Find your Tribe

By Nic Hayes, Managing Director, Media Stable.

After attending the Professional Speakers Australia 2018 Convention in Brisbane last week, with Media Stable as a sponsor, I was exhausted but have never felt more inspired.

The versatility and range of speakers that attended the conference was quite remarkable. This group of people were all experts in their own right – it comes with the territory when you speak for a living that you will be a subject matter expert. One moment I was speaking to a police officer who has been shot 14 times, the next I was with a branding expert. Another moment I was speaking to a military leader, then a man who didn’t speak for years because of his stutter. There was an international arts director, coaches, a man with no legs, leadership experts, and people who could speak with authority on resilience, motivation and business – all under one roof.

All the speakers who delivered were brilliant, each with their own style and with their unique stage presence. I was mesmerised by the speaking skills of Glenn Cappelli and Ian Stephens. They resonated with intellect, delivery and sense of humour. Pure professionalism just oozes from these gentlemen, fantastic role models for all speakers.

The very candid and emotionally charged presentation from Rabia Siddique was breathtaking. After listening to her story, it wasn’t until we were reminded by Lisa McInnes-Smith to breath, that we all took a breath and could come back to the room. Rabia’s very descriptive and emotionally charged recall of her time spent with her captors is a story I am not going to forget.

And, I could have talked to Robbie Mack for hours.

What I truly enjoyed was the back stories of all the speakers who I spoke to individually. At Media Stable we have worked with many speakers in the past, with varied success. Some have struggled to engage media, others have had off-the-scale interaction with media. What I got from each speaker at the convention was a look at the multiple angles and the different sides to them – this is what is going to get media interest. It was that extra engagement that really helped me see some amazing pathways to getting media for these speakers.

There are so many people that I want to highlight and acknowledge for their generosity of spirit at this event. The smiles, the kind words and the welcome given to me as an outsider by this tribe of people was overwhelming. A huge thank you to Tarran Deane, who really is the reason we made it to the convention. Tarran is a real leader, inspiring, caring and a true character; as the newly appointed PSA president, she will make the role her own.

The biggest lesson for me from this event was: Find your tribe. Get support from those who are aligned and have the same values as you. It was obvious over the weekend that members of the PSA have found their tribe, learn from, lean on and support each other.

I like to think we are doing this at Media Stable for our experts, and I will be working hard to continue to build that kind of culture the PSA have created so beautifully.