An Interview With Fotis Georgiadis
You need to learn to accept constructive criticism. No one is perfect and there is always room for improvement. In Toastmasters there are speech evaluators so that even some of the best speakers can improve their speaking abilities. With that said learn to accept positive feedback on how to become a better speaker.
At some point in our lives, many of us will have to give a talk to a large group of people. What does it take to be a highly effective public speaker? How can you improve your public speaking skills? How can you overcome a fear of speaking in public? What does it take to give a very interesting and engaging public talk? In this interview series called “5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker” we are talking to successful and effective public speakers to share insights and stories from their experience. As a part of this series, we had the pleasure of interviewing Marcos M.
Marcos is a public service worker by day and is a blogger by night. His blog is Men Who Brunch which his a black gay lifestyle blog that discusses celebrities and entertainment news. Marcos is all about community service as and has demonstrated this through while feeding food to the homeless and donating clothes.
Thank you so much for doing this with us! Our readers would love to get to know you a bit better. Can you tell us the story of how you grew up?
I came from one of the roughest neighborhoods in the East Coast. So dangerous, that even a lot of the females are rough. Fortunately, two loving parents raised me. I grew up as inquisitive, shy child. I love to read and always imagined myself living in a fancy home.
Can you share a story with us about what brought you to this specific career path?’
What inspired my career path is the environment I was born in. I remember looking out my project window and seeing a bleeding body after a shooting. Since that time I’ve wanted to work in a field helping other people in impoverished communities.
Can you tell us the most interesting story that happened to you since you began your career?
One of the most interesting story in my career is when my team and I were searching for a perpetrator who went missing. We went to the perpetrator’s home and didn’t see him. As we drove from his home we seen another perpetrator who shouldn’t have been in the location he was in.
Can you share a story about the funniest mistake you made when you were first starting? Can you tell us what lesson you learned from that?
The funniest mistake I made when I first started my career was when I was late for training when I first started my job and actually paid about $800 for a cab ride. I learned to be on time.
None of us are able to achieve success without some help along the way. Is there a particular person who you are grateful towards who helped get you to where you are? Can you share a story about that?
One of the persons that I am most grateful for is my mother. My mother came from a foreign country and underwent extreme poverty. She told me that she came her as a young teenager without being formally taught any English. Despite this circumstance she graduated high school and even went to college. Her story inspired me to stay in school and obtain my bachelor’s degree.
You have been blessed with great success in a career path that can be challenging and intimidating. Do you have any words of advice for others who may want to embark on this career path, but seem daunted by the prospect of failure?
My advice is to believe in yourself and get a mentor. You can not achieve anything on your own so it’s best to get help with a successful person in the field you’re in.
What drives you to get up everyday and give your talks? What is the main empowering message that you aim to share with the world?
What drives me up to get everyday is hopefully touching other black men so that they can live better lives. The main empowering message that I want to share with the world is to be accountable and take control of your life.
You have such impressive work. What are some of the most interesting or exciting projects you are working on now? Where do you see yourself heading from here?
Right now, I’m building my traffic on my blog, Men Who Brunch. Once I have massive traffic on my blog I plan to monetize my blog through ad networks and affiliate programs.
Can you please give us your favorite “Life Lesson Quote”? Can you share how that was relevant to you in your life?
My favorite “Life Lesson Quote” is to take personal accountability for your failures in life. This was relevant because when I delivered bad speeches is because I wasn’t prepared and didn’t reach out to people for help when I should’ve.
Ok, thank you for all that. Here is the main question of our interview. What are your “5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker?” Please share a story or example for each.
On thing you need to be a highly effective public speaker is consistency. In anything you practice you must be consistent in order to improve and get good results. When I first started Toastmasters in 2006 I was pretty horrible. I stumbled on pretty much every other word during a 4 to 6 minute speech in front of only about people. Years, later I spoke in front of a group of 30 people and spoke fluently and confidently.
Second, you need to learn to accept constructive criticism. No one is perfect and there is always room for improvement. In Toastmasters there are speech evaluators so that even some of the best speakers can improve their speaking abilities. With that said learn to accept positive feedback on how to become a better speaker.
Third, you should be committed. I first joined Toastmasters as a college undergraduate. I completely bombed my first speech and didn’t really improve until like my 7th and 8th speech. I became better just by showing up to Toastmasters meetings and signing up for speaking roles.
Fourth, learn from other great speakers. I went to a Toastmasters club in Queens where I met with a traveling speaker. She was very rough on the edges but she has helped me tremendously in becoming a better speaker.
Fifth, have fun while speaking. Speaking shouldn’t feel like a routine job. You should feel excited and show your personality when you speak on certain topics. I recently gave a speech on toxic relationships and it appeared that people loved it since I spoke with excitement and enthusiasm.
As you know, many people are terrified of speaking in public. Can you give some of your advice about how to overcome this fear?
To overcome your fear of public speaking I would suggest you to join Toastmasters. It is the largest non profit public speaking organization in the world. I’ve benefited so much from it. If I can speak in public then anyone can.
You are a person of huge influence. If you could inspire a movement that would bring the most amount of good to the most amount of people, what would that be?
I would inspire a movement of mental health therapy for men. A lot of men, especially men of color, suffer from mental health issues that they never fully resolve because they are scared to go to therapy. I want therapy to become much less of a stigma for men.
Is there a person in the world whom you would love to have lunch with, and why? Maybe we can tag them and see what happens!
I would love to have lunch with Oprah Winfrey because she appears to care for humanity. She created a school in Africa to encourage girls to go to college.
Are you on social media? How can our readers follow you online?
Yes I’m on social media. You can find me on my website, themenwhobrunch.com
This was so informative, thank you so much! We wish you continued success!
Marcos M Of Men Who Brunch On 5 Things You Need To Be A Highly Effective Public Speaker was originally published in Authority Magazine on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.
