Our First Rodeo

Posted by Gabe on September 6, 2011 under Kids are Heroes | Be the First to Comment

In the three years we have been involved with Kids Are Heroes, both MaryMargaret and I have been asked to speak at relatively small venues from time to time. Now both of us have been asked to speak at a large one. Richmond Unite is a non-profit out of Richmond, Virginia whose sole purpose for existing is to raise money for other deserving charities. As it turns out, one of their board members is a friend of Sir Richard Branson, a business mogul and someone that we have mentioned several times in our past. Besides being one of the catalysts for the genesis of Kids Are Heroes, we also were one of the winners of his PitchTV contest in 2009. So in order to assist with a big event Richmond Unite was planning, they invited Sir Richard to be the headliner for the event. Now when when our Twitter friend Fiona (@BetterEdit) got wind of this, (knowing our connection to Branson) she asked us if we were coming to Richmond. This was the first I had heard of it. After looking at the event and realizing the fundraiser was for local children’s charities, I thought this was a perfect opportunity for us to be there. Luckily for us, the organizers of the event felt the same way so they asked us to speak at the conference.

Now although I had spoken in front of an audience of 5000 way back in 1993, it has been a long time and I must say I am not a professional speaker (yet). However if there is a chance it will advance our mission then we are “all in” to do it. Plus it will be a great opportunity for MaryMargaret. Thinking back to 1993 I remember giving up a family reunion at Easter time to practice for the speech. I don’t regret it because it did come off rather smoothly. So I knew that we were both in line for a LOT of practice. But that wasn’t enough. After all we’re included in a list of established and esteemed speakers such as Mark Victor Hansen, one of the creators of the “Chicken Soup” series. I thought our interests would be best served if we had some help — some coaching from someone I really respected.

I had met Mike Boyd at a local toastmaster’s meeting. He is the president of the local chapter. I just happened to run into him again as he was coaching a young girl who taught a public speaking class to youngsters. This was the guy I needed to talk to. Even though we met only briefly twice, when it comes to Kids Are Heroes I can’t be shy so I told him, “Mike, we need help and we can’t afford to pay you. Feel free to tell me to go climb a tree but I have to at least ask.” Well I was amazed at his response. He quickly started thinking of ways he could help. He teaches at a local community college so the first thing he did was offer his class as  a venue for a dry run. We did two in fact. He even gave out evaluation sheets and had the students evaluate us after the presentation. They gave us unbiased constructive criticism. We discussed the strong and weak points. After each set of evaluations we tweaked our presentation accordingly. To top that, this past weekend Mike invited us to a venue where we could practice our speech and get his critical comments one on one. There were extremely valuable to us. He even suggested we film ourselves so we could see for ourselves how we were doing. That turned out to be a key suggestion because when I watched myself back on tape I realized my part of it was rather bland. I had to take things up a notch.

Mike even offered us a third class we could speak to as our final “test”. I cannot say enough how much all of this has helped us and how lucky we are to have received his help and expertise. I would highly recommend Mike as a speech coach to anyone who would need it. Please see his schedule at the bottom of this post for upcoming “Communicator” classes he is offering to middle and high schoolers. MaryMargaret is indeed enrolled in the class starting next week.

The event is the #DSRPT11 Conference on Friday, September 9, 2011 at the Grand Ballroom of the Richmond Convention Center. If you are local to Richmond I hope you can come and say hello after our presentation. But go easy on us. After all, this IS our first rodeo.

Mike Boyd
Center for Empowered Communication
Session I begins 9/13/11 from 3:30-5pm
Session II begins 9/28/11 from 3:30-5pm
Sessions to be held at
Mt St Mary’s University Annex
5350 Spectrum Dr
Frederick MD
Call Mike at 301.524.0240

Plans for 2010?

Posted by Gabe on December 14, 2009 under Kids are Heroes | 2 Comments to Read

This morning when I checked my Twitter feed I came across a particularly interesting question from my friend Eri. She asked me “What is your exciting plan for next year?”

Wow. What a great question. It’s not as if I haven’t thought about it, it’s just that noone has ever asked me that question before.  I know that when you write things down more ideas come flowing out, so I decided to write a blog post about it.

Kids Are Heroes began in March of 2008, so we are just finishing up our second year.  During that time we have featured close to 100 kids, had two Kids Are Heroes Days and been on Virgin Atlantic planes for one month, thanks to Sir Richard Branson.  We have also created our first major project where we plan to involve kids from all over.  I am happy with our progress, especially since we have become involved with social media.  But at the moment we are still very small with big plans.

It is hard to develop exact timetables, especially when I know that there are so many unknowns.  A lot of what we do will depend on what kind of financial help we can get.  We are lucky to have a few business partners who support us but I would sure love to get a bunch more. :)  Having said that plans are meant to be flexible, so let me at least speak to what we would like to do.

• Drill our first well with the help of kids out there who don’t have their own project.  We still want to encourage kids to follow their own passions, but also want to offer an alternative.  This will be done through Project KAH2O.
• Develop other projects so kids can select among them.
• Secure our 501c3 status.
• Finish our business plan (will it ever be finished?).
• Provide funding for more kids to attend Kids Are Heroes Day in October.
• Feature at least 150 more kids.
• Start to provide web site development to help jump-start kids’ projects.
• Develop materials that can be sent to schools. This will include a video (already produced) explaining what we do at Kids Are Heroes along with added resources.
• Achieve mentions in several national media outlets.
• Start to travel the country to spead the word.

We have felt from the beginning that Kids Are Heroes is something that works in every community and hope it will eventually become a household word.  Just the other night my 11-year-old daughter MaryMargaret received an email from a 12-year-old girl named Lily. She is just getting started in her project to “help the world in its desperate struggle to stop the pollution and clean up our mess.”  She noted that MaryMargaret “had some experience” and could she “give me some advice”.  This is another role we really hope to develop — to help nurture kids’ ideas and help them maintain their focus so they can follow through with their projects. You bet we are following up with Lily and watching her progress.

So, I welcome the next year and hope we can indeed accomplish many of those things.  One thing I am sure of, we will certainly be writing about it along the way!