#rotary #kiwanis #lionsclub —- The Probus club I spoke at earlier in the week really appreciated the motivational stories I told them from my own life journey so far. Members of Probus tend to be senior retirees and this particular club was no exception as I was introduced to people who were school teachers, principals, a former police chief, dentist, a few physicians and other professional fields.
Instead of an old boys’ club, Probus had about an equal number of men and women. The club president even remarked to me before my talk that the women in this club are quite smart as many of them are also former professionals or wives of former professionals.
Many of these Probus members are probably grandparents who spend time telling their grandchildren stories. So I bet they really liked being listeners for a change when I became their teller of motivational stories for a change.
One thing that is really different between the Probus club and other community type of clubs like Rotary, Kiwanis and Lions International, is that as a guest speaker, I got a lot more time. Whenever I speak at Rotary, Kiwanis and Lions clubs, I usually get 15 to 20 minutes tops. Their meetings have a business component to it where they talk about the current funding projects they are working on.
This was not the case with Probus as there was no lengthy business meeting discussing projects. And the meeting was held all morning but not early morning as some breakfast Rotary clubs are. The only thing about starting a Probus meeting at 9 or 10 am is that the meeting did not include any meals like most other community service clubs do.
As a speaker, even though I didn’t get a free meal out of the Probus club, I did appreciate the larger audience (there were about 80 people in attendance compared to your average Rotary club of about 20) as well as the longer stage time I got. I did a 45 minute version of my ‘The Life Champion In You’ keynote which includes more motivational stories than the usual 15 to 20 minute versions I do at community service clubs.
Below is an interesting photo taken at the Probus meeting. You can see me in the far left in the dark suit as I’m in action sharing one of my motivational stories for the audience.
