Remember being a kid a day or two shy of your birthday? Time crawled. Molasses in January.
That’s the time between giving a TEDx talk and the talk actually going live. Only you don’t have a date. And you have too much time to think about how it might bomb.
You spend weeks stuck in this conversation:
Friend: Hey, did that TEDx thing you did come out yet?
You: No. Not, yet.
Friend: When can I watch it?
You: Uh, not sure. I’ll let you know.
And then you think, I want to get the word out but what if no one watches it. Or worse. They watch it and say nice things, but it’s pretty obvious they’re just being polite.
Good news: The talk went live.
And either people are being really polite or it’s striking a chord.
In the first 24 hours, more than 800 people have checked it out (and my mom swears she only accounts for 10 of those). By my estimate, that’s 133 hours of lost productivity!
I had to suffer a few Mr. Rogers’ remarks from some of my closest friends. I’ll spare you those. But here are a few favorite comments:
“I imagine it’s tough for a generation of kids with pre-canned career paths defined by helicopter parents from age 4 to shift into a mindset of growing their learning abilities to be flexible, grab the marker without all the answers, and surf waves – but that’s likely exactly what will be needed in the future to really stand out from the herd.”
“Agility really does matter, being able to flex to challenges in life, work, the human brain is more powerful than anything else. The next time someone asks me what I do I’ll tell them I navigate the squiggly path!”
“Big fan of ‘When everyone else was selling answers, my humanities background helped me ask questions.’”
It would mean the world if you helped me get the word out. Share it via text, email, or word of mouth. Post about it on your social feeds.* Fly one of those planes next to the beach. Just no urinal ads. I don’t know a lot about branding, but I’m pretty sure I don’t want that association.
Thanks in advance. And happy surfing!
Andy
* Here are some boiler plate options to make sharing as easy as possible, but feel free to use your own creative license:
Personal Note:
Hey, I know you’re trying to figure out your career and it can feel pretty daunting. I just watched this TEDx Talk from a friend of mine. It made me think of you. Give it a look. Definitely worth 15 minutes of your time.
Social Media Share:
I talk to a lot of people who worry about their career. They worry AI’s about to derail their plan or maybe they don’t really have a plan. This talk “The One Career Skill AI Can’t Replace” (by Andy Hilger) helped me think differently about the road ahead. Check it out.
I just watched this talk by my friend Andy Hilger. He helped me think differently about this job market and what we need to do to succeed. Check it out.
Seems like the whole world’s trying to figure out what job or careers are safe. Confusing times for sure. My friend Andy Hilger just did a TEDx Talk on how we navigate. Worth 15 minutes!
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