First published 25 April 2022 on Your Best Year Starts Here with Nigel Risner.
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Nigel had only just got his voice back, and between that and our diaries we couldn't get a recording done. So this one's a bit different. The opening is stitched together from old episodes, and for a minute I thought about doing the whole twelve minutes as a mashup. Instead I asked him to send me a voice note with an idea in it, the way he usually kicks us off, and I riffed on it on my own.
His note was short. Motivational speakers need motivating too, and anyone who wants to look after other people has to look after themselves first. It took me straight to a line I've written about for years. If you want to be the noun, you have to do the verb. Runners run. Authors write. You can claim the label early (calling yourself an athlete before your first training run is fine), but then you have to keep turning up and doing it.
It also reminded me of a keynote I did a few years back at an event for my friend John Paul. He'd run a day on management and leadership and brought me in near the end to talk about how you can lead others if you don't lead yourself. So most of the episode goes there. Get a vision for yourself before you sell one to a team, and then actually tell people about it. Young companies tell new starters why the business exists all the time. Go into a firm that's twenty or thirty years old and everyone assumes the new people already know, so nobody says it.
Then values. Know your own top two or three before you start checking whether anyone else fits. And celebrate when you get somewhere, because that's the fuel for the next bit. None of it is selfish. I brought up the oxygen mask on the plane, which some people tell me is a cliché because of course you'd help your kids first. But if you run out of air while you're sorting theirs, you're no use to them.
About halfway through I bunged in a clip from episode 35, Responsibility, about beating yourself up when something slips instead of just taking the next action. It ends with a line from a speaker whose name had gone, finishing on "other than that, life's a party". Episode 18, on E plus R equals O, covers the same ground if you want more.
The bits worth keeping
- If you want to be the noun, do the verb. Runners run, authors write.
- Get clear on your own vision before you share one with a team.
- Older businesses forget to tell new people why they exist. Keep telling the story.
- Know your own top two or three values before you check anyone else's fit.
If you want to be the noun you have to do the verb.
Neil Martin
So what do motivational speakers need? They need to be motivated themselves.
Nigel Risner
