I’m not sure about you but I always try to push myself outside my comfort zone every once in a while. It makes me learn and it keeps work and life interesting. That said, there are limits. When I joined Google, I was asked in almost every interview, of which there were many, if I ran marathons. Now I’m not sure if this was asked because of the way I looked or because I needed to be a marathon runner to get the job. Those that know me, know that I am no runner.  But it did cross my mind to give it a go, especially if I needed it to get the job! Fortunately, reality kicked in and I never did don my trainers. 

A few weeks ago a client asked if I would participate in a pan-European conference with them.  I agreed, assuming that it involved a stand-up presentation in a large conference venue, something well within my comfort zone. However my assumption was incorrect.  In fact, the client was after a short video presentation which they could broadcast as part of an online interactive event.  And to make life more difficult, I needed to condense a 40 minute presentation to 4 minutes. 

I have been talking about the rise of video as a highly effective communication tool for many years.  Recent research by Forbes shows that a quarter of C level executives prefer to consume information in video than in any other format and TechTarget research tells us that 47% of UK Enterprise IT buyers watched a video on YouTube as part of the information gathering and research process.  So video is very much the media of now.

Apart from a single cameo appearance on the B2B Marketing Awards video, my ‘film’ career was non-existent.  So making a video was very much outside of my comfort zone. 

Firstly, being in front of a camera was challenging: the thought that what I said and the way I said it was going to be widely accessible to anyone around the world with an internet connection was daunting.  Secondly, there was the requirement for every point to be absolutely clear and concise. It’s often the case that you don’t give yourself enough time to prepare properly for communicating a message to an audience. Mark Twain summed it up perfectly when he said ”I didn't have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead”.  Taking the time to condense the content to the core salient points was a tough and, at times, frustrating process.  It was certainly one that took me outside my comfort zone.  That said, it also made me take the time to really consider what my message was, what points I wanted to get across and what was important to the audience. The process was quite cathartic in a way!

So now I am practising what I preach. Using video as a way to clearly take a message to market, making it available via YouTube to reach audiences I could never hope to meet face to face. Check out the end result for yourself and feel free to let me know what you think;

That was this month’s challenge; it’s time to think about next month’s.  You never know, perhaps I will get out the running shoes.