The Name Coyote. This happened when I first met my previous partner, a professional speaker. We had been going out for a few months when one of his client's invited me to travel with him to Fiji whilst he spent a whole 3 hours hard at work presenting. Me, being a woman who loves to travel agreed to go of course. This conference was a 5 day conference with a NZ company and let me tell you IT WAS FUN! I joined in with the group and did everything I could. One day Ron went deep sea fishing and me, being a lover or orchids, decided to go on the Orchid Tour. How divine! I've refrained from publishing my orchid pictures here in case I scare you off. Speaking of Orchids have you visited the Botanic Gardens in Singapore? Ron and I were in Singapore in 2005 for the Global Speakers Convention. Ron is a CSP (Certified Speaking Professional) only 7% of speakers in the world have this accredition. On the first day Ron had to attend the CSP meeting and I had a day to myself. So did I go shopping in Orchard Road? Hell no! I headed off for a day to myself at the Botanic Gardens and was in Orchid Paradise. OK so I'm not that interesting after all!
Oops lost the plot then, we are back in Fiji now. At one stage we were sunning on an island after a beautiful cruise and I said to Ron "So this is work for you?" I then asked him how do I get into this business. He said become a speaker or become a bureau. Hmmm thought I - just might do that. By the way I plan to be on the circuit in 2007 once my book is finished and published.
Then came the corporate games. We played Skirmish, and I got creamed pretty much straight away and it hurt too! Later we were playing another game and Ron smeared some mud on me, so in front of the 90 clients, he took off running and I chased him at full speed - out the gate and onto the gravel road. Never having played football before in my life I thought I might try a crash tackle. I did, I landed spreadeagled on my front, scratched and hurt and there came the name Coyote. It's true, I am quite like the Wile E Coyote, never giving up, taking risks, extremely resourceful, a survivor and quite often injuring myself in the process.
Today for example, I went for a grading in Tae Kwon Do. In my last 10 seconds of sparring I fainted. If anyone had a camera it would have appeared that Rowan, my sparring partner, had kicked me down on the ground. I recovered and had to break a board with my elbow straight away. I am sitting here typing this with a forearm covered in bruises and cuts but by golly I broke that board anyway!
Here is an interview I did for Flying Solo
