Raise Your Hand If You Have Never Heard Me
I was waiting for the staff at the Higheredpod.com event to introduce me, so I grabbed my camera and said, “If you’ve never heard my show, or ever heard me speak (in other words you were like, “Who???) I asked them to not be shy and raise their hand.
This is how you grow your audience. You find people who should be listening to your show - but aren’t. I then had ONE chance to make a good first impression.
Feedback
I got some good feedback, and one note that made me cringe.
The praise was that it was educational, filled with good info, and entertaining.
The note? I had met some of the attendees the night before at a meetup and added three slides to the presentation that fit this situation. This happened late at night, and you guessed it - had a typo (and lucky me I copied one slide and edited so they got to see the typo twice - ugh…). As much as I hate to hear of my mistakes, I DEEPLY appreciate it when someone shows me a way I can improve (Thanks Christopher!).
Now I could beat myself up, or I can look at this as a learning lesson. The lesson? Don’t add slides at midnight when you’re 10 minutes from going to sleep. Tuck the knowledge away for another day and realize you did the best you could.
One of the reasons I chose to attend is I didn’t recognize ANY of the speakers, and aside saw it as a great opportunity to grow my network (and it was).
Get in front of people who should be listening to your show (in any format on or offline) but aren’t. Make friends with them, and tell them about your show.
