[pullquote]Success isn’t a result of spontaneous combustion. You must set yourself on fire. ~Arnold H. Glasow [/pullquote]
On Tuesday night, I did the safe, geeky equivalent of setting myself on fire: I gave a 5-minute talk, choreographed to 20 PowerPoint slides that automatically advanced every 15 seconds, in front of more than 600 people at Ignite Seattle 12 (video below).
Yeah, it was a just a little warm up on that stage.
I was the fourth speaker out of 14, which was perfect – just enough time to settle into the event, not so much time that I could get sick. And the worst didn’t happen… I didn’t faint, start spouting gibberish, die or throw up on my shoes (as my friend Patty K has written about). In fact, it was Patty K who told me about Ignite in the first place, so if I had done any of those things, at least I would have known who to blame thank.
So with all of those potentially dreadful outcomes at risk, why bother?
Because I have an important message to share. I actually like being on stage. I like a good challenge. But mostly, the reason was obvious after reading a few tweets I saw the next day:
“I may have teared up a tiny bit during your talk. Amazing! Helping introverts with their confidence is such a noble cause :)”
“@coachbethb you changed my life at #is12! I don’t have to *try* to be more extroverted to succeed. Just activate my introvert super powers!”
“Introverts will take over the world!!! YES!!!! #is12″
Yes, indeed… totally worth it.
Of course, the funny thing is, you can take any of the five assets I share and easily flip them around to be liabilities… but that’s for another blog post! This one is about celebrating our strengths and being 110% proud of our introvert personality!!
This 5-minute talk could have been much longer, and soon enough, it will be. What do you think? What introvert super powers have helped you succeed?
(Main Photo Credit: GregoryHeller.com)
Beth…I think you could do five minutes of "introvert stand up comedy" – what great laughs you got. That serial killer bit is awesome.
YES. This deserves to be a much longer talk!
And I agree: introversion really is a super power. The world needs the deep thinkers and the people who can focus…and it's about time that we recognized these traits as strengths. Go Beth!
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Patty, you know you inspired me, right!? 🙂 Thanks for introducing me to Ignite and encouraging me to give it a go. You still take the cake – doing a comedy routine would scare me to death! I think that might be my next Ignite pitch, titled "An Introvert Walks Into a Bar…" (and orders his beer to go! ha!).
Thanks for all YOU do to inspire me and others!!
My recent post Why I Set Myself On Fire
Beth-
I did Ignite PDX and my experience was a lot like yours. All in all totally worth it. Really happy that you stood up for the introverts!
Thanks, Bridget!! Love that you did Ignite PDX – bet that was a fun, supportive crowd. What was your topic? And yes, I guess I was standing up for us, huh? We can get lost in the noise (and that's not to dis extroverts, just to say it's generally noisy out there!) and there's power in our quieter energy.
My recent post Why I Set Myself On Fire
Beth,
I am so proud of you. I could never do that. And I mean, NEVER.
I could feel your nervous energy, but also appreciated the calm "innerness," if that isn't too much of a contradiction. You are such a good role model for the rest of us introverts!
You are stepping up to the plate in amazing ways these days. And we are here, cheering you all the way. (You selected great photos, ones that evoked emotion…those are the best kind.) : )
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Judy, thank you so much. Your description of nervous energy vs. innerness is appreciated :-). I describe it as nervous energy ("I'm excited to be here") as opposed to nervous fear ("Get me the hell outta here!"). This only came after lots of smaller stretch steps, like blogging, podcasting, being interviewed by other people, and hey, even my collaboration on the improv workshops with Leif! As I learn to trust myself, it all gets easier. Same is true for you, my equally brave friend who is also stepping up in amazing ways!
My recent post Why I Set Myself On Fire
WOW Beth You are a Rock Star! I am so thrilled to have learned what I did in this message from you…about you! The way you captivated the crowd was inspiring all on it's own!
i love that you stood boldly in front of the audience and let your best self illuminate the audience. Thank you for sharing this video and for taking the risk of stepping out of the crowd!
Job well done.
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Thanks, Tammy! It was a fun experience – you ought to give it a go (if you haven't already)… I know you've got a lot of speaking experience, so this would be a fun new challenge for you. And you've got so many great messages to share. I'm looking forward to pitching to them again sometime in 2011 or 2012 🙂
My recent post Why I Set Myself On Fire
YOU ROCKED THE CASBAH, BETH! You did us proud 🙂
(Sadly, one of my super-powers is a bit tainted, since I'm both an introvert and ADD. So "bright, shiny objects" regularly catch my attention!)
Can't wait to see the extended version. LOVE your Powerpoint visuals, by the way. Wished I'd seen you in person! Rock it, Girl!
Thanks, Tshombe!! 🙂 And your super powers aren't tainted, really… I share that BSO tendency… it shows up as entrepreneurial ADD, LOL! Notice I said we're "not immune" to the distractions – I was speaking about me, and now I know, you! I've gotten better over the past few years, so my BSO moments are not as frequent. You know what helps? Setting a timer and committing to a specific task for a shorter period of time…. neat trick I picked up from Claudine Motto, one of our fellow Introvert Entrepreneurs and future podcast interviewee.
And stay tuned for that extended version, I hope in the very near future. 😉
My recent post Why I Set Myself On Fire
Beth,
Way to go girl…you stepped out big…yeah you were nervous..who cares. You were funny, charismatic, gracious, and gave great content…..you rock!
Lynn, thanks for your rousing support!! Those are some awesome adjectives… you've set the bar high, and I'll try to keep up 😉
My recent post Why I Set Myself On Fire
Hurray Beth! I love how you are taking your powerful message to the world in increasingly powerful ways. You did a great job, and even though some nervousness showed, I think it gave authenticity and credibility to what you said. It demonstrated that you believe in your message and yourself enough to go outside your comfort zone and talk about it in public! Congratulations on a great job. I am sorry I missed you live.
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Great job, Beth. This was so fun to watch. I have to say this is the first discussion of pro-introvert I have heard and it was helpful to me to learn about being an introvert from the eyes of an introvert.
My mom is an absolute extrovert and my dad is an absolute introvert. I grew up thinking my dad just couldn't be bothered with trivial conversations, or he didn't have a lot to share so he sat rather quiet behind his newspaper much of his waking hours at home. As an adult I now know that he is just taking it all in, and thoroughly enjoys listening and contemplating whatever the topic of discussion is in the room. You've helped me see some other angles of what life looks like as an introvert. And sure enough, my dad was a great leader in his executive management at Boeing, as well as taking on roles in hobby clubs throughout life (usually as the secretary or someplace he could help without speaking a lot) while my mom takes on the roles like President of the same clubs. They make a great team.