the chance to catch up with people I hadn’t seen…some since High School and some in a couple years. To me, that’s what a birthday is all about…good times and good friends!
It was also great to wake up Sunday morning to some 120+ Facebook Wall Messages with Happy Birthday messages. While I’m still not through responding to them all, it was a lot of fun to see.
After a great weekend of birthday fun, it’s time to get back down to work. Back to the grind and back to the Motivation…..(but Go Raps).
Tomorrow I celebrate my 26th birthday and I will be doing so while performing a speech for an OSSSA (Ontario Secondary School Students Association) Conference in Oshawa, Ontario. This will be my 3rd speech in my 7 birthdays I’ve celebrated since I first started doing Motivational Speaking and I can’t wait to perform.
OSSSA was an organization I was a part of when I was in High School. I helped plan Conferences and was also a Leadership Developer for about 10 delegates for each Conference. OSSSA is the type of organization that should be in every region in North America with its basic premise being to provide a voice for students at the School Board, Regional and Provincial level. One of my goals for the years to come is to try to spread that message around North America.
Recently, OSSSA has fallen on hard times, but with 4 Conferences in 4 weeks, it appears that they are back up and running with a strong base that should hopefully last a long time. I’m thrilled to be a part of the resurrection!
Of course, as great as it is to be performing for OSSSA, birthday speeches are always the most fun because…how can an audience misbehave??? It’s my birthday!!! 
I’m expecting a great group of students tomorrow and a fantastic time at the Conference.
Now my only challenge is getting out of the Conference without hearing the score in the Raptors game. As a diehard fan, watching Vince “Wince” Carter return to Toronto has all of us Raptors fans salivating at the chance to beat him. I don’t like to take my sports TOO seriously…but in this case, I will make an exception!
GO RAPS!
I know in my last Blog entry, I promised to discuss Spam and the idea of me as a Spammer. Unfortunately, it’s just been such a zoo the last week that this blog has taken a bit of a back seat. I do promise to return to that debate….but at a later date.
The last week has kept me VERY busy as I try to finalize some speeches for May/June to fill up some remaining open slots in my schedule. It is a lengthy process to get E-Mails written and make sure they’re accurate and appropriate…but in the end, it will hopefully be worth it.
My biggest concern is with my E-Mail account (david@motivateyourself.net). I keep hearing from people that they are sending me E-Mails and I’m not replying to them. OF COURSE, if you E-Mail me, I’m going to respond within 24 hours (if not within 5 minutes). I feel as though the spamming has somehow interfered with my E-Mails ability to judge the difference between viagra and a booking form.
If anybody reading this has a spare moment, I would greatly appreciate if you could send me an E-Mail. All you have to do is right “TEST”…I’m just interested to see if different IP addresses/E-Mail providers are constantly being rejected. From there, I will reply to you within 24 hours. If I don’t…post a comment here on the Blog.
Thanks for your help! Look at our reliance on technology…when things are going great, it’s wonderful. But when a glitch occurs, it can ruin a month!
Enjoy the cold wherever you are…and Go Raps Go!
While teachers, students and anyone employed by a reputable company celebrates the 4-day weekend, I look at it as a serious loss of time for me! After falling behind in my scheduling for May/June due to my 28-speech/19-day Speaking Tour in Alberta/Montana in March, I’m only now starting to get back into the rhythm of things and losing the ability to contact people on Friday/Monday hurts.
See for me, I won’t bother sending an E-Mail to a potential client/previous client until Tuesday morning. Reason being that if I send that E-Mail on Friday morning, then by the time they get to their inbox on Tuesday morning, my E-Mail is stuck behind some 100 E-Mails nagging them about buying cialis, viagra, xanax, corel draw, vista or getting their penis enlarged——And if I can rant for two seconds, which I can because it’s my Blog…I wonder if some women are offended that most of the spam we receive revolves around the male genitalia. OR, is this one of those rare times when a bit of sexual discrimination pays off for women? Besides this…if women represent a larger share of the purchasing power marketplace than men, wouldn’t it make more sense to spam people with products that appeal to women?
But I digresse…
So these 4 day weekends for me really add up to a bit of time off, which is always nice, but more of a hassle for me, because it means I can’t get the work done that I need to get done. This means that for the next few days, I get to focus on getting my lists in check and making sure that everything is set to go out come Tuesday. It’s all about doing the grunt work behind the scenes to get to work with more students in the long run.
One final random observation for me if I may…how is it that the Pussycat Dolls are allowed to have their music videos and reality show on basic television at all hours of the day, but The Sports Network can’t air a commercial of Frank Thomas of the Toronto Blue Jays, a father of 3, engaging in a pillow fight to quiet some noisy kids (http://sports.yahoo.com/mlb/news;_ylt=AimPqEmOHgDSWXTgyZmriAE5nYcB?slug=ap-bluejays-ad&prov=ap&type=lgns)? Maybe, just maybe, we need to monitor sexuality on tv as closely as we do the concept of domestic violence. You never can tell, but it certainly hasn’t been tried yet.
After taking a couple of days off upon my return, I’m slowly but surely getting back into running the business and getting caught up with E-Mails, phone calls, etc.
I still feel very drained, physically and emotionally and I still think I’ve got a bit of jet lag, but it’ll all disappear in time for my next road trip I’m sure. 
I got a Reference Letter in from the organizers of a speech I did in January at McEvoy Middle School in Macon, Georgia. It was a very unique audience I was working with, but it was very inspiring for me to be able to work with those students. My contacts have told me I will be brought back in years to come and I can’t wait to work with those students again.
Tomorrow I need to solidify my April/May schedule and nail down several contacts. This time of year is always a crazy time for Conferences and I need to make sure I get as much exposure at as many different sites as I can.
The more work and effort I put into it, the more speeches I will get!
Tough loss for the Raptors; surprising OT win for the Leafs; Game 2 tomorrow for the Jays…Go Jays Go!
So unfortunately, I didn’t get to post anything over the last few days of my journey out West, nor have I written since returning to Thornhill. I’ve been pretty exhausted and even jet lagged since returning home and I’ve tried to give myself a couple days off from E-Mails, blogging, phone calls, etc., but I know I have to suck up the fatigue and get ‘er going again tomorrow.
To wrap up my trip, I wanted to give some random thoughts over the past week:
*My speech in Turner, Montana was a really neat experience. The crowd was probably the most responsive I had in my entire 28-speech journey. The town consists of less than 500 people and the school had 44 students 7-12 and 80 students K-12. Despite the small audience, the students were really great and I had a lot of fun working with them.
The Principal of Turner Public School mentioned to me that it’s difficult to find speakers to come to his small town (located about 20 km’s south of the Saskatchewan border), but I really don’t know why. The scenery and drive is indescribably beautiful. I was thrilled to be able to make the trip and hope to be able to come back.
*Super 8’s question the reasons behind my desire for extra pillows.
*Small borders while unique and an interesting experience, have nothing to do but stop you for an hour and bother you.
*My belief – that the success or failure of a speech depends solely on the willingness of an audience to cooperate AND MOST IMPORTANTLY, the staff’s determination to quiet noisy patrons – was fully confirmed and set in stone for me after my experience in speeches in two seperate schools on Thursday and Friday.
*The best way to follow up a tough crowd is to walk into the next speech with the biggest smile on my face I can and blow the students out of the water with my energy.
*Calgary driving is even more confusing than in Edmonton.
*Westjet is far superior to Air Canada.
*Being greeted by the woman I love at the airport is the best way to come home.
*28 speeches over 19 days takes more than just a couple of days to recover from.
*The Raptors are legitimate playoff contenders, the Maple Leafs are not.
*For the 2nd year out of the last 3, I picked the NCAA Basketball winner…thus proving that it IS a crapshoot!
*As great as 28 speeches are, there’s still much more and much bigger things to come. But it’s up to me to push myself and “Motivate Myself” over the next few days to make sure it happens.
Thank you to Brad Koshka and the Edmonton Catholic Schools for playing a key role in my Speaking Tour. Thank you to Yvonne Corbeil, Jason Stolz and SADD Alberta for sponsoring and promoting me across Alberta and making my first SADD Alberta Speaking Tour happen. And of course, thank you to all of my friends, family and “fans” for the support over the last month. It was great having you cheer me on the whole way.
Go Jays Go!