Ignite Seattle Video: How Introverts Can Survive in This Extroverted World

Last month I had the honor of speaking at Ignite Seattle. My topic was How Introverts Can Survive in This Extroverted World. Shauna Causey and Monica Guzman encouraged me to pitch Ignite and Beth Buelow inspired me by expanding my understanding of introversion in our recent interview.

The great folks at Ignite Seattle just released this video of my talk:

Here are my favorite moments:

  • 0:08: A big shout-out to “My introvert brothers! My introvert sisters!”

    The organizers warned us that we would lose most of our first slide to transition, applause, introduction, etc., so I thought giving the crowd some energy would be the best way to kick things off.

  • 1:34: Introverts make great lovers — “If an introvert focuses on you, you will know it!”

    Marja knew in advance that I had this slide, but she didn’t know what I was going to say. Wish I could have seen her blush. Have I mentioned that she’s the most understanding, supportive, awesome wife ever? I should mention that.

  • 2:57-3:45: I hacked the Ignite format by leaving the stage during this period. Zac Cohn and Scott Berkun suggested this to me during our coaching session a few weeks before the event. It meant that I had to cut down on content, but doing so heightened the experience of that which remained.

    You can hear the audience roar as I sat down, pulled out my phone, and updated Twitter live during the talk.

    Plus I got to say hi to Kate Morris!

  • 4:47: The survive/thrive piece and its visual presentation was something I planned from the outset. It’s one of the few ideas I had before I started working on the talk that made it through without any changes.

    There was also a very subtle Lord of the Rings reference that I was going to make here, but unfortunately I forgot to include it. Gah, memorization is hard. Get me a coffee sometime and I’ll share it with you.

Special thanks to SEOmoz and Startup Weekend for sponsoring the production of Ignite Seattle 19, as well as to Bootstrapper Studios for their awesome video bird-dogging work. Big-big thanks to the core Ignite Seattle team of Scott Berkun, Zachary “改善” Cohn, Justin Martenstein, Jason Preston, Monica Guzman, Jeffrey Shuey, Randy Stewart, and Bryan Zug. Thank you also to Gregory Heller, Adam “Bow Ties are Cool” Wygle, Jen Zug, Fancy Teresa Morales, Maurice Morales, and Jory Randall, who all supported the event. Thank you also to KUOW Seattle for broadcasting excerpts from Ignite Seattle.

Finally, thanks to all the other Ignite speakers who made the event so awesome. You rock!

We close on this image from my final practice session for Ignite Seattle. That's apple juice, I swear.

We close on this image from my final practice session for Ignite Seattle. That’s apple juice, I swear.

About Jonathon Colman

Jonathon Colman leads the global content design discipline at HubSpot. He's a Webby Award-winning designer and keynote speaker who’s built and led design and content teams at Facebook, Intercom, IBM, REI, and The Nature Conservancy. You can follow him on Twitter @jcolman or contact him here.
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