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Thursday, February 14, 2013

Toastmaster's - How speaking has helped in my career

Yesterday I completed Speech #6 for my company's local chapter of Toastmaster's. Speech #6 is vocal variety. Vocal variety includes varying your tone, your pace as well as your pitch. Since it is presently Valentine's Day I presented a speech that surrounded the holiday as well as love as a single individual all the way up advice on marriage. Here were some of the comments I received on my speech:


Heather: Congratulations on winning the Golden Toaster!   I feel that you did an excellent job.  Your presentation was superb.  You were truly able to engage the audience.  There was seriousness and there was humor.  You made the audience relate to what you were talking about and the presentation was wonderful.   You had excellent eye contact as well as outstanding voice tone.  Hats Off To You! Thank A+

LaReta Mayweather

I was pleased to provide such an entertaining and informative speech to my fellow Toastmasters. The thing I love about Toastmasters is that I can definitely see how these skills can get transferred to your work/career life. Being able to get up to do a prepared speech teaches you the process of organization, communications, and presenting. I also notice that being able to organize your thoughts in  your head before communicating is one of the best ways to better communicate at work. Many times we have a knee jerk reaction to things and I believe that being able to assess your communication style and tailor it to your audience helps make you a better communicator.

Toastmaster's also teaches you how to give feedback. I have noticed that I'm better at being able to truly listen in order to give feedback whether it's a problem, a presentation or even an email. I can ascertain where the speaker is coming from and then be able to communicate back OR to give back strengths and opportunities. In Toastmaster's, we use a 3 - 2 - 1 style of feedback with 3 Strengths, 2 areas of opportunity and 1 great takeaway. I believe you can use this at work, at church or in any area of your life where you must give feedback. 

Later I'll be posting a video of my speech for your enjoyment. Recording our speeches, shows us where we need improvement and is a valuable tool for learning. 

Learn more about Toastmasters at http://www.toastmasters.org/.
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Qualifications

You have reached Heather's Portfolio and Resume. For her portfolio, please visit the links to the left for her writing style and samples. You will also see testimonials as well as her current resume posted. She is available for paid content writing, website writing, blog posts and articles as well as social media engagement for your business. To get in touch with her, please contact her via her contact button.

Qualifications for Marketing Management and Operations/Project Management/Content Development professional


Results-driven leader with over ten years of progressive experience related to communications and marketing operations that include directing sales growth for consumer energy offerings, driving the development, launch, and growth of technology offerings in the telecommunications industry and growing a contracting business associated with online content development, working with consumer brands and social media consulting. Consistently has achieved a track record of exceeding sales goals by as much as 200%. Exceptional communicator recognized for effectively presenting, educating and communicating to different audience levels ranging from executive to individual contributors in sales and marketing channels, credit and collections functions as well as in social media. Skilled in SAP/CRM technologies, Microsoft Office Programs, Windows Vista, MS Project, Visio and FrontPage; Adobe Photoshop. Areas of expertise include:


Project Planning / Management

Vendor Management

Promotions/Presentations

Product Launch / Marketing

Project Management

Training / Development

Market Research Analysis / Implementation

Content Development and Distribution

Quality Analysis/Quality Auditing

Sales/Marketing Campaign Analysis

Internet/Intranet Technologies

Internet/Intranet Publishing


Key Contributions


● Created the website Dallas Single Mom as an affiliate marketing website in 2011 that targets parents and families in the Dallas-Fort Worth area through events information, product reviews, deals and giveaways. Achieved monumental success by averaging anywhere from 25,000 to 30,000 pageviews a month via Google Analytics, achieving 5,262 Facebook Likes and 5,352 Twitter followers. Part of a list of preferred parenting bloggers and social media consultants with article writing experience with Examiner.com, Care.com and CBS Local.


● Effectively managed all dunning communications activities to TXU Energy customers in 2011 contributing to reducing bad debt expenses by 50% and continuing in 2012 on trend to be at least $21 million dollars under plan. Presented findings to executive leadership and continually fine tunes all communication processes for active and inactive collections.


● Effectively collaborated with consumer survey software to measure consumer reaction to sales activities and marketing activities at TXU Energy. Implemented survey tools into internal communication and information databases in order to provide better research and insight to the consumer product development and campaign management teams to determine pricing, campaign launch strategies and sales targets.


● In the first 6 months of 2009 at TXU Energy, operated in a dual role as acting Call Center Vendor Manager and Marketing Associate, taking on additional responsibility and exceeding sales results and sale per hour targets. Results - Outbound Acquisition sales were averaging 206% over goal for the 1Q2009


● Effectively able to utilize a variety of systems databases, online content management systems, coding for intranet and internet sites, developing training and delivering training via Livemeeting and WebEx.


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