Today we’d like to introduce you to Matthew Cossolotto (aka “the Podium Pro”)
Hi Matthew, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
There’s always a certain amount of kismet involved in anyone’s life or career journey. Sometimes we’d like to think that events in our lives unfolded as they did because of some concrete plan. But looking back on my own story, I see a process that was marked by happy coincidence at important milestones along the way. At least it seems like that to me now. I’ll share an abbreviated version of my roundabout journey. I recall having a keen interest in writing in my childhood. I was impressed as a youngster by leaders who spoke with eloquence and passion about the issues of the day. And I remember being shocked and saddened by the assassinations of leaders I respected and admired early in my life, leaders like President Kennedy, his brother Bobby, and Martin Luther King.
I knew early on that my purpose would involve writing in some capacity. At some point growing up, I learned that someone named Ted Sorensen was President Kennedy’s speechwriter. The idea of writing speeches for a political or business leader intrigued me. A few days after I graduated from UC Berkeley with a degree in Political Science, I received a phone call — completely out of the blue — from the staff director of a subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives. He offered me a paid summer internship in Washington, D.C. I accepted immediately and found myself in Washington a few days later.
After the summer internship ended, I looked around for a job on Capitol Hill and was delighted to land a legislative assistant position in the office of Congressman Leon Panetta from the Monterey area in California. The job sometimes involved writing remarks for the Congressman. I was occasionally called upon to give presentations myself. I thought at the time and I continue to consider Leon Panetta to be one of the truly exceptional public servants of our era. After his years in Congress, Panetta went on to serve with honor and distinction as White House Chief of Staff, as Director of the Office of Management and Budget, as Director of the CIA, and as Defense Secretary. After his government service, he and his remarkable wife, Sylvia, founded the Panetta Institute for Public Policy.
After working for Congressman Panetta, I served as a special assistant and speechwriter for Speaker of the House Jim Wright. So, without a great deal of forward planning, I found myself working as a professional speechwriter at a very senior level on Capitol Hill, followed by a series of senior-level positions at big companies like MCI, Pepsi-Cola International, and GTE. As the years passed, I provided speechwriting and speech coaching support for a growing number of large organizations, including UCLA, MasterCard, and most recently, NATO.
I’ve always liked the creativity involved in writing speeches. Also the challenges inherent in trying to write for the ear while capturing somebody else’s voice. Writing in words and phrases that were authentic to the speaker. I also liked the immediacy of speechwriting. You write a speech and then — unlike writing a play for instance — you see it delivered usually within a few days of composition.
Early in my speechwriting and speech coaching career, I began to explore ways to empower my clients to enhance what I call their PodiumPower! I soon created The Power of SPEECH—The Six-Point Checklist for Powerful Presentations (see accompanying graphic for a quick overview of these six elements). I soon began to use that handy checklist as part of my executive speech coaching services.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Oh there were lots of challenges along the way, that’s for sure. Here’s a quick recap of one struggle in particular. I’m not proud of this example, by the way. In my forthcoming book (Harness Your HabitForce), I tell the story of how I failed to launch Comedy TV. Many years ago, while I was working for Speaker Jim Wright, a friend and I started kicking around some business ideas. We hit on an idea that we both thought had enormous promise: A cable television channel dedicated exclusively to comedy. This was long before today’s Comedy Central. We called it Comedy TV. Nothing like it existed at the time. And since cable television was something of a new frontier in those days, we figured the market was hungry for exciting new programming ideas like ours.
Despite our keen sense of excitement about this project, and despite our many worthwhile programming ideas, ultimately nothing came of Comedy TV. I started to conjure up doubts and obstacles. I talked myself out of this venture because I doubted my own qualifications and capabilities. In effect, I blew it because I didn’t pursue it. A few years removed from that discouraging experience, I went through a period of self-reflection and self-discovery. And I learned an invaluable lesson: Failure can be one of life’s most powerful and effective teachers. Of course, I didn’t feel that way right after my Comedy TV fiasco.
I take some solace from the words of Malcolm Forbes: “Failure is success if we learn from it.” In Think and Grow Rich, Napoleon Hill wrote something along similar lines: “Every failure brings with it the seed of an equivalent success.” So, yes, failure can give birth to success. One of my bosses, MCI’s CEO, William McGowan, was famous for urging his employees to “Make some damned mistakes!” Not everything we do in life will turn out to be a resounding success. We need to be resilient. The point is, we need to be willing to make mistakes and learn from them.
We’ve been impressed with The Podium Pro, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
My overall approach to personal empowerment can be summed up in one sentence: Success is an inside job. I believe the most powerful motivational speech in the world is what you say to yourself. Your internal dialog – your consistent, habitual self-talk – will determine whether you succeed or fail, whether you reach your peak potential in life or fall short. That’s why I focus my books, coaching, and speaking programs on sharing the tools needed for empowering mindset shifts. This approach applies to all three “power tools” in my Triad Empowerment System – Habits / Speaking / Promises – and my trilogy of books on these topics.”
The Joy of Public Speaking is the first book in my personal empowerment trilogy. As I describe in my book and related Personal Empowerment Programs (PEPTalks), the ability to speak confidently and comfortably to audiences of all types is a widely recognized leadership and success skill. It’s also an important personal empowerment tool. This doesn’t get discussed very often. Yet, opinion surveys confirm that most people rank public speaking as one of their top fears, along with spiders, snakes, and death itself.
In The Joy of Public Speaking, I distill many years of high-profile speechwriting and speech coaching experience into a comprehensive, how-to guide to help experienced, novice, and terrified speakers overcome self-defeating attitudes, feelings, and habits about public speaking.
My book and PodiumPower! speaking and coaching programs embrace a simple proposition: People who learn to enjoy public speaking tend to be better at it than those hobbled by anxiety, trepidation, or outright terror. I ask readers and audiences to join me as I unveil what I call “the gentle art of mental joyjitsu” – powerful mindset shifts that encourage participants to turn stage fright into stage delight by bringing a natural, authentic joy to every speaking opportunity. My ideas are designed to give your career, your leadership skills, and your self-confidence a big boost.
Two additional books are coming soon. Harness Your HabitForce highlights the seven habits of FAILURE and SUCCESS. Very briefly, HabitForce functions like a software program or Personal Operating System. It’s the collection of thought-habits that determine whether you succeed or fail. Programmed from childhood, your HabitForce can either work for your or against you. The good news is you can reprogram your HabitForce. This is just one of the Six Axioms of Personal Empowerment (see graphic) that I reveal in my HabitForce programs.
In my book and HabitForce programs, I describe in detail the seven habits of FAILURE and the seven corresponding habits of SUCCESS, along with the mechanism for moving from one particular FAILURE trap to its equal-but-opposite habit of SUCCESS. The mechanism for doing so is a simple three-step process I refer to as the Three Rs: Recognize, Reject, and Replace. To my knowledge, I am the first and only personal empowerment speaker and author to notice the noteworthy coincidence that two very powerful words in our culture – Failure and Success – both contain seven letters. The result of this observation is a uniquely powerful structure based on these two easy-to-remember, seven-letter acronyms (they’re technically acrostics but most people say acronyms).
In addition to filling in the blanks on these seven habits of FAILURE and SUCCESS, my HabitForce programs include lively discussions about:
–The Six Axioms of Personal Empowerment
–The Three Rs – Recognize, Reject and Replace – the simple but powerful three-step process that will help you close the gap between your performance and your potential
–The Yin and Yang of FAILURE-SUCCESS so you can learn from failure and plant the seeds of success
–The Ebenezer Effect. Jumpstart the personal change process through the power of your creative imagination.
The third book in my trilogy is titled Embrace Your Promise Power. The book features an extensive foreword by Jack Canfield, co-creator of the Chicken Soup for the Soul® series. In his foreword, Canfield writes: “Contributing the foreword to this book and being associated with Matthew’s inspiring ‘Make a Promise’ project are totally aligned with my life’s purpose.”
Fortunately for all of us, the power of a promise is not the exclusive province of personal development authors and self-help gurus. It’s something we all possess. Author and political philosopher Hannah Arendt observed that “Promises are the uniquely human way of ordering the future.”
My book and Promise Power programs combine research and practical advice with inspiring stories about people who have made and kept life-changing promises. I share stories about real promises made by real people, among them such luminaries as President Joe Biden, Jack Canfield, Oprah Winfrey, John Assaraf, and Tony Robbins, along with “ordinary” people whose promises have led them to do extraordinary things. These stories capture the unique potency of the word “promise” itself.
Here’s the bottom line. A promise is like a goal on steroids. Which leads to my GPS Success Formula: Goals into Promises = Success — GPS. This formula is key for getting on track and staying on track. Why? Because goals tend to be more cerebral, more brain-centric compared with making a heart-centered promise. A promise comes from the heart. With a promise you are emotionally engaged in fulfilling the promise. Even the way we talk about goals differs from how we talk about promises. You can change a goal, but you can only break a promise. And most people are loath to break their promises.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
I’d have to say my mother. Let me explain why. You see, my true purpose came into sharper focus when I made a promise to my mother on her deathbed that I would finish writing a book she had been encouraging me to write, and dedicate it to her memory. She looked up at me with tears in her eyes and said: “You do that, Matthew. You do that. This makes me very happy.” I’m proud to say I kept that promise.
I’ll be perfectly honest, though. Keeping that promise was not easy. That’s because the book I promised to write was a self-help book and at that time I did not consider myself to be a self-help author. This was outside my comfort zone. But the idea for the book was intriguing enough to me that I discussed it frequently with others, including my mother. And she reminded me of the idea from time-to-time. She seemed to know something that I didn’t fully appreciate: that I should be a personal empowerment author and speaker. I’m convinced now that she had a clearer vision of my purpose years before I perceived it myself.
Making that promise put me on my current path as a personal empowerment author, speaker, workshop leader, and coach. It also helped to shape my overriding mission: to help millions of people around the world achieve their dreams, keep their promises and adapt empowering habits, and reach their peak potential, on and off the podium.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.MatthewCossolotto.com
- Other: http://www.einpresswire.com/newsroom/matthew_cossolotto__the_podium_pro_/
