This week, I delivered a Global Black History Month session for a client I’ve been working with since 2022. The story goes back to 2020, when many organizations were dealing with the racial reckoning following George Floyd’s murder. Sarah saw my MAKERS keynote about the ally skills framework I helped co-created and reached out on LinkedIn, thinking she’d never hear back. We had our first call 10 days later and our first project 60 days later.
My work as a speaker, consultant, and facilitator isn’t possible without partners advocating for me in rooms I don’t yet have access to. And it’s not like I’m speaking about standard business topics like sales and marketing—I’m often steadying the hand of leaders looking to navigate the tumultuous terrain of race, gender, and difference more generally.
I could write a manifesto on the role an external speaker like me plays when being brought in to deliver a timely message, but here are three that have served me:
- Know your audience: When working with an array of constituents across an organization, I will show up differently in a meeting with the CEO than in a meet-and-greet with the organization’s Black ERG (Employee Resource Group). I’m not a different person on these calls, but the message I’m bringing has to address a different set of unspoken needs.
- Share the spotlight: in my address this week, I asked for brief, recorded videos of two employees in the NYC and London offices talking about their career highlights and challenges. The audience loved this format from a stagecraft perspective and in providing global visibility for people who had the courage to speak personally about their professional experiences.
- Read the room: the worst thing you can do as a speaker is offend your host, and the second worst thing is being forgettable. Dancing without a net is my specialty; audiences appreciate it when you take risks.
But mostly, my job is to make the people who hired me 1) look good and 2) feel glad that they brought me in.