Bob London walked out of a webinar where the presenter spent the whole time on personal stories and family photos instead of delivering promised tips. He's asking speakers to let audiences call them out in the chat when they waste time on irrelevant backstory.
Chapters
So the other day at 2 o'clock, I logged on to a webinar to hear an expert and thought leader talk about his expertise and share some tools and tips on a certain topic. At 2:15, the expert was still giving his backstory, including showing a picture of his beautiful wife and children—his words. At about 2:25, talked about his unfortunate experiences with abuse as a child, which was horrible. And at 2:30, I opened the little chat window in the browser and I typed in, "This is great, but when are we going to get to the actual tips and tricks and tools?" The expert's assistant said, "Absolutely, we're going to get right to it." 5 minutes later, I still hadn't heard anything, not only actionable, but just actually anything on the topic that was promised in the description. I hung up. I logged off. The point is, all of us, including me, when you're giving talks, when you're sharing knowledge and insights, you can tell your backstory. That's great, especially if it's compelling. But you have to balance that with quickly getting into the flow of what you want I want to share with people that's going to make their lives or jobs better and easier. I will make this pledge: if you see me on a webinar or giving a talk and I'm going on and on about my background or something that's not leading us to a point quickly of something that's useful to you, I want you to call me on it. I want you to raise your hand. I want you to open the chat box and say, "Hey London, I thought we had a deal that you were going to give me some insights quickly and not get into the story about your beautiful wife and children," which I have also. That's all for now.
