opinion – Page 6 – Hello, I'm DK – creative producer and speaker coach

2022 Annual Review | Amor Fati

Wrapping up the year with some reflections, questions and love for the future.

As with last years review, here’s my assessment of 2022:

CLIENTS

A hearty year coming out of 2020/2021 even though COVID devastated my event activity income stream. So very grateful for the variety of clients which contracted me to collaborate this year.

I crunched the numbers on how many gigs fell into which category (‘speaking’ includes talks as well as my ‘purposeful storytelling’ beginners and advanced full-and-half-day masterclasses for leadership groups) and here’s the results:

Also did the same for how much income each category pulled in as well:

So speaking is coming out as the top earner and as promised last year my in-person MCing is finally closed out as a service I offer.

Here’s what some of the clients said about what I delivered for them:

“DK delivered a brilliant session for my team, giving us all accessible, understandable and effective advice on how to present engagingly. The training worked for those with extensive presenting experience as well as those with little exposure to public speaking. It was also very practical and encouraged us to embed our learning by doing. Highly recommended!”
Emma McLean, Engagement Lead, Engagement Lead, Accenture The Dock (Dublin)

“Engaging, smooth and professional. DK delivered his ‘Presenting Engagingly Online’ session to some of the sport sector in Wales. He keeps you locked in with his presentation, exhibiting exactly what he’s preaching with all the best tips and tricks for online delivery in the age of working from home. A top man who I highly recommend. Diolch, DK!”
Matthew Davies, Digital Marketing Lead, Sport Wales

“I cannot recommend DK highly enough – we just had our second very well attended event with him “Presenting Engagingly Online”, which has received fantastic feedback from all the participants. After the first event on “presenting with purpose” with DK last year, our whole team gained a new level of confidence and know how, and it was so popular we just had to offer another session with DK. From the perspective of events organisation, the whole thing couldn’t have been easier – Having all the content and information provided in advance, easy set up made our jobs so much easier.”
Julia Hahn, Wellington Branch Manager, German New Zealand Chambers of Commerce

So nice!

PRESENTING ENGAGINGLY ONLINE

I launched my own online course under the ‘Presenting Wisdom’ banner (accounting for a little over 10% of my income this year).

Developed from an offer I had been delivering from the previous year as so many clients transitioned to the online medium to speak at conferences globally and I noticed nearly everyone do it so badly.

I had two other ideas to add to the offers which I still might do but for now, if you’re still sharing your screen and reading from a script to present online, first of all, don’t, it’s so bad for the folks watching, and secondly take my course and you will never present that way again plus engage with the participants in ways which excite and ignite emotional reactions.

CURATED / CREATED

As evident in the #47, #46, #45, #44, #43, #42, #41, #40, #39, #38, #37 digital breadcrumbs offerings⁠⁠—the good stuff I tweet collected into cohesive and more snackable monthly blog posts⁠—my curiosity is still raging.

Had also a strong offering of blog posts this year also which included:

I also started a new series ‘for those who want to tell better stories: few chosen narrative examples, to uncover forms, inspire the soul and stir the creative spirits’:

On a more human scale, I continue to gather humans in conversations via Creative Welly, which is now up to 39 episodes—read the recent blog post benchmark review—it offers fuel for my spirit and stretches my cognition into new realms whilst satisfying my desire to learn in analogue form.

TEDXNELSON

I did a TEDx talk. A distillation of my 16 years as a paid speaker, 10 years as a facilitator through the TEDx licenses I held and the past 6 years paying my rent as a bona fide speaker coach. I’m now trying to write a companion guide based on this talk to publish early next year.

Till then, if you got an important presentation or pitch coming up and struggling to prepare, this will help (or your money back) and please share on if you find it of use.

It received over 10,000 views in just under a week of going live!

CREATIVE LEADERSHIP NZ

My little creativity conference for leaders never made a return after COVID (did mention it last year as a potential project to reignite). Am thinking someone needs to take it on if there’s someone who wants to…

LESSONS LEARNED

…but what we make.

Or more eloquently put: Amor Fati / the love of ones fate.

Especially if framed through a proactive lens of defining ones path and embracing the journey of discovery through intention.

Half the battle here is knowing thyself so recently invested in a couple of coaching sessions and spent time talking to wiser souls than I, to uncover the characteristics which I can’t see of myself (thanks Shazia, Neil, Tim, Mary)—what’s interesting is that they all came to similar conclusions of where I should be devoting my time.

This was further reinforced via the CliftonStrengths Assessment (thank you Antonia) which really helped to both define and validate the elements to amplify along with giving me the language in which to craft a path forward. These are my top 5 strengths from the assessment:

On a more personal level I keep coming back to: Can I choose gratitude in this moment? Can’t remember where I came across someone saying it although they had ‘happiness’ rather than gratitude in their question. When asked it activates a depth of connection with the world which I haven’t felt for a very long time.

2023 STRATEGY

Simply, pages are being turned.

New unexplored paths are being pursued with hope and vigour.

I feel energetic, focused, full of potential and aspiration. And as I put in my Intersecting Influences | Looking For Collaborating Opportunities blog post, am hungry to build, to collaborate, to put my unique-action-biased skills to use.

For now I will continue to offer my speaker coaching and creative producing services, however, will start to transition with a more calculated strategy for my future so watch this space.

So, how was your year, what are you feeling grateful for and what do you have lined up for your fate in 2023?

Previous years reviews: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2013, 2011, 2010, 2009…

Creative Welly Benchmark | The Experimental Journey Continues

78 humans, 39 episodes, over 18 months, one idea to have ‘courageous conversations with bold humans.’

It has been a pure joy to sit down with such a diverse range of leaders. Learning from such talent in such an unencumbered way, celebrating through storytelling their current position in life whilst evolving ideas through simple conversation. Nothing can replace this purely analogue process of interaction for me.

What you might not know is that we record three episodes back-to-back in one day which shocks people but actually it’s so energising whilst I’m in it.

Was validating earlier this year to receive a sponsored opportunity to apply for a Webby Award, basically like the Oscars for the web although it’s pretty pricey to apply. Didn’t win but was lovely to have the opportunity to put the little project forward for it and very nice of the award body to invite us to for free under one category (have a personal gripe about awards you have to pay for although as it was for free thought there was nothing to lose until I then got spammed like hell from their parent company with snail mail (seriously) for other online awards, sighs).

Creative Welly is still a self-funded and voluntary-produced endeavour, in association with video extraordinaire Jono Tucker from Empire Films (special thanks to David from Flashdog Studio for allowing us to utilise the space at cost), and there’s now approximately 65 hours worth of unique video content exploring the creative talent in my network.

And all those episodes are out there as audio as well, uploaded to anchor.fm (which is owned by Spotify) where recently they told us we’re in the top 4% of content creators:

I’d suggest you go subscribe via the site to the video version, as I’ve discussed before, it’s so so unique because it’s specifically designed to create intimacy for the viewer in a never seen before format. If audio is your jam though here’s the subscription options.

So thank to all of the participants up until now. For many it’s been a big deal to step into the public arena in this way and am always enamoured by their bravery.

Am already looking to book in January 2023 recordings and continue on this journey as still got a juicy list of humans to get through. Until then, here’s the bumper list for you to work through for the silly season:

The Public Speaking Lesson You Never Had | My TEDxNelson Talk

As featured on ted.com

Got an important presentation or pitch coming up and struggling to prepare? This will help (or your money back): exploring the three elements which make up a great talk plus a Jedi-mind trick which will reframe those debilitating nerves once and for all.

What a joy to be invited to give a TEDx talk last month in Whakatū Nelson, at their first ever in-person event.

After nearly a decade of developing and delivering the TEDx offerings for Te Whanganui-o-Tara Wellington, was an honour to be stepping on that red rug as just a speaker to share my ‘idea worth spreading.’

As discussed in the talk, scripts are rubbish, and just to prove here’s mine which I prepared my talk from after developing different options via the post-it note medium (if you’re speaking from lived experience this is all you need):

Thanks to all the good people behind the scenes at TEDxNelson for the opportunity to share my story/ies plus the attendees and other speakers for making it a great day.

BUY NOW Speaking With Purpose: A guide to delivering impressive presentations!

For only $10NZD this bundle deal featured an ebook with a juicy 37 chapters, nearly 14,000 words across 89 pages plus a 1hour34mins audiobook version (read by me).

Read the blog post announcement or purchase below:

buy on GUMROAD

For Those Who Want To Tell Better Stories #7 | Consultation, Hwyl, & Budgets

A few chosen narrative examples, to uncover forms, inspire the soul and stir the creative spirits.

FRAGMENTS illustrates superbly how to report back on a research project. My first career was in local government and I remember taking part in ‘community consultations’ which we’d then had to synthesis into written reports for committee meetings. Here’s an example of how to do it properly. Led by ff.studio and Peopletoo, in collaboration with Essex County Council (ECC), plus funded by the DfE.

This is what happens when you ask a Welsh actor of pedigree to improvise what he would say to a Welsh football side ahead of the World Cup to inspire them. Not just does this but so full of ‘hwyl’ (a Welsh word for heart, effort and the life spirit). Read about the backstory here.

In the UK there is recently a new (now gone) Prime Minister (which only 0.3% of the UK electorate voted for) and (now gone) Chancellor who together announced a mini-budget which could be deadly (the latter of which attended a same-day champagne reception with hedge fund managers). With that in mind, click on the above graphic to a website which Led By Donkeys has put together to tell the story by showing how much this inept-budget is going to cost normal people, plus how much the rich will get, as well as an overall example of how those in power truly don’t care about closing the wealth divide anymore. Adds another dimension to doomscrolling.

All offered up to inspire, teach and make you smile / think.

Check out all the ‘For Those Who Want To Tell Better Stories’ posts.

Image credit.

New Mac, Old Workflows | What I Use

For those who are interested in how I set up my new laptop (Mac).

FREE

Appcleaner: enables me to ensure anything I download in terms of trials will also be deleted way into the file system of the OS.

Blue Snooze: Sleeping Mac = Bluetooth off, a specific problem which I’ve been having with my Mac solved with this open source app.

Brave: a privacy based browser for when a client needs me to use Zoom or another flaky platform.

Clop: incredible and fast media optimiser for an assortment of purposes.

Clipy: amazing little time-saver, set up to save my last 40 ‘copy’ actions (you can set the number) ready for pasting with shortcut enabled so can bring it up via Option+Command+V.

Firefox: an alternative browser for other things.

~~F.lux: (in terms of colour management for eye stress) warms up your screen and cools it down depending on the time of day.~~ UPDATE: friend told me this is already in the new OS under Displays>NightShift so now uninstalling this app.

FuzzyTime: a way to add a ‘human’ touch to telling the time, now if Apple would allow us to remove the time icon from the menu-bar…

Hidden Bar: such a clever little thing to hide away all your menu bar items (I just have time and battery showing with control center and analogue clock fixed due to OS constraints).

Hidden Me: tidies up your desktop so it looks neat and tidy when presenting.

OBS: open source software for video recording and live streaming to impress folks when I’m teaching them how to present engagingly online.

Stream Deck: the accompanying app to control the hardware for fancy presentations and other funky app related shortcuts.

PAID

Audio Hijack: for recording audio from multiple sources.

ExpressVPN: for securing website traffic and online activities from the marketeers and advertisers.

Obsidian: go to text and notes app with the added bonus of building out my digital Zettlekasten (I’m still learning).

Proton VPN: to keep my browsing private and away from prying eyes / data scalpers.

Reeder: RSS still rocks and I love that I choose my media menu with this one app.

~~Sync: a more ethical and secure version of Dropbox,~~ now using filen.io as Sync went downhill fast on customer service and doesn’t making everything downloadable for users (have to do it one folder at a time).

1Password: I use version 6 which I bought the license for a few years ago and don’t need the bells and whistles of the newer ones.

OTHER TWEAKS

A nice Terminal-level workaround for applications hiding under the MacBook Pro notch.

I remove everything from the ‘dock’ and have it disappear from use unless I hover over. I open apps from activating the Spotlight search with the shortcut Command+Space.

I set up four ‘spaces‘ (essentially to mimic three screens on one laptop). I also add in the Keyboard shortcut settings utilising Apple+Cursor(right / left) to jump between them (there already is a trackpad action to move between them as standard by using three fingers and swiping left / right but I like this added keyboard functionality also).

Everything else like email, social media, blog writing etc is accessed via a browser to enable a ‘lighter’ memory footprint on my Mac.

Let me know if I’m missing anything obvious, think I should be exploring alternatives or know how to get rid of those unwanted menu bar items.

Exploring My Playful Innocence | Creativity Webinar

Honoured to be invited to participate in a hosted by Groov (a mental health and well-being platform for the workplace plus past client).

Drawing from my varied time and experience across multiple domains, plus doing my best to be honest and vulnerable, the webinar starts with a very personal narrative exploring why I do what I do (and why it means so much to me). You’ll also hear me advocate for the creative process being one of ‘not knowing’ and playful discovery, concepts which aren’t new although I rarely see / hear when exploring this in organisations / company settings.

Hope you get something from the watch and thanks to Kim, Simone and Fiona for each being part of making this happen.

Hit us up in the comments or via the contact form if you have any further thoughts / ideas / questions.

Leaving To Return / Returning To Leave | My Recent Europe Adventure

Captured in one of the many churches explored in Brussels.

“Eang yw’r byd i bawb.” / “The world is wide to everyone.”

A few days ago I came back from a 10 week trip in Europe. It was my first international travel in 3 years and the main aim was to reconnect with family, friends, the fatherland plus reignite my wanderlust which has been dormant since Covid and other confidence-damaging events.

I didn’t have a return flight booked but had a couple of gigs already booked in beginning of November to provide a backstop.

I spent the majority of time in the valleys of Wales as well as side trips / escapades to Scotland (Glasgow and all over Isle of Skye), Ireland (Dublin and Tramore), England (London), Germany (Munich), Switzerland (Winterthur—see Time With Rilke | A Rhapsodic Swiss Side Quest—Raron, and Basel), France (Lille and Basel), plus Belgium (Brussels, Antwerp, and Bruges):

When you’re away for 2.5 months things change. Buildings and roadways which were once familiar are different. Vistas which are known have a fresh look. My flat seems bigger. The world feels smaller.

I’m brimming with gratitude, energy and hope from the experience.

Am tired but hungry to build / collaborate.

I yearn for stability although am looking for new streets to wander for the first time, again, already.

I’ve changed and I guess that’s the lesson: when you leave, the return creates just another opportunity to depart, again.

Whilst away was very lucky to continue working fulfilling several opportunities whilst on this trip, which included my online ‘Presenting Engagingly Online’ talk / demo to NZTA, ACC, MinterEllison, Sports Wales, Liverpool Port City Innovation Centre Accelerator.

For my lovely ongoing client of Teulo got to MC the August monthly event (took a break for September) as well as a couple of sessions for a group of speakers they are sponsoring for the upcoming ArchiPro event in Auckland next month.

As mentioned, delivered two masterclasses for Accenture global R&D department at The Dock. Also delivered an in-person ‘Purposeful Storytelling’ talk for the start-ups of FinTech Wales and spent two afternoon consults / ideation sessions with friends businesses.

Intersecting Influences | Looking For Collaborating Opportunities

Throwing a request out in the universe.

There’s a great essay by Alan Moore on the creation of “V for Vendetta” where towards the end, he outlines the preciousness of true collaboration:

“V is something that happens at the point where my warped personality meets David’s warped personality, and it is something that neither of us could do either by ourselves or working with another artist or writer. Despite the way that some of the series’ admirers choose to view it, it isn’t “Alan Moore’s V” or “David Lloyd’s V.” It’s a joint effort in every sense of the word, because after trying the alternatives, that is the only way that comics can ever work. There is absolutely no sense in a writer trying to bludgeon his artist to death with vast and over-written captions, any more than an artist should try to bury his writer within a huge and impressive gallery of pretty pictures. What’s called for is teamwork, in the grand tradition of Hope and Crosby, Tate and Lyle, Pinky and Perky, or The Two Ronnies. Hopefully, that’s what we’ve got.”
Read the whole essay here

So:

CAN YOU HELP?

Am hungry to COLLABORATE with good humans & BUILD audacious things – and looking for opportunities which have a DK-shaped-opportunity in their current operations.

I excel at:

making the complicated simple (see my ‘creative producing’ work)
aiding people to find their voice (see my ‘speaker coaching’ stuff)
achieving creative excellence (see my TEDxWellington & Creative Welly offerings)!

I craft actionable strategies in the intersecting creative arenas plus spend my time delivering upon them as well (not just directing).

Have worked on five continents, been in the tech space, worked at senior level of local government, delivered for central government clients, done events at scale with 6 figure budgets and thousands of people plus also at cost at the 1-2-1 level.

Am also open to this being in any part of the world with large or small entities who share the values of creativity, kindness and aiming to make the world a better place.

Asking here where the community should already know me, what I’m capable of and also have an idea of what I should be doing with my life when I grow up :-)

Can you help / tag someone in / like or share the post (as then more people see it) / hit me up in DM’s to explore further, please?

Below are my top five strengths from the CliftonStrengths assessment I recently completed:

For a fuller picture of me and my pedigree click here—thanks in advance for your time!

The above is posted on LinkedIn yesterday.

Image credit.

For Those Who Want To Tell Better Stories #6 | Painting, Hearings & Sampling

A few chosen narrative examples, to uncover forms, inspire the soul and stir the creative spirits.

This ninety minute video is both short stories of experience from a specific art school whilst also creating a hyper-realistic portion of an oil painting. It’s an odd but compelling and complimentary way . Scott’s candor and humility is evident as he navigates the boundaries of truth and compassion to those he’s sharing stories about, as well as his insane talent as he casually build out a portion of his painting.

Full of emotion and measured sentiment, situated in a political arena and specific to a cause, this is immense. It’s a poignantly delivered demonstration of how to both ask for something (health coverage for the first responders of the 9/11 attack) in a way which also illustrates the incredulous system for health care in the US (the bill did finally get passed for the workers to access to the coverage they needed).

A visual illustration of how the electronic duo Daft Punk snips samples from other songs to make up their own tunes. Offered without narration, this is another example of how showing rather than telling works so much better. It will also make you smile at how some of those well known tunes came into being. Clever stuff from Tracklib, an online record store for sampling.

All offered up to inspire, teach and make you smile / think.

Check out all the ‘For Those Who Want To Tell Better Stories’ posts.

Image credit.

Time With Rilke | A Rhapsodic Swiss Side Quest

Rilke bronze bust at Kunst Museum Winterthur.

Figuratively and literally.

A few days ago, on a wonderfully fresh summers morning, I entered the Kunst Museum Winterthur in Northern Switzerland (twenty minutes outside of Zurich) for a private viewing of the Fritz Huf bronze head sculpture of poet Rainer Maria Rilke (see above). On the same day I traveled the two and a half hours into the Swiss Alps and to a tiny municipality called Raron (population nearly two thousand), to visit the grave of Rilke (see below):

Rilke's grave in Raron. — Rilke’s grave in Raron.

This story started in November 2018 when I came across this web article featuring the sculpture. It moved me deeply and after some research I found the museum which housed the piece and reached out to inquire as to its status. It was held in the archive and not currently shown.

The wonderful staff there sent me some information on it and also shared it was owned by a small Swiss municipality (on the Italian border), Commune di Collina d’oro (whom I tried to contact to no avail).

Apparently, the artist Huf had met Rilke in 1915 and the next day a portrait session occurred, although he went on to complete the work from memory. And what a sensitive and attentive creation it is. Small but bold, it evokes so much of the character of the subject through the slightly embellished elements of the features: from the gentle amplification of the brow, the plumpness of the round closed eyes, to the withdrawn cheeks to reveal the cheek bones and the fullness of the lips under the sweeping moustache.

So from first discovering this artistic impression of a poet who has spoken to me for so long, here I am, nearly four years later, spending over an hour in its company. It was very hard to leave:

There you are. In repose. Tenderly positioned, offering yourself to the darkness, again. A vulnerable attempt of being. Be careful what you find, please. But thank you for taking the plunge into the depths of the emotional landscape; a journey as an attempt to create connections between the worlds. A dimensional shift in experiencing the slavering potential of the soul.
Did it spare your spirit? How enriching to your present state was it? Where did the dangerous adventures finally exact its toll?
For such quests of longing and braveness means risking yourself for what: words? Ideas? Metaphor?
You will never know the admiration. The gratefulness of others. How impressive you are to us. Then again would you care? It would probably arrest you for the briefest of time until you again hear the call of the black, sweet space between here and the deeper realms. And you would close your eyes, once more, and retreat into your melancholic kingdom.

What followed was an equally arresting afternoon trip and experience of visiting Rilke’s final resting place. Through and into the Swiss Alps via two train stops, just a short walk from the Raron’s train station I found myself at the foot of the rock spur which aloft sits the 16th Century St. Romanus Church and the aforementioned grave. At the foot is also the St. Michael rock church, which was created by carving out 6000 m3 of rock and opened in 1974 with a capacity for 500 people.

To get to the grave is a steep climb upwards and around the hill which whacks the breathe out of you⁠—although what a reward!

Apart from the small but impressive church and the grave of the poet, it’s the view out from where Rilke lays which is heavy in beauty (so much so i nearly missed my connecting train back out of the valley, so lost was I in the present vista):

The view of Raron from Rilke's grave — The view of Raron from Rilke’s grave

Of course you would be buried in such a luscious place like this.
Away from us all, elevated, remote, surrounded by splendid scenes to excite and overwhelm.
Teaching us still, that at the end of any challenging journey there’s potential for peace.

After reading so much of the mans words over the past twenty years and tweeting far too many of his lines (neatly curated here if you care), this has been an adventure in coming closer to a poet who’s work is soaked in over-thoughts and drenched in metaphor.

For those who are a fan if his work and find themselves in this part of Europe I urge you to explore the above locations as I guarantee it will be fuel for the soul which will echo deep within. As the man wrote:

Like someone on the final hill, which one more time shows him his entire valley, who turns, pauses, lingers—and so we live, constantly saying farewell.
Rainer Maria Rilke

WATCH (like 1million+ others, my TEDx talk, now on ted.com), the public speaking lesson you never had, and BUY the companion Speaking With Purpose e/audiobook.

2022 Annual Review | Amor Fati

Wrapping up the year with some reflections, questions and love for the future.

CLIENTS

PRESENTING ENGAGINGLY ONLINE

CURATED / CREATED

TEDXNELSON

CREATIVE LEADERSHIP NZ

LESSONS LEARNED

2023 STRATEGY

Previous years reviews: 2021, 2020, 2019, 2018, 2017, 2016, 2015, 2013, 2011, 2010, 2009…

Creative Welly Benchmark | The Experimental Journey Continues

78 humans, 39 episodes, over 18 months, one idea to have ‘courageous conversations with bold humans.’

The Public Speaking Lesson You Never Had | My TEDxNelson Talk

Got an important presentation or pitch coming up and struggling to prepare? This will help (or your money back): exploring the three elements which make up a great talk plus a Jedi-mind trick which will reframe those debilitating nerves once and for all.

BUY NOW Speaking With Purpose: A guide to delivering impressive presentations!

For Those Who Want To Tell Better Stories #7 | Consultation, Hwyl, & Budgets

A few chosen narrative examples, to uncover forms, inspire the soul and stir the creative spirits.

Image credit.

New Mac, Old Workflows | What I Use

For those who are interested in how I set up my new laptop (Mac).

FREE

PAID

OTHER TWEAKS

Exploring My Playful Innocence | Creativity Webinar

Honoured to be invited to participate in a hosted by Groov (a mental health and well-being platform for the workplace plus past client).

Leaving To Return / Returning To Leave | My Recent Europe Adventure

“Eang yw’r byd i bawb.” / “The world is wide to everyone.”

Intersecting Influences | Looking For Collaborating Opportunities

Throwing a request out in the universe.

The above is posted on LinkedIn yesterday.

Image credit.

For Those Who Want To Tell Better Stories #6 | Painting, Hearings & Sampling

A few chosen narrative examples, to uncover forms, inspire the soul and stir the creative spirits.

Image credit.

Time With Rilke | A Rhapsodic Swiss Side Quest

Figuratively and literally.

The deepest of thanks to Angelika for making the bust available to view at the fantastic Kunst Museum Winterthur.