Hello, and welcome to another episode of the Working Conversations podcast, where we talk all things leadership, business, communication, and the future of work. I'm your host, Dr. Janel Anderson.

A few months ago, my daughter was taking a career exploration class in high school. She needed an example of a resume, and she asked me for a copy of mine. Now, as a small business owner, I hadn't updated my resume in years. And I don't just mean it was a little outdated. I mean it was a time capsule from another era.

The formatting screamed early 2000s, and half of the job titles weren't even relevant anymore. I cringed, then I laughed. And then I asked her to ask her dad for a copy of his instead. He works at a corporate job and has a much more up to date resume than I did. But here's the thing. We don't notice when something we rely on has gone stale. Whether it's a resume, a website, a presentation, or even the way we run a meeting. What worked in the past doesn't necessarily work today.

And yet we resist updating things. Maybe it's because we think it's good enough, or because revising something that technically still functions doesn't feel urgent. Or, let's be honest, maybe it's because someone isn't yet asking for a revision, and until they do, we don't put forth the effort. But in a world that's constantly changing, if we don't evolve and change, we become irrelevant. Now, today I want to take you behind the scenes of something that I'm in the middle of revising. And no, it's not my resume, it's my keynote. Reconnecting in a Disconnected World. It's been my most popular talk to date, but even a great keynote needs an update, especially in a rapidly changing environment.

Now, I'll walk you through what I'm changing, why I'm changing it, and how you can apply the same revision mindset to your own work, even if, and especially if it's not speaking that you do. All right, so why did this keynote need an update in the first place? Well, I speak on the future of work, so my content constantly needs tweaking and updating. But sometimes, when my schedule is jam packed, like it has been recently, ironically delivering the same content that needs the tweaking and updating, it can get overlooked or not done as often as I'd like. Now, in my area of expertise especially, even the most successful keynotes must evolve. Do I have the latest research? Do I recognize some changing trends in my audience? Do I see shifting Trends in the workplace. Yes, to all of the above. Those right There are top of mind reasons why things need to be updated regularly. Now, on the other hand, there are peers of mine who have given the same keynote for years, decades, even just the one keynote on the one topic.

And they've delivered it hundreds, if not thousands of times. And putting in those repetitions, they have perfected their performance. I can think of a handful of highly successful peers of mine who fit this description, and I admire their work tremendously. They are masters of the craft now. The downside for them, however, is that the same audience won't have them back to deliver that same speech. Now, my audiences often have me back for an encore presentation, typically on a different topic or a topic that's been completely updated, like the one I'm working on now. With as fast as things change in the future of work, the same keynote title could be drastically a different speech from one year to the next, simply by swapping out outdated research for the latest findings. And I do that.

But this time it's different. I'm not just updating and refreshing the research, I am tearing the keynote down to the studs and rebuilding it to be a far better version of itself. So let me take you behind the scenes and tell you what is changing in the keynote and why. So we'll cover what stays, what goes, and what is new entirely. In fact, let's start with what's new entirely, because that's kind of fun. It's a brand new structure. So the speech is still organized around three big ideas, but only one of them is the same. And even within that one that's the same, there's new stories, there are new research pieces, there's all kinds of new things going into that one piece that is the same.

Now, the three main ideas are now framed as questions, questions that the audience members can use directly in their own professional development when they get back to the office. Three questions that are going to challenge them to think differently about how we connect with one another in a world that's mediated by smartphone screens and computer screens. That's the world where we need to build, grow and sustain our relationships. And it's different when we're doing it through screens versus face to face. It's fundamentally different. Now there are new research pieces that I'm incorporating, new insights that I'm incorporating, and a new application of those insights and that research. New stories, new anecdotes, new audience interactions that get people applying the content before the session is even over. Can you tell? I'M really excited about it.

I'm totally excited about it. Now there are some pieces then that I am also keeping now. They might not stay in the same spot. So some messages and themes are timeless. Now there is still part of this whole speech that hinges on the whole idea of loneliness and how we have been become so disconnected in the world as of late. So that premise, that general premise still stays, but instead of it being part of one of the main points, it's going up into the introduction just to get people's interest in the topic. So that's shifting around, but I'm keeping it. Now there are some other messages and themes that are timeless.

So as I look at the content, I ask myself what still holds true? And so there are two pieces of content apart from the loneliness that really do hold true in this. And the first is Affinity Bias and my Affinity Bias test that still belongs in this keynote. Now if you're not familiar with my Affinity Bias test, check out episode 157. It's called exposing Affinity Bias to Create a Fair and Just Workplace. And we'll link that up for you in the show notes for this episode. And you can find those show notes for this episode at janelanderson.com/204 for episode 204, which is what this is. Now, I'm also keeping the concept of curiosity as being an antidote to to being disconnected or not liking people not having affinity for them. It is really a superpower in cultivating new relationships.

Now I've got some timeless wisdom around how to harness your curiosity to connect with just about anyone. But I've also got new stories and new anecdotes and new exercises around curiosity. So even what's staying is changing. All right, now for the big question. What goes by the wayside? Now for those of you who are listening, who are not speakers or not authors or writers or people who create presentations for your work, this may sound strange, but cutting material is by far the hardest part of revising a speech. That's right. You heard me right. Cutting material is by far the hardest part.

Oftentimes you're forced to cut stories or anecdotes that you love, stories that worked, lines that you know will get a laugh from the audience, favorite stories and favorite bits, maybe audience interaction pieces that are near and dear to the speaker and the author's heart. But maybe they don't support the overall message anyway anymore, or the new direction that things are going, or at least as well as something else could. Again, it may sound foreign, but this is by far the hardest part. Now, over 20 years ago at the National Speakers association summer conference, and that is my professional development community, Joe Calloway, one of my speaker colleagues, gave a main stage presentation where he encouraged everyone in the audience to re examine their material critically, like under a microscope, and to update it. To be fair, he was also urging the audience to do that with their whole business model, not just a specific speech, but the advice stands for the revision of a speech as well. So what do you need to let go of to make the rest more powerful, more poignant, more provoking, more potent? What do you need to let go of? So Jo's speech was titled Success Means Letting Go of what Used to Work. And inherent in the title is the rub. It used to work.

The audience loved it, the speaker loved delivering it, because it worked. And it is so hard, so painfully hard to let go of what worked, because it worked. Or maybe it still is working, believe me. And maybe you can tell from the tone of my voice it is absolutely agonizing. You see, there's only so much that fits in a 60 minute keynote, literally. It consists of this. It's a provoking introduction and a powerful close that gets people to take action. And in between that introduction and that closing, there are three main points that need to touch people's hearts and minds.

They need to be illustrated by stories and anecdotes, and they need to be accompanied by actionable strategies. So if you want to include any new material, which I must, then things have to go. And some of those things worked, have worked well, have excited the audience again, gotten a laugh, or been an audience interaction between me and them or and them, that worked. It's hard to let go of what worked, but you have to if you want to make way for something better. All right, now let me take you behind the scenes a little bit so that you can understand what my process looks like. So here are the nuts and bolts I'm going to walk through how I revise a speech. So first I went through this speech slide by slide, story by story, point by point, cataloging all of the main points, the sub points, the stories, the anecdotes. And of course, there are different stories and anecdotes used for different industries and different types of audiences.

Senior leaders versus accountants versus healthcare finance professionals. Different stories are going to resonate with each of those audiences in different ways. And then of course, there's the research, the statistics, the pieces of research that have been published in academic publications, in trade publications, and so on. So there's all the research pieces, stories, the anecdotes, everything. So everything goes each on its own, post it note. Each story, each anecdote, each statistic, each piece of research, each goes on its own post it note again, even the tools that I teach, the practical, actionable steps that audience members can use to put this in action in their own lives. Lives that goes. Each one, each of those tools goes on a post it note.

Then I figure out the new structure. Now, I already talked about the new structure. It's organized around these three questions. It's so exciting. It's just absolutely lighting me up. I can't wait for the first delivery of it, which isn't coming up for, oh, a good four to six weeks. So I've got time to do the rest of the work that I'm going to share with you here. Okay, so the new structure, which I already know what it is, and then it becomes like a match game.

Does anything on any of those post it notes still work in this new structure? Now here is where I have to be incredibly discriminating, incredibly discerning. I have to, with really almost the eye of an outsider, let go of everything that worked before and piece by piece, post it note by post it note. And again, this is the painful part because there are so many post it notes. And I have to say, does it fit in the new structure? And not just does it fit in the new structure, but is it the most powerful statistic, story, anecdote, industry explanation, industry application? Is it the best one? It's exhausting work. It is emotionally exhausting work, okay, because here's what happens. Not very many pieces fit when you are ripping it down to the studs and rebuilding it. And then this is where some of the exciting stuff comes because then there's the new research, the new case studies, the new tools for application, the new stories, the new industry examples. All of the new stuff then goes in and again, that's right.

That's right where I'm at right now. I have torn it down to the studs. And honestly, there were like three post it notes from everything that actually fit and were relevant and were the best pieces to include in the new version of Reconnecting in a Disconnected World. Only three. It kind of breaks my heart, but at the same time it kind of excites me because it's going to be so fresh, so new, so exciting, and I can't wait to deliver it. Okay, so back to finding all those new research, the new research, the new case studies, and so Forth and piecing that all together. It's a bit of like a jigsaw puzzle. I mean, some of it very logically fits into this point as opposed to that point.

And some of it is like, well, I could put this here, but it could fit here. Do I open with this statistic? Do I close this section with this statistic or this call to action or this tool or this audience interaction? So it's really a jigsaw puzzle where there is not necessarily a right answer. There is an answer that's better than another answer, but there's not necessarily a right answer. So it's a lot of shifting and juggling and then revise, revise, revise. We spend a lot of time in the revision because once you start actually practicing the speech, delivering it segment by segment, you go like, oh, that didn't quite flow, or that's probably not the right research to use there. Is there something newer, better, different, better for a specific industry? And so then the messy part of revision comes along, and I find myself then in the messy middle of cleaning it up and revising and tweaking. All right, once I get it to pass my sniff test, where I think it smells pretty good, now it's time to test it with friends and colleagues and sample audiences who will tell me the truth. Now, that is the critical part.

The ones who will tell me the truth. I don't want to just put it in front of somebody who goes, oh, yeah, that's great. No, I want to know, does this work? Does this need to be improved? Does this need to be rehearsed more? Does this flow well? And so on. And I need to ask those questions not only of myself, but again, of people who I trust until that new speech is ready for primetime. Now, once it's ready for primetime, there's still going to be adjustments. I will adjust based on the type of audience, the industry, and so forth. And then again, I will adjust based on the audience's reactions after I begin to give that revised version. And there will continue to be tweaks.

In fact, there's always tweaks. If you've heard me give the same presentation. Sometimes I'm invited in to give, like, half of the employees one day and then the other half of the employees the next day, because they can't all be away from their desks on the same day. If you happen to be the person who hired me and you heard the speeches back to back one day after the next, you still know that they're not exactly the same, because I'M playing off of the audience's energy and feeding off of the examples and the stories and so on that they're sharing. And so it's never the same twice. Exactly. But at the same time, in the early iteration process, there can be many more things that change based on audience's reaction. Because maybe what I thought was funny or what I thought was going to get a good laugh or be really poignant fell flat.

So I am in tune with my audience on that. Always constantly changing and adapting based on what works and what doesn't. Now, in all of this is the trade off of giving up what used to work and maybe still is working, but know you need to change it in order to keep it fresh, in order to innovate. So this is really, really a critical part of, you know, feeling the rub of all of the things, not all of the things that used to work. Right, but most of the things that you used to work that you just need to freshen up because, you know, it's a changing world. All right, now I want to bring this back to you because most of you listening do not create and deliver keynotes. You might be writers of some sort. You might write for industry publications, trade publications, you might write reports at your work, but most of you probably don't even do that much writing.

So let's just talk about other ways in which you can use this framework and use the ideas that I've shared here to apply to your life and your work. Now, even if you don't give keynotes, even if you don't write, you communicate, you lead meetings, you pitch ideas, you have one on one meetings with your employees. So how can you take a similarly iterative approach to your own work? How can you, just like Joe Calloway said, how can you take that lesson that success means letting go of what used to work and put it to the test in your own life. So let me ask you this. What in your professional life might be in need of a refresh? Maybe it's your resume, Maybe it's your LinkedIn profile. Are you still describing yourself the way you did five years ago? I'm guessing your skills, your priorities and what you do on a day to day basis have probably evolved in ways that maybe haven't been captured yet in your LinkedIn profile or your resume. Maybe you have changed jobs and you haven't updated either one of those two things. Or for those of you who do present as part of your work, maybe it is a presentation that you give all the time.

Maybe it's a sales pitch that you give to customers, potential customers that you're calling on. Maybe it's, you know, the team update or a client pitch or a monthly report out on something. Are you still using the same slides? You know, the comfortable slides? Are you still telling the same stories, relying on the same delivery style, sharing the same data? Or maybe the updated data for this quarter, but still it's the same. If you had to give that presentation to an entirely new audience tomorrow, or you had to give an entirely new presentation to the same audience tomorrow, how would you go about it? Maybe it's the way you run meetings. Are they still structured for how your team worked pre pandemic? Or maybe even how your team worked during the pandemic? Have you updated the process to reflect this post pandemic world that we're living in? Do your meetings encourage real time collaboration? Or are they just an obligatory hour that your staff needs to suffer through? To put not too fine a point on it now, the reality is everything that we do in our work is a living document. We need to treat it as a draft in progress all the time. Just like software needs updates and books go through new editions, our professional communication, whether that be written communication, spoken communication, how we run meetings. That means revision too.

So here is my challenge to you and your application of this content. Find one thing that you can update this week. Maybe it is something small, like tightening up an email template that you send all the time. Or maybe it's something bigger. Maybe it's rethinking how you introduce yourself in a professional setting, or revamping an entire process that your team uses. Or maybe it's that you dust off your LinkedIn profile and freshen it up. Because the truth is, if you're not evolving, you're just standing still. And in today's world, standing still is just another way of literally falling behind.

So again, in the words of Joe Calloway, success means letting go of what used to work. Thank you so much for joining me on another episode of the Working Conversations podcast. If this topic resonated with you, or if you have ideas for future episodes, I would absolutely love to hear from you. And if this topic did resonate with you, I want you to share it with somebody else. Share it with somebody who you think, oh man, I could update something and they could update something and we could hold each other accountable. Maybe that would be a fun game to play. All right, as always, stay curious, stay informed, and stay ahead of the curve. Tune in next week for another insightful exploration of the trends shaping our professional world.

Now, if you learned something today on this podcast or you simply enjoy the content, please. If you haven't already subscribe to my channel over on YouTube, subscribe to the podcast on your podcast platform of choice and follow me over on social media. These are all excellent no cost ways for you to support me and the work that I do in the world. You'll find links to my social media over on the show notes page. janelanderson.com/204 for episode 204 until next time. Keep thriving, keep embracing change and keep iterating and revealing the next new version of what you are capable of. Until next time my friends. Be well.