Jonathan Sprinkles – 1 Year Anniversary – Who do you choose?

Happy Anniversary!

 

Today marks the one year anniversary of my first blog post! Ironically, I was right here, in Blacksburg, Virginia when it all began. I was very fortunate to have been asked back to make the magic happen again this year. This was an honor…and a challenge at the same time.

 

Let me explain.

 

Last year, I spoke for the high schools and middle schools in Blacksburg and Christiansburg. This year, I have to speak to the same audiences…and two more schools! That’s six talks in two days. Let me give you a little perspective. They say a 45 minute talk is the equivalent of a one complete gym workout. Well, imagine doing three talks for hyper 12 to 18 year olds. Um, yeah.

 

It worked out though. Many of the kids remembered me from last year, which was cool. It was also a challenge because they remembered my freakin’ stories and my jokes. I had to reinvent myself on the spot a couple times. I started off telling one of my two signature opening stories at Blacksburg stories about a man and his buckets. All I got out of my mouth was, “Once upon a time, there was a man who had two buckets.” Instantly, I heard a groan murmuring in the auditorium as if to say, “Not this crap again. We already know how this story ends.” I said, “Wait, I already told y’all this story? Well forget that story. It was stupid anyhow. Once upon a time, there were three students…(my other signature story).” If they knew that story too, I would have had to say, “That’s all folks, take care!”

 

Fortunately, it worked. I stumbled through the story though, knowing I would have to blog about how stupid I looked in that moment. I kept checking in with them, listening for signs of their attention such as laughter at the appropriate time. I was concentrating on their reactions so much I almost forgot parts of the story. But whatever, it worked.

 

Christiansburg High School threw me a curveball. I walked in, hugged Mrs. Poindexter, the principal, walked toward the auditorium. She grabbed me and said, “Jonathan, you need to know something. We just lost a student last night.” Wow, I was stunned. I didn’t know what to say. She told me just so I would be prepared in case the students were having a tough time that morning. It was already a gloomy, dreary, rainy morning, now this was the icing on the cake.

 

Fortunately, I resisted the urge to completely change my message to accommodate the circumstances. In retrospect, that would have been a disaster because I would have been so unprepared. It would have been a miserable 60 minutes. Instead, I chose to briefly acknowledge the student’s death and spin it around from mourning her death to, “Let’s live in a way that will honor her life.” I thank God for that piece of wisdom at the last minute. This was one of the most draining talks I’ve ever done due to the intensity of the moment. I was toast afterward.

 

Mr. Carter, the assistant principal asked me if I wanted to go “sit in on a classroom” after my first talk of three that day. That’s usually a code for “I want you to do another talk for free to a specific group of students. ”Inside I said, “Dude, you saw me labor to get through that first talk. I can’t believe you have the nerve to ask me to do it again during my break!” For some reason, all of that was verbalized as, “Sure, let’s go.”

 

Am I ever glad I made that decision! The class he was referring to was a kindergarten class. I opened the door and was greeted by kids cutting shapes and learning The Bear Song. I was in heaven. I went to the table to see the action up close and felt something pulling on my leg. The cutest little redheaded boy bear hugged me around the knee. I bent down, talked to my new buddy and he said, “Can you come home with me?” I would have done it, too! We sat down and he taught me what a red, blue and purple Crayon looks like. He and his classmate with green stuff running down her nose also schooled me on how to color inside the lines. I knew I was doing something wrong, but I didn’t know what. Did I say I was in heaven? I started picking kids up and played airplane with them. Did I say I was in heaven?

 

We then sat in a circle (Indian-style of course), so the class could teach me The Bear Song. It was so fun. My redheaded best friend sat in my lap. When they told me it was time to go, I almost fell out, had a tantrum and screamed, “I don’t wanna! I don’t wanna!”. But I had to be a role model. So I just ignored them. Ha, ha, ha.

 

The second and third talks killed me that day. I was so tired I could barely talk. I finished at 2:30pm and was asleep by 3pm. I am grateful for the IMPROV comedy I’ve learned. It made all the difference in my longevity because I had long chunks of audience participation. Being more interactive with the audience is always a good thing, for them and for you. But mostly, for the meeting planner.

 

SPRINKLE OF WISDOM:

The main person you need to keep happy is your meeting planner. Period. The audience can love you, but they move on. If the meeting planner gets tired of hearing your message, subconsciously, he or she will have a “been there, done that” feeling in his or her mind. It would suck to hear the same speech three times that day, then three more times that day. I used different openings, stories and closings each time. The whole talk wasn’t different, but just different enough for her to give me the magic phrase, “Wow, every time, I learned something new.” Yeeeeaaaaaah!

 

Mind you, this is already my second year back at these schools and I am already working on next year. I have to do everything I can to keep ‘the powers that be’ happy so when it’s decision time, the infamous “Let’s mix things up” line doesn’t come up. It takes a heck of a presentation to make someone want to have the same person come back year after year. That’s who I want to be. I want next year’s calendar to be filled before this year is over. That’s what it really means to be THE MAN. If you want to be THE MAN/WOMAN, you’d better get busy crafting that calendar-filling talk.

 

Connection is key,

 

Jonathan

“Your Connection Coach”

 

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