This week I have much to be grateful for, particularly with respect to a recent speaking engagement in Orlando, Florida. Yesterday, I gave a presentation at an annual meeting for Mechanical Dynamics & Analysis, one of the largest turbine generator repair organizations in the United States. The topic was conflict resolution and employee motivation.
The night before the talk, I had an opportunity to visit the room where it was to take place. It was there that I was able to double check and test the equipment I was using for my PowerPoint presentation. Thanks to the assistance of the meeting planners, we were able to prevent some rather embarrassing problems that could have materialized the next day.
For example, I wanted to ensure that the Google and YouTube videos that were part of my PowerPoint presentation would play properly. While the hotel’s Internet connection was found to be working just fine, I had some problems getting both the Google AND YouTube videos to operate. Fortunately, we were able to get them resolved in a few hours. Had we not done that, I would have been sweating bullets the following morning, trying to fix them. I’m very grateful the meeting planners agreed to meet the night before so that we could nip things in the bud before they metamorphed into bigger problems. I’m sure they were too!
I am also grateful that speaking engagements take me to warm and sunny places like Florida where I was able to enjoy a full day of sunshine in the hotel’s swimming pool. There I was, romping around, using my goggles and taking it all in while wet and bitterly cold weather swept throughout Ohio. At one point, I rested my head on the edge of the swimming pool and stared, for the longest time, at the palm trees that were set against a gorgeous blue backdrop, silently thanking God for opportunities like this.
With the exception of a 3-hour layover on my way back home, I experienced a pleasant trip, moving smoothly in and out of airports with the ease of a seasoned traveler. There were no tales of lost luggage nor were there any delays; in fact, Air Trans did a great job getting me to and from all of my destinations on time, making my trip rather pleasant.
And finally, I verified that being an authentic, from-the-heart speaker goes a long way in reaching those who could be considered “tough to reach” members of the audience. The men and women I spoke to have seen and experienced all kinds of adversity, ranging from next-to-impossible people, deadlines and unexpected crises that would put even the most seasoned politicians to shame. They’ve seen and heard everything there is, yet I was able to connect to each and every one of them on a deeper level, simply because I allowed myself to be transparent. That is, I allowed myself to speak from the heart, not worrying how I sounded or whether they’d “get it.” Throughout the presentation, I weaved in my own personal stories from Wall Street and aviation, making them highly relevant, entertaining and thought-provoking. Everyone seemed to enjoy themselves as they were laughing, smiling and nodding throughout. Several came up to me during the coffee/bathroom breaks to privately share their own personal stories. Clearly they were touched by my message(s) and I was grateful for the opportunity to make yet another difference.
Update on 1/12/08: Thanks to fellow blogger Chris Melton of soupornuts.com, I was made aware of yet another way to show my gratitude to the readers who participate and leave respectful and value-added comments at Adversity University. It’s a new plug-in called CommentLuv. If you have a blog and you leave a comment, this plug-in automatically goes back to your blog’s URL (that you provided in the comment section) and retrieves the latest post you wrote, in essence giving you linkback juice! How cool is that?!?
Food for thought: What are you grateful for this week?
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10:00 am on January 12th, 2008 1
Welcome back to the land of the cold. Keep those palm trees in your mind!
10:46 am on January 12th, 2008 2
Karen:
Thanks - while I’d much rather be lounging by the pool and staring at palm trees, I am glad to be back home, despite the cold, and settling in once again.
1:36 pm on January 12th, 2008 3
I am a great believer in “Murphy’s Law” which of course says if anything can go wrong it will.
Your experience in checking out all the equipment in advance is a lesson in life. Don’t just jump into the deep water. This goes beyond to checking people and businesses also. You should always know the principles of the people you are dealing with. This is not being suspicious, it is being prudent.
Glad it went so well. Not surprised! You are a winner!
1:55 pm on January 12th, 2008 4
Corinne:
Over the years, I’ve read a lot about other professional speakers who wrote about their experiences in terms of howyou never know what could happen at a speaking engagement - especially if you use technical equipment such as a laptop with Internet connection. I am so very grateful I had the foresight to follow through and ensure all was in good working order.
What’s interesting is that even though the technical glitches were found the night before, I found myself sweating a little and felt a hint of panic rising within. I fought to get a handle on it, saying to myself, “We’ll get this fixed, just be thankful this isn’t happening tomorrow morning.”
Thanks for yout continuing love and support. You are GREAT!
10:52 pm on January 12th, 2008 5
Hi Stephen,
Thanks for the shout. I am finding that the commentluv plugin does not seem to work every time. I’ll keep checking on it and see how it goes. Let me know if you find anything weird.
Chris - soupornuts.com’s last blog post..Keep your blog’s readers coming back with a little commentluv
7:44 am on January 13th, 2008 6
Chris:
I’m finding that this plug-in doesn’t always work either but with the comment you left, it did work! Weird. Let me know what you find during your research, if anything.
P.S. I went back to the CommentLuv website and here’s what I found:
“In some cases, it may not show a link to the commenters last post because it couldn’t find a feed in the default location and your hosting doesn’t support parsing with Curl (a php command). If you notice one of your readers comments not having their last blog post shown, come here and put their blog URL in the testing box above. If it works here but not at your blog, it’s probably because your hosting doesn’t allow Curl.”
P.S.S. One thing that we might be missing here is that, although highly unlikely, it’s possible the commentators deselected the CommentLuv option box after leaving a comment. That could be another reason this plug-in did not automatically provide a link back to their latest blog posts. Having said that, I took it upon myself to test the blog URL of those who frequently leave comments here by going back to the CommentLuv website and entering them in the “testing box” at the site. The test was a success because it successfully retrieved all of their last blog posts. Why they didn’t show up after they left a comment here at Adversity University, I don’t know. Once again, it could be they deselected the CommentLuv option but why they would do that is beyond me - everyone loves a little free promotion for their blogs. Let me know what you find, if anything.
10:32 am on January 13th, 2008 7
Hi Stephen,
Thanks for your alert. I have gone back to the CommentLuv plugin website and done some more research. Right now, I am trying to see if it will “kick out” a link back to our Rotater blog, Shoulder Performance & Rehab. Wish me luck.
6:45 pm on January 13th, 2008 8
Glad you enjoyed the sunshine of Florida. I am grateful for the cold weather we are having in Arkansas. It is cold but sunshiny today, much better than the rain and clouds of yesterday. Cold weather is good for cuddling with a loved one. Have a glorious day.
Patricia - Spiritual Journey Of A Lightworker’s last blog post..Surrender—Using A God Box
7:06 pm on January 13th, 2008 9
Patricia:
Seems that the CommentLuv plug-in worked for your comment! That’s good to see.
Sunshine sure adds some much needed warmth and vitamins, doesn’t it? Thanks for stopping by, as usual. It’s always good to hear from you.
7:07 pm on January 13th, 2008 10
Chris:
You’re welcome. It seems to be working for some commentators but not others. It remains to be seen how effective this plug-in really is. But in the meantime, I’ll leave it on a trial basis and see where it goes. Keep me posted from your end of things.