Speaker Scores Big
Former pro basketball player has quite a story to tell
By Paul Sterman
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When Mark Eaton speaks, audiences look up at a man who stands 7 feet 4 inches – or 223.5 centimeters. His towering presence gives weight to his equally commanding message of teamwork and how to achieve success.
Eaton, a member of Park City Toastmasters in Park City, Utah, is a former professional basketball player in the National Basketball Association (NBA). His journey to All-Star status with the Utah Jazz defied all odds, and is an inspiration to anyone who thinks their goals are unattainable.
As a teenager, Eaton was uncomfortable in his oversized body and barely played on his high school basketball team. He gave up on the sport and worked at a Southern California auto and tire shop.
Then an amazing turnaround took place. With the encouragement of a college basketball coach and a great deal of hard work, Eaton eventually flourished in the sport. He was a two-time Defensive Player of the Year in the NBA.
Eaton, who will speak at the Toastmasters International Convention in August, succeeded in basketball by knowing his specific role on the court. He did the things that are often overlooked yet essential to a team’s success: blocking players’ shots, snagging rebounds off the backboard, and using his big body to set screens for teammates.
Now he gives motivational speeches to businesses and other organizations, saying the lessons he learned in basketball are equally applicable to the workplace.
“What I did in basketball is, I helped my team win,” he explains in one speech. “I became invaluable to my teammates by the very fact that I learned what I could be excellent at and I focused on it, so everybody else could do their jobs.”
To win in your field, he says, concentrate on what you do best and “put other people first.”
Joining New Teammates
How did Eaton go from professional athlete to professional speaker? He made Toastmasters part of his team.
“When I started in Toastmasters, I was developing a signature speech about my life and career,” says the former athlete, who became a member in 2005. “What Toastmasters enabled me to do was dig deeper into my [speech] … to add physical gestures, learn how to have a back-and-forth dialogue when you’re on stage, learn where you should move – the various performance tips that really make a story come alive.”
“Toastmasters was a real stepping-stone for my career,” he adds.
As he was developing and refining a keynote speech about himself, Eaton also worked with a speech coach, Lisa Yakobi. She says audiences have responded powerfully to his story.
“People are really surprised to see a professional athlete be such a good speaker,” says Yakobi, adding that many former sports pros simply recount their past athletic exploits, while Eaton wants to give audiences practical advice for their own life.
When he touts the values of teamwork, she adds, he has instant credibility. “There are many, many people who speak about teamwork, but very few of those people have actually been on a team,” says the speech coach. “Mark was on the Utah Jazz for 12 years – when the average time for an NBA player is [less than] four years – because he knows teamwork.”
Eaton says the communication and leadership skills he’s honed in Toastmasters have also helped him as a businessman. After retiring from professional sports, he became a successful entrepreneur. In recent years he has owned and operated two acclaimed restaurants – Tuscany and Franck’s – in Salt Lake City, Utah. In the restaurant business, notes Eaton, communication is key to practically everything: obtaining financing, marketing your restaurant, addressing the City Council or a government agency, chatting with customers, and talking to the people who work for you.
“You can have a vision and idea where your business needs to go,” he says, “but if you can’t effectively communicate it in a way that employees can buy into it, it’s going to be a one-man show.”
Mark Eaton presented an education session entitled “The Four Commitments of a Winning Team” at the Toastmasters International Convention in August, in Palm Desert, California.
For more information about Mark Eaton or his public speaking, visit his Web site: www.7ft4.com.
Paul Sterman is an associate editor at the Toastmaster magazine.