In the wake of my branding story I’ve fielded several requests to speak to groups of people – public relations professionals, college students, and now high school students. On the one hand its nice to have my self-importance affirmed by an impartial source, on the other I just spent the bulk of my Sunday afternoon and evening preparing to appear at a communications symposium for high school kids. I’m sure it will be cool and rewarding and all that but all I can think about right now is that I spent eight hours preparing notes and a Powerpoint presentation like I’m speaking at an annual shareholder’s meeting. Gah. Hopefully I won’t wake up with tomorrow with day five of the whooping cough or whatever the hell I’ve got.
The question for today is – does the potential for unexpectedly cool interactions outweigh the energy devoted to preparing for unpaid public speaking gigs?
March 1st, 2009 at 11:01 pm
to answer your question, no. cool interactions will remain in your head much longer than the work involved in preparation for said cool experience. its a lot like playing a show: you remember the crowd and the performance and the writing process takes the back seat in your memory.
go get’m tiger!
March 2nd, 2009 at 5:50 am
Neal – I would actually like to make a similar request… Will be in touch shortly.
March 2nd, 2009 at 6:05 am
So if I complain about speaking engagements I get offers to do more?
March 2nd, 2009 at 11:29 am
In my world, it seems to work that way. (I’m a go-to presenter on civic engagement, creating trainings and youth development for several folks.)
March 8th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
Hopefully you’re speaking experiences go better than mine did. I went and spoke to my old high school english teacher’s class. Gave an interesting speach about New Media and Video. Then the first 2 questions asked were:
“How old are you?”
“Do you have a girlfriend?”
lol good luck
-Evan