A Cruise Speaking Boot Camp

I have just received an email from a cruise line speaker agency I am registered with requesting me to choose some cruises which I would like to add to my wish list. This is the method they use to select cruises for the speakers on their books. I have only spoken on one cruise for them and that was in January 2013 on a cruise to the Caribbean.

This has brought back some great memories of my trip to the Caribbean which included St Lucia, Barbados and Antigua. What an amazing trip it was and more amazing because at the time I was painting and decorating full time as I developed my Mind Coaching business. I found it hard to find the clients to coach and train so I had to decorate to pay the bills.

Find your Inner Warrior

I had a dream to run a successful business impacting thousands, helping them to find their inner warrior. I believe we all have great potential and if we can find the thing we are passionate about we can do amazing things and reach staggering heights. Passion is a real key to success – once you find what you are passionate about things really start to happen.

When I played basketball I was passionate about it and the work I put in didn’t seem like work. I had a dream to play for England and eventually professionally – slowly but surely I got there. There were many tough moments I had to go through but the passion got me through time after time.

Find your passion

When I worked in radio and for advertising and design agencies, I didn’t have the passion for those roles. I worked hard and did quite well but because the passion wasn’t there I didn’t fulfil my potential in those roles. Don’t get me wrong I was successful in most people’s eyes, but in my eyes I didn’t reach ‘England’ level.

Now I have finally discovered my Passion again and it is very exciting to have found this later in life. Mental Resilience is an area I am fascinated in and the impact this has on the people I coach and train is staggering. My book ‘Off the Wall – How to develop World Class mental resilience’ is a result of the passion I have for this subject. I still can’t believe that I am a published author with a book which has 20 x 5 star reviews on Amazon.

Decorating to pay the bills

I am now 62 and have been running my business for 6 years. The first 3 years were very tough and clients were very hard to come by. It didn’t help that I launched JD Mindcoach in the middle of the worst recession in decades. But because of the passion I had for this dream, I survived the agony of decorating to pay the bills, whilst building the business.

It was a serious shoulder injury which curtailed my decorating and forced me to concentrate 100% on the business. This was the game changer and what seemed like a disastrous injury turned out to be the best thing that had happened to me in a long time. When all the bridges are burned you have no option but to move forward, stay positive and never give up.

Passed the audition

When I went to the audition at the cruise liner speaker agency on the South coast of England I didn’t have much material to go with but I did my best and passed the audition. I then received notification that I would have a slot on the Fred Olsen cruise to the Caribbean. It was a 2-week cruise and I had to speak 5 times for 45 mins.

At the time I had one talk prepared so I had a couple of weeks to sort out 4 more talks. I didn’t make it in time so I caught to plane to Barbados with a laptop full of photos and video clips and a rough idea of the four new topics. I spent every minute of the plane journey and the cruise itself to create the talks.

Extreme pressure

I spent every minute of each day writing and re-writing. As each talk approached I just finished in time. I didn’t have time to practice the talk. I had to guess the timing of the talk and hoped for the best. I had no option – I was on the ship and I had a duty to deliver 5 good talks for the cruise speaker company who had booked me for the cruise.

In essence I would finish writing the talk, I’d have time to run through it once to make sure the PowerPoint was working correctly then I would leave my cabin and go straight to the ball room where I would set up the presentation then I was on. Talk about pressure!! The first time I heard the words of the presentation out loud was in front of the audience!

Performing under pressure

It is pleasing to report that all 5 talks went well and the feedback the agency received from the ships director was very positive – so much so they took me on their books for future cruises. I have turned down a couple of cruises over the past year because I have been too busy, but because I received this email today I have decided to highlight 7 cruises that would fit into my schedule in 2017.

There is no guarantee that I will be booked for a cruise as I have been very specific, but at least I am in there with a chance. I was thinking of leaving cruise speaking until I reached the age of 65, but receiving this email has reminded me that you can achieve far more than you can imagine if you prioritise well.

A free holiday

One of the bonuses of this is that my wife Julie can come with me to enjoy the cruises and see me speak. I needed a lot of Mental Resilience to cope with delivering those talks under such pressure and this is why I am so passionate about sharing this with others. The techniques I share give people the mindset and skills to do amazing things under extreme pressure.

Thoughts for the week.

1. Have you anything you have dreamt of doing but have been putting off?
2. If you have, what has stopped you?
3. On a sheet of paper write down all the positive things and all the negative things about doing this. If the positives outweigh the negatives then consider going for it.
4. Think about prioritising the important things in your life – you will achieve more.

Well that’s it for this week. Have a really good weekend and stay positive.

Warm regards

John