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I, with my husband enrolled to a wine of the month club, thanks to the couple that chose to stay with us on a weekend who extended the invitation to join the club. I think it as a wonderful gift of courtesy. Ever since joining the club, we receive two bottles of wine every month. My husband doesn’t care about wine and he asks me what to do with that much wine. I found a solution to the problem. I decided to use my membership at a club of different kind, a book club to make the most of the sample wine bottle I would receive from the wine club.

I met the members of the book club at a meeting and told them about the wine I get from the ‘wine of the month’ club. Till then it is not a problem finishing off the wine. We picked a book on wine making, wine testing, wine sampling and stories of people related to wine making and serving industry. We are book club members, you see. The next meeting of the book club was planned at my home. By the time the meeting materialized, I had some unique bottles of wine. We discussed the book (really!) while sampling the wine. It was a nice thing to see wine of the month club was mentioned in the book. Now tell me what should I call the meeting - wine of the month meeting or book club meeting?

I agree it was the loudest book club meeting we ever had. Different sampling wine glasses were emptied at regular intervals. It was great fun for everyone. Was it wine of the month club that added fun and value to our book club meeting or is it the other way round? It doesn’t matter till we have something for our intellect and for our tongue as well.

The membership fee to the wine of the month club is quite reasonable and most of the book club members joined the club as a group. It is nice that the hostess always something unique for the guests, even in the form of wines. Some of the wines are great tasting while I don’t really like all of them. It doesn’t matter - there will always be takers for the tastes that I personally dislike. It is only natural for us to note which wines perform well on our tongues and which one doesn’t. We will be purchasing the ones that raised some prolific cheers.

Tag: Wine of the Month ClubWine of the Month Club

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Be passionate about your topic! I know beginning speakers who are so eager to be hired to speak that they tell prospective clients that they can speak on everything just give them a topic. Not so! Yes, most intelligent people can pull together an informative presentation by reading and researching, but if you are not truly excited and turned on about the topic you are going to present, you will not make a lasting impression on audience members or move them to take any action. If, however, you speak about a topic that excites you, a topic that you know and live, you will excite those hearing you. Pick a topic that will make a difference.

Develop your mission. Once you have picked the topic you plan to present, you will have a good deal of work to do to develop that topic into a powerful presentation. The first step is to develop your mission. Every topic is loaded with information, but if you don’t have a plan for the overall mission of your presentation, you will just add to the information overload most people are experiencing today. Ask yourself early in the planning process: What do I want them to remember and do three months from now? Take out a blank sheet of paper and write in one clear, concise sentence the mission of your presentation.

Pick your theme. Now work on your presentation’s theme, which should also be stated in one concise statement. A theme, often a statement of the three most important points to be covered, keeps the presentation “on track.” For example, when giving a presentation on the topic “Newsletters” my mission would be to lead audience members to “Create Dynamic Newsletters that People Love to Read” and my theme would be “ways to produce newsletters that are appealing visually, extremely readable, and loaded with the information needed and wanted by the target readers.”

Develop the topic. The difficult, but most important, part of the development has been accomplished. By this time, I have my outline of the three points I want to make from my theme. There are many different ways to gather and organize the material. The main tip to keep in mind is that any material that doesn’t fit the mission and the theme’s three points should be saved for a future presentation.

Test your topic. I like to test my topic before presenting it to paying clients and companies. There are many organizations like Chambers of Commerce, Kiwanis clubs, non-profit associations, and business schools that welcome speakers who will give a free speech. Try out your presentation on several of these occasions to find out how well received it is and if it makes a difference. I also teach Continuing Education classes, so will suggest my topic and title as a class selection. If many sign up and respond favorably, I know I have a “winner.”

Tags: audiences, presentation skills, presentations, professsional speaker, public speaking, topicsaudiences, presentation skills, presentations, professsional speaker, public speaking, topics

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