Article 5 – Passion! It’s the sweetstuff that should be driving your
personal life,your career and speaking on cruise ships. Passion may be the
last principle of Beck and Cable in their book, Interpretation for the 21st Century, but if this
guideline is not present your audience will know. I think passion should be one
of the cornerstones of your abilities for interpretation. Beck and Cable list three areas one must be
passionate about: the resource, the people and inspiring others.
The Resource
·
You must love
your subject! Audiences will forgive a
couple of slides in a power point out of order as long as they know you are
passionate about your subject. Now this is not a license to put together a poor
presentation, but passion has to be the basis you build on. If you are using
your subject matter as a means to cruise but don’t love your subject it will
show in your presentation. You can expect the passengers to rate you as
mediocre and you may not be asked back again to be a speaker on that cruise
line. Yes, the passengers are asked to rate all aspects of their cruising
experience and the Enrichment program is part of that experience. If you are passionate, love your subject,
good news travels fast on a ship and you can expect a good number at your
presentations.
·
Part of the resource for speakers on cruise
ships, is the ship itself and the company it represents. Cruising does offer an excellent way to
travel and take a vacation, but you represent the cruise lines. You are not an
employee and you are not staff, but you do have full passenger status. Consider yourself an ambassador, you are
there to do a job – you were hired on to enhance the experience of the
passengers. Do your research on the cruise line you are representing. What type of passengers generally sail with
them, what age bracket are they, what do they expect of the speaker? Look at
the ship’s excursions, the lay out of the ship; it will give you a feel for the
type of passengers they are catering to. Try to have an affinity or love for
cruising. If you have never cruised before and not sure if cruising is for you,
at least have a love of travel and people.
The People
Tilden states in Interpreting our Heritage, we
must be in love. Tilden considered love, a “priceless ingredient” Not a mushy love,
but a love of our audience and our resource, this type of love is considered a
brotherly love for our audience. The Greeks call this love, agape (ah-gah-pey).
·
The cruise line
had an interest in your subject and that is why you were brought on board. You
may have great knowledge about your presentations, but chances are there may be
a few passengers on board who know more about the arts, science or history that
coincides with your talk. If they share with you, embrace them as one you can
glean nuggets of information from. This means you must be humble about your
subject and love your fellow passenger’s insights.
·
There is a
certain amount of notoriety being the speaker on the cruise ship. You may
become a mini-celebrity. People may seek you out for comments, conversation and
company. If you love your subject you will enjoy sharing your knowledge with
others. Some cruise lines expect more visibility as a
speaker. Some expect you be a host at a dinner table; be available at a
“coffee” time to interact on a casual basis with passengers. Other cruise lines
expect nothing more than doing the presentations. You need to be a people
person and love the passengers, their comments, their questions and their
curiosity. Please do not become a bore
when visiting with others. Remember as soon as you leave the ship your
mini-celebrity status evaporates around your family and colleges and your 15
minutes of fame is gone and forgotten.
Inspiring
Others
Through the love of your
subject you could be the spark that ignites passengers to delve more into your
subject. You will be influencing those in audience, for good or a ho hum drum
way. You will be introducing passengers to something you love. Your
interpretation of your subject will inspire those to learn more or to visit a historical
structure when they go ashore. The cruise lines are looking for you to inspire
or enrich the passenger’s experience. When passengers book on to a cruise it is
generally to escape the cares of the world they left ashore. If they choose to
come to your presentation and did not go to Bingo, dance class or sit around
the pool they are looking to be inspired, enriched and to some degree,
entertained. If you are passionate about your subject you will be interesting,
sometimes witty, engaging and naturally inspiring. You will love people and
people will love you.
The following quote sums
up what love and passion should be. As a speaker, I now cringe at the image of
gongs and cymbals. Check your agape meter; it’s a dose of reality that should
add some humility to your life.
If I could speak all the languages of earth and of angels, but
didn't love others, I would only be a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. I Cor.
13:1
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