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 a Google video to operate. Fortunately, we were able to get it 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 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. I weaved my own personal stories from Wall Street and aviation throughout the talk, making them highly relevant, entertaining and thought-provoking. They seemed to enjoy themselves as they were laughing, smiling and nodding throughout the entire presentation. 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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