In these “unprecedented times.”
With this “new normal.”
As we “pivot our business.”
UGH! By now, we are all sick to death of hearing these phrases. I’m as tired of them as the 3 pairs of yoga pants I spent 2 months in during “shelter in place.” Yet, like my tired old yoga pants, these phrases are part of my every day life.
Because they are true.
I am a Funny Motivational Speaker who travels er, I mean travelled the U.S. and Canada helping people make friends with their stress, attain peak performance in all areas of their lives and deal with the many changes we all face in our personal and professional lives. Watching all of my speaking engagements circle the drain like this morning’s leftover oatmeal was a life-altering experience to say the very least. I commiserated with my speaker buddies and it quickly became clear that—for the foreseeable future—events would be virtual. Organizations must still have meetings so I embraced the challenge to adapt. I came to realize that my message remains true and my content is the same, it just had to be delivered in a different format. I talked with new and potential clients and was pleased to learn that there would still be a need for what I do. With a high content virtual conference, there was even MORE of a need to wrap things up with some fun and humor as well as to arm people with valuable coping tools.
So, now I am a Funny Virtual Keynote Speaker. I think that in picking speakers for a virtual event, the organization must determine three things:
- What value does the speaker bring to the event?
- Can the speaker relate it to your group in a meaningful way?
- Can the speaker present in a virtual platform in a way that translates their message from the platform to the small screen and still keep people’s attention?
It has been an immense challenge to make the switch from Funny Motivational Speaker for LIVE audiences to Funny Virtual Speaker online. But, in these unprecedented times, my new normal was to pivot my business.
UGH! Did I really just say that??