Lessons from the Animal Kingdom: The Butterfly

Welcome to the promise of Monday and our next article in the series, “My Life is Just Speech Material … And, So is Yours.”

If you remember, we ended our last article with lessons you had learned from the animals in your life and how to use those lessons to make a compelling presentation. Today, I would like to talk about my love for flowers and butterflies.

Nature is all around us, which means that speech material is all around us. I love to take nature pictures, especially of flowers and butterflies (the one listed in this article was picked up on Shutterstocks free site so that it would have the correct specs for publishing on-line). If you haven’t taken the time to really look at the wonder of creation around us, take a moment, walk away from LinkedIn, and go for a long nature walk. Not only will it relax you, but with your new passion for locating speech material, you will see the world in a whole new way. Or, better yet, take a notebook with you and use it to record all the wonderful thoughts you have while on the nature trail.

My passion for butterflies has taken me to many beautiful locations to photograph their striking colors and the true gracefulness with which they glide through the air. I do not have fancy camera equipment, but I have been able to capture some of the most beautiful butterfly photos in butterfly parks and in nature. These photographs have provided a lot of speech material over the years.

You may or may not know this, but if you look at the back of the head of many butterfly species, you can actually see a smiley face. Really! Check it out, and if you can’t see them, give me a call and I will share some photos with you.

With many animals, including the butterfly, sometimes the intention is for them to stand out in the world, and other times the idea is to hide from their predators by using their body parts, or wings in the case of the butterfly, as a natural camouflage. I have some incredible photos with the camouflaged wings hiding the butterfly as it sits clearly on a rock — virtually impossible to see at quick glance.

One of my favorite presentations used various butterfly pictures to discuss how we get along with each other in the world. I used some photos of beautiful, colorful butterflies to talk about how beautiful and unique we are as individuals. I used the camouflage butterflies to talk about how sometimes we need to have time for ourselves and “hide out” from the world, just to think about who we are and where we are going. I talked about butterflies on their own, and with other butterflies, with the idea that sometimes we need others to help us along the path. I finished with the smiley face butterfly to remind us of one of my philosophies and favorite quotes by an unknown author, “Sometimes the only sense we can make out of life is a sense of humor.” This last point brings up ways to find humor and smiles among all the situations and challenges that life can throw our way.

This is just a small example of using butterflies as a basis for a presentation, and how the presentation was enhanced by using photographs to reinforce points.

In our next article, we will discuss the inspiration bird watching can have on our presentations. Until then, I encourage you to think about examples of nature in your life and how you might adapt those examples to a presentation or speech you are scheduled to make in the coming weeks or months.