3 Steps to Build Confidence to Engaging Screenagers
3 Steps to Build Confidence to Engaging Screenagers
Why did I want to study speech communications?
When I was leading tandem Dale Carnegie public speaking courses I wasn’t showing the confidence my sponsor wanted, so I wasn’t getting more instructor “gigs”.
My sponsor encouraged me to keep training in my company, and although that was great, I wasn’t getting training time (or challenge) I felt could help me grow.
What, then, was I to do?
I wanted more in my life.
I knew I could do more.
I had a passion to engage with others.
What was I to do?
As Dale Carnegie tells us, throw down a challenge, and that’s what I did for myself.
Did you ever notice, sometimes the only one who will challenge you to do more is you?
I was so busy working, taking care of my new house in San Francisco, volunteering for the Leukemia Society, and working with the local Dale Carnegie sponsor, so I had very little time.
Around this time I had my life changing Mountain Bike Ride and I decided to go back to school and learn more about speech communication and get more gigs.
Step 1) Stop doing something to free your time, energy, attention, and passion to experience Optimal Engagement with what is most important.
As I was 30 years old at the time, I had the confidence that comes with ignorance, so I quit my job and renting rooms in my house to pay bills, and I went back to graduate school.]
Also, to pay the bills, I started working at Nordstrom, (where learned Good Customer service is an organizational culture), and a variety of other establishments.
Step 2) Define what you want to be, learn what you need, to go where you want to go, and do what you want to do.
A few weeks later, I found myself in the office of the San Francisco State University, School of Speech Communications, Graduate Admissions Professor, Rudy Busby. With a title like that you know he is somebody important.
As Rudy looked at my transcript from undergraduate and said, “You had fun in the University of Colorado didn’t you?”
Then before I could answer, he asked, “Warren would you want to teach public speaking here to undergraduate students as a Graduate Assistant?”
I was stunned because I hadn’t even thought I could teach at a university.
Step 3) Get experience, build on that experience with massive experience doing what you love as your passion fuel your fire.
It was interesting, the first day I co-taught (with Rudy) an undergraduate public speaking class I was so nervous and had a very shaky voice, and I thought, “I will never be able to do this.”
The Stephen Levine, in his book, A Gradual Awakening, talks about a mind full of doubt creates more doubt.
After the first semester, I was called into the Dean’s office and was asked what I was doing in my public speaking class.
I thought I was in trouble.
The dean told me I had the highest teaching evaluations (TE’s) ever recorded for a first semester Graduate Assistant, and my teaching evaluation was higher than all but one of the experienced Graduate Assistants.
The dean’s secretary told me I was one of the superstars.
All that experience and my passion for Engaging students, was beginning to pay off.
As research shows a high correlation of learning with high (TE’s) from that point on, my personal ethos was to be one of the top in (TE’s).
Over the next 2.5 years, I taught Public Speaking in several universities in the San Francisco Bay Area.
I was building my confidence.
During that time I was studying trainer communication at SF State, teaching public speaking and leading Customer Service Training for Nordstrom, and all the while I was engaging in developing myself, so I was building my knowledge, skills, and confidence.
How are you building your confidence?
When you join any of my on-line or face-to-face courses, you will experience several exercises that begin with low-stakes challenges and then build to high-stakes challenges, and as a result, you will build confidence.
Part of the building value of our Interactive courses with eWorkbooks is you will have great learning analytics to support your development.
Developing my training system took many years of researching, and developing, and testing, and improving, and implementing, and monitoring, and adjusting, and repeat, etc.
When you are building your confidence, do you keep doing the same thing over and over, or do you notice what happened, identify distinctions, and adjust your methods?
Open time, clarify focus, get experience, be confident.
Remember, come join tomorrow to see more Improving Your Engagement with Screenagers and others inspirational experiences and ideas for Optimal Engagement in the ScreenAge.
Remember to engage tomorrow.
Following with you.
Keep it simple.
All the Best, Warren
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