Category: Fettig, Art

  • Art Fettig, “Pass it on!”

    A dynamic speaker named Bill Sanders invited me to join him one day when he was visiting Jackson prison. That would be around 1980. We went into the maximum security section and visited with prisoners serving life sentences and then we would each gave a little speech and talked with prisoners privately.  I asked one prisoner why he was in prison and he told me he had murdered a couple of people when he was a young man. It was quite an experience and I will never forget the sound of that big gate clanging behind me when we entered.

    I wanted something stronger to share with these men who could well be spending the rest of their live in the prison. I wrote my Self-Esteem Credo and on a later visits I shared it with some prisoners.

    Sometime later I received an e-mail from a New Zealand prison counselor who advised me he had obtained a copy of my Credo from a friend and had been using it with prisoners for many years now and says it makes a real difference in the behavior and attitudes of prisoners that he works with.

    Several years ago thanks to Christopher’s News Notes over a million copies of my   Credo have been distributed to teens.

    The Self Esteem Credo  
    © Art Fettig 

    God made me – I was no accident,  
    No happenstance. I was in God’s plan  
    And He doesn’t make junk, ever.  
    I was born to be a successful human being.  
    I am somebody special, unique,  
    Definitely one of a kind  
    And I love me.  
    That is essential so that   
    I might love you too.  
    I have potentials, yes,  
    There is greatness in me,  
    And if I harness that specialness  
    Then I will write my name  
    In the sands of time with my deeds.  
    Yes, I must worker harder, longer,  
    With greater drive  
    If I am to excel,  
    And I will pay that price.  
    For talents demand daily  
    Care and honing.  
    I was born in God’s image and likeness  
    And I will strive to do God’s will.

  • Art Fettig, “The World At Our Fingertips”

    Dove - A World of Peace
    I wish I could just send out a memo on the Internet and declare peace for all as a special Christmas blessing.

    The other day I heard from a friend in Australia who reads this newsletter. It brought home to me the fact that with the Internet, the whole world is right there at our fingertips. I had an e-mail with photo attachments from a friend in China just two weeks ago. Until I went to the Far East to fight a war at the age of twenty-one, the farthest I had ever been from our home in Detroit was to a beach near Toronto, Ontario.That experience sure broadened my horizons and when I began traveling to Europe with airline passes I felt that I surged light years ahead in my outlook. You’d think that with our modern means of communication we might do a better job of getting along with one another. The war goes on and I haven’t even a clue how we might declare peace and bring the troops home. The one major thing that was not achieved on my wish list again this year was world peace. I just don’t understand why we can find peace for everyone in this world but l’ll sure pray for it on a continuing basis. I wish I could just send out a memo on the Internet and declare peace for all as a special Christmas blessing. 1

  • Aspiring Speakers by Art Fettig

    Just have a fantastic message that will somehow benefit the members of the audience.
    Just have a fantastic message that will somehow benefit the members of the audience.

    My First Professional Speech

    I can remember the day I heard my first professional speaker giving a talk for our railroad group in Battle Creek, Michigan. His name was Herb True Ph.D. and that same day he put me on his team as a humor writer. That meeting changed my life. Many hundreds of times when I was out on the road giving speeches I was approached by members of the audience and they too had a burning passion to become a professional speaker. What is the secret? Pretty simple, really. Just have a fantastic message that will somehow benefit the members of the audience. Oh yes, if you want to be paid a high fee then you had better be the best speaker in the field on that topic and have a brilliant marketing approach.

    Speaking is similar to becoming a successful artist, author, actor, musician, photographer, comedian or even news broadcaster. Many believe they are called but very, very, very few are chosen.

    I have always felt that I was blessed…First to meet Herb True that day and then to have the drive to wade through all of those years of rejection as a part-time author and humorist.

    Could I make a success of it starting out today? I seriously doubt it. Not with my high-school formal education. Not with the competition that is out there today.

    When they started The National Speakers Assn. there were only around three hundred people they could round up who considered themselves “Professional Speakers.” I’ve heard that today there are over a hundred thousand. I believe it.

    Of course there are a lot more slots for professional speakers to fill but still the competition is awesome.

    So what is my advice to aspiring speakers? Don’t try it unless you absolutely have to. If you figure that you won’t be able to take another breath unless you are out there striving as a speaker go for it…but…don’t quit your day job.




  • Art Fettig: How Old?

    Aging
    How old?

    “How old would you be if you didn’t know how old you were?” Satchel Paige a legend in baseball as a relief pitcher said that and it gets a man a thinking. Satchel’s career went on and on and on and on.

    I love that quote. Supposing our date of birth didn’t give us away.? Sometimes now when I am out making a presentation I feel like the guy in that song singing, “I’m just a kid again, doin’ what I did again, singing a song. When the red, red robin comes a bob bob bobbin’ along.” At that time I am light on my feet and energized. And sometimes when I am walking up a hill I feel like Methuselah, the man reported in the Hebrew Bible to have lived the longest at age 969.

    I’m learning that it all has to do with talents and the proper use of those talents in the service of others.

    So how old am I? Well, just a few moments ago when I was sitting at my computer staring at a blank page I was feeling very old but now as I am about to proofread this this newsletter I am feeling much younger. [1]

    References:

    1. ArtFettig.com, March 19, 2018

  • Art Fettig: Seeking Synergism

    Synergism

    Synergism

    Did you ever dip into the meaning of the word “Synergism” synergism (noun) the interaction or cooperation of two or more organizations, substances, or other agents to produce a combined effect greater than the sum of their separate effects.  Ever so often when I encounter that word I have a flood of good memories gushing into my mind.

    Take the years I worked with Dr. G. Herbert True at Notre Dame. When we’d get together creative sparks would fly across the room. He sort of mentored me in the speaking business. My earning and learning took leaps forward under his wing. He claims I saved his life. I think we saved each other’s. But that is another story.

    Terry Pochert, videographer and all around genius.  His hours of shooting videos with me in Newfoundland, Michigan, Texas, Hawaii, and Arizona and tedious, patient days of editing resulted in videos that reached a dozen major industries in the U.S. and Canada.

    Roger Thurgaland worked with me as a free agent at the Grand Trunk Western Railroad. Together we ground out about fifty audio-visual presentations that I might modestly claim helped change the course of that railroad. Roger was a genius at production and he had a voice that could tempt an angel. Our slide shows, including Operation Lifesaver, (prior to video) are said to have reached millions in conjunction with railroad safety programs. I would hand Roger a tattered sorry script and he would go into our sound room and come out a few hours later with a sound track that would keep me smiling for weeks. What a joy to work with.

    Greg Brayton, the music man in my life. For five years our synergy continued to amaze me.

    Julius Carrasco, a genius Flamenco World Class Guitarist who found worth in my poor efforts.. He amplified my bongo drums and brought new meaning to my life.

    How you find people like this?  When Thomas Edison was asked where he got his ideas from said, “They are all around us in the ether of the air. You have to look for them.”

    In my case these people appeared in my life when I needed them most. Picture them in your mind and keep on searching.

    References: