Monkey Butler Ninja

Confessions of a Public Speaker by Scott Berkun

If you give important presentations more than once a year this book is for you. Personally I am comfortable in front of a crowd and was not looking for a ‘how to’ book that would calm me down. Confessions certainly will provide some nice tips, but I was looking for a book that was more of a conversation with a professional speaker.

That is the tone of this book, a conversation with a pro. But don’t let the word ‘pro’ intermediate you, the author is humble and funny.

Warning: Reading this book will make you analyze the next 100 speakers you hear! While doing this you should improve your own skill sets but it will make those speeches tuff to sit through!

Form factor: This is the first time I used O’Reilly’s ebook download feature and read the entire book on my Sprint EVO. The experience was excellent. So kudos to O’Reilly as well.

I give this a 5 out of 5… and honestly, a few people agree with me Check out Amazon’s 100+ reviews!!

FROM (a friend)

“At what point does a burnt-out software developer like me take a dive into being a creative professional doing what he really loves? What avenues are there? Does it all come down to a slick portfolio or what? I’d like to think my technical/engineering background would give make me a unique asset, but who knows.”

My reply:

So much of what I enjoy about starting and running KCVideoCore is being able to give away the software! It is a game changer for so many people.

Your question is a very good one… and actually very relevant to my life.

For the past few years I have had the same four jobs claimed (DESE:full time, Channel 2:part-time, Coaching:summer/fall, and Freelance:full time) Add in KCVideoCore, Helping with a movie, trying to further my self-taught education and oh yeah… I am married!

So, when do I get to play? Well the simple answer is: I travel, that’s how I play.

The complex answer is: I incorporate what “i really love” into as much of the work that I do as possible. I really do love all four of my jobs. Obviously as a freelancer I can pick and chose the gigs I want to take. How much will they stretch my creative legs? How much can I push the envelope!?

Here is another example. For coaching, I was trying to advance some Flash skills… I ended up designing some football plays in Flash… to the point where I attached the depth chart to the x’s and o’s. Mouse over the position and the kid’s name/pict pops up. Talk about a heck of a way to learn 40+ kid’s names!

On the rare occasion that I get to combine FUN + NO CLIENT + FUN + MY SKILL SETS it is some of the most exciting/rewarding experiences. The short film Tell-Tale Heart and my little ‘The Jedi’s Sphere’ that I did with my nieces were very exciting.

Underlying message here is do what you love. If you are at the early stages or perhaps have only entry level skills then get another job to pay the bills, but ALWAYS focus on getting BETTER at what you love.

Premeire Pro in CS5 using Mercury from Landmine Media on Vimeo.