How Marines Give a Period of Instruction by Max Garcia

*Gain Attention*

You as a inspirational speakers or as a business speaker must first gain the attention and rapport of your audience. This is 2010, most people have so much on their minds. Everything from learning how to operate their new cell phone to downloading and installing that new software on to their PC and making their meeting on time with traffic along with a million other things zooming through their minds. Not to mention the economy and they are listening to business speakers for guidance on improving their lives. Not like the old days of hanging with the neighbor and the occasional call to relatives via land line.

There are many things you can do to gain attention. You can play a video, tell a heart capturing story, tell a joke, read something, sing a song, the list goes on as the possibilities are unlimited. I highly suggest making your gain attention relate to what you are going to talk about. Inspirational speakers or even a business speaker trying to motivate people to make money might tell a story about the poor childhood of an underdog who struck it rich. Business speakers ect should also make every effort to do what Marine Corps instructors call "what's in it for me" somewhere during the intro section of your speech. Something should be included in your gain attention or other parts of your intro that gives a listener a reason to want to pay attention to you. For example a business speaker could say something like "with the information you will learn today you will now be able to increase your sales ultimately making more money for you and your family". People hear more money obviously they are listening now.

Often when Marines give safety education they will first play a video of someone getting badly hurt because they didn't follow the safety rules. Inspirational speakers love telling their life story first so that the audience knows they are real people with real challenges, ultimately making the listener feel like, "if they can do it I can do it". More on introductions for business speakers ect to come soon. Have a blessed day.

How To Give a Period of Instruction by Max Garcia

I was recently sitting in a class given by a co worker and realized that there are many business speakers that simply do not know how to teach a class. What was puzzling was that the business speaker was teaching such a basic class but was horrible at it. What was even more shocking was the fact that he had been with the company for several years. People looked up to him and asked for his expertise on a daily basis. Yet his presence in front of only a few peers was embarrassing. At that moment I realized even many of the most seasoned business speakers just get up and start talking with no format or formalities what so ever. With out first gaining rapport with the crowd even the best inspirational speakers would not be effective.

One thing I have learned from inspirational speakers and as a Marine is that you have to warm up to your crowd in a professional manner. If you are a business speaker and your intro is simply a greeting and then you roll right in to your material you will lose people. You have to give time for people to stop day dreaming and start paying attention to your class. In the Marine Corps we use a format that I will teach you over these next few posts. Anyone can apply this great system. It will work for all you inspirational speakers as well. I even hold regular classes with the leadership in my company just to ensure they use this format because it screams professionalism.

These days companies want business speakers who can communicate effectively. The days of a business speaker hiding behind a podium sounding like a mouse are over in this economy. See you on the next post!

Loyalty and Enthusiasm by Max Garcia

Throughout this lesson on leadership characteristics you have learned many things about improving your motivational leadership style. If you are a leadership speaker now you have plenty more things to talk about during your upcoming speaking engagements. For our last two Marine leadership characteristics or "traits" we will discuss.......

Loyalty and Enthusiasm.

Loyalty can also have many meanings. As a leader you want to be loyal to those who work for you. Take care of them every chance you get while at the same time being firm but fair and they will take care of you. Make it a point to know who they are, where they are from, what direction they are headed in life, how their family is doind ect. That is motivational leadership. Doing so will also develop a sense of loyalty in them for you and maybe even the institution depending on the circumstances. A good leadership speaker can definitely help with building loyalty to the institution, company or business. If you believe in the company and display that to them that will also greatly help.

Enthusiasm is pretty obvious leadership characteristic and it is kind of like endurance. If you drag your but and are not happy to be there your people will feed off of you and act the same way. If you are up beat they will be more up beat. If you are a complainer then expect them to complain and work slow. Sick days will also increase. Everyone has days where they don't feel like being at work. If you normally come from an enthusiastic motivational leadership style then they will know you are having an off beat day and may even have concern for you. When I need a boost I listen to my favorite leadership speaker Marshall Sylver on you tube. Make it a point to enrich the lives of everyone you come in contact with. Give them a genuine smile even if it is only to pay for your dry cleaning. Do this and good energy and good things will flow your way.

For more ways to improve your motivational leadership be sure to visit my web site at www.themaxgarcia.com

Until next time enjoy applying some of the Marine Corps leadership characteristics to your daily routine.

Integrity, Endurance and Bearing by Max Garcia

The next three leadership characteristics we will discuss are "integrity, endurance and bearing".

Integrity is a tough one but obvious. Some will simply say integrity is telling the truth. When it comes to motivational leadership I say it can be and is much more. Depending on what you are doing integrity can simply mean do you practice what you preach as a leadership speaker or boss. Subordinates love to talk trash about a manager that says do as I say not as I do because they require one thing but do the opposite like they are above the rules. For others, do you believe in the product you sell and swear by to make money? Do you even own it yourself. The list goes on.

Endurance is powerful one for motivational leadership if you use it to your advantage. Here's the thing, if it is a busy day, tough week, bad day ect and you are dragging your feet because you are tired as a boss you will lose. Your people will not respect you if you drag your but. How could you possibly expect them to work hard, fast and efficiently if you are a slug. The opposite is true if you are the opposite. That is why a good leadership speaker will be on fire with energy during his or her speech. People sub consciously feed off of each other. This leadership characteristic is very important for those in the military where physical fitness is also weighed heavily.

Bearing is our last but not so obvious rarely talked about of the leadership characteristics. As a leader you have to keep your cool no matter what kind of stress presents it self. You must use tact when dealing with those senior to you no matter how you personally feel. A person trying to practice motivational leadership can not take out his or her personal problems on the subordinates. A great leadership speaker once told me that nothing is ever good or bad. It just is. When you think that way it will be easier for you to control your bearing during times of challenge.

More Leadership With The Marines part 2 by Max Garcia

Now, on to the next set of leadership characteristics. If you are a leadership speaker or anyone speaking at a seminar these 14 leadership characteristics or "traits" as the Marines call them will make great back drops for people to look at before and after you speak. Just exposing your lower level management and your hard charging employees to this material will breed motivational leadership where ever you work. The more people the better.

4) INITIATIVE - This one is pretty straight forward. If it needs to be done don't wait to be told, manager or employee.

5) Dependability...you may want to ask your leadership speaker to talk for a minute about this one. There is nothing more annoying than to tell your lower level managers to get something done only to be driving home wondering if they got it done. I like it when I have a manager I can depend on to the point where I do what I call "fire and forget". Like a missile that locks itself on to a target. You just hit the fire button and the machine does the rest. It is a great feeling when you tell someone to get something done and you just know you can consider it done. When I get the opposite kind of person I go from motivational leadership to authoritative style. In short, if I have to chase someone down and tell them to do something twice they are not getting the nice guy. If they show up late more than once in a long period of time, talk back, or wear a uniform that does not represent well, forget it, they will feel some heat and my motivational leadership style is out the window. I don't appreciate having to execute things on my "to do" list twice.

6) Our last of the leadership characteristics for today is Tact. Tact is also self explanatory but it's wide variety of meanings can make great guided discussions to get the audience to open up to a leadership speaker. Some people view tact as the leader having some respect when he talks to the subordinate. Others view this as the opposite, others think it means peers showing respect for each other. I personally think the most important meaning is that you can tell your boss what is on your mind, you can even tell him he is wrong. You just have to use tact or you will be the one who loses.

More to follow.....

Leadership With The Marines by Max Garcia

As a leadership speaker I always make it a point to teach the powerful leadership characteristics I have learned in the Marine Corps. If you are of a motivational leadership style you will enjoy learning and teaching these 14 leadership characteristics to your managers and subordinates alike.

The Marines call these leadership characteristics the 14 leadership traits, also known as JJ DID TIE BUCKLE (we will get to that in a minute). I learned these traits very early in my career as a young lance corporal age 19 (E-3) trying to pick up the prestigious Corporal. At the rank of Corporal you become a Non-Commissioned Officer with new leadership responsibilities. The rank is not easy to obtain or maintain. The lesson has served me very well as I firmly believe in a lead by example, motivational leadership style.

The fourteen leadership traits are as follows:

1)Justice
2)Judgement
3)Decisiveness
4)Initiative
5)Dependability
6)Tact
7)Integrity
8)Endurance
9)Bearing
10)Unselfishness
11)Courage
12)Knowledge
13)Loyalty
14)Enthusiasm

Notice the JJ DID TIE BUCKLE to help you remember them. If you are already practicing or teaching a motivational leadership style these will help you put a more definite name on what you already know. If you are just starting your career you will clearly be able to notice these leadership characteristics or lack of them in your co workers and managers. Keeping these in mind on a daily basis will also help prepare you to be a manager and eventually a leadership speaker.

The 14 leadership traits are somewhat self explanatory, especially if you are already a leadership speaker. We will discuss them more in depth next. For now become familiar with them and establish for yourself what you think each characteristic means.

Break Your Fears by Max Garcia

Here's the deal, in order to improve confidence you must take steps to break your fears. Building self confidence is never easy but it can be easy for you. For most of us our personal confidence in many areas is damaged by something or series of things that has happened in our life.

For example I recently had a great real estate deal go very bad, and in the back of my mind I have been noticing my hesitancy and extra cautiousness to look at other deals. I also find myself doubting my knowledge of real estate. Before that I had personal confidence in my ability to pick out good deals. Some of you might have been made fun of, picked on, rejected and or treated cruely in school by other kids, teachers relatives ect. This will surely damage your personal confidence if you are not careful with the thoughts that go through your head. Things like this cause people massive fear of public speaking. People would rather fight a lion than speak in front of ten people. For others it may have been rejection by the opposite sex. All these programming factors happen in adulthood as well. Ok great Max, we get the idea of all the bad that goes through peoples heads, now how do we improve confidence?

When building Self Confidence you must face your fears head on to break them. If you are afraid of heights go skydiving, if you talk like a little mouse when you have to give a presentation at school or work take a class on public speaking and join toast masters. After that get a side job or volunteer for something where you will have to speak to people. If you are nervous about talking to the opposite sex do five minute dating and make it a point to start small talk with everyone you come in to contact with every day. Doing exactly what you are afraid of will surely improve confidence. You are not alone, everyone has room for building self confidence in some area of their life, I sure do! The question is are you going to do something about those areas in your life or let another five years pass by and remain the same with the same resutls. If you truly want positive change in every area of your life and are not afraid to now do what it takes to get there check out my DVD called have confidence on www.themaxgarcia.com. E mail me and let me know how it improves your life.

Know They are More Scared than You by Max Garcia

I recently attended a celebration of the Marine Corps Birthday. Somehow during conversation the subject of personal confidence and people approaching strangers came up. Oh, I remember now...I had a couple VIPs as my guest and at first only a few people approached and asked us for pictures. The VIPs and my wife were wondering why? I instantly said people were still building self confidence with a couple drinks to walk over. I told the VIPs and my wife that they were intimidating to the personal confidence of others. Of course I got the crazy look. So I went on to explain that despite the appearance of most people, they severely need to improve confidence. For most people this comes from previous programming. Everyone has things happen during their lifetime (usually childhood) that wound their personal confidence. The sad part is that people neglect to improve confidence despite their major accomplishments in life. I told the VIPs that people were in the process of debating and building self confidence in their own minds and that we should probably break up our little circle and move around to make us more approachable.


Most people will not feel comfortable approaching a group of due to the fear of being rejected and or humiliated, especially alone. If a guy walks past a group of girls and hears a few of them laugh what is the first thing that goes through the guy's mind? You guessed it! ARE THEY LAUGHING AT ME??? Folks, if this is you start building self confidence today! Do what ever you need to improve confidence. I have lots of free things on my web site www.themaxgarcia.com to help you get started.

Preparation is Key by Max Garcia

You may have seen my recent post about how important it is for business speakers and inspirational speakers to thoroughly rehearse several times before actually speaking in front of others. I recently also realized that even if a business speaker is just reading in front of people he should still rehearse what he or she is reading. I recently experienced the benefits of pre reading the other day. In the Marine Corps, every month I have to read promotion warrants out loud in front of everyone in a formal manner for those who are getting promoted.

Every month I have to read the same thing and execute the same routine with my Commanding Officer. I must say though, regardless of how repetitive it gets if I don't read the warrant at least once out loud in my office by myself I will not sound as good live and in color. I also make it a point to rehearse with the Commanding Officer to ensure we look proficient as leaders in front of the company.

The same should apply for business speakers and inspirational speakers. If a business speaker sounds like he is hooked on phonics then he or she will instantly lose credibility. Inspirational speakers must be able to inspire by first acting like they themselves are on top of the world. Business speakers or leaders in any capacity must display competence in the area of expertise so people will want to follow them anywhere. A business speaker will be much more confident after rehearsing his or her speech out loud so that they can hear what they sound like and make adjustments. For more ways to become confident in any area of your life listen to some of my free pod casts at http://www.themaxgarcia.com/

The Right Music for Your Business by Max Garcia

I once heard a Christian speaker give motivational speeches about how listening to the right music can improve your life. He pointed out that when you listen to songs that talk about how "the wife left me, the dog died, my truck broke down" ect. something happens in your brain. The Christian speaker (sure wish I could remember his name) went on to explain how your subconscious mind hears those things and can put you in the same pattern. If anything you are at least going to feel similar to the artist that wrote the song. The not so good part is that like attracts like, so you surely are not going to attract the love of your life if you are listening to broken heart type love songs.


The Christian speaker later mentioned that positive songs could also do the same for you. Often when I am running and feel tired I start singing the song "I feel good, da da, da da, da da, da". If I feel myself getting bummed out for no reason I start singing "And I'm feeling... good da dat da dum da dat". Instantly I feel better.


If you are in a position where using motivational leadership is the key to your business you should always be pumping something positive in to your brain because your people will feed off of you! When you feel powerful your motivational speeches will come out of your mouth naturally and seem more genuine. If you have ever watched a movie with a killer soundtrack like "Rocky" and felt like you can conquer the world afterword know your motivational leadership style and motivational speeches can do the same. You may even want to consider playing up beat music in your work place, chances are it will increase production.

Pray before you spray by Max Garcia

If you are a leadership speaker of any kind, there is one ingredient you must include to ensure a successful speech.... PRAYER. I fully realized this just a few days ago when I spoke at the Non-Commissioned Officers leadership course at Marine Corps air station Yuma, AZ. It was an honor to be asked to give these young leaders some motivational leadership, and teach a little bit about leadership characteristics.

I must admit, this morning I was nervous to the point of nausia to speak in front of so many students and so many guest since it was at the graduation. There was a lot of high ranking officers and Sr Enlisted present. As a leadership speaker who harps on leadership characteristics and motivational leadership, I always pray before speaking to a group of people. If it is a longer presentation I will also pray several days in advance while in preparation, especially the night before. This time I prayed and asked God to expand my territory and give me the ability to enhance the lives and abilities of our nations leaders as their leadership speaker.

I know that prayer always helps but this time I really know that it did because I even prayed in the back of the room before getting introduced. I don't know how to explain it but something just came over me and powerful words of leadership characteristics and motivational leadership flowed like water out of my mouth. I was shocked during the speech myself. I also received incredible feed back from many high ranking Marines. Stay tuned to my website www.themaxgarcia.com as I am considering posting some of the speech up for view!

Confidence at work by Max Garcia

Do you have trouble with personal confidence at work? Most people do suffer from low self esteem but do little to improve confidence for themselves. How often at your new job, seminar, or family reunion do you run out of things to talk about. I will give you some ways for building self confidence starting today. As with most things I teach, preparation is key for building self confidence. As I am driving to work, the seminar, or the dinner if I am by myself I am talking to myself the whole way. Most people talk to themselves inside their head but it is usually negative talk. This does not improve confidence, in fact it kills personal confidence and self esteem. Trust me on this now... You need to be saying things out loud to yourself while driving to your event or while getting ready. You can say positive things in your head but it will not improve confidence as much as speaking out loud. You must say things like "people love me, people want to give me money, people want to do things for me, I always have great conversation with the right people"! This will sub consciously give a major boost to your personal confidence. Remember, building self confidence is totally mental, your brain does not have a choice to respond to your words.

3 Rules for Confidence by Max Garcia

It doesn’t matter whom you work for or what your occupation is. I tell all my new people when they check in that I have three rules for building self confidence. These personal confidence rules I made up when I was a Drill Instructor at Parris Island, South Carolina. I told every platoon I graduated and now I tell every new member of my current companies. The three rules for building self confidence are: personal appearance, learn your role as quick as possible, and last but not least, always, no matter what happens, always be respectful. These rules of personal confidence I live by and train others to live by. I guess you could call these my tools to improve confidence because so many people feel inferior when starting a new job. I call them the three rules for success. The fact that I brief these rules to every new join has saved me time, frustration, paper work, and has made my Marines stronger. I believe this is fact only because of my three rules for success. To apply these when building self confidence in the corporate world some complimentary thinking will be needed. For now we will discuss the first rule.

The First Rule:
Improve confidence through a first impression. A first impression is a lasting impression. From the second you walk up to hand in your resume, to your first day on the job up until the day you leave, everybody is judging your personal appearance. Despite that it’s against what we are taught in school, not to judge a book by its cover, the fact remains people are judgmental creatures. You can have stellar performer, but if their personal appearance is lacking no one is going to promote them to a position where they have to deal with upper management. That’s just fact. If you are in a position of leadership then this rule should be gospel to you when it comes to personal confidence.
Everyone regardless of position or occupation is critical of those senior to them. The last thing you want is to be known by your subordinates as the sloppy or eccentric boss. It doesn’t matter how great you “know your job”, you lose prestige if you don’t look sharp in the eyes of those junior to you. Not only that, when you look good you feel good. When you feel good you will perform as such resulting in solid personal confidence. We will talk more next time about building self confidence using my other two rules. I want you to first improve confidence for your self by first assessing your own appearance. If you are in a leadership position, ask yourself if your people would work better if they simply dressed sharper?

Choosing the Right Leadership Characteristics by Max Garcia

When developing your leadership characteristics you want to pay close attention to the various styles of leadership. Your style of leadership can and will greatly affect the results of your employees. Those affects, negative or positive will be a direct reflection of your leadership characteristics. Most people are familiar with two forms of leadership, persuasive or athoritative. The truth is that there are as many styles of leadership as there are characteristics of leadership. Every leadership challenge is going to call for different styles. Some subordinates are very easy to work with, show up on time, take initatiave, work hard and never question orders. These employees allow you to display relaxed leadership characteristics and courtesy. Other subordinates wait for you to give them an inch so they can take a mile. These co workers tend to be more disrespectful, question directions and require more supervision. The characteristics of these employees may call for you to use more force and athority. The key, is finding balance between the two. My father Dan Garcia, who retired from the Marine Corps, called this firm but fair leadership.
Many leaders, particularly those in the military feel that you always have to be consistent and treat every one exactly the same. This is true to some degree however, if you treat your best guy like your worst guy he won't be your best guy for long. If you have someone who knows exactly what your intent is and follows it to the letter wheather you are there or not enjoy it. Don't micro manage that person like they are incompetent and they will most likely continue on that path. I'm not saying don't supervise, in fact you should always inspect what you expect. Just keep in mind those that micro managed you in the past when you were doing excellent. Did you resent them to a certain degree? Did you feel as if they didn't trust you despite your consistent results. I know I totally resent any micro management, especially when in a leadership role. Why give someone a promotion and then stand over their shoulder? You might as well lead for them.
The moral of the story is to deal with each leadership challenge according to the situation, not just a standard style of leadershp characteristics you read in a book. Some bosses have fun simply being mean to their employees. They run the show out of fear and laugh about it. Sure they will work because you say so or else! They may even move a little faster when you are around. But, let there be no doubt if your subordinates hate you it will adversely affect you in the long term. They will only do the bare minimum, they will not take initatiave and they will probably stab you in the back the first opportunity they get. You will have no loyalty what so ever. This style will not improve confidence as a leader, in fact it displays a lack of personal confidence in one self. I once was about to make a huge mistake, one that could have possibly gotten me fired. Fortunately for me I had plenty of loyalty in my unit. One of the subordinates quickly pointed out the mistake for me, saving my butt. I said thank you and let him know how much I appreciated him having my back. This warning came from a subordinate that I had to firmly counsel on more than one occasion. That is where the firm but fair part comes in. If someone needs corrected, correct them. If the situation calls for a little harshness, make it harsh. However, if someone deserves a pat on the back you should be just as fast to do that with much more enthusiasm. Leadership characteristics like these go a long way and will assist in building personal confidence while in a postition of authority. Stay tuned for more articles like these or visit my website at http://www.themaxgarcia.com/

Leadership Characteristics by Max Garcia

What are the most important leadership characteristics? Leadership is defined in the english dictionary as a person who rules, guides, or inspires others. What qualities stand out most when observing someone who is a successful leader? For this article we will touch heavily on personal confidence, the characteristic that challenges most people. Despite their outward appearance most people question their own abilities and decisions all the time. Even top performers doubt themselves on a daily basis.
Confidence has to be one of the most important leadership characteristics there is. Now I didn't say cocky alpha males, I said confidence! With out confidence who ever you are leading will not follow you for long. If they're required to follow you due to your employment position they may have to do as you say but they surely don't have to respect you. You see, you must first be confident in yourself before you become confident in what ever area you are leading in. If you are comfortable in your own skin, it won't matter if you are the new boss that doesn't fully understand the policies in place yet. You will feel just fine kindly and confidently asking the advice of others instead of trying to fake it. In fact, your subordinates will respect the fact that you are humble enough to ask them. If you are comfortable with your own abilities in general, all the other leadership characteristics will come naturally. If you have challenges with this characteristic there is help.
Thats right, even if your fellow employees, subordinates, bosses, friends and family disrespect you on a daily basis there are some things you can do in your every day activity to help re establish your self. First and most importantly change the inner voice in your head. If you are the type that sees two people talking in the hallway and the little voice in your head tells you that they are talking bad about you change the voice inside your head. Now you have to trust me on this. The next time you catch yourself thinking something like, oh no my employees are laughing and looking at me, I want you to stop your self.
As soon as you stop yourself replace your thoughts with words that empower you instead. My employees love me, I have all the characteristics of a great leader. My family loves and respects me to no end. My friends think I'm cool no matter what I do. I am a confident and powerful individual. By the way, you need to say these statements even if you don't believe what your mouth is saying. If you have watched my DVD on confidence you will understand how this works. For now you just have to trust me. Do this just a few times and you will notice a change in the attitudes of the people around you ultimately helping you to become more confident in what ever area you are leading in. Build on the leadership characteristic of confidence and all other things will fall in to place. When you are looking to improve confidence and building self confidence in others stay tuned for more articles like these or visit my website at www.themaxgarcia.com