Latest / Founder Talk with Alex Sheridan / TEDx Keynote Strategy Expert Reveals How To Overcome the Fear That Stops Founders from Speaking

Transcript

TEDx Keynote Strategy Expert Reveals How To Overcome the Fear That Stops Founders from Speaking · Founder Talk with Alex Sheridan

• 0:00
  Donna Marie Post, Welcome to the Founder Talk podcast.
• 0:03
  Thank you. Thank.
• 0:03
  You for having me. I'm excited to have you here.
• 0:05
  Grateful to be here, Grateful to serve.
• 0:06
  Yeah, we were just talking about Sagittarius, yes and no signs.
• 0:10
  So are you? Are you a believer in those
• 0:11
  things? OK, so I grew up with a mom, you
• 0:14
  know, back in the day when they had like, Encyclopedia Britannia
• 0:17
  because of the wall. Yeah.
• 0:18
  And so the special edition of them, Yeah.
• 0:21
  You would get these big stacks of horoscope books.
• 0:24
  And so I was middle school on the floor, memorizing all of.
• 0:28
  Them. And so, yeah, I know you're
• 0:31
  adventurous, but do you? Really.
• 0:33
  But do you really think that? I I'm curious about them.
• 0:36
  I think there's alignment in them.
• 0:37
  I think there's a good foundational trait where you can
• 0:40
  meet someone and get a baseline. It's like similar to anagram.
• 0:43
  I can note out on anagrams all day long.
• 0:46
  So you are the founder of Ted X Arlington Heights, Yes.
• 0:49
  And you're a keynote curator and then you do consulting for for
• 0:52
  keynotes for people that wanted to get on stage, right?
• 0:54
  Correct. So I'm curious like how is that
• 0:57
  a pretty accurate description? Is there anything else that you
• 0:59
  just to give context for the audience in terms of what you
• 1:01
  do? And then we'll get into some of
• 1:02
  the the Ted X and things like that.
• 1:04
  Sure. So I would say I really normally
• 1:06
  tell people, well, first and foremost, I'm a stalker, yes.
• 1:09
  And I've witnessed that first hand.
• 1:11
  When I when. I walked in.
• 1:13
  I'm. A stalker of curious minds,
• 1:15
  Innovative thoughts, you know, innovative and, you know, just
• 1:19
  disruptive ideas. Be curious.
• 1:21
  So the main thing I say everywhere is stay curious.
• 1:23
  Yeah, I love that. It's like.
• 1:24
  A mantra I love by and and kind of curate from.
• 1:28
  And so from that I would also say a lot of the work that I do
• 1:31
  both in TEDx, Arlington Heights and as a keynote consultant is
• 1:35
  typically I work with, you know, I just believe everyone has a
• 1:38
  transformative ID in them. So I work with leaders,
• 1:42
  speakers, executives, and I help them curate, innovate, and
• 1:45
  design their keynotes. And so I do this as a keynote
• 1:48
  consultant where I build out everyone like a speaker's entire
• 1:53
  thought leadership ecosystem, which then you know, they can
• 1:57
  repurpose into their paid services.
• 1:59
  On the other end, as I do it as a head curator in the event
• 2:03
  planner for Tedxorrington Heights, which is for those that
• 2:06
  may or may not know, it is an independently organized Ted
• 2:09
  event in the northwest suburbs of Chicago.
• 2:12
  I'm going to get into the details there.
• 2:13
  And so from there I build out and curate speakers.
• 2:16
  There, I love it. I was researching about Ted and
• 2:18
  I know there's a difference between Ted and TEDx as you were
• 2:20
  educating me on but Ted, I I didn't know what it really stood
• 2:23
  for where it came from, but it's technology, entertainment and
• 2:25
  design, correct? I did not know that.
• 2:27
  I didn't know if it was a guy named Ted or something.
• 2:29
  You know, like just. Ted something like.
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  Started like the. Movie with the bear.
• 2:32
  Yeah, yeah, but so. So what's the difference between
• 2:34
  every? So everyone knows what's the
• 2:35
  difference between Ted talks and then TEDx?
• 2:38
  Correct Ted and TEDx. So think of it like an umbrella.
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  So you have like Ted is like the main mothership in a way and and
• 2:46
  the main mothership of our ideas.
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  And then from there across the world, they then sublet it where
• 2:51
  you can actually get a license. So there's over 4000
• 2:54
  independently organized Ted events across the world.
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  And so TEDx Arlington Heights is one of them.
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  So you can be wherever you're living right now and apply for
• 3:03
  license to host your own Ted event in your town.
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  And so this is where you're actually going to be
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  representing your community, bringing in talks and bring your
• 3:13
  community together in your specific community versus Saint
• 3:16
  Charles, correct? Wow, yes, so and so wherever
• 3:20
  you're at, I mean, it is something where it's an
• 3:23
  opportunity to meet new people, bring diverse of Diaz together
• 3:26
  businesses in the area. It's a powerful way.
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  And what's the, what's that process like to get to bring
• 3:32
  one? If I wanted to do a TEDx, St.
• 3:34
  Charles, let's say, or anyone listening is like, I'd love to
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  do a TEDx. So there's some credibility.
• 3:38
  A TEDx. Involved in that, yeah.
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  And I'd be curious why you think that.
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  But first of all, what's that process like?
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  I think it's different for everyone.
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  So there are like I mentioned, there are over 4000 TEDx events
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  across the world. So TEDx and TEDx gives you
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  license regulations. You have to follow a little bit
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  of red tape, right? And so you're, you need to stick
• 3:58
  to that and we honor that. But then each of the different
• 4:02
  programs have their own way of curation.
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  So for TEDx Arlington Heights, our way, we evolve and we change
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  like we do in business. We started where you can apply
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  online. So right now you can go to
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  tedxarlingtonheights.com and apply online.
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  And also you can be invited. So for someone you can apply
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  online and put an ID on there that is in a line with the
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  conference theme that we have for that year.
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  Or you just build, build out an incredible branding, messaging
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  and how you're living and serving in the world.
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  And we find you and we invite you into the space because what
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  you're putting in the world or the thought leadership you're
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  putting out there might be aligned with that brand and in
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  regards to that and how from there you can apply or we can
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  invite you. And we kind of evolved first
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  year we did it where we invited everyone.
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  We always keep the applications open, but I think that's
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  something we can get into later. It's not, not everyone knows how
• 5:00
  to apply, right, right. And that's something I could
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  even serve and help in that. Realm.
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  But what if you want to start your own?
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  Yeah. So if you want to start your
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  own, you go on tedted.com and you, I think it's like you click
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  down and you put TEDx talk, TEDx event and you apply online and
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  there's an entire application on there and you can.
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  Do it approved or what? I mean, I can't speak for that.
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  I wouldn't know from Ted's perspective, but I imagine yes
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  and no. Yeah.
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  You have to pretty much build out an entire conference.
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  So they're asking you. Oh.
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  Before you get ready to approve. Pretty anyway you have to.
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  Be able to show that can. You create an idea, right?
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  Can you come up with innovative ideas how where are you at?
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  And you also have to live in the town in which you are creating
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  it, right? So you, for example, you live in
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  Saint Charles, but you couldn't do TEDx Geneva, right?
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  And then you would it takes anywhere between 3 to 8 weeks
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  for them to go through it. And then once you are approved,
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  then you are you can either apply to be a nonprofit or
• 6:02
  become or not be 1. And then you get an entire team
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  and you build it out from there. But typically the whole process
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  from the time you apply, I mean sometimes even people who create
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  their application that can take you months, if not a year
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  because you're really trying to figure out what are you
• 6:18
  building, what are you creating. So that process alone can take
• 6:22
  time. And is it cost to register?
• 6:24
  No, everything in Ted X and Ted, again, I'm a representation of
• 6:29
  Ted X, Orient and Heights, but at Globe is they're a nonprofit,
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  so everything is. Wow just builds their brand.
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  I guess, right, we'll say free, but be mindful capacity.
• 6:38
  Yeah, Yeah. You guys set the stage lighting,
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  the, you know, the production, the, you know, marketing.
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  There's a lot of cost involved to put on one of those.
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  You're a volunteer. Yeah, right.
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  So I'm a volunteer. I'm the executive director of
• 6:51
  our nonprofit. I'm the head creator and
• 6:53
  founder. I have an entire team that's
• 6:54
  been doing this for three years. We all do this on top of all of
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  our other work that we do and how the most of our volunteers
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  are powerhouses that work full time jobs, you know, their
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  executives, lawyers, doctors, you name it.
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  And then they do this on top of their second or third
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  volunteering and they're still serving the community and
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  they're trying to bring together these ideas in the world.
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  So it's capacity is the cost and.
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  What is the appeal of doing A or putting on a Ted X and why do
• 7:22
  you do it? Well, I'll speak for myself is
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  I, we lived in the Forest Park area first, right?
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  And Forest Park, Oak Park area and it's very diverse.
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  And when I moved to Arlington Heights, you know, I'm a woman
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  of color and a woman of diversity.
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  And it, there wasn't a lot that I was seeing there.
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  And I moved from an area like Oak Park, Forest Park area that
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  was very active. And when I moved to Arlington
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  Heights at the time, it wasn't as active.
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  And I thought, what is a way? And I've always been a Ted Talk
• 7:53
  junkie. I'm a.
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  Lot of good ones out there, yeah.
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  You know, lover and can like bathe and all that stuff podcast
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  and I was like, how can I take something that I love to do,
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  which is inspire, impact and influence people and bring the
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  community together. You know, basis of TEDx
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  Orrington Heights is to, you know, highlight diverse voices,
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  diverse backgrounds, you know, incredible businesses and kind
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  of bring it together. So bring your community
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  together, bring them together. Highlight the powerful voices
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  and stories that aren't being seen.
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  Not just the celebrities that are out in the world or the, you
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  know, the people that are viral online, but there's someone next
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  door to you that could have a powerful idea that you didn't
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  even know of. Or in our case, a high schooler
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  from Barrington High School. Last you know, in 2025 we had.
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  So what about from a revenue standpoint?
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  I'm curious because obviously a lot of founders, business owners
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  listening and I think this is good to know because I think we
• 8:47
  all know Ted and Ted X, but we don't really know the behind the
• 8:50
  scenes or how you would start it, how you join it, how it
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  works. And we're definitely going to
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  get into, you know, how to deliver a, a perfect keynote
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  speech or Delano or maybe it's not perfect, but a pretty a top
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  notch or top 1%. I want to get into that stuff
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  too. But what what's what's the model
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  in terms of revenue? Or is it, is it a brand builder,
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  community builder for you? What's that angle?
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  I'm curious. For the for you putting.
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  It on you running your own TEDx. Yes.
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  So for me it's in a way in regards to my keynote business.
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  You're saying the connection is in a way it's your people get to
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  see what we're creating, right. They get to see what I'm
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  building. I curate the entire, you know, I
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  am the head curator of all, we'll say 7 to 8 speakers are on
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  that program. And so this is at high level,
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  This is an iconic brand you're putting into anywheres of a
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  curation process of four to seven months, right?
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  Like TEDx Wellington Heights is a 5 month curation process that
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  doesn't even include the selection process.
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  And so you are meeting the most incredible, powerful, you know,
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  anyway from high scores that have innovative ideas to people
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  that have been in this business for 2-3 years and industry
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  leaders. And you're bringing them
• 10:00
  together and you're creating their ideas from scratch because
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  these are ideas that don't exist already in the world and ones
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  that they've never put on before.
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  And you're building them from seed to stage.
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  So for me that becomes, even though it's a nonprofit, this
• 10:15
  becomes in a way my marketing tool in which I can then share,
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  hey, from this thought leadership, you can expand this
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  into a keynote that then becomes what I mentioned earlier, that
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  entire thought leadership ecosystem that then can become
• 10:29
  courses, digital, you know, PDFs, it can become a book and
• 10:33
  become a retreat or anything else.
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  So it kind of funnels there. So while nonprofit work is
• 10:39
  volunteer, it does funnel into the work that I do on the side
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  of there. And so that helps build into
• 10:45
  meeting speakers that I meet there.
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  You know, normally we don't, you know, tend to my speakers become
• 10:51
  my clients, but they may know someone because all the work I
• 10:54
  do is the referral because they've gone through the
• 10:56
  experience. So did that answer.
• 10:58
  Yeah, it does. Yeah.
• 10:59
  No, thank you for that. And my my follow up question
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  was, what's the benefit of someone starting their own Ted X
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  versus just saying I'm going to do a conference or an event by
• 11:07
  myself? I mean, it goes back to that
• 11:09
  first question capacity, right? Like it is such an undertaking.
• 11:15
  It is an undertaking that you can't believe it's so a founder
• 11:18
  and entrepreneurial listening. You built your business right?
• 11:21
  And remember when you first started, you were doughy eyed.
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  It was glowy, it was glamorous. It was all of those fun starry
• 11:27
  eyed things. It all starts out like that
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  sounds so sexy, doesn't it? It's sexy and.
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  Then you hit your first rough batch like, all right, this is
• 11:33
  for real, no? But then you realize, OK, now
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  you're leading an entire team of volunteers, which means these
• 11:40
  are not paid employees that are doing this on top of their job.
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  And now? Why are they doing it?
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  What's motivating them? For the same reason that all of
• 11:48
  us said in Ted or tended is to put out big ideas, to believe in
• 11:52
  these ideas, to create the impact influence ultimately to
• 11:55
  do something that's bigger than yourself and to help someone
• 11:58
  else's legacy. This is legacy work, right?
• 12:01
  Remind me with a question. Once.
• 12:03
  Well, my original question was why would you if?
• 12:05
  You do a Ted well. Let's say I want to start
• 12:07
  something in Saint Charles. I'm like, it sounds like a nice
• 12:09
  idea to get a Ted X Saint Charles going and I can lead it,
• 12:12
  bring people in. Maybe it's an opportunity to
• 12:13
  market when clients, whatever it might be, share messages, make
• 12:16
  an impact. Why would I go the Ted X route
• 12:19
  when I could just say I'm gonna do an event called Saint Charles
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  Entrepreneurs, right? Got it.
• 12:24
  That would be like my mind goes to why would you create an event
• 12:28
  that's just sure as when you can attach it to like the Oscars?
• 12:31
  Yes. Right.
• 12:32
  Yeah. So you have a global iconic
• 12:35
  brand that's been around for over 40 years.
• 12:38
  This is instant connection. You're gonna be able to draw and
• 12:42
  bring forward businesses and speakers that are already
• 12:46
  wanting to connect themselves to that brand.
• 12:48
  And there's no. Licensing cost anyway, so it's
• 12:51
  like. Yes.
• 12:52
  Yeah, it's kind of like, do you wanna start your own coffee shop
• 12:55
  or do you put up a Starbucks? Everyone's going to instantly
• 12:57
  know the. Star, I think you're still going
• 12:58
  to have the impact along the way.
• 13:00
  Like you're Alex Sheridan just created a TEDx.
• 13:03
  I mean, it would still happen, but it's going to be easier
• 13:06
  because again, you're doing this as nonprofit work or volunteer
• 13:10
  work. So reaching out and saying, hey,
• 13:12
  we're doing a TEDx event in our area that's bringing people
• 13:15
  together. People typically know what that
• 13:19
  is, right? Yeah.
• 13:20
  But also, not everyone knows what it is.
• 13:22
  But you have to do less education because you didn't
• 13:24
  have to build that website. You didn't have to build this
• 13:27
  entire infrastructure, it's already there.
• 13:30
  OK, yeah, got it. So what about the local, the
• 13:32
  local website you plug into? But it's got Yeah.
• 13:34
  I mean, we still build ours from.
• 13:36
  Yeah, but you still have like a mothership, you know?
• 13:39
  And I, I agree, I think there is the same way if you have a
• 13:42
  reputable podcast that has its own site and social channels and
• 13:46
  good quality content, I think when people see it, they go, oh,
• 13:49
  wow, this is like, AII feel honored to be a part of this.
• 13:52
  Yeah. Versus if it's just like some
• 13:54
  whatever named event that's going on.
• 13:55
  They're like, I've never heard of this before.
• 13:57
  As soon as they hear Ted, they're like, this feels like
• 13:59
  something big. Exactly feels like.
• 14:01
  Some. Yeah.
• 14:02
  See your eyes lit up. Yeah, See.
• 14:03
  Exactly. That's brand.
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  Tell me more. Say more.
• 14:06
  And that's really. Brand, right, yeah, versus
• 14:08
  trying to guess if something might be a small little thing
• 14:11
  that never does anything they know well, if this is Ted, it's
• 14:13
  probably something pretty significant, correct, Because
• 14:16
  you do got to go through some hoops to even get signed up for
• 14:19
  it and put one on and then it's the volunteers and a lot of
• 14:22
  effort. So if you're doing all that, the
• 14:24
  event you could assume should be pretty good, yeah.
• 14:27
  And. Pretty credible.
• 14:27
  I would also a story came to mind when I was hearing you say
• 14:30
  that is when I at the time when I did the license.
• 14:34
  There's a story in which I when I did the license that OK to
• 14:38
  share it and then once I got it, another experience.
• 14:41
  So something to consider if you are at the time, I had over 10
• 14:46
  years of neurological challenges, you know, health
• 14:48
  journey that I went on that I wasn't expecting and everything
• 14:52
  kind of hit the wall and you know, crap hit the the fan per
• 14:55
  SE. And I found myself in November
• 14:58
  of 2022 could at the time be on a laptop longer for an hour.
• 15:04
  Couldn't you know, I was in dark rooms with, you know, eye masks
• 15:08
  on, had no access to electronics because I was healing my brain.
• 15:11
  And when I applied to it, What happens is if make sure you're
• 15:14
  applying from a space of service, like because this was
• 15:19
  bigger than me, everyone that comes, I always say don't.
• 15:23
  I don't chase the called, the calling, chase the called and
• 15:27
  they chase the calling, right? Because really, that space was
• 15:31
  when I did do the application, it wasn't for myself so much of
• 15:36
  everything before I had all those neurological challenges
• 15:40
  and those setbacks. I remember a long time ago being
• 15:44
  like, if only I had a TE DX talk, if only I was a New York
• 15:47
  Times bestselling author, if only my LinkedIn had so many
• 15:51
  followers. And then I would be validated,
• 15:55
  approved, and I would be worthy and would soothe my ego mountain
• 16:00
  check, check, check. But when you go through
• 16:02
  something like that, and then here I was.
• 16:04
  I didn't even know when I applied.
• 16:06
  I didn't even know there was such thing that you could apply
• 16:09
  for an event the same way you might not have known.
• 16:12
  Yeah, I didn't know that. Yeah, I don't think a lot of so.
• 16:14
  I just knew. That I wanted.
• 16:17
  A TEDx speaker and then if I could be a TEDx speaker, then
• 16:19
  all the doors would open and be done.
• 16:21
  But then when I came across this and again, spiritually speaking,
• 16:25
  and you know, I was called to do that work at the time again, I
• 16:28
  wasn't in a space. I could not even be on a laptop
• 16:31
  for an hour, more or less lead an entire, you know,
• 16:34
  organization with over 40 people, a production team,
• 16:38
  partners, volunteers. That's a huge undertaking.
• 16:41
  And so you learn to surrender on that process.
• 16:44
  But then something to consider if that is a journey someone is
• 16:47
  going on. It was once I did get it, Alex,
• 16:49
  is I didn't tell anyone for two months.
• 16:54
  The imposter syndrome that comes with you are now representing
• 17:00
  not just yourself, right, because we all want to be that
• 17:03
  initially be connect ourselves to the brand for ego, right,
• 17:06
  which is a lot of the work I do is around that ego work.
• 17:09
  But now you have to lay that all down and realize, OK, so for two
• 17:13
  months I didn't tell anyone. It's such an imposter syndrome.
• 17:16
  What would people think? Who am I to put this event on,
• 17:21
  right? And these are things that may or
• 17:23
  may not, if they don't happen initially because you're like,
• 17:25
  let's freaking go. They'll come along the way when
• 17:28
  you have speakers that say no to you.
• 17:29
  They'll come along the way when you've had a hundred partners
• 17:32
  say no. They'll come along the way when
• 17:34
  your venue says yes and then doesn't say, you know, says no
• 17:37
  down the line. So it's really being willing to
• 17:40
  have a level of rejection and to be willing to, as much as
• 17:44
  there's so much ego connected to that, you know, the work that we
• 17:48
  do is also being able to be mindful of your ego and laying
• 17:51
  it down. I think it's very similar when
• 17:53
  people are creating video content in a podcast, you know,
• 17:56
  and I work with a lot of successful founders.
• 17:58
  I mean 7-8 figure B2B, you know, business owners.
• 18:01
  And I'm always surprised, maybe not surprised anymore.
• 18:03
  But I wasn't the beginning of how many of them were like
• 18:06
  petrified to get on camera or like, hey, or they'd say
• 18:08
  something like, why don't want to talk on LinkedIn about some
• 18:10
  people are going to think I'm going to know it all, like who
• 18:11
  am I? And I'm like, no, no, no, it's
• 18:13
  not you trying to say you know it all or like brag.
• 18:15
  It's you trying to make an impact.
• 18:17
  It's you trying to teach somebody something and share an
• 18:19
  inspiring story that makes someone go, wow, maybe I should
• 18:21
  try that. Maybe I should do that.
• 18:23
  I never thought of something that way.
• 18:24
  It's a unique perspective that you have in the market that no
• 18:27
  one else has right now. It's if you, to your point about
• 18:30
  the service, if you look at it like, I'm going to go out and
• 18:32
  serve people, it's a different approach.
• 18:35
  Then I'm going to go out and try to sell something or try to like
• 18:38
  tell people about my company all day.
• 18:40
  The same way with networking events, right?
• 18:42
  That's a very easy comparison. And you go to networking events
• 18:44
  and you can tell right away the people are like, hi, my name is
• 18:46
  John. Here's my number, here's my car.
• 18:48
  You have a real estate agent already.
• 18:49
  And it's like, dude, just chill out, man.
• 18:51
  But then there's certain people that you meet that they ask you
• 18:53
  questions. They're like, hey, what, what
• 18:54
  brought you here and tell me more of your business.
• 18:56
  That's really cool. Like how'd you get into that?
• 18:57
  And you start conversations, you start building relationships,
• 19:00
  and it's the same thing online or whether it's FedEx or
• 19:02
  whatever it is. I think that mental hurdle from
• 19:06
  creating content, whatever, if it's in person, if it's starting
• 19:09
  something, if it's a business, that's a big one that a lot of
• 19:12
  people unfortunately don't ever get past.
• 19:14
  Yeah. And I connect the dots to what
• 19:17
  would you say. So for your content that you
• 19:20
  have and also for a TEDx talk, a TEDx Orrington Heights talk or a
• 19:23
  keynote is you know, everyone talks about authentic and I'm
• 19:26
  like, OK, I get like itches about the word authentic because
• 19:28
  what's it mean in everyone? I get I love skepticism.
• 19:31
  Skepticism is like my best friend.
• 19:32
  It's like where innovation plays.
• 19:34
  But what would your true voice say if they were on a camera?
• 19:38
  Like say what you're going to say, if you were really going to
• 19:41
  say it in the mirror in your bedroom to your best friend and
• 19:45
  also it ready, what would you say if it wasn't?
• 19:49
  You weren't trying to be liked and you weren't trying to be
• 19:52
  liked, but you were willing and open not to necessarily be
• 19:56
  vulnerable, but to not be at the hands in the mercy of your ego
• 20:00
  of validation and approval. That's so much of what the
• 20:05
  difference between a great Ted X Arlington Heights talk and a one
• 20:09
  that would never even make it through to selection.
• 20:13
  Is one that is saying it in the way that we are all cookie
• 20:16
  cutter AI generated meant to say it because it's the Safeway and
• 20:21
  it kind of goes back to what I call like Polly wanna cracker
• 20:23
  talks where we all say it because we mimic it like OK,
• 20:27
  Alex Sheridan said it this way or someone else said it this
• 20:30
  way. So I'm I'm going to look left
• 20:32
  and I'm going to look right and I'm going to take left and right
• 20:34
  and I'm going to mimic what they say.
• 20:36
  But the key part is, is that when they go do the videos that
• 20:39
  you're Speaking of or the TEDx talk keynote is no look left or
• 20:43
  right, be inspired by them and then come back and ask, but
• 20:46
  what's my true? That's right, Like what's my
• 20:48
  truth? How would I truly say that?
• 20:50
  And so many of us won't say it, say it sucks, it's bogus, say
• 20:56
  it's the mothership energy, say it's, you know, wrap it out like
• 21:00
  so many people are like, don't do that.
• 21:02
  But that's what makes innovation and disruption, you know?
• 21:06
  That's really great advice. It's, it's really the
• 21:09
  difference. And I would say if you're
• 21:10
  Speaking of a, it goes hand in hand with a Ted X talk or a
• 21:14
  keynote. It's so many people will ask me
• 21:17
  and you kind of said if they'll come up to me and they'll say
• 21:20
  I'm a great speaker. If you're looking for a speaker,
• 21:24
  you know, think of me, but that's not serving.
• 21:26
  Yeah. What's your message?
• 21:28
  Yeah, yeah. And even I wouldn't even say
• 21:30
  what's your message think of the listener.
• 21:34
  This has everything. When you serve, everything you
• 21:36
  do is for the listener. From the moment you enter the
• 21:41
  building, yes, you're there for the listener, right?
• 21:45
  If your heart's beating fast, I will always say it's because
• 21:48
  you're thinking about yourself. Yes, that's so true.
• 21:51
  Right. So if you you're in your car and
• 21:53
  you say I'm here to surf, yeah, this isn't about me.
• 21:57
  Yeah, right. That changes it.
• 22:00
  And so when you think of a Ted X talk or a keynote talk or when
• 22:03
  you're being on video, a lot of that time comes to be.
• 22:08
  If I were to say what I was going to say without worrying
• 22:11
  about what I was going to say for me and how that's going to
• 22:15
  make me look. Because so many of us are like,
• 22:17
  what, what if I mess up? What are they going to think?
• 22:21
  What if this doesn't do well? Why I need this to like funnel
• 22:24
  into my business later on or I need to funnel the book sale?
• 22:27
  What if it doesn't? What if I don't say the right
• 22:29
  thing and he doesn't cut the video well and then I can't use
• 22:31
  it later versus just show up and serve?
• 22:34
  Yeah, I would say the best content creators on planet Earth
• 22:38
  are selfless, yes, and they think about anything.
• 22:40
  The message, the post, the interactions they have, they
• 22:43
  think about how is this serving my audience?
• 22:46
  What would they get from it? It's actually a big fundamental
• 22:48
  shift that I have to make with clients early on.
• 22:50
  Most of them, some of them, every now and then one of them
• 22:52
  just, they get it and they're like, I'm like, wow, you're nice
• 22:54
  to work with. Because they.
• 22:55
  Just understand it fundamentally from the get.
• 22:57
  Go. Those are the.
• 22:58
  Yeah, but most of them are like, yeah, they start thinking about
• 23:00
  their and it's not like a terrible thing.
• 23:02
  It's just like a natural, OK, I'm putting something out.
• 23:04
  It should grow my business, build my brand.
• 23:07
  And I'm like, no, no, no, nothing.
• 23:09
  We're not going to tag your company page on every post.
• 23:11
  We're not going to mention what you do.
• 23:12
  We're not going to talk about your services all day every day.
• 23:15
  We're going to talk about you're going to share things that are
• 23:17
  going to help people and you're not going to ask for anything in
• 23:19
  return. And they're like, well, then how
• 23:20
  are we going to get stuff in return?
• 23:21
  And I'm like, because you're putting out good and people will
• 23:24
  trust you and find you credible and they'll want to come to you
• 23:26
  when they're ready to buy something that they see you as a
• 23:28
  potential, you know, influencer expert in or whatever you want
• 23:31
  to call it. That is it.
• 23:32
  And it's the same thing on stage.
• 23:34
  I obsess and the same with this podcast.
• 23:37
  I'm like, how do I extract insights and stories and and
• 23:40
  knowledge from Donna Marie Post? How do I contribute things that
• 23:43
  are beneficial to all of y'all watching right now?
• 23:46
  What's up? That's what it's all about.
• 23:49
  And if you do, if you put out good, good comes back to you.
• 23:51
  You don't even got to worry about it.
• 23:53
  I love high 5 to that. Yeah.
• 23:55
  Is it that's a wrap. It makes me think what how you
• 23:58
  are Speaking of your clients and how you are disrupting their
• 24:01
  norm in the way they were thinking.
• 24:02
  Yeah, it yes. And and I'll piggyback on that
• 24:07
  to say is a lot of the time when people ask well, how do you make
• 24:10
  a great TE DX talk or how do you make a great keynote?
• 24:13
  And I would say consider this, Are you ready?
• 24:17
  If you what would your idea be so transformative idea so that
• 24:23
  can be for your video that they're creating short form
• 24:27
  their TE DX talk 18 minutes or less or keynote, right.
• 24:31
  What would your idea be if you couldn't speak to your
• 24:36
  experience? I call it your LinkedIn fancy.
• 24:39
  You can't speak to your experience, anything that's on
• 24:41
  your LinkedIn. So any achievements you've had,
• 24:43
  any awards you've had, any foundations you create.
• 24:46
  If you couldn't, what would your idea?
• 24:47
  If you can't speak to that, what would your idea be if you
• 24:51
  couldn't Share your story? You know, I hurt my brain.
• 24:54
  I laid in there. I couldn't be on for an hour and
• 24:57
  a laptop if you couldn't Share your story and what would your
• 25:00
  idea be if you couldn't use words that I call empowerment
• 25:03
  candy, which are like those saturated ones that are like
• 25:05
  empowerment activate, you know better, you better meet better
• 25:08
  community, all the things. That are just like our.
• 25:11
  Our brain starts to like go into autopilot.
• 25:14
  We self narrating, yes. Skyrocket emojis if you.
• 25:18
  Couldn't say those three things right?
• 25:22
  What would you say in your video content?
• 25:25
  What would you say in your TE DX talk?
• 25:27
  And what would you say in your keynote if you could not talk
• 25:30
  about anything that can be found on your LinkedIn, that you
• 25:33
  couldn't Share your story and that you couldn't use saturated
• 25:37
  empowerment candy words? That is the answer in seven or
• 25:41
  10 words with a period at the end of it.
• 25:43
  And then after you figure that out, then you can go back and
• 25:49
  give that idea stories to support it, results that have
• 25:54
  happened. But what we're doing, so many of
• 25:56
  us is what results do I want, right?
• 26:00
  What? Which is great.
• 26:01
  Like what's your key message and how you want to impact the
• 26:04
  listener? But so much of that drives it
• 26:07
  away from transformation, right? Yeah.
• 26:10
  And so it's really something. To ask not what you can do or
• 26:14
  what your country can do for you, but what you can do for.
• 26:16
  Your country, right? That's such a, it's an old, you
• 26:20
  know, JFK phrase. I think that's what he said.
• 26:22
  Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for
• 26:25
  your country or something like it's very close to that.
• 26:26
  Yeah, Yeah. But it's basically saying like
• 26:28
  stop asking what your country can give to you and start asking
• 26:30
  what you can give to your country.
• 26:32
  And it's the same for your audience.
• 26:33
  You know, it's like, yeah, I do believe you should be results
• 26:36
  driven and you should think about what what's the plan here?
• 26:39
  What are we trying to accomplish and things like that.
• 26:41
  But you also can say how are we going to impact the hell out of
• 26:43
  this audience and have them walk away, change in their lives, you
• 26:47
  know, or teaching them something that they are going to go and
• 26:49
  just use to completely, you know, level up their life or
• 26:52
  their business or it can be both.
• 26:55
  You know it doesn't have to be 1 or the.
• 26:56
  Other doesn't have to be either one.
• 26:57
  And also there's this mindfulness that the work I do,
• 27:00
  a lot of it is the transformation.
• 27:03
  In any stage that you're at is, is owning in that you are a
• 27:07
  vessel of a transformation. You are a vessel for someone
• 27:11
  else's. So I even stray away from word
• 27:14
  using the audience because audience means performance.
• 27:17
  Audience means you to me. Yeah, I'm here and you watch.
• 27:22
  So I kind of the work I do is to say rethink the word audience
• 27:26
  and rethink the word listener or activator.
• 27:29
  So listener. Yeah, listener is as in like I'm
• 27:32
  telling a story and that can, you know, transform A
• 27:35
  transformation and that I'm going to help you rethink or
• 27:37
  reconsider thing or an activator, which I'm actually
• 27:40
  having you, you know, transform into a behavior from here to
• 27:43
  here or an action to take versus an audience.
• 27:46
  If you are, you know, I coach speakers to think if you walk in
• 27:50
  thinking there an audience, they're there for you, you're
• 27:52
  there to perform. And in a lot of the ways that
• 27:55
  activates in, you know, speakers, leaders, executives,
• 28:00
  that activates, okay, all my executive presence, you know, it
• 28:04
  activates performance, executive presence.
• 28:07
  And I call that death by professionalism.
• 28:10
  Because now you're walking into a space that says, I'm the one
• 28:13
  that was on the marketing post. I was the one that's on the
• 28:17
  piece of paper. I'm the one they're all coming
• 28:19
  here to be a part of. And even though you're like, OK,
• 28:21
  I'm here to serve, you're in your car.
• 28:22
  You're all but just that mindset of just no, if you were there to
• 28:29
  go ahead. Yeah, no, it's this.
• 28:31
  Is great. No, that's why I love these
• 28:32
  conversations. Just like, hey, you have a
• 28:33
  couple key points here and there, but let's take this
• 28:35
  conversation wherever it goes. I've heard many times before,
• 28:39
  and you've probably heard us too.
• 28:41
  The thing that people fear more than death, or I think it's
• 28:44
  maybe the the thing that people fear second to death, is
• 28:48
  speaking on stage in front of people.
• 28:50
  Have you heard that? Many times.
• 28:52
  It's a it's like one of the number one fears people have
• 28:54
  other than dying. I think maybe it's number one,
• 28:56
  but maybe, I don't know, it's we'll have to look at the data.
• 28:58
  But it's high up there. It's like one or two people are
• 29:00
  just deathly afraid of speaking in front of it.
• 29:04
  Listeners. Yeah, I will say.
• 29:05
  Why do you think that is, though?
• 29:06
  Well. I would say my land is
• 29:08
  skepticism. Yeah.
• 29:09
  And it's, to me, everything. And skepticism is a best friend
• 29:12
  of innovation is to say, is it about public speaking or is it
• 29:15
  about being seen? Right, right.
• 29:19
  Like initially it's not the actual speaking, it's about
• 29:23
  being seen. That's a good point.
• 29:25
  It is. Think about.
• 29:25
  Because you stood on the stage with.
• 29:26
  Not saying anything, you still feel the same, like this is
• 29:29
  weird, Why is everyone looking at me?
• 29:30
  Yeah. So the work I do is, again, it's
• 29:32
  the inner transformation of yourself.
• 29:34
  It's not the public speaking itself.
• 29:36
  It's about being seen right now. Yeah, right now I'm speaking to
• 29:39
  you. But am I OK with being seen that
• 29:41
  there's three cameras on me right now and knowing that this
• 29:44
  is going to go to LinkedIn and Facebook and I and, and will my
• 29:47
  mind be in this conversation and present enough, Right, right.
• 29:51
  Will I be in my body, present enough, or am I so focused on
• 29:56
  who's going to see it? Right.
• 29:58
  Yeah. Who's going to see it?
• 30:00
  What are they going to think of me?
• 30:01
  So is it really public speaking or is it the inner parts of us
• 30:06
  that that those small voices, the insecurities that say, what
• 30:10
  will people think? Will they?
• 30:12
  Think that, how do you get past that?
• 30:14
  Because I think a lot of people want to be liked.
• 30:15
  They get on stage. They're wondering, Oh my gosh,
• 30:18
  what are people going to think of me?
• 30:19
  It sounds like you went through that mental journey yourself.
• 30:21
  How did you how did you get past it?
• 30:23
  Well, I think 1 is to step into the suckage of it.
• 30:28
  You know, just step into that and, and be aware of it.
• 30:31
  I, I will say it's nothing that you can do.
• 30:33
  There is no quick fix to that. I mean, of course you can have
• 30:36
  therapists and life coaches and all these things, but that's
• 30:39
  inner work. This is work that you have to
• 30:41
  sit down on yourself. This is being aware and to ask
• 30:45
  the tough questions about who are you?
• 30:47
  The things that informed you, all these other self deep
• 30:50
  explanatory, you know, deep self discovery work.
• 30:54
  But I think how do you get past it?
• 30:56
  Is is you don't get past it. You you sit in it.
• 31:00
  You'd be present in it right now, OK?
• 31:02
  I'm across from Alex. There's three cameras on me.
• 31:06
  It doesn't matter that I've been doing this for years.
• 31:08
  And then I'm a badass at this. I'm an expert at what I do, and
• 31:11
  I'm fierce. Oh, my gosh.
• 31:12
  What if he asked me a question and I don't know the answer to
• 31:15
  it? Just the awareness of OK, I'm
• 31:19
  not going to know and just just being completely the word to
• 31:23
  this is you surrender. That's how you get over it is
• 31:27
  you surrender to to that. Not everyone is going to like
• 31:31
  you and not and so much of us like, well, how do I make sure
• 31:36
  that I'm as likable as possible? But surrender that you're not
• 31:40
  going to be and and surrender that you're not going to have
• 31:43
  the right answer. Surrender that you're going to
• 31:44
  have to maybe have the question asked again.
• 31:46
  And and that's part of it is surrender to the process, self
• 31:49
  discovery, surrender to the process of not knowing at all,
• 31:52
  surrender to the process of staying curious, surrender to
• 31:55
  the process of evolution. And so many of us Ted X
• 32:00
  Arlington Heights journey of being a curator or a or being a
• 32:03
  keynote speaker. It's like strapping a mirror to
• 32:06
  your face. You know what a friend, I went
• 32:09
  to lunch with him and he goes, you know, the work you do.
• 32:11
  It's not easy work because you're so many people.
• 32:14
  They're excited to work with you me, but are they not many people
• 32:18
  want to walk into a breakthrough.
• 32:19
  Yeah, that's true. Right.
• 32:21
  Think about it. Ask yourself, are you willing to
• 32:24
  walk around and have a breakthrough?
• 32:27
  You start a podcast? Are you willing to have a
• 32:29
  breakthrough in the things that you're going to discover as you
• 32:31
  as a podcast host, The things that insecurities or the things
• 32:35
  that you're like, there's a mirror that's going to follow
• 32:38
  you and show you all of those things.
• 32:40
  And she'll just the surrender that that's part of the process.
• 32:43
  And I think the part of, you know, the land of celebration
• 32:46
  because I'm like, normally I have a blue pom pom
• 32:48
  cheerleading. Everyone is the land of
• 32:50
  celebration Is is as you surrender, look back.
• 32:53
  I'm a huge reflector. Part of the way is how you
• 32:56
  continue your successes. So many of us, I mean, I'm
• 32:59
  really big on speakers of like, how can you celebrate yourself
• 33:02
  today? What about this?
• 33:03
  Do you want to celebrate? Because so much of us like, OK,
• 33:06
  hit that dollar mile mark I made on a keynote check.
• 33:09
  You know, got that today's talk check.
• 33:12
  We have to celebrate all the steps that made that one end
• 33:15
  goal, because if not, then you're just constantly in the
• 33:19
  rat race of am I going to be enough today?
• 33:21
  Am I going to what if I'm seeing too much?
• 33:23
  I should have said that differently.
• 33:24
  You get in the car and you start overthinking what you did or
• 33:26
  didn't say. It's like a.
• 33:27
  Craziness. You can just drive yourself
• 33:30
  crazy, man. It's so, it's so wild how we can
• 33:33
  get in our own heads and just go down rabbit holes and just
• 33:36
  completely defeat ourselves if we're not careful.
• 33:39
  I think a lot of confidence comes with, to me, when I think
• 33:42
  of a confident person, I think they're able to say, I don't
• 33:44
  know, but they're able to pause. They're able to think, think
• 33:48
  about that. I'm not sure, you know.
• 33:51
  Yeah. And they're not trying to.
• 33:52
  Well, I think, you know, typically in my experience, you
• 33:54
  know, it's people trying to constantly kind of again,
• 33:57
  appease. I don't, I want to come across
• 33:59
  as I'm, I know stuff or I'm an expert or I'm, I don't want to,
• 34:03
  you know, come across like, I don't know something.
• 34:06
  So to me, confidence is being able to say I'm not sure or to
• 34:10
  be still. I'm still figuring it out, yeah.
• 34:14
  Pause reflect for a second, not feeling like you got to have
• 34:18
  something to say yeah similar on dates, right where it's like you
• 34:21
  go on this is a date you go on a it's a podcast.
• 34:23
  I literally. Called myself.
• 34:24
  I was like this is my date for the.
• 34:26
  Day. That's funny dress.
• 34:27
  Well, smell good? Yeah.
• 34:29
  You're doing it. You're doing it.
• 34:30
  You did the right coffee. That's right.
• 34:32
  I got. You hooked up yes, But I think
• 34:33
  about the same way where it's like if you go on a date and you
• 34:36
  do have that, especially the first one or first couple,
• 34:38
  there's some awkward silence, right And it's like kind of like
• 34:42
  being willing to just embrace that and say, yeah, that's cool.
• 34:46
  We don't have to say something every single second of the
• 34:50
  conversation. But if you notice when you're
• 34:52
  with someone for a while and you've been in a relationship,
• 34:55
  you're perfectly fine not saying anything.
• 34:57
  If you notice that, like you could go a minute and just enjoy
• 35:00
  it and sometimes that's nice. You're just eating lunch and
• 35:02
  just like not say anything and you're not worried about what
• 35:04
  should I say next? What should I they're not going
• 35:05
  to think I'm conversational. They're not going to think we
• 35:07
  have vibe or whatever it is you worry about the I said more on
• 35:09
  the first, second date. Once you've been together, it's
• 35:11
  like I don't need to. I'm not trying to impress
• 35:14
  anyone. I'm just trying to be me.
• 35:15
  Yeah, cuz you're not worrying again goes back validation,
• 35:19
  approval, all Sims from our ego and our insecurities again.
• 35:23
  But no one wants to do that work.
• 35:24
  And it's just like, let's have viewers, let's get at this,
• 35:27
  let's make this money. But again, the transformation
• 35:30
  starts here in order to be able to have this effectively.
• 35:32
  But think, Speaking of dates, funny story is every time I go
• 35:36
  to a restaurant, I always remember how you said there's
• 35:39
  pauses between people who have been, I love to play this game
• 35:43
  where I go, OK, how long have they been together?
• 35:46
  And are they married? Are they dating?
• 35:48
  Because body language and how people are with each other in
• 35:52
  presence says a lot. So I'm like, I recently was on a
• 35:56
  solo trip for my birthday, New Year's Day baby.
• 36:00
  Woo, woo, yeah, nice. And brought myself on a little
• 36:03
  luxury trip and I stay in there and there was this couple and
• 36:06
  they were so attentive to each other.
• 36:08
  They're asking such deep, thorough questions.
• 36:11
  I was like, there is no way they are married or that or dating
• 36:15
  for a long time because the questions were so exploratory
• 36:17
  and silence wasn't happening in regards to what you're saying.
• 36:21
  And so we're going back to what we do, right?
• 36:23
  Helping people step into their thought leadership, their
• 36:26
  visibility, their influence and their impact is it's OK to just
• 36:31
  be still, be in the presence, right?
• 36:35
  And allow the work that we do. It's an energetic exchange, so.
• 36:40
  I think that plays a role on stage too, right?
• 36:42
  I mean, correct. It's it's the same thing.
• 36:43
  It's it's can you be on stage and pause for a second?
• 36:46
  To me, that's confidence that someone that is understanding of
• 36:49
  the stage and then the listeners and you know, is not I need to
• 36:53
  say something at the rise. They're going to think I don't
• 36:55
  know what the hell I'm doing or I don't belong on stage.
• 36:57
  You know, it's like that, like they can sit there and just
• 36:59
  pause and just look at the and the audiences that, you know,
• 37:03
  they're like what what's going on?
• 37:05
  They're more eager when you pause, I think, because they're
• 37:07
  in anticipation now and they. Because it disrupts.
• 37:09
  It does. And when you disrupt A listener,
• 37:13
  this is where transformation happens.
• 37:15
  Because remember, it's like a Hallmark movie.
• 37:17
  You look at me and it's like, Oh my God, Alex likes her.
• 37:20
  OK, they're going to date. No, she's going to say no.
• 37:22
  And they start self narrating the entire talk or the entire
• 37:25
  video. So they check out, right?
• 37:28
  But when you go up there and you have the pause, they're like,
• 37:32
  what's happening? They're into it.
• 37:34
  So what I do for every TEDx Orienton Heights conference at
• 37:37
  the end of the year, I stand on stage and it's a commitment I've
• 37:41
  made to myself for three years now.
• 37:43
  I go up there and I do my normal like, you know, I was like my,
• 37:46
  I'm like a hype girl. And then I go up there and I go,
• 37:49
  I've made a promise to myself. One of our TEDx Orienton Heights
• 37:53
  speakers the first year did a talk about micro transitions.
• 37:56
  And so really every single space you go watch the Ted X talk, Ted
• 38:00
  X Clarence Heinz talk and by Chris and Camilla.
• 38:04
  And when you go up there, every time you enter a room, every
• 38:07
  meeting, every the space, you take a micro transition and you
• 38:10
  pause. So when I get up on stage, I
• 38:12
  pause. That already disrupts the norm
• 38:14
  because what is she doing? She's not performing right away.
• 38:17
  And then I say, I promised myself that I would not rush
• 38:20
  into this experience because this is a nine month, 10 month
• 38:24
  process. So I'm just going to watch and
• 38:26
  stare at all of you guys right now and take this in for the
• 38:29
  next 2030 seconds. And you can stare at my really
• 38:32
  cute outfit, but I don't want to miss this.
• 38:35
  I don't want to perform this, Yes.
• 38:37
  So I literally stand on stage and I, that's good, creepily
• 38:39
  stare at them. I've thought, I always thought
• 38:41
  of this idea the last couple years and maybe I'll try it.
• 38:43
  Maybe it's stupid. You could tell me that you're an
• 38:45
  expert in this. And I will tell you candidly, I
• 38:47
  know you will. I know.
• 38:49
  That's why I'm telling you, OK, yes, the audience is going to
• 38:51
  get to hear this, but and then I also want to talk about my
• 38:53
  personal experiences on stages. Let's do it.
• 38:55
  But here's my. Coaching.
• 38:57
  Here's a copy. Yeah, exactly.
• 38:58
  Here's my idea. I wanted to come on stage like
• 39:01
  during the next keynote or speed, whatever I'm doing, and I
• 39:04
  just wanted to sit there in silence Before I say anything
• 39:08
  introduced, Alex comes out and I just sit there and the audience,
• 39:12
  you start to hear kind of the little rumbling and then I just
• 39:15
  say like, oh, am I supposed to say something and get a little
• 39:17
  reaction and then get into the stuff?
• 39:19
  And then I would lead into how if I was talking about
• 39:22
  marketing, let's say, I would lead into the importance of
• 39:25
  earning attention and creating a gap in curiosity, right?
• 39:28
  Maybe that's my message. If it was like a marketing type,
• 39:30
  you know, talk or whatever it might be.
• 39:32
  It's just a thought I had. I thought I had about just kind
• 39:34
  of disrupting, yes, everyone gets on stage and says good
• 39:36
  morning, how you doing, da, da, da.
• 39:38
  And just to sit there for five seconds, 10 seconds, and just
• 39:41
  take it in and let the audience think what is coming, what is
• 39:44
  going on right now, and then say, did I get your attention,
• 39:47
  you know? So they'll play off that, yeah,
• 39:48
  live coaching in the. Morning, right.
• 39:49
  Yeah, yeah. She's like, that was terrible.
• 39:51
  No, I'll play it. On.
• 39:52
  Yeah, let's build off that. Yeah, let's do it.
• 39:54
  OK, so you go up and you disrupt the norm.
• 39:56
  Yeah. And you go up there.
• 39:57
  They're expecting it. They say it.
• 39:58
  There's this quiet. I would determine what's true to
• 40:02
  you and what that silence looks like.
• 40:04
  Are you smiling at them? Are you still at them?
• 40:06
  Do you look like a creepy stalker or or are you just
• 40:09
  peaceful, right? So you really need to be mindful
• 40:12
  of what's true to you and what that stillness looks like.
• 40:15
  So don't perform that stillness because that also remember
• 40:19
  energetic exchange so they can feel that.
• 40:22
  And then before you go into that, what was that line you
• 40:26
  were going to say? You said a.
• 40:27
  Line. Yeah, Am I supposed to say
• 40:29
  something which is charming, right.
• 40:31
  So I, the whole thing about how I always encourage speakers that
• 40:34
  are struggling before they go on stages to say, what am I?
• 40:37
  I'm charming energetically. So you say that that's charming.
• 40:41
  So that brings everyone down that you're, you know, makes
• 40:44
  them feel comfortable, you're easeful or approachable.
• 40:47
  But then before you launch into all that marketing, I would say,
• 40:51
  how did that make you feel? You know, sit the key part of
• 40:56
  when you have short form TE DX talk keynote is this is all for
• 41:00
  listener, so you don't jump. We jumped a gap, right?
• 41:06
  We were charming and then we went into information, but now
• 41:09
  they're like, what was that whole thing at the beginning
• 41:11
  that was cute and charming. I like them.
• 41:14
  That's great. And now we're in information.
• 41:15
  But like, what did that make? So connect the dots.
• 41:18
  Like what did that make you? So for the for you, that might
• 41:21
  have been like, what is he doing?
• 41:22
  Why did you just say it in their voice?
• 41:24
  That's in their head. Be the skeptic.
• 41:26
  Remember, I keep saying it, skepticism is your friends.
• 41:29
  So meet this the skeptic in the room that is like think of the
• 41:33
  worst thing the skeptic in the room would say to you is like,
• 41:35
  what is he doing? Be like, you probably heard that
• 41:38
  and thought maybe you heard that and thought why did I forget
• 41:41
  what I said? Or maybe one of you thought was
• 41:43
  like that was cute and charming. He's so cute.
• 41:45
  Alec, Sharon and the next one you might be like and give a few
• 41:48
  voices of what a skeptic and be like.
• 41:50
  Then go into those are the different voice.
• 41:52
  Now, whatever your listener remember straight away from
• 41:56
  audience activators or listeners are having.
• 41:59
  Then you can go into your message the most powerful.
• 42:03
  What makes transforming you is that you're including everyone
• 42:05
  in the room because the skeptic is the one that has the most
• 42:09
  transformation to make. Remember how you spoke about the
• 42:12
  clients that you meet? And you're like the ones that
• 42:14
  are all on board? You're like, yeah, those are
• 42:17
  easy, but those aren't the ones, no offense to them, but they're
• 42:20
  not the ones you're going home telling everyone about.
• 42:23
  But it's the ones that were like, took you 3 months or six
• 42:27
  months or six years to build, and they don't want to say yes
• 42:29
  to you. And now they're like, I'm a
• 42:31
  believer, right? Those are the ones.
• 42:34
  That's really cool. I love this conversation, so let
• 42:37
  me get into a couple. I was telling I wanted to share
• 42:39
  a couple of my experiences speaking out of stage.
• 42:41
  It kind of goes into what we're talking about, but I've done a
• 42:43
  handful of keynote speeches, some paid, some were not paid.
• 42:46
  And I just like, So last year I did this one where it was like
• 42:49
  300 some people, I mean, it was a.
• 42:51
  And for me, that, I mean, yeah, if you don't think that's a lot,
• 42:53
  you've never gotten on stage, get in front of 300 people, get
• 42:55
  in. Front of 1.
• 42:57
  And you'll see when you look out.
• 42:58
  And so to me, and I was really excited and I was pumped up, but
• 43:02
  I noticed that when I was in front of like 50 people or 100
• 43:05
  people, 150 people, if the lighting was a little darker on
• 43:07
  the audience, I felt more comfortable.
• 43:10
  But this was like the whole room was bright and there was 300 and
• 43:13
  some people there. And I remember getting on stage
• 43:15
  and I was prepared and I got my thing and stuff, but I remember
• 43:18
  just feeling like a little. Disconnected.
• 43:21
  Yeah, like, just like, and I felt like good with the audience
• 43:24
  and stuff with the listeners, but I feel like I kind of had
• 43:27
  that blackout moment of like, I didn't lose my train of thought.
• 43:30
  I I did my thing. I was very prepared, but I feel
• 43:33
  like I wasn't able to like, really sit in it and enjoy it.
• 43:36
  And like, it was like I was going through it where I noticed
• 43:39
  another one that was a little bit smaller.
• 43:41
  I felt more comfort. And I think it's maybe just the
• 43:43
  size. Yeah, it's just like, wow, this
• 43:45
  is a big, you know, big crew here.
• 43:47
  I want to do good for them and I don't want to mess up and those
• 43:50
  types of things. I'm curious if you see that, if
• 43:52
  you stand with yourself, is it the size?
• 43:54
  Is it the? What is it?
• 43:57
  I think it depends on the person, but a few thoughts that
• 44:00
  come to mind is first is a tactic or a strategy to help
• 44:06
  you. So one I would just ultimately
• 44:08
  decide every speaker is different, right, Like some
• 44:10
  podcasters might do a group, you might have a Co host that is,
• 44:14
  you know, right for you, you're doing it solo.
• 44:17
  So figuring out this is all trial by, you know, curiosity,
• 44:22
  right? So did you like the 300?
• 44:25
  Was it really about the lights or was that you didn't like the
• 44:27
  size of it and the connection asking deep reflective, you
• 44:30
  know, get curious about it or do you really like the intimate and
• 44:33
  you stick to the powerman of that?
• 44:35
  So as a speaker, you can really decide what kind of speaking
• 44:38
  gigs and venues really speak to you.
• 44:40
  You can have the similar impact, you know, depending.
• 44:43
  So you also don't want to keep putting yourself in experiences
• 44:47
  that don't feel true to you. But we'll say you're saying
• 44:50
  curious and you're like the next 305 hundred.
• 44:53
  Let's manifest 1000. Here's a strategy for you go
• 44:57
  home and practice. You know you're you should be
• 45:00
  practicing. Let's just everyone.
• 45:02
  If you're going to stand in front of of a any version of a
• 45:05
  crowd, you should know your stuff.
• 45:06
  So you should be. Practicing.
• 45:08
  We're not going to show up. I want you to put on the TV, the
• 45:12
  music, put the barking dog in your room, or even go outside
• 45:18
  and go to a whole festival, right?
• 45:21
  Put in your buds. There's no music in it and I
• 45:24
  want you to be around noise, be around chaos and get used to
• 45:30
  practicing what it's like to be disrupted by all the different
• 45:35
  senses that are happening to you so that when you do stand on a
• 45:38
  stage like that, this is all repetition you have.
• 45:41
  It's like exposure therapy. So with the speakers, I, you
• 45:45
  know, we do listening sessions, I'm putting them exposure
• 45:48
  therapy. You throw shit out of.
• 45:49
  Me. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 45:51
  OK, you say throw something I didn't.
• 45:53
  I think I. Punched him in my face.
• 45:54
  OK, Are you ready for that? That's good at Tedxonington
• 45:57
  heights of speakers that if they are not, they're not doing
• 46:01
  movements that we need them to do in order to be as powerful as
• 46:04
  they need to. I come up with a nerf gun.
• 46:06
  And I tell. Him I was like, hey, listen, I'm
• 46:09
  going to give you like two more listening sessions and if it
• 46:11
  doesn't change, here's the things in order to get you
• 46:14
  there. If it's not moving on your own,
• 46:16
  we're bringing in my son's Nerf gun and I shoot them because it
• 46:19
  disrupts norm, it makes you stay in your idea and it disrupts you
• 46:24
  to get out of your head. You know, So taking in all this
• 46:28
  exposure through being shot with a Nerf gun, you are at a light,
• 46:31
  you know, at a market, a farmers market will even say put your
• 46:34
  earbuds in and start doing your talk and see all the things
• 46:37
  coming at you. Order food.
• 46:38
  But can you say it so that when you're on a stage of 300 people,
• 46:43
  when the lights go black, you're already conditioned with all the
• 46:47
  different sounds, all the different disruption, correct.
• 46:52
  And so many of us are doing this where in the mirror, totally by
• 46:55
  ourselves, living room, in the car, no disruptions.
• 46:58
  Of course you're going to get on stage and someones going to
• 47:01
  cough or shift or the person you had the eyesight with, why do
• 47:05
  they went to the bathroom now? What?
• 47:06
  Right. Yeah.
• 47:07
  So really just exposing so hopefully that.
• 47:10
  What do you think when you hear that?
• 47:11
  That's really good. I mean, I think, yeah, I did
• 47:14
  practice pretty much every time I've been on stage.
• 47:15
  I practice like alone in my living room or in front of like
• 47:18
  my two daughters or something, you know, or whatever.
• 47:20
  And it was always in like controlled environments.
• 47:23
  And so I think putting your just like the military does, they
• 47:25
  don't train for like the perfect day ever.
• 47:27
  No rain, no enemies, they go hard.
• 47:30
  So when they get into actual battle, it actually feels easy.
• 47:33
  And I think that's the same thing you're talking about here.
• 47:35
  Bring your daughters to a playground.
• 47:37
  I don't know what age they are and, and let them be loud.
• 47:40
  Don't tell them to be quiet. Don't tell them to turn on the
• 47:42
  music. Do dishes.
• 47:44
  I mean, you know, I tell speakers all the time.
• 47:46
  Go home and do the dishes. Let don't tell anyone to turn
• 47:49
  anything down. Be totally present.
• 47:52
  You know, I mean, I also, this is, it's all about preparation,
• 47:57
  right? It's about not your shock.
• 47:59
  Therapying yourself is what you're doing when, when one of
• 48:03
  when you are your shock therapy. It's like, OK, I'm going to wear
• 48:06
  my sweatpants and practice at home or in my car in the silence
• 48:10
  and I'm going to wear my sweatpants and then show up all
• 48:13
  of a sudden in this 3500 stage or on a Ted X stage or as a
• 48:16
  Kino. And all of a sudden I'm, I'm
• 48:18
  curious why this all feels very overwhelming versus do the, if
• 48:24
  you're, we'll say you wear heels, wear heels, Why you do
• 48:27
  dishes and move around. So you're used to being in that
• 48:31
  movement, right? If you're you're going to be
• 48:34
  doing your talk in a tie, throw a tie on and then go in the
• 48:37
  backyard and with the loud lawn mower, do your talk.
• 48:43
  Yeah, and someone walking by, so it feels.
• 48:45
  Correct. Right.
• 48:45
  They'll be like, oh, someone's coming, I gotta stop.
• 48:47
  Just yeah and say. Hi, more people.
• 48:49
  The bear. The bear.
• 48:50
  You know what I mean? It doesn't even matter.
• 48:51
  Less shock therapy, more exposure therapy.
• 48:55
  What are some of the other advice or insights you'd have
• 48:58
  for people that want to get on stage and do more keynotes?
• 49:02
  What are some of the biggest mistakes people make?
• 49:04
  Well. That we haven't talked.
• 49:06
  About OK, I was going to say so again, the Polly wanna cracker
• 49:08
  is like really, I'll just say that quickly is to go back to it
• 49:12
  is look left or right, be inspired by people, but come
• 49:17
  back to yourself because ultimately people are going to
• 49:21
  look at you and go, I've heard that before, right?
• 49:24
  So stray away from that. I would also.
• 49:27
  Same thing in content, correct? Online, same thing.
• 49:29
  Don't don't get caught up on that because comparison also
• 49:31
  enters that door if you want it to it or not.
• 49:34
  And that's like inviting that in.
• 49:37
  When I do TEDx or in 10 Heights, I don't look at any other TEDx
• 49:40
  talk. I don't even look to see who
• 49:43
  their speakers are or anything like that because that will
• 49:46
  cloud what we're creating. And so stay focused on what
• 49:49
  you're building. Also, again, going back to the
• 49:51
  true to yourself. I also maybe to go a little bit
• 49:55
  deeper is so many of us, it's all connection to what we're
• 49:59
  saying is you're creating for your ICA, right?
• 50:02
  That ideal customer avatar, I would say, but curate for that
• 50:08
  person who is the furthest away from your ICA, right?
• 50:12
  Create for that person because if you're creating for that
• 50:15
  person when you're getting started, you're going to cover
• 50:17
  everybody else that are raving fans that know it and get into
• 50:21
  it by you can also if you've never spoken before, join some
• 50:24
  of the speaking bureaus like Toastmasters.
• 50:26
  There's also I'm a member of NSA, which is National Speakers
• 50:29
  association. They're more so, you know, they
• 50:31
  do have like a speaking program, but also they can help you,
• 50:35
  like, learn the businesses on the insurance and outs of how to
• 50:37
  be a speaker. But also go to conferences, go
• 50:41
  to seminars. And you don't want to know what
• 50:43
  I do. When I was first starting, I
• 50:45
  would put podcasters in my ear and I would learn to like hear
• 50:51
  their cadence and hear what they were saying and I would strike,
• 50:53
  what did the podcaster say? And can I understand what they
• 50:56
  said and what was their one take away?
• 50:58
  So really just like surrounding yourself with constant, you
• 51:02
  know, not necessarily inspiration, but again, the
• 51:05
  exposure of what other thought leadership is looking like so
• 51:08
  that when you get into it, you kind of have your own voice.
• 51:11
  What is it that you're working on when it comes to a speaker on
• 51:14
  stage? Yeah.
• 51:17
  I would say, well, I'm an introvert, so I don't even want
• 51:22
  to be up there. What's the start there?
• 51:25
  I want, let me say it, I want to be there, but but how?
• 51:27
  Do you even define an introvert? Yes, So introvert is energy,
• 51:30
  right. So in a room filled with people,
• 51:35
  I'll say I want to be there because I want to surf.
• 51:38
  But innately my energy is a room filled to people is a lot of
• 51:42
  energy. And I do prefer, you know,
• 51:46
  behind the scenes, which is why I do the work that I do is but
• 51:50
  for myself as a speaker, it's it's just really being playful
• 51:54
  up there. My word of the year this year,
• 51:57
  I'm going to drop it here. Let's go is you.
• 51:59
  Heard it first. Is love a girl LUVAGURL?
• 52:03
  And the reason why is because last year's was becoming which I
• 52:06
  thought it was about shining and stardom and all those sexy fancy
• 52:10
  things. But come to find out it was all
• 52:12
  the work we've been talking about, the inner work releasing
• 52:16
  strongholds, releasing where idolatry was in play and how
• 52:19
  idolatry played and the things I was building, going back to
• 52:23
  validation and approval and, and really building from that space.
• 52:27
  And so now love a girl is about what lights me up, what gives me
• 52:31
  joy. I like 0 urgency to anything I'm
• 52:34
  attached to almost nothing now. And now so love a girl if you're
• 52:38
  not attached to things if I'm not attached to if Alex liking
• 52:41
  me or not, if I'm not attached to if this gets one view or 1000
• 52:47
  views. If I'm not attached to you know,
• 52:50
  if this has 10 clients come from it or zero or one TE DX talk
• 52:55
  application or not. And I'm just going up on stage
• 52:57
  and I want to be playful. I want to have fun and speaking.
• 53:01
  So often people extract the play and the reason why they extract
• 53:04
  the play is because executive present death by professionalism
• 53:09
  I am. Hold on a second.
• 53:11
  Time out. Time out.
• 53:13
  We're keeping this in, though. We're not even going to take
• 53:15
  this out. No space on the card.
• 53:18
  Is this where we wrap No. Definitely not.
• 53:20
  That's. Great well, we lost the both
• 53:25
  camera, but we still got these so we're rolling let's do it no
• 53:28
  space on the memory card. I guess I didn't empty it out.
• 53:30
  I don't know. But anyways, OK, do you know
• 53:32
  where you're at? You're.
• 53:34
  Actually. Talking about lover girl.
• 53:36
  Oh yeah, So Lover Girl is just you asked me about being on
• 53:38
  stage and what I'm working on. It's continuing to play because
• 53:43
  if you can play in the content that you're sharing, it's like
• 53:46
  going up there and saying let's be really serious and learn
• 53:49
  about marketing. Yeah, exactly.
• 53:51
  Let's be really serious about no one wants to sign up for that,
• 53:56
  right? But people want to be in a space
• 54:00
  of play. And you can have innovation and
• 54:03
  play. You can have disruption and joy
• 54:06
  and delight and that doesn't mean fake or forced humor or
• 54:11
  fake or forced. You know, I'm not there to
• 54:13
  entertain like so much of myself of love a girl is now to be.
• 54:18
  I'm weird, I'm a nerd, I'm too much and to 9 out of 10 people.
• 54:25
  But that's what makes me the innovator and the visionary that
• 54:27
  I am. And so many of us are like, OK,
• 54:30
  but I'll be an innovator of visionary, but I will have
• 54:34
  executive presence and I will speak a certain way and I will
• 54:37
  answer, which is great. There's rooms for that and
• 54:39
  spaces for that. But really on stage is when I
• 54:43
  walk off stage and in the coaching I can do, I can be
• 54:47
  that. But on stage I should be the
• 54:50
  most playful variation of myself, the most approachable,
• 54:55
  accessible version of myself. Because a lot of the work that I
• 54:59
  work in is when I meet speakers, they keep will say what most
• 55:03
  people call the audience. But remember listeners and
• 55:05
  activators at a stiff arm distance away.
• 55:08
  You're there and I'm here. You know what play does?
• 55:11
  Removes. That wait, what does she just
• 55:14
  say sexy? How wait, how is she that?
• 55:18
  Did she just say? And is she in a mini skirt and
• 55:20
  heels? Because how is she what she has?
• 55:23
  But she's in a mini skirt and heels and she's saying sexy and
• 55:25
  she builds it. But that's me.
• 55:28
  Have I showed up today in a suit?
• 55:32
  I would be. I'm the same way.
• 55:34
  Look at me. I try to be just myself.
• 55:36
  People ask, I have clients that are like, you know, what should
• 55:38
  I wear for my videos? And I go, I was telling them
• 55:40
  like wear what you're comfortable wearing and what you
• 55:42
  would wear. And I sent, I always say there's
• 55:44
  different variances of that. So like my kind of dress more
• 55:48
  dress up is like a polo and khakis or something bright.
• 55:50
  That's my like suit and tie. Yeah, right.
• 55:52
  So if I go up to that level, it's there usually unless I'm
• 55:55
  like a wedding or something like that.
• 55:56
  And then my comfortable kind of casual stuff is like nice fitted
• 55:59
  shirt, jeans, whatever, you know, And if I'm A at home, it's
• 56:02
  probably a sweatpants, whatever. But I just I try to be myself
• 56:05
  and I think that people won't. I don't think that people and if
• 56:08
  they did, I wouldn't care and I just wouldn't work with them.
• 56:10
  I don't think they judge me because I'm not wearing a suit,
• 56:12
  correct. And if they do, it's like you're
• 56:13
  not my people. I want you to judge me by my
• 56:15
  character and how I show up, not what kind of suit I have Now, I
• 56:19
  don't think that you should show up looking like a slob, you
• 56:21
  know, like I think there's a little bit of a balance there.
• 56:23
  You need to be presentable, but you got to be you.
• 56:26
  Yeah, and it makes me think about I had a health coach and
• 56:31
  was a Wellness coach, and she said your body is not a dumb
• 56:34
  bucket and your listeners and activators are not.
• 56:38
  So they're going to know. Remember that energetic
• 56:40
  exchange? They're going to know.
• 56:43
  They're going to feel it. Even if you don't think it.
• 56:45
  They're not dumb buckets. They can, right?
• 56:49
  Like, they're not dumb buckets. They know.
• 56:51
  They're like, OK, this sounds very rehearsed.
• 56:54
  This is something he's done 100 times, and they're going to feel
• 56:57
  it. And there's charming things you
• 57:00
  can say, like, OK, let's be honest, I've done this 100
• 57:03
  times. But you know, enough of that.
• 57:04
  Let me just speak to you, you know, like.
• 57:07
  I think would crave more of the realness now than ever before
• 57:11
  because of all the AI and the technology, things like that.
• 57:13
  That's what I tried. My vision for this podcast is to
• 57:15
  be a place where founders can come and aspiring founders can
• 57:17
  come and just be real and and talk about the real shit that's
• 57:21
  going on, not the OK Donna Marie posts.
• 57:24
  So what, what's one thing that and it's just like it feels very
• 57:27
  it's just not authentic if you want to say that or real or
• 57:29
  whatever it is. But to me, it's getting deep and
• 57:32
  when you get deep, that's where the impact is.
• 57:35
  That's where someone listening today says I'm going to start
• 57:38
  being more of myself. I'm going to show up to this
• 57:40
  event or on LinkedIn or whatever it is, being more of me and
• 57:44
  being comfortable with that and really embracing it even though
• 57:46
  it will be uncomfortable, the breakthroughs.
• 57:48
  And that's what I'm looking for because it goes back to the
• 57:50
  listeners. I want to make an impact on
• 57:52
  them. I want them to listen to this
• 57:53
  and go. This changed my life.
• 57:55
  And speaking to the AI part right you?
• 57:57
  Mentioned the AI part, how you're facing.
• 57:58
  You yeah, I was like the AI part here's my thing is it's this is
• 58:02
  going to probably be I got to make.
• 58:05
  Sure, you stay on. The OR it's not the norm is AI
• 58:10
  has made me more of myself. I'm going to say it again.
• 58:14
  AII use it every single day and it's made me more of myself, and
• 58:20
  the reason why is because I look at it and I think to myself out
• 58:24
  and I'm going to be one of those weirdos.
• 58:26
  I name my AI and my AI, I say just like I tell that I go,
• 58:31
  you're not very innovative. I'll say you're not very great
• 58:35
  at what you do, but you're great at other things.
• 58:37
  But what it does is that mirror backs the things that I can do
• 58:40
  and it can't. And so many people are so
• 58:43
  focused on the yes, I'm not I'm not saying no, it's not going to
• 58:48
  take, you know, it's not jobs and all the things, you know,
• 58:51
  I'm aware of all of that. But also it's like, be open to
• 58:53
  that AI can help you that mirrors back who you're true are
• 58:57
  because you actually can go. You can be a skeptic to AI.
• 59:00
  Like I'll ask it like, what are some great Ted X Arlington
• 59:03
  Heights themes for this year? It does not give good themes.
• 59:07
  I'll be like, can you come up with like a couple great like
• 59:10
  activities to do? It does not that mirrors back.
• 59:14
  Oh, I am creative. That's a good, I'm an
• 59:18
  innovative, I'm a visionary. And then I'll be like, hey,
• 59:22
  should I go see Alex and bring him a, a flower?
• 59:26
  Do dudes like flowers? Should I bring flowers?
• 59:28
  And it'll say something that I don't agree with.
• 59:31
  And I'll be like, yeah, that doesn't feel aligned with me.
• 59:34
  So it mirrors back and shows me, it helps me become more of
• 59:38
  myself because it it's like that that friend that says this is
• 59:43
  what it's like and I can go no. And it shows my alignment.
• 59:47
  So it actually helps me a lot. And so in regards to curation,
• 59:50
  so curation for TEDx talks and creation for keynotes is 1.
• 59:55
  I can sniff an AI generated content a mile away.
• 59:58
  I love AI slop. It's actually a game for me.
• 1:00:01
  I'll actually go on LinkedIn and I'll try to find a bunch of it
• 1:00:04
  and I'll be like, can I, can I figure out which lines or which
• 1:00:07
  weren't? But I think AI does a great job
• 1:00:09
  of being able to say I use it already.
• 1:00:12
  I don't know if other people do this, but I go and I come up
• 1:00:15
  with a creative idea and then I go in and I ask AI.
• 1:00:20
  And I'll say, does this exist? But I won't say what the word is
• 1:00:25
  because I don't want to give it away.
• 1:00:27
  And it'll say, no, these exist in this form.
• 1:00:30
  Like we'll say, OK, I'll say, let me make up something.
• 1:00:35
  We'll call it the the mirrored success story.
• 1:00:38
  I'm just making something up. Does the mirrored success story
• 1:00:41
  an innovative phrase does this, or we'll call it a mirror
• 1:00:44
  hippopotamus. I'm making going wild here,
• 1:00:47
  right? Because you should be in a bit
• 1:00:48
  of things that are sick. So you left.
• 1:00:50
  So if I said that on stage, you see what happened.
• 1:00:52
  This is people aren't willing to do that.
• 1:00:55
  You know, I'm going to make this up.
• 1:00:56
  You know, a mirrored hippopotamus is something that
• 1:00:58
  reflects back all of the big insecurities that are sitting
• 1:01:02
  right in the room next to you, but you don't want to see them.
• 1:01:05
  But they're as big as a hippopotamus, but they're
• 1:01:07
  mirroring it. And so I'll take mirrored
• 1:01:09
  hippopotamus. I just made-up and I'll go to AI
• 1:01:11
  and I'll say, OK, I'm thinking I'm nerdy, I'm crazy, I'm a
• 1:01:16
  little bit wild and I'm a speaker and I'd like to does
• 1:01:21
  mirrored hippopotamus. I won't say mirrored
• 1:01:23
  hippopotamus. Like does there anything I might
• 1:01:25
  say the name for me because I don't want to give it totally
• 1:01:27
  away and I'll say it doesn't exist.
• 1:01:29
  And if it doesn't, then I'll go to Google.
• 1:01:31
  I'll try to search it to see if it's not.
• 1:01:33
  And the key for innovation outside of skepticism and
• 1:01:36
  curiosity is to go and look and create phrases and things that
• 1:01:40
  don't exist. Nobody wants to do that.
• 1:01:43
  Everyone wants to say inspire, activate, elevate.
• 1:01:47
  Everyone wants to right, right. Be you, be you, be community.
• 1:01:53
  Say wild things and use AI and so that AI can mirror back what
• 1:01:59
  your true self is, is what I'm going back to say.
• 1:02:03
  I've heard a lot of perspectives on AI, especially on this
• 1:02:05
  podcast. I've not heard that one before.
• 1:02:07
  That was actually refreshing. Yeah, let it be, because you're
• 1:02:10
  going to be a skeptic. Be like, no, that's not true.
• 1:02:14
  Or here's the thing, it doesn't need to be true for the world.
• 1:02:18
  Don't be so as a speaker or if the content and the thought
• 1:02:22
  leadership you're putting out there in the thought leadership
• 1:02:24
  ecosystem you're creating is there true for you?
• 1:02:27
  So I can ask it right now, should I go stand on 300 stages?
• 1:02:30
  And what are some things I should do?
• 1:02:32
  And it's going to give you 10 things you should do before you
• 1:02:34
  go on stage. And you might do all you're
• 1:02:37
  going to read all 10 and go ask yourself what's aligned with
• 1:02:41
  you, what's true to Alex? And maybe only two of those are,
• 1:02:46
  but so many of us are. Let AI reflect back what your
• 1:02:51
  alignment is, that it can be a partner like a a dance in a way
• 1:02:56
  that's. Right.
• 1:02:57
  So we recently got into a new year.
• 1:03:00
  It's 2026 now. What is what is I'm excited for
• 1:03:03
  this year, It's going to be epic.
• 1:03:05
  What is one thing that right now that you know you need to do for
• 1:03:08
  your you or your business or both, but you're not doing yet
• 1:03:14
  because you're either scared or there's some type of fear
• 1:03:16
  insecurity? Your work, which is being behind
• 1:03:21
  a video camera, short form content.
• 1:03:24
  Yeah, Thank you, Miss Pop. I mean, that's.
• 1:03:28
  A no brainer. Is again that whole I'm OK with
• 1:03:33
  visibility because I'm OK with serving and I'm OK with often,
• 1:03:39
  you know, the true version of myself, sentimental leopard
• 1:03:42
  print, see through heels, you know, bright lipstick.
• 1:03:45
  I'm OK with all of that. It's the being, it's the
• 1:03:49
  production of all of that, the performance of putting up the
• 1:03:53
  lights and not even the technology, but the whole
• 1:03:57
  routine and the production that comes into that.
• 1:04:00
  That feels overwhelming and daunting.
• 1:04:04
  It's like every single poster video feels like I need an hour
• 1:04:10
  nap after it. I post on LinkedIn and as an
• 1:04:13
  introvert, after I post on LinkedIn, I need an hour just to
• 1:04:16
  recover from that exposure and visibility so I'm really working
• 1:04:22
  on putting myself out there. Have you not started yet?
• 1:04:26
  I've done 1 video and the, the curiosity.
• 1:04:31
  So I'm not going to, I would say don't create a goal, just stay
• 1:04:34
  curious. And so I'm going to stay curious
• 1:04:36
  and that's my hope is to stay curious of showing up.
• 1:04:39
  Like you said. However, I am wherever I'm at
• 1:04:42
  and putting on the camera and sharing thought leadership and
• 1:04:45
  meeting people where they're at because I'm serving them and
• 1:04:49
  being from that space and doing the work I share with people on
• 1:04:52
  big stage. It's not about me, you know, but
• 1:04:57
  so you're a master at that. So I'll just keep watching you,
• 1:05:00
  you know, and what would you say to?
• 1:05:02
  Me, I appreciate that, but I I look at myself as like I'm just
• 1:05:06
  getting started. You know, I always feel, and I
• 1:05:08
  think it's important is and you probably feel the same way of
• 1:05:10
  being on stage. It's just like I'm learning
• 1:05:12
  every day. I'm curious every day, I'm
• 1:05:13
  growing every day. What I did yesterday does not
• 1:05:16
  means nothing. I got to come out and do it
• 1:05:18
  today. I'm grateful for my experiences.
• 1:05:20
  I've learned from my experiences.
• 1:05:21
  They've been, they've been really wonderful, but I need to
• 1:05:25
  come out and and find a way to pull more out and give more.
• 1:05:28
  Like evolution? Yeah.
• 1:05:30
  And evolve and get better and, and I enjoy that.
• 1:05:32
  I enjoy working on my craft, whether it's podcasting as a
• 1:05:35
  host, whether it's creating short form videos, whether it's
• 1:05:37
  growing the business, whatever it is, I like that process of,
• 1:05:41
  of trying to get better. It's fun.
• 1:05:43
  So, you know, I think that's that's an important perspective
• 1:05:46
  to have as always to because you can get to a certain point,
• 1:05:49
  maybe you get a certain amount of followers or you have your
• 1:05:51
  content as well, or you get a little bit known or you have
• 1:05:53
  some success or whatever it is. You can be like I'm the.
• 1:05:56
  Fucking that's how you go right? And it's like and.
• 1:05:58
  I think you always just go back to, yeah, I'm just like a guy
• 1:06:01
  who had an idea and decided to start a side hustle and able to
• 1:06:05
  turn into a business, quit his full time job and he's doing
• 1:06:07
  what he loves and he's just, yeah, savor the people, you
• 1:06:10
  know? Yeah, exactly.
• 1:06:12
  So I really appreciate you coming on the show.
• 1:06:14
  This was an awesome conversation.
• 1:06:16
  We could keep talking for hours. I'm sure it's over.
• 1:06:18
  It's over, unfortunately. But, well, maybe we'll have you
• 1:06:20
  back for Round 2. I'd love to do that.
• 1:06:22
  I get to innovate. Unit interview.
• 1:06:23
  Unit. OK, let's do it.
• 1:06:25
  Yeah, we'll do it on camera. People.
• 1:06:27
  One camera's out, it's not legit, no good, but you'll get a
• 1:06:31
  lot of good video content from this.
• 1:06:33
  And then This is why I encourage people to do is have
• 1:06:34
  conversations like this and record it because it doesn't
• 1:06:37
  feel so heavy creating and you get to really show up as
• 1:06:39
  yourself in a lot of ways and create meaningful content for
• 1:06:42
  them, the people. So where can people go to find
• 1:06:44
  you, learn more about what you guys have going on this year,
• 1:06:46
  any of that stuff? Yeah.
• 1:06:47
  So you follow me on LinkedIn at Donna Marie Post and also you
• 1:06:50
  can follow us on LinkedIn at TEDx Arlington Heights.
• 1:06:53
  And then my website for my keynote consulting is
• 1:06:56
  donnamariepost.com. Thank you so much for being on
• 1:06:59
  the show. It's a joy.
• 1:06:59
  Thanks for being to share the time together.
• 1:07:01
  Thanks.