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BOOGIE

Barber's Official Opinionated Guide to Instructional Edification

What the heck is BOOGIE?

What the heck is BOOGIE? Good question. BOOGIE stands for Barber’s Official Opinionated Guide to Instructional Edification. Now you know, but you don’t know much more than you did before. But we’ll fix that.

“Barber” is me, Jim Barber. I’ve been speaking, sometimes professionally and sometimes for the fun of it, for over 50 years. And I want to pass along some of the lessons that I’ve learned along the way. So I created BOOGIE, a “truth from the trenches” exploration of both platform tips and business insights.

The platform skills tips are available to the general public. To access the professional insights, you need a membership to Pro Speaker You.

OK, so what is Pro Speaker You?

Another good question! The Pro Speaker You Career Enrichment Center is a website dedicated to advancing the careers of professional speakers. It’s motto is “Make a difference, make a living, have fun doing it”, which pretty much describes pro speaking itself.

Pro Speaker You focuses on the bugaboo that many pro speakers fear – marketing. It offers access to a worldwide speakers directory (Finders Speakers), a compendium of quotations and soundbites from today’s authorities (Who Sez), a news-wire specializing in stories about speaking (Speaking of the News), and even an online store where speakers can find the products and services they need (Stuff 4 Speakers). Pro Speaker You also supports a service to facilitate referrals (The Referrals Registry), a community to exchange ideas with other pro speakers (The Speakers’ Corner), and of course, BOOGIE.

Although Pro Speaker You is open to professional speakers of all levels, it is specifically created for speakers who are just beginning their careers. (And aspiring pro speakers too!) In Pro Speaker You, speakers can get access to the marketing tools they need without busting their budgets.

Notes on using BOOGIE

BOOGIE videos are for both public and professional speakers; the videos on public speaking are available to everyone at no cost, while the videos on speaking professionally are reserved for members of Pro Speaker You and the link to those videos may not work for you.

If a video definition doesn’t have a link to the video:

If you’re a member of Pro Speaker You, just log in and come back to this page.
If you’re not a member of Pro Speaker You, you can easily join here.

History of BOOGIE, Part I

Jim has been speaking since he was about 2 years old. He was rather shy and quiet as a child, so he mostly spoke only when called upon.

Roughly 20 years later, he became a technical instructor and began speaking in front of audiences. Awkward and unsure of himself in the beginning, he slowly began to improve his speaking skills.

Then in 1989, he discovered Toastmasters and his exploration of the art and science of effective public speaking has gone into overdrive.

History of BOOGIE, Part II

About the same time that Jim discovered Toastmasters, he also discovered the National Speakers Association. He promptly joined both NSA and their local chapter, the Florida Speakers Association.

As a professional speaker, Jim has addressed audiences around the world, including the European Space Agency, the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Ontario Hydroelectric, AUTEC (Atlantic Underwater Testing and Evaluation Center), Linköpings Universitet, and NASA.

History of BOOGIE, Part III

Jim has been working with computers and technology for over 50 years (since 1969, to be precise).

His first personal computer was a Radio Shack TRS80 with an astonishing 64 K of memory.
He was exploring the Internet before the World Wide Web was even created.
The April 2000 issue of PC World magazine declared his web site, The Barber Shop, to be a “top ten site” for professional speakers!

So when you combine Jim’s decades of public speaking and professional speaking, and add in his 50+ years of experience with computers and technology, what do you get?

BOOGIE!

Now it’s time to stop reading this and enjoy some BOOGIE videos. BOOGIE on!

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