The Speech Fitness® Balance Beam
Happy Holidays!!!
Dear friends,
Over the ground lies a mantle of white, a heaven of diamonds shines down
through the night…
a beautiful sight, we’re happy tonight, walkin’ in a winter
wonderland...hummm…hummm…
Well—I surely am in the holiday spirit!…and if you have ever trained with me, you know how I love to get you humming and singing!! Picture me with a glass of eggnog; my favorite holiday tunes playing and me humming along merrily as I write to you — you are on my mind and in my heart at the start of this holiday season.
This is perhaps my favorite time of year. It is Thanksgiving in the Rockies and from where I sit, fire roaring in the fireplace here at the Institute Office in Denver, a blanket of snow is falling gently and the full moon reflects a beautiful light across the starry sky. In the distance, the snow-capped purple mountains can be seen. What a sense of peace washes over me.
The chill in the air outside takes me back to feelings of my childhood growing up in Wisconsin. There is something comforting to me about that with all the madness that accompanies the holidays. I am thinking about all of life’s many blessings; of you and of just how grateful I am for the gifts I have been given. I love what I do, expressly because of the people with whom I get to do it.
So many have asked me why I began this "adventure" in Colorado, so far from New York City, where I continue to live and work. "What’s with all the crazy back and forth?" or words to that effect. (I know some of you think I have truly "lost it". And I must say, some days I am certain that I have.)
This natural beauty and a sense of true peace when I am here, is one reason why. And an opportunity to offer my "personal best," another. This is what continues to drive me toward my goals. Ah yes, motivation.
You must come visit this year!!
It has been 6 years since coming out here to "try it out"; 5 more since I bought my home in Cherry Creek and opened the Institute offices. I can hardly believe it! In that time, I have been all about business…a concern expressed to me by many of you caring souls.
2005 will be our year to focus on BALANCE. Yours-- and certainly mine. My team will be offering articles and ideas on finding that in our lives and I personally hope to learn by doing—to find more time to nourish the soulful "stuff" of which we are all made and which is so essential to our creative expression.
Looking back--what a challenge to launch in Summer ‘03 and to keep it all going in a reviving economy, (as we all have struggled); to continue to work to create awareness for the special opportunity to explore communication more in-depth and more holistically than most of us have time for in our everyday lives and in the brief training time we manage to fit into our workday encounters. And I get to do this with some truly talented people, with whom I have the sincere pleasure of collaboration and the utmost of respect and admiration. This is my pursuit of a goal--a dream of mine, which I continue to move toward reality with the help of my loyal associates. I could not do it without you. Thanks so much to my team.
I am grateful, once again, to the many friends and colleagues who have so enthusiastically offered support and advice to me along the way. And to all of you who have embraced our work. It is a true delight for me to work with you.
So, this holiday, in the spirit of gratitude, I want to offer you the best gift I know to give.
I want to wish each of you a Holiday Season filled with beautiful moments to literally take your breath away; the love of family, peace in your hearts and in our conflicted world; health and prosperity in the year ahead; the pure JOY! of living life on the edge, of taking the risk to grow...
And, gratitude.
Much love, and many blessings…I look forward to hearing from each of you and seeing you in Colorado in 2005.
Mary
In loving memory of Gordie Bailey.
ps. Special Thanks
To all who contributed to the Fund we set up for my mother, the Mayotte family wants to express our deepest thanks. Sue and Steve Smith, Lorna Barry, Barbara Mayotte, Tracey Goldblum, Bette and Skip Hillman, Gerry Moroder, Mike and Beverly Pinjuv, Andrea Nierenberg, Jerry and Arlene Levitt, Margie Kraker--we are so grateful to all of you. We will be matching these gifts with proceeds from The Speech Fitness Institute®. Each year a donation will be given on mom’s birthday, December 16. This year it will go to the Building Fund for the Day Program for Developmentally Disabled adults which both of my brothers attended in Milwaukee.
Some of you have asked me to publish the information about the fund, again:
Tax deductible donations can be sent in memory
of Dr. Joan Mayotte to:
The Daniel Haskell Esq. Trust
1776 Jackson St.. Ste. 520, Denver, CO. 80210
Inspiration of the Month:
God bless us, everyone!
Tiny Tim-
From A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
PROFILE: Putting a Face on One of our Own
Eileen
Winnick- Senior Associate +
Account Executive
As a communications consultant and media analyst, Eileen Winnick offers customized media and presentation trainings to corporations, government, TV personalities, and individuals across a wide array of industries. Her clients learn how to structure and position television and radio segments, deliver powerful presentations and media interviews, give key note speeches and public appearances that leave lasting impressions. She enables clients to convey individual goals and beliefs when facing a client, a live audience, a TV camera or a sales conference.
Eileen’s close work with writers and editors at Condé Nast, Rodale Press, Time, Inc., Random House, Clarkson-Potter Books, Simon and Shuster, Metropolitan Books, Pocket Books, Prima Publishing, Crown Publishing and Pantheon has prepared them for national book tours and major TV, radio and print interviews.
After her coaching, her clients have appeared on Nightline, Oprah, Sally Jesse Raphael, The Today Show, Good Morning America, 20/20, Charlie Rose, The Larry King Show, CBS Good Morning, Entertainment Tonight, The View, Fox Entertainment News and Good Day New York.
Hired as a consultant by network executive producers, Eileen has restructured or created new programs and products. Her specialty is positioning and structuring a client’s message in a communicative, viewer-friendly format for television. She has produced segments for CNN, Fox, PBS, HG-TV Network, ABC, NBC and CBS News. Eileen has also worked as a spokeswoman hosting Communication seminars for IBM, AT&T and the New York Transit Authority.
She also has been called in by Viacom/Paramount, Connecticut Public Television and PBS to train talent and analyze and reshape new television pilots, such as Scoop, Trailsides, and Anything Wild and coached Hosts for Reality-TV hits What Not To Wear and While You Were Out.
Eileen holds a BA in Speech/English from Boston College and is completing her MA in Corporate Communications at UCONN. Her prior experience working as a professional actress in commercials, film and TV give an added edge to understanding the performance demands in any form of "high stakes" presentations.
Eileen hails from Westport, Connecticut living in a beach house on the Sound with her daughter Ryan and her dog Charlie.
Step
III- Mastering the Art of Delivery- from Passion to Commitment
By: Eileen Winnick
Last month we began our focused discussion on Step II- Execution: Moving from Interest to Implementation.
This month we continue with our featured article
on:
Step III- Mastering the Art of Delivery-from Passion to Commitment
As Thomas Edison said, "If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves." If you follow Steps I, II and III you will surely agree with him.
Let's backtrack. In Steps I & II you have focused on knowing what your goals and objectives are for your presentation or interview. You have nailed your opening message with a strong "grabber", targeted your 3-5 core message points and worked hard on your closing statement.
You have anticipated answers for difficult questions; you know how to answer the questions and transition gracefully back to your message points. You have analyzed your audience and positioned your interview or presentation so that you are acutely aware of what's in it for the audience. You have closed your presentation with a "call to action."
You feel prepared to communicate your message through the use of facts, statistics, personal experiences and anecdotes so that your presentation has depth and nuance and it reveals a scope that targets long-term plans and meets the needs of your audience.
You have done your homework. But, why just as you are about to begin to speak you feel if someone has grabbed you by the throat and you are frozen solid, far-far left of dynamic? Why is your throat dry and rapidly closing and your palms are sweating? Were you hit by a stun gun on the way up to the podium? And just as you are about to say your "grabber" some strange robot takes over and delivers your brilliantly devised Presentation in a rather hum-drum, stilted fashion. What happened? You got Nervous! Nervousness is nothing more than energy that turns negative. If you gain control of your terror, you can channel it into positive energy.
Here's how. Prior to facing your audience or interviewer:
- Visualize giving a successful presentation
- Do relaxation exercises. Breathe deeply down to the abdomen. (10 times) Tense and relax every part of your body. Do a few Yoga postures. They balance you and shut out worries, now feel yourself beginning to relax
- Sigh deeply and release all your tension. Tension short-circuits your impulses, emotions and natural spontaneity. Locate where your tension is and bring your awareness to that spot and relax it.
- Again, visualize giving a successful presentation.
- Drink water. Avoid caffeine (it's dehydrating). Eat carbs. No, it's not a dirty word. The reality is that your brain produces more serotonin (a feel-good chemical) if you eat carbs with little or no protein.
- Check your posture, plant your feet, open your chest, lift your rib cage and comfortably stand up straight. Relax your shoulders and feel supported by the ground
- Connect with the passion you felt when you started working on the Presentation and recommit to your message with enthusiasm and energy.
- Realize this is a conversation, not a monologue. Take the focus off of yourself and put it on your audience.
When presenting:
- Use eye contact to break down the wall between you and the audience. Look into people's eyes. Hold your eye contact for 3-5 seconds.
- Use gestures. Use your natural hand gestures to express your thoughts
- Move purposefully. Move into the audience to make a point but have a reason for your movement. But don't shift or rock.
- Pause. Allow a moment of silence between thoughts.
- Rehearse. There is no substitute for preparation.
- Embrace yourself! You are the best thing you've got and you've worked hard to get here so go out there and have some fun.
- Mindfulness. Realize how important it is to feel physically, emotionally and spiritually comfortable in your own skin. Attending to your mind is one thing, but ignoring your spirit and body will not get you the results you are looking for.
So follow Edison's sage advice and our "Easy as I, II, III" Steps and allow yourself to "be literally astounding!"
Resources
You Can Relate to:
(Recommended books on our topic of the month + a Holiday pick from the
MM+A team)
How
to Get Your Point Across in 30 Seconds or Less (Clicking
on this link will bring you directly to this book on Amazon.com)
By: Milo. O. Frank (Paperback)
Bang!
Getting Your Message Heard in a Noisy World (Clicking
on this link will bring you directly to this book on Amazon.com)
By: Linda Kaplan Thaler, Robin Koval, Delia Marshall
Our
holiday "pick" of the month:
The
Giftionary: An A-Z Reference Guide for Solving Your Gift-Giving Dilemmas...
Forever!
By: Robyn Freedman Spizman (Paperback )
Click on the button below to go directly to Amazon.com's home page
The next edition of the Balance Beam will discuss "Finding the FIRE" a roadmap to unleashing the power within. We will explore the principles for uncovering that passion which drives you in life, toward business success and contentment.
All Balance Beam 2005 Editions will focus on a theme you will find throughout our newsletters, that of Balance. We will offer techniques for a true mind, body, spirit approach to communications in both life and work.
Don’t Miss any of Them!!
2005-Special
Announcements: 
MM+A
Proudly Announces the "kickoff" of its Speech Fitness Institute® Presentation
"BOOT CAMP"-Public Seminar Series
Through the years, we have had many requests to create public seminars which would be more comprehensive – and affordable. So, we have heard you and have decided to bring our Institute to you!!
Training Seminars will be conducted once a month in New York City, Denver and Los Angeles.
- Maximum number of attendees are capped at 6 people per trainer, to ensure focused and individualized attention.
- MM+A/Speech Fitness Institute's® time-tested philosophies and techniques are the cornerstone for all of its 2-day seminars.
The seminar-pricing model provides an affordable option to group training.
$1500 (per person) includes 2 full days of training with twice the opportunity to see yourself on camera in different presentation scenarios covering a wide range of topics – from the exploration of performance technique, vocal exercise, and improvisation (thinking on your feet) to crafting and delivering targeted messages with our easy, time-saving approach all custom-tailored to the audience in attendance each month.
+
Media
"Tune-ups" will also be available in a monthly public seminar
format or if preferable, confidential group media training sessions can
be scheduled by individual organizations. These are one-day sessions with
1/2 day group technique review, followed by individual one-on-one sessions
with on-camera interview practice. These groups are limited in number
according to the amount of on-camera practice required and customized
specifically to the need. Again, the pricing model is designed to save
you money.
Don’t let that next media opportunity
pass you by….Come join us!
We promise fun and informative sessions.
Spanish
Language Consulting and Training
Now available through MM+A's association with Mariela Hernandez. Watch
for a profile on Mariela + her special talents in next month's issue of
the Balance Beam.
To sign up or inquire within, please contact us at 212.772.1275 / 303.321.8935 or email us at info@speechfitness.com
CONGRATULATIONS
To all the winners of this year’s
CEW Awards-
We especially want to celebrate-
Janet Gurwitch Bristow and Laura Mercier of Laura
Mercier Cosmetics
Essie Wiengarten, Essie Cosmetics
To Real Simple on the success of "Get
Organized New York"
to benefit the NY public Schools
To Steven Greenwald on the 40th Anniversary of the Metropolitan College
And long overdue…
To Stone Roberts on your move to Carlson
/ Partners
we wish you huge success there!
+
To Dee Dee LeGrand on your Outstanding
Woman in Business award.
We think you are truly outstanding!
To Essence Communications Partners on the Successful launch of Suede
Happy New Baby!
Katie Pottinger (+Rafael)
Expecting-
Candice and Michael Jackson
Thanks:
To John Fitzgerald/Mullen Advertising
and his team
-- this is the agency to watch!!
A Special mention to Karin Tracy for
all you do for us
- many thanks!
And…for all the many kind referrals
this past year—
you know who you are; we love you and are so thankful!
**Huge Holiday hugs to Roger Birnbaum, Richard Harriton, Barbara Mayotte, and countless friends for your continuing support of my goals related to the Speech Fitness Institute® over the past two years.**
Let us hear your news, by emailing us at info@marymayotte.com. We want to celebrate all of your successes.
The SFI®
BEAT
Inspiring Expert Communicators
Start
2005 with new resolve-book your Corporate Retreat with us at the Speech
Fitness Institute®
SFI leverages the training techniques employed at MM+A for over 15 years, expanding upon a more traditional experience by offering techniques with a unique performance-based approach. We enhance the experience using our minds, bodies, and spirits to communicate, lead and work with teams. Whether you’re looking to shake things up within your organization, look at specific issues, enhance leadership know-how and ability among management or executives or to encourage exceptional teamwork in the New Year – look to SFI. We design an experience which meets the specific needs of each organization, all set in the great "back to nature" environment of the Colorado Rockies (www.wildhorseinncolorado.com; www.beavercreek.snow.com), the location of your choice, or we will bring the Institute to you.
Booking now for our Winter, Summer and
Fall 2005-06 Retreats
Click here for more information
- www.speechfitnessinstitute.com
Wanted: "Angels" to partner/invest in this evolving venture
Please visit our Website for a list of our services and to discover how MARY MAYOTTE + ASSOCIATES can address your communications goals at www.speechfitness.com.
*** The Balance Beam is a collaborative endeavor from the MM+A team: Mary Mayotte, Head Coach, Christina Julian, Client Services/Marketing Director; Eileen Winnick, Communications Coach/Account Executive. All rights reserved ***