Greetings everyone,

My last post was back in June 2024. I’ve been busy with sketching and making some progress on my dragon poetry collection.

I haven’t forgotten about this blog AND my microcast. Because I work full-time, I spent some time thinking about how I could organize my time and effort towards these hobbies better. I used Copilot Chat for some tips, which was a pretty interesting exercise in itself! I’ll share more about that in a future post and/or microcast episode.

I’m planning on consolidating several similarly-themed microcast episodes onto show notes blog posts, as a way to integrate this personal blog a little better with the microcast.

I only have about 30 episodes so far, and they’re a bit of a hodgepodge in terms of theme. I like keeping them unpolished and not very structured, as my main goal with the microcast was to practice impromptu speaking skills.

I’d say that it has helped me build some confidence in that context, so I’d like to continue exploring my verbal style and expression through future recordings.

For now, here are a handful of episodes that touched on this “impromptu speaking” topic.

~ Jess.

More about My Microcast

Samples (on impromptu speaking)

Episode #31 Notes: Tongue Twisters / 15 March 2024

• Had a video recording to do at work yesterday, for an internal contest.
• Our second recording was very successful for the short presentation we needed to do.
• I kept tripping over one word in particular: “initiated,” in the phrase, “shopper initiated cancellations.”
• I kept thinking of the word “initiation” in my mind.
• Thankfully, I managed to pronounce it correctly in the 2nd recording.
• Felt a bit like a tongue twister, so thought I’d read some tongue twisters out loud today.
• They’re a great way to improve pronunciation and fluency.
• Not just for kids—used by actors, politicians, and public speakers.
• Resources: EngVid.com (50 Tongue Twisters)

Episode #28 Notes: A couple of self-esteem tips / 3 July 2024

• Will be doing some traveling to Chicago next week (I shared some pics on my dragon site!)
• Trying to be more conscious of self-esteem aspect, in the past 1-2 months. when living in FL, many things I wasn’t happy about, so it was hard to be meditative or have a strong sense of inner self-confidence. So much weighting you down at one point.
• One helpful tip: do something you enjoy on a daily basis.
• Second helpful tip: manifesting or repeating affirmations to yourself.
• Wasn’t sure if it was going to work at first. But truly believing in your affirmations, can make the difference between how you energetically feel about your new beliefs to have in your life.
• Been thinking about dragon symbolism blog posts for my old website, Dragonsinn.net.
• RESOURCES / TIPS:
  • 1) ⁠7 Daily Rituals to Improve Your Self-Esteem⁠ (Psychology Today)
  • 2) ⁠How to gain confidence in yourself: 13 tips for self-confidence⁠ (Calm app)
  • 3) ⁠The Secret Ingredient to Affirmations: Feeling It⁠ (Honest Yoga)

Episode #26 Notes: Impromptu Speaking / 28 June 2024

• Was busy moving from Florida back to Maine.
• Past 2 months have been very busy and tiring.
• I moved with about 9 boxes to Florida. Made it out with close to the same number of boxes. Left a lot of books behind.
• Was nice to downsize a bit. I did bring along my art books, like my giant John Singer Sargent and John William Waterhouse books.
• At work, I’m also always trying to improve my impromptu speaking skills. Been using AI to come up with some personal micro-coaching tips, to build habits on a daily basis.
• One of the tips I got: to aim to speak spontaneously for at least once a day, on any subject, for 2-3 minutes. Seems quite manageable.
• I also recently completed a 15-minute audio course on LinkedIn Learning by Matt Abrahams, author of Think Faster, Talk Smarter.
  • Last tip was to “learn to listen attentively with pace, space, and grace.” Sometimes we can be too hard on ourselves when it comes to speaking skills.

#15 Notes: About MagneticSpeaking.com / 2 Nov 2023

• Small, group public speaking class.
• I’ve joined a couple of free classes in the past. I didn’t really like the structured format of those, so I continued to look around.
• $50 per class (Magnetic).
• A bit intimidated at first. I was the only one in a class who wasn’t in a leadership role. But i know I have to improve with impromptu speaking, lol, and reducing occasional speaking anxiety.
• Coach was Jessica Rankin. Very observant and kind with personalized comments and tips.
• Got to the class through a longer course that was being sold on the website. I got it as part of my professional development stipend from work (had a bit left to finish up for 2023).
• Next week’s class is about impromptu speaking, where we’re gonna practice what we can say when we’re not 100% ready with a response.