Ryan Avery wants you to come with your best “would you rather” question for him Wednesday April 16 at the CSU Bookstore from 8:30 a.m. until 7:00 p.m.. Aver, Author of “Speaker, Leader, Champion: Succeed at Work Through The Power of Public Speaking,” is an alum of CSU and is coming back to his old stomping grounds to break the world record for the largest book signing in history.
Q: Who were you as a Ram?
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A: I lived at Westfall Hall my freshman year, then I was an RA in Westfall and Durward. I was a Journalism and Anthropology major. I was also an orientation leader and worked at CTV, KCSU and the Collegian.
Q: What was your favorite dorm food?
A: That’s a good question. It would have to be the Friday night mac and cheese triangles at Corbett Hall, do you guys have those anymore? Or it would be the soft serve ice cream in the morning, or anytime I wanted really.
Q: Where do you live now? And how did you get a deal with McGraw Hill?
A: I currently live in Portland, Oregon and I’ve been there for five years. My wife wanted to get her masters and then we stayed after she graduated. And then I met my co-author of the book, Jeremy Donovan, who is a best selling author for the book “How to Deliver a TED Talk.” I actually met Jeremy because he did an interview with me for his blog the Speaking Sherpa because I had won the World Championship. They’re all so flipping awesome to work with.
Q: What did you win a world championship for?
A: In 2012 I won the World Championship for Public Speaking. There were 30,000 contestants from 116 countries who competed. It was put on by Toastmasters International and I became the youngest World Champion in history.
Q: Where did you get the inspiration to write this book and break a world record?
A: I realized I was doing all this research, and the number one thing that employers look for in an interview is how well can their employee’s effectively communicate. My generation is not being taught how to effectively communication one-on-one or in groups of people. So Jeremy and I put together a book with 90 strategies to improve communication and then you can be more employable, make more money, enjoy your job, inspire people and use your own voice to advance your career. We also dissected 10 World Championship speeches and provided strategies for anyone to advance their career through speech.
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Q: So where did the idea come from to break this world record, and why CSU?
A: Well, McGraw Hill wanted me to go on a book tour and go to 16 cities. I started in Toronto and Miami, and I go, why don’t we do something cooler? I looked at the Guinness Book of World Records and found the largest book signing in history. I put together a proposal and they loved the idea and they said, why don’t we do this at a really big college like Stanford? And I said, what about a bada**, cool college like Colorado State? So they said, yeah okay that’s awesome. You know, this is where I learned my journalism skills, and it’s my alma mater. So I called CSU and told them and they loved the idea. And then we said, why don’t we donate the profits back to the Alumni Association and give the money to scholarships for students?
Q: What is the best question to ask you at your book signing?
Any good “would you rather question.” Have a really good “would you rather” ready for me and then I’ll answer it.
Top 3 reasons you should join the book signing:
1. The money goes back to the school for scholarships at CSU
2. Your name gets printed in my next book
3. You can help break a world record (and you can get a copy of my book)
