Do It Myself Blog – Glenda Watson Hyatt

Motivational Speaker

Words Shape Our Reality

Filed under: Living with a disability — by at 7:21 pm on Thursday, April 16, 2009

Author, Blogger and Speaker Glenda Watson Hyatt - Your Accessibility ConscienceWith appearances at several face-to-face events lined up for the near future, I desperately needed new business cards. The do-it-myself ones weren’t cutting it any more.

Great! But what do I put on a business card? Who am I? What do I do?

The tagline was easy; it is a phrase that blogger Chris Garrett used when he kindly wrote a Linkedln recommendation. “Your Accessibility Conscience” fits me so perfectly and I’ve been eagerly awaiting the right time to use it as my tagline.

But what do I do? Author, blogger and – lists are best in threes. But what was the third thing? The first thing that came to mind was “speaker”, but that felt so ironic. Having grown up as one who said as little as possible because of my difficult-to-understand speech caused by cerebral palsy, how could I call myself a speaker? Besides, I don’t actually talk when I make these presentations. It is the voice of NeoSpeech’s Kate that does the speaking via my laptop. Isn’t calling myself a speaker misleading advertising?

So far this year, I have done two presentations, I am presenting at SOBcon 09: Biz School for Bloggers in two weeks, and I have two more on my calendar – and who knows what else will pop up before the year’s end. If I am not a speaker, then what am I?

My friend Joanna Young offered these words of wisdom:

The beauty of it is you'll grow into the roles now. Writing, words, can shape our reality.

Her words rung true. Early in my life, a medical professional had labeled me as functionally non-verbal. I lived up to those words for many, many years.

In recent years, I have been slowly emerging from my cocoon of silence by doing presentations. In doing so, I have replaced non-verbal with speech impaired – a word, a label I have chosen myself to define what I am. Perhaps the next step in this journey is to become a speaker, to make that word my reality.

In designing this business card, I envisioned a card that was bold and confident; that stood out amongst a pile of business cards. I figure it is now or never to make my business seriously go somewhere.

So, why not take the same approach with the labels I use to define myself? I am a speaker. How I do speak is what makes me stand out.

Yes, I am a speaker! That’s my final answer. Business cards go to the printers tomorrow!

If you enjoyed this post, consider buying me a chai tea latte. Thanks kindly.

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10 Comments »

Comment by Bean

April 16, 2009 @ 7:36 pm

Powerful image and powerful post.
Phrasing,re-framing and re-claiming words is a liberating process. It is something that I am really struggling with this year and appreciate your trail blazing!

Comment by Suzie Cheel

April 16, 2009 @ 9:51 pm

Love the design, and this is great love Joanne’s words Are you going to have a pic of you somehwere?

Comment by Joanna Young

April 17, 2009 @ 12:26 am

Glenda, as I was reading the beginning of this post I found myself thinking how delicious it was that you had gone for “speaker” after beig labelled functionally non-verbal. Even writing those words makes me feel ill, I can’t imagine the impact it must have had on you. I’m so proud of the stretches you keep on taking, and please know your words and actions are inspiring to many.

Thanks for including my tweet in your post – it has given me a serious feeling of well-being this morning

Comment by Carmi

April 17, 2009 @ 5:29 pm

Hi Glenda. Saw your link on Tanya’s and just had to follow it home.

I love the tagline, but am even more inspired by the story behind it. Consider me touched.

Comment by Laura

April 18, 2009 @ 10:50 am

Hello Gelda,

A brilliant business card. I have been following your blog for sometime now,I must adit that you are one of the person with the most powerful voice out-there. Your words captivate my interest and allow free thinking. Your voice is heard and for those with a voice nothing said is ever heard. You are such an inspirtation. 🙂

Comment by Douglas T

April 20, 2009 @ 9:34 am

I would definitely go to hear you speak if given the option. Very appropriate title.

Comment by dani

April 22, 2009 @ 7:11 pm

Glenda,
you are a trully presenter. They should know your important thought here.

Comment by Glenda

April 24, 2009 @ 5:41 pm

Its official – I am a speaker! It says so on my business card! They arrived this morning. They look awesome!

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