My very first media experience presenting on television occurred in 1975 I was 12 years old in the seventh
grade at Quail Hollow junior high school in Charlotte North Carolina and there was a 15 day contest
so everyone was encouraged to dress up like a character from the 50s.
Now this was the 70s so there was a very popular show called Happy Days where the characters were based
on the 1950s.
So I dressed up as a character named Fonzie who was the big cool guy.
I had my hair slicked back dark hair greased back a leather jacket and a little more hair back then.
And sure enough I won the Fonzi lookalike contest.
Well my real word was going on the junior high school newscast the next day to deliver the morning announcements.
It wasn't CNN it wasn't 60 Minutes it wasn't the BBC it wasn't Al-Jazeera It wasn't some big fancy important
press conference.
My first time was just talking about you know who is supposed to show up not show up for homeroom or
band practice was great at it.
I don't know I was nervous.
I was scared but I got through it.
And even though I was a shy kid didn't speak that much was not someone who was just naturally gifted
at telling stories and being the center of attention.
I did like it enough to not be scared.
And soon after that I got interested in student government ran for homeroom representative got active
in student politics and then the next year I ran for student body president and became president of
the student council.
Not that anyone else cared about it.
But because of that I frequently went on the morning newscast to talk about student government issues
and I guess old enough magazine subscriptions or sold your candy yet for our fundraising things like
that.
And I also spoke in front of all the students twelve hundred at the assemblies.
Now most people would be scared to death of that especially in junior high school but I had had just
a couple opportunities to practice and get more comfortable with it and the more I did it the easier
it got.
That's how I started off my career in front of a camera.
So why don't we tell that story people do often ask me if they're going to spend the whole day with
me and media training or presentation right.
How did they get started.
So I had to tell them something.
And there's always the assumption that I was just born naturally with the gift of gab and I'm doing
it perfectly now.
It was sort of accidental.
It was sort of lucky I wasn't any better than anyone else.
I was nervous like everyone else.
So that's why I tell the story it just makes people feel a little more comfortable with me gives them
a sense of where I come from.
This is typically not one of the most important points I want to stress but if I know people are curious
about it it is something I delve into.
Just gives them a little more comfort a sense of who I am.
It also makes me seem a little more down to earth because I'm kind of making fun of the fact that I
don't have you know thick black hair anymore.
That's why I tell this story.