Explore the art of impactful five-minute keynotes with tips on public speaking, engagement, and storytelling. Learn from inspiring journeys, role models, and insights on transformation and sustainability. Boost your speaking skills and connect with your audience effectively.

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Five-Minute Keynotes

Delivering an impactful message in just five minutes is a skill every aspiring speaker should master. During the first session of 5 Min Keynotes, participants shared techniques, personal stories, and insights to elevate public speaking. Here’s a summary of the key takeaways to inspire and guide your journey as a keynote speaker.

1. Open Mic Introduction

The session began with an open mic segment, setting the stage for participants to share their experiences and build connections within the group.

2. Introduction to Keynote Speaking

Keynote speaking is about delivering a powerful message that resonates. The introduction provided foundational principles for structuring a compelling presentation.

3. The Concept of Five-Minute Keynotes

A five-minute keynote challenges speakers to distill their message into a concise and engaging format. It’s about maximizing impact while respecting the audience’s time.

4. Challenges and Techniques in Public Speaking

Participants discussed common challenges such as stage fright, time management, and clarity. Techniques like deep breathing, rehearsing, and audience interaction were highlighted to overcome these hurdles.

5. Engagement and Community Building

Engaging the audience isn’t just about speaking—it’s about building connections. Encouraging questions, sharing relatable stories, and fostering discussions were emphasized as critical skills.

6. Personal Stories and Motivations

Personal stories add authenticity and relatability to a keynote. Speakers shared motivations and life experiences that inspired their presentations, illustrating the power of vulnerability and truth.

7. Introduction of New Members

New members were welcomed into the community, showcasing the inclusive and supportive environment of the 5 Min Keynotes program.

8. Inspirational Journeys and Keynotes

• Frank’s Inspirational Journey: Frank shared how his personal experiences shaped his public speaking path, inspiring others to embrace their unique narratives.

• Alessandro’s Keynote on Role Models: Alessandro highlighted the importance of identifying and learning from role models.

• May’s Keynote on Personality Assessment: May explained how understanding personality traits can enhance personal growth and communication.

• Frank Soenius’ Keynote on Personal Transformation: Frank delved into life-changing experiences and the lessons they offer.

• Frank Peralta’s Keynote on Sustainability in Fashion: Sustainability in the fashion industry was explored with actionable tips to drive positive change.

• Tony’s Keynote on Magicians as Hackers: Tony presented a unique perspective, linking magicians’ skills to innovative problem-solving.

9. Preparing for Keynote Presentations 

Effective preparation is key to a successful keynote. Participants shared tips on organizing thoughts, rehearsing, and staying adaptable to audience needs.

10. Closing Remarks and Future Plans

The session ended with reflections on the importance of continued learning and a preview of future plans for the 5 Min Keynotes community, emphasizing the program’s commitment to growth and inspiration.

The 5 Min Keynotes Vol. 1 session demonstrated that even in five minutes, speakers can inspire, educate, and connect deeply with an audience. By mastering these techniques, you can transform your speaking skills and leave a lasting impact.

Ready to refine your public speaking skills? Join us for the next 5 Min Keynotes session and learn from a supportive community of passionate speakers. Let your voice shine!

Highlights:

00:00 Open Mic Introduction

00:00 Introduction to Keynote Speaking

01:21 The Concept of Five-Minute Keynotes

02:35 Challenges and Techniques in Public Speaking

03:30 Engagement and Community Building

07:14 Personal Stories and Motivations

11:15 Introduction of New Members

21:53 Frank's Inspirational Journey

29:09 Tom's Background in Public Speaking

35:48 Preparing for Keynote Presentations

36:11 Frank Peralta's Introduction

37:27 Alessandro's Keynote on Role Models

43:16 May's Keynote on Personality Assessment

48:06 Frank Soenius' Keynote on Personal Transformation

54:39 Frank Peralta's Keynote on Sustainability in Fashion

01:02:02 Tony's Keynote on Magicians as Hackers

01:06:53 Closing Remarks and Future Plans

Transcript:

[00:00:00] Yeah. I mean, it's, it's interesting for me. I've got my first, um, I've got my first, I got a 10 minute speech on Thursday. My first time actually talking on the topic. I want to be a keynote speaker for, so it's, um, yeah, it's a new thing. Where are you talking? In Mallorca. I live here in Mallorca and there's um, there's a night that a couple of the people have run here and it's this is about 50 people that come, uh, but it's all different people talking on different topics.

Nice. Yeah. That's cool. Yeah. I did an event in also in Spain like this was framed about innovation mainly. Okay. Oh, it's amazing. Deep, deep in the night with like different speakers and. In the end, quite some drinks and tapas. Uh, that's the way, the Spanish way. Yeah.[00:01:00] 

May, do you want to do a keynote as well? Five minute keynote or just listening in? Um, okay. I don't mind, but just give me an introduction because I'm not prepared yet. Yeah, no, no worries.

No. So, so the whole concept of, of this five minute keynotes is. It's like a bit like Toastmasters. So I want to open up the possibility for people to practice keynotes and do just a five minute version or pitching is similar to that. And it's, it's just interesting to do that in front of a smaller audience.

And if people are interested as well, then get like. critique in a positive way. Critique is always sounds negative, but in the end, critique and feedback is always positive. And sometimes it just helps to, um, get like into the flow and talking a bit. [00:02:00] And it's more, we do this as better it gets. That's why, for example, do this 30 day video challenges, because it's just get you like getting over this talking thing is a lot of people are afraid and in front of cameras, like you put the camera in front of you and recording even that you're at home and then you can't talk anymore and just getting over this helps.

And so this, this kind of versions of that. Yes, it's a very good idea. In fact, it's a challenge for someone, especially for beginners. Exactly. Yeah, I think that maybe three years ago for my first international accelerator that I joined. So it really was very difficult and I had to exercise many. Uh, breathing, uh, uh, techniques and things like that in order to be more relieved, uh, in order to be able to do, to do my pitching and things like that.[00:03:00] 

So what you are doing is really precious. And I'm wondering why people are not a hundred percent engaged despite you are providing a lot of. Worthy for things which are valuable. Um, and you personally, uh, someone who is an expert. So why do you think the engagement is not at the level that I think you have expected?

No, it's I, I never have expectations on these things by me. It's just providing value is we have had calls with 15 people and called calls with two people. But I still see that a lot of people are looking at the recordings afterwards. So sure. But for me, it's not the most important thing that a lot of people show up.

If one person gets value out of a session like this, that's, that's. That's what I do it [00:04:00] for. So don't you think you have to, um, to reach people in a different way, to try to reach them in a different way that for myself, um, I tried to get engaged with the platform, I liked it very much, but. I don't know anybody.

So maybe this is something like a barrier that I'm not really know whom I'm speaking to. So the community is some from here and some from there, and no one know anything about the other. So still there are, you know, many things which are vague. So do you think we need, uh, some kind of, uh, introduction, some kind of icebreaking?

Uh, or we have need to have something to be gathered around it. [00:05:00] Um, the topic is, is the starting point, but in the, in the end, everyone has the possibility to, to chime in. Like I'm organizing this distinction, it's free for everyone. And that's sometimes what I see. Like the engagement in paid versions is way higher because people are more invested in it, but they're, but I have learned over the last, let's say even just the last five months is that some people are just love to listen and to, to, to watch rather than contributing a lot.

And some people are more open and contributing. So it's, it's, it's changing from type of personality and, um, the interaction level they want to have. But what I'm doing is just creating the space for people to engage with each other. And then there are people that do one on ones, um, and it can always be higher, but in the end it's like, I try not to do it the American way, to be honest, to sales.

Too much [00:06:00] because that's not what I like. And that's not what I stand for. So for me, it's just providing the opportunities. And for those that, that do it, they, they will gain from it. You see, for example, Tony posted something today in which I then shared afterwards. He, he joined us like two weeks ago and he just got started.

So in the end, everyone can help themselves. And if you want to get to know people, just text them. That's No. Yeah, it's not the point, um, to be more open with you. I'm until the moment, uh, I I'm, I'm trying to understand or to, to find by myself why you made this rising star. Um, uh, I'm, I'm curious, I'm curious to know

Um, I'm happy for sure because, uh, I've been okay, uh, in, in direct contact with many people in many countries. Uh, different kind [00:07:00] of initiatives, and it's very difficult to find someone paying his time for nothing in return. So you want to have the business model behind it.

No, so one, one thing that I have learned from my times in Ikea, so I was executive in Ikea. And what I have learned there is as more you give as more you get. And that sounds so weird for a lot of people. Societies where nobody is giving you anything without getting anything in return. And one of the things that I have seen and where I was, that's going back to my superpowers, like one of my superpowers is connecting people to each other and connecting people to their dreams and enabling people to get to their next level and all of these things.

And I've just done this in corporate and outside of corporate all the time. And paid versions, free versions. [00:08:00] And what I've seen is that I have never enabled myself to get it to the next level because I always use the normal ways of doing things. And then I have found, like, I have had different communities, WhatsApp communities, and so on, but WhatsApp community is difficult to manage because you have just one thread.

And you don't have anything to store. People can't see the history. So in the end, you join a WhatsApp group after, let's say two years, and you don't know anything from the past and here you can still discover everything. So I just found the tools cool to, Hey, this is a great opportunity. Um, to do that.

And then frankly, business model wise, it still pays back 10 times. That's the interesting thing as well, because. I give everything for free, and I educate 100 percent for free, and there will be always 5 percent that say, Jens, you, you do all of this, can you help me doing that? So the implementation is what we are providing with an agency.[00:09:00] 

And there will be always 5 percent that want to help them. So that's, that's how I'm earning money. Plus, I, I can test everything in the community, which is brilliant as well. Like I can test products. I can use this as a, as a brain opportunity. Plus I have a lot of interaction with all the people in the community.

And like, there are always business opportunity, like with business people inside of the community that say, Hey, I love what you do. I have this business. Do you think we could do this together? And then we do something together. So great. Uh, I'm really very, very much happy with your answer because you are not imitating something which couldn't be real.

This could be the truth. Yeah, so thank you. It is the truth. Don't get me wrong, I'm still earning money with all of this. Perfect. This is good as well. Okay. I'm really learning from [00:10:00] you. Of course, you understand me. I'm not It's not accusation. It's not Okay, aggressiveness. It's nothing like that. I'm just really thinking loudly with you and I, I think that it was a very good chance that we are very few people in this meeting.

So I had this very good chance to speak with you. Really, I'm lucky. You're welcome. You're welcome. No, that's what this is about. And yeah, and that's that what brings the value that I'm not cutting anything out of this. I'm posting it in the community in the next days, like zero, I don't, I have nothing to hide.

Yeah. Okay. So this would be this recording would be posted. Yeah, of course. Every recording from Mondays is in the community. Okay, very good. Yeah, I'm not a very good follower, in fact. I didn't used to be that [00:11:00] kind of person. But sometimes you have to give us tasks and duties in order to be compliant. This is the human being like this.

This is the human kind. So, okay. Similarly, uh, I joined, you know, I, I don't think, you know, me, uh, I am May Sabri Saleh, uh, from Egypt. Uh, I work as an associate professor of environmental health, uh, and I'm a pharmacist with PhD in biochemistry. And I have an, my innovation is a learning style assessment tools that I invented, uh, about 15 years ago.

Uh, unpublished it in 2014. Uh, I first knew you from a recommendation from a friend. Uh, she was, we met in, uh, an accelerator. So we both are, uh, Leaf alumni, which is a leader innovation fellowship. [00:12:00] Uh, yeah. And she told me that you are a very helpful person. Yeah. And, and she told me too, that you are an expert in the field that I'm interested in, which is personality, uh, assessments and, and personality types and how this could be used in recruitments and in talent management and things like that.

Yeah. Yeah. Happy, happy to chat outside of the recording as well. Sure. Okay. It would be great. Yeah. Yeah. Let's text. Happy, happy to chat. I think there's always opportunity. I still need to find a reason to come to Egypt as well. Oh, okay, you have got it now. You will like it. Egypt is very beautiful. Yeah.

Yeah, it's full of touristic places. Yeah. Let's turn this around. Let's do a little intro. I mean, we have, we have time if you're, if you're good with that. [00:13:00] Okay. Uh, so if we'd like to make these keynotes, so we can start with the, uh, with our, with

Yeah. That's my last name. Uh, Alessandro is my name. Okay. Welcome. Because I took a lot of time. So we can start with. That's okay. We have time. Okay. So it's up to you. If I can make a pitch for my innovation. You can, but let, let's, let's let Alessandro first introduce himself. So that you two guys are at least connected now.

Okay. Uh, well, I mean, my introduction, I think it's, it's always good to frame the introduction also in how, you know, I met you and I did that in the introduction post a few days ago, basically, for me, I've had a huge change, uh, in the last little period. I've been running my social media agency for a long period of time.

[00:14:00] Um, And the social media agency is doing very well, uh, except for the fact that I realized that I don't love social media, or at least I think it's a net negative, uh, to bring into the world. Um, and it's really difficult when I have 20 mentorship clients and 19 of them have a little bit more anxiety rather than less anxiety from all the things that, you know, that you start doing to bring in.

And for me, I, I sort of came at an impasse and I started thinking, okay, what's my new target audience? What, you know, I've always been in the business sort of space. I ran my own content leaders club. Uh, I had the communities have everything, but then I stopped and I went actually when I was 18 years old.

I wrote down after reading The Power of Intention by Dr. Wayne Dyer, I wrote down that I wanted to be a motivational speaker. And I knew that I wanted to be a motivational speaker. And I, like, I knew that was the path, but I, I sort of got convinced by everyone around me [00:15:00] that I didn't have a story yet. And that my story wasn't good enough, you know, as an 18 year old kid, I guess maybe they were probably right.

But I felt that Okay, the way that I do that then is I tell other people stories and I'll become a filmmaker and that's the direction I went into and I always had this dream of becoming a motivational speaker for when I'm like 55 years old. It's like, when I'm 55, that's a good time for it, you know, I'll have lived.

Um, but in the last, uh, I'm 32 now and in the years since 18, there's been a lot of life. A lot of life. Um, a few deaths in my, in the past, you know, a few life, death, gotten married, um, had heartbreaks, lost 60, 000 bucks in a minute in one of the businesses that I ran. Like, I've had these terrible things And amazing things happen.

And, and I look back at this almost moment of starting a new business. And I was like, nah, actually now's the time to become a motivational speaker. If, if I want to do that, like what's stopping me from doing it right now, if I have to make [00:16:00] a huge change in my career. That is the change I want to make. And literally the moment I said that and claimed that the next day, I saw an ad from you.

And, uh, it popped up and it's like, you want to be a, come a keynote speaker. And I think for me, the reason why I clicked on it, that is as much as, um, I'm, I'm a guy that when I get my mind on something and I want to go get something, I'll find the answers, but I'm also very good at finding intuitive. Like paths as well.

If something pops into my way, I'll, I'll jump in that. And I was very intrigued. And so I was like, if that's somebody that does know the way I would love to learn a little bit, and then that's why I jumped in. So that's me. Um, yeah, I, I would love to become a motivational speaker, not just because I want to.

speak and give off any like, um, and just tell people what to do. No, I, I genuinely have a strong belief that we need better [00:17:00] role models for specifically young males. And the way we're going to do that is, uh, by getting people to step up and help them with purpose and help them along and actually share stories, share community and, and do that.

And so that's what I plan to do. Of that. Really cool. Yeah. Hi, Frank. You came in at the perfect moment. Yeah, shall I give as well a little intro? I don't know. Maybe a little bit. Yeah, I'd love that. Yeah, Jens, um, become a Unity host. No, so, I'm originally German. Um, grown up in Germany for 20 something years, but live outside of Germany since 2014.

See him? First we lived in Russia, then we lived in Sweden, Denmark, Spain, and now in the Netherlands since a bit more than two and a half years. Um, father of a seven year old daughter. She got seven last [00:18:00] week and married since 2010 and yeah, I have done a fairly successful career in corporate. So work with Deutsche Bank first in Germany and then was headhunted by Ikea and then went into Ikea and was from local to global in a lot of positions and a lot of.

Fancy, let's say environments, um, in a positive way, not fancy from a money perspective took a lot of responsibilities in 2019. I stepped out of that ecosystem and wanted to build my own business. And one of the things that I have seen for myself is that there's a lot of technologies and a lot of corporate world, but in the end, what makes the difference is the individuals.

And that's something that I, I inherited from my, from my dad as well. Um, he was a Protestant and priest priest is not the right word, but like pastor. And [00:19:00] I mean, he was about people all the time and what he was doing. So I just got that from him. And that's how I started to help people look into people care about people.

I still have a leadership company that is doing leadership assessments. And doing a lot of, of that. And then one of the things that I'm super curious about is like, how can we together achieve more? So, uh, with that, like I explained before, the, the community is one of the ways that I have found out how I can give back by helping people, but then of course, Having as well a business angle to that.

So I make money with that, which I think is fair by giving. So, but that's why I'm saying, so my whole promise is that education will be always for free. I don't take money for education. I only take money for implementation and to maze question before that will be always 5 percent without me pushing anyone, there will be always 5 percent who say, Hey, can you [00:20:00] help me with this?

And then we find ways to help people so much to me. Frank, do you want to introduce yourself as well?

Yeah. Good evening here in Amsterdam. Um, it's, uh, I had some problems with the technical issues. Uh, I had to start zoom all over again and I came in zoom workplaces and I found my way, I'm here. So I don't know what you want to know. Uh, I don't know what it was. Uh, I signed up a day ago, so tell me a little bit more.

So today's session was supposed to be, or is going to be later, um, five minute keynote. So we have a call every Monday where we meet with each other and it's always a specific topic. So the topic of today was everyone that wants to can give a [00:21:00] five minute keynote to get practice, to test a little bit, their pitches and keynotes.

And, um, next week is another topic. So it's, it's really always a topic that is most of the time decided by the community and I'm just hosting, or I'm going into deep dives, like before we did, like, how do you fine tune your LinkedIn? Uh, we did like on other topics, like how do you build your websites and so on.

Yes. People are interested in everything around personal branding, speaking, and so on. For me, all of these things are connected. And yeah, today, some of the old crew members that join every call aren't able to make it. So we are all new members, which is amazing. And that's why we said, Oh, it may that it's like, let's do a little introduction first because we don't know each other.

That's how we started. And you just jumped into it. I felt right into it. Uh, I'm Frank Sunius, um, I'm living in a close by Amsterdam and I'm the [00:22:00] author of the book, Treachery in the Dream, Never Lose Your Drive. And I wrote this book, uh, five years ago when I met Nick Vujicic, the man with no arms and legs.

And he is, uh, he told me a story. Uh, the moment I listened to his story, I knew I had to write my book because it was my moral obligation. I see it as my moral obligation to write my book because he told me a story that was so incredible. And then this guy with no arms and legs said to me, Your story is much powerful than my story, but you've got a problem, my friend.

You've got arms and legs. And I had to think about it, but Nick is right. And I met him now three times. And also one time, really in a Q and a, I could grab him and bring him to my car and then kidnap him. And because it's got no arms and legs, so you can take them under your arm and walk away. And he listened to my story and he said, listen, Frank, you [00:23:00] have to do something with, you have to do.

Yeah. I said, well, nah, I had enough, you know, this is enough. 24 hours later, I wrote the book.

Uh, it

was terrible to write the book. I had to go back to, to, uh, The misfortune I had, and I always thought, you know, when you have a second chance of life, you have to keep quiet and enjoy it and live it. And, but he said, no, no, no, no, no, my friends, people has to notice, people has to listen to this and make it your message, you know, and you're amazing and nobody can see it because you've got no sign on your back.

I was a mental patient for 13 years. You were in a mental hospital for four and a half years. Nobody knows. They all look at you and say, six foot three, you look good. That cannot happen to you. That cannot happen to you. Well, it can. So not everybody has, um, Problems you can see, you know, and, and that's why [00:24:00] we judge so many people.

And I, when you listen to somebody, you think, oh, blah, blah, blah, blah. This. So please know that's, that's the message, you know, keep quiet till you know, the real story and. You know, and, and that's why I wrote the book and now it's, it's really life changing and I'm on my way to become a speaker and a high impact keynote speaker.

Uh, I signed up with two agencies, one in London, the one in here in Holland, one of the biggest, now we are making my profile. So I saw five minutes, the keynotes. I thought, wait a minute, this is something different, you know? So yeah, every time you see something with speaking, you know, And you jump in and you start listening because, you know, this is new for me, you know, I'm in my sixties.

And I never, never, ever, ever thought I'm going to be a speaker till somebody said, Oh my God, you should go to a TED talk. You have to go do this, this, blah, blah, blah. And then everybody [00:25:00] says, Oh, it's so difficult. I can't learn you to speak. Nobody can learn me to speak. I speak my own, you know, and I did all the training.

Les Brown in America, Andy Harrington in London, here in Holland, some guys. But now Nick Fuji said to me, how many courses are you going to take? Frank speak, speak up. You know, I've got the arms and legs. They put me on a table. I started to speak. I've got 40 million followers because I'm lucky. You have no arms and legs because everybody comes to look to a guy who has no arms and legs.

So that's your problem, Frank. So good luck with that. And, uh, that's, that's my journey a little bit in, in, in the nuts. And, uh, yeah, so everywhere there is something about storytelling, I always jump in and see where it brings me. Hey, everyone. Welcome, Frank. Tom, do [00:26:00] you want to introduce yourself? Yeah, there's another Frank.

Sorry. Yeah. Let's start with Tom Frank. So wonderful to hear your story. You know, it's funny. I'm trying to rack my brain just in the last week. I remember hearing someone reference Christopher Reeve. They were talking about the ways that you overcome adversity and how most people think that Christopher Reeves condition was a quote disability and she was saying, and I remember reading about how he would describe it as a blessing, which is almost incomprehensible that becoming a complete, uh, quadriplegic would be seen by any.

Oh, I remember now. I remember who was I'm going to excuse me. I'm going to write it down. Um, but I'm just really moved by your uh, Reference to this person with no arms and legs and how he sees you're having arms and legs as a disadvantage and as a setback. I [00:27:00] wrote down what you just said about problems that we can't see.

And I love the idea that I've seen it's all across social media is just remember when we approach each other with kindness and thoughtfulness that everybody's got their struggle, and we may never know, um, you remember, um, he's passed now he was a great motivational speaker. Oh, an older guy. Tip of my toe.

Wayne Dyer, Wayne Dyer told this story once when I first started following him, I saw his speech talking about how this person was on the subway in New York City and the guy sitting there with his two kids and they're just rugrats running around being all kinds of boys just climbing on stuff and screaming and this irascible, irritable New Yorker said, keep your kids under control.

What is wrong with you? The little hoodlums, you know, And the guy very [00:28:00] quietly said, I'm sorry, but they've just lost their mother.

And that was his way of saying, and it's such a great story. You talk about storytelling, which we as speakers. Well, I mean, you could say, Hey, you always got to keep it in mind what other people might be suffering. Yeah, you could say that and analytically, cognitively, it makes sense. But if you tell that story, just you get it.

No. So, uh, I just love the way that you described your moral obligation to get out there and tell your story. And I want, what is the name of your book, by the way, I want to, I want to look it up. You put the link in the chat. Oh, great. I will check it out. So. Trapped in a dream. Trapped in a dream. Never lose your drive.

Yeah, I didn't. Oh, I must have joined after. Okay, could you, if you wouldn't mind, plop it in the chat again. So I'll pull that link because I was a little late, um, joining this call. [00:29:00] But anyway, I just, I wanted to start introducing myself by paying tribute to what I just heard from you, if that makes any sense.

Um, my name is Tom Colvin. I am a dynamic coach for public speaking and presentation skills. My background is 20 years in television news starting in New York City, uh, where I eventually was promoted to be in control of every word and every frame of video and every sound that went on air on the local CBS News on Saturdays and Sundays.

Sunday night, my 11 p. m. newscast was, I have to calculate, was the most watched local TV news broadcast in the country, not from anything that I did. But because CBS was the number one network at the time, Sunday night was the number one night of news. We had the number one primetime lineup starting with the number one show, 60 Minutes, all the way down through Murder, She Wrote, into my 11 [00:30:00] o'clock newscasts.

So we call that inheriting the eyeballs. But those eyeballs were on my show. So it was a, it was a position of tremendous responsibility. And I was fortunate enough to work with some of the best in the names that you still see on air today. But they eventually decided that what I thought I would do straight out of college was to get on air myself and work my way up through the small markets and I hit this point in my life where I said, you know, I'm not getting any younger.

This is not going to get any easier. I need to bite a bullet now. So I left. I left from that position to go down to one of the smallest markets in TV, working with kids 10 years younger than me, who were generally straight out of college. And my goal was to win awards and work my way back up to larger and larger markets.

And I eventually got to be a place in Virginia Beach, Norfolk, where I was the guy who shows up with a camera at your business and you're having a bad day. I was the consumer and [00:31:00] investigative reporter, the scam buster, and uh, I, I loved what I do. I, I loved knowing that the help that I had provided to people, the thousands of dollars I've saved people, the rights that I had wronged.

I was featured in Montel Williams three times. Um, he, so was it, you know, he, he respected my work so much that I got to, uh, my stories were on NBC across the country. I believe I'm responsible for the withdrawal of a dietary supplement that was linked to almost a thousand adverse events, unregulated. Um, so that was a tremendous opportunity for me to get out there and use my speaking skills.

I've been speaking in public for literally half a century. I started at 12 years old in seventh grade winning speech contests in the New York City area. And some of it was a struggle. Some of it has become intuitive, but based on that experience from that age up through 20 years in journalism, I eventually got out of the TV [00:32:00] news business, but I was fortunate and able to transfer those skills into pharmaceutical sales.

And I found that the pre speaking and presentation skills that I had developed translated directly into being able to influence physicians to improve their patient care. So it took me about a year to realize that I was actually doing the same thing, the same job that you could use the same sentence to describe what I did as a journalist to what I did as a pharmaceutical rep, calling all this complicated, often scientific information, synthesizing it and boiling it down to its core essence and then verbally transmitting it in a way that would help the public.

So that's been my career. And then eventually I was promoted to national sales trainer and I had the opportunity to train and to coach. Other people and using their speaking and presentation skills in our scenario of influencing physicians, and that's when I had a moment one day after leading class that I said, This is what I need to be doing someday [00:33:00] when I grow up.

This is what I'm going to be doing. I'm going to run these classes. I'm going to help other people. I'm going to run workshops to help other people understand how they can get what's in here and in here out there. And when I eventually, uh, my position was eliminated in pharmaceuticals and I was working with a coach and I said, no, no, no, I don't do my resume.

I don't want another pharmaceutical job. I've got a non compete anyway. I want to do this. And that was about three years ago. And that's what I've been doing since is offering myself to other people who already know, ideally, you know, for example, Toastmasters. I'm past president of Brickle Toastmasters here in Miami.

And I love that group because it's people who are already aware of the importance of public speaking. They're already committed. They're spending their time and money in a group that will help them become better communicators. And I, I, I don't so [00:34:00] much want to go out there and solicit. I want to be available and findable for people who already know that that is what they want and need and to decide that I'm the person that can help them.

My catchphrase right now is realize Your power, the power that we all have in our communication, it's what differentiates us from all other creatures on the planet, is our ability to speak and communicate. That is our power. And a lot of us haven't yet realized, and I don't mean realized, recognized, I mean made it real to actually achieve our potential as communicators.

To do whatever it is that they were looking to do in life. So that's what my idea is to realize your potential by becoming a better public speaker and take that wherever you want. If it's leadership, if it's sales, if it's entrepreneur startup, I'm on the pitch deck speaking coach [00:35:00] for a high finance entrepreneur, um, incubator where I help people.

you know, verbalize their vision to people who might have money to deploy. They're looking for investment and opportunities. And these people want to be, they want to clearly understand what your offer is. If you don't convey it to them, they lose the opportunity to invest in your business. You lose the opportunity to get the capital that you need.

So that, and every time I hold a session, I'm just thrilled at my ability to help other people in that way, provide something that they need and ultimately will help human society. When these great ideas get out and that's what I'm about. So thanks for letting me go on and on. Welcome. So next introduction, then we really start with the keynotes and the, the running order is definitely Alessandro first.

May, do you still want to do a keynote? Five minutes? [00:36:00] Okay. Yeah. So running order is Alessandro, May. Then we, we do Frank Stonius. And then Tom and Frank, if you want to do one as well, the other Frank would have still needs to introduce himself. Then we fit that in. Yeah, please don't, you can pass by me. I feel like I've already kind of given you, we did, we did, we have the possibility at least for those who want.

So Frank, uh, Peralta, please do a quick introduction, less than two minutes of who you are so that we get to know you. And then we start with the keynotes. Hello. Hello. My name is Frank Peralta. I am a senior mechanical design engineer. Now I'm turning to sustainability. I use fashion automotive, um, sustainability to communicate to the people that the automotive industry is wasting almost the half of the high quality material from the interior of the car with [00:37:00] this material.

Um, um, starting, uh, I started that travel. Couple of months ago, and now we are getting really serious inside the fashion industry in Berlin. That is more or less what I do Now I'm learning how to communicate better as You say before now We are trying to convince the people who have the money to invest in our idea and that is the game changer so much.

Good. Welcome Frank. Let's start five minute keynote

Alessandro, you're the first. I'm, I'm taking time and I will be tough on timing. I will give you like four minutes and then when we go from 4. 30, I will give you like 30 seconds. So I'm, I'm trying to, I'm going to try and, uh, truncate a 15 minute speech cause I already needed to get it into 10 minutes for Thursday, but I'm going to try and get it into five minutes and let's see how we go.[00:38:00] 

I'm ready to go when you are. Yep. Go. So I've been very obsessed about role models. I feel like we need better role models in society and the only way that I can think about how we can get better role models is by looking at other role models and then like collaborating, well, just thinking, okay, let's extrapolate the best way to get out of that.

The first thought that I come up is what makes a good role model. And when I see that, I look at outside. Uh, sources. Let's look at Nelson Mandela, Steve Jobs and things like that. And I've come to realize that the thing that makes them great is not necessarily the person, but it's actually the drive, the purpose, what they want in their life.

I mean, Steve Jobs wouldn't be anything if it wasn't for the drive to make innovation. If it wasn't for the drive to make beautiful things, Nelson Mandela wouldn't be anything if it wasn't for the drive to rid South Africa of apartheid. Now, these are the role models that I have externally from my life.

But what about the role models that I have internally? In fact, I have two father figures in my life that I've always wanted [00:39:00] to be like, but, or at least wanted to have them as role models, but I actually never wanted to be like them. So I wondered why, and I think it's really that actual distinction. I don't think either of them had purpose.

And so today what I want to do is I want to, Think about how they could have been better off. So first we have my father, Italian man, lovely man, but he would, he was a successful businessman, ran a company with a hundred employees, but he would always tell me about how he wished that he actually were designing houses.

He wished he were designing houses. And the problem with that for me is that he actually had a purpose, but he never lived that purpose. And so when he was on a call with me every Friday night, he would be like, Alessandra, I want you to live your dream. But. He would then talk about how he never really lived his dream.

And for me, that just screamed that he had a purpose not lived. And so if he were to be a better role model for me, I think the way that he would be able to do that is if he actually lived his dream, or at least had the courage to live his dream. And I think that's how [00:40:00] you solve a purpose not lived. So you have the courage to actually live what you want to live.

But then we have my other father figure, my grandfather now, he was four years older than my dad, very different to my kind Italian dad. He was the tough dad, uh, in a way and grew up in Rhodesia in South Africa. So grew up in the Army and he always blamed other people for the reason why, uh, he didn't get what he wanted in his life.

If it wasn't for my grandmother, he would've been a famous Formula one driver. If it wasn't for my mother and, and my auntie, he would've been the best mechanic in South Africa. It was always. if it wasn't for this, if it wasn't for that. And I think he had a purpose not found. And I really think the way that we can solve a purpose not found, or at least the way that he would have been a better role model, is if he admitted that he didn't actually know the answers.

So he was a man that always said, I know this, I know that, I know all of this stuff. But if he had admitted the fact that he didn't know the answers, I think he would have been a great role model and he [00:41:00] probably would have found his way. I think back to his daughter, my mother. I had a moment with my mother on a beach once and she said, Alessandra, I'm 45 and I don't know what to do with my life.

And I said to her, why don't you make it your passion to find your passion? And she did that every single day. She tried to actually learn more about her passion. She started a woman's group. She chatted to these women about what they have passion about. She started doing tarot readings for them and realized she loved doing tarot card readings.

She then started charging people for tarot card readings. She then asked me about TikTok. Alessandra, can you help me with TikTok? And then all of a sudden I said, Oh, just try this thing on TikTok. And, uh, three years later, she has 1. 4 million followers on TikTok. And, uh, I look at her and she's one of the best tarot readers in the world.

And I look at the contrast between my grandfather and her, and my grandfather always knew the answers. And she's the one who said, I don't know the answer. And the moment she said that, that's the moment that purpose started coming through. [00:42:00] Purpose not found. The way you answer that is by having the humility to say, Ah, you know what?

I don't know. All of the answers. And so when we look at these role models in our life, I really think the answer here is to find a drive, a purpose. That's how my two father figures could have been great role models. But in the end, it's not actually about right now. The reason why I want to work out if they want to be good role models is not if I want to change the past.

I can't do that. I can't change the past. I can't, I can't, you know, put a silver lining on anything. But what I can do is potentially be a better role model for the future. And learn those lessons myself. Thanks.

Amazing. Very [00:43:00] powerful. Thanks. And you made it in five minutes. I made that in five minutes. I can't believe it because I wasn't sure how I was going to do it in 10 minutes. And there I did it in five. Super good. So next one, May, are you ready? Yes, I am. Okay. I'll start. Yes. You start. Okay. Thank you very much.

First of all, I'd like to, um, to say that I was very much inspired by the keynote that I've just heard, and I can start from what he has been saying. It's about the role model. It's about finding, uh, about our passion, what we believe in, what is our purpose, why we are living, what we are doing, we are doing it why, for what.

So here we can find that really we need to understand ourselves. As well. We need to [00:44:00] understand everyone around us. We need also to believe that you are different and that everyone is good and everyone has a many good things inside himself, even if don't appear to other people. So how to know about ourselves and about others, how to accept ourselves and accept others.

We need to understand that we are different and that we are good, how we are different. So that's why I have invented my tool, which is the personality, a personality assessment tool or a learning style assessment tool. It's called the intellectual style invention. I first, uh, you know, it first came to my mind because I was very much interesting in this kind, interested in this kind of personality assessments.

And I did many, many of them for myself and for others, and I started to feel the differences and how we really, we are really different. And that many of the conflicts, because [00:45:00] we don't understand ourselves and we don't understand the other one. And that's why that what's make us don't accept their behaviors or attitudes.

And that just the knowledge and the awareness could make a lot of differences. I had the chance to apply my theory on a critical point, uh, in Islam, and how people believe in God, in his, uh, okay, something like that he has got a faith, that he has got a hand, something critical in Islam. And I started to do my, a lot of readings, and I started to write my book in order to find a way to resolve this conflict.

Because I believe people don't understand that they are different and that they are different in learning the [00:46:00] learning style make them okay, have different imaginations. Okay, which contradict with the beliefs of the others without going too deep into details. Uh, that's after that, after completing my book, which took about four years, and it would took accreditation.

Uh, I started to read in psychology. In Arabic, but I was not satisfied enough. I started to read about psychology and cognitive science in English. I found much more knowledge, and I started my journey from that moment. Uh, by now, I maybe published about six or seven articles about my theory of learning, and it focused on concept learning.

It speaks to that. Everything depends upon two different psychological functions. One is thinking of decision making, and the other is [00:47:00] perception and how we understand the world. Then, my theory, in fact, identified four thinking styles and four perception styles that we all use, but with different preferences.

And the different preferences is tied to the neural activity of the brain. So it's, to a great extent, something inherited. To some extent, it's something learned. My, uh, key focus of attention now is to define these neural circuits which identify the different types that I can identify them psychometrically.

In fact, I'm very, very much okay, convinced by my idea and the challenge is to convince others it.

very much. May minutes as well. Five minutes. Very good. [00:48:00] Thank you for the opportunity. You're welcome.

The next one in the running order is Frank Soenius. Do I pronounce your name properly, by the way? Soenius? That's the Dutch way. They say always Soenius. Soenius? Tom, by the way, I was in 60 Minutes. I was interviewed by Ross Coulthard for three and a half days. So, uh, yeah, I've been in 60 Minutes. I've been there, done that and, uh, we'll never be that stupid again because Oh my God, they brought a story was good for them, but not for me, but that's, that's how the TV works.

You have to be careful. So, um, five minutes keynote. Oh, never done that. I've got a keynote of 45 minutes, but let's, let's try it. Ready? Yep. Go. Okay. [00:49:00] In life, I always say it's about the story you tell yourself, about yourself, when nobody's listening. That's who you are. But how far are you off? And what do you need today to be that person, to live that story?

So many people don't have a clue. They all live in a prison with the door wide open. But they don't know how to get out and be the gift they were always meant to be, because we're all unique. Well, I will take you back to Australia. Sydney, Long Bay Mental Health Institution. I'm there already seven weeks in the isolation cell, 24, 24, seven suicide watch.

No contact with nobody anymore. I had enough of life. It's 1996. [00:50:00] It's almost 30 years ago. I had enough of life. I, I wanted to get out and I tried everything. And if I say try everything, if you read the book, you will think, how is it possible? But guess what? I'm still here and I'm there seven, seven weeks.

And there are always guards 24 seven watching you because you don't know what people can do without anything in an isolation cell. So they always watching you. Videos, people, glass, glass walls, they're watching you. And there is one guy who was born in Haarlem, in Holland. He's watching me and he's thinking, there lays a guy who once was an amazing basketball player, an athlete, a research marketer, [00:51:00] basketball coach, national teams, everything.

And now no contact anymore, complete lost. And he couldn't stand it. This guy was thinking, thinking, thinking. No psychiatrist could contact me every time the medication. And then one day, and it's so funny, he put a little paper under the door with a really small pencil. And he said to me, This can cost me my job, but Frank, please.

I don't, I know you don't want them, but guess what? I want to know what you're thinking. What are you thinking? It's not my job. I can be sacked. I can lose my job over this. Please don't do stupid things with that little pencil. [00:52:00] Start writing your thoughts. I want to know why, why? And that evening in 1996, December, I wrote.

14 pages, 14 pages naked in an isolation cell with a small pencil. And the next morning he ran to the psychiatrists who were treating me. He said, you must read this. And Dr. Nielsen, doctor, was reading this. And he said straight away after he finished, he said, Oh my God, we're on the wrong track. We are on the wrong track.

That medication, we have to stop this medication. We have to, oh my god. To make a long story short, to make it long [00:53:00] story short, he put me off the medication. Two days later, there is in the Daily Telegraph in Sydney, a man with a brilliant mind. A mental patient, a man with a brilliant mind. I needed that supporting guy, you know.

We all need that supporting, that cheerleader, that mentor, that coach, that Good friends. I don't know what he was for me, but he gave me my life back that because of this little paper. And now a guy with no arms and legs told me you need to be this paper, my friend, for everybody in the world, be this paper, it's your moral obligation.

My friends do it. Otherwise I'm going to get you. It's got no arms and legs, but it's got money enough. Thank you.[00:54:00] 

Amazing. Thank you very much, Frank. Great story. I'm even more intrigued to read the book. So Tom left us already. He just texted. He needs to jump. Frank, the other Frank now. Peralta. Peralta. Do you want to do five minutes? Okay. Starting now? Wait, wait, wait, wait. I'm not that fast. Now. Ready?

Hello everyone. How many of you were thinking about sustainability? How many of you were thinking about sustainability? That sustainability is a boring stuff. How, how many of you were thinking that sustainability is only for big corporates? They are trying to clean the world in a hypothetical way. [00:55:00] How many of you know that for the interior of one car, you need four coats?

How many of you can you, can say that the automotive industry moves tons? Of high quality leather to the landfill or to the incinerator. Maybe did you know, you didn't know that because automotive is like a close society only where a small actors inside them. My name is Frank Peralta. Um, I took the decision to make sustainability funny, fancy, interesting through fashion.

Why? Because fashion is more than a word. Fashion is science, fashion is mathematics, fashion is AI, [00:56:00] fashion is sustainability, fashion is you as a user. My name is Frank Peralta and I was spending the last 20 years doing design for the automotive industry. And I took the decision that I want to take my talent to give something back to the planet.

And I took that decision when I know that I'm gonna be a father. At that day, I become or became more human than the other days in my past. Why? I just wanted to have or to let a cleaner world planet to a doctor. I took the decision to do that because no one was doing something similar. All the people were saying, saying, uh, sustainability is a bad stuff.

No one is gonna taking care about that. But I took that decision and I took really personal because I got the skills to do that, working for them, [00:57:00] doing sustainability in a proper way. I create a, a concept. We save the high quality leather leftovers after doing the cars, and we reconvert all those parts or leftovers into raw material.

For fashion. The last two years, I was working really close with different designers and we were really lucky to get two collaborations for the Berlin fashion week. One big collaboration for the Miss Alicante in Spain this year. And this year we were really lucky to go to Sarajevo to speak at the United Nations, presenting our sustainable concept.

Sustainability is more than a trend. Sustainability is a lifestyle. In my case, I'm trying to. Explain to the people that they can be part of the change because they have the power of decision to buy what they want to wear. Now we are [00:58:00] fighting against the fast fashion movement and if you buy a cheap piece of cloth, you're gonna buy three, four, five, six more in the next month.

But if you buy one high quality product, you're gonna have to produce a long life. Sustainability is nice. Sustainability. It's warm. Sustainability is you stay tuned because now we are doing a lot of the force to achieve our target, to save the planet with the style. Now we are in the good way and you can be part of this movement.

If you want to know more about, please reach me. Frank Peralta is my name and you will find my name in all social media. Frank Peralta, if not Frank Peralta design, saving the planet with style. Thank you so much.[00:59:00] 

Thank you so much. Love this. So we're from the initial running list. We still have a couple of visitors, Austin and Tony. Any one of you willing to jump in and do a five minute keynote? Or do we call it?

Yeah, I was just happy that I could join at least the last bit. Uh, yes. And thank you very much. Very glad to listen to both May Frank and the other Frank as well. Uh, I'm on this in the streets here in Johannesburg, so I can't really talk and, uh, Yeah, my, uh, my keynote speaker will be about all the noise of the car and all that.

So not a good time. Thank you so much. Thanks for sharing, guys. Yeah, you're welcome[01:00:00] 

question to everyone. Shall we do this more often? Shall we meet like not more often, like every day, but shall we do this more regularly? Because this, this version, like five minute keynotes, we can as well do 15 minutes in the future and then fine tune things. So may is saying yes, Frank, both Franks are saying yes, then, then let's, let's try.

What do we have? Do we have one chance before Christmas? I'm even not sure. Let's, I will figure this out and I will put it into the calendar because I, I love this. And one thing is like, we can learn from each other. Like knowing that Frank just lives like an hour from me, which we didn't know before. It's, it's fascinating.

Um, and I know Faustian already because he, he, he joined us last year who lives between us. So there, there's quite an interesting thing that we can, Tony, you want to do the keynote. I'm pretty [01:01:00] sure. Listen, I've not prepared anything. I've been out with the dog and everything and it's like, but tomorrow, tomorrow I am actually doing the talk, which I've been preparing.

So it's a, it's a 20 minute talk. So I'm going to try my hardest to just off the top of my head, make it into five minutes. First, before you start congrats on your video progress. Love it. Oh, thanks. I really love it. And thank you for tagging me. Yes. Then I can support you because I'm not consuming too much social media.

I'm just producing. Yeah. Well, it's to make sure, make sure that you're seeing what I'm doing. So yeah. Amazing. Congrats. Okay. So then you're the last one for today and then we close after you. Okay, cool. Ready to go. Um, I don't have a timer. So I have one. I will, I will show you four minutes and then I will count down from 30 seconds.

Okay, [01:02:00] good. Okay. Hi, my name is Tony hair sign. And today we're going to be talking about how magicians would make the best hackers. Now, that sounds like a bit of a weird concept. But what do magicians and hackers have in common? Well, they both use misdirection. They both use psychological techniques. And those two things combined together.

What you have to watch out for. Now, what we're going to try and look at today is how we can use those two techniques to make ourselves think differently to protect ourselves against hackers, threat actors, whatever you want to call them, bad actors. Now, just because, um, they're called hackers or threat actors, don't think that they all wear hoodies and 16 year old in a dark room, or that they're going to work for a nation state and they're going to try and take your nan's money.

Okay. That's not how it works. Hackers come from all walks of life. They wear suits, they wear checked [01:03:00] shirts, they also have bald heads and wear earbuds. So, you never know what they're going to look like. So, I'd say, today, we're going to show you something that could, that could possibly change the way that you look at this.

Now, hackers are, uh, use three different kinds of techniques. And one of the reasons that I want to do this is to help you promote your diversity of thought, which is exactly what they do. They can think outside the box as much as they want. Whereas often in cyber security, we think inside boxes, inside policies, inside certain ideas that were that were given.

And I want you to think about this and to challenge the norm. Ask your teams when you go back. What can we do differently? How can we think outside the norm? What's not the thing that's, uh, [01:04:00] necessarily, uh, the most simplistic thing that we can see? Another thing that you can do to help you against the, the cyber threats against the hackers is to use their mindset.

Think like a hacker. And I want you to do this. I want you to go back and think using brainstorming sessions of how you can think like a hacker. When you go back to your teams, have a look at your, um, emails that you get some of them. You're going to think, ah, that's from Bob. I know Bob, but question it because Bob could have had his account taken over.

Bob might not be Bob. And if you click on that email with the attachment. That's something that could take over your account, it could take over the system, and it could cause catastrophic damage to your company. So, [01:05:00] what I want you to do for this, a little takeaway for this, is when you go away, is think about things differently.

This is what it's all about. Thank you.

Way faster. Well done. Yeah, just, uh, not quite, not quite as, uh, there's quite a lot less words in there. And I've also got a demonstration in the, in the thing. Of a, of a, uh, magic trick in there. Nice. Um, so yeah. And, and the final, the final bit, I don't know if it's gonna be the right way around, is, uh, can you see that number?

Yes. Yeah. So 10, 706, 766, that's 7, 706, 766, 147 ways [01:06:00] for you to get hacked. But what you really need to do is look out for the threat actor. Oh, that's cool. That's that's amazing That's cool, that's that's the finisher nice And the demonstration is I read I do a I've got a whole stack of cards here that are all pin numbers Yeah, and um get participants come up pick one of the cards Choose the PIN number and then I divide what PIN number they've got.

It's not as much fun on camera, but I'm a good person. Nice. So, thank you. You're welcome. Thank you very much for joining. Good. Ten minutes over. That's not really German, but it was definitely worth it. [01:07:00] Thank you very much. I, what is the next topic for next week? I even don't remember. Let me quickly check.

Next week we have In the calendar already,

how to prepare keynotes. That's maybe an interesting one as well. And I would just want to say also, thank you, Frank, for all your support.

Thank you very much, everyone. Looking forward to see you and text with you in between. If we don't hear each other next Monday, we will do how to prepare for keynotes. And then we will do most probably another one on 23rd. Maybe we can do one of those again. That's a fun, engaging point. everyone. Before we go into Christmas.

And then we do a week break because I will be off during, during Christmas for family [01:08:00] reasons. Good. Cool. Thank you everyone. Yes. Where are you in Holland? I am in Leidsendam. Leidsendam? Yes. I'm a lot in The Hague. I'm a lot in the Hague. We need to meet up for a coffee or beer. That's it. Beer. Better . Beer

Saving crazy pianos. Yeah. Very good one. Very good one. No, happy to do. Happy to. Do we have I connected just on LinkedIn with you. No worries. Yeah, let's do that. Super Looking forward. Frank, it was great to meet you. Good to meet you. Bye.

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Transcript:

Personal development masterclass. One of the topics that's dear to my heart, because of what I have seen over the last 15 years is that personal development is quite seldom in organizations. It's not really taken, uh, in a proper way, at least in my eyes. So that's why I'm really keen on sharing this today.

So we have two. main perspectives. One or two topics for today. One is personal development talk versus performance evaluation. And then we do a deep dive into how I'm doing personal development talks. And then we do questions in the end. Personal development. So we have one part, which is the personal development talk, and then we have the performance evaluation.

And a lot of organizations, focus on performance evaluation. And the difference between those two is that the performance evaluation, the main part they are focusing on, or the main source of that is the company. So the company is on the top. And from there, it goes into, the individuals and the different tasks that need to be done to accomplish what's happening in the company, what is required to do to be done in the company.

And the individual that is doing the task is the last point. And then inside of the performance evaluation, you're looking backward. So you look, how did this person perform in the past? The development talk is the opposite. So the most important part of the. Development talk is the future. Where does the person want to be in the future?

And it has nothing to do with the outcome of the company or where the company wants to be. The goal of this is, and why, why do this personal development talk? I believe that if we are developing people in organizations beyond what the organization needs, they will contribute more to the company. They will contribute better.

So the goal of what I'm doing with development talks is finding out what the people desire and going deeper into that. And we will have a look at that in the next couple of slides. And then look, what are the different tasks of the organizations that fit the person and what the person wants to be. And then you marry these two things.

And then it works as well from a performance evaluation perspective. So that's my perspective on development talk and performance evaluation. Let's go into personal development talk a couple of, I think it's almost two years ago or something. I've developed this in as, as a worksheet. So if anyone is interested in getting this worksheet as a PDF.

Happy to share that. So, the starting point of a development talk is really a setup of the atmosphere and the place. So you are going to do a development talk with another person. So you are the manager and the, the other person is like reporting to you and then you're meeting up. So what you need to make sure of is that you have, an appropriate place.

The best case is always doing this outside of the office environment in a. In a place where people feel well, the atmosphere is super important. The time of the day is important, not doing it on Friday afternoon, for example, when people want to go on the weekend, of course, you need to be aware of your relationship with the other person, depending on how deep your relationship is.

You of course have then a perspective on how deep you can go. And how much that is. And then what is important as well is that you put the note-taking responsibility to the person that is inside the room or is working with you. So me as a leader, I always give the note taking responsibility for the other person because then you see what they understand and what they get out of that.

And then I always do as well. A version in front of us so that people understand this. So printing out this worksheet as an example, if you do that in a physical space, then you print it out and then you go into the development talk. And the starting point of the development talk goes really wide.

Looking into what's the personal vision like. I always ask these as open questions without showing them the worksheet in the beginning. Who do you want to be? And that's very, very, very wide. Like, who do you want to be? What does it mean? Some people who have never had a conversation like this, struggle with this.

So they start with, yeah, I want to be a manager. I want to be something specific. So they go very, very, very specific and they don't really look into the future. So the first round of this, I just, Help them to find out who they want to be and they write down, they write down a manager. I want to be a good father.

I want to be whatever they come up with. And then I go to the next question and I show them the next question, not before. So why do you want to be that person? So then they're reflecting on the answers they have given and then they go back and refine who they want to go to be. And that's an interesting process because what.

You as the manager that is holding this development talk are doing, you're literally shutting up and just asking open questions to tell me more. How, how does that feel? What does that look like? What would that look like in the future? So you only ask open ended question when that gets the person talking and reflecting.

So if you're saying this, what does it mean? So, and then they're explaining, explaining, and they go in a loop between who am I going to be? And why do I want to be that person? So until they have clarity, and the first loop is always. The starting point where they don't know what's going to come, then who am I going to be?

They come up with high-level topics and then they go, Why do I want to be that person? Then they go back to Who am I going to be? And then they go deeper. And I always then give them a perspective. Okay, think about five years, 10 years from now, who do you want to be? And then they go more particular in all of these things.

And then we go, we don't close this, we keep it, we put it aside. And then we go to the next sheet, which is a personal development map. So I want them again to reflect on certain questions. And it doesn't matter in the order, I just take them clockwise right now. But it's really going and answering the specific questions.

What do I want to learn? So you're asking this, the person that is in front of you. So what do you want to learn to be that person? So linking it back to that person of the future. And then you're asking, what do you want to improve? And then they come up with things. So it's, it's like writing down the, all the different topics and then what do I want to leave behind?

And then they come back with topics that they want to leave behind. Another question is what excites you? Yeah. And then going deeper into this, who is important to them? And then what is important to them? And when you have done this circle, you go around it and they were deeper in this topic.

What quite often happens then if you ask them, so how, if we go back to the other one, is that still the same thing you want to be? Because they have now clarified what they want to be. and answer the question, they go back to this one and then clarify, no, no, no, I want to be this, I want to be this. What I always ask them, in this part is to paint a picture.

So when, when we have finished with this one, I go back to this one. And say, from a personal vision perspective, imagine a picture and describe the picture that you see on the wall. And then they describe to me who they want to be and who they are going to strive to be inside of a picture and explain everything that is around them.

I've had, for example, a person that told me where they are going to live, what, how it feels, um, in this picture, where the kids in this picture, where the wife or husband and, and going really into details and then linking this to. A job perspective as well, because in the end, we are at least this part is in a job environment.

So they are linking that to the job environment of who they're going to be working with as well. So these two are super powerful. And then you go into the next step, which is a goal perspective. So it starts with the staircase. So in the top right corner, we have what is the goal. And the starting point is really, um, defining that goal.

So if you want to be this person in five years, what is the goal for the next year for you to be very specific? And of course, you can do smart goal setting and all of that, but it's in the end, What does feel right for that person? What is the development goal they want to reach in one year from now?

And then they formulate that goal. And then you go to the bottom of this page where you look into where do you stand today on a scale from one to 10. So they're rating themselves on how close are they to that goal. If they're close, then they're at 10 or 9. If they're far away, then they're at 1. And what always happens is they're somewhere in between, obviously.

So when they have rated that, then you look into what are the things that get you closer to that goal, meaning moving your scale from 5 to 10. And that's what they are writing down above the stairs. So, above the stairs are the things that are getting them closer to their goal. And then they're defining this in bullet points and formulating that out.

And [you do that obviously all in a conversation. You ask the person who is doing the development talk, you are asking them questions to get them moving. You're asking them clarifying questions about the topics that are put, into the sheet. And then the next part is, what are the things that getting you further away from that goal?

So downstairs, if you think at it from a staircase perspective, and then they're writing these things down and then they have a clear picture of a goal staircase where they, they know they want, where they want to be linking that to the vision that's five years from now and the goal picture, and then they rate themselves.

And have then clear understanding of that are the things I need to do to get to my goal and that are the things I should not be doing. And then the last step of the development talk is getting specific. So now we zoom into one year and actionable goals that help them or tasks that get them towards the one-year perspective.

So what are the things they're going to do? When are they going to do this? What do they need to make happen to be able to do this? What are the things they need help with and how I'm, how they going to measure them? So it's a very, very simple setup where they write down literally the different steps that help them to get there.

And they're putting measurable goals towards the goal. And this is roughly. I would say one and a half hours, even if we go through this right now in a theoretical setting in, let's say 15 minutes in a real conversation, in a coaching style, where you ask the manager or coach the other person to find out what they are desiring and where they want to be.

It takes roughly one and a half hours if you do that well, sometimes it's faster depending on the relationship as well. The fascinating thing with this is it has zero to do with the company you work in and one hundred percent to do with who they want to be. And as well as zero to do with you as their manager, if you're their manager, like your perspective, your opinion on anything of that.

Um, just to give you a couple of examples, I've had people that told me that they want to be. building their own company in the next five years and they worked in the company and I was their manager they told me because they trusted me that they wanted to build their own company and we built a plan for how they were going to build their own company and I've had situations where people told me that they want to get married in the next five years and then we built a plan to get them towards marriage getting married and looked into how that does that work with the career perspective same with kids and all the other things so this is a development tool you That I use with everyone that is working with me over time because I believe that as further we as managers and organizations help people to develop as better it is.