4-H Conference, Springfield
1996
Loosen up to Lead
Bummy
David...Basketti
Chilocothe
Roger Fox...Teen Prostitution...Selling Yourself
Today I teach speech...And I do a lot of speaking... Undoubtedly my earliest influence...giving speeches and demonstrations in my 4-H Club...Club President...President of our Pike County Federation. You are blessed to have the 4-H experience.
I’ve spent the last 25 years of my life working with teenage leaders. I love teens more than any other age group but if I had one wish for them: Loosen Up!
Watch 3rd graders get off a bus.....energy, fun...war! Watch 7th-graders: pushing, kidding, laughing...mayhem, blood Watch adults...no more pushing and shoving, but smiling and talking to each other... anxious to get on with things.... Watch 80-year-olds... nearly all smiling....friendly. slower, but happy. Watch teenagers....God..where are we now?
How long is this gonna last?
Is this gonna be boring?
Do they have anything to drink?
AND MOST OF ALL: What do they think of me? How do I look? Is something gonna happen that we can go back to school and talk about? TIGHT! UPTIGHT! NERVOUS! SELF-CONSCIOUS!
Want to know somebody’s anxieties? Look in their purse...or billfold.. Prepared for everything....Me....draft card...comb!
Want to be a leader? Simple. Be the only one in your group who is constantly afraid of looking bad, or stupid, or uncool.
Tony Campello: Kids: what they have.
Teens: what they do.
Adults: who they are. “For most teenagers, who they are depends upon who the most important people in their life think they are.”
Who are you trying to please? Hiney The Mule
Self-conscious: mind on self. Constantly conscious of yourself.
If you want to lead, get your mind off yourself. Becky Smith................ Dale Carnegie: “You will make more friends in one day by being truly interested in other people than in an entire month of trying to get other people interested in you.”
Whether getting a boyfriend, getting a job, or running for President.
I know an employer...secretly judges by the questions they ask.
(My Triopia job...totally unprepared)
Mr. Rogers
Loosen up:
Go barefoot more often
eat nothing but ice cream for an entire day
tomorrow, wear your underwear backwards
McDonnalds..”Have a Nice Day” Why?
Do some serious coloring
Ask the preacher to serve pizza at the next communion.
Biggest grouch in your school “I Just want you to know that I feel
great!”
Walk into a school board meeting.....Ask to be heard. Politely ask that the school spend as much to teach reading as they do basketball then walk out.
Jeff W... free spirit....robbed
Jeff Stephens...sings...terrible
Walmart singer
Church lady
Roger Ebert
And finally....if you would be a leaderYou’ve got to get to know people...not just the people you’re leading but everyone...what makes them tick.
There are people in this room that you would absolutely love if you’d just get to know them. Events like this: Goal: get to know each other, then no time allowed to do it.
So Let’s do it. Here. Let me show you how it’s done.
Stand up....month of birth. (say Hi)
Live on a farm.
Cannot stand anchovies
sleeps in only their underwear
Used to take one large step into bed
Used to cover up all but a place to breathe
Is scared to death of college
Has ever faked being sick so you wouldn’t have to go to school
Is getting out of the class you hate the most right now
Wearing red underwear...blue, green, grey, pink, purple, white
End: Somewhere in this room there’s somebody who’d love to get to know you. What’s stopping you? One of the most precious things you have is your friends. What’s stopping you from getting more? The world needs you so badly...it needs you to lead it....Loosen up, be yourself, so you can be great. What’s stopping you?