How I changed my Financial Blueprint – Video
A couple of months ago I did my no.2 speech at Toastmasters and it was called “How I changed my Financial Blueprint” and it went pretty well. It was about a book I read called “Secrets of the Millionaire Mind” by T Harv Eker, and the effect that it had on my finances.
I posted the text for the speech here and now I have a video of it kindly recorded by another Club 59 member, Steve Cosmic.
Watching yourself speak is very educational. You can see all the little mistakes you made and improve upon them next time.
Let me know what you think.
I hope to post more videos of future speeches, so watch this space!
March 19th, 2010 at 1:22 pm
Nice one Jake… well delivered. You’re giong up at the ends of your sentences Jake! Fight it ! It’s that canadian/american intonation!!! ARRGHH!!
As for the content… well after I gathered you’re on hundreds of thousands of pounds a year I couldn’t really hear anything else as I was thinking how well you’d done for yourself!
Well done Jake. Followed the dream and made it happen. Just what you had planned.
me? well I am happy but to make more money I will have to take big risks. Know a book on risks and how to assess them?!
P.s. – honestly I think you appeared to be thinking about how you delivered that speech too carefully, RELAX MAN!
March 20th, 2010 at 3:24 am
Thanks Charlie! It’s true that my intonation has changed over time; it also helps people here to understand me more. I sometimes hear other English people who’ve been here longer than me and their intonation has changed even more! I’ve also noticed that Canadians sound more sing-songey than Americans who can often sound a bit monotone.
It’s true that my dream of making a good living from games (and having fun) is happening, but I have bigger dreams that I’m working towards…
As for risks, it’s true you need to take risks (and opportunities) to succeed, and that you need to speculate to accumulate. I recently took a risk and offered to take on a new role at work which has landed me with the role of Producer. My comfort zone is pushed every day and I’m having to learn a whole bunch of new stuff but it’s very useful stuff. It’s up to me to succeed – success won’t be handed to me on a plate.
Don’t forget that if you take risks you also have to be prepared for failure. “Fail Fast” is a key concept in business i.e. try stuff out, and find out quickly if it’s working or not, and if not, try something else. But eventually you have to stick to something and work hard to finish it.
As for books, try searching Amazon and see if you can find some books on risks if you like, there are tons of great business books out there (I set aside an “education” budget to buy myself such books). Also books about thinking big and thinking positive have made a big difference to me – I’m not the same guy as when I was working at Merlio 🙂 Well OK I’m the same guy but I’ve learned a lot since then and I think differently. Check out the Book Recommendations category on the right hand side of my blog.
I wish you the best of luck in making your dreams happen. Check out some of the other posts on this blog (like the positive thinking ones) – they may be useful to you.
Yes, well observed; that speech was rehearsed a lot and I need to loosen up a bit. My last speech went better, I improve every time – that’s the idea anyway 🙂
March 22nd, 2010 at 12:37 am
Wow Jake, very motivating. Great job!
March 22nd, 2010 at 11:18 am
Thanks for posting this, it is a good speech, and it is nice to see you “in person” after reading your blog for a while 🙂 I really like how lively you are during the presentation, moving around, using wide gestures, and keeping attention on yourself.
As for the speech topic – it is not immediately obvious how what you talk about related to changing “Financial Footprint” – though I guess one’s attitude affects it, but still that link is not clear in the speech. But it probably lies in the area of common sense anyway, and you had little time to speak, so I can understand you concentrating on more novel things – like reviewing one’s negative thoughts, and creating many different accounts.
I enjoyed it a lot, thank you again for sharing this – I guess the audience needed to pay something to get this knowledge from you, and I appreciate getting it for free 😉
March 24th, 2010 at 2:31 am
Thanks Miguel!
Thanks Anton! I agree that it’s not immediately obvious how I changed my Financial Blueprint, and that there is not much time to talk about it in detail. Really the change was from reading the book (and other books about positive thinking in preceding years) and then changing my attitudes in areas like: Being bigger than my problems, educating myself about finances, splitting my income into multiple accounts, which I mentioned in the speech, but there were lots of other great ideas in the books such as “Millionaires think both”.
The audience were just members of Toastmasters and so they pay a very reasonable $10 a month to the club to come along every week and join in. If there is a Toastmasters in your area, I recommend checking it out.
I look forward to posting future videos as I’m encouraged by your feedback.
April 2nd, 2010 at 8:38 pm
Hey Jake. I am just getting into the game industry and came across your site. Excellent advice. I can see how having a clear financial plan affects every aspect of my life. Look forward to seeing more insightful articles. I subscribed to your rss feeds.
April 20th, 2010 at 10:59 am
Hey Jake, I enjoyed your presentation too, and think it’s great how you’ve been pro-active in your own education on money matters and probably elsewhere in your life. Congrats!
I can see what Charlie is getting at in his ‘ps’; there seems to be a slight feeling of too much control, perhaps trying too hard to stick to the script, and not enough of you relaxing in to the presentation. Calm, relaxed breathing, sinking your energy in to the floor, content and happy in yourself, and not trying so hard. I would imaging there’s a lot you can (and probably already do) bring from Aikido in to public speaking.
How much validity there is in what I’m saying, only you’ll know. In any eventuality, I think it’s all good, and there’s certainly no failure, just a learning process and improvement over time.
You know, I sometimes find myself, kinda afraid, because I’m trying too hard to stick to the script, rather than just relaxing more in to a thing, and finding a natural fluidity. I can’t say what the right way is though; and I recently went to see the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra play in Sheffield, and to me, they seem very much like they stuck to the scipt (and sounded fantastic), but then, I’m also a massive hendrix fan, and his best stuff (IMHO) goes way off script, is very intuitive, fluid, emotive and seems to go wherever his spirit takes him!
Hope that helps! 🙂
April 20th, 2010 at 3:59 pm
Thanks for your comments Jamie. I’m still at the stage where I write it all out and memorise it, although I vary the words slightly when I deliver the speech. As I progress I want it to be more natural as you say. There’s just so much to remember, all the body language and voice projection etc.
I’m with you on the music, I love both sorts: very structured well practised pieces, and also improvisation (which I do myself with the blues).
May 5th, 2010 at 5:43 am
Hi mr. sifuentes, many thanks for your comments. Good luck with your career in the game industry and with your financial plan!