How To Wander With Purpose

Here is a slightly modified version of the slides from my session yesterday in Denver at Planning-ness 2010. For those that attended, thank you. If it ended up being something other than what you were expecting, feel free to email or call me (email address and phone number are on the top, right side of this page) with what you were looking for and I'll do my best to provide thoughts back to you.

For those reading this that weren't in the room, the talk (mostly) covered the path my life has taken since leaving my job a year ago and how one could use what I've learned to guide them should they ever look to do something similar. Along the way, I ended up talking about how some of that relates to a new direction for brands and such.

A lot of it was inspired by Donald Miller's book, A Million Miles in a Thousand Years and from my attending his Storyline conference in Portland last week.

Leading up to the presentation, I thought I'd have no issues talking about this on a personal level as it's something I'm very comfortable with in one-on-one conversations with people or even with a few people at a table. The dynamic of having to present it to a room changed that though. As I started talking more and more, I felt like I was up there without any clothes on and it got a bit uncomfortable. Because of that, I didn't cover some of the things I thought I would and may have rushed through some points.

I think part of the problem was also that I created slides for the talk. Initially I wasn't going to have slides. I was just going to sit on a stool and share openly as I do when I'm talking with a friend. It was going to be as promised - mostly unplanned. As I sat through the day of great sessions on Thursday though, I felt like I had to have something for people to look at instead of just listen to me talk about it. What this ended up doing was having me talk based on the slides rather than just sharing the story I do conversationally.

Anyway...

If anyone wants to chat more about any of this after clicking through the slides, let me know.

Paul

Comments

[Lizazzolino]

Thanks for sharing this, Paul. I regret not being in the room, but I'm glad we had the chance to chat afterwards. You mentioned not getting as deeply as you may have liked into the personal stuff. Something Kate mentioned during her Planning-ness session on creating better stories is never to add in too many details. This allows the audience to pepper in their life experiences and perceptions, which in essence makes them more a part of the story. After reviewing just the slides, the main points you must have called out, I'm very moved and inspired. I'm certainly going to start now making better stories out of my own life. Let's stay in touch so that I can find out how your story progresses. Good luck!

[avin]

For what it's worth Paul, I thought it took a lot of guts to share everything you did and i think most in the room felt inspired by the journey you've been on. a lot of the questions you've been asking of yourself, i realized i need to start thinking about- and finding answers to- myself.

so i guess what i'm saying is, your talk definitely had an effect on me, and i don't think i was the only one in the room. thanks again for sharing.

[Tom]

Your best post (and slideshare) in quite some time. Love it.

[Gavin Heaton]

Increasingly, if I can get away with it, I don't use slides. They can be such a distraction - and actually create a barrier between me and the audience.

But the thing about your slides ... was that I wanted to hear you, see you. As a standalone deck I flicked through and suddenly, and unexpectedly landed at the end. You left me wanting more. But I guess, that's the art of the storyteller ;)

[Todd M Walker]

I could have sworn you were going to say this was inspired by the Alec Soth exhibition at the Walker Art Center. His method is exactly as you state, wandering with purpose. If you haven't, you should check it out.

http://calendar.walkerart.org/canopy.wac?id=4673&hp=link&poster=Exhibitions

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great. definetely i'm going to read your other posts...thank you.