World Champion of Public Speaking 2018 - Ramona J. Smith

Welcome to SpeakUP! International with Rita Burke and Elton Brown!

As our listeners are aware, we aim to educate, inform, and inspire through SpeakUP! International. May I add today it's going to be enlightening as well, and the person who's going to help us accomplish those goals is none other than Ramona Smith. Let me tell you a little bit about Ms. Smith. She is an international award-winning public speaker who holds the title of the 2018 Champion of Public Speaking Ramona is a gracious woman who surpassed over 30,000 people to receive this honor. She's one of the most sought after public speakers in the world. She was born in Jolla and is currently pursuing her executive MBA in Houston, Texas. Ramona tells us that her greatest joy is being Ryan's mother. To our listeners, I introduce you to Ramona Smith.

Thank you, Ms. Rita!

I know that you've been to many countries, and I'm wondering in these keynote addresses that you presented, what was the reaction from the audiences, and was there any like common denominator? Between the countries, it didn't matter where, what country you went to, you saw a specific thing or you felt a specific thing. Tell us, please.

Absolutely. So thank you for having me. Definitely appreciate the invite and to come on and share my story with you all. I have been to a couple of different countries including Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Oman, Qatar, Sri Lanka, Brazil, India, Malaysia. Did I say Bahrain and Saudi Arabia? So I've been to many different countries, a lot of countries in the Middle East, and the common denominator is just Toastmasters. It's the excitement to learn something new. It's the excitement to be in the presence of a world champion. Of course, that's always exciting. Anybody with the title of World Champion of anything, whether it's public speaking or boxing or whatever it is to be able to converse with that person and to be able to get their insight. It is, it's always e exciting. So everybody, everywhere I go, especially overseas, they are so happy and so welcoming, very hospitable, and it is always just a delightful experience to be able to connect with people all over the world.

I am so impressed it sounds to me as if you have that kind of charm and personality that connects you with people, and I'm delighted to hear that Now, what was life like prior to your winning that championship award? Tell us about your life prior to that.

Nothing much to tell. Pretty boring. I was a school teacher. I had just moved to Houston in 27, the very end of 2017, and I was teaching high school. I was teaching child development and human growth and development here in Houston, Texas. And I was speaking here and there cuz I've always been a speaker and had this. Innate feeling that this is what my life's purpose is, but it was not on a huge scale previous to winning the World Championship of public speaking. So I would do a couple speaking engagements here and there. I had my son full-time then, so I would take him to school and then I would go to work and I would pick him up from school. And it was just, The boring teacher life, basically. Nothing really. I wasn't married, so I was an unwed mother and a co-parent, so it was pretty boring. I was with, still in Toastmaster, so I've been with Toastmaster since 2010, I believe.

Wow, so you're a lifer.

Absolutely, yes.

So what do you do? Right before you get on the stage, right before you walk out there to receive the applause from the audience what do you say to yourself?

That depends on the engagement that it, it depends on the atmosphere, it depends on the environment. It depends on what type of event it is. If it's an event with a bunch of high school kids, I know I have to go up there and give that energy. I know I have to go up there and really shine because I have to keep their attention and I have to. Create that credibility and that authority init like immediately so that they'll pay attention and they'll wanna know why. But like at the district conference at the District 60 Conference where I met you guys in Toronto, I just came on the stage. Of course, bringing the same excitement, but it was a different type of atmosphere because it was online and it was in person. So I had to be mindful of the camera and then mindful of what's going on in person. But I've. I've spoken so much that I don't really have a ritual. I don't have a ritual of meditation or jogging or jumping up and down because one, I've never suffered from stage fright, and two, it's like second nature to me now. But in 2018, what I did before I got on the stage is I just try to keep calm. I tried to stay in the moment. I had to take a lot of deep breaths in and out to calm myself down because it was such a surreal moment. So in those events where it is the stakes are high and there is a little bit more pressure, then I have to maybe take some deep breaths and do some affirmations. But other than that, I'm jumping on that stage before energy.

Wow.

I want to go back to the affirmations. Talk to us about affirmations in Ramona's life. Please.

Absolutely. Affirmations for me have been phenomenal with building my self-confidence, and as a speaker you have to have self-confidence. Confidence in public speaking go hand in hand. When I was younger, growing up in my teens and my pre-teen years, I wasn't very self-confident and so I had to do a lot of work and a lot of building to get myself to a point where it's okay, I am amazing. I am awesome. And I was introduced to those affirmations by Ila ve she had a 40 day challenge full of affirmations. For 40 days, you write down I am affirmations and they have to be positive. So it can't be, I am ugly, I am stupid, I am fat. It has to be like I am. And I think she said it had to be what was I am love. Not I am loving, but I am love. So she wanted to you to use now. So I am love. I am happiness. I am faith, I am loyalty, things like that. I did that for the first time when I was in my early twenties. And it changed my life so much that I found myself doing it like maybe every other year. So the belief in myself and the confidence comes from the work that I did, the soul work as we call it, through affirming myself and not trying to get validation from outside sources. Not my parents, not my significant others, not my teachers, not my mentors, but coming straight from myself.

I think that's amazing, just absolutely amazing what affirmations will do for an individual. Words do have weight and they should be used with caution. So how do you effectively balance work and home life demands to achieve a healthy equilibrium?

It's much easier now after post pandemic. It's much easier now because like I'm doing this from the comfort of my own home. So once I finish this, I'm gonna go in there and watch some TV with my husband and it is not very difficult these days. Now, before the pandemic happened, I was in a situation where lucky for me the father of my child, he was like, Hey, you're traveling. Travel the world. He understood, because he played semipro basketball overseas and he was like I get what you're doing and it's gonna be change, life changing for a lot of people, so I'm gonna, Step up and say, Hey, let me take Ryan full-time so that you can impact the world. So that was one great way to be able to not, it is not balanced cause I'm not with my child, but it was easier for me to focus on the travel and to focus on the speaking and to focus on the business. When I didn't have to say, oh, I can't make it because I can't find someone to watch my son while I'm in India for two weeks, or I can't, I don't trust anybody to care for my child while I'm in Brazil. My son's father was a great help with being able to have my son with his biological father while I travel, and he's been with his dad for six years now, and now that everything is virtual. I don't need it. It's not even an issue anymore cuz I can do a lot of the things with the conferences and speaking from the comfort of my own home. So I, it's easier to balance now.

I would like to go back to Vanzant and her affirmations because, primarily because my partner and I have written a book that we describe as an extended affirmation and it's called, I Like Being Me, it's a children's picture book and it teaches readers, mind you, I'm saying readers, not just children, because even adults could connect with say to themselves, I Like Being Me and based on what you said about your affirmations, I believe that saying them has have helped you to actualize and become the woman that you are. There's no question that the town has powers what we say, either negative or positive can certainly affect our lives. So I'm glad that you're saying that for the benefit of our listeners today. Apart from those affirmations, how have you helped to build. What has helped to build your confidence level, because I don't doubt it, that you are a powerhouse with lots and lots of confidence. Talk to our listeners about that.

Yes. I built a lot of confidence by taking a lot of risks. I have built a lot of confidence by taking a lot of risks. The confidence that it takes as a mom to let my son be with his father full-time. That takes a lot of confidence within myself to be able to still look in the mirror without shaming myself as a mother and saying and still being able to express that I am a good mother. My motherhood, my journey with motherhood just looks a little bit different than other people. So that was one risk that a lot of moms will never take, and they'll miss out on a lot of opportunities because they can't let go or because they were fear that people will say that they're not a good mother or that they put their careers over their children. I have a huge boost of confidence knowing that my son is one safe with his biological father. And two, that I was given the opportunity to transform lives globally because we made that choice. Another a leap of faith is traveling. A lot of times I travel alone. A lot of women will not travel by themselves because they're afraid, especially in Middle Eastern countries as an American. We hear a lot of terrible, horrible lies about Middle Eastern countries. You're a woman and you have to cover your head and you can't walk in the streets by yourself and you're not gonna be saved. I have been treated like Beyonce in Middle Eastern countries. I have been treated like royalty, literally lit down and red carpet to a throne for me to sit on with my name on it and given gifts of silver and gold in America. I don't get that treatment. Sometimes I don't get a bottle of water or a chair to sit in. So taking those risks and saying, Hey, I'm gonna go out. I'm gonna step out on faith and see what this country is about or see what these people are about for myself. And that builds my confidence because now I know I, one, I can do it. And two, I have the bragging rights to say I did it. And three, now I am being. More well-rounded because I understand that even if we don't speak the same language, even if we don't practice the same religion, we are always going to connect in three different ways, laughter, tears, and food. It does not matter where I go on the planet. If it's some good food we eating. If it's a funny joke, we laughing and if something is sad or heartwarming, we're crying and we don't need a translator for that. So taking risks has definitely boosted my confidence.

I definitely think that is something our listeners will be able to take away. So what do you like to do when you're not traveling around the world? What gives you the most satisfaction in life? Do you like cooking? Do you have a hobby? Tell us.

I married a southern man and so I had to learn how to cook. Southern cuisine his way. I had to learn how to cook cornbread cuz I didn't know how to make cornbread. I had to learn. I didn't know. I literally just learned how to make cornbread like three years ago because my husband has to eat cornbread with every single meal. Oh my goodness. And guess what ladies? He does not gain an ounce. He can eat all the bread he wants. I'm on a keto diet now. I can't eat that stuff, but I do enjoy, I don't enjoy cooking because I do the majority of the cooking and sometimes it's a little daunting, but I enjoy the way it tastes. Now that I can cook my thing that I really love to do, I love to read. I love to read new books. Right now I'm reading a book that my husband bought me for our anniversary. It was our first anniversary, so it was paper. So we got each other a bunch of books. He got me a book by a lady named Jen Sin. Cheryl called You Are At Bad Blank. I'm reading that right now. I'm also reading a book that I actually got, I wanna say in Bahrain called the. D n of development. So it's like all about how to develop yourself as a career professional. So I love to read. I also love acting, so I acted in the short film here in Houston and we just had to do some tweaking and some edits for the audio. So I love acting and of course, spending time with my family.

So you like cooking, you like eating, you like laughing, and you allow yourself the privilege of crying. And what else can we say about Ramona Smith? She's got a son. She is a champion of world class, champion of public speaking. How did Ramona sit, get herself into teaching?

Teaching was never my passion ever. It was never my passion. I was a late bloomer. So anybody who's listening, if you are in your upper twenties or about to be 30, I didn't finish undergrad until I was 30. And once I finished undergrad, I was ready to really catch up, play catch up. So my sister and her husband were educators down here in Houston. My sister had taught for a couple of years, and then she went on to become an assistant principal, and her husband was a math teacher. And my degree my, my second degree was in public relations and marketing. But of course I couldn't find a job in PR and marketing, and they were like, Hey, why don't you just go ahead and get your certification here? You have a bachelor's degree, so now you just have to get these certificates and just teach. And that's how I fell into teaching. I love young people, but I don't, I, I never had aspirations to be a teacher. I'm, I was always people, always customer service, always communications and pr. So speaking is my passion. Speaking isn't teaching was never my passion.

It's amazing how we find ourselves doing things that we don't particularly care for, but we do them anyway, for whatever the reason. And it's appears that you are in a place now doing a job that you enjoy doing I've seen it when you were at the district conference for District 60, you were bubbling over you over the top with from the time that you came out. And with that laughter of yours, which is a infectious, it reminds me of my mom and her sisters. They would be in the kitchen and they're, there're whispering like this. Yeah. And all of a sudden, ha and I'm in the other room, I'm laughing because I know good and that whatever they're talking about it prob they probably have no business. But that you have that same kind of infectious laughter and I saw and I could feel that everybody in the room just. Jumped right in and participated in something that made them feel good. So what do you do first thing in the morning, right when you get up in the morning? What do you do?

See that's seasonal. That is seasonal for me because I was doing the affirmation challenge, the 40 day challenge. That's the first thing I would do when I get up in the morning when I was doing a yoga challenge. That would be the first thing I do when I get, when I got up in the morning. So it really depends on what challenge I'm doing or how I'm trying to improve myself or if I'm doing some type of routine. But right now I don't really have a routine. I just, wake up, shower, brush my teeth, wash my face, put on my makeup, and I pray with my husband, and then we get our day started. So that's really it for now. But I'm sure there's some type of challenge coming up where wake up, do 25 jump jacks, spin around three times, jump up and down, open the door, shut the door, walk.

Oh my God! You are, you are twisted! That's all. That's the only thing I can come up with. You are absolutely just twisted! So what do you wanna do? A year from now, where do you see yourself? Where do you wanna be? What is your immediate goal?

I definitely want to be a better wife and a better partner. I want to. I really wanna take a year to be consistent with something. So I was thinking about maybe blogging for one year straight, so blogging every single day for a year straight, and just to see where that goes and if that blossoms into something because I noticed that consistency is the key. If we wanna see those results and those outcomes and anything we do, we have to put our full energy towards it and be consistent. So I've been thinking about doing that blog for a year, but May of 2024, we'll be celebrating our second year of marriage. Maybe I just saw that the speaker who came in third place in 2018 with and I guess you can call it a cohort, it was myself, Anita Fay Taylor and Sherry Sue. Sherry Sue actually came in second place. I'm sorry. She's from China. I just see I just noticed on Facebook I saw that she opened up her own public speaking training, brick and mortar. And I said, that is phenomenal. And that is dynamic. So maybe. Maybe just trying to take the public speaking business to another level. Maybe somehow I still have to figure that out, but I know that this is what I'm gonna be doing for the rest of my life. I just have to continue to level up and get the knowledge that I'm looking for and make the connections. So my number one priority absolutely is my marriage. And then secondly, trying to level up with my business acumen and my business savvy with this public speaking, because my ultimate goal is to be the black female Tony Robbins.

And you're on your way there, aren't you?

I'm trying to get there.

And you're on your way there. So the black female, Tony Robbins, what would you say is the best piece of advice you've ever been given?

Ooh, that is a wonderful question. The best piece of advice outside of be yourself. Is, I think it, it's a lot of those cliches run your own race. Be yourself, love yourself was a big one because a lot of us don't love ourselves properly. And I actually have a mentor, Margaret Bernstein, who is a phenomenal journalist and a community advocate for everything from literacy to co-parenting and healthy parenting. So many different things. She always tells me to keep the faith. She always tells me to keep the faith, and she and I have accomplished some great things together and some things. Just happened because we stepped out on, I believe it was either Langston Hughes or Dr. Martin Luther King who talked about that invisible staircase. So just keeping the faith. We all have a lot of dreams and things that we want to accomplish, but they may have not manifested yet. They may have not come into fruition yet, but. If you keep believing and you keep taking the actions toward your goals, not just sitting there and believing, but taking actions toward your goals and keep and trusting in yourself and surrounding yourself around people who trust in you, then eventually your dreams are gonna come true.

That is so true so true, keep the fate and believe in yourself. There's no question about that. And they themselves are affirmations, aren't they?

Yes.

Freedom themselves or affirmations. You've written a book, haven't you?

Yes.

Do you wanna talk a little bit about it and pump it up a little bit for our listeners?

Sure, absolutely. So I have a physical book, it's called Shine, Sister Shine. I wrote that many years ago, so I probably need to clean that up eventually and eventually I will. But it's called Shine, Sister Shine, and it's just about building self-confidence. It's just about taking all these experiences in your life and using them in a and viewing them in a positive way. So even if you experience some downfalls, even if you experience some things that are not that, that don't feel great, how can you spin it to the positive and how can you use it to boost yourself and stay? I also have an ebook. Called a World Champion's Guide to Public Speaking. 10 optimal tips to master the art of Public speaking, and that is just 10 common things that I learned as I continue to speak all over the world. The 10 things that I think matter the most when it comes to public speaking, and I am all about simplicity, I feel like. When you try to overcomplicate things, it leads to procrastination and it leads to intimidation. So I try to keep things very simple. So in my ebook available on Amazon, you can see those 10 tips for public speaking and start to use them in your presentations and use them when you, if you are thinking about becoming a public speaker.

I don't know about anybody else, but I need all the help I can get! I am going to purchase your pdf. Just tell me what I need to do, and it sounds like your book will give me exactly what I need. So you are a world champion speaker. You're a certified speaking coach, you're an author. The individuals that you teach, that you coach. Can you give us a short story about maybe an individual where they started when you came to their aid, and when you finally said, okay, you're ready to bike. Get on that two wheeler by yourself. Give, tell us a little story about someone who you've coached.

Absolutely. I coach a lot of people and of course it's all around the world, but most recently, it's, it was contest season with Toastmaster and one of my clients was a lady from Switzerland named Sue Eck. And Sue Eck was a, is a world champion athlete and she's an amazing speaker and she had this story about moving from Switzerland to New York City. And when I first started working with Sue, she wanted to say so much. Instead of saying the cat is red, she would say the cat was walking down the street and the sun hit the cat, and the way the sun hit the cat, it turned his fur, this color that was right in between pink and purple. And then the cat walked and walked and walked. And finally we saw the color of the cat, which was red. And it's Sue, that is beautiful. I love your language. I love your brain. You are so creative. But we only have five to seven minutes to tell these people that the cat is read. So I was able to help Sue make her message brief and concise. So we said more by saying less, and she ended up winning second place at the district level, and I am so proud of her. So that's just one story about one of the people that I coach. I love Sue.

Concise, to the point. Har harnessing the words. Marvelous. That's the essence of telling a story of public speaking. I just want to thank you so much, Ramona. I'm saying it correctly by the end Ramona Smith for gracing us with your presence on SpeakUP! International, not only have you informed and inspired and educated, but you've enlightened and I want to say thank you. Thank you for being with us today.

Thank you for having me. This was fun. I hope I shared some powerful information that somebody could actually use.

I don't know about anybody else, but I know I can use the information and that's, one person, you know how they say when you're a speaker, if you reach just one person, you've, you've done your job. So you've done your job today. Ms. Smith. You've given me enough information to impart enthusiasm, and then on top of it, you were able to get me to see the light and to purchase your online book.

Thank you!

Thank you for listening to SpeakUP! International. To initiate contact with our guest, Ramona Smith. Her website is available at www.ramonajsmith.com/experience. You can purchase Ramona's books on Amazon, Shine Sistah Shine and her second book A World Champions Guide To Public Speaking: 10 Optimal Tips To Master The Art Of Public S peaking. If you would like to be interviewed by us, SpeakUP! International. Please drop us a message. Containing your name, company, name, the service you provide your community and email address to info@speakuppodcasts.ca. You can reach us using Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn. To connect to our podcast. Use Spotify or your favorite podcast platform and search for a SpeakUP! International. You can also find our podcast using our web address speakuppodcast.ca. Our logo has the woman with her finger pointing up mouth open speaking UP! At SpeakUP! International, we aim to inspire, to inform and to educate.