Starting an entirely new career is as hard as it sounds. I’ve decided over the last few weeks that I really want to give Professional Speaking a crack. It feels like a natural continuation of many areas in my life that I want to bring together to create something new and wonderful out of. I’ve got so many things I want to do. I want to write a book. I want to talk about it. I want to travel to cool places and hang out with interesting people. But where do I begin?
‘Enthusiastic Amateur’ best describes my current position and is probably one of my favourite stages of any learning process. It's naivety at its best. It captures all the excitement and anticipation of doing something new and exciting without quite understanding how much work it's actually going to take. I love it here. The vibes are high and the real work is yet to begin.
The first thing I have to do if I want to be a Professional Speaker is to decide what I want to speak about. Fair enough. That makes sense but it’s turning out to be a slightly harder exercise than I originally thought. Coincidentally, I have the same problem with writing my book. What’s it going to be about? Who’s the intended audience? I have 6 years worth of material and could write about many things but I have to decide what I want to focus on otherwise it will just end up being a meandering mess.
The first thing I have to do is put my hand up and ask to talk at events. You may remember last year when I unsuccessfully self-nominated myself for The Design Conference in Brisbane - well, it's that time of year again and I’m going in for round two. As part of the application you have to give a synopsis for your talk and this is the first thing that came to my head:
If you believe that everything is either good news or a good story then you will live the most extraordinary life.
Hey, TDC team, it’s me, Jess - self nominating for the second year in a row because if we let the ‘no’s’ slow us down, nothing awesome would ever happen.
That's why I need to be on stage - as evidence that you have to keep putting your hand up. You have to keep believing in yourself because no one else is going to put the reps in for you.
Sharing my stories of ‘creativity in the face of catastrophe’ matters to the audience because they’re scared. They’re scared to put their full selves out into the world because what if it fucks up. What if they fail? What if they damage their reputation, their dignity or their piggy bank?
After 40 minutes with me, the audience will be strutting out of the auditorium feeling empowered. I’ll prove to them that when you truly understand that everything is either good news or a good story, there are no barriers to living the most extraordinary life.
It's not rocket science. Just simple human skills. The power of a good introduction. Walking into a room like you should be there. Letting curiosity run its course and actively hunting for opportunities. I share how becoming a good communicator completely changed the trajectory of my life in ways I could never have imagined.
It's a shitty first draft but it's something.
Creativity in the face of catastrophe really is an excellent statement about my life. I’m an expert harvester of silver linings. I’m a speaker who talks about creating opportunities from almost anything. My relentless optimism is as powerful as it is annoying and in today's current climate, we need people like me to remind everyone that everything is going to be ok - better than ok even. We’re the luckiest people that have ever lived on earth. Ever.
I’m going to continue to put my hand up because it’s either going to work or it's going to be a great story about how it didn’t. And you know what? As someone who has shared hundreds of stories, the best ones are the ones when it didn’t work. That’s where the richest lessons reside. Their in the fuck ups and embarrassing moments. They’re catalysts for all sorts of weird and wonderful outcomes if you’re curious enough to see where they go.
