I already told you Tuesday was a busy day of presentations.
Well, in making the tech connection to start the first one, my friend’s laptop’s USB ports could not load my PowerPoint from my thumbdrive. No internet works there either, so my loading the slide deck the previous day to my Dropbox as a failsafe was a great idea theoretically, but not realistically. Alas, my smartphone hot spot would not even warm up. So no visuals. I offered to improvise just orally but we agreed to push me to another meeting, especially since the turnout was so light, so next meeting means emailing him to download my slides to his laptop the day before instead, and more colleagues around the table to help them understand the nuances of the recent LinkedIn user interface update.
Ah, technology expectations and the life of a speaker: 99.9% of the sessions go without a hitch. 0.1% not so much. You roll with it.
The second presentation, to a group of baby boomers who are underemployed: always a favorite session for me at a nonprofit where I have taught for many years, great smartboard to present from, especially when demo-ing LinkedIn. This recurring series for the nonprofit keeps me grounded and appreciative of my current professional roles.
Finally the third session of the day, well that was a home run the group leaders tell me. Tech worked great, large turnout of intelligent accomplished women who want to show themselves and their brand better on LinkedIn and in turn help their clients, other entrepreneurial women. Heads nodding in agreement (a speaker’s best cue that he or she is making a difference). Q & A was deep and some probing ideas hatched. “Appreciative” is the guide word: me to them to help their cause, them to me. (What is curious is that they do not know how they came across me as a speaker and I expect there is someone to thank. Probably came through a common LinkedIn connection…)
Then a coffee meeting with a colleague, who reached out to me via a LinkedIn message saying we had gone too long without seeing each other, and so we did. As expected, strong business possibilities arose from our conversation, so LinkedIn strikes again.
You must be in the game and running with the ball to make a difference. And showing up with or without tech backstops is not all. Yesterday my colleague reminded me of a time I spoke at his group the last time, and a fire alarm went off on the floor. Hard stop!
Being flexible, persuasive and enlightening is the best strategy. Urging others to implement what they learned is the expected tactic.
From my third session that day, 2 gratifying LinkedIn messages came across:
Looking forward to receiving your deck, and updating my profile! You’ve inspired me to really USE LinkedIn! Thanks.
It was terrific and quite motivating. I will hopefully be making some impactful changes to my (very drab and boring) LinkedIn profile shortly. Thank you for sharing your insights with us.
You never know what to expect before, during and after you speak publicly.
I do know I am always grateful for the opportunity. And I expect to be that way for a long time.
