Preston Persuaders

"Make success a habit." That was the message Toastmaster Chris shared with us at Monday's meeting. The theme was "Self-Motivation," and it was inspired by the book, The Power of Habit, by Charles Duhigg. Chris told the story of when he first became a children's soccer coach. It felt like a chore at first and didn't get easier until it became a habit, part of his weekly routine. Then, it became something he looked forward to. Anything new can feel challenging or take extra effort until it becomes a habit, even attending weekly (awesome) meetings of Toastmasters.

Bahman was our first speaker, and he encouraged us to be aware of our credit score and take steps to make it better. One of his tips? Don't open new lines of credit or make large purchases just before getting a loan. You can read more in his book, Credit Score: Tips and Tricks.

Susan's speech was about doing all that you can. Her 4 suggestions for this were

1. Man the Plan - Get clear on what your plan is.
2. Squawk the Talk - Tell others what your plan is so they can hold you accountable.
3. Clock the Walk - Take time to follow your plan and to enjoy life.
4. Love the Dove - Spread peace and encouragement along the way.

Our third speaker, Brian, kept us laughing throughout his speech about his attempts to upgrade his DVD player. He follows the "buy and hold" philosophy, hanging onto outdated electronics as long as they still work. When verring from his usual tactics and going to buy a new BlueRay player, his hours of "analysis paralysis" were wasted when he realized he couldn't plug his new BlueRay player into his outdated television. Better luck next time, Brian!

Thank you to our Area Governor, Dell, and his assistant, Tanya, for visiting our club this week! We loved having Marie and Kaylee visit us as well!

Start prepping for the club contest September 15th! You can contact Mickey to sign up for the Evaluation or Humorous Speech Contests. Let this contest actuate (word of the day) you to improve your speaking skills!

Remember to make success a habit by joining us for the next Preston Persuaders meeting!

Ribbon Winners

Best Speaker: Bahman
Best Evaluator: Durai
Best of the Big 3: Chris
Best Table Topics Speaker: Mickey
5-Star Helper: Stephanie
Sparkplug: Brian

What are you grateful for? Gratitude was the theme of this Monday's meeting, led by Sarah. She began the meeting with several inspirational quotes, thoughtful personal stories, and the message that expressing gratitude helps improve our overall sense of well-being. 

Our first speaker, Melanie, reminded us to release daily worries by focusing on reality. Instead of getting sidetracked by imagining a horrible outcome, focus on the reality of each situation to stay peaceful and experience more joy.

Allison did an advanced manual speech with the objective of praising someone. She shared her love for her husband and the positive qualities he brings to his new business, Blair Automotive. He is honest, dependable, and a shining light in an industry that's not known for its integrity.

Our third speaker, Hugh, gave us a sneak peek into the history of "Motorcycle Hooliganism." He shared how WWII led to the creation of riding a motorcycle as a passtime for many retired pilots. We're looking forward to hearing his follow-up speeches for more information! In the meantime, you can follow this link for more motorcycle history.

With the theme of gratitude, this meeting re-cap wouldn't be complete without finding out what some of our members are most thankful for:

Durai - "I'm thankful for my life, my parents, my school teachers, and people who are supportive."

Stephanie - "My new grandbaby. He's SO cute!"

Chris - "I'm thankful for all the beautiful people in the world who are committed to each other."

Bahman - "I'm thankful for my health. Good health is so important."

Susan - "I'm thankful for my life and my love."

Mickey - "I'm thankful for having Preston Persuaders every Monday. It's always entertaining and keeps me out of trouble!"

Thank you to all who attended and made this meeting uplifting and fun! Your commitment (Word of the Day) to improving your speaking and leadership skills makes a difference in all our lives! Join us next Monday for another great meeting of Preston Persuaders!

Ribbon Winners

Best Speaker: Melanie
Best Evaluator: Mark
Best of the Big 3: Sarah
Best Table Topics Speaker: Daniel
5-Star Helper: Doug
Sparkplug: Dean

 

Travel was the theme from last night's meeting, led by Toastmaster Janak. Our invocator, Durai, reminded us that sometimes we have to face our fears in order to venture into the world and achieve our goals. Most of us have to face fears around public speaking in Toastmasters, too, and the effort is worth it! The fun and learning gained through travel, achieving goals, and Toastmasters is enhanced by great company. At Preston Persuaders, you're always in great company! Here's a pic from before the meeting last night...

Chris and Bahman were our featured speakers. Chris talked about the Law of Connection, inspired by the book, 21 Irrefutable Laws of Leadership. He explained that just like we are connected through social networks and business networks, events in our lives may also be interconnected. Have you ever found connections like that - fate? coincidence? synchronicity? 

After your first 10 speeches, you choose your advanced speaking manuals, which cover many different specialty areas of public speaking. Bahman is currently working out of the Facilitating Discussion manual, and last night he led the club in a discussion about cloud storage. His speech objectives were to overcome behavioral problems from audience members. Members were assigned to be chatty, to argue, to interrupt, and to withdrawl from the discussion so that Bahman could practice dealing with those distractions in a way that continued to encourage discussion. 

We welcomed Jay, Marie, and Marevi as guests to our meeting last night, and we loved their participation in the Table Topics (impromptu speaking) portion of our meeting, led by Mark.

We ended our meeting with a thoughtful story by Janak, and the message, "When you travel, you not only enrich your own life, you enrich the lives of others as well." Kudos to Janak for serving as Toastmaster for the first time! Great job! 

Special congrats goes to Chris for being awarded the Toastmaster of the Month award for June! Way to go Chris!!!

See you next week for another great Preston Persuaders meeting!

Ribbon Winners

Best Speaker: Neither qualified
Best Evaluator: Melanie
Best of the Big 3: Janak
Best Table Topics Speaker: Marevi
5-Star Helper: Max
Sparkplug: Ed