Nothing beats the real thing...
I’ve spent the past 7 years imparting valuable insights related to visual storytelling for experts who speak, train, coach, consult and write books through articles and social content.
While told countless times that these words are helpful for experts to gain a better understanding of their investment and application of branding, live event and book photos, I recently learned, first-hand, something very telling:
When those same words are shared in front of a room of people, they resonate 10x more.
Recently, I flew to Madison to spend some time with the NSA Wisconsin chapter to have a fireside chat with members.
The reason why it was a fireside chat was because, quite frankly, I have zero desire to be a speaker and the last thing I want to do is to attempt to memorize anything.
I’m too lazy to do all that, what can I say?
Regardless, I knew I was in good hands when told that colleague and friend, Eliz Greene, would be the moderator, so, I knew this was going to be a fun and engaging conversation.
This comfortability was important because I’ve never done something like this live before - Zoom meetings, sure - but sitting in my apartment in sweatpants is one thing, being in a real space with coffee and snacks is very different.
As expected, the conversation with Eliz was effortless. It felt like we were in the back of the room chit-chatting.
What I didn’t anticipate was the audience reaction:
Participants listening, nodding, laughing and taking notes.
For someone who's spent years covering these moments with a camera in hand, this was a COMPLETELY DIFFERENT experience.
It was pretty cool 🙂
What’s even cooler is that several people came up to me afterwards to thank me and shared several key takeaways from the conversation.
Wow - they really did get value from this!
After this experience - thank you, NSA Wisconsin, :) - I now realize that while parading a main stage with a clicker in my hand isn’t the plan, having more genuine and valuable conversations in this format is.
The only question is how do I do that?
Speaker friends - any suggestions?