In College and Seminary I was petrified to stand up and speak in public, and my fearful style of presentation only reinforced that anxiety. “How will he ever survive standing in the pulpit every Sunday?” my friends wondered. So, how did I end up traveling 100 days a year offering educational workshops and keynote speeches on Stress Management and Wellness Promotion?
Well . . . I guess I found a great love for engaging other people in stretching themselves, exploring their thought processes, and discovering their own inner voices of wisdom. Stress management and wellness behaviors emerge from personal lifestyle decisions based on our beliefs and priorities. Most people already know what they need to do to take better care of themselves, but not all have found the will to make the necessary mid-course corrections.
Once I learned to tell the stories and ask the questions that could engage people in thoughtful reflection and help them make decisions and take the actions for themselves, the joy of the teaching moment took me over and I learned to love the microphone. I discovered my true calling—facilitating the learning process by asking the right questions, and teaching others to do the same.
People who invited me to speak used to say, “I hear that you are very funny.” I would answer, “Maybe so, but I am not an entertainer”. They would say, “I hear you are quite motivational”, and I would respond, “Maybe, but don’t ask me to turn people on in 25 minutes at the end of the day in the semi-darkness of a stuffy hotel ballroom after they have been eating and drinking. Give me two hours the next morning so we can engage together in thoughtful dialogue. There will be no extra charge!” |
Between 1980 and 2000, Don delivered more than 1200 lectures, keynotes, and research presentations at national and regional conferences. He also conducted 200 two-day professional seminars and trained over 10,000 professionals in the skills of designing and conducting stress and wellness workshops with a whole person focus. Believing that wellness is more than simply having a body that works, Don encouraged an in-depth approach to helping people make mid-course corrections in their lives. His energetic engaging style, warm sense of humor and ability to actively involve audiences gained him a reputation as an inspiring motivational speaker. In connection with his travels he appeared as a guest on over 200 radio and television news and talk shows. Don’s creative work has been featured in The New York Times, The Reader’s Digest and many other publications, as well as on The Today Show.
Stress and Wellness Presentations and Keynote Topics
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Minimizing Stress/Maximizing Vitality
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Staying Evergreen: How to stay alive in your job at least one more year
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Rx for Burnout: A structured strategy for promoting vitality and preventing burnout in the care-giving professions
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The Quest for the Holy Grail: Metaphors in spiritual well-being
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The Caring Question: You first, or me first?
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Finding a Healthy Balance: Carefully choosing your health habits
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Stress in a Changing World
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Stress Traps and How to Avoid Them
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Charting Your Spiritual Path: Connecting the dots in your deepest life patterns
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Making Your Work More Than a Job: 12 ways to take this job and love it
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Nurturing the Heart and Soul of Your Business
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Beyond Peptalks and Handouts: How to design and teach creative wellness programs that change lives
Papers and Seminars on Book Publishing
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So You Want to Be an Author: How to publish for the public
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One Hundred and Eight Publishing Rules of Thumb You Must Know Like the Back of Your Hand
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Twenty Key Concepts for Independent Publishing Success
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Estimating Skills for Fun and Profit
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Ten Tips for Managing Your One-Hit-Wonder Without Going Under: Yep, be careful what you wish for and make sure you’re ready when it happens
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Defining the Profitable Market Niche for Your Product: No it’s not the bookstore, dummy, despite what your author thinks!
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How to Work with Your Printer So That You Both End Up Winners
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How to Avoid Small Publishers’ Six Most Common Mistakes
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Business Estimating Skills 101 for Publishers
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Growing Your Publishing Business Without Outside Capital
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Aiming for 70%: You only need to hit seven out of ten, but you can’t miss three in a row
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Big Time Marketing Ideas on a Small Budget—A Very, Very Small Budget
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Seven Principles that Can Drive the Marketing of Your Children’s Book
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