23 Jun Off the platform
Tony Robbins was cool in the 80’s. He did something sorta new and accessible.  Since him there have been TONS of platform speakers who create 1-minute rolls of themselves and what they can give an audience. I know a lot of them- they are cool people.
A sugar high. Often we leave events with a sugar high that doesn’t turn to action. Most of us know this.
If you do presenting and get hired to do it – look at your ‘roll’.  Is it sexy? Edited? Does it show you looking away off in the distance and then turning and looking at the camera like the dramatic squirrel?  Does it show you jumping around on the stage doing your thing? With perfectly fonted words and action… have you counted how many raised fists, raised hands or exclamation points in the videos?
Here is a tip: platform speakers are losing their luster a wee bit in our culture. There is a lot of them. You are not one of them. You have an interesting thing to say that only you know how to say. Performance reduces listening and your ability to, well, um, communicate.
At your next event, hand out some Flip Cameras. Ask a few people you do not know to film their interpretation of the event. To film the audience (not just you).  Tell them after you upload the images they can have the camera. Don’t ask them to INTERVIEW people – just film the event as it is going on and maybe talk to people after.
The view from back stage OUT is more interesting than the view your camera peeps create.. than the view from the audience IN.
The intimacy of the experience of the audience – now that is interesting.   The cheese ball antics leave most of us cold. It isn’t you anyway- it is some prettied up version that you don’t want to be.
In the Flip camera rolls you will see the stuff that isn’t working… that isn’t you… that you can fix.  In the Flip Camera you will find the odd moments that you didn’t even realize is the beauty of what you are REALLY doing. What wasn’t planned. The real stuff that copywriters would have a hard time capturing. The real you is SO much more interesting than anything you can make up….
Have a glass of wine handy though.. parts of it won’t be pretty….
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