A Two Camera Shoot / Speaking Presentation For Graham Calder of London Life/Freedom

I want to extend a huge thank you to Graham Calder, Director, Business Development for London Life/Freedom 55, Nanaimo, BC.

Graham Calder & I, April 18, 2008 Tigh-Na-Mara Resort, in Parksville, BC

Graham put his faith into an idea that I had about offering a presentation of Removing Your Roadblocks to the members of the Nanaimo & Victoria London Life/Freedom 55 Financial Offices at a venue that I sponsored at the Tigh-Na-Mara Resort, in Parksville, BC which is just three minutes away from where I live.

The reason that I sponsored the venue goes back to me feeling very frustrated with a couple of past filmings that I have tried to do of my Removing Your Roadblocks presentations while I have been on the road.

The producers of the events at associations and companies where I have done past filmings have been gracious enough to allow me to bring in cameras into the room but through no fault of there’s, it just hasn’t worked out for a number of reasons that include;

We don’t have enough time to set up our equipment between speakers
The room configuration is all wrong … an example is the entry to the room is too close to the stage and there is always someone arriving late which interrupts the filming
A few wonderful souls don’t get that we are filming and even though we ask that they turn off their cell phones, pagers and crackberrys they are still a ringing and on top of that they are so mindless that they walk out in the middle of the presentation and get in the way of the camera
The room is too small for the presentation and there is nowhere to put the camera except at the side at a very odd angle
The lighting is wrong and the room décor is tacky and hasn’t been redecorated since Donna Summer came out with The Last Dance in 1978.
We are always on the road speaking and it makes it 10 times harder to do a filming when you are in a strange city and venue
I wanted to film the presentation to update our Showreel which is out of date and it suffers from some of the similar logistical challenges.

All of this frustration has served me well and has served as a catalyst for me to attract and create something better.

I remember reflecting back about all of this about 8 weeks ago while driving down the road around the corner from where I live and as I got into the frustration I thought, “how can I do a speaking presentation that is close to home that I can film”, and then it hit me.

Graham Calder has seen me speak a number of times through his roles with Advocis and London Life/Freedom 55 Financial at events that are a few minutes drive from where I live versus many plane flights. Graham is a fantastic person and I contacted him suggesting that I sponsor the venue and asked Graham to invite his team from London Life/Freedom 55 Financial, and Graham said YES!

Sponsoring the venue allowed me to choose the venue, the lighting, the room and the seating configuration to allow us to get an unobstructed two camera shoot.

I haven’t seen the footage yet, but I am certain that we have loads of film that we will be able to use to introduce my speaking to financial advisor associations and companies. This certainty is confirmed by the smile that is on my face in the picture that we took right after the presentation.

At the same, time three financial advisors asked me to have a conversation with them about becoming a client. There is business in my own back yard!

Once again, many thanks to Graham Calder!