Meeting Theme: Motivation

Motivation: What Puts People In High Gear?

It may not be what you think

Meeting Theme: Motivation

A company hired a writer to boost its online visibility, but no one there had ever worked with a writer before. On the writer’s first day, his manager pointed to a work station and said, in effect, “Go to it.”

Without instructions or deadlines, the writer was free to add articles to the company’s website. He chose all his own topics and photos and made his own decisions on story length, tone, headlines and subjects to interview.

The result? In a year, the website’s readership went from zero to half a million. In the next six months, the website rose to the number one position in its field as the result of an online search on the web.

Later, a law firm made him an offer to double his salary. He took the job, but soon came to realize the new firm’s methods allowed much less creative freedom. Whenever the writer penned an article, one of the law partners would pull up a chair next to his and go over the copy, line by line, dictating things like paragraph length and photo selection. After two days at the firm, the writer quit and asked for his old job back.

What forces brought the first website to the top of its industry? And what forces drove the writer away from the law firm with its fat paycheck? If money doesn’t float everyone’s boat, then what is it that motivates people to do their best?

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Meeting Theme: Nonverbal Communication

Gestures: Your Body Speaks

When you present a speech, you send two kinds of messages to your audience. While your voice transmits a verbal message, a vast amount of information is being visually conveyed by your appearance, your manner, and your physical behavior.

Research shows that more than half of all human communication takes place nonverbally. When you speak before a group, your listeners base their judgment of you and your message on what they see as well as upon what they hear.

In public speaking, your body can be an effective tool for adding emphasis and clarity to your words. It’s also your most powerful instrument for convincing an audience of your sincerity, earnestness, and enthusiasm.

However, if your physical actions are distracting or suggest meanings that do not agree with your verbal message, your body can defeat your words. Whether your purpose is to inform, persuade, entertain, motivate, or inspire, your body and the personality you project must be appropriate to what you say.

To become an effective speaker, you must understand how your body speaks. You can’t stop sending your audience nonverbal messages, but you can learn to manage and control them.

At our next meeting, we will focus on our nonverbal communication. Before the meeting, try to see how your nonverbal communication supports or defeats the goal of what you are trying to say or share with someone. Some tips to be conscious of before the meeting are:

• Keep your hands out of your pockets – it encourages slouching.
• Don’t look down at the ground – it looks like you are trying to hide something.
• Use your hands appropriately – they should be active, but not distracting.
• Know your facial expressions – they should match the tone of what you are sharing.

JIA Meeting – New Day, New Location

JIA Toastmasters will not be meeting today (Thursday), as we are trying a new date and location to provide greater opportunity for our members and guests to attend.

Our new meeting day is on the 1st and 3rd TUESDAYS, still from 6:30pm to 8pm.

Our new meeting location is as follows:

Owens Corning
1035 Talleyrand Avenue
Jacksonville, FL 32206
(Follow Posted Signs)

We hope this new day and location will be helpful to those of you who have found it difficult to attend on Thursdays. Another notice and RSVP request will be sent as a reminder for our first meeting at the new location, scheduled for THIS Tuesday, February 2nd.

If you have any questions, please submit them to contact-3862@toastmastersclubs.org.