Thomas Umstattd Jr.

How Everything Has Changed But Nothing Is New – Patriot Academy 2009

At Patriot Academy this year I gave a talk about how technology has changed the world. While everything has changed, nothing is new under the sun. Everything that is has been before. By studying the past we can predict the future even when it comes to social media. Here are the slides for the talk. I’m sorry if they don’t make much sense if you missed the talk. Slides Patriot Academy...

Profesional Speaker

One of my favorite things in the world is teaching. Now I (sometimes) get paid to do something I love.  If you would like to learn how to use Twitter better you are invited to come hear me speak. I’m just getting started as a professional speaker and so many of my classes are still free. I have also added an upcoming speaking events widget to the sidebar. Upcoming Classes: July 27, 2009 Introduction...

Generation Y on Abortion

The following video is by Lia who is only 12 years old. She gave this speech to her 7th grade class. Are the public figures emerging? Generation Y, my generation, is much more pro life than Generation X and the Baby Boomer generation. I can’t wait for the male baby boomer pro-life establishment to be augmented and replaced by young women. From a public speaking standpoint I want to point out...

How to Use & Edit Wikipedia (New Media Monday)

So what is wikipedia? Why is it so important? How can you use a wiki and even wikipedia? These questions and more will be answered in today’s New Media Monday. Wikis in Plain English Wiki Tutorial Video 3m Filter Friendly Video Link What is Wikipedia? Wikipedia is the source of truth for many people. When they look for the facts they ask google and google sends them to Wikipedia. Anyone can...

How to Use Skype (New Media Monday)

Chances are you’ve heard someone talking about Skype . But what is it anyway? In short, Skype is a way to call anyone in the world for free. How Skype Works Skype uses a technology called VOIP that uses the Internet to place a phone call instead of a traditional land line.  This cuts the cost of the call down to virtually nothing for the VOIP provider. The most famous VOIP provider is Skype...

An Upate on My Dad

Before I begin, I just wanted to thank all of you for your comments, prayers and emails. You have made this season a lot easier than it could have been. You have demonstrated our need for the body of Christ. It has now been almost three weeks since my dad’s heart operation. He just seems a lot healthier now that his heart is getting 25% more blood. But, I can tell he doesn’t have as much...

The Failure of Jesus Christ (and why we need to fail to be like Him)

"Success is a poor teacher." My dad must have repeated this maxim a hundred times as I grew up. There are some lessons that only failure can teach. If you want to mature, you need to fail. Jesus failed. So should we. Jesus’ Failure After bringing Jesus out of the desert, God calls Him to preach in Nazareth where he is unable to do many miracles because of their lack of faith (Matt...

The Ladder of Abstraction

If you are a writer or a speaker this will help you understand how words work and how to make you message stick. This talk comes from the books Presentation Zen by Garr Reynold and Language in Thought and Action by S. I. Hayakawa. Here is a recording and slides for the Ladder of Abstraction talk that I gave at the Austin Rhetoric Club a few weeks ago. Transcript Download MP3 | View | Upload...

Eternal Debate

Since we are on the topic of confidence, here is another post from the archive. The world says, “be self-confident.” Jesus says, “put your confidence in me.” The world says, “you can do anything you put your mind to.” Jesus says, “you can do nothing apart from me and all things through me.” The world says, “look out for number one.” The Word says, “think of others as more important...

5 Reasons Why Enthusiasm is Better than Confidence

As you can see from my last post I am not a big fan of self confidence. So often presenters struggle with fear and so they compensate for their insecurities with self confidence. The Bible has a word for self confidence. The Bible calls it pride. Confidence might make you feel better but it can turn your audience off. Our confidence should be in Jesus Christ alone. I found these not to long ago and...