Sunday, September 25, 2022

Flip a coin: heads you go, tails you go.

If you are reading on a smartphone, use landscape / hold phone sideways. 

I think it was Woody Allen who said "80 percent of success is showing up." And, NYDLA.org leadership and talent Tom Peters blogged on it, way back in 2008. 

Two days ago, I attended an event in Newburg, NY. The drive door to door, Newburg is almost "exactly" 60 miles north of BOONTON USA. These days when driving, I calculate things not in miles, but how many chapters of an Audible book will it take to reach the destination. FYI, BOONTON USA to Newburg, NY is exactly three chapters of Dare to Lead on Audible.

FYI, I love, LoVe, LOVE Audible books. Sometimes I think that I take road trips just to have a good excuse to listen to a book. And business books on Audible is like attending a rolling University. Ah, but I digress. 

By the time Friday afternoon rolled around, I was...... well I was bushed. It was a long day - heck - it was a long week. I promised to promote the event - that was easy. NYDLA.org is very active in Hudson Valley, so promoting an event in Newburg is not a hard lift. Ah, but at some point during the week, I said that I would attend. Come Friday I heard my inner voice saying "Well Tom, did you actually PROMISE to attend? Or did you say you would TRY to attend? THINK!" I was looking for a good excuse to not go. I dare not ask my wife what she is cooking for dinner.......man, she can COOK!

I think that the biggest lesson (definitely in the top five) of my career is this: show up. Go. If you are tired, go. If you are busy, go. If you find yourself looking for excuses to not go - ignore that inner voice and show up. Always, always, always figure out a way to go. 

On Friday evening, I met David Lionheart. He was the artist capturing the event, capturing the presentation - in art. Being there (in the room) watching "art" come to life, right there in front of me, was pretty amazing. Over the next 90 minutes, I watched a blank canvas come alive. And then, I realized that the evening was captured forever, in the painting. Music, Art, Poetry, Dance. These were things that prior to Friday evening, would have never made their way into one of my Sunday blogs.

You can visit David's online gallery HERE.
You can watch David's TED talk HERE
You can check out David's Documentary: PTSD The Walking Wounded HERE 

The event started at 6:00 PM and ended at 7:30 PM. And I was going to hustle home, hopefully to walk the dog by 8:45 PM. At the end, David gifted EVERYONE with a free sample of his work. That made me pause. That made me stop, and thank him personally, and "fist bump" since his hands were covered in fresh paint. 

The title: "You just had to be there"

As I write this blog post, I think about Friday evening, sitting in a room that held less than 50 people, live. And how the technology of today could enable 50,000 to attend LIVE (BlueJeans, Zoom, Meta, etc.) and 5M+ could watch the archives or Livestream the event. I think about how a professional Steadicam operator like HelgaStock.com could transform that intimate event into a transmedia, multimedia omni-media experience. 

I met Phoebeleona.com because she wrote a book, and we did a NYDLAcast.com interview. I met David because I (physically) attended Phoebe's event in Newburg, NY. And now, I shall be interviewing David Lionheart via BlueJeans Studio, which will reach (literally) millions of people in HDTV video, and Dolby audio. Oh, and Zoom Events works pretty good, too.

I told David that I felt that his body of work, his story, his.....art...... would benefit our global community. I asked him for an interview, and he said yes. I am all about the cloud, and technology, and living, learning, working, playing, teaching, training, coaching, mentoring in the clouds. But for certain, everything now shall be hybrid. LIVE LIVE and then LIVE (virtually). 

Transmedia, multimedia, omni-media events are indeed the future of work, the future of education. 

But never underestimate the power - and the magic - of a good 'ol fashioned fist bump. It's hard to do a fist bump, unless you actually show up. 










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