aire
ionaire
START
SMART
Mackay offers seven fundamental
suggestions for new business owners
just getting started in the speaking/
meetings/self-help industry:
Start speaking anywhere and every-
where for pennies (or just for the
experience) to fine-tune your skills
and style.
•;Join Toastmasters and Dale
Carnegie’s public speaking course
immediately to make sure you are
practicing the right concepts.
fundamentally as a businessperson. The
speaking role and skills are extremely
important, but they aren’t the heart of
my identity.”
PUSHING THE BUTTONS
A talented athlete as a youth growing
up in Minnesota, Mackay found his
competitiveness translated well into
his early career as a sales representative. His father, a long-time head of the
Associated Press in St. Paul, taught him
the value of mentors, and introduced
him to Hubert Humphrey, the fireball
orator who served as Lyndon Johnson’s
vice president. (His later mentors would
include NSA Hall of Famer Bill Gove
and the Rev. Billy Graham.) Moreover,
his father encouraged him to absorb the
lessons in Dale Carnegie’s How to Win
Friends and Influence People, and to
join Toastmasters International, which
would one day name Harvey as one of
the top five speakers in the world.
While building his envelope manufacturing business and chairing
numerous volunteer organizations,
Mackay had the opportunity to make
hundreds of speeches. “I went out of my
way to talk to anyone who would listen
to me—Rotary, Kiwanis, Chamber of
Commerce, United Way, and University
of Minnesota alumni events,” he says.
“Initially these were great network-
ing opportunities and they benefitted
my envelope business. But they also
honed my speaking skills and showed
me how influence in the community was
exerted—how the buttons were pushed.
It became obvious to me that being
regarded as an effective speaker leveled
the playing field.”
Mackay’s public speaking prowess
soon became evident when he began
winning local and regional speaking con-
tests. But he cautions that oratory skills
don’t blossom overnight. “There used
to be an admonition for the theater,” he
says. “You don’t open on Broadway. You
open in New Haven. The principle still
applies in all disciplines where complex
skill sets are required. Debug your act on
the backlot first.”
As his career has evolved, Mackay
has earned an international reputa-
tion for delivering business-driven,
street-driven messages—often to aston-
ishing effect. “A few years ago, I talked
for four hours to 3,000 Chinese in
Taiwan,” he says. “The minute I fin-
ished, they all ran back to their offices
because they thought they could make
some money from what they just heard.
That’s how they look at all American
business leaders. My goal is to give all
my audiences exceptional value.”
•;Video and audio record your speech.
•;Make a phenomenal promotional kit.
•;Hire a speech coach. (I can’t emphasize this enough.)
•;If you have integrity, nothing else
matters. If you don’t have integrity,
nothing else matters.
•;Get honest, straight-forward feedback from your peers on every
speech, otherwise it’s virtually
impossible to improve. You can’t
do it all by yourself. Even the Lone
Ranger had Tonto.
•;Most important of all, be authentic and be yourself. The nanosecond
you try to be someone else, you are
doomed for failure.
TIP TALK
Mackay considers tips his stock in
trade, particularly when it comes to
dealing with communications. As an
example, he offers three twists on
the skill of listening that are of prime
importance to speakers:
