Me, a Conference Speaker? Yes, You!

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I have been in your shoes: it is very intimidating to get in front of strangers and speak about your passion: technical topics where others are stronger; opinions that are the anthesis of commonly-held beliefs; real-life solutions which you don’t believe are that unique. Or perhaps the most scary: people get bored and walk out on you.

Yet, how many conference sessions have you attended or watched webinars where you thought I knew this, I know more than the speaker, or even I totally disagree, and here’s why. The speakers you enjoy listening to — the David Belvins, Holly Cummings, Trisha Gee, Josh Long, Reza Rahman, Venkat Subramaniam of the world, and many others — started simply: likely pushed, goaded, and mentored into speaking. Practice and experience — and likely multiple failures — help novice speakers into rock stars.

Performance Reviews Are A Waste of Time

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At least weekly, I am asked for feedback or thoughts on a recent commercial interaction, most obviously for one-time transactions with a company rendering services; e.g., lawn service, gutter cleaning, teeth cleaning, financial, etc. Year over year, these requests increase (prefaced with, "And anything other than 5's is considered a failure...") and you start questioning the value-add. Tipping is a form of review. Returning or repeating customers are definitely a review of the services provided. Is there any actual value?  But I digress. . .

Image Source: "White Collar, c. 1940 - Linocuts by Giacomo G. Patri" by Thomas Shahan 3 is licensed under CC BY 2.0