How I became a public speaker, trainer, and marketing consultant.

Although I excelled in drama class in junior high school winning many awards, I lost touch with that talent in my work life. For the first 10 years, I was a secretary and administrative assistant. In my last secretarial job (at Ernest & Young in their consulting department), I was editing proposals and researching prospects (before the Internet!) .

Amazingly, I was recruited by a Big 8 accounting firm (Touche Ross at the time - now Deloitte & Touche) as their new Marketing Coordinator due to the networking that I was doing and partly because of my innate abilities to do research, writing, and forming and leading a CPA secretary's organization,

At Touche, I coached the partners and managers on how to network at the events that I put on for them. Newly hired marketing coordinators from our offices around the country were sent to me for training. My training abilities had begun.

I also was asked to write a chapter on how to produce seminars for a book on Marketing for Accountants published by John Wiley & Sons. This was not my first published work as I had written about my brother's motocross skills for a motocross newspaper 10 years earlier.

While at Touche, I joined Toastmasters to get back in touch with my public speaking skills and discovered I was now terrified to speak in front of a group! However, after 5 years in Toastmasters, I got my mojo back and was almost aways voted the best Table Topics presenter. That's impromptu speaking - no prep time - just get up and speak for at least 1.5 minutes on a topic you are given.

My Gypsy Career

I got the entrepreneurial bug and left Touche and that's when my speaking and training career began to take off as I first trained CPAs how to sell intangible services.

From there, I became the head of the Galleria Area Chamber of Commerce in Houston, Texas where I facilitated over 100 events as MC, was regularly interviewed on TV, and coached volunteers to network and build their businesses through their involvement in the Chamber.

I also became accredited in Public Relations which seemed right up my alley!

But the Chamber job only lasted 3 years due to my naivete of politics. I felt pretty lost after leaving as I loved heading up the Chamber and helping businesses to grow. Eventually, I got into telecom sales and my love for technology exploded as I rode the dot com boom and bust.

Through my telecom networking, I became the National Director of TechExecs and coordinated speaking events and coached CIOs across the U.S. on being panelists and speakers at our events.

Seeing how nervous and inexperienced some of the leaders were, I was inspired to take the entrepreneurial leap again to coach and train entrepreneurs and executives on how to master the art of public speaking.

I began hosting my own workshops on Mastering Public Speaking in 2011 and have been doing public speaking training, coaching, and marketing consulting ever since.

Highs & Lows = Growth

The Chamber of Commerce job seemed like it was 24/7 and it took me away from my family. And telecom sales was a stressful industry with constant deadlines and quotas to meet. Although I always gave it my all, there was a cost - my health and my family time. I was glad to leave the stress of politics and sales behind. I also wished that I had spent more time with my family instead of at work. Valuable lessons!

I say that I've had a gypsy career because I've had so many jobs, each lasting between 3-5 years. But there's been a common thread of training, speaking, marketing, writing, and technology. I've made lots of mistakes and had many successes. Mistakes are the greater teacher, but we also learn from our successes. Either way, all the highs and lows have helped me to grow.

My speaking career really came into being before I went to work for the Chamber when I would give talks on how to sell intangible services. Through all the coaching, speaking, and training, I have trained and coached hundreds of entrepreneurs, professionals, consultants, and coaches on public speaking and marketing.

When I started my public speaking coaching business, I found that I loved training and empowering experts to express themselves with confidence, relax by being their authentic selves, utilize effective engagement techniques, and strive to improve and not only be compelling but also fearless!

"Discovering what you don't like is equally if not
more important than knowing what you do like."
~Pam Terry

I discovered that being a fearless & compelling speaker takes a little bit of work and the right direction.

How will you become a fearless and compelling speaker?

With practice and step by step...start with these FREEBIES!