Doug Woods

The Evening Lake

This image was taken one evening while I was staying at a hotel near Chepstow in Wales.

The Challenging Speaker I make a great point of telling an audience that I am not a Motivational Speaker nor an Inspirational Speaker. I am, however, a challenging speaker. To my mind, calling yourself a Motivational Speaker could almost be an insult to your audience. It suggests that they are lazy, unproductive and lack motivation.…… Continue reading The Challenging Speaker

Learning Public Speaking With Toastmasters

I first joined Toastmasters 4 years ago and I did so because I wanted to learn Public Speaking. I first heard of Toastmasters a few years prior to joining. A family friend had revealed that he was a member of the organisation and he told me some of what went on at their meetings. I…… Continue reading Learning Public Speaking With Toastmasters

Speech Writing

There are many different types of speech and almost as many different ways of writing a speech. Like all good speech writers, I like to vary my approach according to the nature of the speech to be written. I tend to follow 3 criteria when writing a speech; The person delivering the speech The occasion…… Continue reading Speech Writing

Sky View from Avebury

Sky view from Avebury

Barcelona

I am going to surprise you by what I have to say about Barcelona; don’t go there. Yep, that’s right but let me explain that a bit later. I recently visited Barcelona for a short city break. It is a city I have been to before but only as a young child visiting with…… Continue reading Barcelona

How Failing as a Decent Human Being Taught Me Empathy

I lost my first fiancée in a car crash. It doesn‘t take much imagination to realise how that event had a devastating effect on my life. It was a few years later that I started dating again. One of the first people I met, was a girl close to my age, called Rachel. We met, I…… Continue reading How Failing as a Decent Human Being Taught Me Empathy

Photo Challenge Week 5: Warmth

I had to cheat a little with this week’s photo. As I’ve not been able to get out and about for a few weeks, I have had to upload an old photo and, to make things worse, I have used a photo from my phone rather than my camera. The theme is ‘warmth’. On a…… Continue reading Photo Challenge Week 5: Warmth

Photo Challenge Week 4: Black and White

This week, it has still been difficult to get out and about with the camera. This has been because of a gammy knee, which has continued to play up. Consequently, I have been forced to take images from the house. The image here is of the tree across the way from the front of our…… Continue reading Photo Challenge Week 4: Black and White

Photo Challenge Week 3 : Weather

The theme for week three of this year’s photo challenge was ‘weather’. To be honest, they could not have picked a worse topic for the week or a worse week for that topic. I had hoped for snow, wind, heavy rain, deep frost … anything which might make for an interesting image. Instead, the weather…… Continue reading Photo Challenge Week 3 : Weather