Advice and Suggestions from Rev. Molly Smothers, Public Speaking Expertis

“During a sermon, I am known to blurt out a Napoleon Dynamite quote, reference Bob Dylan, or as some refer to as Robert Zimmerman, and recite well-known poetry,” says Rev. Molly Smothers, pastor of the Morehead First Christian Church.

This past Wednesday, I had the honor of listening to Rev. Smothers. Although she wasn’t preaching a Wednesday night church service, she did give a pretty good sermon about her experiences and expertise as a public speaker to our public speaking class.

She compared the way she presented her sermons and herself to the congregation to the way us students present our speeches and ourselves to our audience. Rev. Smothers first suggested we tell our audience what we are going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what we told them. She also expressed eye contact, body movement, hand gestures, attire, and appearance do make a difference to a speaker’s effectiveness.

The Morehead First Christian Church has a wide range of audience members, with 100-110 church attendees each week. Since 20-25 members hold PhDs and sixteen members are under the age of eleven, Rev. Smothers has to present her message in a way everyone can understand.

The organizational method she bases her sermons around answers three questions: What? So what? Now What? She recommended we should tell our audience about it, why it matters, and then what they can do about it. Another helpful method she always uses to help her audience retain information is reducing her sermons to one sentence and repeating variations of the sentence throughout her speech. I really liked that idea and hope to successfully use her technique.

Since the average attention span of adults is around 16-minutes, Rev. Smothers almost always keeps her sermons right at 14-minutes. She said every good speaker should also make sure his or her listeners take away something. I believe Rev. Smothers accomplished that goal numerous times. Her speech was filled with $5 tidbits of information, which she of course gave to us for free.

I found Rev. Smothers to be a very motivational and persuasive speaker. Her enthusiasm and bubbly personality really shinned through her words and actions. After listening to her speak in our class, I would love to visit the Morehead First Christian Church to hear her once again. I look forward to the opportunity to hear Rev. Smothers speak again. Who knows who she will quote or reference next!?

Good and Bad Group Projects Prepare Students for the Real World

Over the past three years at Morehead State University, I have been assigned many various projects. Although the majority of them have been solo, some of them have been group projects. I have one good and one bad group project that really stick out in my memory. From the experiences of those two group projects and others, I have come to a conclusion of the qualities to have and avoid when creating a successful group.

Last semester in my Understanding Visual Arts class, our professor Janet Reiss assigned us a “Common Grounds” project. She divided us into groups and within our group, we had to find something we all had in common and design an art piece dealing with that topic to be placed in Morehead. Our groups were randomly determined and no one in our group had even spoken to each other before the assignment. We communicated with each other and decided to create a windmill out of recycled pop cans woven together in the shape of the recycling symbol to be placed next to the highway near Morehead’s Recycling Center. We divided the project’s requirements up into various parts, each one holding importance. One member liked to do power points, so we put her in charge of that. Another member liked speaking to the public, so we chose him to present our final project. I like to be creative and work with numbers, so I designed the windmill and determined the cost. We met outside of class to make sure we stayed on track with our project’s progression. Members completed their assigned part and everything went smooth once we put it all together. The final presentation went well and everyone loved the concept and design of our project.

My sophomore semester in Desktop Publishing II, we were split into groups of four to create and design a whole new magazine. Yet again, I did not know the members I was working with very well, nor did I know their talents or abilities. We did agree to create some type of celebrity magazine that combined many different topics and came up with the name “Everything Celebrity” and call it “etc.” We also agreed on a color scheme and the celebs to use within the magazine to help carry out the theme. Due to an approaching deadline, each person was assigned a number of pages to write and design. Our final grade consisted of 80% for the pages we completed individually and 20% for the group’s final product. Each person was primarily worried about their own work, so when it came to merging each person’s pages into the magazine, not everything matched. Looking through our final product, you could instantly realize who put more time into their work and who decided to procrastinate. Some pages were extremely text heavy as others had too many low-resolution photos. If I judged the magazine by the cover, I would actually pick it up, but after skimming through a few pages, I would put it right back down.

I believe within a successful group, there should be one main leader. In my past experiences, if a non-reliable person takes the lead, the project may not turn out very well, if at all. The leader should be the communication source and keep up with anything and everything going on within the group. I believe communication is key to being successful. Everyone should put aside their differences and work together. At the same time, the main purpose of meetings should not be to socialize. When meeting outside of class, members should show up and be on time. Not being at a meeting can hold up the group’s progress. The group as a whole should be motivated, determined, share common goals and objectives, and able to imagine the end result.

With the good group projects, come the bad group projects. It’s something a student can’t really escape from, but needs to learn to deal with to prepare themselves for “The Real World.” I believe the experiences from past group projects have better prepared me to work with a variety of different people, who hold different beliefs, and have different skill sets. I am always up for a challenge and try to make the best of every situation, so group projects intrigue me. Can’t wait to be part of another successful group!

My Thoughts on President Barack Obama’s Inaugural Address

I believe President Barack Obama gave a very appropriate Inaugural Address on Inauguration Day. The speech was customized to the American people, just as it should have been. He admitted and accepted the situation we are in now, but was optimistic that we can overcome all that. Everything he said will help us make things better, with time and money of course!

His Inaugural Address was very well delivered, yet I wouldn’t expect less. Obama was very passionate and about what he was saying to the millions of people who were listening to him all around the world. I believe he had ideal body language and eye contact from beginning to end. He maintained a steady pace within the presentation of his speech. At the same time, he was very personable and upheld his creditability.

Just off the top of my head, I can’t recall any individual lines from Obama’s speech, although “hope and virtue” is one phrase that really stands out in my memory. I do recall this talk of virtue to have been introduced by a quote from none other than George Washington. I liked that he referred to such a famous past president and related it to his message.

Personally, I found his speech to be very motivating and inspiring. The line where he said “today is the day..” showed immediacy and was followed by a call to service. I also found his message interesting and entertaining. Within his message to the world, he basically said the United States is friendly, but we will get you if you attack us!

Overall, I believe Obama’s speech was very well done. Through the course of his campaign, I learned he was a very inspirational speaker and he proved that once again with his Inaugural Address. I wish the best for both President Obama and our country.

Why is it Always 10:10?

While reading Stuart Elliott's In Advertising email, I ran across something I had always wondered and wanted to share with everyone: Why do watches in ads always read 10:10? If you have never noticed this, start paying attention and see if you can spot one not sat at 10:10 (this isn't as easy as it sounds!)

Andrew Adam Newman of The New York Times reports in a recent check of the 100 top-selling men’s dress watches on Amazon.com, which included models from 20 brands, all but three watches were set to 10:10.

So why are watches photographed at 10:10? Apparently, it’s like an unwritten photography rule due to the 10 and 2 hand positions framing the brand and logo usually centered on the upper half of the watch. Also, if you look closely, the watch hands are ‘smiling,’ giving off a happy feeling. This is a typical subconscious technique used in print advertising.

Timex’s official time for every watch (even digital models) photographed for marketing purposes is sat to 10:09:36. This results in the second hand appearing centered at the bottom of their watches. The company also ships their watches turned off at this time so all store displays are synchronized.

So what about other ‘times’? The majority of iPhones in commercials read 9:42 a.m. This is rumored to represent the time when Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone at a MacWorld conference in 2007.

Goodbye 2008's "Blue Iris" - Hello 2009's "Mimosa" Yellow!

So, I have just been informed of the new influential color for 2009 - Mimosa Yellow! I have to admit, I'm somewhat disappointed it is not purple, my most recent favorite color, but that's ok! Last year's "blue iris" color was alright, but I'm not so sure how I feel about this mimosa yellow color. I hope it means 2009 will be bright and exciting! Can't wait to find out! Check here for more information!

The Magic Of Macy’s

Macy’s new line of TV commercials are simply cute, clever and fun! As the YouTube tagline reads, “Only one star can bring all these stars together. That's the magic of Macy's.” This commercial plays on that slogan as well as Macy’s star logo by using an assortment of different stars. By featuring Martha Stewart, Jessica Simpson, Donald Trump, Tommy Hilfiger, Sean John, Kenneth Cole, Mark Ecko, Usher, and others who all have product lines at Macy’s, the commercial appeals to a variety of holiday shoppers.

This version in particular shows all the stars decorating Macy’s for Christmas. Each one has a specific task in order to open up on time. Martha is being a perfectionist and telling everyone what to do while they are hard at work using their personal input in showcasing their products. Even Donald Trump was put to work; now that’s pretty impressive! Jessica Simpson definitely brings the comedy to this commercial, as well as the other versions, with her ditzy actions. You just can’t help but laugh when she accidentally unplugs the lights and the store goes dark. Then Martha says “Jessica.. Darling..” and she plugs them back in and the store is complete!

Overall, this commercial is very entertaining and great publicity not only for Macy’s, but for each featured star, as well as their product lines. A combination of bright colors, festive background music, sparkly ornaments, strands of lights, special hot chocolate, the one and only Santa Clause, fresh baked cookies, sprinkle snow, talking elves, tree decorating, and noticeable product logos tie the whole commercial together and make an effective Christmas advertisement.

Charge It! ;)

So I was surfing Facebook, as usual, and a skyscraper ad on the left hand corner of my home page immediately got my attention. It was advertising a Chase Credit Card, but not just any Chase Credit Card, It was a brand spanking new PINK Chase Credit Card. Yes, you read that correctly, there is now a PINK Credit Card. The body text read, "Girls know that image is everything, so why should your credit card be any different? Grab your pink card now for the shopping season." If you think about it, what girly girl would not want a pink credit card? Of course it will only make shopping more fun!

As soon as I saw this ad, I was jealous that I already had a Chase Credit Card, but mine was a dull black one. So, what did I do? I picked up my pink cell phone and called the number I found on the connecting link to Chase’s website for personal Chase credit card members. After listening to an automated voice machine, I pushed a couple buttons and was immediately connected to an operator. In a total of three minutes and fifty-one seconds, I requested for a new Pink Chase Credit card to replace my current one.

Overall, I believe this was a great way to make girls spend tons of money and go in debt! Personally, I believe this ad with its direct targeting is definitely effective! My new Pink Chase Credit Card has been mailed out and I just can’t to receive it! The first thing I am going to do is cut up my dull black one and take my pretty pink one and go shopping in style!