The original approach to this blog post was a reflective look back from my initial online forays during my first year of University, writing essays on hyper-reality as part of the course I was taking, then participating in the most early social networking platforms, right through to building businesses around the emerging space plus everything up till now.
I scrapped that as was getting bored and my fingers hurt. So started writing 30 things I learned (one for each year) in an attempt to extract some wisdom from being an early adopter.
But that went by the wayside as could only conjure up a dozen or so and they felt a little ‘preachy’, so, I’m just going to mark it with a simple side-eye and a tut.
A physical gesture and audible proclamation which sums up how I feel about the whole tech and interwebs space currently.
So many online platforms and services plus the technology we now use to access this incredible tool for humanity, is designed to purposefully trick and hide the fact that it’s all about extraction…
…extracting attention, the good vibes / kinship / playfulness which fuels our mortal souls, the pioneering spirit enabled through accessibility, plus even vacuuming up the whole web without permission and / or attribution to then build predictive-pattern-regurgitators-wrapped-up-in-AI-branded-interfaces which users can be charged again for.
However, I still believe in the inherent positive power of the internet: how it creates unique opportunities for voice, agency, story, connectiveness, learning, to amplify intentional technology in enhancing the whole human project, through kindness and participation not commodification and engineered engagement.
So here’s to the next 30 years and the evolving nature of the online space, more laws and governance over data sovereignty, transparency of data use, the universal shift back to adding not reducing value, building opportunities for people to link up their creativity, along with and making people think and / or smile.
These offerings was inspired by a real life event (“I don’t do mundane” was my response when someone asked for ‘mundane’ from me). That value destroyed a career path, meant the loss of a healthy dose of money / about a year in time / loads of positive energy, and deeply affected my mental health, because:
“A principle isn’t a principle until it costs you something.”
…so I’m turning that deeply negative experience into a gift of inspiration and designed the following for audacious humans with aligned principles (the posters would be great for offices, workshops, classrooms, meeting rooms, funky shops / cafes, creative and co-working spaces etc. plus the cards to celebrate / encourage someones imaginative approaches):
Eighteen items from three designs, with two variations on each (colour / no colour) across another three product options of greeting cards, matte posters and / or framed posters.
A tailored leadership learning experience aimed at greatly improving storytelling techniques and oratory skills, as well as enhancing the capability to deliver exceptional showcase presentations across diverse fields.
This brand new professional development program was recently delivered for a wonderful international client over 5x 2.5hour online sessions with twelve leaders from three continents across four countries—highly participatory in nature and focused on increasing the literacy levels of those involved aligned to specific strategic needs.
Interviews were undertaken with chosen participants to first gain an understanding of levels of literacy as well as current approaches. Desk research regarding language use, industry trends and internal policies was also completed to ensure the course had relevance and direct corporate impact.
Here’s the result:
“We recently had the opportunity to learn from DK as we launched the Better Futures Catalyst program, a facilitated public speaking initiative at Steelcase. This program brought together a cohort of employees from around the world to enhance our presentation skills by focusing on our people and planet efforts. DK created a bespoke hybrid program, guiding us in developing compelling stories and boosting our confidence in public speaking—both in-person and virtually. Our final presentations showcased remarkable growth, with each of us effectively weaving our unique experiences into an engaging narrative. We are so grateful to DK for his authentic approach, for creating a safe space for us to learn together and from each other, and for the number of resources he shared throughout the journey. Highly recommend!” Kim Koeman, Global Director, Social Innovation at Steelcase
Steelcase are currently lining up a second cohort to repeat the learning opportunity this year with the view of a future ‘advanced’ offering for those who have been through the first ones.
There’s also the anonymous participants feedback gathered post-course talking about the outcome, approach and course effects:
“I appreciated the three pronged approach that DK showed us, backed by the wealth of experience he brings to the training. Public speaking is such an art and with practice and the right training, can be a powerful tool for delivering story and message.”
“This course provided me with the mindset, toolsets and experience/feedback to confidently approach speaking in a modern context. The quotes inspired me, the challenges felt relevant and the peer support (in addition to expert feedback) helped me develop quickly.”
“Overall, the entire course was wonderful. Really appreciate the guidance provided by DK. It was also a great opportunity to network and build connections with colleagues across the globe, with such diverse backgrounds and areas of work expertise.”
“Thank you for an amazing few weeks. I learned so much, i was pushed out of my comfort zone, and I’m looking forward to applying these techniques to my work.”
“DK and the overall training have been extremely professional, appropriately safe and fun. I enjoyed it plenty and learned a lot! Judging this as a highly impactful and worthwhile investment into the success of our people and with it our company at scale. I was and am grateful for the chance to participate in this first cohort.”
“I appreciated the three pronged approach that DK showed us, backed by the wealth of experience he brings to the training. Public speaking is such an art and with practice and the right training, can be a powerful tool for delivering story and message.”
“I really enjoyed this program and am so glad we piloted it with the group we had. There was community within the cohort and I look forward to working alongside a powerful group of speakers. Thank you DK for sharing your brilliance. Your coaching and guidance was supportive and affirming, and you created a space that encouraged respect for the craft. Appreciate you!”
This service is now available to other organisations and companies looking to invest in the professional development of the storytelling abilities of their leaders.
Get in touch to explore further the process, alignment, costs and availability—only running a handful of these a year due to the time it takes to craft and deliver plus other commitments.
I did something similar (albeit in-person) for Sir Peter Jackson’s personal post production studio a few years back and fantastic to now have a couple of case studies of this instructional activity plus impact:
“We contracted DK to run several sessions with members of our leadership team and other staff who are required to present ideas, solutions, explanations and work flow information to clients and audiences. The sessions were so insightful and the feedback was extremely positive, even the most cynical were surprised at what they could achieve and change the way one approaches preparation and off the cuff speaking. A highly productive and useful experience and one we will repeat.” Vicki Jackways, Head of Marketing, Park Road Post Production
Launched in 2022 it was 75minutes / 10 video chapters crammed with applicable insights, resources and knowledge, users could take at their own pace. The course made me five figures worth of profit and was accessed by over 200 souls across four continents.
There are several reasons for the pause:
Needs updating: the course was a response to the god awful talks / presentations I was seeing as everyone was switching to online events during Covid. Since then I’ve delivered multiple internal masterclasses on the same subject for a range of clients with 1000s of folks attending and honed my digital skills further. Ergo, got more content, more things to share, more insights to give, more ways to convince people to stop sharing their screen etc.;
Sales have dropped off a cliff: probably because I have no interest in marketing / promotions, just creating, connecting, delivering, learning and adding value (and could have the same issue if I do the below update option);
It costs: it’s $1,228.20USD annually to host through a learning platform plus it’s a little time-heavy to set-up.
UPDATE 25.8.24: I had a poll here with 3 options and asked people to vote. Same thing was also on my LinkedIn and both polls gave the same result of only offering bespoke / webinar versions of the learning experience (instead of redoing the course or leaving it there). Will be updating my about page accordingly:
Results of LI poll.
If there’s an interest for option 2 above please holler in the comments or fire us a message direct to collaborate!
“The vulnerability, which allows the keystroke data that these apps send to the cloud to be intercepted, has existed for years and could have been exploited by cybercriminals and state surveillance groups, according to researchers at the Citizen Lab, a technology and security research lab affiliated with the University of Toronto.”
“By 2013, Netflix had begun entering into a series of “Facebook Extended API” agreements, including a so-called “Inbox API” agreement that allowed Netflix programmatic access to Facebook’s users’ private message inboxes, in exchange for which Netflix would “provide to FB a written report every two weeks that shows daily counts of recommendation sends and recipient clicks by interface, initiation surface, and/or implementation variant (e.g., Facebook vs. non-Facebook recommendation recipients). … In August 2013, Facebook provided Netflix with access to its so-called “Titan API,” a private API that allowed a whitelisted partner to access, among other things, Facebook users’ “messaging app and non-app friends.””
“In 2001, a poet named Bart Droog began attending the funerals of people who had no one to attend them and honoring the dead with a poem based on whatever was known about their life. A year later, Dutch poet and artist Frank Starik took the idea even further, launching The Lonely Funeral project to ensure that someone who cares consciously acknowledges the life of a person who has died. The idea was to create a network of poets who would find out whatever they could about the person, write a custom poem about their life and read it at their funeral. As of 2018, over 300 “lonely funerals” had been attended by poets in Amsterdam and Antwerp (where Flemish poet Maarten Inghels launched a Lonely Funeral project seven years after Starik’s).”
“We find that for 2016–2021: (i) per coin climate damages from BTC were increasing, rather than decreasing with industry maturation; (ii) during certain time periods, BTC climate damages exceed the price of each coin created; (iii) on average, each $1 in BTC market value created was responsible for $0.35 in global climate damages, which as a share of market value is in the range between beef production and crude oil burned as gasoline, and an order-of-magnitude higher than wind and solar power. Taken together, these results represent a set of sustainability red flags. While proponents have offered BTC as representing “digital gold,” from a climate damages perspective it operates more like “digital crude”.”
“Leaked documents show Tory executives discussed exploiting members’ personal data to build a mobile phone app that could track users’ locations and allow big brands to advertise to Conservative supporters. The party would take a cut of sales. The project was considered over several months last year, with the aim of launching the “True Blue” app in time for the party’s conference in October. The idea was developed by the boss of a cryptocurrency firm with a string of failed businesses behind him. Yet senior Conservative officials appeared so captivated by the plan that they prepared to provide the party’s database of members in order to move the proposal forward.“
“A new tool from OpenAI that can generate a convincing clone of anyone’s voice using just 15 seconds of recorded audio has been deemed too risky for general release, as the AI lab seeks to minimise the threat of damaging misinformation in a global year of elections.”
Currently, this site boasts that they’ve “analysed 5667 AI Tools and identified their capabilities with OpenAI GPT-4, to bring you a list of 30257 tasks of what AI can do today.”
If you’re getting your head around automating AI and other platforms to craft / distribute content then check out this LinkedIn video.
Tim Berners-Lee gives predictions for future: – Prediction 1: Everyone will have a personal AI assistant – Prediction 2: We’ll take true ownership of our data across all platforms — including VR – Prediction 3: A Big Tech company could get broken up
The role I moved from NZ to the UK for wasn’t for me so am looking for new adventures—am a creative nomad hungry to add value in the world and I don’t do MUNDANE!
Here’s what I can do as a:
Speaker Coach : tutor leaders (1-2-1 & teams) in honing powerful spoken stories (in-person and online) via masterclasses in ‘purposeful storytelling’ (foundation and advanced learning experiences available, either half-days or full-days)
Creative Producer : consult and / or craft and deliver delicious learning experiences on a scale of 10 to 1,000 attendees with 5,000 people watching online plus do in-studio content creations like this
Speaker-for-hire : about the stuff I’ve done and am doing.
I’m driven to enable people find and have voice.
A fan of reaching beyond my grasp and taking others on that journey. About being bold and ambitious, shying away from business-as-usual and not being held back by fear or risk aversion (see Defining ROI | Exploring New Definitions).
Huge fan of working with people who know more than me and crafting space for them to excel. Collaboration is about combining skills in open spaces for people to shine and not dulling them because you have a lack (see People Are Awesome | The Hope Generator That Is TEDx).
When trying something new I look for those with pedigree and / or aligned successful processes, then either enable that person and get out of the way, or learn rapidly, to adapt / adopt via the evidence on show. Once experience is gained you can then iterate (see Crafting Creative Collisions | 100 Starts).
I cherish difference. If that means you prefer drawing or moving as an expression of communication rather than just writing then I’ll do my best to protect that. Being inclusive means mentoring, celebrating, managing by doing, creating conditions for others to be them, defending your team members if you have the authority to do so, knowing that bringing opposites together for wonderful intersectional creations is what moves us all forward (see Wrapping Up Creative Welly | A Study In Human Intimacy).
One of the precious things I’ve learned in the last decade is that of self-respect. To challenge (always with kindness and politely) those who make you feel small and defend others without agency. If you don’t, toxic / muted environments bloom and those in “power” blame others for what they created (see Authority Doesn’t Come From Titles | Brave Leadership Summit 2023 Review blog post).
developed a 75mins / 10 chapter video course to radically increase your online storytelling & presenting skills: ‘Presenting Engagingly Online‘
spoken & contributed at four TEDx’s (Nelson in NZ, York & Cardiff in UK, Amsterdam in Netherlands)
founded MediaSnackers (a leading social media training and consulting agency from 2006-2011)
spoken and advised on five continents regarding digital strategies for folks like The Gates Foundation, UNICEF, BBC, Ubisoft, Welsh Assembly, Hasbro, global city developer IBI Group etc
Back in September of last year I had the wonderful honour of virtually chatting with Josh Shipp and Jesse Rice for the above podcast.
I’ve slept since then so had forgotten what we chatted about but boy did I love experiencing this conversation again as a listener.
There’s lots of insights here from my lived experience as a speaker coach and speaker myself plus how to present online effectively. I also got to ask some questions also of Josh and got some advice / insights from his brain. Here are the time-stamps:
00:00:00 // Tomfoolery and banter 00:02:10 // Introducing DK 00:07:02 // Helpful tips on how to best use slides in your presentation 00:26:52 // The critical thing DK learned by “faking” his way through a TEDx talk 00:32:26 // An unconventional approach to crafting your speech 01:00:55 // Pro tips on developing and presenting your content virtually 01:25:37 // What your responsibility is toward your audience
I featured Josh in a MediaSnackers podcast back in 2009, met up with him a couple of times during the following years and kept in touch ever since. He’s one of my favourite speakers and humans on the planet. A mentor. Author. MTV advice star. TV personality. Now business leader / youth speaker agency founder. An exemplar of the practice of oratory.
“Google, especially, has relied on the open web RSS protocol to gain so much market share and influence, but continues to engage in behavior that exploits the open web at the expense of its users. As a result, Google has single-handedly contributed to the reason many users who once relied on RSS feeds have stopped using them.”
“When writing by hand, brain connectivity patterns were far more elaborate than when typewriting on a keyboard, as shown by widespread theta/alpha connectivity coherence patterns between network hubs and nodes in parietal and central brain regions. Existing literature indicates that connectivity patterns in these brain areas and at such frequencies are crucial for memory formation and for encoding new information and, therefore, are beneficial for learning.”
“Put simply, the numbers don’t add up. Data from Patreon and Substack suggests the average conversion rate from follower to paying fan is about 5%. This means a creator would need a total fanbase of 20,000 followers to yield 1,000 paying supporters. And building a core fanbase of 20,000 engaged followers is extremely difficult in today’s crowded creative landscape.”
“A Vicar asks his congregation in the valleys the question “What would you do if Jesus returned tomorrow?”. A voice in the flock pipes up; “Move Barry John to inside-centre”!”
“Much furor has been raised in recent months over the unauthorized scraping of the web to train AI models; OpenAI even thanked the faceless “millions of people” who created the data to train GPT-3 in its paper describing the model. But when it comes to data willingly shared with Facebook and Meta, that Faustian bargain was struck long ago.”
