Tag Archives: Ignite

137 Books at Ignite

137 Books in One Year Presentation at Ignite / Photo by MNHeadhunterOn Wednesday night I spoke at the Ignite Minneapolis event, as I mentioned earlier, and I survived.

I talked about reading a lot of books and basically just geeked about reading. Good fun. I tried not to be too obnoxious plugging my own book, 137 Books in One Year.

In the end it was great fun. My talk went well, I got some laughs and heard from a lot of folks afterward. It started a lot of conversations about books, which is the whole goal. It’s fun hearing from people who are trying out my book recommendations and loving them.

The Pioneer Press covered the event and I was quoted. The headline, “Ignite Minneapolis gives shy people 5 minutes of fame” makes me feel a bit like the poster boy for the fear of public speaking. But I’ll take it:

“I am usually pretty terrified of public speaking,” said Kevin Hendricks of West St. Paul, who spoke about having read 137 books in a year and writing a book about that feat.

And, unlike other Ignite speakers who feel their fear dissipate when launching into their talks, Hendricks remained petrified throughout.

“My heart rate is up,” he said afterward. “I’m trying to catch my breath. It’s like I went running or something.”

But he said he “got a rush out of it. The timing worked out pretty well, and I had a couple of jokes I could stick in there. It was scary, but I survived.”

Any time you get quoted in the paper and don’t say something too stupid, that’s a win.

While I’m still not a fan of public speaking, I am finding that it’s survivable. I have Darrell Vesterfelt to thank for that. He encouraged me to share at the Speak Conference in 2011 and I grudgingly agreed. I’ve spoken on a few other occasions since then and I think I’m getting used to it. Still terrifies me, but I think it’s one of those things you just have to stare down and do.

Speaking of folks I owe a debt to, I’ve had so many people thank me for the talk or tell me they were watching online. That’s really encouraging. Thanks. My parents were even watching from Kansas and my wife came with me (usually I’m solo on these local business/networking deals). Thanks! I’ve got a lot of people supporting me and cheering me on, and that’s pretty incredible. So thank you.

Video from the event should be posted in a week or two, so if you want to catch my talk (or the other great 5-minute talks), you can.

Speaking at Ignite Minneapolis

Ignite MinneapolisTonight I’m speaking at Ignite Minneapolis. It’s a unique conference where presenters only get 5 minutes. You’re also given 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds. It’s kind of a lightning round approach to presentations and it should both be fascinating and scary.

The topics are all over the map, but the general theme is good ideas. I’ll be talking about how to read a lot, basically drawing on my book 137 Books in One Year: How to Fall in Love With Reading.

I’ll be covering some of my recent favorites, including Ready Player One, The Fault in Our Stars, The Martian and The Time Traveler’s Wife.

I’ll be sharing 10 reading tips roughly pulled from 137 Books in One Year:

  1. Take a book everywhere.
  2. Read it.
  3. Read for you.
  4. If you don’t like it, stop.
  5. Figure out your patterns.
  6. Track your reading.
  7. Have a next book.
  8. Find books.
  9. Share what you read.
  10. Create a habit of reading.

The event should be streaming live so you can watch from home. It starts at 7 p.m. Central and I’m on halfway through the second half (so maybe around 8:30?).

My favorite comment about presenting at the event comes from Julio Ojeda-Zapata: “So scary, so worth it.” That’s about how I feel at the moment, though probably veering into scary. My wife keeps telling me it’s only five minutes. Though they’re either going to be the longest or shortest five minutes of my life.