Slide deck from Army-Navy Club
Welcome new subscribers!
Spoke last night to a great crowd at the Army-Navy Club.
According to the primary — and longtime — organizer and board member at the club, it was the best book talk they’ve ever hosted (very nice compliment and I have witnesses).
They also said I got the rudest rant ever from a questioner, who almost got tossed in the process.
Me?
I only heard two “bests,” meaning, they wanted a show and I gave them a show.
I was in unusually prime mode, given the lateness of the talk (7pm). Like Uncle Joe, I increasingly try to avoid events after 8pm!
Part of that was lotsa coffee and two Monsters across my caffeine-fueled day of travel to DC after two bad nights of sleep.
But a lot of it was due to a highly stimulating couple of hours I spent at Throughline HQ in Adams Morgan with John Johnson, my partner in making MOOCs (Massive Open Online Course) happen at U Maryland (where I am officially a Lecturer now — Go Terps! says this former Marylander).
John sherpa’d me through creating the ANM-centric opening course, now up on edX and soon on Coursera, and we’re working #2 to give us certificate standing on the latter and that much closer to a three-course certificate on the former.
I am about 150 slides in, and it feels like I’ve written another book, but it’s been a lot of creative fun — particularly the sessions I have with John to critique and shape the material. It is one of the easiest and most fruitful collaborative relationships I’ve ever had with anybody across my decades of work, and I can’t wait to finish this second MOOC (I’m doing weeks 1-3 and John is completing it with weeks 4-5). John has an amazing mind and anybody wanting to do their own MOOC should have a convo with John before attempting, because HE IS THE PERSON!
Thus, by the time I got up on stage at the Army-Navy Club, I was in peak synthesizing mode, which is why I enjoyed the talk so much and didn’t sweat the singular, highly negative feedback (which only adds spice and, frankly, beats a lack of pushback, because pushback often results in a great new slide! [Not this time, however.])
I get this sort of feedback somewhat regularly, and it goes along the line of: I can’t believe they [organization] brought in a speaker like you when you so clearly and deeply HATE …
America (it is my true religion; hell, I wrapped my book in the flag!)
Americans (I believe I qualify there, too)
US Government (where I worked happily for a decade, so another check/hell no!)
US Military (that one does smart at times, after years in DoD and the Pentagon following 9/11)
Non-White peoples (three of my kids allows me to skip the defense of some of my best friends are …)
White people (check!)
Catholics (check!)
Christians (check!)
Western civilization (check, if only for learning French, German, Romanian, and Russian [the good parts] and getting a BA in literature)
Older males (at 62 now, check!)
Boomers (you got me there, so check!)
The middle class (been there)
Poor people (done that, to include losing a home in 2010)
Rich people (had my moments, mostly on speaking gigs to the Uber-wealthy), and …
Anyone from Chicago (that’s … just a Packers thing).
Last night our Man hit on Whites, the middle class, and … yes, the Packers, so a threefer.
What I always find fascinating about that urge to declare me this preeminent HATER is that all the complimentary things I say about each of those categories gets lost amidst this generalized anger that is … This guy is making me feel very uncomfortable about myself.
They say feedback is always more about the person giving it than the one receiving it, as in, This is how you make ME feel, and I get that.
But this guy tried to escalate-dominate me by going for the kill shot: I’m not talking about race! I’m talking about civilization! (meaning, White European civilization, mais oui!).
Not much you can do with that lack of self-awareness but wish them well.
In the immediate moment, you seek to defuse, and then, following a later question, you circle back for a dagger or two and satisfy yourself with that. So, lead with Spock and go full Kirk later on, hoping for an exploding head when the target DOES NOT COMPUTE! DOES NOT COMPUTE!
Anyway, I had a blast, and if you want to be a good speaker, that’s ALL you need to focus on.
Frankly, I NEVER want to hear about “the audience” beforehand from organizers, particularly subjects that I should carefully avoid (because then I just feel COMPELLED to go after those subjects with vehemence).
The best presentation is the one you, the speaker, are most happy giving. No matter the content or the crowd, nothing overcomes a speaker who hates giving that speech, or is even just uncomfortable doing so.
So, in the end, the audience is almost completely irrelevant to the presentation — except in the specific area of comedy, where you HAVE to know and respect the room’s vibe (or the right mistake can kill a career, especially if caught on video).
Other than that, have at it and avoid any swears (sometimes hard).
As always, I make the slides available to new subscribers after a talk, so here they are in both image and PDF forms.
Ah yes, the white belt and white shoe crowd.
Not sure which I like better, the last bullet on 'FIB's' or the Kirk-Powers catch (obviously correct). Only thing that would be better is if your angry man in the audience was a certain one of the old Newport RI crew who I know likes to crash every event at the A-N Club.......