Frippicism: It is difficult to be creative in isolation.
Collaboration is beneficial in much of what we do. Collaboration works for speakers, especially when we are trying to come up with new or improved speech ideas.
I often brainstorm with copywriting genius David Garfinkel and the two of us used to collaborate with the San Francisco comedy legend, John Cantu when he was alive. At one session, John was just out of the hospital after serious cancer surgery. David and I asked him to describe his experiences. In a few minutes, we were all laughing so hard that I ran and got a tape recorder. “Start over,” I said.
As he talked, David kept adding dramatic effects, and I pointed out key lines of dialogue. When John finished, we had the foundation for a speech called, “Laughing All the Way to the Hospital.” It was full of human interest, funny, and poignant.
Our collaboration was so exciting that, besides the resulting speech, we transcribed the original conversation and turned the experience into a National Speakers Association seminar. We built a set on stage, using hotel furniture to replicate my living room. Then we re-enacted the whole conversation, freezing the action every now and then so that moderator Janelle Barlow could point out what we were doing and the lessons learned. It was an incredible learning experience.
As David Garfinkel says, “We have to populate our stories with flesh and blood characters that our audience can relate to.”
By the way, John Cantu lived five more exciting, vibrant years and contributed many more great ideas to our mutual brainstorming sessions.
Be open to the possibility of collaborating.
You can listen to our efforts on The Story Behind Awesome Storytelling.
David Garfinkel is an award-winning business journalist, co-author of Guerrilla Marketing, and world-class copywriter.
San Francisco comedy legend John Cantu was co-owner and producer of the Holy City Zoo nightclub and wrote for Joan Rivers, Phyllis Diller and the Smothers Brothers. John Cantu shares his comedy-insider strategies to humorous presentations in How to Add Humor to Your Presentations (an easy audio download).
My executive speech coaching clients include corporate leaders, celebrity speakers, well-known sports and media personalities, and sales teams. You can learn many of the public speaking secrets I share with my executive speech coaching clients at the Lady & The Champs Speakers’ Conference in Las Vegas. For information on upcoming public speaking and presentation skills events that are open to the public visit: https://fripp.com/public-speaking-events/
Executive Speech Coach and Hall of Fame Keynote Speaker, Patricia Fripp is hired by individuals and companies who realize that powerful, persuasive presentation skills give them a competitive edge.
