R.I.P. King of Wing

         

Edition 163  Monday 5^th November 2012

Hi, drum roll……..Ladies and Gentlemen, and the runner up to the runner up of the eventual runner up is “The Jones Boy” Hmmmm, coming 4th was disappointing but something even more annoying was knowing I could have done a lot better! Don’t you hate that feeling?,YES, so if you could do something about it, would you, YES, then why didnt you this time and the last and the time before!??

It was the Auckland final of the Humorous Speech Contest. To qualify I had won two previous contests, I had weeks between each contest to practise, practise,practise but instead all I managed to do was procrastinate,procrastinate,procrastinate!and the rest I am embarrassed to admit is ‘sad me’ history!

So….you are hearing it here first….”The King of Wing”(me) is hanging up his ‘crown and gown!’(perhaps an obvious talent and career as a Poet beckons?) But NO, I decided in that cold heartless, thankless 1^st,2^nd or 3rdless public speaking Mecca that is the Mt Eden War Memorial Hall that I will no longer insult my own or my fellow competitors intelligence by taking the stage anything less than totally prepared. Continuing to rely on my finely tuned ‘just wing it’ skills is too stressful for all concerned….enough said, mark my words, watch this space……..easy to say, well see!!!

Ladies and Gentlemen, todays lesson, there is only one way to succeed;Practise, Practise,Practise!

We had a cool weekend catching up with family and friends whilst also managing a compulsory carrot caké muffin pit stop and plenty of R&R.

I hope you also got to do some favorite stuff whilst staying in touch with those closest to you.

Have a great week ahead, take care if you are celebrating Guy Fawkes and remember the animals!

Cheers Jonesey.

Harry and the Hendersons burnt an effigy of Guy Fawkes at the local fireworks protest!!! 

“The single biggest problem with Communication’ is the illusion that it has taken place”

George Bernard Shaw

I have attended a number of events recently where I have listened to people present on numerous topics for varying lengths of time.

Listening to others is always an interesting exercise for me because I have to discipline myself to do so in order to get the most from a presentation. This is not made easy when the presenters are clearly unprepared or even more clearly reluctant to be there. You can always tell these ones as they will read from their power points which will have too many slides with too much info on each one..you know the ones don’t you,sadly you can guarantee they will be at every event.

Like the self proclaimed ‘King of Wing’ mentioned above there are far too many of us who don’t prepare and practise enough before a presentation….Dont let this happen to you !!

Here are some tips when presenting;

• Practise, Practise, Practise…….no I mean it, you must devote the time or you will fail!
• For power points….max 12 slides, max 4 points per slide (include pictures =1000 words)
• Concentrate on 58% body language,32% tone of voice and 10% speech content because the more effective you are in these areas the better you will communicate and connect to and with your audience J.
• Don’t read from your power point.
• Practise, Practise, Practise………..I mean it !!!(speaking from a lot of experience)
• Hang up the ‘King of wing’ crown and gown for good…’She wont be right’……..GOOD LUCK

“ I like to listen,I have learned a great deal from listening carefully. Most people never listen” Ernest Hemmingway