Communicating Using Active Voice

Intro by Toastmaster: Writing or speaking in an active voice instead of a passive voice can set your communications apart from nearly everyone else’s.  Here to teach us how to communicate using active voice is Adam Feik.

Don’t do this to your audience!  Get them to wake up and listen with great interest to your message!  Today, class, we are going to learn about active vs. passive voice.  I am not talking about your voice intonation, volume, or inflection.  Active voice is a manner of speaking or writing, so it applies equally written or verbal communication.  

Using active voice is a way to make your communication more interesting and lively, more clear, and more concise.  Changing a sentence from passive to active voice is like taking a darkened neon sign and flipping the on switch, and listening to the crackle as the sign illuminates.  By the way, this speech is really NOT directed toward anyone.  Passive voice is very common.  The object of today’s speech is to help you learn to communicate in a way that is uncommon.

Allow me to provide some examples of how using active voice makes communication more clear, more concise, and more interesting.

Clear

First, more clear.  Passive voice often leaves the reader or listener wondering about key details of the message.  It’s unclear.  For example, this is passive:

“Decisions were made to cover up the crime.”  

Important information is missing!  Who made the decisions?  “Decisions were made” is passive language because we don’t know who the subject of the sentence is.  Perhaps the author or speaker is being intentionally vague in order to hide information that an active voice would reveal!  

Active voice is more active and forceful, and also provides the missing information.  

“The Governor made the decision to cover up the crime” (Your Honor).  

Interesting!  Now we have CLEAR information about who allegedly covered up the crime.  “The Governor made the decision” is much more clear and informative than “decisions were made.”

A sure way to be able to tell the difference, so you can know whether you are speaking in active or passive voice, is to ask the question “by whom” or “by what.”  Passive voice often does not identify “who” or “what” is doing the action.  “Yuletide carols were sung.”  By whom?  That sentence is passive.  

Sometimes a passive sentence includes the “by whom” at the end of the sentence.  If a sentence or phrase ends with “by” someone or something, you have a telltale sign the sentence is in passive voice.  For example: 

“Yuletide carols were sung by a choir.”  

Now we have clarified who was doing the singing, but the phrase “by a choir” clearly exposes the sentence structure as being passive!  Why not structure the sentence using active voice?  Okay, this would sound a little weird in “Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire,” but in non-poetic communications, an active voice would structure the sentence much more clearly, as in: 

“A choir sang yuletide carols.”  

Direct.  Clear.  Active voice provides clear information without wasting words.  The “yuletide” example also illustrates the 2nd point: that active voice is often much more concise than passive.

Concise-ness

“A choir sang yuletide carols” is only 5 words.  That sentence eliminates wasted words like “were” and “by.”  “Yuletide carols WERE sung BY a choir” is 7 words, yet the 2 wasted words (“were” and “by”) serve no purpose other than to make the sentence longer.  They do not add any value!

Remember, you can tell if you have structured a sentence using passive voice by asking “by whom” or “by what.”  

Another tip is to look for forms of the word “to be,” as in “Carols were sung.”  “Were” is a form of the verb “be”; ideally, your sentences will use much more interesting verbs than “be” or “were.”  …which leads me to using active voice to make your writing and speaking more interesting and lively.

Interesting and lively

Let’s go back to our crime-covering Governor for an example of verb choice.  Passive voice: 

“Decisions were made to cover up the crime.”  

The verbs are “were made.”  Rather boring.  For active voice, we used the example, “The Governor made the decision to cover up the crime.”  Okay, we eliminated the wasted verb “were,” but we’re still using the somewhat boring verb “made.”  Better yet would be, 

“The Governor decided to cover up the crime.”  

Now, the verb is the much more active word “decided.”  Plus, we eliminated a couple wasted words, in “the decision.”

Summary

Let’s put this all together and look at some famous quotes.  I found these great examples on the Internet, courtesy of a woman in Seattle named Jean Colley.

Big Brother is watching you. (active voice) – George Orwell

You are being watched by Big Brother. (passive voice)

They paved paradise and put up a parking lot. (active voice) – Joni Mitchell

Paradise was paved and a parking lot put up. (passive voice)

I shot the sheriff. (active voice) – Bob Marley

The sheriff was shot by me. (passive voice)

Our fathers brought forth on this continent a new nation. (active voice) – Abraham Lincoln

A new nation was brought forth on this continent by our fathers. (passive voice)

Now, let’s look at an example I made up.  Imagine you have just attended a lovely dinner sponsored by a supplier, or your CPA, financial advisor, real estate agent, or other service provider.  You enjoyed the evening so much you are writing a thank-you card.  First, in passive voice, including wasted words, incomplete information, and boring verbs:

“We would like to thank you for inviting us to your customer appreciation dinner.  A wonderful time was had by all.  It was fun getting to know so many nice people.  You are appreciated by your customers in return!”

The grammar is not wrong or incorrect, but how much more clearly, concisely, and lively could you write your note if you abandon the passive voice, in favor of using an active voice?!

“Thank you for inviting us to your customer appreciation dinner.  We enjoyed the wonderful evening!  Michele and I had fun getting to know so many nice people.  Your customers certainly appreciate you in return!”

Is passive voice always undesirable?  No.  Passive voice is sometimes appropriate, to add variety (as long as you are doing so intentionally), or to intentionally de-emphasize the subject of the sentence, if you have a good reason to be vague about who is doing the action.

Conclusion

When you want your communication to be clear, concise, interesting, and lively, remember to use active voice, and your presentations will, as the Toastmasters manual says, “sparkle with energy and you’ll have great influence on your listeners.”

Beacon Rock's 3 Simple Steps to Success

Intro by Toastmaster: Adam spoke in a recent Table Topics session about a “Secret Sauce to Success,” which he learned nearly 10 years ago from a former CEO at a local company where he worked. The CEO’s “Secret Sauce to Success” included 3 simple principles: vision, focus, and accountability. Now Adam is his own CEO at Beacon Rock Investment Consulting. Today he will present Beacon Rock’s 3 Simple Steps to Success, which he has adapted for use in his own company.

Note from FeikSpeak: credit for the 3 steps to success goes to Roger Doughty, former CEO of IEC Group and AmeriBen Solutions, which was one of the first places I worked after my undergrad, and also while I earned my MBA. Roger's wife, Joyce, is a chef, and Roger called these 3 elements the "Secret Sauce to Success."

Introduction

What is the most useful success advice you have ever heard? Can you think of a single piece of advice or a single principle that has proven most effective and actionable over many years to you? Hopefully, you can, and if so, I would love to hear your speech on that subject sometime! Today, I will give you the 3 simple steps to success that I have remembered and used as a guide in my business endeavors since I first heard these steps nearly 10 years ago. I hope these 3 words will prove as memorable, as powerful, and as useful to you as they have to me. The 3 words are VISION, FOCUS, AND ACCOUNTABILITY.

Vision

First, vision. What is vision, and why is it so important as to be the first simple step to success? A clear business vision allows you to rise above the day-to-day and see where you intend to go, where you are in relation to that destination, and even where you have come from. It answers the questions, “why am I here and what am I working to achieve?” It is beginning with the end in mind, and living intentionally.

Let me illustrate with a personal example. This is a photo of Beacon Rock, which is a beautiful place on the Washington side of the Columbia River Gorge, near where I grew up. I named my investment consulting practice after this place because it serves as a constant reminder to me of vision. I’ll explain. Beacon Rock was given its name in 1805 by none other than Lewis & Clark. As Lewis & Clark navigated their way through the Columbia River Gorge, the Native Americans living there pointed out that at this point, the current of the Columbia River begins to be influenced for the first time by the waves of the Pacific Ocean, which is still 150 miles downriver. This was the explorers’ first indication that they were getting close to their destination. Remember, Lewis & Clark were explorers – they had never been to their destination. I think they must have had some mental image of what their destination would look like, but they could not yet know exactly what success would look like for them.

I love this picture. It’s beautiful, it reminds me of great memories from years ago, and I always love driving by this place & enjoying the views. But this picture has a limitation. You can see where you are if you’re at Beacon Rock, but it doesn’t show where you have been or where you are going. To get that, here’s a higher perspective of the Gorge and Beacon Rock. This is Crown Point, which is situated about 20 miles east of the Portland airport.

What you do when you create a vision is to rise above the daily tasks of navigating your way through your normal business operations – through your Gorge – at ground level. You rise to a higher perspective so you can see where you’ve come from and where you’re going. In my business, I call it my Beacon Rock viewpoint – or even my Crown Point viewpoint – of what’s important, and I have my clients go through the same exercise of creating a vision so they & I both know what we will be trying to achieve together. In business, having a clear vision from this vantage point clarifies which strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats are important, which priorities require focus, which distractions do not deserve any of your time, and which goals and values you will never compromise. 

A vision should be big and bold so you have something to strive for. You should be passionate about it, and it should be specific and measurable so you know when you have achieved success. Take, for a classic example, John F. Kennedy’s vision for our country, which he delivered in 1961.

“I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.”.

Very specific, very big, very bold. NASA now had something to shoot for. They knew exactly when they must do it, and exactly what would constitute success – landing a man on the Moon, and returning him safely to Earth. Kennedy also articulated the reason for having such a big, bold vision, which helps us understand the importance of working toward a vision in any of life’s pursuits:

“We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win….”

President Kennedy’s vision was so effectively conveyed and so thoroughly bought into by the country that his vision transcended even his own life, as NASA fulfilled Kennedy’s vision in 1969… six years after his own assassination. 

Your business success must also begin with a transcendent, clear vision.

Focus

Once the right vision is in place, success requires laser focus on achieving that vision. For Lewis & Clark, focus meant using their navigation skills and tools like a compass, the oars of their canoe, maybe a hiking stick, and all the day-to-day work involved in exploring and surviving. For NASA, focus meant organizing many of the best and brightest engineering minds in the world towards one common vision, and it meant “working the plan” for several years until the Apollo 11 mission was complete.

The task of focusing is not rocket science. Focus simply requires hard, consistent work on a manageable list of the weekly, monthly, and quarterly things you need to do in order to achieve the vision for your business. In my business, I achieve laser focus by having written goals for each year, quarter, month, and week. I know what these goals are, and they rarely change because they are carefully targeted toward achieving my mission. I even take it one step further into a daily schedule of activities that will lead me to be productive at all times – as long as I stick with it! 

Focus, for me, is hard. I must often remind myself of my vision in order to avoid being distracted by things that do NOT really require focus. But remembering two quotes from Thomas Edison often help me stay focused.

First, when Edison was trying to invent the light bulb, although he had a fairly clear vision of what his success would look like, he had to experiment with 10,000 different filaments before he found the one that would accomplish his purpose. At the moment before he found the solution, when his funds were depleted and his staff demoralized, Edison said, “I have not failed. I’ve just found 10,000 ways that won’t work.” And he continued working until he found success.

Second, in business, we have to be constantly aware of new opportunities. I appreciate Edison’s example and perspective from his quote, “Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work.”

To succeed, you must have a laser focus on the activities that will result in achieving your vision.

Accountability

Finally, accountability. How are you accountable for delivering on your focuses and your vision? To whom are you accountable? Without accountability to someone, you are unlikely to ever totally focus on the right activities or fully achieve your vision.

Think about it. When you created your vision, you made it big, bold, and measurable. When you identified your focuses, you made them specific, time-based, and measurable. Now, you need to measure your actual performance and be accountable for the results! As Thomas Monson put it, “When performance is measured, performance improves. When performance is measured and reported back, the rate of improvement accelerates.”

When I started my independent financial advisory practice after working for a boss my whole career, I wondered, “I know what my vision is and where my focus needs to be, but where will the accountability come from?” I soon realized the glorious answer. I am accountable directly to my clients for serving them – and even for achieving my business goals so that I will be around to continue serving them! I am also accountable to myself for measuring and achieving my specific goals. Sometimes for added accountability, I share my vision, focus, and goals with my wife or one of my business colleagues so someone else can hold me accountable as well. But either way, each week, I sit down and review my goals for the week, as well as my progress to date on monthly and quarterly goals. “When performance is measured, performance improves.”

Conclusion

So remember the 3 Beacon Rock Simple Steps to Success: start with the right vision from a Crown Point vantage point, focus on the right activities to keep your paddle in the water moving in the right direction, and be accountable for measuring and achieving the results you set out to achieve. Always remember vision, focus, and accountability, and you will succeed.

Toastmasters Humorist: Tool Names

I made an another attempt at stand-up comedy yesterday in my Toastmasters Club, using original material again (at least, I think so).  I thought it came off pretty well, except I wish my delivery would have been more relaxed and natural.  I was too nervous because of several minor irritating factors (mainly I was irritated with myself).  I was a couple minutes late arriving at the meeting, my mind was a little pre-occupied with a client meeting I had scheduled for 2:00 (which ended up going just fine, of course), plus I was putting too much pressure on myself to remember every word of my talk (which, of course, is not required and is probably not even the best way to deliver stand-up comedy).  But I'm probably over-analyzing it a bit too much.  One seasoned Toastmaster in our club handed me a nice note afterward saying, "You always set the bar high."  That made me feel good!  Thanks, Don!  ;)  Here's what I said (approximately):

Have you ever noticed the very clever, creative names they give to tools?  They are so descriptive!  For example, the name “screwdriver.”  What is a screwdriver used for?  To drive screws!  Very descriptive, right?  Or “wire cutter.”  You get the idea.  The way you name a tool is to just think of the action that you want to do with it, like test a circuit, then add “-er” on the end, and voila!  The tool is called a “circuit test-er.”  Good system, right?

But it does sometimes get a bit ridiculous; so collecting tool names has long been one of my favorite pastimes.  Here are some of the best: 

"Post-hole digger": “Rent your post-hole digger at Tates!”  “But what would I use that for?  Oh, right.  To dig post holes!” 

"Ventilation blower": So, it’s a fan, right?   

"Sod cutter": Now we’re getting really specialized.  Or… 

"Manure spreader."  Wow.  But at least these nice, simple, descriptive names help us keep things straight.  So it’s not all bad.

Then I thought, there are probably some tools we ought to have, you know, tools that could solve some of the most pressing problems I have around the house.  Like:

"Automatic light-bulb changer."  Or…

"Dishwasher un-loader and re-loader."  Or maybe…

"Weed puller without pulling out flowers and plants we really want… -er."  Well, maybe not.

I guess I should lighten up on the tool names joke a little.  I mean, there are literally so many thousands of tools that this system of nomenclature we have is probably really quite helpful.  Besides, contrast it to the way they name pharmaceuticals, where they just make up a word and turn it into a brand name.  We would all be really confused if we had to call a “post-hole digger” a “Zyprexa,” or a “wire cutter” a “Viagra.” (ew, kind of a bad visual image there… sorry).

 
But I still am confused about one thing.  I always thought ham came from a pig, and then I could simply buy one in the meat department of the grocery store, cook it, and eat it.  So then, what does this thing (hammer) do?

Toastmasters Humorist: Politician Bloopers and Gaffes

My Toastmasters Club has a long tradition of beginning each meeting with a 2-minute joke or humorous story, to kind of break the ice and get the meeting off an a light note.  This week, I took my first attempt at being the "humorist."  I thought I did well, using much more expression and tonal variety than in my first 2 speeches.  I'm also very pleased that I was able to make it through the whole thing without referring to my notes!  Here is the text I put together to get folks laughing:

We have all been subjected, in the last couple weeks, to a rather large dose of partisan politics from Washington, D.C.  The air in our nation’s capital is said to be toxic with partisanship.  Well, today, they have ALL earned the right to be roasted, in a non-partisan way, as we take review some of my personal favorite bloopers and gaffes from politicians.

First, on the 2008 Presidential campaign trail, then-Vice Presidential candidate Joe Biden famously declared, “Look, John’s last minute economic plan does nothing to tackle the number one job facing the middle class, and it happens to be, as Barack says, a three-letter word: Jobs.  J-O-B-S.  Jobs.”

Over to the other side of the aisle, former Vice President Dan Quayle had so many classic bloopers, I have to give you at least two of them.  Once as Mr. Quayle began a speech at NASA, he quipped, in all seriousness, “Welcome to President Bush, Mrs. Bush, and my fellow astronauts.”  In another speech, Quayle profoundly observed, “If we don’t succeed, we run the risk of failure.”

Back to the left, during an investigation in the midst of her husband’s presidency, Hillary Clinton put her foot down.  “I’m not going to have reporters pawing through our papers,” she said.  “We are the president.”

Finally, my #1 all-time favorite, from whom else, but the eminently quotable former President George W. Bush.  In the opening of a 2004 speech in Nashville, as he acknowledged various dignitaries and notable audience members, Bush said, “Karyn is with us.  A West Texas girl, just like me!”

Toastmasters Speech #1: An Independent, Entrepreneurial Family Man

Hi. My name is Adam Feik, and I am an independent, entrepreneurial, family man. Allow me to introduce the story of how I came to be who I am today.

First, the story of becoming independent. I enjoyed a wonderful youth & childhood, and felt very prepared to go out on my own after high school. After my freshman year of college, I served a full-time mission for my church for 2 years, then returned home for 6 months to work and earn money to go back & finish school. I worked nearly full-time throughout the remainder of my college career, and I must say this experience of supporting myself probably gave me more applicable knowledge and wisdom than the college courses themselves. In college, I also became an avid reader of The Wall Street Journal, which has developed into a passion for lifelong learning.

After college, I married and we moved to Boise where I took a full-time, entry-level job to start my career. Within a year, I had upgraded to a job with another company, who encouraged me to take advantage of their tuition reimbursement program to pursue an MBA at Boise State. I thought I was done with school, but I realized this was an opportunity I should definitely take! So, back to school I went, this time with 3 years’ real-world experience under my belt, working more than full-time, and with a wife and baby boy at home. I was seemingly gone all day and all night, and when I was home, I was studying. By the time I finished the MBA program 2 years later, we had 2 sons… I always tell friends we’re not sure how that happened! But I was an even more dedicated student this time around due to having a little more maturity, and my whole education was a great experience. I came out of it prepared for a great career in the financial advice business, and ready to find my own success. And that’s my story of independence.

Now, about being entrepreneurial. This happened only about 10 months ago, when after 7 years working at investment brokerage firms (2 of them), I “saw the light” and “went independent.” Being an independent has been a natural fit for me and my clients, as you might imagine. I love having open architecture, access to everything, and the ability to be completely objective in my investment advice to clients. It’s also been fun to brand my own business and promote it, and has been very gratifying to attract new clients who are comfortable enough to trust me with their life savings, and sometimes even introduce me to their own friends and colleagues so I can work with them. I named my company Beacon Rock after a place in the Columbia River Gorge near where I grew up. Beacon Rock & my business are part of who I am, and I’m sure I will be in business for myself until I retire.

Finally, my family. My mom & dad have been & continue to be a huge positive influence in my life. I love them, and my 2 younger brothers & 2 younger sisters, and my wife & kids. We have 4 sons, ages 11, 9, 7, and 3, and I could have spent the whole 4-6 minutes talking just about them! They are so awesome, and they are what life is all about for me. My sons are really, really, REALLY into sports, big time. They never think about anything except basketball during basketball season, football during football season, or baseball during baseball season. Except my 3 year-old may not realize the football season just ended. Last night, he was sleeping next to me and I heard him say in his sleep, “Cardinals beat the Bengals. Are you kidding me?” When he woke up, I asked him if he dreamed about football. Rubbing the sleep from his eyes, he said, “Yeah. And basketball and baseball.” They are pretty funny. They play sports, too, and that has become one of our family’s favorite pastimes.

So there you have me, Adam Feik, in a nutshell – an independent, owner of Beacon Rock Investment Consulting, and a son, brother, husband, and father of 4 great boys.

Toastmasters Speech #2: Baskeball Road Trip Weekend

What an amazing road trip my two oldest boys and I had last weekend! I had forgotten how much fun a good, spontaneous basketball road trip can be – but this one was filled with extra meaning for my boys & me, and the friends we went with. More than just a trip to see a game, our experience brought us all closer together, transformed my family’s perception of my own alma mater, and – to quote a popular college basketball broadcaster – was flat-out AWESOME BABY!

It started at 10:30 Friday morning, when I received a text message from my friend Mike, who lives 2 doors down from us and has 2 boys the same ages as my 2 oldest. Mike’s text said, “3 open seats in our van for a 2:45 departure to Provo for the big game. U, Cam, and Ky?” This sent my wife & I into a flurry of activity to decide if the 3 of us could miss the rest of the weekend at home – including getting Camden & Kyler out of school early.

Mike’s use of the words “big game” was no exaggeration. The New Mexico Lobos, ranked #11 nationally, would be playing 12th-ranked Brigham Young University in a de facto conference championship game – one of the last regular season games of the year. Both teams would come in with records of 26-3 and hoping to receive a #3 or #4 seed in this month’s March Madness NCAA tournament. Then I remembered New Mexico is now coached by one of my boyhood heroes, Steve Alford, who was a deadly shooter on the Indiana Hoosiers’ 1987 national championship team. Suddenly, the old college basketball adrenaline and passion began flowing back into my veins. But this weekend would be the 1st time since Danny Ainge in 1981 (which I was too young to remember) that my basketball excitement would involve my alma mater.

I graduated from Brigham Young University in 1997. And even though I love sports and attended almost every home football and basketball game while I was there, I ironically never became a true fan of BYU Cougar sports teams! BYU’s basketball team won only 1 game during my senior year there. Besides, I’m a lifelong Oregon Duck fan, and now a Boise State Bronco fan along with my wife & kids. Since leaving Provo, we’ve never really even followed BYU sports. In fact, we weren’t even aware of BYU’s collision course with New Mexico’s team until a few days before the game.

My sons have big-time sports dreams of their own, none of which have ever involved BYU. My 11 year-old Kyler believes he’s destined for the NFL or Major League Baseball. And my 9 year-old Camden KNOWS he was born to become the greatest ever point guard in the NBA. When they dream of college sports glory, they have always envisioned themselves in the colors of national powerhouses like North Carolina, Michigan, Alabama,… or Oregon. After our memorable road trip last weekend to BYU, they would seriously entertain a scholarship offer to follow in their dad’s footsteps! Provo has now officially splash-landed on the college hoops map for Ky & Cam. They were so excited, I think the world now has a couple new BYU fans.

Our road trip truly was AWESOME baby! The kids had an absolute blast. I picked them up from school, and they had no idea what was going on. I said, “Have you guys ever seen a Top 25 basketball team play in person?”

“No.”

“How about 2 Top 25 teams?”

“No.”

Then I held up a printout of an article from the Internet that had the headline "Number 11 New Mexico vs. Number 12 BYU," and said, “Wanna go?”

They looked at me as if to ask “Are you crazy? What are you talking about?” then said, “We’re going?”

I said, “Yep, we leave in 5 minutes. Let’s go.”

We ate at In N’ Out Burger in Provo and stayed at Nathan & Danny’s great-grandma’s house near the BYU football stadium Friday night (she was on a trip to Seattle, so we had the place to ourselves… but we were good). Tip-off was Saturday at 2 PM, so spent most of the morning exploring BYU’s campus. The kids loved the science building, which has a huge pendulum that moves with the earth’s rotation, as well as science and geologic exhibits, kind of like the Discovery Center of Idaho. We probably spent an hour there. We showed them the huge library, which has one wing that is underground. We explored the famous BYU bookstore, walked all over campus, saw the apartment where I lived when I met their mom, and saw the apartment where Mike lived when he met Nathan & Danny’s mom. At about 1 PM, we met my sister and her husband, who live about 10 minutes away, for a lunch of gourmet hot dogs just off campus, then we walked up to the Marriott Center for the moment we had all been waiting for – the BIG GAME.

The atmosphere was electric, like nothing I had ever seen before at BYU. I thought we were in Cameron Indoor for a Duke-North Carolina game. Well, almost. It WAS awesome! The game was tight the whole way. BYU fell behind by 8 going into halftime, then took the lead again less than 5 minutes into the 2nd half. We were being treated to one heck of a barnburner! In the final, fateful seconds of the game, New Mexico pulled ahead and won, 83-81. Interestingly, the outcome of the game barely mattered as far as our experience was concerned.

After the game, we toured some more areas of campus, including the brand new BYU Sports Hall of Fame, where we saw Ty Detmer’s actual Heisman Trophy, Steve Young’s actual Super Bowl MVP trophy and NFL MVP trophy, Jack Morris’ World Series MVP trophy, and Danny Ainge’s jerseys from both the Boston Celtics and Toronto Blue Jays. Needless to say, all of that made quite an impression!

Finally, as you can tell, we got to know our friends, Mike, Nathan, and Danny a lot better. And the trip was good bonding time for Kyler, Camden, and me. When you travel 12 hours with someone in a weekend, you get to know them on a level you didn’t know them before. I must say we are blessed to have neighbors and friends like Mike, Nathan, and Danny, whom we have only known for about 2 years. I hope we get to stay close friends throughout our kids’ years growing up, through Eagle Middle School and Eagle High School, and then… who knows? BYU? And then maybe the Portland Trail Blazers?

As you can tell, our basketball road trip this weekend certainly did open up the kids eyes to what a great university lies just 6 hours down the interstate, helped build friendships and family bonds, and was totally awesome and fun!

What is FeikSpeak?

I have given many speeches, talks, and lessons in my life (although the picture is not of me), and have written some articles and stories along the way as well.  Regrettably, I have saved very few of those... but that is about to change, thanks to my idea to start FeikSpeak.blogspot.com!
Today, I gave my 2nd prepared speech in my new Toastmasters club (Boise Bible College Toastmasters).  I joined Toastmasters recently at the invitation of a CPA friend of mine, and accepted the invitation as an opportunity to improve my skills and develop what I hope will become a professional ability. 
On the way home from today's speech, I conceived the idea for FeikSpeak!  This blog will be the EXCLUSIVE place to find the entire future collection of my creativity and wordsmithmanship (not a word, but pretty impressive made-up one, right?) on all kinds of topics.  I hope you (whoever you are out there in the blog-o-sphere) will enjoy what you read!
In preparing my 2 Toastmasters speeches thus far, I have written out the text verbatim, then created index cards for the main ideas to help me during delivery.  The written text is what you will see here; I'll post my 1st 2 speeches today!  Look for the following upcoming speech and article topics: The Genius of the U.S. Constitution, and The New Optimism: Self-Reliance.