Every journey has to start somewhere. Sometimes, the end is the focus; other times, it is the journey itself that is most valuable. I’m going to take the “long journey ahead” route in which we will not focus so much on the end destination, but rather the small pieces that make the journey worth taking. This direction probably means you’re going to see a lot of randomness. Sometimes I’ll provide some general direction and other times you might wonder what shiny object has caught my eye as I turn away and yell… SQUIRREL!
Sorry about that, where was I?
Ok, really though, the intent of this blog is to provide you with content that has helped me become the person I am today. That means not everything will be targeted at just presentations or demonstrations. There will be times I will talk about technologies that have changed my life. I might go on a rant about how my dogs are my most annoying co-workers due to their inability to know I’m on a phone call and it’s not time to play with the squeaky toys. Overall though, my guess is you’re going to find a few pieces that will make your life better.
What’s on the agenda?
My first “official” helpful article will be about a conference I recently had the opportunity to attend. There were quite a few different topics and speakers. There was a lot of valuable feedback to those speakers and topics that I will provide as I compare the good and bad presentations. I’d like to point out that the topics of the lectures isn’t important to my writing. A good presenter can make any topic appealing. Likewise, a bad presenter can make the most interesting topic sound like nails on a chalkboard. I think this article will help set a precedence of what I expect from myself as a professional and where this blog is headed.
My second topic will be more of a mini-series consisting of about six to seven separate articles. I’m super excited to talk about this one though as it is one of the primary reasons I’m blogging as opposed to just putting it on my LinkedIn profile. It all starts with me, as all good stories should, sitting in on product demonstrations. The vendor was trying to sell a product and I just sort of “tuned out”. Why did that happen? The next demonstration I was glued to the screen and couldn’t look away. What was so different about this one? The reasons for why a demo was engaging or boring started to become more clear when I began performing vendor demonstrations myself. I’m going to share my insight and experiences from both sides of the screen. Strangely though, the title of the series isn’t what you’d expect. While I’m not exactly sure on the exact title, I have a working name for it: “It’s not what you do, it’s what you don’t do.” When I explained my ideas to a few close friends, they all told me that they couldn’t wait to read the series. It may sound silly, but each article in here will relate to things you probably don’t notice in a good demonstration and why those things are so important.
As I mentioned, I’m also planning to have some completely random content from my life. These areas may not focus exactly on the professional demonstration problem, but they are equally important in discovering what traits make up the Mark Christian of today.
- What’s on my desk – what tools am I using and why do they help
- How audiobooks have improved my performance – It’s not just the story
- My daughter has a passion for learning – Did I do that?
- Death by PowerPoint – The obligatory article everyone expects
Conclusion
I know I’ve written this somewhere, but I’ll say it again, “I’m really excited to take this journey with you.” I have an incredible passion for demonstrating. In another life, I might have been an actor or street performer, and that’s okay with me. I’ll do my best to make the world a better place, one demo at a time.