Transformational power exists within each and every one of us. By unlocking the opportunities that are literally around us, we can seek out the embodiment of this transformation. All it takes is one person to see that within you. Today's guest, Charles Gates, kicks off our recognition of Toastmasters that have made a substantial influence in society as a whole by sharing his unique business perspectives that he has grown from an early age, and how Toastmasters has engaged him with people who want to keep swimming and keep being a team player to a whole new level. His story shows how anyone has the potential to do either one of these things!

Guest Bio

Charles is a high energy, sought after speech coach and speaker, who helps his clients and audiences “Bring the Zing” into their presentations. He believes your delivery is just as important as your content. Fun, infotaining and never boring, is the expectation, whether teaching presentation skills, networking or fundamental leadership principles. The first in his Bring the Zing ebook series, “Five Keys to Powerful Presentations, Briefings and Meetings” is available on Amazon. The next two are due to be released by mid-year 2024.

Website: https://www.CharlesGatesLeadership.com

• Toastmasters International -Home (https://www.toastmasters.org) - Join a local Toastmasters club today by checking out what this nearly century old organization has been able to do to so many talented individuals! Click the "Find A Club" button to locate the closest club to you today!

Visit Our Website: https://speaking-from-the-heart.captivate.fm/

Visit Our Business Website: https://www.yourspeakingvoice.biz

Support The Mission Of The Business! Donate Here: https://speaking-from-the-heart.captivate.fm/support

Intro/Outro By: Michael Dugan, Podcast Host: Voice4Chefs

Welcome to the podcast where relationships, confidence, and

determination, all converge into an amazing, heartfelt experience.

This is Speaking From The Heart.

Welcome back to a special episode of Speaking From The Heart.

Episode 51 features yet another Toastmaster, in which in the month of

November, we are featuring Toastmasters that have made a positive contribution to

society as a whole and for those that are interested in checking out Toastmasters,

I'll leave a link in the episode notes in which you can go and visit your own

local Toastmasters club, and to be real and to be transparent, I would never be

doing this, let alone my business, if it wasn't a result of not only Toastmasters

International, let alone the Toastmasters that have come in my life and helped

me become the best version of myself.

Today, we will have Charles Gates, and Charles is a high energy, sought

after speech coach and also a speaker, and he helps his clients and audiences

"bring the zing" to their presentations.

He believes your delivery is just as important as your content, and usually

with his presentations, they are fun, "infotaining", and never boring

as the exception, whether teaching, presentation, skills, networking, or

even fundamental leadership principles.

We will talk about in this episode too about some of his books that he's started

to write, including the Bring the Zing ebook series, in which the five Keys

Briefings and Meetings, is already available on

Amazon, and a second book in which we will talk about later on in this episode.

Now I have to tell you that Charles and I go back many years in which he

was one of those leaders of mentors that I had in my life that inspired

me, and you will definitely hear in this episode, the fun, creative aspects

of which he has started his journey, and what was really interesting about

all of this was the way in which his mindset can be something that rolls into

even our own daily lives as a whole.

But with that, let's go to the episode.

All right.

We're here with Charles Gates.

Charles, thanks for sharing your heart with us today.

Josh, I am so happy to be here.

I am so happy that you are here and, we were literally just talking

about this before we started, that it's been a few years since I really had the

opportunity to interact with you face to face, even through a recording, and

I enjoy all the times that you have mentored me and been able to help me

in not only my Toastmaster's journey, but in so many different people's

Toastmaster's journeys and even beyond, which we'll get into but I really

appreciate you taking some time today.

Charles, I want to talk about first, what got you into the realm of

coaching and wanting to speak in front of people, because a lot of people

would probably say, " That's crazy.

I can't believe you would do that for a living.

I will never get on the stage."

Glossophobia, right, but I'm wondering if you could talk about how you

got yourself started with that.

Well, you know what, it goes back to a trip I made from New Jersey, I'm from

Jersey, down to Suffolk, Virginia; I-95.

You can imagine during the daytime, it took forever and a day to

get from one point to the next.

While I was driving, I was listening to an episode of Rich Dad, poor Dad, Robert

Kiyosaki's fantastic episodes, and as I'm listening to this, he knew he wanted

to be a self-made millionaire, but had a challenge with speaking to other people.

He knew that was a challenge, so he sought help.

Similar to Warren Buffet seeking help in Perfect speaking cuz

they knew it was so important.

As I drove, I hear him mention Toastmasters.

Toastmasters, what's that?

Now I'm hoping there's no cops listening to this because as I was

driving, I was also writing, so one hand on the wheel, the other hand

on my pen and my pad writing away Toastmasters, so I get home to Suffolk,

Virginia, and I visited a Toastmaster club and immediately I was hooked.

Not the fact that I wanted to become a professional speaker or coach

or anything like that, but I've always been a community activist.

Ever since I've been an adult, I've always been involved in a community talking

to school board meetings, talking to board of supervisors, talking to city

council, and I knew I could be better.

Let me rephrase that.

I knew I could be even better, and when I walked in the Toastmaster

Club, they brought some things out that I hadn't really thought

about before, such as crutch words.

Now, I've never had an issue with, uh, ums.

Those, those, the, the typical crutch words.

I realized through evaluations that my crutch word was a word right.

R I G H T.

Da da da.

Right, right.

Mm-hmm.

Right, until they told me, I had no idea.

When I joined Toastmasters.

I was giving speeches and people were just telling me over and over,

Charles, you're pretty good at this.

You're pretty good at this.

People were asking me to do conferences.

They were asking me to do TLIs, the trainings and all of these things,

and eventually I said, "You know what?

Why don't I get paid for this stuff?

I'm doing it all the time anyway.", so I put my foot out there, jumped into

the deep end, got paid for it, and then people were saying, "Well, Charles,

Could you teach me how to do this?

Could you teach me how to speak this?

Could you teach me how to gesture and move with a purpose?"

Hmm.

Hadn't thought about it.

Why don't I get paid for it?

So that's really how I got started speaking and coaching.

I'm curious because I have seen you many times speak in front of

audiences, whether they are local to where I was serving in District 38 as the Club

Growth and even Program Quality Director was actually when we first met, but I've

seen you in front of even bigger audiences and it seems like you come alive when

you have that interaction with people.

Is that something that you just have deep down inside of you?

Is it something that you've muster, you kind of mentally prepare yourself

for when it comes to that energy level?

What is it that drives you to just have that excitement

with the audience as a whole?

You know what it is?

I like helping people.

Mm.

I think I was put on this earth to help others.

That is my legacy.

That is my destiny, and let me tell you Josh, when I get

up on a stage, I light up.

I light up even during the drive there, the train ride there, the plane

ride there, the walking to the venue.

I am so excited.

I feel like a kid on his way to Toys R Us.

I know Toys R Us aren't around us anymore, but I'm hoping your

listeners know what that is.

I just light up, and you know what?

I've always been that way.

I've always been there, even as a kid doing oral presentations in school.

Most of the kids were reserved and, "Oh no no.

Don't pick me."

I couldn't wait till they picked me.

"Pick me, pick me!", and they would often not pick me because,

"Charles, put your hand down.

Put your hand down.

Your hand's always up, we're tired of listening to you.",

but that's the edited version.

I love it and I like to make an impact on people, and I don't call

myself a professional speaker.

I call myself a transformational speaker because I want people to think differently

once they finish hearing whatever I have to say, whether it's in a community

or whether it's a paid presentation.

With that said, Is there somebody in your life growing up that has made

you feel like you want to help people, because like you said, you literally

enjoy having that and giving that opportunity to be transformational is

something of a complete realm itself, which I have seen both Toastmasters, non

Toastmasters, do that, but I'm wondering if there was an influence in your life

that propelled you into that direction, or maybe there was a life event.

Do you mind sharing?

Well, you know what?

The simple answer is that I pondered over this question often.

There is no one person, there is no one person.

That was so inspirational to me in my lifetime to say, "I want to

do this, or I want to do that."

There wasn't the person and it really wasn't an event.

However, as I think about it, when I am serving in the community, because

I've always been deeply involved in the community from a political perspective

to nonprofits and all points in between, but when I am speaking to people, I

noticed very early in my adult life, even when I was in Marine Corps, I realized

that when I spoke, people listened.

Even those that were higher ranking than me, they listened to what I had to

say, and not only that, they acted on my recommendation and my advice, so those

experiences, and people just telling me that, "Charles, we believe in you.

We believe in what you're talking about.

Why do you think that way?", and I would always think, "Why do I think that way?",

and I would come up with an answer pretty quickly in my head, and I was always able

to articulate that pretty much immediately upon being asked that question.

I know what you're saying, because for me, for the longest time, and you

know this a little bit about me, working over 13 years in the Commonwealth of

Pennsylvania in a variety of different jobs, it was really about, "Yeah, I know

the answer to that, but I really just want you to figure that out for yourself

and get a little bit of that energy of what I do in terms of my interests, my

curiosity", but, it's public service.

You're never going to get a public servant to really motivate themselves unless you

find those good eggs, which you definitely do, but for me, I know what you're mean

when you're saying that because I think those are the influences of really getting

to the basis of what the human abilities are, or the condition of what people

can ultimately achieve, and speaking of that, you said about serving in the

nonprofit or in the community as a whole.

Well, not going into too much detail, what are some of the general things

that you have done that have helped the community, because I know that you

said you grew up in New Jersey, but I understand you live in the Virginia

area, so do you mind explaining a little bit that for our audience?

Sure.

Well, I will tell you, when I was growing up in New Jersey, I was not encouraged

to be involved with the community.

It's unfortunate, but I just wasn't.

I was just a city kid.

I did what city kids do.

I was hanging out on the street.

I just did what city kids do.

It wasn't until we were stationed; my wife did 20 years in the Army, by the way.

Oh.

We were stationed in Fort Meade, Maryland, and I had my first

opportunity to coach a little league team.

It was a softball team, nine and 10 year old girls.

I have two daughters, so those girls were coached by me and others, and I

really wasn't volunteering to do it.

I was almost voluntold by default because no one else stood up to the plate.

I've always played baseball.

I've always been a sports kind of guy.

I know the rules.

I know the fundamentals of the sport, and I know I can teach them to others,

and I have the kind of demeanor that kids and adults not only gravitate

to, but they're comfortable with me.

I speak to them, I laugh and joke with them, so the community standpoint,

the community activism part from, you know, I had to think about that.

It really started from coaching back in the mid to late eighties and it

was a softball team and I did that for years and years and years, and it

just gravitated to everything else.

It just gravitated to everything else and most recently, it's going

to be in the political forum.

I'm working with a few organizations to bring on.

Here in Virginia, we have local elections, many local elections:

senator, delegate, these type of things.

In November, we are hosting and facilitating a series of local political

candidate forums in the Williamsburg, Virginia area; Williamsburg, York

County, James City County, so that the people in our community can be

well informed, so when they go to the ballots, they're not only recognize

the name in the ballot box, they'll understand what that person's position is.

From a recent standpoint, that would probably be the biggest accomplishment

as in I do things pretty much every other month in the community: lunch

and learns, Juneteenth events.

Just getting people together and teaching people something that's

going on in the community to make not only them better, but to make

the community better as a whole.

I love that because for some people it's about, "Well, I want

something in exchange for something else", which as business owners, I

mean for myself, I might be speaking more of, but I'm also thinking about

your coaching business too, Charles, we definitely want to get our value, right?

We want to be able to pay.

We need to be able to live, be able to feed ourselves, take care of our families,

and all that, but I've been constantly reminded by some of my other guests about

the importance of those relationships, so being able to form those, and yes,

that might mean giving a little bit of yourself, and as one guest I've had who's

a sales trainer specifically has said to me, It's about sacrificing a little

bit of ourselves and that might not mean we live as long, but we're giving of

ourselves literally, and I think that sometimes doing that though opens up

those doors of opportunity for being able to hear and experience that with other

people, and I love that, because I feel that connection from what you just said,

especially as I sit here and look at you, you're pondering and thought, "Yeah.

I did make an influence with those kids and adults, and I just love it that your

eyes light up to that because going into your speaking business, which I want to

talk about quite a bit, is your speaking style more of not just the transformation

side, but really sending a message out?

In other words, being more informational, making it tangible

for the audience to grasp?

What do you typically do to help entice those audiences as a whole

is really my question I'm asking.

Well, I would tell you, I take pretty much the Darren

LaCroix approach to speaking.

If I'm going to speak at a venue, let's say on a Saturday, I will get there

no later than Friday, and not just to get there early to go into hotel and

relax, but I want to meet the people who are going to be at the venue.

I want to meet them at the bar.

I want to have a drink with them.

What's going on in their lives?

How are you doing mentally?

Professionally?

Personally?

I really like to get to know people, and not just from a face,

not just to talk to them, to say, "Okay, well I know this guy."

I am an advocate of really building deep, deep, deep relationships

and let me give you an example.

I went to a conference, a Toastmaster conference, not too long ago.

It was in April; went to a Toastmaster conference there, and I hadn't been

to this area in a long time; years, and I gave this one speech when I was

there, and when I walked through the hotel lobby, years later, a person who

I didn't even know comes up to me and says, "Charles, I'm still swimming."

Years later now, this is three, five years later.

As you know, I used to have a speech called Just Keep Swimming.

Yep, I remember that.

Meaning if there's trouble happening in your lives or there's

obstacles, if there's things holding your back, just keep swimming.

In other words, just keep going.

It'll get better.

Through the hard times, will get better if you just keep swimming.

Don't give up, and this young lady came up to me and says,

"Charles, I'm still swimming."

Now, first of all, I'm saying to myself, "Who are you?"

And where's the closest pool?

I don't see a pool around here.

But you know what?

I knew exactly what she was speaking of, and that type of impact to

me; again, I still get emails.

I still get text messages out of the blue.

"Charles, I'm still swimming."

I don't even know half these people, but they remember the message.

They remember the message, and for me, the message in speaking is

more important than anything else.

I've seen really good speakers out there who are peppered with the uhs and ums,

but their message is so crystal clear and it's so relevant that it makes you

say, "I can do that", and when you, as a speaker, regardless of what level

you're speaking on, when you speak, and I'm going to tell you that Josh, that's

always my goal for the audience to say to themselves: "I can do that", and

I'm not talking about next week, next month, next year, or next millennium.

I'm talking about right now with what I'm sharing with you.

I want you to walk out the door in your next conversation, see if you

can weave these teachings or these principles into your next conversation.

That to me, is the epitome of success, at least for me.

I have to tell you, the statement that runs through my head every time that

you have shared with so many people during the time that I knew you really, really

well and we had more frequent conversation is, "Toastmasters is a team sport."

That's right.

And that sport part just reverberates in my head back and forth

and the team more particularly, but I never understood the origins of it until

you talked about your coaching with the young women, and now it all made sense

and I've been wanting to ask you for four years, even more than four years,

and I'm glad that I finally was able to put two and two together to make that

happen, so I feel really privileged, because I wasn't one of those people

that texted to say, "Oh, Charles, I'm still a team player in Toastmasters."

As a matter of, I don't know if you remember this, but I did email

you because when I was running for District Director in District 38,

in 2022, I said, "Hey, I want to use this statement and reference you.

Is that okay?", because we had to get permission and have that

down and you said, "Absolutely.

Go for it."

I'm glad that you still remember that after all this time, I'm like, yeah.

Unfortunately I lost, but that doesn't matter.

I got to use it, and that's what counted the most.

I remember.

Yes.

I remember.

Yeah.

That's what counts the most.

Mm-hmm.

With that said though, because you were just mentioning the fact that

these people just out of the blue, are texting you, saying, "Yeah, I'm swimming

yet", or, "Yeah, I'm still a team player."

I'm one of those people.

I would've been one of them, but I'm glad I forgot your number for

a little bit because I probably would've been texting you every day.

I'm still believe in that, because I definitely would've probably been a

stalker and I didn't want to do that to you, but with all that, with that

said, do you feel that you make an impact on this world, because sometimes,

yeah, I can say that I'm successful because these people respond back to me.

I obviously had a very effective message, but, do you have any self-doubt, or

does that empower you and you share that as part of your testimony to

other audiences to kind of say this is what the power of your words can be.

What does that represent for you when you hear those sort of responses from people?

Well, I will tell you, Josh, full disclosure, those words I live my life by.

I share with my kids and I share with anyone that is willing to listen to me.

Don't just live.

Live to make a difference.

Not sometimes, but every single day.

It doesn't have to be monumental.

You don't have to change the world, but if you can change one person's

perspective, that to me is successful because I look at it like this,

and let me give you an example.

There's a young lady in Toastmasters, she joined about 10 years ago, about 2012.

She was a nervous wreck.

Matter in fact, when she made her very first presentation, her icebreaker speech,

which is the first speech, for those of you who don't know, she was crying

profusely and shaking so hard, we thought she was going to pass out, but I will

tell you, I happened to be there when she first did that speech, and it was painful

to watch, but we were so proud of her, of the fact that she did what she did.

Fast forward.

My District Director year, I went to her and said, I'm not going to

mention her name, but I went to her and said, I'm just going to use the

name Jane, for example purposes.

I said, "Jane, you have what it takes to change the world.

I was there when you did your icebreaker speech.

You and I have built a relationship over the years, and now I am

giving you the ultimate challenge.

I want you to be a district leader on my team.

Why?

Because you have what it takes, and I'm going to challenge you and

push you to be the best version of you you can possibly be this year."

Josh, let me tell you something.

She went from a budding cocoon at the beginning of that year,

to a blossoming butterfly.

Mm.

Not even by the end of the year, by April.

Now, of course, our year is from July 1st to June 30th.

By April that year, she was killing it.

I mean, she was so confident in her ability to change people's perspectives,

change people's lives, and build that confidence using her own story to do so.

The answer to your question, I believe that we all are put on this

earth for a reason, and my reason for existing on planet Earth in

2023 is to change people's lives.

I wholehearted believe that I was put on this earth to really make an

impact in people's lives, and what I've found is when you touch one,

they are going to touch others, and they are going to touch others, so

it's almost like a domino effect, and again, there's nothing in it for me.

I'm not in it for the bright lights and the fancy cars and all that.

I simply like to touch people from where they are, and when you do that, I believe

when your last days come, I am going to be able to rest in peace knowing that I

made an impact on hundreds of people that I may never even have met before, but

listening to my words change their lives.

That's a multiplication effect in itself.

It's almost as a effective advertising campaign done by word of mouth can be

so much more effective than saying, "Oh, I'm going to go on Facebook, put

up this pretty nice graphic and have this wonderfully written advertisement

that people are going to watch and I'm gonna pay a hundred dollars to make

sure it goes all around this area."

that is how this whole world works.

It has to be sequential and built together.

Mm-hmm.

And that, what you just shared about Jane and even some of the things

that have happened, even with other people, is really how this works.

Mm-hmm.

And it is about having that authentic connection, and it isn't

just somebody coming off the street and saying, "Oh, I feel like I can connect

with you.", because if I said, "Oh Charles, I can connect with you", you'd

be like, "What's your motivation here?

Are you trying to get some money out of me?", because it's all about really

having that right mindset, which is some people, it's really tough and I work

with even clients for that matter that are really trying to challenge those

thoughts about themselves and others, but I want to talk a little bit about

the book series that you started doing, and I know this is part of Bringing The

Zing, so I was wondering if you want to talk about Bringing The Zing with us,

along with some of the books that are coming out here, or actually already a

few of them have been out, so do you mind sharing some of that for the audience?

The first series in the Bring the Zing series is called "Five Keys to

Briefings For Those In The Military and Meetings".

The reason I came up with that, believe it or not, I was always wanting to

write something; something that was gonna be written to impact people.

I was staying at my daughter's house in Maryland.

As I was sleeping, this thought just came to my mind and I always keep

a pad and paper somewhere around.

I didn't have one at the time, but I had a pen and a napkin; a

white napkin that I still have, and these five Ts came to my head.

I said, "Wow", in order, and the first key, since you mentioned it, was mindset,

because if you don't have the right mindset, it is going to be challenging

for you to do anything positive in your life or in the lives of others,

and it's Bring The Zing because I see so many Toastmasters and so many

even professional speakers that just don't do it for me, and I'm saying

myself, "Man, where's the Zing in that?

Give me the badda bing badda boom.

Where's that ooophm?

You're boring me.", because to me, there's nothing worse than a boring speaker.

If you're going to be boring, write it in an email, send it in a memo, and

just let me look at it at my leisure, because if I'm going to spend my time

listening to someone, I want them to, at least, if you're not going to infotain

me, at least make it interesting enough where I want to listen to you, so that's

where the Bring the Zing came from.

I was looking for, and everything I do, I do with the help of my family

and I came up with a few different titles and Bring The Zing was one of

them, and they said, "Bring The Zing", because I'm a big fan of Sam Horn and

Sam Horn, in her book, she talks about making her, and Craig Valentine, they

talk about making your tagline, if you will, rhythmic where people will

remember, I mean think about commercials, if you think of " Nationwide is..."

most people can finish the end of that sentence.

Is on your side.

That's right.

I said, "Bring The Zing."

Oh, it rhymes.

If I go out and say it often enough, people are going to remember that.

They might not remember everything I talked about, but they're going to

remember the premise, Bring The Zing, so to Bring The Zing is and the popularity

of the first book, I got speaking engagements and all these things off

it, and people asking me, "What else?

What's next?"

Hmm.

I hadn't thought about it, but since you mentioned it.

Hmm.

Keys To Effective Networking", because I go to

so many events and people just don't know what to do when they go to a professional

event and they don't know anyone.

If they know someone, it's a little different, but even then, people tend

to find people that they already know; people they haven't seen in a while,

and they sit with them throughout the entire conference for the entire

weekend and never meet anyone new.

You go to a chamber meeting or BNI, or something like that, and they just don't

know what to do, so I said, you know what?

I'm good at it.

I am a networking guru.

You can put me in a room with a hundred people.

Give me five minutes.

Chances are, I'll know all of them.

Hands down, I have seen Charles do this not only in the United States,

but I literally had seen him in Paris, France, in another country, doing this.

I, hands down, have seen you effectively do that.

You walk that talk.

I was going to say that when you were talking about a napkin, I am literally

holding up for the audience a napkin that I have written down some things with a

friend about some ideas of things that I want to essentially work on for myself and

some people that relate to, not only PTSD, but there was just some conversations

that we had, and I literally wrote down some thoughts too and some of the best

things that we do are not only with a pen and paper, but a pen and napkin.

That's right.

Or a marker that's a napkin in this situation, so I wanted to make that

comment, but I'm sorry I interrupted you.

Go ahead and finish your thought.

No, you're okay.

You're okay, so my second one is networking, and then the third in the

Bring The Zing, I haven't quite boil it down, but it's going to be something about

leadership, because in my opinion, most leaders in this world are not leaders, in

my opinion, they're simply title holders.

Mm-hmm.

Because if you cannot motivate, if you cannot inspire, if

you cannot bring people up behind you, you are simply a figurehead.

Now, I get beat up with that comment all the time, but you know what?

I'm good with it.

I tell it like it is.

If you don't like it, maybe I'm talking about you, but leadership is about

influencing other people to be the best versions of themselves they can possibly

be, and if you are not doing that, and you call yourself a leader, I think

it's time to look in the mirror and rethink how you approach people, because

it's all about building relationships and building people up to be the best

versions of themselves that can be, and leadership is not trying to stroke

the ego of the person in the mirror.

You have literally said every single little thing about my

business, Your Speaking Voice, so thank you so much for advertising

without even knowing that, but I'm going to add one more thing to that,

which is building confidence and that-

That's right.

Is so true with all of that, that you are able to push forward as long

as you have the confidence in yourself, knowing that you have value in that.

Charles, we're almost at the end of our time, but before I have you wrap up with

sharing a little bit about yourself, I have one final question that has been on

my mind and it's something that you, sir, I think write the book about as well,

quite literally, when it comes to this.

Somebody, somewhere is listening this and thinking, "Man, Charles is really awesome.

I would love to follow his footsteps, but I'm just not sure what to do or what to

be", and I'm sure that there's a multitude of different answers as to how that person

can do that, but if that person were able to come up to you right now and ask you,

"How can I be somebody that is motivating, inspirational, and has a great heart with

helping others in the community, like ", to be able to take that first step or

wants to try something new in their life that maybe this is something brand new and

they're not sure how to quite get started.

What would be at least one piece of advice that you would give

them and why that piece of advice?

It'll be twofold.

Number one, what is your why?

Why do you want to do this?

Is it just a stroke your ego?

Is it to have letters in the back of your name that no one knows what they mean?

What is your why, and if your why is strong enough, seek out the help that

can answer that why, if you will.

For example, there are hundreds of nonprofits out here, hundreds,

that you can speak, that you can be a part of, that you can speak on.

There are hundreds of committees at the local, state, federal level of

government that you can serve on, and it doesn't matter what your why

is, you will find like-minded people somewhere, and of course I'm going to

put a plug out there for Toastmasters.

Toastmasters is an organization.

We've been around since 1924.

There's 225,000 members in 140 something different countries around the world,

and most of us are like-minded, and the joy with that organization, and I

touted, I'll sing it from the mountain tops, is the fact that we all come from

different backgrounds, but at the end of the day, we all have, for the most

part, the same type of goals, so if that person was to come to me, I would

ask them, "What is your why?", and then find that organization or that committee

that you can be a part of to help you on your journey, because they're out there

and sometimes you just have to look for them, but at this day and age of the

Internet, it's not that difficult to find.

Charles, I really appreciate you being here and being able to share

these wisdom nuggets for all of us.

I want to give you the last few minutes.

How can people get in touch with you if they're interested in booking you?

Maybe they want to be a client of yours for your coaching.

How could they get in touch with you and how can they experience the Charles

Gates experience, I should say, and I'll give you the last few minutes.

Go ahead.

Well, I will tell you first and foremost to understand

something about Charles Gates.

I'm almost like a General Patton from World War II.

I'm an in your face kind of guy.

I don't sugarcoat it.

I don't water it down.

I'll tell you like it is, and if you're an adult, if you can't handle it,

you probably don't want to work with me, but if you do, I will attempt.

If you are coachable to make you the best version of you you can

be, now, I'm a presentation coach.

I help you frame your message in 15 words or less and deliver

that message with power.

Impact and confidence.

That's what I do.

How can you get in touch with me?

You can get in touch with me through my website,

www.charlescharlesgatesleadership.com or my favorite social

media platform is LinkedIn.

I can be found there at Charles Gates, DTM for you military

Delta, Tango, Mike.

That's pretty much it, Josh.

LinkedIn is my social media, and by the way, I do a LinkedIn tip.

It's called the Bring the Zing Tip Of The Day.

I'm up to, I don't know what episode I'm up to now, but I used to do them every

day, but that got rather cumbersome, but I do them at least once a week.

I put out a tip a day.

It could be on speaking, it could be on leadership, it could be on mentoring.

It can be on the environment; anything that's important that happens to

come in my brain that particular day, the day that we're shooting

Let It Go.

That was my tip for the day.

I throw out some things.

I do a short video; one to two minute video on LinkedIn and then

I'd add some words to it, so it's a very short read, but check that out.

I love to hear the comments.

I like to hear the likes, and ultimately, Josh, I am here to help

serve others and I'm really looking forward to my next journey is to

work with budding politicians.

I see so many want to be politicians that do not get to where they need

to be because they don't know how to frame the message and they don't know

how to deliver that message to the point where when they're finished, the

audience is saying, "That's my guy.

That's my gal.", and if they're not saying that, if you want to get into public

office, you've got work to do, and if you want to get better, come see me, Charles

Gates, DTM on LinkedIn, or check out my website, CharlesGatesLeadership.com.

Charles, I want to bring a little bit of the politician

out of me for a second and-

Mm-hmm.

First off, say a couple things.

Let's start out with this.

Thank you for being part of Speaking From The Heart.

This is something that I've been waiting to do with you for quite a while, and

I know that there were some challenges along the way to try to get there, but I

really appreciate you overcoming them to be able to do that with me, but there's

something I need to tell you, and I want it to be part of this episode because

I feel like it's really important.

I don't think I ever realized the true power of Toastmasters and the passion

that I could have if it wasn't for you and it's allowed me to be able to do what I'm

doing now, which is also reaching hundreds of people, thousands, and I hope one day

tens of thousands, even millions of people through what I am hopefully making as a

impact through not only this podcast, but through business, but also the heart of

it all, being a Toastmaster, and I really appreciate you always being there and just

being a sounding board for me and others.

You are the genuine deal and I'm really appreciated to feature you as one of my

Toastmasters that has really resonated and I hope listeners on understand that

Charles is in your face, to the point, but he does it with a heart of compassion

and a heart of gold, and I really do mean that, sir, you are a inspiration

for a lot of people that do need that solid foundation and I appreciate

that, so thank you again, thank for being on the show and I look forward to

continuing these conversations with you because you definitely make an impact.

Thank you so much, Josh.

That's a joy to hear from you, and by the way, my book series, Bring the

Zing, is available on Amazon Kindle.

And you want to check that out, I'll have it in the episode notes

if you want to read those, that is something that you can pull off of

Amazon, but Charles, thank you again.

Thank you so much, Josh.

It's been a pleasure.

When I think of Charles Gates, I think about somebody that has really been

able to go through life and really help people no matter where they are at, and

he certainly brought that zing, especially in this interview, and definitely the

perspective that he provided was something that I forever continue to live in my

own life when it comes to the things that we can create, not only for content, but

also the things in which we can transform ourselves, and that's why I really enjoyed

not only the interview that we had, but also have the opportunity to share many

of these things that you can even learn on your own, which just for the record, we

talked a little bit about Darren LaCroix, and Darren is one of the more successful

Toastmasters that went on to start his own business, Stage Time University,

which if you are interested in checking that out, I will leave a link into the

episode notes that will help you to get to where you want to be, but I want to

talk a lot about really just the things that Charles really said in this episode

that made me think about what I could potentially do to even help myself, even

as a coach myself, helping people realize and have that voice in this ever-changing

world, the mission of Your Speaking Voice.

I felt the first thing that really stood out for me was about that sometimes,

there is nobody that really makes us feel this way, because when I asked him

that question about who really influenced him, he actually said something that

I would never thought or imagined that it would really help to create some

of those best things for myself and to even help myself through all the

different challenges that would come through my own life, and I think that

means having some sheer determination.

Sheer grit, which for some people that can be very difficult in doing.

It means taking yourself out of the context of where we are sitting in,

and then being able to push ourselves into another context in which we

can help others, and since Charles didn't have that influence, he

realized that he had that innate gift.

The gift of being able to just see where people are at; to be able to

help wherever that help is needed, and I think that's something that we can,

as even listeners, continue to build upon our own lives, whether that is in

a personal or a professional context.

Now for many of our episodes, especially early on when we started this podcast,

we heard a lot of this concept of active listening, and Charles, yet again, is

one of those Toastmaster guests that I've had that have talked about the

importance of doing that just so that we can just keep swimming forward.

Ah, to keep swimming forward.

It's something that I heard many years ago from the same Charles

Gates, but I was in a completely different mindset at the time.

As a matter of fact, I wasn't swimming.

I was barely treading water.

As a matter of fact, the water was getting into my nose and I was starting

to drown, slowly, into a dark, big abyss of itself, and that was something

that I would never thought in a million years that I would overcome because

trying to just swim, especially with all the things that are happening in

our lives, it can be so difficult.

It can be so challenging to just overcome those different aspects of our lives,

to have that balance, which we've talked about in so many different episodes,

of being able to just weigh those buoys that are out there in the sea, and even

that vast ocean of just being able to carry on, but isn't that the point?

Isn't that the point of having other people that are like-minded

like yourself, that are willing to help you along the way?

Now, don't get me wrong, you can be like-minded and also have bad influences

in your life, whatsoever, that might create some of those negative connotations

about who you are, what you're trying to represent, and so many other things, but

if you don't know what to do, especially when the times get tough, you have to

remember that relying on what you've done in the past is not the answer either, and

I think that for many of us, we do rely on that past because that's all we have.

We just live.

We just live because we need to just continue on, but I think that the

problem with that is we stay stagnant.

We don't challenge our status quo.

As a matter of fact, we never see what we can do to become the very best.

Sure, we could be a transformational speech coach in which we're happening

to create infotaining, exciting speeches in itself, but when we are talking about

especially the networking aspect of this interview, we really are talking

about what we can do to move ourselves forward from point A to point B.

To move ourselves then from point B to point C, but then it's about even

the greater worldview that some people take point D and go back to point A.

Does that mean that they're wrong?

Does that mean that they are also challenging themselves to become something

that they never thought possible?

Is it something that they're able to just live and just go through the notions,

thinking that they will have that answer?

Well, it's all about perspective and even in perspective, we have to

reflect on what those perspectives of our own lives are and what we wish

to have as new world perspectives, because they are always changing.

They always have something in which we are trying to see through the murky fog,

the murky waters, to see if we could swim to the next opportunity of essentially

becoming the very best, and I think that for Charles, he recognizes that it isn't

just about doing it yourself, it's about networking with others, and even being

a coach, especially of the softball team in which he was able to help those

children become something that they never thought possible, especially in the world

of sports, that can be so important for athletes to strive for their very best.

Now, I'm not any fan enthusiast when it comes to any sort of sports.

That's just something that I did not grow up with, and I can point you to the next

podcast host that would be one of the best influencers when it comes to the

Philadelphia Phillies and other sort of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania sports teams

here in the United States, and I certainly do not want to say his name, just in fear

that maybe he might be listening to this because he might be a little shy, but I

know that that's the whole point is that we have these innate abilities, these

talents, whether they're in sports or not, and they make us become something

that we never thought imaginable due to the fact that we are seeing ourselves

at a completely different light.

Which ultimately asks one simple question: Why?

What is your why?

What are you doing about your why?

I think that's where we need to seek out that answer; almost like in the

one episode I talked about Star Trek.

We have to go to those vast new planets.

We need to be able to explore new worlds, new civilizations.

We need to be able to open ourselves to adventure, especially even some of

my international guests that have been on this show have expressed, because

it is about understanding that why.

It's about figuring out what you can do to become not just the best version

of yourself, but through that process, you're changing your mindset and your

perspective of the whole entire world, and that's where speech can be so powerful

and which is why I coach even in speaking as well, but in order for us to bring the

zing, we need to be able to understand fully what we are trying to challenge

ourselves in doing, and that's why it's so important to understand that why.

Seek out those people that are helping you to find that why.

Have them go through that process with you.

Learn a little bit about what you can become, and then on the other side of

that, keep challenging yourself because you should never settle for less.

You should know that no matter what, you can like helping people too, and

it doesn't mean that every single day you have to be service oriented.

It means about being there for friends and family as well, which

is why this is all interconnected.

There isn't two silos, or three, or four, no matter what kind of

number of silos that you have.

It's about realizing that you have what it takes and it means

understanding that we all have our unique styles in which we do it.

Although Charles would be somebody in which I would have to work against

in order to get clients, it doesn't mean that Charles is a bad person.

It doesn't mean that I am a bad person, and that's what this is

all about, ladies and gentlemen.

It's about realizing what is the good and what is the bad and I think that

if we can break those molds, those habits that we have inside of ourselves

that are the good and the bad, we can become great and greater instead,

and potentially become the greatest.

It doesn't mean that we have to be achieving perfection, but it does

mean that we have to have that zing to continue, and I think for anyone that

is out there still trying to figure out what that influence is, whether you

are that child in the baseball field or the softball field, or even turning

it into the future, I think we all need to realize that we can do this.

We can find our why.

We are worthy of all things possible, and that is the most important

thing we can do to unlock our voice.

Thanks for listening to episode number 51 of Speaking from the

Heart, and I look forward to hearing from your heart very soon.

Thanks for listening.

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