Candid Conversations: Ret. General Donald Bolduc

With Veteran's Day celebrations through the weekend, it was important to us to highlight a very special veteran in our lives, Retired Brigadier General Donald Bolduc. With 32 years of activity duty service and an impressive career spanning from private to one star general at the time of retirement, General Bolduc knows the true meaning of service and sacrifice for our country. He is the epitome of a leader, with many lessons from his time in service to share with audiences around the world. Thank you, Don (and your family), for your years of service to our country!

Take a moment to learn more about Don in our Candid Conversations series:

OA: What are you Outspoken about?

DB:  I am Outspoken about combat the stigmas around post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). As one of the few military officers, and, at the time, the only active duty general officer on record, to openly discuss his own struggles with PTS, I have used my leadership position to change the conversation to one of understanding and acceptance through my own experiences. I am also outspoken about the importance of moral courage and how this is a leadership attribute that is in short supply among our civilian and military senior leaders.  I am known to always put my country first, and now I look to continue my  service off the battlefield sharing my leadership mantra of “Mission, People, Family” and my personal experiences with mental health to educate others.

OA: How has your recent work transformed the focus of your content when delivering a speech?

DB:  My recent work continues to inform every speech. By listening, I learn, and this allows for content improvement. It is also an opportunity to learn how others deliver messages and this improves my approach to speaking.

OA: How do speaking events help your growth?

DB: Every speaking event is an opportunity to learn. It is also an opportunity to improve how you connect to people.     

OA: What would you like to see happen more often at events to engage with the audience?

DB: More audience participation.     

OA: What has been one of the most fulfilling audience experiences at a speaking event and why?

DB: The audience that share the same passion for the subject are the best and most fulfilling experiences I have had as a speaker. It is hard to speak at events that the audience were scheduled or required to be there.  

OA: How can people become more involved with your work?

DB: They could ask me to speak at their event. Leadership and veterans issues are a hugely important topics in our society. People can get involved by volunteering, supporting, and contributing to private veterans organizations would be very helpful. Leadership is probably the most over-discussed and misunderstood topic. We must teach children about leadership and the importance of moral courage, compassion, and empathy.       

OA: If you could hear someone give a speech alive or dead, who would it be and why?

DB: Abraham Lincoln. His speeches were so concise and delivered such a powerful message. I also like the stories he tells as analogies to make his point or capture the attention of the person or person(s) he was speaking with. I would also like to see his delivery and presentation. 

Candid Conversations: Amanda Slavin

With a degree in education and a love for community-building, Amanda Slavin uses her knowledge and experiences for unconventional educational opportunities. As the curator of the founder of CatalystCreativ and Life is Beautiful Festival's IDEAS Series, Amanda knows how to cultivate learning experiences that both excite and inform through engaging speakers. As a speaker herself, Amanda understands the importance of sharing new ideas and engaging with audiences beyond her onstage appearances.

OA: What are you Outspoken about?

AS: I am outspoken about quite a few things! Mainly, I am outspoken about the fact that the advertising industry is shifting, and companies need to embrace and understand true engagement to connect with today’s consumer in an authentic way.  When it comes to internal shifts within the work place, I am outspoken about how work places and culture need to embrace femininity in order to thrive. 

OA: How has your recent work transformed the focus of your content when delivering a speech?

AS: I have always given talks about millennial trends and how that is impacting advertising, but it is much deeper than that regarding today’s consumer, in which we have segmented into millennials and the millennial minded (those who share similar values but are not the same age demographic as millennials).

The more work we do with brands, and test out the methodology of engagement I created during my Masters Year, the more we (at my company CatalystCreativ) see it truly working, and the more I want to share that knowledge with the world.  Since CatalystCreativ focuses on internal and external transformation in companies, I also have become more passionate about speaking about the importance of a feminine workplace and how by embracing femininity, work places can shift to be a space of vulnerability, creativity, and connection to develop more engaging experiences for employees and consumers.   

OA: How do speaking events help your growth?

AS: I have a Masters in Curriculum and Instruction, and as a teacher, I absolutely love speaking to audiences.  It helps shape me because it allows for me to develop relationships with people I may not meet otherwise.  It also allows me to learn from audience members and what interests colleagues/potential clients based on their reactions and feedback.

OA: What would you like to see happen more often at events to engage with the audience?

AS: I would really love to see more openness around interactive talks and workshops.  My company CatalystCreativ has created a proprietary internal brand workshop called the Brand Acupuncturist Workshop.  This dives deep with brands to identify “pain points” and come up with solutions that optimize teams and develop creative campaigns, and these workshops provide opportunities for audience members to connect deeply with the facilitator, rather than sitting there passively.

OA: What has been one of the most fulfilling audience experiences at a speaking event and why?

AS: I absolutely loved speaking at The BizBash Event Conference about the work CatalystCreativ has done in regards to impactful experience and millennial trends, the audience was extremely engaged and so many people came up to me after and told me how much they learned from the presentation. 

OA: How can people become more involved with your work, whether that’s CatalystCreativ or your personal interests?

AS: CatalystCreativ has so much to offer when it comes to unique value propositions.  We would love to explore how to work with more brands starting with our internal service offerings and parlaying those offerings into external creative activations.  In terms of my personal interests, I absolutely love to write and facilitate workshops, moderate panels, and participate in conferences even in smaller ways than keynotes, as it allows for me to meet new people and share new ideas.

OA: If you could hear someone give a speech alive or dead, who would it be and why?

AS: Lin-Manuel Miranda.  After seeing him in Hamilton, and reading about him and his story, I am blown away by what he has been able to build for himself, his family, and how he has gone from a teacher in a classroom, to a teacher to the world. 

Candid Conversations: Clint Smith

As National Poetry Month comes to an end, National Poetry Slam Champion Clint Smith discusses his speaking opportunities, including the historical contexts infused into his poetry, thought-provoking audience Q&A, and the most fulfilling audience experiences.

OA: What are you Outspoken about?

CS: I want people to understand the way that history has shaped our current sociopolitical landscape, specifically with regard to racial inequality. When you understand the trajectory of American history, everything around us makes sense. The reason certain communities look one way and other communities look another way is because of decisions people enacted through public policy, and often through political or literal violence. If we fail to understand that, we fail to adequately understand our current social realities.

OA: How has your recent work [with poetry and/or your PHD studies] transformed the focus of your content when delivering a speech?

CS: My presentations move between social commentary grounded, historical narratives, and poetry. The poems often serve as the anchors throughout the speech that hold the narrative together. I don’t believe in a traditional keynote. I try to make the presentation dynamic by including art, education, research, and history lessons.

OA: How do speaking events help your growth?

CS: Every talk provides an opportunity to engage with a new audience about ideas that shape all of our lives. The poems serve as catalyst for a larger discourse that I get to have with the audience during the Q&A and from that conversation, new ideas always emerge. It’s great because, as a researcher and writer, I’m always getting the chance to hear new ideas about my work.

OA: What would you like to see happen more often at events to engage with the audience?

CS: I don’t at all mind people sharing viewpoints than are divergent from my own (as long as they are respectful) and I hope that people always feel free to ask the hard questions. It makes the event more illuminating and thought-provoking for all of us.

OA: What has been one of the most fulfilling audience experiences at speaking events and why?

CS: I love speaking to educators. I taught high school English before beginning graduate school and I know how important though often underappreciated K-12 education is. I have such profound respect for teachers and if I can help provide them with a toolkit to think more critically about the work, that’s an incredible privilege.

OA: How can people become more involved with your work?

CS: You can take a look at my website: www.clintsmithiii.com and/or follow me on Twitter @ClintSmithIII where I’m always sharing and wrestling with ideas.

OA: If you could hear someone give a speech alive or dead, who would it be and why?

CS: I’ve watched so many videos of James Baldwin speaking, it would have been incredible to hear him in person. His ideas and writing have been transformative for me, so that would be a real treat.

Candid Conversations: Natalia Mehlman Petrzela

For our monthly Candid Conversations series and in honor of Women's History Month, we asked Natalia Mehlman Petrzela, health and wellness expert and history/culture podcast host, to answers some questions about what she's Outspoken about and how that translates to her speaking content.

OA: What are you Outspoken about?
NMP: U.S. culture and politics, past and present. More specifically, feminism, fitness, wellness, and education.

OA: How has your recent work transformed the focus of your content when delivering a speech?
NMP: My first book was about education and civil rights around sexuality, language, and immigration, and it was really clear to the people I interviewed for that project and everyone to whom I spoke about it that this was a very important and serious topic. Now, writing about fitness culture in the U.S., one of the most exciting things is opening people's eyes to the fact that, as I say, "the gym is not just the gym" and that this routine of so many people's everyday lives (and by routine, I mean even thinking you SHOULD exercise, not even actually doing it) is a very recent and development. It's really exciting to share the research that shows how this transformation has happened. Beyond this project, having to speak to a wide range of topics each week on my podcast, Past Present, forces me to look at the big picture in American news and politics and to ask, "what does a historical perspective add to the 24-hour news cycle's hot takes?" It's pushed me to get educated and eloquent on a lot of topics beyond my specific expertise!

OA: How do speaking events help your professional growth?
NMP: There's the obvious "exposure" factor of speaking that is helpful, but I find that I learn something new from every single audience I encounter, both in how I write a talk and from the insights people share during Q and A. I've spoken to everyone from 8th-grade girls to non-profit professionals to entrepreneurs to academics and more, and I find with every event I emerge not just a better speaker, but a clearer thinker. I am grateful for that!

OA: What would you like to see happen more often at events to engage with the audience?
NMP: It's hard with big groups, but I love unconventional setups that challenge the usual "sage on a stage" setting. Recently, I was on a panel around a fire on a mountaintop lodge on Powder Mountain in Utah; a less glamorous but similarly inspiring setting was speaking about the politics of wellness in Union Square NYC, which with its Greenmarket, fitness studios, and rising rents, is a really exciting spot to discuss these dynamics.

OA: What has been one of the most fulfilling audience experiences at a speaking event?
NMP: As a historian, I am always so excited when older folks who lived through the eras I am talking about approach me and both confirm I "get it" (phew!) but more importantly, when they share that my historical perspective gave them new insights on their own lives. This happens a lot when I speak about feminism and fitness; I can't count the number of times I have gotten some variation of, "I never thought I was making history..."

OA: How can people become more involved or engaged with some of the work you do?
NMP: Join me at an event or contact me to create one together. In addition to researching fitness culture, I have been teaching an amazing mind-body class called intenSati for over a decade and there are some really cool possibilities to create experiences with both an embodied and intellectual component. In January 2017, when it was both peak New Year's Resolution season and peak political anxiety before the inauguration, I ran a workout-dinner-conversation series called EXERCISE YOUR POWER, in which we did intenSati, shared a meal, and engaged emotionally, intellectually, and as activists around the very fraught moment. It's exciting to be able to co-create experiences beyond the standard Expert Sharing Expertise model.

OA: If you could hear someone give a speech in person alive or dead, who would it be and why?
NMP: Gloria Steinem because she has not only lived feminist history but also has been crucial in making it. Role model!

Candid Conversations: Adam Garone

For our first of the monthly Candid Conversations series, we asked Movember co-founder Adam Garone to answers some questions about what he's Outspoken about and how that translates to his keynote speeches.

OA: What are you Outspoken about?
AG: Leadership, entrepreneurship, and men's health
 
OA: How has your recent work [or campaigns with Movember] transformed the focus of your content when delivering a speech?
AG: I think more and more about [my] legacy. When you're 90 years old sitting in a chair looking back on your life, what will you be most proud of? What did you create that had an impact? What will by your legacy?
 
OA: How do speaking events help your organization’s growth?
AG: One of the starting aims of Movember back in 2004 was to inspire a new generation of social entrepreneurs. Back then, no one except the uber rich started a charity. Now it's common and having an amazing impact. In my speeches, I aim to inspire others to think big, create something that matters, and make this world a happier, healthier, safer place.

OA: What would you like to see happen more often at events to engage with the audience?
AG: Being present and engaged during the talk is key. It's tough when everyone has their heads down on their devices. I vibe off the audience which creates a better atmosphere for learning and dialogue. Let's save the tweets and posts until after the talk.
 
OA: What has been one of the most fulfilling audience experiences at speaking events?
AG: Recently, I spoke at Melbourne Business School in Australia on workplace culture and the impact of happiness on profits, productivity and creativity. There were 80 people in the room. I set up the conversation as a 20 minute talk with the next hour to jam on different ideas and experiences. The conversation just flowed. The energy was amazing because we were living the topic—we were happy and, because of that, the creativity flowed.

OA: How can people become more involved with your organization?
AG: Men are still dying too young. We need your support to grow a moustache, take the move challenge or host a fundraising event at Movember.com.

OA: If you could hear someone give a speech alive or dead, who would it be and why?
AG: Lady Diana because she broke the rules and changed the world.