Along with my personal / professional history, am sharing here direct lived-experience strategies of how I work with others when it comes to their own oratory practice—making the case for not using scripts and how to manage nerves as well as analysing the impact of the success of my recent TEDx talk with a nice little social media rant at the end.
Thank you again Noa (and Ash from the tech side) for the opportunity to participate and for what you’re doing by creating this platform / space for others to share their stories along with your wonderful curiosity which drives the conversation in all the episodes.
Was thinking on my feet lots in this podcast inspired by the superb provocations by Alexis and learning from her as I go. Let us know your thoughts on some of the concepts explored in this one via the comments as keen to learn more.
Click play above for a energetic deconstruction regarding the elements of said talk, a detailed verbal essay which pulls out the storytelling components I was using plus the highlights which mattered to them. All whilst offering further insights and broadening out the lessons learned plus sharing their own experiences as well.
Taken from when we recorded the below audio podcast episode
A new leadership framework coming soon (wink-face-emoji).
What a joy to converse with fellow curious soul Digby Scott on his new fortnightly podcast, Dig Deeper, conversations with depth to change the way you lead:
We talk about mundanity (it’s now a word, sod off!), hobbies, context vs content, audacity, white space, delegate experience design, what’s eternal, hearing, listening, speaking, storytelling, coaching, translation / narration / curation / host leadership™ plus what the world needs more of.
Hope you enjoy and thank you again Digby for the opportunity to spend time with you again!
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.
The final episode of this three year journey in creating something beautiful (in podcast form).
Last week I posted episodes 49 and 50 of the unique podcast I conceived and produced, Creative Welly, where we have courageous conversations with bold humans, and today the final ‘bonus’ episode went live—watch above for the back story and insights into the whole adventure.
The first episode went live in June 2020 and after 50 episodes, 100 humans, over 80 hours worth of conversation shared, it’s time to wrap it all up in a neat bow and stand back as a gift to the community of participants, partners and watchers / listeners alike.
This was a selfish project in some ways (which I talk about above) although with a high intention of creating space for humanity to flourish (through conversation) and in doing so offer a way to deeply connect back into something ritualistic and primal.
You see, Creative Welly is a fireside.
A democratic gathering of humans through a bond of openness, curiosity and design.
Everything about it was crafted with this in mind: the circular table aiding the balance of the storytelling space for those who sat at it; the key-light which lit all participants equally and wonderfully; the black and white aesthetic to continue the attempt of harmony; moving the cameras far back into the shadows so they don’t get in the way; the visual split of everyone being on screen in the final edit which serves a further purpose to amplify intimacy in the viewers (as every nuance of non-verbal gestural cues was on display not like other podcasts or video content).
Metrics of success
As discussed, in many episodes and the one above, I never once looked at the stats relating to the project.
Having 100 of my network to say yes and share this experience with them, was reward enough.
However, other noticeable achievements was the invite to apply (under sponsorship) for a Webby Award (we didn’t win but amazing to be invited), got interviewed by the local radio station plus we were notified also that Creative Welly was in the top top 4% of content creators on Spotify as well.
Many are still surprised to find out the whole project was funded by:
Sponsorship
Membership
Donations
Affiliate links
Paid participation spots
Selling branded merchandise
Selling tickets to live shows
Our own time and money (independently produced and hosting paid for us).
…and the fact we made so many episodes is a total accomplishment (as again detailed in the above episode, the amount of work which goes into them is a lot).
Recognition
Apart from me there were three entities who made Creative Welly bloom:
David sadly passed away the day after we shot the final episodes and he will be missed by the photography and film studio community in Wellington.
The first 9 episodes were previously hosted at Xequals offices. Thanks to them and specifically Alex Matthews (who participated in Episode 14) for again believing in the project when it was just an idea.
Epilogue
So, checking against the brief, to both create something unique in the podcast genre which creates intimacy for the participants as well as the viewers and celebrate humans who are doing imaginative things in this fair city and beyond (hence the name):
Creative |adjective : imaginative / original people adding value to the world.
Welly|British informal : with dynamic energy and vigour.
…can smile when I say: we nailed it!
Last week we also held a gathering inviting all who have participated at the new Empire Films studio (like we did back in July 2021) as they were the first to know we were wrapping up the project:
And here’s the monster list of all the episodes in case you missed any:
Chats about public speaking, coaching, presenting online vs in-person, event design and delegate experience development etc.—all the stuff I’ve been doing these past few years condensed into 30mins.
Dan produces a very impressive podcast with an eyebrow-raising amount of featured talent (like Daniel Pink, Tom Peters, Arianna Huffington etc.). Was lucky enough to spend some time rapping about what I’ve been up to in the past few years and hope you enjoy!
What a joy to be invited by Paul Teasdale (ex-Operational Performance Specialist for racing team McLaren and now Leadership Performance Coach) to participate in his great podcast he has going:
This podcast focuses on the individuals who have chosen a career path of helping others perform, in whatever guise that takes. Hear from coaches, trainers, teachers and lots of others about what it takes to perform in the industry of helping others.
In this 45minute chat I get into the following:
potted career history
new vs social media
relationship with failure
designing TEDx experiences
details on what I do now
presenting online skills
who I want to work with
Hope you enjoy and if you do, check out more podcasts and subscribe at Helping People Perform, thank Paul.
A chance to share our inside story to the wider TEDx community.
I’ve been volunteering as a TEDx organiser for five years.
Last year we did something special with TEDxWellington which we recently found out was being shared by the senior folks at TED with other event organisers, globally.
Enter, Mark Sylvester, another TEDx organiser and keen to champion the efforts of folks behind these events with his new podcast:
Hacking The Red Circle is a podcast created for and about TEDx Organizers and the TEDx Universe.
Was wonderful to celebrate also the voice and efforts of my collaborator and co-organiser of 2016 and current 2017 event, Hannah Wignall. Would also like to shine the light on the other actioneers in the TEDxWellington team who all give their time voluntarily to ensure the capital city and its community gets a fantastic event.
Thank you Mark for throwing your time and energy behind curating the voices and in effect the passion which makes this global event series such a success.
