talking to the ex head of the british army – elli strikes gold – i lose then find confidence

as i rehearsed my story, which i have told in many guises many many times, i never lose sight of how important preparation is, and by rehearsing the slides before this wednesday’s talk i was giving myself the best chance of success.

this talk, my 16th this calendar year, was different.

my audience was made up of c suite individuals.

this bit doesn’t phase or intimidate me.

it was chaired by general sir peter wall, who was head of the british army in his previous life, but this didn’t scare me.

the reason that i was shaking more than normal was interesting.

it was on zoom.

which meant that at some point i was going to have to navigate my laptops mouse trackpad, hoping for no involuntary twitches sending me to a hot corner or other unplanned destination, in order to share my screen with pete and his crew.

everybody introduced themselves, and there were some huge captains of industry on the call, running eight and nine figure businesses.

pressure indeed, but i always say pressure is privilege.

i am so fortunate to be in a position to address this kind of audience, a factor i was very aware of.

the group introduced themselves individually and talked of their opportunities and challenges both professionally and privately, and it seemed like an extremely powerful group, based in bristol, and the original ultra group in the network.

i listened and wrote notes.

the next point on the agenda was me.

as i was introduced i knew this was going to be testing, and even though i tried to stop my right hand shaking, i couldn’t.

this is what parkinsons does.

it tries to destroy you.

i grabbed my right hand with my left like a naughty child, and guided it to share my screen.

down a bit.

left a bit more

down a bit more.

and we’re in.

i gave my audience trigger warnings, told them about my diagnosis, how it affects my balance, how i shake, and have facial masking, which makes me look like a grumpy bastard, which i actually think i’ve had since i was 14.

comedy gold.

i say this not to show my standup comedic skills, which as you can see are very limited, but to take away any awkwardness.

i notice smiles on a number of the faces.

smiles are confidence boosters.

and through this journey of doing talks, it was only during this morning’s rehearsal that i realised what parkinson’s has done to me.

it has reduced my confidence.

so i told my audience.

not for sympathy.

but for honesty.

parkinson’s really does strip you of stuff, and i needed to share it.

zoom makes it more difficult to gauge people’s responses, but when i regaled stories such as taking moose to number ten downing street, and hiding his ashes behind a radiator, i could see but not hear laughing, which was enough.

i got into a flow, and enjoyed telling the bigmoose story, it makes me proud, and by the end i felt comfortable asking if anybody wanted to join us on our adventure.

therein followed five minutes of the most satisfying feedback, which i won’t share, but nearly brought me to tears, it was a very emotion fuelled time, and the planned one to one sessions with the members going to break out rooms was canceled to allow a longer q & a, which warmed the cockles of my heart.

as we went from question to question, one of the group voiced his thoughts and feelings after listening to the story, and said he would take a bike at project 1 million 2.0 in november, which was a brilliant conclusion to a thoroughly enjoyable morning, and even now, i am astounded at how telling a story can impact another human, who i have never met before, enough to join the bigmoose adventure, and fundraise ten thousand pounds, an incredibly big amount of money.

powerful shizzle.

so, whilst my physical attributes have taken a hit, currently, i can tell a story that makes people laugh, sometimes cry, but hopefully always connect, emotionally.

so, whilst still able, i will recharge my confidence battery, and keep on talking, as the story seems to have power, and rightly so, we are changing and saving lives.

i have emailed sir peter to see if he fancies coffee or lunch, as i would love an audience with him, i feel sure i could learn a lot from him, so watch this space.

man i’m fortunate to have these opportunities.

as well as talking at a screen for my job, i have also had face to face meetings with duncan ‘i just cycled around the world’ covey who signed up for a bike, which is great.

and we had an amazing meeting with a young lady who runs her own spin bike studio, the story of which i am very proud of.

ffion from b42, a new, not yet open studio cold called one of our two new girls elli, inviting her to attend a free spin class.

elli agreed to go to a class, but saw the opportunity to invite ffion into bigmoose for a chat.

50 minutes after crossing the threshold, ffion was having her picture taken as you latest bike signup.

genius work by elli, saw an opportunity and took action, bravo.

to wrap up this weeks blog, we had some beautiful feedback from a client who became our 111th life saved, how cool is this.

have a great week, thanks for reading,

blue skies,

jeff

p.s. thanks to pedro for signing up to a bike last week, becoming our 11th of the week, it was a big week!