I was speaking at Disney World in 1978 right after I had won the World Championship of Public Speaking for Toastmasters when I came upon a terrific idea.

As people were taking their kids through "It's A Small World" I noticed that video of their smiling faces was being flashed on a monitor. I thought to myself: "That would be a terrific thing to be able to do with an audience to whom I would be speaking."

Being the inquisitive type, I went up to the Disney guys and asked "How did you do that?" His answer: "Magnificently!" That was not exactly the answer I wanted. "Why do you ask?" he inquired.

"I have this idea. You see, I'm a professional speaker. What you just did gave me a terrific idea. I speak at a lot of after dinner banquets. I envision taking pictures of the people I'm about to address as they enjoy their cocktails and then using them in my after dinner speech."

"You can't do that," he exclaimed. "Why?" I asked. "You just did it; why can't I?"

"But you're the speaker; you're too important." "Says who?" I asked.

While he was using video, I knew I couldn't do that without an elaborate amount of money and equipment. However, he introduced me to an instant photography process and told me of something called Polaroid instant development film, a 35 mm slide process. You shoot a roll of film and then develop it instantly in about sixty seconds into slides. You then clip and mount the slide and put them into a slide tray and bingo… it's a done deal.

Anybody with a cell phone or a digital camera can do this with PowerPoint today, but this was 1978, way before the digital age. I immediately found a niche and started marketing the idea as my "Visual Extravaganza."

I would deliver my motivational speech and at the conclusion would say: "Now ladies and gentlemen, stop, look, listen and enjoy as I share this final gift of love from me to you."

Immediately, my photographs of my audience members going cheek-to-cheek in photographs would hit the screen in rapid fire fashion. Every audience I ever did this with completely freaked out. They were blown away by seeing themselves on the big silver screen as Barbara Streisand music "The Way We Were" played in the background. Every audience had tears in their eyes, because I always used a motivational story to close my speech.

For years, I traveled around several continents speaking to audiences and doing the pictures. Some groups were so impressed that they'd bring me back the next year just to have me do the pictures even though they'd have a different speaker.

The process evolved into several other services. One I affectionately called "Visual Roast" and it was exactly what the name implied, a roast of sorts using photographs. Another concept was "Visual Newspaper," where I would follow a group around Maui for a week, showing daily photographs on the big silver screen. We even converted them into print format and printed them in a daily newspaper.

For years, I was the only guy doing this, but soon others picked up on the idea. I've even taught dozens of speakers how to do it, but most would say "I don't want to work that hard. I'll just give my speech and grab my fee and leave."

One of the best parts about "Visual Extravaganza" is I get to meet each of my audience members in an intimate way before I speak. When I stand to speak, they have this look on their face that says "I know I've been had I just don't know how bad!"

One day a friend named Al McCree came up and asked: "Has the lawsuit arrived yet?" My response was "to which of the many suits do you refer?" He said, "The one from Barbara Streisand for using her music unlicensed."

"No," I replied, "Barbara hasn't called yet. I never knew I needed her permission." He suggested that I have my own music written. "Where in the devil am I going to find someone to write me a song?" He responded, "I thought you'd never ask!"

Al wrote a powerful song titled "The Winner Is You" that is sung by Melanie Tunney and I now use that to close all my "Visual Extravaganza" presentations.