Newsmaker
Monday, September 8, 1997
Name: Willie Jones
Age: 50
Occupation: Computer repair business
Education: Park (Mo.) College
Pastimes: Computers, flying airplanes
By daring to be different, Willie Jones became a world champion. Winning speaker
Jones, a retired Air Force electronic intelligence agent who moved to Hawaii in 1991, won "World's Best Speaker of the Year" honors Aug. 23 at the 66th annual Toastmasters International convention in New Orleans.
He is the first Hawaii entrant to win the title.
Jones has been to the finals before. "In 1983, I didn't win, place or show," he said.
But this time, he went against tradition and it paid off.
"I'm the person who broke the traditional box of public speaking," Jones said, referring to his freestyle, conversational winning speech titled "A Warm Boot" about the sound a computer makes when it comes back online after being down.
"It was very light, humorous and timely as opposed to the usually structured and emotional speeches," he added. "I took a risk by dispensing with tradition. The feedback I got afterward was that everyone said this is the new direction."
Jones did not rehearse his speech.
"When I connect with the audience, I get a reaction: It makes my hair stand up," he said. "That's the difference.
"The others delivered speeches they had rehearsed over, so for them, it's the same in front of a mirror or before 3,000 people," he added. "Mine can't be rehearsed. I know what I'm going to say, but I change my mannerisms, voice and gestures. It's all dictated by the audience response."
Jones knew he would do well from the audience reaction in the first minute of his speech.
"I started by going to the edge of the stage and started talking to them about what the boot process entails," he said. "There was some movement, and I felt the rush when I went into my speech.
"When I told a joke, there was laughter," he added. "We were connected and responding to each other."
Jones, an Alabama native, is planning to write a book on shifting styles of public speaking and is looking at doing public speaking professionally full time.
He has accepted an invitation to be the keynote speaker at an International Toastmasters regional conference in Malaysia in May 1998 and has speaking engagements lined up in South Africa, New Zealand and Australia.
"I think the biggest difference between talking and public speaking is that public speaking has to come from within you," Jones said. "You have to feel confident that what you're saying is worthy of hearing."'
Rod Ohira, Star-Bulletin
