Hecklers, Rotten Tomatoes, and Distractions
I had a heckler at a live workshop I gave last week. No, he wasn’t booing and hissing, nor throwing rotten tomatoes. Nonetheless, he was a heckler; more of a passive-aggressive type of heckler.
The workshop I gave was on blogging and the value it brings to your business, how to do it from scratch, including not only how to write the articles, get ideas, repurpose, etc., but also the anatomy of a blog – how the pages should look on your website, etc. to make the most of the potential SEO value. And of course, it also included how a blog is the hub around which your entire social media strategy for driving new business revolves. And how to use your blog in this fashion.
I give live workshops pretty regularly. I enjoy giving them because it keeps me current on the issues that business-owners have and it helps me to keep my content relevant and fresh. I also enjoy interacting with people, meeting people and finding out about their businesses. I am always impressed with the business ideas people have. And of course, it’s also instant gratification for me when people come up to me afterwards and tell me the workshop was really valuable, they learned a lot and appreciate it.
Back to the Heckler
So back to my heckler. What was he doing? He apparently has a business that provides social media, website, and blogging services. So why was he at my workshop if he already knows how to do all of this? I think it was probably to try and gain new clients, since obviously people that attended this workshop are interested in learning more about how blogging can increase their traffic, and how to do it.
Therefore, he would raise his hand to ask a question, but the question was always phrased in such a way to show that he had a lot of experience and information on blogging. So, he was actually trying to showcase his knowledge. It made me smile. Why? Well first of all because most of the time, what he said was so technical that it was probably mostly mumbo-jumbo to the majority of the audience. And it made me smile even more because I think it backfired and was essentially just a waste of his time.
My workshops are:
1. Designed to provide step-by-step instructions on how to do something, from beginning to advanced so that people come out of them with the knowledge to do it all themselves. They might decide it is too time-consuming and they’d rather farm the work out, to me or someone else, but at least they do have the knowledge of how it all should work.
2. Designed to start at the beginning, providing information for beginners, in non-technical terms, so that people are not intimidated to get started, nor to ask questions. That way, we are all on the same page, and I know that even people who are experienced learn new things (because they tell me so).
3. Designed to progress through to advanced stages, building upon the beginning steps, always presenting a plan of how to use the information and execute to drive new business, which is the goal, right?
4. Designed to avoid technical jargon. Even at the advanced stages, I still assume people are in the just-getting-started larval stages, or early let-me-improve-what-I-am-doing stages, so I still do not throw deep technology diving at them… My workshops are geared for business owners and their employees whose first job is to run the business, and whose second job is marketing/social media/etc., so time-constraints and priorities are always an issue. I keep this in mind – making things simple. My thought is that if the attendees are beyond this and want the deep-technology dive, they should reach out to me one-on-one.
So, yes, I had a heckler. Did I care? No? Do you have hecklers in your business? Are they trying to rob you of the focus on what should get done first? Are they trying to distract you with technical mumbo-jumbo when you need to master the basics and execute them well first? Don’t be distracted. Plan and execute? Let the noise go on around you, but be blissfully oblivious. I am.
Filed Under : Business Coaching