Signs & Wonders Blog

One hundred years ago, an organization was formed to help individuals improve their public speaking skills. Toastmasters has grown from a single club in California to approximately 16,000 worldwide. The meetings feature prepared speeches and impromptu talks (called Table Topics) to get people to think on their feet. Members are assigned various tasks to help others expand their vocabulary and get rid of vocal fillers like “um,” “ah,” “er,” and “you know.” I joined Toastmasters shortly after giving my life to the Lord in 1991. I no longer wanted to be a nightclub disc jockey but still desired to speak in front of crowds. At the time, I was a distributor for a multilevel marketing company . People responded very favorably whenever I gave a testimonial at their meetings. Initially, I attended a Toastmasters club in the St. Paul suburb of Little Canada, Minnesota. Months later, I transferred to a different club called Sunrisers . Many of my early speeches were about topics relevant to m...

Thirty years ago, I was involved in a multi-level marketing company called Nu Skin . Although it didn’t prosper me financially as I hoped, it was a valuable learning experience. Many recruiting tips I learned in MLM were later applied in evangelism outreaches. One of which was not taking it personally when someone rejects what is offered to them. One Nu Skin distributor taught this analogy. Let’s suppose you excitedly call your neighbor saying, “Jim, I found gold buried in my backyard! Get a shovel and bucket and get all you want!” “Well, I’m a little busy right now.” “Didn’t you hear me, Jim? There’s gold in my backyard! Get a shovel and bucket and get all you want!” “Well, I really don’t have a shovel and bucket.” “Darn it, Jim! Just go BUY a shovel and bucket!” “Do you know how much shovels and buckets cost?” The distributor concluded the analogy by advising, “Folks, will you please learn to do this?” He then waved his arm like moving something out of the way and declar...

At the beginning of 1990, I became dissatisfied with life. At 26 I had mounting debts from pursuing a music career and lost my enthusiasm working as a nightclub disc jockey. Around this time, a radio program I listened to called “Musical Starstreams” started running ads about a business opportunity. Forest (the show’s host) talked about a way one could earn a large income and have the time to enjoy it. Soon I received a video in the mail about a network marketing company called Nu Skin. After watching the video, I was intrigued enough to call Forest and find out why he was involved with a company that manufactured personal care products. Forest explained he wanted to make enough money to buy radio stations and air new age music full-time. Since Nu Skin was experiencing exponential growth, I decided to take advantage of this “opportunity of a lifetime.” I sold all my recording equipment to have extra money for purchasing product and sales aids. My goal was to build a residual inc...