On Stage

A few days ago I spent half a day in front of a video camera. Three cameras to be exact. Behind the cameras were their operators, the script editor, the producer, and a few hangers on. An interviewer sat next to me to guide my stories down the right paths.

When first asked to create a video channel, I wanted nothing to do with it. A little creative pressure and appeals to my ego leavened with explaining how much fun this will be brought me around. The final convincer was telling me that not only would I wind up with new business but perhaps I’d even be able to raise the fees.

Fun, more business, higher fees. How could I resist?

They didn’t tell me about how much work it is. Getting started involved an amazing process of interviewing me…more like psychotherapy actually…and then extracting interesting and amusing stories from these interviews, the multitudes of things I’ve written, and whatever else I remembered to share. All this went into a rough script. Rough because the script was really just a collection of bullet points to remind me of things I wanted to share. Most importantly, everything needed to carry a message with it somehow related to improving leadership, management, and business success.

What intrigues me the most is the personal value I’ve received so far. Being guided through a one on one conversational process of delving deeply into what you believe, why you do things, what you know, what you do, what your actions lead to, and how this all impacts both people and business was enlightening. All was structured in a business context but clearly surfaced things that guide all aspects of all my interactions with others.

Most interesting was how it clarified what I’ve often said, everything I do runs together. Business experience feeds life outside of business and life outside of business fees business experience. To the extent you are able to bring all parts of your life together you wind up expanding your abilities and being better at all you do.

I didn’t realize how the process would help get my thinking in order, remind me of events and ideas I wanted to share, improve my stage presence, and lead to my becoming much better at subtlely and not so subtlely incorporating the points I wanted to make into stories about events I’ve experienced in my extensive travels, with my clients around the world, during my Wharton adventures, and from my random activities outside of business.

The initial video is now going into editing. We are working on formatting the channel and doing the multitude of things necessary for the launch (right after New Year) to be spectacular. I’m talking to clients about their sharing a story, thinking about capturing my future travels, and wondering what I’ve gotten myself into.

I’m feeling a bit re-energized (those of you who know me probably wonder why I would ever need more energy) and am convinced my neural pathways have changed for the better.

All because I was willing to agree to do something that I initially thought was silly and too time consuming. I broke through my mindset and tried something different. And am all the better for it. It reminds me of the wisdom of the saying we’ve all heard many times: try it, you’ll like it.