Episode #14 - Defining Our Generational Voice: An Interview With Tom Pfeifer

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Welcome to the podcast where relationships, confidence, and

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determination, all converge into an amazing, heartfelt experience.

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This is Speaking From The Heart.

Joshua: 00:00:11

Welcome back to episode 14 of Speaking From The Heart.

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Today we have Tom Pfeifer, who will be joining us.

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He is the owner and founder of Consistent Voice Communications LLC.

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The purpose of his business is to discover the unique voice of small

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businesses, associations, politicians, and individuals, and to consistently

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promote that voice through all types of communication styles.

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He is a former Southern California journalist.

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He has won awards from the Associated Press, United Press International

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and others for his individual writing and group coverage.

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He was, for 15 years, a journalist and also press secretary to the senior

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Republican house member of the Judiciary Committee, providing a voice during

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the impeachment trial, a President Bill Clinton, and it was soon elevated to

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communications director, where he honed his skills in the art of persuasion

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through a variety of traditional and new media, which has garnered

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international coverage for his principle on a variety of issues ranging from

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terrorism to the late Michael Jackson.

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Today's interview was really exciting because of Tom's rich career and

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getting to know him about all the stories that he had is something that

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for me, I felt, a great privilege to have him school me, the podcast host

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of this show, to be able to understand a lot more about his rich career.

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And with that, let's go to the episode.

Joshua: 00:01:44

We have Tom Pfeifer with us today.

Joshua: 00:01:46

Tom, thanks for sharing your heart with us.

Tom: 00:01:49

My pleasure, Joshua.

Joshua: 00:01:51

Tom and I have gone back for a few years now.

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I was involved with a Toastmasters club, which has been a consistent

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theme for many of my guests that are appearing for the first time on here,

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and I always encourage everyone to check out a local Toastmasters club.

Joshua: 00:02:07

You make excellent connections with people and you network with

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so many different individuals.

Joshua: 00:02:13

Tom, I know that you are an entrepreneur and you have been

Joshua: 00:02:17

running your own business.

Joshua: 00:02:19

Do you mind telling us a little bit about your business and why you got

Joshua: 00:02:22

started with it, just to start us out?

Tom: 00:02:25

Sure.

Tom: 00:02:27

Well, I've been a writer for more than 35 years, professional writer, and when

Tom: 00:02:33

my boss, who was a congressman from California, Elton Gallegly, who you never

Tom: 00:02:38

heard of, I decided to retire in 2013.

Tom: 00:02:41

I retired with him; sent that I hung out with my shingle for the first

Tom: 00:02:46

time and I had TJP writing services was the name of my company at that

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point, and I was just doing marketing and, press releases and whatnot for

Tom: 00:02:57

different companies, and it involved into Consistent Voice Communications

Tom: 00:03:03

later that year, September of 2013.

Tom: 00:03:07

Right now I encourage people to write their books, and particularly

Tom: 00:03:12

entrepreneurs and speakers because it's a great way to get out and be

Tom: 00:03:19

recognized in your field as an expert in your field, which speakers

Tom: 00:03:23

need to be experts in their field.

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It's a great way to bring credibility and increase your earning potential.

Joshua: 00:03:33

Absolutely, and as many people know with my business too, I really am

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trying to get people to also realize that the basic fundamentals, especially with

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starting out with public speaking, is all about just understanding more of not just

Joshua: 00:03:49

your speaking voice, essentially how you project yourself, but also the messaging

Joshua: 00:03:54

behind it, but speaking of messaging, Tom, when I read your bio, I was really

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impressed by just the impressive history that you've had as a reporter, and I

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don't think I even knew that, for as many years as I've known you, that you

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won awards with the Associated Press, and you've been working with all kinds

Joshua: 00:04:14

of different people on Capitol Hill as you were a reporter, could you tell

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us a little bit about that experience?

Joshua: 00:04:20

Because not many people, probably really understand the beat that you have to

Joshua: 00:04:25

do, and I know that you might have some really unique stories as a result of that.

Tom: 00:04:32

I think I do.

Tom: 00:04:33

I was the kind of reporter who made friends with the janitors and the

Tom: 00:04:36

secretaries and whatnot; knew their names, knew their kids, knew their

Tom: 00:04:41

husband's names, and knew their birthdays and paid off one time when the police

Tom: 00:04:49

chief for police shot himself in the butt on weekend, he was on vacation-

Joshua: 00:04:55

Wait, an officer actually shot themselves in the butt?

Tom: 00:04:58

Chief of police.

Joshua: 00:04:59

Wow.

Joshua: 00:05:01

That's, that is hilarious.

Joshua: 00:05:02

Go on, I'm sorry.

Tom: 00:05:06

Oh, I thought it was hilarious too, particularly since one of the lower rung

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people in the police station, when I came back from vacation, ran up to me

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and said, "where the hell have you been?"

Tom: 00:05:18

I said, "I've been on vacation.

Tom: 00:05:20

Why?"

Tom: 00:05:20

She goes, "come here."

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She pulls me over the side.

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She whispers to me they have a press release ready, but they're not going to

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give it to you unless you ask for it.

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I said, "what press release?"

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She said, "boss shot himself in the butt over the weekend."

Tom: 00:05:36

I marched into the PIO office and had this big grin on my face

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and I said, "I understand you have a press release for me."

Tom: 00:05:47

That was a fun story.

Joshua: 00:05:49

I bet.

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I bet you got a lot of reactions outta that one.

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It's like, I got the scoop, but I'm curious too, you said that you made

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friends with the janitors and secretaries.

Joshua: 00:06:02

Now let's put this in context.

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I know that for some people they're probably scratching their heads and

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thinking, "why would you ever make friends with people like that?",

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because I know for a reporter, because I studied journalism in college, you

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try to get the scoop wherever you can and it's all about who you know

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and the connections that you make.

Joshua: 00:06:22

Why the janitors, why the secretaries?

Tom: 00:06:25

Because they know what's going on.

Tom: 00:06:27

I grew up in the blue collar family, so it comes naturally to

Tom: 00:06:31

me to be friends with these people.

Tom: 00:06:33

They're my kind of people, and, when something happens in their company, they

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want to feel important too, and if you're friends with them, they want to tell you

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what's going on, and that's how I got the scoop over the Los Angeles Times.

Tom: 00:06:49

In the Los Angeles Daily News, our little Podunk Senior Valley Enterprise

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got the scoop on this story because I had had friends in low places.

Joshua: 00:07:01

When you were growing up, and you mentioned that your family at least

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brought you up in a blue collar situation.

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Tell us a little bit about that.

Joshua: 00:07:09

Was that something that really made an influence for you

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to enter into journalism?

Joshua: 00:07:13

Was that a catalyst for you to get into that industry, that business?

Tom: 00:07:19

No.

Joshua: 00:07:21

Well, hey, at least you are straight up with me about it.

Tom: 00:07:25

No, not at all.

Tom: 00:07:26

In fact, my aunt one time said, when I told her I was going to be a writer, she

Tom: 00:07:31

said, "well, just don't be a journalist.

Tom: 00:07:36

Make me a promise you won't be a journalist.", so I promised

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her I wouldn't be a journalist.

Tom: 00:07:41

Probably what killed her, but, oh well.

Joshua: 00:07:45

Well, if it wasn't for your family, then tell me a

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little bit about your dad and mom.

Joshua: 00:07:50

I'm kind of curious as to how they nurtured you growing up and got you to

Joshua: 00:07:55

at least move into this direction; maybe not influence you, but at least move you.

Tom: 00:08:02

Well, they were against me, going into the writing business.

Tom: 00:08:06

Nobody ever made money writing.

Tom: 00:08:09

It was a laughable goal in my family was to be a writer, because nobody had

Tom: 00:08:15

ever even gone to college in my family.

Joshua: 00:08:18

Oh wow.

Tom: 00:08:19

They didn't nurture me to be a writer.

Tom: 00:08:21

They nurtured me to grow up and do what I wanted to do, but, uh-

Joshua: 00:08:26

Oh, go ahead.

Joshua: 00:08:26

I'm sorry.

Tom: 00:08:27

But writing was not in their top goals for me.

Tom: 00:08:31

They wanted me to be a lawyer or a doctor or something of that nature.

Joshua: 00:08:36

Was there something that you read that maybe influenced you

Joshua: 00:08:41

to be a journalist, or was there other people that maybe inspired

Joshua: 00:08:45

you to enter into the field?

Joshua: 00:08:47

I know for myself, I could easily say that my parents were also a big

Joshua: 00:08:51

detractor for me to not go into the direction I did, which was have a

Joshua: 00:08:56

political science degree, do all this.

Joshua: 00:08:58

I had the aspirations too, of wanting to be a lawyer, but I completely shifted

Joshua: 00:09:03

gears after the Great Recession of 2008.

Joshua: 00:09:06

I knew that wasn't going to be a viable career path.

Joshua: 00:09:09

Was there something that maybe shifted you, maybe gave you influence to do that,

Joshua: 00:09:14

because you definitely do some awesome stuff when it relates to not just the

Joshua: 00:09:19

business that you were talking about earlier, but I know that you help others

Joshua: 00:09:23

as a result of writing those stories too, which we'll get into, but is there

Joshua: 00:09:27

something that really propelled you?

Tom: 00:09:29

Well, I knew that Mark Twain and Ernest Hemingway had been journalists,

Tom: 00:09:34

so I figured it was good training, but I'd never planned on being a journalist.

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When I got to California after my construction accident in October of

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1978, I found the community college was only $50 a semester out in California,

Tom: 00:09:50

so I said I'd be a damn fool if I didn't go to school at that point.

Tom: 00:09:54

I took journalism because it was only hands-on writing curriculum they had.

Tom: 00:09:59

I didn't want to learn about writing.

Tom: 00:10:00

I wanted to learn to write.

Tom: 00:10:03

I took that route.

Joshua: 00:10:05

When you did take that route and you got into the job that you

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did with reporting the news for several decades, was there something

Joshua: 00:10:14

that stood out for you in those years that, when you were doing that career?

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In other words, was there somebody or something that helped propel you to

Joshua: 00:10:24

continue doing it for as long as you have?

Joshua: 00:10:26

If so, who's that person and tell us a little bit about them if you don't mind.

Tom: 00:10:31

Bob Sathway was my first writing coach and he came about because at

Tom: 00:10:36

the end of my first year of college, my journalism and instructor came up

Tom: 00:10:40

to me and said, "Tom, as far as I'm concerned, you're already a professional.

Tom: 00:10:44

There's nothing else so I can teach you."

Tom: 00:10:47

I went down to the local newspaper and took my way into

Tom: 00:10:51

an internship, wanted to test it.

Tom: 00:10:54

Bob Sathway was the copy editor.

Tom: 00:10:57

They sent me out on a story.

Tom: 00:10:58

I don't remember what the story was, but I came back and typed it up and handed it.

Tom: 00:11:05

In those days, they marked it up with the number two lead pencil to correct

Tom: 00:11:13

spelling and typos and move words around if need be, and to move paragraphs around,

Tom: 00:11:19

they actually tore the paper and Scotch taped the paragraph in a different spot.

Tom: 00:11:24

I'm sitting back in my chair waiting for the accolades to come in.

Tom: 00:11:29

Bob gets up from his desk and walks over to me, has smoke Marlboro,

Tom: 00:11:34

hanging from his lips, and he looks at me and goes, pulls up my paper

Tom: 00:11:40

in his full lead and scotch tape.

Tom: 00:11:43

Crumpled it up, threw it at my head and said, "rewrite that crap, Pfeifer.

Tom: 00:11:46

I can't turn it into the proof reader like that."

Joshua: 00:11:51

Wow.

Tom: 00:11:52

First person, whoever spoke lowly of my writing.

Tom: 00:11:58

He became a mentor and a friend.

Joshua: 00:12:01

When you have people like him enter your life and they kind

Joshua: 00:12:05

of tear you down and pretty much rebuild you from where you are, which

Joshua: 00:12:09

I've had people in my life that I can name off the top of my head that have

Joshua: 00:12:13

certainly done the same thing and made me the person that I am today.

Joshua: 00:12:17

When you have those sort of people and they're making that influence on you, I

Joshua: 00:12:22

know that the industry itself has changed so much in the last several decades,

Joshua: 00:12:27

especially with the rise of the Internet and even having news on demand where we

Joshua: 00:12:32

pick up our phone and essentially can read it at our own leisure whenever we want.

Joshua: 00:12:37

Would your mentor be surprised as to how far we've come with that, or would he

Joshua: 00:12:42

have been probably scared of all these advances, and either or, what would you

Joshua: 00:12:47

say is, well, lemme put it this way.

Joshua: 00:12:51

What would've been the reaction of him knowing all these things

Joshua: 00:12:55

that have changed, especially in the world of journalism?

Joshua: 00:12:58

What would he say to you and how would you navigate through that?

Tom: 00:13:03

Hmm, that's good question, because we never really had

Tom: 00:13:07

any of those conversations.

Tom: 00:13:10

When I went into journalism, computers were just coming out.

Tom: 00:13:15

I had to bring my own manual typewriter in because we didn't

Tom: 00:13:18

have enough electrical outlets for electric type typewriter.

Tom: 00:13:23

We were in the early beginnings of computers and whatnot when he passed away.

Joshua: 00:13:30

Would he have ever imagined, I guess is the question, of holding it on

Joshua: 00:13:33

your phone and being able to research it, having that sort of technology.

Joshua: 00:13:38

Even if you don't know the answer as to what he might thought of, would you

Joshua: 00:13:41

have ever thought, even as you were growing up in the journalism industry,

Joshua: 00:13:46

seeing what we see today as just having so many news stories on hand.

Tom: 00:13:54

No.

Joshua: 00:13:55

Yeah.

Tom: 00:13:56

Never would've pictured it.

Joshua: 00:13:58

I think so too, especially myself, I think that it's usually

Joshua: 00:14:02

very tough to conceptualize that.

Joshua: 00:14:04

We wouldn't have never, ever had this much information at our hands, but,

Joshua: 00:14:09

Tom, I want to pivot into really the essence of what you're doing now because

Joshua: 00:14:14

you definitely have had a long career of doing exactly what you are doing

Joshua: 00:14:20

even right now, which is essentially telling stories whether they are

Joshua: 00:14:23

factual, not factual, or all in between.

Joshua: 00:14:27

I will put a link into the show notes about Tom's business, which

Joshua: 00:14:31

is Consistent Voice Communications.

Joshua: 00:14:34

Tom, as a business owner and somebody that works with clients specifically relating

Joshua: 00:14:39

to working on their story, what's one piece of advice that you typically give

Joshua: 00:14:44

to someone that is starting out, they have no idea where they want to go with their

Joshua: 00:14:50

story, or what their idea is of a story.

Joshua: 00:14:53

What is usually your first step working with them?

Tom: 00:14:57

My first step working with them is to try to figure out what they

Tom: 00:15:01

have to say, and what's important to them, and you ask questions and you

Tom: 00:15:07

ask questions, and you ask questions until they have a clear in their own

Tom: 00:15:11

mind what they want to write about.

Tom: 00:15:14

It's not up to me to tell them what to write about.

Tom: 00:15:16

It's up to them to figure it out on their own, but I can ask a lot of questions

Tom: 00:15:21

and lead them to where they want to go.

Joshua: 00:15:25

Is there a process that you walk them through other than

Joshua: 00:15:28

maybe showing them what they are essentially developing on their own?

Joshua: 00:15:32

Is there something that you help them see when they're bringing you that idea,

Joshua: 00:15:37

or they're bringing you that concept that they want to write out as a story?

Tom: 00:15:44

Well, let me ask you this.

Tom: 00:15:47

What's your first book on?

Joshua: 00:15:49

Good question.

Joshua: 00:15:50

I've been playing that around actually in my head, and I'll even let the audience

Joshua: 00:15:54

know that one of the first things that I hope to write about at some point is

Joshua: 00:15:59

about the stories that I've had growing up as a kid and leading up to where I'm

Joshua: 00:16:05

at now, being an owner and a podcast host.

Joshua: 00:16:08

I really want to get a lot more, not just my autobiography, but I want to

Joshua: 00:16:13

have it so that there's lessons built into it so that people can relate to

Joshua: 00:16:18

them, because I think that's really important to have lessons relating to

Joshua: 00:16:22

the mini stories that I want to write up.

Tom: 00:16:25

Right.

Tom: 00:16:26

You need to have a point.

Joshua: 00:16:29

How do you flush out a point with somebody?

Joshua: 00:16:32

What's your process with that?

Tom: 00:16:34

Usually I ask him what the point of the story is, and you'd be surprised

Tom: 00:16:39

where I've been and people say, "I don't think there is a point to it."

Tom: 00:16:44

So then I ask them, "well, why did you tell it?"

Tom: 00:16:49

There's the old story about how my generation used to tell the story about

Tom: 00:16:54

how we walked to school, four feet of snow, three miles up hill, both ways.

Tom: 00:17:00

Hell of a story, but what's the point to it?

Tom: 00:17:06

The point is that we had life hard, so get off your whippy asses and get to work.

Joshua: 00:17:12

Yes, let's get to work.

Joshua: 00:17:14

Let's do it, and I know that sometimes that for even some of the generation

Joshua: 00:17:19

that we have now, that'll be like, "whoa, wait, I actually have to

Joshua: 00:17:23

do something other than get be on my phone or be on my computer?"

Joshua: 00:17:26

I know you could tell me that, Tom.

Joshua: 00:17:28

I understand that completely.

Tom: 00:17:30

Mm-hmm.

Joshua: 00:17:31

When you do have that point, and you do have those facts that back

Joshua: 00:17:35

it up, I think what I really want to ask is, when you are telling your

Joshua: 00:17:40

story, what's your point to your story?

Joshua: 00:17:43

Meaning, I'm not just talking about your life story and how it relates

Joshua: 00:17:48

to the bigger picture, but how do you resonate with people essentially?

Joshua: 00:17:52

Because I think a lot of us want to resonate and they want to have

Joshua: 00:17:56

connection, and I know personally for myself, sometimes I struggle with

Joshua: 00:18:01

that in articulating it because of my autism and what I've been through as a

Joshua: 00:18:06

result of all these life experiences.

Joshua: 00:18:08

When we have this mindset, right, of what we think is going to be the point

Joshua: 00:18:13

of our story, how do we get out of our own traps essentially when it comes

Joshua: 00:18:19

to sharing it with another audience?

Tom: 00:18:24

Well, you just share it and see what flies.

Tom: 00:18:28

If it doesn't work the first time, then you figure out why it didn't work.

Tom: 00:18:33

What words do you need to change?

Tom: 00:18:34

What emphasis do you need to change?

Tom: 00:18:37

Does the story even work at all for the point that you're trying to make?

Tom: 00:18:42

It's trial and error.

Tom: 00:18:43

Everything in life is trial and error.

Joshua: 00:18:45

Yeah.

Tom: 00:18:46

That goes with the speaking and the storytelling business.

Joshua: 00:18:51

Speaking of the storytelling business, being that you've been involved

Joshua: 00:18:55

with it for so long, as I've mentioned repeatedly now, I want my audience to

Joshua: 00:18:59

know and really drill down that you have a lot of knowledge that you can impart.

Joshua: 00:19:04

I really want them to know this, and that's why I, I keep emphasizing it,

Joshua: 00:19:08

but with that said, I know that you've probably have worked with a lot of

Joshua: 00:19:12

people over the years and maybe even more particularly with your business,

Joshua: 00:19:16

and without getting into any names or anybody that maybe you don't want

Joshua: 00:19:21

to disclose, tell me about somebody that you've worked with that you have

Joshua: 00:19:26

seen tremendous success with, and why?

Joshua: 00:19:29

Why was that a success story?

Tom: 00:19:31

My publisher, Wayne Lee, was a tremendous influence on me.

Tom: 00:19:40

He's also a great mentor, no nonsense Texan.

Tom: 00:19:45

When I was working for him for about three weeks, ran into him in the bathroom,

Tom: 00:19:49

and he's washing his hands and he stares at me through the mirror and says, "How

Tom: 00:19:55

do you like working here, Pfeifer?"

Tom: 00:19:58

I said, "well, I like it just fine Wayne.

Tom: 00:20:00

I think I'm doing some good stories and having a good time at it," and he

Tom: 00:20:05

says, turns to me and he is wiping his hands off and he looks at me and he

Tom: 00:20:10

says, "Well, if I was a younger man in as honor as I used to be, I tell you,

Tom: 00:20:14

I have a hard time working with me with my foot up your butt, the way you spell.

Tom: 00:20:17

You ever hear a G D dictionary?"

Joshua: 00:20:22

Wow.

Tom: 00:20:25

Wayne was a great influence on me and, still kept in touch with his

Tom: 00:20:30

daughter, who lives in Kansas now.

Tom: 00:20:34

Has two grown kids.

Joshua: 00:20:37

When you see people like Wayne that have been really successful and

Joshua: 00:20:41

have been able to take it to the next level where that career was and before

Joshua: 00:20:47

you worked with 'em, and even after you worked with them, do you get a sense of

Joshua: 00:20:52

joy out of that in terms of not just the successes that they have, but do you feel

Joshua: 00:20:58

that you have a little bit of a part of that, and when you feel that way, how

Joshua: 00:21:03

does that make you feel, because knowing that you have instituted and help somebody

Joshua: 00:21:08

to kind of move it from point A to point B, how has that shaped you into the Tom

Joshua: 00:21:14

Pfeifer that I'm talking to right now?

Tom: 00:21:17

Let me give you a little anecdote about Bob Woodward.

Tom: 00:21:21

When I was working for Congress, Bob Woodward came to speak to the Republican

Tom: 00:21:26

Communications Association, which I was a part of because I worked for a Republican,

Tom: 00:21:33

and I walked into the room and he was the only one in there, and he gets up

Tom: 00:21:36

and he walks over to me, he puts out his hand and says, "Hi, I'm Bob Woodward."

Tom: 00:21:41

I said, "Well, I know who you are, but let me explain who I am because I

Tom: 00:21:45

doubt you very much you know who I am."

Tom: 00:21:49

That was a eye opener for me because he was real and he didn't expect that

Tom: 00:21:57

anybody actually knew who he was.

Tom: 00:22:00

He probably did realize that people knew who he was, but that

Tom: 00:22:04

was his way of disarming people.

Joshua: 00:22:06

Mm-hmm.

Tom: 00:22:08

And, it worked.

Joshua: 00:22:09

You are pretty much a person in which not only have you worked with those

Joshua: 00:22:16

individuals where, like a Bob Woodward, that are walking down the corridor

Joshua: 00:22:21

and you think like, "oh boy, they're never going to approach me like that.

Joshua: 00:22:24

I'm just a nobody.

Joshua: 00:22:25

I'm just, I'm just here to get the story."

Joshua: 00:22:27

Do you feel that nowadays, as we see this culture of political change happening,

Joshua: 00:22:35

especially, not to get into politics, but I'm kind of curious what your

Joshua: 00:22:39

thought is about all the things that are happening in this world, and it seems

Joshua: 00:22:44

like there's this tension about trying to get something done and to get a

Joshua: 00:22:49

slash on the board for getting a point, essentially, for doing X, Y, and Z.

Joshua: 00:22:56

Comparing it to where it was when you were even on the beat, do you think that things

Joshua: 00:23:03

have gotten worse, gotten better, gotten maybe, nah, nothing's really changed.

Joshua: 00:23:08

I think it's just more awareness of it.

Joshua: 00:23:10

What do you say has been some of the biggest changes as a whole with just

Joshua: 00:23:17

being able to talk and have an open communication, and that might even include

Joshua: 00:23:21

having stories that go along with it.

Joshua: 00:23:24

Do you sense that there's a shift happening?

Tom: 00:23:27

Oh, major shift starting with with Newt Gingrich.

Joshua: 00:23:30

Mm-hmm.

Tom: 00:23:31

Newt Gingrich decided that the old boys network in the Congress was no

Tom: 00:23:37

longer going to work, and we were going to have partisanship and it grew ugly.

Joshua: 00:23:42

Yeah.

Tom: 00:23:43

I worked for a very conservative congressman in California, and

Tom: 00:23:49

I was not conservative at all.

Tom: 00:23:53

First column I wrote for him, he came back with my desk and he says, "well,

Tom: 00:23:57

that's a really good column, Pfeifer, but I'm really surprised you wrote it."

Tom: 00:24:01

I said, "just cause I wrote it, doesn't believe I believe a word of it."

Tom: 00:24:07

We worked together for 15 years.

Tom: 00:24:10

When he decided to retire, he started referring to me as his token socialist.

Tom: 00:24:16

He used to introduce me to his constituents as his token socialist,

Tom: 00:24:21

which I had to agree with.

Joshua: 00:24:26

How did that make you feel that he did that?

Tom: 00:24:29

I thought it was hilarious.

Joshua: 00:24:30

Yeah.

Joshua: 00:24:33

Tom, we're almost at the end of our time, and I know that you are doing a lot of

Joshua: 00:24:38

things as it relates to your business, so I want to give you a few moments to

Joshua: 00:24:42

tell our audience a little bit about it as a whole, make your sales pitch to

Joshua: 00:24:47

us about how we can reach out to you.

Joshua: 00:24:50

Obviously, I'll put all this in the show notes, but I'll give you the last few

Joshua: 00:24:54

minutes to tell a little bit about that.

Tom: 00:24:57

Sure.

Tom: 00:24:57

I'm a writing and speaking coach now, certified speaking coach,

Tom: 00:25:01

and been professional writer and editor for more than 35 years.

Tom: 00:25:07

I am on a mission to have people write their books.

Tom: 00:25:10

Everybody has a story to tell and there's somebody out there who needs to hear it.

Tom: 00:25:16

In words of Mark Brown in 1991, I believe, World Champion of Public Speaking.

Tom: 00:25:23

You can connect with me through my website, yourconsistentvoice.com, or

Tom: 00:25:31

you want to set up a 30 minute free, no obligation phone call with me to discuss

Tom: 00:25:38

your ideas, go to connectwithtom.com, or you can call me: (540) 823-6787.

Joshua: 00:25:51

Thank you, Tom, and I have to say that I know that your career has

Joshua: 00:25:56

been impeccable and that you are one of those people from a generation that is

Joshua: 00:26:03

quickly fading, and I'm glad that I got to record this with you today because

Joshua: 00:26:09

I think it's really important to know that there is a need for continuing to

Joshua: 00:26:14

share our stories, and both the written form, along with the oral form, are both

Joshua: 00:26:20

equally as important to be able to do that and arrive variety of different

Joshua: 00:26:25

mediums, and you, sir, definitely have inspired me so much with many of the

Joshua: 00:26:29

things that you have done over your career and what you have shared with me,

Joshua: 00:26:34

even with our friendship that we've had.

Joshua: 00:26:36

Thanks so much for taking some time with us today to share some of those

Joshua: 00:26:40

experiences with us, and thank you for being on Speaking From the Heart.

Joshua: 00:26:44

It's been really a great time with you.

Tom: 00:26:46

Thank you, Joshua, but I'm not going anywhere real soon.

Joshua: 00:26:50

I hope you don't, and I will stress that more than anything else.

Joshua: 00:26:55

Thanks, Tom.

Tom: 00:26:55

Thank you.

Joshua: 00:26:57

I really enjoyed our interview with Tom, and Tom is one of those

Joshua: 00:27:01

people that is going to give it to you straight and to the point, and that's

Joshua: 00:27:06

what I really enjoyed about Tom's appearance on this show because for

Joshua: 00:27:10

many of us, we often don't get that opportunity to meet people that have that

Joshua: 00:27:16

influence over us so that we can learn so much about not only ourselves as an

Joshua: 00:27:21

individual, but through the stories and through the aspirations that we learn

Joshua: 00:27:26

as a result result of all that, we can garner so much information from that.

Joshua: 00:27:31

Now, Tom is one of those people that I have known through a number of years

Joshua: 00:27:36

because of Toastmasters and through his unique experiences that he's had through

Joshua: 00:27:42

Consistent Voice Communications, which for those that are really interested

Joshua: 00:27:46

in working with Tom, I'm going to throw a link into the show notes.

Joshua: 00:27:49

He will help you with getting that story, and he's done a number of

Joshua: 00:27:52

workshops personally that I've been able to help him critique and evaluate

Joshua: 00:27:57

and get him to the next level as it relates to that amongst a group of peers

Joshua: 00:28:02

that are aimed towards the same goal.

Joshua: 00:28:04

Tom, when you're listening to this, thank you for being here and talking

Joshua: 00:28:08

through a lot of this with us.

Joshua: 00:28:09

There are a couple of things that I really enjoyed about our talk

Joshua: 00:28:13

that I just want to point out.

Joshua: 00:28:15

It was one of the things that he said in the beginning that I really enjoyed

Joshua: 00:28:18

and that resonates with me, and it made me think a lot about the times

Joshua: 00:28:22

that I went through my early stages of working with the Commonwealth of

Joshua: 00:28:25

Pennsylvania, and he said to know the janitors and the secretaries.

Joshua: 00:28:30

I think that's an important lesson for all my professional people out there

Joshua: 00:28:34

that have an established career that are figuring out what's important,

Joshua: 00:28:38

what is needed, what is absolutely important for all of us to be able to

Joshua: 00:28:43

move forward from point A to point B.

Joshua: 00:28:46

It isn't just about knowing the influencers, it's about knowing the

Joshua: 00:28:51

people that know the people that get the scoop, and I love that Tom took

Joshua: 00:28:55

advantage of that in his early days, especially with many of the mentors

Joshua: 00:28:58

that he talked about throughout the show, and he really got to the heart of

Joshua: 00:29:02

it when he talked about this important point of the janitors and secretaries

Joshua: 00:29:07

because for me, if you don't have those relationships with people of all various

Joshua: 00:29:13

backgrounds, it does create a big shift.

Joshua: 00:29:16

There's a shift that is happening even right now, and Tom and I talked about

Joshua: 00:29:20

this during the episode about how this shift of partisanship and even the things

Joshua: 00:29:24

that are happening in the political realm have been happening quite a lot.

Joshua: 00:29:28

It isn't about just having those differences.

Joshua: 00:29:32

It's about having that communication style so that we are able to tell our stories.

Joshua: 00:29:36

We are able to learn and gain influence over those people that are necessary for

Joshua: 00:29:41

us to grow as not only professionals, but also personal individuals as well.

Joshua: 00:29:47

Tom reminds me of a generation that had to work very hard

Joshua: 00:29:51

to get to where they were at.

Joshua: 00:29:52

It was based on merits.

Joshua: 00:29:55

Merit is something that you learn to attribute to all the things that you

Joshua: 00:29:59

grow, not only as an individual, but also the things that you do as a person

Joshua: 00:30:05

overall through the various tasks, whether they're repetitive or you're

Joshua: 00:30:10

learning new things about the business that you're trying to enter into.

Joshua: 00:30:15

The same sort of practice still happens today with apprenticeships.

Joshua: 00:30:18

When you're talking about people that are electricians, they're working on plumbing,

Joshua: 00:30:22

they're working on even the electrical grid of the United States, even beyond.

Joshua: 00:30:27

Those are the people that help to drive the ingenuity and the processes that we

Joshua: 00:30:32

get to enjoy even to this day, and it doesn't matter what your background is.

Joshua: 00:30:36

It doesn't matter where you're coming from in terms of country of origin.

Joshua: 00:30:40

It doesn't matter where your knowledge sits in.

Joshua: 00:30:44

It's about the important fact that you're able to provide something to

Joshua: 00:30:47

somebody that allows them to go to the next level, and Tom really honed

Joshua: 00:30:52

in on all those individuals that really flourished with him, allowed

Joshua: 00:30:58

him to get ready for what was ahead.

Joshua: 00:31:01

He touched on this, which I hesitated in even talking about it myself, and

Joshua: 00:31:07

for those that had been listening to my podcast, know exactly what I'm

alking about when it comes to: 00:31:10

parents.

alking about when it comes to: 00:31:16

I know, parents are sometimes a big drag.

alking about when it comes to: 00:31:19

Sometimes they're really authoritarian figures that are

alking about when it comes to: 00:31:23

trying to just ruin everybody's life.

alking about when it comes to: 00:31:26

Maybe when it's your pre-teen or even a teen, maybe in your early twenties.

alking about when it comes to: 00:31:30

"Mom, Dad, I don't know why you're here.

alking about when it comes to: 00:31:33

I don't know why you keep on bothering me.

alking about when it comes to: 00:31:35

Leave me alone."

alking about when it comes to: 00:31:38

I was one of those people, and I realize that influence isn't just based on our

alking about when it comes to: 00:31:43

parents, it's about the people that we associate with, and I think for me,

alking about when it comes to: 00:31:49

Tom talked about that for not just the reactions that he would get from being

alking about when it comes to: 00:31:55

part of the room in which he was doing his work, but the work that he was doing

alking about when it comes to: 00:32:01

was instrumental to communicating to a whole new generation that was coming up

alking about when it comes to: 00:32:06

that would value the importance of the knowledge that would be gained from people

alking about when it comes to: 00:32:11

that worked on the Hill, specifically Capitol Hill, and we all know that Capitol

alking about when it comes to: 00:32:17

Hill is where a lot of deals happen.

alking about when it comes to: 00:32:20

Deals happen for a variety of different reasons, whether they are to pass budgets,

alking about when it comes to: 00:32:24

whether it's to move legislation, to make things become a law, it is all the

alking about when it comes to: 00:32:28

things that make democracy important for the foundation of our country, the

alking about when it comes to: 00:32:34

United States, and even for those people that are outside of the United States,

alking about when it comes to: 00:32:39

I know that it could be very challenging sometimes to even get cooperation from

alking about when it comes to: 00:32:44

your own government when it comes to that.

alking about when it comes to: 00:32:46

I know for even us, we have those difficulties here in the United

alking about when it comes to: 00:32:50

States, but what makes this beautiful is that we have a voice.

alking about when it comes to: 00:32:55

We have an advocate for that, and that is through our media.

alking about when it comes to: 00:33:00

Tom defined a generation in which I know personally, I am forever

alking about when it comes to: 00:33:05

grateful for being an Alvernia University graduate myself, majoring in

alking about when it comes to: 00:33:10

communications, specifically journalism.

alking about when it comes to: 00:33:14

I had a professor named Dr.

alking about when it comes to: 00:33:15

Marc DiPaolo, who would teach those basics for me, and Marc was one of

alking about when it comes to: 00:33:20

those individuals that flourished with that, with the use of technology

alking about when it comes to: 00:33:24

that was rising during that time.

alking about when it comes to: 00:33:27

Learning to be able to edit, learning to be able to be succinct, being able

alking about when it comes to: 00:33:32

to run what was the school newspaper, the Alvernian, allowed me to be

alking about when it comes to: 00:33:37

able to communicate to a generation myself: my own generation, and I think

alking about when it comes to: 00:33:43

that's what is really important to understand that there's no difference

alking about when it comes to: 00:33:46

to what I've been through almost 18 years ago to what it is today.

alking about when it comes to: 00:33:51

We still do that communication, whether it's through the various apps

that we have on our phone: 00:33:55

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok,

that we have on our phone: 00:34:02

you name it, whatever's on your phone, we all have those variety of ways in

that we have on our phone: 00:34:06

which we communicate with each other.

that we have on our phone: 00:34:09

Tom set the foundation amongst a lot of different people, including Bob Woodward,

that we have on our phone: 00:34:15

which he talked about being able to meet when he was part of the Press Corps.

that we have on our phone: 00:34:20

Tom is somebody that I have been fortunate enough to realize that we are

that we have on our phone: 00:34:26

going to lose that generation, and we are going to need to learn very quickly

that we have on our phone: 00:34:31

about the importance of getting back on track on what's important to report.

that we have on our phone: 00:34:36

Here's my next report to tell you, almost like what the late Walter

that we have on our phone: 00:34:40

Kronkite would tell you every night.

that we have on our phone: 00:34:43

This isn't just about the news, this is about the world.

that we have on our phone: 00:34:48

This isn't just about what's happening in your backyard, it's

that we have on our phone: 00:34:51

what's happening in your life.

that we have on our phone: 00:34:53

It's not just about the things that we do.

that we have on our phone: 00:34:56

It's about how we can have repercussions and opposite reactions as a result of

that we have on our phone: 00:35:02

ingesting and being able to learn all the different types of information

that we have on our phone: 00:35:06

that we have at our disposal.

that we have on our phone: 00:35:09

In other words, we take it for granted.

that we have on our phone: 00:35:14

Your Speaking Voice, the business that I started, isn't necessarily

that we have on our phone: 00:35:18

about how we can articulate ourselves and how we can create best values.

that we have on our phone: 00:35:23

I know that for many episodes previous to this, I talked about those values and

that we have on our phone: 00:35:28

I talked about the importance of being able to understand those values as it

that we have on our phone: 00:35:31

relates to the bigger context, but what would it look like if you actually took

that we have on our phone: 00:35:36

some of the lessons of what Tom learned in his generation and we applied it to

that we have on our phone: 00:35:40

our generation today, and we're able to create value for ourselves, whether that

that we have on our phone: 00:35:46

is through a news report, whether that is through creating stories in which

that we have on our phone: 00:35:50

he's able to do for his clients, or, what would it look like if we would be able

that we have on our phone: 00:35:56

to rewrite our own stories so that we can tell a great story that has not only

that we have on our phone: 00:36:02

the opportunities in which we succeeded in, but we also talk about the failures

that we have on our phone: 00:36:07

that made us become who we are today?

that we have on our phone: 00:36:11

That is what's really important, and I think that for many of us, those

that we have on our phone: 00:36:16

are the lessons that we need to gain so that we can continue to grow not

that we have on our phone: 00:36:20

only inside, but also outside, for a whole new generation to learn.

that we have on our phone: 00:36:27

Thanks for listening to episode 14 of Speaking from the Heart,

that we have on our phone: 00:36:30

and I look forward to hearing from your heart very soon.

Outro: 00:36:34

Thanks for listening.

Outro: 00:36:35

For more information about our podcast and future shows, search for Speaking From

Outro: 00:36:40

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Outro: 00:36:45

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Outro: 00:36:51

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