What a difference a pandemic can make! We were on a Zoom meeting, Red proud of herself for mastering the "technology" of logging on and Black commenting on how business that could be handled by a basic conference call was now being upgraded to video conferencing. Black then confessed there are days that she doesn't want to "dress to be seen" (forget "dress for success"), so finds an excuse to call in and only use audio.The conversation quickly turned into banter between Red and Black, and the other attendee wondered/hoped the call was being videotaped and asked if we had ever considered doing webinars or online speaking engagements. (Or podcasts!)
Of course, we each had a different perspective:
Red & Black Perspective On Events
- RED: I still can't believe that I co-authored a bestselling book with my sister! But even with my love of the blah-blah-blah, I never dreamed I'd become a public speaker! I still remember how I'd "study" the notes just like a straight-A student, only to find that Black would visit with people beforehand and end up changing the script on me. It didn't matter the audience, whether an auditorium full of middle school students (first thing in the morning, no less) to women's groups to business professionals to senior citizens! I eventually got used to her doing that, but I love the idea of doing online events as she might even stick to the outline.
- BLACK: I never changed the message … I merely fine-tuned the delivery based on conversations I had with attendees. I consider it "audience research" and it makes for a better event. We could use the "chat" option to do the same for online events. (Sorry, Red, you may never get me to stay exactly on script.) I hope that at some point we will be able to return to live events, but am grateful that speaking engagements were not our primary focus (although we have done lots of speaking engagements for a wide range of entities on assorted topics) as we would be scrambling right now.
Looking For Speakers? Looking For Storytellers?
Warning! If you're interested in having us as speakers – either live or online – be aware that getting us to talk won't be a problem, but getting us to stop may pose a challenge.
- We have extensive experience with a wide range of audiences and topics
- All speaking engagements are custom tailored
- One size does not fit all, but everyone enjoys our two very different perspectives ("warm and fuzzy" mom and highly pragmatic businesswoman)
- Oh, and we suggest that you leave ample time for Q&A