Ship’s Log 02: Light the Engines with Beverly Howard

“Whenever you’re encouraged to speak and develop the skill of speaking, don’t hold yourself back worrying about whether people will understand or want to listen. You just go with it. Just do it — and don’t worry.” - Beverly Howard

Episode Summary:
In this episode of Project Candor, host Jeannie Anderson sits with Beverly Howard, world-class speaking coach and retired U.S. Coast Guard civil servant, to explore how unexpected experiences—from Toastmasters to theater—shaped her approach to confident communication. Beverly shares how she coaches speakers to the world stage, turns stage presence into skill, and highlights the transformative power of using your voice.

Guest’s Bio:
Beverly Howard is a Certified World Class Speaking Coach, a Distinguished Toastmaster, and retired civil servant with the US Coast Guard. She helps professionals and entrepreneurs turn their voice into their greatest asset. Her creative journey began in the arts as an assistant director, stage manager, and production assistant in television, theater, and short films.

Links:
Beverly Howard LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/beverlyhoward

Website: beverlyhoward.com

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Transcript

Hi everyone and welcome to Project Candor. I'm your host, Jeannie Anderson. Each week I sit down with people from all walks of life, creators, leaders, dreamers, and everyday folk who've experienced something worth sharing. Here it's not about fame or headlines, it's about real moments, the ones that surprise us, challenge us, and challenge us, even change us. Because at its heart, Project Candor is where ordinary people share unexpected stories.
Today, I am thrilled to welcome my guest, Beverly Howard. Beverly Howard is a certified world-class speaking coach, a distinguished toast master, and retired civil servant with the U.S. Coast Guard. She helps professionals and entrepreneurs turn their voice into their greatest asset. Her creative journey began in the arts as an assistant director, stage manager, and production assistant in television, theater, and short films. Beverly, welcome to Project Candor. I'm so glad you're here.

Beverly:
Thank you. Thank you for having me. ⁓

Jeanne:
You are more than welcome. I've come to know you over the past few months and I really enjoy talking with you. Now I'm not going to say that I know your stories too truth and alive. We'll get to them later, ⁓ but I have learned a lot about you and you're just a fascinating person. Just totally fascinating. ⁓ So let me ask you a few questions or do you want to say something about yourself?

Beverly:
I think that ⁓ when you ask the questions, ⁓ we're going to find out so much about me, people are going to want to not know about me. So no. ⁓ Yes. ⁓ Yes. ⁓

Jeanne:
⁓ I don't think that'll happen. It'll just make them want to know more. ⁓ So what inspired you to become a certified world-class speaking coach, ⁓

Beverly:
It happened by mistake. It wasn't something that I was looking to do. I know a friend who belonged to Toastmasters. And as you mentioned in my opening that I used to be into arts. So in 1998, I decided to find something new to do, something different to do with my life. So I walked into a Toastmasters club. I
came as a guest and what I learned from just being a guest, ⁓ I ⁓ decided I want to be a member of this club. And the reason why is because even though I didn't speak, you have speakers, have impromptu speaking, ⁓ you have evaluations. What I learned from the most was the evaluations. And because I was learning from the evaluations, I decided.
this is where I need to be because even not being a member, I can still learn. So what happened years later, so like I said, I started in 1998, ⁓ I happened to be at a conference ⁓ and ⁓ the world champion of public speaking, ⁓ 1999 world champion, Craig Valentine was the speaker. ⁓ And I had never heard of him before. I heard ⁓ of

Jeanne:
Wow.

Beverly:
the world champions, but I had never heard him speak. And when I saw him ⁓ command the stage, there was almost 300 of us in ⁓ the conference. And I had my camcorder being ⁓ the producer that I am, and I'm recording everything. ⁓ And I'm standing on the chairs. He had everyone standing up. He had everyone repeating after him. ⁓ And he just did so many things.

Jeanne:
Yeah. ⁓

Beverly:
At the end, or before he ended his talk, he invited, you know how sometimes people, when they're speakers, they'll hold up something and say, who wants this? Right? So he did that. Yeah. And I said, wait a minute, let me start running. So I ran all the way from the other part of the ⁓ conference room. ⁓ And by the time I got there, someone else snatched it. And I, ⁓

Jeanne:
⁓ right. Yeah. ⁓ Everybody runs. ⁓

Beverly:
So I didn't get it. At the end of his talk, I went to him and I said, listen, I know that you offered to sell this product. I want to know, is this going to be one of those products that I just sit on the bookshelf and collect dust? And he says, I guarantee you it will not be that type of a program. And he was true to life. And I finished that program.
I enrolled in his certification ⁓ with ⁓ world-class public speaking coach and I've ⁓ ordered and been with him ever since. So it was one of those things where I was a mentor to ⁓ my Toastmaster members, but by this time I was able to ⁓ learn ⁓ and ⁓ immerse myself into public speaking.

Jeanne:
Mmm.

Beverly:
and learning the art of public speaking so that while I'm being a mentor, I can start coaching and I know what I'm talking about. So again, ⁓ long story short, back to your question, ⁓ it's like it was by accident. It wasn't something that I planned and ⁓ it was the best thing that I've done in my life.

Jeanne:
No, that's fantastic, yeah.

Jeanne:
Do you think that was a turning point in your life when you went to that conference?

Beverly:
It was ⁓ because ⁓ I ⁓ used to listen to, as a coach now, ⁓ I will listen to the World ⁓ Champions and see what it is that they're doing, watch them, see how they move the stage and so forth and so on. ⁓ But for whatever reason, I had never ⁓ seen him before. And I think that was a blessing for me in that had I seen him, it would have been some bias.
But because he was able to command the stage in which he did and just do all of the things that he illustrated, I said, that's the type of coach I want to be. That's the type of speaker I want to be. And yeah, so that was a turning point, one of many turning points in my life.

Jeanne:
Mm-hmm.

Jeanne:
that's fantastic. So that sort of leads into the next question I was going to ask about what you see so many speakers, right? So I think I heard of Zig Ziglar and, you know, know, Tony Robbins. So what sets you apart from other speaking coaches or speaker coaches?

Beverly:
I like to say what sets me apart is my...
arts, being a member, a part of the arts. When I am ⁓ looking at a speaker, I'm looking at how do they move across the stage, ⁓ which is something that we do in theater where you're blocking ⁓ the different moves. ⁓ And so I think using my ⁓
production, being a producer on television and short films ⁓ and using ⁓ my acting ⁓ and ⁓ even being a dancer, all of the different things that I'm able to use that ⁓ most other coaches can't do ⁓ or ⁓ they don't really incorporate. ⁓ One of the things that I do when I'm coaching ⁓ people in Toastmasters to become world champions of public speaking, whenever they get to that ⁓

Jeanne:
Right.

Beverly:
stage of world championships. So there are different levels that you have to go to. ⁓ And ⁓ one of my clients in 2012, I got my certification in 2010. So in 2012, ⁓ I helped him to get to that world championship stage. ⁓ So he won in the semi-finals and then he had to speak to almost 2000 people from around the world who came to ⁓ Florida, Orlando, Florida for this.
conference convention So what I was able to do was to put him on the stage which is Something that a lot of people if you haven't been accustomed to being on the stage and knowing what to expect So I told him walk the stage fill the stage out ⁓ Look out at your audience. Even though there was no one there. Just look out and I told him the secret sauce
to be able to be on that stage is when the lights come up and it's time for you to deliver that speech, you're not gonna see anyone in the audience. You're gonna see those lights. Don't worry because a lot of speakers, get nervous because there's so many people, there's so many eyes on us. ⁓ And I said, let's eliminate that right away and just know that when those lights come up,

Jeanne:
you

Beverly:
you're not going to see any ⁓ one. You can see through the lights and it's just so hard and that's one thing that I've learned ⁓ being an actor and ⁓ you know feeling the comfort of being able to be on the stage and knowing that ⁓ I don't have to be nervous. ⁓ So I think my ⁓

Jeanne:
that's awesome. I thought you were going to say the secret sauce was when the lights come up, don't throw up. ⁓ That's a secret. Yeah. ⁓

Beverly:
⁓ God, yes, don't do that either. ⁓ There are some stories about speakers who ⁓ every time before they give a talk, they have to throw up. ⁓ We can leave that part out. But that's the way. Yeah. ⁓ I mean, that nervous energy is out of control. ⁓ Yes, but ⁓ no, it's just don't worry about it. Just just know, just relax ⁓ and.

Jeanne:
⁓ yeah, I've heard of that about singers too.

Beverly:
Do what you plan to do. ⁓

Jeanne:
Well, you know, you're naturally talking about your TV, film and theater influencing your coaching, right? The talk talking about moving around on the stage. ⁓ I guess it's normal in theater to have marks you stand on. So to make it more interesting, are you ⁓ saying that's how you would run ⁓ your talks is to be able to say, move from left stage to right stage and move forward when you've got a point. Is that what you are kind of alluding to?

Beverly:
Thank

Beverly:
You're close. And what I learned and not just from Craig Valentine, my coach, I learned just from experience. And it just so happens that Craig and I are both Piscians. He's March 4th, I'm March 18th. It must be the way that our minds work. But what I learned when you're talking, you're talking in scenes. It's the same way if you're doing

Jeanne:
Okay.
Mm-hmm.

Beverly:
a short film or whatever, movies, whatever, it's in scenes. So when I'm coaching someone and the opening is a scene, ⁓ they're different in the body. You have seen one, seen two, seen three, however ⁓ many scenes there are ⁓ based on the amount of time that you have. So I always ⁓ ask coach people to move where ⁓ the words take you.
Say for instance, if ⁓ someone says, well, I'm standing on line, I'm standing on line, you're not gonna move. And then I took one step, you take a step. So you're gonna take the step forward. So it's all about the words, dictating what it is, and also the scenes ⁓ will tell you where you need to be ⁓ on the stage.

Jeanne:
Okay.
Okay, when you say standing on, what was that word you used again? Standing on line or lion? Oh, on a line.

Beverly:
Yeah, like you're on a line and you're standing on line. you're in Starbucks and you're waiting on line. And you're depending on what your story is, then you'll make that move when it's time to take that next step.

Jeanne:
⁓ okay.
Okay. So ⁓ what lights you up about what you do? mean, it sounds like you're already saying that you love training people and helping them and seeing them be successful. But what else do you say ⁓ just makes you excited about this particular profession?

Beverly:
You said it. ⁓ You said it exactly. And that it's not about me. ⁓ It's about the people that I'm helping to be the best that they can be, the best that they want to be. ⁓ One of my first clients after I got certified, he told me that he was disappointed that he didn't make it to the world stage. He made it three levels before the world stage, but he felt that

Jeanne:
haha
Mm-hmm.

Beverly:
He disappointed me because I'm the coach and he didn't get there. ⁓ So I told him, said, listen, you ⁓ have done some amazing work. People after he competed and won it and came in second at the district level, they will come into him and telling him how confident he looked on stage. ⁓ They were saying how much his speech impacted them. They were telling him.

Jeanne:
Mm.

Beverly:
And there were 300 people in this conference, almost 300 people, and he was able to be someone that prior to coaching, he could never be. So for me, I get joy out of seeing the transformation from where they started to where they end up. And that's all I need. I can't think of any other thing that brings me more joy.

Jeanne:
Mm-hmm.

Beverly:
than seeing other people ⁓ get to their goal. ⁓

Jeanne:
Succeed. Oh, that's fantastic. And I'm sure people have felt that way about you watching you become a world class speaker as well or world. Okay. World class speaker. Yeah, I got it right. I was trying to, this is unusual for me because I didn't know people got accolades for standing on this stage and speaking. I know it's a difficult thing to do, but I didn't know there were certifications and that yeah, you've got a lot of recognition for that. That's, that's fantastic.

Beverly:
you

Beverly:
Mm-hmm ⁓
Bye.

Yeah, ⁓ and the thing is you can have coaches who aren't certified. It was something that I needed so that I can have some tools to use when I'm coaching people. ⁓ There are many coaches who are not certified and that's fine. And I know that ⁓ some of the things that I do with my clients, ⁓ other coaches don't do. So it doesn't really matter about the certification.

Jeanne:
Okay.
Okay.
Well, I think it's still a great accomplishment. ⁓ Did you not know you were in the Coast Guard as a civil servant and did that prepare you for, ⁓ you know, what the being a leader and a communicator that you are today? ⁓

Beverly:
Yes, yes, and yes. ⁓ I started working for the Coast Guard in 1986. I was 21 years old ⁓ and ⁓ at a, I think I was around 25, I ⁓ was trained to be a total quality management specialist. And that ⁓

Jeanne:
Mm-hmm, right.

Beverly:
required me to ⁓ run or facilitate meetings ⁓ with high ranking Coast Guardsmen and low ranking Coast Guardsmen. ⁓ And we would bring everyone together in a room. We would set the ground rules. There's no ranking here. ⁓ Everyone is ⁓ one and one. Everybody's on the same accord. And I was able to ⁓ make sure to facilitate it to where ⁓ no one felt.
that they were not being heard. ⁓ And because of that training, I was able to ⁓ utilize that in order to ⁓ build up my leadership skills, my communication skills. And then another area, I was an equal employment opportunity specialist. ⁓ And whenever people had ⁓ grievances between supervisors and employees, ⁓ I was

Jeanne:
Mm-hmm.
Mm-hmm.

Beverly:
the person who's interviewing everyone, getting the two parties together and trying to figure out how can we make this better. ⁓ And again, being ⁓ young ⁓ and being in these positions, I couldn't ⁓ act like I'm not capable of doing it. I had to actually do the work ⁓ and it just ⁓ something that I had to pull out of myself ⁓ and use in order to show that
I don't have time to be afraid. I don't have time to not be able to communicate well. I have to ⁓ meet the task and make sure that everyone comes together and we get the outcome that's the best for everyone. But outside of...

Jeanne:
Okay, you just did it. You just did it just like Nike just do it and then I'm laughing when I hear you talking because everybody talks about the imposter syndrome and you just kind of nailed it in the 90s without knowing the term that they were going to come up with. ⁓ You were just doing it because you had to do it. ⁓

Beverly:
Yes it did.
Yes. And even speaking, whenever I joined Toastmasters in 98, my boss at the time was happy. He said, congratulations, you're a great leader, you're a great communicator. And what I found from the people that I coached.
that if you are a Toastmaster and you put it on your resume, that you will get brownie points. When people see that you're a Toastmaster, they automatically assume that you're a great speaker and you're a great leader.

Jeanne:
Very true, but that is probably because you are, because that is a hard thing to do. I went to one of those seminars to find out how to be one and I was just like, I'm not sure if I could do this. ⁓

Beverly:
⁓ Yes, but at the same time, whenever ⁓ people put it on there, ⁓ there was ⁓ one person that I know that only ⁓ joined Toastmasters, put it on her resume, never gave one speech, but that's all they talked about in the interview. you're a Toastmaster. ⁓
That was it. So it's just one of those situations where ⁓ if you're not there yet, ⁓ if you stick to the course, you're going to get there. So that's one. Yeah, that's one thing I always ⁓ encourage even young adults, which I've been working with for the past couple of years and letting them know, make sure you put that on your resume.

Jeanne:
my goodness.
very good.
Okay, well this is sort of out of left field. This is not anything you and I have talked about, but as you were speaking about youth, ⁓ do you think it's important for youth to learn ⁓ speaking skills? ⁓ Because a lot of people are not teaching that in schools. ⁓ I don't know what they're teaching in schools, but don't get me started on that. ⁓ But speaking skills, seems like it should be important ⁓ for ⁓ youth today. What's your thoughts about? ⁓

Beverly:
⁓ It really is. ⁓ It is 100 % important. ⁓ The first time I spoke was in, ⁓ what is it called? It's ⁓ like junior high school. That's what it was when I was going ⁓ in seventh grade. So we had to do show and tell. Most of the time, that's when kids first start speaking. ⁓

Jeanne:
okay.
Mm-hmm.

Beverly:
⁓ Tell us about your vacation. Tell us about this. ⁓ So I remember speaking for the first time and we had this fish called ⁓ tiger fish ⁓ and you know, big old fish and I took pictures of it and I was telling all of the classmates about it and everyone was so excited. They wanted to see the pictures. They never heard of it. So my first experience wasn't a terrible one because it was on a topic that was interesting to.

Jeanne:
Mm-hmm.

Beverly:
my audience. ⁓ But whereas other ⁓ students might have a bad experience and they ⁓ decide I don't ever want to speak again. This is why I think it's important so that ⁓ whenever ⁓ you're ⁓ encouraged to speak and to develop the skill which speaking is ⁓ that you don't just let yourself ⁓ just go

without people understanding or people wanting to hear you. So you just go with it. Like you said, just do it. You just do it and don't worry. And we could go into a whole thing about what people worry about. ⁓ just, you know, it's really, it's so, yes, it's really important ⁓ that ⁓ young adults, ⁓ yeah, I mean.

Jeanne:
Mm-hmm.
Yeah. Yeah, that's true, ⁓
young people learn this. I think so too. I think if I could look back and say in one of my classes if they had had something like that, I would have probably taken the class. Just because you get scared in front of your peers and you get scared in front of teachers even and you just like to be able to know how to project a little bit better and communicate better. I had to learn it when I was in the Navy too so.

Beverly:
⁓ yeah.

Jeanne:
Yeah, it would have been nice to know. Hey, so that takes us to the next transition of our show here. It's been great getting to know you Beverly, but now it's time to uncover some of your unexpected stories. This is one of my favorite parts of the show. We're gonna play Two Truths and a Lie.

Beverly:
Yeah.
Okay.

Okay ⁓
Okay.

Jeanne:
So here's how it works. I'll read each headline and then I'll take my best guess at which one's the lie. After that, we'll deep dive into your stories, ⁓ the stories behind them, because you're going to have to tell us about them and see where the truth really lies. So, all righty here, let me bring up my slide here.

Beverly:
Okay. ⁓

Jeanne:
screen here.
Here we go. ⁓

Jeanne:
All right, let's bring up ships log and play two truths and a lie with Beverly Howard. ⁓ so number one that you gave me was one normal day at your coast guard job. ⁓ Nelson Mandela and wife, Minnie stopped by later that same day, Harry Belafonte stopped in and everyone sang day. the banana vote site song. That is quite a day. ⁓

Beverly:
It was. ⁓

Jeanne:
Number two, innocently, ⁓ Beverly rode across the Veronzo Verrazano Bridge from Brooklyn to Stanton Island ⁓ in a burning car. It only stopped when the toll booth worker came running after her car with a fire extinguisher. Number three. ⁓
And I love this headline. As a hip hop dancer, Beverly was cast as a principal dancer in one of Kwame's music videos. Did I say that correct? Kwame? ⁓ At the last minute, she was told to strip down and dance in her undergarments for the recording. ⁓

Beverly:
Yes, Kwame. huh. Yes. ⁓

Jeanne:
That sounds absolutely fantastic. I want to hear more about it. So first of all, I'm going to guess that number two that you did not drive in a burning car. I don't know how anybody could not know their car was on fire. So that's my guess for the lie. I don't know if I'm right or not, but you'll tell us. ⁓ So start with number one. What's that all about?

Beverly:
⁓ Should I tell you whether you're right or not or just tell you the stories? Okay. ⁓ All right. So.

Project Candor Podcast (24:47.015)
Not until the end, let's tell the stories. Because actually the listeners might want to guess too. They might listen to you and pick one of their own that they think is alive.

Beverly:
Okay, so number one, Nelson Mandela had been in prison for 27 years, I believe, and he came to New York to go to Yankee Stadium to speak to the New Yorkers. But prior to getting there, he stopped him at my job, which is ⁓ a location where it's vital water, safe, ⁓ no worries. ⁓ So he gets there and they had dinner.

Jeanne:
Mm-hmm.

Beverly:
It was him and an entourage, Harry Belafonte, ⁓ Dick Gregory, Spike Lee was there. ⁓ And so they set up a dinner. He ⁓ slept, got some rest, ate dinner. ⁓ But while he was resting and food was being prepared, Harry Belafonte came with and sang and serenaded with me and my coworkers singing dayo. Dayo, dayo, daylight.

Jeanne:
Whoa. ⁓
Yeah.

Beverly:
⁓ And so that was that. The set. ⁓ Yes. ⁓ And ⁓ the caveat to that was whenever ⁓ Nelson Mandela and when he were leaving the building, he was so weak that he could barely raise his hand to say hello to us. ⁓ So we didn't get to interact with him, but he was really, really, really weak.

Jeanne:
Wow, that's a day to remember for sure. ⁓
Move.

Beverly:
But when you saw him at Yankee Stadium, you would have never known that that weak person ⁓ had just left our office. So number two, ⁓ with the... ⁓

Jeanne:
wow.
Wow, that's going so fast. I just like don't answer a question about that. ⁓ So ⁓ it's Harry Belafonte is good looking in person and he is ⁓ on the stage. ⁓

Beverly:
go ahead, ask me a question.

Beverly:
⁓ yes. I mean, it was just so much fun. ⁓ And because it was a bunch of us, his arms were around me. Okay. I was... So I'll never forget. I wish I had pictures. I wish I had pictures, but yes. ⁓

Jeanne:
Okay. ⁓ I like that. ⁓
Oh, that would be cool. So then, um, Mel Nelson Mandela, um, for those people that don't know, um, what he was getting out of prison and getting out of, um, was South Africa. And so what, um, was that like, he came to Yankee stadium. I don't remember that Yankee stadium speech, but that was. Hmm. Okay.

Beverly:
huh, yeah.
Yeah, I believe he was 71 years old and he had just gotten out of prison, came to New York ⁓ and just spoke to thousands of people in Yankee Stadium. ⁓

Jeanne:
That's so wonderful. All right, now we'll go to two, sorry. ⁓

Beverly:
Okay, ⁓ so ⁓ number two. ⁓ Prior to this is we're on the verizonal bridge. I'm the passenger. My boyfriend at the time was driving and I noticed ⁓ be halfway through that ⁓ we were in the right lane and it's a three lanes ⁓ bridge. We on the right lane and everyone else was
in the left lane. It was just us in this one lane and I couldn't understand what is going on. I'm looking around trying to figure out what's happening. And when we got to the toll booth, we were met with a fire extinguisher and told to get out of the car. And we get out of the car, raised the roof, well, the trunk.

Jeanne:
Mm-hmm.

Beverly:
Is that what that thing is called? I don't see, I don't know nothing about cars. So we raise it up ⁓ and yeah, the hood, the hood, ⁓ raised the hood ⁓ and we see sparks coming. But what happened prior to this is on my way from Staten Island to Brooklyn, the fire actually happened ⁓ on my way there. ⁓ So I wasn't expecting there to be a fire going back. When I went into Brooklyn,

Jeanne:
⁓ The hood or the trunk? ⁓ The front? Okay.

Jeanne:
You got in the same car that was on fire on the other. ⁓

Beverly:
You know, because I went to a drive, I stopped at a gas station and I said, listen, this is what's going on. guy, I can fix it. can fix it. I got it. So he puts some kind of ⁓ something on it. ⁓ And so I'm thinking I'm safe. The car is good. Charge me twenty dollars. He said that he fixed it. ⁓ So now here we are.

Jeanne:
huh.
He put a bandaid on it? my God. ⁓
Heh.

Beverly:
I meet my boyfriend in Brooklyn and I said, look, I'm not driving this car, you're driving. ⁓ While we're driving, he sees the sparks coming from underneath the hood, but he didn't tell me, because he didn't want to alarm me. And that's why, yeah, so that's why whenever ⁓ I see all the cars over there, ⁓ he understood, but he would not tell me. But luckily, by the time we got to the bridge, ⁓ it hadn't been inflamed.

Jeanne:
⁓ right, just let you burn up and blow up. ⁓

Beverly:
So we just pulled over to the and let it cool down because I didn't live too far from the bridge. ⁓ And once it cooled down, then we drove the car to the house and parked it.

Jeanne:
⁓ okay.

Jeanne:
Were y'all like really broke at that point in time in your life that year? ⁓ I do not get in known burning cars. ⁓

Beverly:
No, and it wasn't even my car. ⁓ That's another story. Every time I got it, ⁓ it wasn't supposed to be burning. I'm telling you, the man told me he fixed it. ⁓ So I said, okay. ⁓ I was like, my God, this man lied to me. So he put some kind of ⁓ pump wires. I don't know what the heck he put on there, but it ⁓ just burnt all over again.

Jeanne:
Okay. Did you know that man? ⁓
Okay, so maybe I'm gonna be wrong, but anyway. ⁓ Alright, number three, this one's crazy, and tell us all about that. As a hip-hop dancer.

Beverly:
Mm.
Okay. Yes. ⁓ So I went to ⁓ the audition. They tell us ⁓ on the day of come in dressed in your clothes for the club, because during the scene we're going to be dancing in the club and whatnot.

Jeanne:
Mm-hmm.

Beverly:
So I came, I had my little mini dress on, my little mini green gap dress, I had my shoes and whatnot. And we waited hours to get to the part where we're gonna be performing. Because in music videos, they just switch out people. So one group will do this part, then you bring in more people to do the next part. So before we went in, we were told that, well,
The other group just finished that part so this is the part you guys are going to have to strip to your underwear because the bar has just been robbed and everyone had to strip to their underwear. And I said, ⁓ in the video, ⁓ and yeah, in the video, so that scene in the video, this is where they were. And I'm like, ⁓ God, okay, my grandmother's going to see this. What am I going to do? This is, ⁓ this is not good.

Jeanne:
What? In the video the bar had been robbed? Not in real life. Okay.

Beverly:
So what I decided to do, since I was somewhat prepared, I had my biker top and then I had my biker pants underneath my little dress. So I stripped down to just that ⁓ and ⁓ the shoes that I wore and went ahead and performed.

Jeanne:
Oh wow. Well at least you had underwear on. That was the question I was going to ask you. What if you had come that day and said it was hot so I just kind of just limited my clothing.

Beverly:
Yes, ⁓ yes, we had to do.
⁓ No, ⁓ and the thing is they said well we can give you boxers. ⁓ They you know like boxer shorts if you don't have and I said okay you know I'm pretty much prepared ⁓ but I never auditioned for another video again after that because I didn't want to ever be put in the position where I would have to ⁓ decide to not wear clothes because ⁓ I was hired so to speak to do

Jeanne:
Mm-hmm.

Beverly:
music video where I'm dancing because that's what I did.

Jeanne:
Oh, okay. Well, I have a picture. I'm gonna try to bring it up here when we do the editing and put it up so people can see it. So it's really interesting picture. So that's why I picked two because I can't believe you couldn't tell you were in a burning car. So tell me which one is the lie. Da da da da. I wanna play Jeopardy.

Beverly:
Yes, so that was the last time.
Okay, ⁓
The lie is the last one. I said I was a principal dancer, but I was in fact an extra.

Jeanne:
What?
⁓ okay. ⁓

Beverly:
So now when you're a principal dancer, you're the one that he's right next to. I have never found this video. I don't know where it is, but you can see me behind the screens. And if you know how my body is shaped, which you'll see in the picture, you can pick me out. But the lie is I wasn't a principal dancer. I was an extra in the video.

Jeanne:
Yeah, that's still good though to be there, but also ⁓ stripping down to nothing. don't know. I would have said no, nevermind. ⁓ Wow, that's really cool.

Beverly:
Everything else was true.

Beverly:
⁓ I mean ⁓ I was okay with it. I was okay with it because when I'm taking dance classes, that's the way I dance anyway. ⁓ I dressed anyway. So it wasn't a terrible thing. It just ⁓ wasn't what I signed up for. And I said by that time, during that time, most women in music videos were not wearing clothes. And I said, you know what? This time for me to ⁓ really ⁓

Jeanne:
Yeah, I get it.

Beverly:
not audition anymore. don't care about doing any music videos. This is it. I'm done.

Jeanne:
What time period was that that they weren't wearing clothes? ⁓

Beverly:
I think that was 90s, yes, if you look at the 90s, early ⁓ 90s, all the women were wearing bikinis and you know, next to nothing. That's not close. ⁓ I mean, ⁓ for me, yes, so ⁓ I wasn't going for the skimpy. ⁓

Jeanne:
well that's clothes. That's still clothes. ⁓ It's skimpy. ⁓ It's clothes. I'm talking. Now they just walk around with their underwear on ⁓ as a normal outfit. ⁓ There's kids walking around here in my neighborhood and I think they're pajamas. I really think they're pajamas. And then some things are just...

Beverly:
They are. ⁓ Yes.

Jeanne:
Underwear I can't figure out why that look is even appealing. It's First of all, I do not want to see any men's dirty drawers So ⁓ I don't want to see girls walking around with underwear hanging out either. But anyway another another generation ⁓

Beverly:
Mm-hmm.
That's the world we live in now. Yes.

Jeanne:
Yeah, but if you go back, I mean, there's things that I did when I was growing up in that timeframe that I thought was okay, but now I listen to it and I think, what? I see pictures. I'm like, what in the world? Like we did that. Remember that crazy nayer when you shave your legs with some lotion that's supposed to remove your hair. That does not work. I don't know. ⁓

Beverly:
⁓ yeah. Yes. ⁓ I know. ⁓

Jeanne:
⁓ It was a waste of money, but ⁓ and it stunk too, but ⁓ They they would have that commercial about who wears short shirts and ⁓ for gosh sakes We I saw some of the shorts we used to wear I saw pictures of me in shorts. I was like what? That's indecent and my dad was a preacher what in the world ⁓ anyway ⁓

Beverly:
It did, yes.
⁓ my god.
Hahaha
⁓ And you got away with that they let you get away with it ⁓

Jeanne:
⁓ Apparently, ⁓ maybe he didn't know. ⁓ Well, he didn't pay attention. He was busy. He was a busy preacher. ⁓ Anyway, well, we're coming to the close of the show. And so I just wanted to say thank you very much. ⁓
It has ⁓ definitely, ⁓ we thank you so much for sharing your story and the unexpected moments with us. It's been such a joy having you on Project Candor. ⁓ I ⁓ would like to show your links and say how people can get in touch with you, because I mean, after listening to you, I know they do want to, you know, probably get to know you better. So let me share my screen again.

Beverly:
Mm-hmm. ⁓

Jeanne:
And then I'm going to ⁓ put up your links. And these links will be in the ⁓ transcript as well so they can get in touch with you. I'll let you talk through them and say if you have anything else you want to say. ⁓

Beverly:
Yes, I just wanted to say as you put in it up is that ⁓ you can reach me on social media. I'm on LinkedIn and the link will be shown on the screen. ⁓ And I also, if you would like to talk to me ⁓ and ⁓ just book ⁓ a session with me, high impact ⁓ speaker strategy session.
The link is also going to be provided. And in that session, we'll just talk about where you are in your speaking journey, ⁓ map out a plan ⁓ that you can ⁓ implement in order to get to the next step and see if we can work together. ⁓ And you can also go to my website and find out ⁓ more about what's going on. But those are the three ways to get in touch with me.

Jeanne:
Fantastic.
Thank you so much again for being on the show ⁓ And to everyone listening. Thanks for spending this time with us Remember Project Candor is where ordinary people share unexpected stories. Please reach out to Beverly. I'm sure she'll love talking with you Thank you so much

Beverly:
⁓ Thank you. ⁓