McNeese State University James Grimes M.I.I. Professional Speaking Testimonial

what's going on y'all Joe Johnston here from Mii professional speaking and I am here with my man James Grimes over at mcne State University so we've worked with James probably the fourth or fifth engagement that we just did together James and working together so let me kind of turn things to you talk to me I guess a little bit if you can tell us a little bit about your name your role over at MCN and then you know why you all specifically bring in different guest speakers a couple times a year to speak with your students okay so I'm the director of the Counseling Center here at MCN and and we usually bring speakers in twice a year in the fall we bring a speaker in for sexual assault prevention and then for that we try to to get students as they're coming in you know as freshmen really getting them engaged and learning the difference between assault consent you know and all of that good stuff that they may not be aware of from high school you know some not so great behaviors but then in the the spring we usually try to have a alcohol and or other drug related speaker come in that we usually get right before spring break so that it's really fresh on their mind and hopefully they make healthier choices you know as they go into spring break beautiful I love it I love it and yeah I think at this point it's been we've done two alcohol awarenesses together two Sexual Assault Awareness speakers could you speak I guess a little bit to you know what that experience has been like you know working with us and then some of the speakers that you know we've brought in and and different stories that they told and and how that may have sort of affected your students positively and just how that experience has been overall partnering with us here at Mi and the speakers that we've provided you all okay overall we've had a very you know positive experience with all the speakers that we've had I mean they definitely all have their own you know different personalities and approaches to how they do speaking events but we for the most part let them tell their story do their thing we don't try to to put too many barriers on them but we do also you know let them know about certain things specific to our University and our State as far as like our amnesty policy and other things title N9 things like that and the speakers have all been very receptive and willing to weave that information into their presentation to let the students know about our services directly sometimes I'll go up and I'll say the information or sometimes they'll do it it really just depends on the speaker myself you know whatever we're feeling but even then if I do it they still echo it and talk about like their experience at other universities as well so that's very helpful I love it I love it cool man last kind of you know piece here James if you could just again we've talked a little bit about the speakers who you guys bring in if you could just kind of chat a little bit about what your experience has been like your team's experience working with me working me with my team here at Mii when it comes to setting up the events the pre-event calls the postevent calls how that's been and yeah how the whole kind of working relationship has been behind the scenes outside of you know the specific speakers that that we're bringing in okay for that definitely a smooth and easy process very streamlined very you know no must no fuss you know just you know just very straightforward it's always good to like be able to talk to the speaker before the actual event so that we know where we each stand we were on the same page ask questions all that good stuff we let them know what our expectations are they discuss you know what they've done in the past at other you know speaking events and you know it's just been very helpful to make sure that everybody's you know all on the same page Joe usually starts a group chat and text so that we're also available for communication that way leading up to the event so we can make sure you know everything's coordinated appropriately but usually there's no problems with that you know we send over the address any pertinent information so the speaker has that and it all runs pretty smoothly and then usually we have the post event call later that week or sometime the next week depending on when it falls and just touch up on you know what what went well what didn't go so well what feedback we've been hearing things like that but even after the post-event call if we've heard any other you know kind of information from students you know even after that Joe is always very you know accepting of that feedback so very good experience I love it I love it well the same goes for you James it's been an absolute pleasure working with you guys and excited to continue the partnership and and thanks for taking the time today to record a little bit of this y'all again Joe Johnston here from Mi professional speaking and we will chat with you all soon