Cheryl Knowlton:
Hi everybody. Cheryl Knowlton, Dynamite Productions here with Dan Taylor, Castle & Cooke Mortgage here with a very fabulous and fun story for you. So Dan, take it away.
They gave you five minutes to prepare.
Dan Taylor:
As a senior in high school, I participated in a speech competition. And the category that I was in was called extemporaneous speaking, which I tend to do fairly well. I think on my feet, I can deliver. Give me a topic, here I go. And that’s basically what the rules were. They gave you a topic and you had five minutes to prepare a speech and then go before the judges and deliver. Now it had a little bit of a twist to this competition. They actually gave you all the topics in advance.
Cheryl Knowlton:
In a book.
Dan Taylor:
In a book printed, bound.
Cheryl Knowlton:
Crazy.
Dan Taylor:
So you could, if you wanted to, if you were so inclined, you could pre-write all of your talks, which a lot of people did.
Cheryl Knowlton:
It seems kind of like cheating a little bit.
I refused to play the game.
Dan Taylor:
It felt like that to me. This is extemporaneous speaking, so I refused to play the game. I went to my local competition and took first place. I went to the regional competition, I took first place. I went to the state competition and it was a bit of a tortured path, but I did take first place. And won a trip to the super regionals in California. When I went to California, instead of preparing my talks, I just took books. I had a library with me. And when they gave you a topic, I’d pull out all the books, I’d find some quotes, I’d put a talk and I’d go into the judges.
Cheryl Knowlton:
And deliver.
Dan Taylor:
And win.
Cheryl Knowlton:
Yes.
Dan Taylor:
Right?
Cheryl Knowlton:
Nice.
Dan Taylor:
Yeah. Not in California. Because now in California, I’m up against the state winners from California and Oregon and Alaska and Washington, the whole Pacific West. And these people were very good.
Cheryl Knowlton:
So your takeaway from all of that was?
Dan Taylor:
You can win in the minor league with minor league skills, but not the major league.
Cheryl Knowlton:
Oh, boy.
Dan Taylor:
Do you want to play in the major league? You have to have major league skills.
Cheryl Knowlton:
Absolutely. So, kids, there’s your moral of the story for today. You want to step up, you want to show up, you’ve got to have major league skills. Yay.
Dan Taylor:
Yeah.
Cheryl Knowlton:
All right. We can help make that happen for you.
Dan Taylor:
We can do that.
Cheryl Knowlton:
Yes, we can. Thanks for being here with us today and we’ll see you next time.
Dan Taylor:
Have a good day.