At short notice, Neil Usher asked me to give a short talk at Corenet earlier this year. Neil’s a friend, so I said yes, and worried about it later! The event was filmed, and until this weekend, I’d forgotten that the audio/video team sent me an unedited copy of my session. I stumbled upon it while putting together a speaker proposal for an event taking place next Spring, and having cringed my way through it (does anyone actually like watching themselves on playback?) – I thought I’d share it with you too, I hope you find it useful. The clip clocks in at just over ten minutes, so you might want to grab a beverage of your choice before you start watching.
Footnote. This was the first time I shared a stage with some of my own original artwork.
As always, Doug, this is lovely. I hear what you’re saying about cringing your way through–we never like to watch or listen to ourselves–but I think you did a marvelous job. Isn’t it sad that we can’t seem to do anything but criticize our own performances, even when others like what we do? Just know that those of us who are fortunate enough to know you really appreciate you, your gentle but firm delivery, and your genuine passion for what you do. As you know, you’ve inspired me to find my inner painter and to apply the try-and-fail-and-try-again approach that all artists experience, and I hope that this gives me the impetus to do the same in my work life more and more. In the end, I hope that I will be able to encourage others to do the same, as you do.