Embrace the Freakness

One of the great things about putting on spa Event, is searching for new (at least to us) speakers to present information. When it comes to new speakers in photography it’s kind of tough because if someone is “out there” most everyone has heard or heard of them.

When it comes to speakers from outside the photography world, the door is wide open. Unless they are an absolute huge name, most no one has heard of them, and if they are a huge name, spa probably can’t afford to bring them in.

With all of that said, every year an agency we work with to get ideas on good speakers hosts a day long “speaker showcase.” They bring in 15-20 speakers who each take 20 minutes to show you how great they are and why you should hire them for your event. All types of companies/organizations show up to hear these people – a large group from Hallmark sat behind me, and I ate lunch with a guy from a national auctioneering organization.

As you can imagine a lot of the speakers are the typical “motivational speaker” who make you gag, so most of the people I heard you will never have a chance to hear – through spa at least. But most all of them had some sort of nugget that I thought would be worth sharing with you guys, so over the next few days/weeks, I’ll pull a few things out so you can learn with me.

#1 – from Frank Keck
his mini speech was entitled “Embrace Your Freakness” (again this is a typical motivational speaker)

He had three points that I thought were pretty interesting:

1. He randomly met Patch Adams at the airport while waiting for his plane to arrive, but he didn’t know it was Patch Adams. Thought the guy was a little kooky, had a long conversation with him, and found out at the end – trigger for the title of his talk.
2. You can quickly and easily find out if someone is a visual, auditory or kinetic learner. Ask them a question, and watch where they look. If they:Look up or stare = visual person, Look left or right = auditory person, Look down = kinetic person
3. When communicating with someone who learns and/or sees the big picture (through details or big picture) differently than you, you need to communicate to them in the way that THEY see the world. Too many times we try to communicate in ways that WE learn and process information – that is where communication breaks down.

That is just a taste…tons more notes to share – much of it way more interesting.