John Guinn
Greetings from Jamaica!!!
John Guinn is a travel researcher. This means that he is a fee charging travel planner. He realised that to be seen as an alternative to the traditional travel agent, and to be able to increase his fees, he needed to be seen as a expert. One method of proving his expertise was public speaking.So on the advice of a friend he joined a Toastmasters group in Leighton Buzzard.
Here he learnt that there was much more to presenting than just standing in front of a group.Through the various projects he discovered methods in vocal variation, pausing, speaking at the right speed and also writing a speech that would not alienate his audience.
John is a keen animal rights activist and vegan and used some of his projects to share his views on eating meat and animal welfare. Before joining Toastmasters this would have meant standing up for 5 minutes and ranting. Now he knew how to present his beliefs in a manner that wouldn't cause his audience to automatically become defensive to his ideas.
Using the Toastmaster training John has placed himself in situations that he would never have thought would have possible.
As well as writing a book to accompany his public speaking engagements, John now has his own weekly travel show on a community radio station.
Instead of talking to a group of people he is now speaking to a microphone in a studio. Each week he interviews guests to share their travel knowledge. Not bad for someone who found it hard to do small talk not that long ago. His show is now syndicated to two other radio radio stations, and he also has a monthly column in a travel trade magazine.
All from taking the plunge to join a group of people who want to improve their speaking skills.
