The Net Result
Winners Stories – Book 3
Australian Executive
Women’s Speaking Awards
Published by LUCILLE ORR
Edited by Nancy Flannery
for the
Australian Executive
Women’s Network
Why You Will Enjoy This Book
This book of personal success stories is written by the women who entered and won the Australian Executive Women’s Network - Public Speaking Competitions since 1988.
They say one of the most terrifying experiences is to speak publicly for the first time. It’s for this reason that the AEWN created its Speaking Awards, to encourage women to talk about their careers, businesses or their hobbies.
We have learnt so much from the women who shared their lives with us on our monthly stages, being interviewed on our radio programs and submitting their stories for The Net Result books.
I’ll never forget the AEWN member in Melbourne who arrived wearing her black leather jacket, skin tight black leather pants and black Harley helmet. She was riding her own Harley motor cycle that day and wore her bikie gear on stage to compete in the speaking competition.
Her sons loved to ride, so she bought herself a bike so she could share in their love of motor sports. At each monthly luncheon we invite three members to share their own stories on stage. Being a competition one is voted the winner on the day and this woman competes in a State Competition and the State Winner competes in the annual competition held during the AEWN Conference.
Of course the Harley story was the Winner at that Melbourne luncheon, her story was so entertaining and unique.
We have included some tips on “How to Become a Professional Speaker” in this book to help you discover the exciting world of the speaker who is paid to share their stories and experiences on stage.
Dedication
To NANCY ROBINSON FLANNERY,
12 August 1929 – 1st September 2011
We thank Nancy for all she did for our women’s network, she will remain in our hearts for ever; we loved her dearly.
Edited by Nancy Robinson Flannery
Foreword: Lucille Orr
Produced and Published by Lucille Orr
for the
Australian Executive Women’s Network
107 Carrington Street, Adelaide SA 5000
Telephone: 61 8 8232 1469
Mobile: 61 413 069 006
Email: [email protected]
Re-designed as an e-Book, by Steve Orr
Email: [email protected]
Published in eBook format by Lucille Orr
Converted by http://www.ebookit.com
Copyright 2012 Lucille Orr,
All rights reserved.
ISBN-13: 978-0-9871-5985-4
No part of this publication may be reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without the consent of the publisher.
All the stories in this book are true and personally written by the women in the book.
Foreword
by Lucille Orr
Founder & President
I can’t believe it’s Christmas Eve, 2011 already; it only seems like last year that I was organising the national awards for the Australian Executive Women’s Network, not twenty years ago! I’m listening to “Carols by Candle Light” on television while I write to you and feeling very nostalgic.
One of the most wonderful women I’ve ever met is our editor Nancy Robinson Flannery and this year on the 1st September, 2011 she died after suffering for many years with terrible back pain. I will never forget the day I met her at the launch of Fabian Dattner’s book. We were at a luncheon in Adelaide and I spoke to Fabian’s publisher about printing our first “Net Result” book for us. I was told it would take about two years to publish our book after we had written the manuscript.
I came back to the large, round table for ten and sighed and then in a loud voice called out, “Looks like I’m going to have to become a Publisher now!” Nancy was sitting on the other side of the table and invited me to join her with my coffee and sweets. That day turned out to be one of the best in my life. A new beginning, as Nancy offered to assist us. She is one of Australia’s most successful authors, editors and publishers; Nancy was now my Mentor!
Right then we decided to publish the first “Net Result” book together with the help of my staff at the Australian Executive Women’s Network. Gosh it was so long ago, there wasn’t any type-setting equipment in those days. We had to lay out the printed text on large broad-sheets of paper for the printer to photograph them and then typeset and print them.
This was the beginning of the most exciting period for the AEWN. We had already completed five years of Public Speaking Competitions and SA Executive Woman of the Year Awards and I was keen to publish these wonderful women’s stories in a book and present it to the AEWN members when we presented the final SA Award, prior to launching our inaugural National Australian Executive Woman of the Year Award the following year.
We did it! The book was published in time and I remember over 500 businessmen and businesswomen attending the book launch in our AEWN headquarters in Adelaide, prior to the Award Presentation Night that followed a short time later.
It’s amazing how setting goals works and with Nancy’s help we had no problem. Looking back I realise as I write this foreword tonight, I’m about the same age now, as Nancy was when we first met. I’m 66 years young and she must have been in her early sixties.
Attending Nancy’s funeral this year and listening to her daughter talking about the Preface Nancy wrote in our first “Net Result” book made me go home and get the books out again and read the fabulous stories written by our Award Winning women back in the nineties.
I’ll never forget the coffee meeting I had one evening when I was searching for a publishing sponsor for my real estate book, “AWARE – Australian Women and Real Estate”. Sitting in the Café waiting for the manager of a Finance Company to come back to the table with our coffees, I got talking to one of his young female staff who had joined us that evening. It just happened I had books with me, the pink, “Net Result” books and the Japanese book we had published in Japan, in the mid-nineties, featuring Australian and Japanese businesswomen.
I pulled the books out of my briefcase and the young woman gave a delighted scream, “Oh, I love those books,” she said. “The women in those pink books are my Mentors. The “Net Result” books were what we studied in our Career Classes at High School.” She looked so happy to meet me. I guess I was one of her Mentors from the books.
It gave me a thrill to, because I know schools, colleges, universities and business centres Australia wide had purchased the books and it really pleased me to hear first-hand what a wonderful benefit they had been to these students.
As life and business has changed so dramatically with the use of the Internet and Social Media I decided it was time to hop on board this year and create some e-books too! I had already published my paperback book titled AWARE- Australian Women and Real Estate (A business in a book) and my wonderful son, Steve Orr turned the manuscript into an e-book.
When