Speaker Academy

June 22, 2015 By e-Patient Dave 1 Comment

Friday: It’s #RebelJam15! Much to learn – and FREE! (Speaker Academy #24)

This is an important, free opportunity for all those who want to change the world to learn from people who have experience.

This is the latest in the Speaker Academy series, which started here.

I first encountered the “corporate rebel” movement in Saskatchewan two years ago. It was an unexpected, unscheduled pre-conference by Helen Bevan of the UK’s National Health Service – a dry run of a half day workshop she presented a week later in London. Her thoughts were so fresh, relevant, and potent that I almost fell off my chair. I mean, look what I tweeted, mid-session:
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May 17, 2015 By e-Patient Dave 1 Comment

Speaker Academy #23: First, get into their world (presentation at CGT)

This is the latest in the Speaker Academy series, which started here. The series is addressed to patients and advocates who basically know how to speak on a subject but want to make a business out of it. I’ll try to be clear to all readers, but parts may assume you’ve read earlier entries.

I co-presented Saturday at the 15th annual Conference for Global Transformation (CGT), a talk that was very different from any other I’ve done, because the context wasn’t healthcare per se – the context this time was, well, global transformation. This year’s theme is “Listening for Workability.” I haven’t discussed it much, but this company’s principles form the foundation of my approach to communication, which is a big part of this series.

This was a very short talk, because after my co-presenter (neurologist Dr. Rochelle Frank) spoke from her perspective, we got into discussion with the whole group, to see what they see as newly possible. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many hands go up – because that’s what this event is about: new possibilities.

(I’ve padded out the slides here, for more clarity as a standalone slide deck. Dr. Frank and I were greatly assisted in planning this session by another clinician, nurse practitioner Lorin Bacon.)

Nerve alert: this advice may not be easy to hear, especially for people who’ve been harmed or have suffered great loss, as many of our patient voice friends have been. But I implore you to review #6 in this series: What could be said that would make any difference? There isn’t much point in saying anything else, is there?

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May 3, 2015 By e-Patient Dave 1 Comment

Speaker Academy #22: Diary of an invited speaker :)

Update: I’ve edited the post’s headline because the original came across completely wrong. If you saw that one and were put off, rest assured – so was I when I saw it later!

The occasional Speaker Academy series, which started here, provides a bit of free advice (worth every penny) for patient voices who know how to give a good talk and want to make a business out of it. Today’s informative edition is a post by Edinburgh professor Geoffrey Pullam on the Chronicle of Higher Education‘s Lingua Franca blog: Diary of a Visiting Speaker.

He chronicles the 37 hour trip he took recently to deliver a two hour speech with Q&A, “over and above several days of lecture preparation. Don’t get me wrong, I like visiting new places and giving invited lectures, and this one was eminently worth doing. But being a visiting speaker is hard work.”

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January 6, 2015 By e-Patient Dave 4 Comments

Speaker Academy #21: Interview at Mayo with @Chimoose on the value of patient voices

Academy cadets, I hope this entry will be useful in one of our key tasks: conveying to potential clients that there’s genuine business value in hearing a capable speaker present the patient’s perspective.

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November 19, 2014 By e-Patient Dave 2 Comments

Speaker Academy #19 (getting paid), cont’d

Update Nov. 20: overnight I received a courteous and complete reply. The funds have now been sent, and my bank seems to have been part of the problem, since a month ago. It would have been useful to know that – without that information there was no way for me to help. I’ll update again as the situation proceeds.
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In #16 (January) I said “For a small business, cash is king.” Then in June, #19 was titled: “What’s up with expense checks??” To a small business (like a patient starting a speaking business), this is no small issue, and any event that wants to say it’s patient-centered needs to see things from the patient’s point of view. In #19, citing a then-current overdue item, I said:

I’ve used my own methods (very specific communication) for months now, and it’s not working. So, starting tomorrow, I’ll do the blogging that I said (in #16) I’ve never had to do: I’m going to paste in the entire email thread from the current worst offender, with no names attached. And if the money hasn’t arrived by Friday, the names get added. (Their next scheduled check run is Thursday, and I’m sure they know how to use Fedex.)

All those past due items cleared up within a month, through diligent management of each item (by my assistant Kristin and me). That takes more time, costing my business extra resources – exactly as described in #16: they keep the money, I lose interest, and I also expend more to get what they owe me. Most definitely a case of one party not keeping their side of the deal.

But today I received one of the worst examples ever. [Read more…]

October 21, 2014 By e-Patient Dave 2 Comments

Speaker Academy #20: Message lessons from a video boot camp

I’m at the 6th annual Mayo Ragan Social Media Summit, in a session called Video Boot Camp. It’s conducted by former PBS producer Drew Keller, and his thinking about how to think out a video exactly matches my advice in this series on how to think out your speech.

Examples:
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