Earlier this year I gave my first major keynote at a national conference. After scripting the whole thing in my head all day I got up on stage and went a little off script which I have previously blogged about.

I didn’t know how it was going to go over until now. I just got the feedback from the conference organisers and have been blown away by the response I got and the comments.

I think the moment I became interested in start-ups was the moment I got bored in university and started doing my own research and learning.

The first start-up I was interested in was something Reid Hoffman, the founder of LinkedIn, has called The Start Up of You. I spent a couple of years building a personal brand and even an alter ego. Whilst that was successful and opened several career doors that others didn’t know existed I wanted to work on something bigger than just me.

So that’s when I got involved in the social entrepreneurship start up space. I feel very lucky to say that I got to work with an awesome team of inspiring young Australian men as together we co-founded the men’s mental health campaign Soften The Fck Up and then the company behind that Spur Projects.

2013 is a year of firsts for me where I’ll challenge myself like never before (I’ve moved to the other side of the world). I recently applied to attend the Do Lectures in Wales; an event has intrigued me for a while now. The Guardian named it in the top 10 ideas festivals in the world  & described it as a mash up of SXSW and Burning Man. The way that it is run means you’ll take as much away from the location, the people and the experience as you will from the actual speakers.

The first challenge was being accepted for a place, which I can assure you wasn’t easy. The hardest part was probably the fact that you had to handwrite your whole application!

The application was made up questions like who are you in 50 words or less, draw a doodle of yourself, when did you last inspire yourself (not including the doodle) and what do you do for fun to name a few. Each question is worthy of its own blog post that I’m sure I’ll get around to in due course.

So here is my preview of what I’m looking forward to most at Do Lectures 2013:

• The serenity (we are sleeping under the stars!)
• The location
• A small handful of inspiring people in the same location for a few days – that’s where the magic happens

What separates this conference from the plethora of other amazing ones out there is due to the location being quite hard to get to, all of the speakers stay for the duration of the conference. So rather than being forced to try come up with every question you have for the speaker in a one hour slot and then hoping they pick you if your game enough to put your hand up, this format allows you to genuinely build relationships with speakers over a couple of days.

I was sparked into life by a conference last year to revamp my blog and use it to showcase the new direction I’m heading in both my career and my writing and I’ve got a feeling that The Do Lectures will have a big impact on my career moving forward as well.

Unlike the majority of the world I feel more comfortable up on stage speaking to hundreds of people then attempting to strike up conversation with just one person. Preparing for an hour long keynote involves identifying my subject, summarising my key points, working out what stories I want to tell and the journey the audience are going to go on and then finally putting together my slide deck that complements my story telling style of presenting. 

As I was the last speaker of the day I had spent the whole day running over the session in my head, I even skipped out on the employee relations talk to run over it outside, all of this to make sure that I met my own lofty standards of being the best presentation at the conference. 

Then something happened that threw all my planning and preparation out the window. The speaker before me got up and said to the crowd how she was extremely nervous and doesn’t present like this often and you could hear how nervous she was as she stuttered out how nervous she was. 

Her hour long talk was about mental illness in the workplace and how organisations and in particular HR departments can support employees who go through tough times. Readers of this blog would have read about the work I’ve done in the mens mental health space and how I am an advocate for breaking down the stereotypes and stigma around having mental health conversations. The audience was silent throughout the whole talk, surprised at the stats associated with mental health in Australia.

One half of me was proud that this topic was being discussed in front of HR Managers as it’s a topic that doesn’t get discussed enough. The other half of me was saying there is no way that I can follow my script of getting up in front of an audience and going straight into keynote mode with 5 minutes of self-depreciating humour & laughter in order to get the audience on side and trusting a 24 year old. 

So after 6 hours of nervously waiting for my time to talk, I get nervous before every talk I give even if I’ve given it 20 times before, and running through my head the opening 10 minutes of my talk I threw all of that out the window. 

I quickly ran up the back of the conference hall and asked the AV manager to queue up a video that wasn’t apart of my presentation and I’d let him know when to play it. 

Then I stood up in front of the audience and commended the previous speaker for talking when all she wanted to do was be in the audience and then to talk so bravely about a subject that doesn’t get brought up enough. I asked the audience to commend her for her strength. Then to add a real element to her talk I put my hand on my heart and spoke about how in my short working life that I’ve called up EAP programs to ask for help, I’ve seen my GP to discuss my own health and how nobody should be ashamed for reaching out and asking for help. 

I then showed the audience the ‘better if you’re around video’ that I helped put together with the amazing team at Spur Projects and asked the audience one thing, that if they take nothing away from my actual presentation that they share this video with a brother, uncle, father or colleague in their life. 

I then came up and managed to give one of the most enjoyable and natural talks I’ve given to date and felt so in command and in control of everything up on stage. 

Speaking in front of a large audience is a privilege and one that I never take for granted. To be allowed to inform and inspire a large audience is one thing, but to be able to get up there and help tell somebody else’s story is even more powerful. 

Now I feel extremely lucky to be able to travel for work and get to see different parts of this amazing country as apart of my job whilst doing work that I love. But after a while the airports, planes and taxi’s can all feel the same. Until sometimes out of nowhere you can be totally shocked.

Being quite a social person I quite enjoying talking to new people, but these days more than ever most cab drivers are either talking to someone else on the phone or listening to the radio etc. So it took me by complete surprise when my taxi trip to the airport felt more like a philosophy lesson than going from a to b. I had to do a double-check that I hadn’t just hopped in with Alain De Botton.

I turn to my cab driver and say domestic airport please and sort of slump into my chair after a busy and productive day. The driver turns to and asks me to sum up my day in three words. Straight away this conversation is different to nearly every other one I’ve had with a cab driver this year. I quickly blurted out ‘Good, Long & Busy.’

He takes a second to think about it and then hits me with this. “Good is an ok answer. It’s not the best answer you could have given but good is definitely better than bad. Busy and long means you are both wanted and important. Which means your organisation needs you, which is good for someone so young. All of that means you have job security. Which means you can pay your bills. So you should be happy.”

I was now sitting up straight in my seat and taking this all in as the Sydney CBD was fading into the distance. Who would have thought that all that could be taken from something as simple as my 3 word summary of my day. Something as simple as a one minute conversation completely changed my whole afternoon and rather than having a nap or reading a magazine on the way home I found myself writing away full of inspiration.

So after reading this ask yourself how you sum up your day in 3 words and what would you take from it?

The first half of the year was a crazy blur of work and projects that I’m really proud of. I started the year by sharing a beautiful beach house with some amazing people as we took some time out to work on the strategy and plan for Soften The Fck Up and Spur Projects. It was the perfect way to start the year by feeling both refreshed and inspired. This led to the creation of our latest video campaign, which I was lucky enough to be able to work on behind the scenes during the two days of filming. We then launched the campaign later this year with grass roots style launch parties in Melbourne, Sydney and in Brisbane. It was so incredibly awesome to see something that we are all so passionate about come to life and share it with the world. I also spoke at each of the events and shared my own story of how I had to practice what I preach and Soften The Fck Up, which was a tough but important story to share.

2012 was also a huge year for me on the day job front. In August 2011 I took on a 3 day a week contract to provide some consultative advice about social media for a large global organisation based in Australia. Over the past 12 months I’ve been able to grow that role into a permanent position heading up all the Digital Strategy and Marketing. Stepping into a role like this was not something that I expected to do so soon in my career but before I could even ask myself the question am I ready for this I found myself presenting on risk management to executive, travelling all around the country speaking in front of Hospital CEO’s and Managers, running training sessions for hospital staff, speaking at external health care conferences & doing 1 on 1 mentoring with key executive members. I’ve been also very lucky to work with some truly amazing people that have given me the inspiration to do the work that I do and a big thanks goes out to my personal board of advisors for their continued support.

For those who have seen me speak before it’s safe to say that I feel more comfortable up on stage in front of a large audience then I do behind a desk all day, which I’m sure, is the opposite for quite a few people. My first speaking highlight for the year was being asked to present a case study of my work with Ramsay Health Care, all the major health care groups were there in attendance trying to work out what to do in the social media space and I was already presenting a case study on what we’ve done at Ramsay. In writing and preparing my talk for this conference I actually stepped back and realised how much we’ve achieved in such a short space of time. It’s so easy to get caught up in the moment, especially in the 24/7 digital space, that you can sometimes forget the journey that you’ve been on. But my main speaking highlight was definitely the chance to go back to QUT to do several talks. I had the chance to guest lecture in both the Bachelor and Masters of Business programs about the Future of HR & Recruitment which was great fun.

QUT also gave me the chance to have what I’d like to say a full circle moment. In 2009 I was nominated for a School of Management Award for my work as the President of the QUT HR Student Group. I remember it like it was yesterday, sitting there all nervous with excitement and anticipation. QUT had asked me to open up the event as a previous winner and student of QUT to talk about my journey since university. I spoke about my unconventional approach to university, my lifelong learning journey, why learning to be an effective speaker will be far more beneficial then a post-graduate degree and reminding them that not even an average GPA is enough to stop them from achieving anything they set their mind to. It was by far the most rewarding and humbling speech I’ve ever given.

So after reflecting on the year that has passed I’m actually really proud of everything that I’ve put my name to. Whilst I really enjoy my work it’s also important to take some time out, for me that time out is jumping on a plane and exploring a different part of the world. In August of 2012 I took some time out to go explore the West Coast of America. The three weeks felt like 3 months, the friendships that I formed in 10 days on a tour felt like they’d been formed for over 10 years and the experiences that I shared will never be forgotten. I also fell in love during this trip, I fell in love with San Francisco. At the end of the whirlwind tour of the West Coast I decided to book 3 nights in San Francisco and then not book anything else during my final week in America to see if I loved it or not. It’s fair to say that I definitely fell in love. It’s a city of young people with grand visions to change the world and have a great time whilst doing it. I know it’s only a matter of time before I find myself back there.

It’s pretty easy to see that this blog also went pretty quiet in the second half of this year. Some of that had to do with the fact that I was transitioning out of a career in HR and into a career as a Digital Strategist and I didn’t know how to transition this blog. So to try get some clarity on my writing I flew down to Melbourne and attended the ProBlogger Blogging conference. Yes that’s right, there are blogging conferences. It was during a conversation with two lovely young ladies from Melbourne that also worked in the Digital Strategy space that it all became a lot clearer for me. I realised that the vast majority of my posts actually had little to do with HR as a subject. But rather they were talking about my journey as a student, or my unconventional approach to tackling learning, university, career challenges and I wrote mostly because I have a thirst for knowledge and sharing.

So I spent the second half of the year stepping back a bit to really ask myself what are the interests and topics that make me want to write and write until I have to upgrade my Evernote account! This stepping back process was also a result of a relationship break up in September of 2012. Sometimes you have to step back in order to step forward so whilst I was coming to terms with the fact that my girlfriend of two years and I had broken it up it gave me the perfect chance to reflect.

This reflection allowed me to assess what’s important to me and what are the things in my life that make me truly happy. After allowing myself to step back and give myself the space to just be me I soon realised that the majority of my happiness came from the places that I wasn’t actually focusing my attention on. So in 2013 these are some of the topics and conversations that I’ll be writing about more and I hope you’ll join me on this new journey.

• The use of emerging technology to attract, inspire, retain and entertain our employees.
• How to work in a state of flow
• Unconventional approaches to lifelong learning
• Life as a digital strategist
• Travel hacking your way to more aha moments
• Why the potential of our people is hidden in plain sight
• Sharing this crazy journey of mine through self-depreciating humour and stories

Here’s an excerpt:

600 people reached the top of Mt. Everest in 2012. This blog got about 10,000 views in 2012. If every person who reached the top of Mt. Everest viewed this blog, it would have taken 17 years to get that many views.

Click here to see the complete report.

It was around this time that I started to network with a range of interesting people who were working on projects in the ‘social entrepreneurship’ space. Whilst I was fully aware of the interesting projects in the start-up space I hadn’t heard a lot about social entrepreneurship.

The statistics are simple and shocking, suicide is the leading killer of Australian men. 80 per cent of all suicides in Australia are men.

A new campaign is encouraging men to open up and have the tough conversations with each other in order to make it easier for men to take action then to suicide.

“Better if you’re around” is the name of the campaign out of Australia by the Spur Projects team. 

I’ve had the privilege to work as the Director of Operations for Spur Projects and help coordinate the filming of the video over one busy weekend in Brisbane earlier this year.

This is one of several reasons why my blog has been a little neglected of late as I’ve been so busy ‘making things happen’ that I haven’t even had a chance to document it!

I’d love to hear your feedback about the video and the campaign.

I had different titles for each of the different projects I was commencing. These included titles such as a social entrepreneur, digital strategist, director of operations & consultant. Now I think it’s important to point out that I never expected to transition careers so early in my working life but my passion for lifelong learning, or #eternalgeekery as someone calls it, always meant that my eyes would wander from time to time.

This is a topic that I’ve wanted to explore for quite some time & that I haven’t covered on my site before. Luckily I was recently approached by Mel Gleeson, a student from RMIT in Melbourne, who was looking at the topic of career transitions. The following is an interview that I did as apart of her assignment.

As increased professional competition for top jobs remains tight, young professionals need a detailed plan to build and maintain influence at work. Possessing the knowledge to excel, coupled with a positive professional persona can help you gain the competitive edge.

Top executives are not made overnight. They get to where they are through a long history of careful decisions and years of hard work. Here are some pointers for making sure your efforts to build influence cover all the basics.

Build and Maintain a Public Persona that Perpetuates Success

It is important to make sure that your coworkers see you as a professional. Pay attention to your social media posts. What you post outside of work will reflect on your reputation. The same idea applies to spending time with coworkers outside of work. It can help with networking, but set limits to alcohol consumption. One night of overindulging can lead to countless water cooler talks about how you fell of the stage during karaoke. You want your colleagues to respect you, so you have to behave accordingly. Always refrain from gossip or speaking negatively about coworkers, as this will only serve to reflect poorly on you.

Building an authoritative and responsible reputation isn’t only about what not to do. It requires proactive measures as well. Seek out professional opportunities, attend conferences and join professional associations. Start a blog about your field or look for a mentor. Be willing to put in extra hours, but also be aware of maintaining a healthy balance to support sustained stamina. Getting positive attention for your work efforts will go a long way towards building influence.

Communicate Professionally

Communicating with text jargon and abbreviations may be acceptable among your friends, but it isn’t for the office. When communicating with colleagues at work always use proper language and grammar. Using word like “whatevs” will not impress your colleagues. Take time to proofread correspondence before you send it. Add attachments before beginning an email so you don’t forget later, and post addresses last to avoid sending incomplete email notes. Use phone or in-person communication when delivering sensitive information to show a more mature level of commitment to the team.

Similarly, keep your manner of speaking and appearance dignified as another way to communicate your professional aspirations. Your wardrobe should showcase how committed you are to your career. Look to how your company’s top executives dress and speak for inspiration. However, you must use your discretion. If your boss dresses really causally, that doesn’t necessarily mean you can do the same. High level employees have more freedom, so don’t use their appearance as an excuse to look sloppy at work.

Create a Long Term Strategy to Handle Stressful Situations

Use your mentor to help you devise an effective organizational system and set goals for professional development. As your responsibilities increase, you might get more stressed out than before. Make plans ahead of time to help you manage your new workload. Pace your work with breaks to maintain accuracy and sustained momentum. Document your accomplishments and keep your résumé updated so you will always be ready for opportunity.

Young professionals might have a more difficult time handling conflict than their seasoned colleagues. In the high stress work situations, people might not always be as respectful as you would like. Make sure to take a break and regroup before reacting hastily to a disrespectful coworker. Even if the person is out of line, maintain your composure. An outburst might make you feel better in the moment, but it isn’t worth the damage it can do to your reputation.

Maintain the Highest Ethical Standards

Do not compromise ethics for popularity. A reputation will follow you longer than you think. Be careful to refrain from putting anything in electronic communication that betrays a confidence or reveals sensitive information. Even after being deleted, email can be recovered; anything you type at work is considered your company’s business.

As a young professional, it is important for you to build your personal brand with confidence and authority. Seeking mentoring from highly regarded seasoned professionals, joining professional associations and seeking ongoing career development are all strong ways to stay on the right path to long term success. Using social media and corporate communication channels wisely, maintaining a high regard for peers and exercising best practice standards of ethics will help you build influence that will lead to more opportunities. When you are an executive someday, you can pay it forward by helping to develop the next generation.

This post was provided by Erin Palmer on behalf of the online programs from Villanova University. Villanova offers human resource courses and other programs that help students obtain HR certification. Erin can be reached on Twitter @Erin_E_Palmer.

But today we are going to look at what makes a great recruitment video from an organisations perspective.

Is it…

• Budget?
• Cast and crew?
• Skills of the editor?

In my opinion all of those are irrelevant. Whilst having all of those factors will make a good video there is one thing that will take the video from good to great.

Authenticity. At the end of the video you want the potential candidate knowing more about what the company is really like, what the culture is like & self-selecting whether or not they want to pursue a career with you.

Because at the end of the day isn’t that why you film a recruitment video. To help attract not only the best talent but the talent that really want to work for you.

Let me know your thoughts on this recruitment video filmed by some of their employees recently.

So if you’re thinking of filming a recruitment video I’d suggest that before you think of budget, camera equipment and whose going to edit it and focus your energy on this question. What does our company stand for and how do we demonstrate that to potential candidates.