The (not so) subtle art of reinvention


Or the Ambivert’s Guide to Public Speaking

reinvention

riːɪnˈvɛnʃ(ə)n/

noun

the action or process through which something changes so much that it appears to be new.

Seen it all. Done it all. Been there. Done that. 43 years old. 16 years in Online Copywriting. 8 years blogging. Wrote a book on Online Copywriting. Wrote a thousand blogposts. Bored shitless.

Meh.

So… Now what?

The answer came during a train ride one rainy Tuesday…

As I entered the train on that dreary morning I saw a familiar face in the crowd. One of my colleagues from the world of online communication and social media. I greeted him and we started a pleasant conversation during the 40 minute commute to work.

Various topics passed. Online. Life. Work-life balance. Social. He had written a new book on Artifical Intelligence. My own book had appeared the year before. We talked about my challenge: Been there, done that. Now what?

And with one word he changed my outlook: reinvention.

The last year before he released his new book had been one of reinvention. His focus of being Mr Social Media was starting to wear out. So he had to find a new purpose. A new goal. Or become obsolete.

Starting the journey

I took his words to heart and started on my own journey of reinvention.

I was going to have to find something to define The New Me by. The Online Copywriting thing was starting to wear out. Keeping up to speed with the online landscape was no longer a thrill — as it had been in the early days of Social Media. I did not look forward to ‘accept it as it is and work…’ Or becoming obsolete. I would reinvent ME.

The first step — of course — was the hardest. Acknowledging I needed something new in my life to keep me from boredom. It is in my nature I guess. questioning where I am going. Overthinking. Overanalyzing. Never satisfied.

What am I good at?

What do I like to do?

What new skills could I add to my current set?

After carefull consideration and a lot of soul searching I decided not to sell all my stuff and travel the world in a van. Besides my wife did not like the idea all that much…

Focus on improvement

The first decision I made was where to focus my energy. I decided to hone my skills. One part of my skill set would get an overhaul.

Or to put it more honestly… I would finally attack some of the points in my personality in which I had been lacking.

To put it even more honestly. I would attack my ambivert nature. Through becoming great at public speaking. A nightmare for my introverted side. A joy for my extraverted side.

Learning and perfecting

I believe you can learn any skill. And like playing the piano for 10.000 hours or learning to dance the tango, I believe public speaking is a skill I can learn and perfect.

It is not that I have stage freight. As said before. Part of me is introverted. Part of me wants to get on that stage and speak with people. I have had some public speaking gigs in the past. I have given webinars. I am not a frightened bunny in the headlights.

Some speaking gigs went great and were a dream.

Some went awful and gave me a chance to learn.

But. I had never REALLY taken the time to focus on my skills as a public speaker. I was busy blogging and keeping up to date with all online developments.

This journey is not about keeping up with the latest trends.

This journey is personal. It is about becoming better.

The mission is clear: become a better public speaker.

How to get there?

Now… how to get there? I stole this little trick from GaryVee. I reverse engineered my goal…

More about this step in my next blogpost.