Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:07] Speaker B: Welcome back for another episode of the Code 321 podcast. We have a returning guest today. David Weiss is here. David, how are you?
[00:00:14] Speaker C: I'm good. Hi, guys. Thanks for having me back. Appreciate it.
[00:00:17] Speaker B: Absolutely. Well, thanks for joining us. If you're a member. David did an excellent episode on disaster medicine way back in season four, episode one called Disaster Medicine. Feel free to check that out. If you love David, you want to hear a little more or you love disaster medicine, it's available for you.
Prescott, joining us all the way from the great metropolis of Colchester. How are you?
[00:00:37] Speaker A: Very well. Glad to be here again.
[00:00:39] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:00:39] Speaker A: Great.
[00:00:40] Speaker B: We love that. We love to see you. I'd love to see all the boys back together again. And I think this is a really exciting episode for the three of us.
I think some of the really cool things that are happening in Vermont are just within arm's reach for you folks. And I want to bring a spotlight to the Vermont EMS conference, and we want to talk about conferences in general. I think that we had a really robust conference attendance back before COVID and then during COVID things got really weird for a while, and now it's back in full swing. There's a lot of amazing conferences out there across the world, across the United States, and especially here in New England, and we want to just touch on some of that. And for those of you that haven't spoke at a conference before or maybe haven't even attended one, we're going to share just a little bit of our insight. All three of us have spent some time speaking at conferences, attending at conferences, and really make it a priority to get out there and learn outside of our bubble. And I think we all agree that that's something that's super, super healthy for both you, your organization, and really all the people that are around you to have that outside perspective. So, David, just for those, those listeners that may not have listened to the Disaster Medicine podcast yet, do you want to just share just a brief synopsis of kind of how you got into EMS and kind of what you're up to today?
[00:01:49] Speaker C: Sure. Yeah. So I started EMS back when I was 16 back in New York.
Ran on a BLS ambulance there, came up to Vermont, went to St. Mike's Shout out to St. Mike's Fire and Rescue, ran there as an AEMT for my four years there.
I've done some other work around the District 3 circuit and went back to nursing school, got my degree, came back up to the ER here at uvm, worked there for full time for about six Years and now I'm currently one of the critical care flight nurses at UVM Health Net Transportation. And I'm still per diem in the er and I still run pre hospitally on Colchester Rescue. And kind of my other side gig is working with the Vermont Urban Search and Rescue Task Force 1 as one of their medical specialists.
Yeah.
[00:02:35] Speaker B: Exciting. And I kind of look at you as you've had so many experiences of so many different bubbles. It's really a great resource for folks that are interested in, oh, I want to do search and rescue, I want to do nursing, I want to do flight, paramedicine, critical care, ems. You've kind of had an opportunity to touch into each one of those different areas. So if you ever see David on the street and you have a question, he's a good guy to ask.
[00:02:56] Speaker C: Always happy to answer questions. I'm very lucky to be where I am and have had all those experiences that got me to where I am today. So I'm happy to spread the wealth.
[00:03:05] Speaker B: Yeah, absolutely. And I know Prescott would agree with me too, that sometimes those experiences are really crucial to making you the provider that you are. I remember we kind of all share the background of working at Colchester Rescue at one point and we all kind of remember getting dispatched at 2 in the morning to the far end of the northern parts of Colchester for some terrible call. You're 20 minutes away from anybody that's ever had a bachelor's degree and you're just doing the best you can to try to make it all work. And that really makes you a stronger provider and, and gives you skill sets that you need in the field. So we, we definitely appreciate that background. So Prescott, why don't we start off with you real quick and I just want you to share a little bit about if you remember, what was it like going to your first conference and what did you take away from it?
[00:03:51] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. So it was, I mean this is kind of a no brainer, but it was terrifying.
Super sweaty palms, just like pacing back and forth. Didn't really know what to expect because I'd never been on in any type of conference outside of as an attendee.
It is totally just a different feeling when you stand up in front of a room. Now here's the funny thing. Guess how many people were at my first conference speaking tour?
The answer is two.
And it was really like, I'm not gonna lie, I left. I was like, I'm done. That was fun. But I'm just, this is atrocious and very close mentors of mine who had done a lot of speaking were like, you're absolutely not done this. If you claim that this is done and you really just go find something else to do.
And I. And I listened to them very closely, and sure enough, like, I just got done at the Vermont Emergency Management Conference in a room that would have been packed if it had been smaller, but was like a ballroom. And so it looked very sparse, and I had to actually count the people to be like, oh, man, no, this is good. Right?
But to answer your question, it was atrocious at first because I didn't have that true confidence. And right after that first time, listening to my mentors say, listen, keep at it, it will get better. It just took that first time to dip the toe in the water.
[00:05:15] Speaker B: Yeah, I think, I think the big thing that you just said there is that word mentor. I know for me, I would have never stepped into this field at all, into the speaking circuit, unless I had someone bringing me along. And I remember the first time ever teaching feeling the same way that you were, and it was because someone asked me to fill in because someone else had dropped out and they had a hole in the schedule. And they're like, hey, you seem pretty knowledgeable. Why don't you jump in here and do 45 minutes on trauma? Any paramedic worth their salt should be able to do 45 minutes on some type of trauma. Little did I know that they assigned me to the ALS room, which was filled with trauma physicians, critical care paramedics, and paramedics from busy services.
[00:05:51] Speaker C: And sometimes it's better to not know who the audience is.
[00:05:53] Speaker B: Yeah, that was surprising. I was like, how many of you are EMTs? No one raised their hand. AEMTs don't raise their hand. Paramedics, half the room more than paramedics, nurses, physicians. I was like, oh, goodness gracious. You know? But hey, at the end of the day, I think one of the things to check yourself on when you're teaching is just remember, like, no one's expecting you to be the end all. Be all. They're just looking for a perspective. They're looking to take away something, and they're looking to have a good time. If you can provide people with an opportunity to maybe take away one or two key things to put in their toolbox, and they enjoy being there. That's really what everyone's looking for. They don't need, you know, some earth shattering discovery of life on Mars. They just need you to show up and give them something entertaining and engaging and take away Something. So, David, do you want to just share a little bit about maybe like some of the obstacles you found when you first started thinking about being a speaker?
[00:06:41] Speaker C: Yeah. So similar to Prescott, I showed up to a room with maybe 15 people in it, and I was like, oh my gosh, this is it. No one's ever going to want to hear anything I say ever again.
It was actually at the Vermont EMS conference back in, going to say 2015 or 2016, so going back, well, like a decade at this point.
And someone had asked me to give a presentation on child abuse and child neglect because of some calls that I had had when I was running 911 primarily. And I was happy to give it. And I was used to giving talks to my squad. I was the training officer. But that's a really different vibe when you get to know people and get to work with them on a daily basis and then give them a quick presentation.
Versus here's 15 strangers, some of whom I've never met, some of whom I've heard of, which means that they're kind of big deals in the EMS environment.
And here I am fresh out of college, trying to teach them something. And I was like, this is, this is crazy. How am I going to do this?
But something that I think is important to remember that all the speakers that we think of or that like, you might really admire, whether it's at a conference or a TED Talk, you have to give yourself grace and remember that that presentation that you saw was definitely not their first presentation.
[00:07:59] Speaker A: Right.
[00:08:00] Speaker C: I think of comics, right. You hear all these big name comics, they always say that they start in rooms and they basically fail for four or five years in these smaller rooms and then eventually they start to break through. So similar to the speaking engagements, I like to think that, okay, well, good on you. If you want your first speaking engagement to be a national conference in front of hundreds of people. But personally that's not. I don't think that's the best route to go.
[00:08:26] Speaker B: Yeah, that can definitely be pretty daunting. And I think, like you kind of inferred to a little bit earlier being okay with maybe the smaller venues to start with and just get your feet wet and get that experience and, you know, work with some mentors and get the opportunity to learn the backside of the conferences. And this was a huge piece that I had no idea about. Right. I was just like, hey, I've taught before. I've done some training stuff in the past. Like, I'm excited about it conference, but there's a whole piece to how you apply for conferences, what they're looking for. Little things like making sure you have a document that lays out what the presentation you're going to do is, how many CEUs it offers, what particular objectives. Like most places, when you apply for a conference, they're going to ask what are the three objectives you're going to cover within this hour? So you should have that stuff all laid out. You know, making sure you have an appropriate, updated, accurate cv, that you have a, you know, a cover shot. And these are all things that people kind of taught me as I, as I got going. And then you kind of build that. And I think one of the things we have a responsibility to do as we grow and learn and do more of these ourselves is really bring people with us. And, and maybe Prescott, you can share a little bit about what if you see someone that has this common mentality of why I have nothing to offer, no one wants to hear from me, you know, I'm not qualified to do that. I hear that time and time again from people who are phenomenal educators and really good speakers that I want to sit down and listen to. But the in that inside voice is saying, I don't have anything to offer. I'm not qualified. I'm not good enough. I shouldn't be up here. Someone else should be doing it. What do you say to that person?
[00:09:58] Speaker A: Yeah, and even before they, they often that person, even before they say that, it's me recognizing or you, anyone here recognizing that ability in them and being able to say, man, this person, I do, I want to hear them do this. So you drop the subtle hand, like, hey, you'd be really good speaking at this event. Or no, no, no, no, no.
So then it's, you know, for some people, it's just the subtle hint over and over again until you, you know, you're like, oh, wow, I guess I really should probably do this. But it going back to that mentorship word which we all, all three of us have been mentored into the roles we are now.
You know, I literally one of the folks that I work with, I just had this conversation with him about saying, hey, listen, we're, you know, I'm. You have enough experience in XYZ topic. I'm going to bring you to this next conference. And you know, even if we get rejected, it's, you know, that's how it's going to go. So I, in my role now, I didn't really give him much of a choice. So it's going to happen.
But it Is in that same vein. My effort will be that hand over the shoulder guiding, you know, figure to say, like, here are the things. Nick, you just mentioned half of those things. My first conference, I butchered. Um, these days, thank God, AI exists because it can take my, you know, atrocious wording and make it actually sound, you know, much better.
But even before AI existed, having that, you know, mentor, like, I look at somebody like Dr. Dan Wolfson or Deputy Commissioner Dan Batesy who really were able to say, this is, you know, everything from this is what I have done and how, you know, here's some suggestions for you to do. But then both of them, respectively, even were able to. I sent them my stuff before they, you know, before it went out to the conference heads.
And just that vote of confidence from both of them, who have done dozens and dozens of national speaking experiences, made gave me that boost in confidence that even when I showed up to a room of two people the first time, although it was a little bit embarrassing, I did continue on. So kudos to them and that mentorship role they had for me.
[00:12:07] Speaker B: Yeah, definitely. I think it's important to. To be able to kind of go with the flow a little bit. There's definitely been some rooms. I remember I did a. I spent a lot of time and energy building a hyponatremia lecture, an electrolyte imbalance lecture, and I went to teach it, and there was six people in the room and being able to be flexible and say, like, hey, listen, I'm being paid to be here. This is the lecture they want. These six people decided to come to this room, and I was like, hey, let's pull the table up. Let's get close. Like, we're going to figure this out together. Like, we're going to make this really engaging for you six, and it's going to be the best lecture you've ever had because it's a small room, you know, Whereas, you know, not be disappointed and kind of go through that mopey phase of like, oh, there wasn't 50 people in my room. Like, take. Take it with a grain of salt. Like, those people want to see you. They want to speak. They came to your lecture. I think one thing that was hard for me, especially initially, was looking at the faces of the people sitting in the crowd. You know, you're, like, constantly thinking to yourself, like, is that guy enjoying it? Like, is. Is. Is David like this? Like, especially if it's someone, you know, and they're really smart, you're like, man, do they. Do they Think this is dumb. Like, am I, did I make, did I say that right? Like, did I mess that up, that I have it backwards and just getting out of your own head a little bit. And I think this draws me back, of all things, to when I was working as a ski instructor. I remember we had this rule teaching kids in the ski instruction program I went to, which was, number one rule is keep the kids safe. If you keep the kids safe and return them to your parents safely, even if nothing else happens, you've done your duty. That is your requirement of your position. If you don't do that, you're going to get fired. Number two was make sure they have an amazing time. If they're safe and they have an amazing time, their parents are going to want to bring them back over and over and over again. That's what's most important, is that the kid is like, oh, my God, this is so amazing. I love this. This is great. I love it, I love it, I love it. That's what they want. And then number three, if you teach them something and you learn, great, it'll come if those other two are there. And so I've always applied that to my lectures. It's that psychological safety. So don't offend anyone or make it so uncomfortable that people can't participate. Right. Even if they just walk away saying, I didn't really love it, but he was good enough, he was professional, he was fine. Number two is make it really fun, Do a little pizzazz, right? 75% presentation, have a helicopter taking off, have a funny GIF. You know, things that, that can engage people, make them feel like they like being in that room and they want to come back and see more of you. Even if they don't learn anything new, if it's fun to be in there, they're getting CES and they feel safe being with you, they're going to continue to bring you back for more and more lectures. And then once you have safety and fun as your groundwork, learning is just easy. Everything's all primed and that's always those. That's always boded really well for me. David, do you have any strategies that you kind of take as you start to build lectures, thinking about your audiences?
[00:14:46] Speaker C: Yeah. So, Nick, I thought that was perfect, what you said that, right? Engagement is one of the biggest things you can have a kind of a benign topic or maybe nothing that's earth shattering. You're not presenting new hot off the press studies, but maybe it's just a review of how to treat abdominal pain. But if you are engaging and can hold that, that audience's attention for that 30 minutes or 45 minutes, however long you're presenting for, that's really like 90% of the ball game. Again, recognizing that not everyone's mind has to be blown at the end of your, your conversation with them. It just has to be something that will stick.
So when I, when I think about curtailing different talks to different audiences, I do my research. I want to know what's the main population of folks that are going to be at this conference? Are they mostly out of towners? Are they locals? Do they know a lot about this? Or is this something that folks are coming to as kind of a branch out point?
And sometimes you have to kind of get into their mind and say, what would I want to see if I was going to be sitting at a conference like this? Because we all, I think the three of us were a bunch of nerds. We all love a good conference, right? But there are times where, if you're in lectures from 7am until 4pm There are going to be time where your eyes gloss over. You're not maybe as engaged as you should be. But keeping someone engaged is the most important thing. So meeting the audience where they are and trying to find out what their level of understanding is and always teaching beyond that. There are, I remember being in EMT class listening to. I would go to the district paramedic trainings because, yeah, I can't perform any of these things, but I can learn to think how they're thinking. I can learn their thought process behind their assessments. So always taking it a little bit further than kind of the baseline of your audience, I think is really important. So that even if they say, oh man, I can't do a thoracotomy, oh well, I learned all about it and that's an exciting thing. And I know that my patient might be going down that route if they exhibit these signs and symptoms. So getting to know your audience and then again just keeping them engaged. And sometimes that's inserting like a stupid joke halfway through.
I give a lot of pediatrics lectures, which is great. And after like 10 or 15 minutes, when I start to see some eyes glossing over, I'll throw up a kid's joke like, what's Darth Vader? Likes his toast on the dark side, Something cute like that, and I get a quick chuckle. People are re engaged. And then I move on to the next point that I want to make. So making sure that you're keeping up with Their engagement is important.
[00:17:29] Speaker B: Yeah. And I think what you said is really important.
You know, especially applying that to the performance side of. Of giving a presentation is you have lots of opportunities to hone in these talks, almost like a standup comedian or almost like a performer. You know, I know for me, I might try a joke with one audience, and it doesn't quite land. And I think about it, and I try it a little bit differently next time, and it brings a house down, and you kind of, like, tweak things and you to put these tools in your toolbox, and you start to think about what works and doesn't work.
One of the things, Prescott, that I actually learned from a conference that you and I went to with John Salka, and I think it was Roy McCormack, maybe Ray McCormack, a couple of those guys from FDNY is I call Islands in the Ocean. And I've been doing this since I went to that, which is basically before the conference starts. Don't hide behind the curtain. I literally grab a cup of coffee, and I go around each table. I say, hey, how are you guys? Where are you guys from? What's going on? Like, you guys having a good time? And I meet as people as I can for that first 10 to 15 minutes before I have to speak, and it gives me these islands, right? Because if the guy's like, yeah, we're from a big city department, you know, you know, Cincinnati Fire. I work on a ladder company boat. Then when I'm giving the lecture, I know that there's a safe island to go to. I can say, like, you know, let's say, for example, you're on a ladder company. Let's not name names, but Cincinnati, right? And then you have one table that kind of chuckles, right? That's an island. Then I know that it's pertinent to at least that table. Therefore, it's pertinent to other tables. And the more people you can talk to, first of all, it humanizes you as a speaker, right? It takes away that whole, like, oh, he's behind the curtain. We can't talk to him until he turns his mic on. Like, it's like, nah, dude, I'm just a guy. Like, I'm just drinking out of the styrofoam cup. We're just hanging out. Like, we're all here for the same reason. Like, you know, And. And I also think it kind of. It's funny, too, when you're having that conversation, you're milling around because a lot of people think that you're just another person at the conference. And then you're like, oh, man, I gotta get up there. And you go up there and it kind of breaks down that, that, that invisible wall, you know, the fourth wall that you hear about in Hollywood. So I don't know if Prescott, you've. You found any success there. I know you're a good talker and everything, but what are some strategies you do to try to put the audience at ease, especially if you feel like there's a little bit of a weird dynamic between the speaker and the audience?
[00:19:38] Speaker A: Yeah. All right. I. And you guys both know me, so this won't surprise you at all, but the joke thing is definitely there. The dad jokes throw that out there kind of thing. But the reality of it is getting down, say, getting down on their level. Like I'm not already, for Pete's sake.
What you want to do is connect with them where they are at. David, you just did really well saying that, highlighting the fact that most of these audiences are providers, like we are in some way shape or form, and at the end of the day, our topics are not earth shattering.
So really referencing that and then, you know, finding to your point, Nick, finding your island.
What I do is I have, you know, throughout the, throughout the time, I bring that energy really high. So I almost, I guess I almost make fun of myself to some degree because I find that if I am able to really bring myself, you know, making fun of something I just said or really poking fun at something in my presentation, then they can maybe recognize it's. It's okay. It's okay to joke around, it's okay to be light hearted. That topic may not always be, but you have to gauge your audience on that one. However, what's really neat is I also, in that same vein, I'm asking a lot of questions right back to the audience and then giving them the chance to respond. Right. So instead of just saying, hey, what do you guys think of this? I think that, right, It's. It's like you give them the chance because then what happens is the next time they feel even more okay opening up to you. And then before you know it, you're actually looking at your watch saying, okay, I should probably not ask any more questions because we're approaching the end of that time.
[00:21:22] Speaker B: Yeah. I think one of the big challenges that you just mentioned is this whole world of virtual teaching that has been a real challenge through Covid. I know I just taught at the Pennsylvania State EMS conference and the way they set it up, basically, you Zoom in to one person and then it is relayed out to the other, like 2500 to 3000 viewers. So you don't actually interact with the audience at all. So you have to do. In my case, I know. In my case, I did 56 minutes of lecture with no feedback, no interaction, no faces and no comments.
So that, that was the setting. And so what I found is kind of like presentation 201 that I learned from a lot of really good mentors like Chris Montana and Dan Batesy. And a lot of these people that have been on the circuit for a long time is starting to get enough experience. Experience that you can almost have this straw man analogy in your head where you're. You're thinking about what someone might be thinking about what you're saying. So when I say something, I'm trying to put myself in the audience's shoes to think about what questions or what thoughts might they be having about what I just said. And then you address those thoughts, right? And you, you say something like, you know, oh, you might say to yourself, and then you lay out what you think they might be thinking and it kind of turns into this almost like Inception world within a world where you're trying to engage them without actually directly engaging them. And I always found that that was really challenging from my time running training businesses. Really. The three things that I learned about why people pay you to do anything. One is to teach them something they don't know. That's number one. Number two is to teach them something in a way they haven't heard it before, to engage the people. Or three is to provide ce. If you can do all three of those things, that's really the strongest lecture. And I found that, like, sometimes, like if I have to do a lecture on cardiology to a bunch of paramedics, like, they know what, like the AV notice, right? There's nothing I'm going to give them that they don't already know from a textbook or 20 years of experience. So I need to show them something different in a way that they haven't heard before.
I would love to get your feedback on this, Prescott. I found that a really good strategy for engaging audiences sometimes is storytelling. But there's a really fine line because if you start storytelling too much, it sounds like you're showboating or maybe you. You're just giving analogies and there's no factual evidence to it.
So how do you find that blend where you become relatable, the story engages the audience, but you don't spend so much Time on it or get too much about yourself to the point that you lose the audience. Have you found yourself kind of working through that balance?
[00:23:46] Speaker A: Oh, yeah, a hundred percent. And the reality of it is a lot of that is learning from doing so. You know, for those of you that might be doing it for the first time, some of it is just leaping, taking that first step. Right.
And you will learn very quickly. But the other aspect of that is really, truly make those war stories super short. Because every time you think that it is short, it's not short enough. Like, really pick that critical detail that you want to get in there that you. That really hits home your point, and then end it. Even if the audience. And this is my first mistake with war stories is when the audience responded and they're like, yeah, oh, you can see them engaging, like, oh, they like this. I need to keep this story going. And then by the end, I'm like, oh, I lost them. So just, you know, I think that would be where. Where I'd end it is keep them wicked short and drive home that point. Make sure that story is for that one and only reason.
[00:24:37] Speaker C: And I would also like to add in, to not tell the story about the time that you did everything right, and that your patient survived and walked out of the hospital.
[00:24:45] Speaker A: Right.
[00:24:46] Speaker C: Because folks are going to be automatically.
I know that we're talking from the speaker's perspective, but from an attendee's perspective, the speaker is generally a little bit intimidating, right? They're here to teach me about something. They've been through this, they've been through that. But if I tell a story that, hey, you know what? Ideally it would have gone this way, but I actually, I did this or I wasn't unable to get that second IV on that trauma patient or this or that, it humanizes it a little bit more and takes away that, oh, this person's just showboating.
And I'll never be like them. It's, oh, hey, you know what? I've been in a similar situation as a solo provider in the back of that ambulance in a rural environment. I've made the same mistakes, too. So I think stories are great. I think what you said was perfect.
[00:25:27] Speaker B: Right?
[00:25:27] Speaker C: Keep them short and shorter than you think. But it's okay to humanize yourself and say, hey, I haven't always done it perfectly and I'm sharing my experience with you so that hopefully you won't do it the same way that I did it the last time.
[00:25:39] Speaker B: Yeah, definitely. That's, like, super key. I think no one loves A story where you make yourself out to be the hero, that's just like, naturally, we all feel it about that, you know, even when we, when we tell it. I think that there's this analogy I've used in the past where I said, show the audience 80% of the cards. And what I mean by that is there's this intrinsic need of most people's human brain to try to connect the dots. They love to connect the dots and make, you know, one plus one equals two. It's like really satisfying when that happens. So one of the things you can do is you can. You can make a story about some figure and then at the end they figure out it's you. And it's usually a bad story by itself. So, for example, be like, you know, say at the beginning of the talk, you talk about, oh, I worked on, you know, Williston Fire, you know, and so you tell a story about something, you go, you know, and let's just say, for example, I don't know, let's come up with something random. Like you're a 19 year old, you're working in a metropolis, you know, probably somewhere a little bit east of Burlington, and you're working on an ambulance, right? And you slowly drop in these little Easter eggs. And then at the end of the story, it doesn't work out very well and you share the lesson. And then people in the audience, you can see them start to be like, oh, that was Nick. Like, oh, that, that was him, right? And you let. Don't say this is my story. Tell the story as if it's a random person and keep saying like, you know, oh, well, hypothetically, let's just come up with something random. I don't know. You're 19, you're from Buffalo, right? You love the Sabers, you're working on an ambulance, you don't know what you're doing, right? Things like that, like, really help the audience. It's.
There's a more fancy psychological word for it that I can't think about at the moment, but basically it's showing 80% of the cards and let the audience get the other 20% because it makes them feel like they're part of solving the puzzle. And you can do that with everything. You can do it with stories, you can do it with slides, you can do it with, you know, by putting 80% of the material on the slide and letting the audience work their way into that 100%, they're now engaged in the slide. Rather than just handing them the information, right? You want them to be part of the troubleshooting, you know, of the problem solving. And I think that's always worked really well with me. So.
[00:27:36] Speaker C: And with that, can I just talk about slides for a quick second? Not that this is a how to make a presentation.
I've been to many a lecture, both at conferences or didactic lectures with physicians. And recently there's been this big push to get away from any text on a PowerPoint slide. Right? Just use imaging or if you have to use text, less than five words, less than a couple of lines. Because as soon as a PowerPoint slide is up there, people just start reading and they stop listening to you. But they could get that information out of a textbook or on an online training. They're there to hear what you have to say. So put up a picture of an IV set, and instead of saying, oh, well, you're going to administer 0.9% normal saline at this rate, just say, hey, going to go ahead and give someone saline. How much titrate until their blood pressure is better.
[00:28:28] Speaker A: Right.
[00:28:29] Speaker C: And that's what folks want to hear. They don't want to hear the rehearsed exact numbers of things. They don't want to hear all the bullet points. They want to hear you put it into a story and put it into context where they can actually take it in. So if you take nothing else away from this, it's that please don't read off of your slides. And the best way to not do that is to not have any words on your slides or to minimize the amount of words on your slides.
[00:28:53] Speaker B: Yeah, definitely. I think looking at it as you know, those slides are almost like note cards for you as the speaker to help facilitate discussion. I remember I actually have a bachelor's degree in communication. One of the things we had to do was public speaking courses. And one of my assignments for one of my courses, the exam was a. You. You had to speak for one hour, and each student had to do this for their final exam. You only got 10 slides. One of them was a title slide, one of them was a bibliography, and you only got one picture per slide. No text. And it could be on any topic you wanted, but you had to do 55, and you had to end between 55 minutes and an hour. The thing that I remember from that class is the kind of the mantra of what we learned, which was start on time and on time, repeat regularly and emphasize unusually. And that was, those are things that I always apply to all my lectures. If you. If your lecture is supposed to go on at 1 1pm you start at 1pm Predictability is huge with audiences. They really like it when you start right when you're supposed to be. People can trickle in. It's fine, right? They're adults and then end on time. You know, if they need to end at 2pm you need to be done by 2pm that includes questions. You can't end at 201. You can't end at, you know, 1:30 people are expecting you to do, you know, within that 15 minute window at the end of the hour and then emphasize unusually if there's something important, it should be easily recognizable and then repeat regularly. Right. Like you should say the same thing over and over again so people have an opportunity to digest it. So as we kind of bring this into a close here, David, I want to share just a quick couple of notes on, you know, what people might have as options. Say they're interested in getting involved in, in speaking. Maybe they want to attend a conference or speak at a conference. What are some things that you've learned, at least in this area, let's just say, you know, the Northeast locally that they can start doing to get engaged.
[00:30:38] Speaker C: I think the start to any good presentation or to start any, to start on the speaker circuit is to find something that you're passionate about. And again, it doesn't have to be the kind of hot off the press new thing. It doesn't have to be always high speed and sexy. Right. It could be, you know what I want to, I'm really passionate about getting a good physical exam. I'm going to give a 30 minute talk about a solid physical exam and why I think that my version of it might be a little bit different than what everyone learned in EMT class and how I curtail that. Right. So find something that you're really passionate about because it makes it a lot easier to talk about. And from there just start putting a bunch of, put a slide deck together, figure out what the main points that you want to take away, whether that be three points or five points and just start making things and don't be afraid to keep revising or start from zero again. I've made whole presentations like 25, 30 slides and said, you know what, that's actually not the message I want to deliver. Or I did more research on a conference and well, the audience actually is going to know all this stuff already. They're going to want to hear more about the applications of it. So it's okay to start over. And one of the big things too is finding a mentor Finding someone who has spoken to conferences and knowing the steps to getting to starting small and local. And I mean, for a lot of folks, we started our first quote unquote conference or training that we've ever given was to our squad members, right? And that's a great way to give a kind of a low stakes talk to people that you know, who can kind of you can play off of during the talks. You can include funny pictures of them in the slideshow. And all of a sudden everyone starts laughing because maybe your lieutenant's picture's up on the screen, something like that.
And then start to take it outside of your comfort zone a little bit more and say, okay, I'm going to give maybe the same lecture or I'm going to tweak that lecture to a different selection of people.
And always, always, always save all the different versions of the lectures that you have. But know that for each talk, each time you give that talk, you're going to change it, right? Something went really well the last time or a good question sparked this. I'm going to put a slide in about that.
Or you know what, this is a totally new group of people in the audience. I need to really change the basis of this. So don't be afraid to change up your own work and then just keep applying to different conferences. I mean, I started at local trainings to doing trainings for different EMS and fire squads in the area, then doing some kind of Chittenden county conferences, then some state conferences.
And I'm actually gearing up to speak at my first national conference down in Florida in October. And I am rather nervous and I think that's good, right? Because even me, who's given a ton of talks throughout the state, I'm kind of ready to take it to this next step. And I'm pretty excited for that challenge of okay, this isn't going to be just be Vermont folks or Northeastern folks. This is a national search and rescue conference I have to get ready for. So trying to figure out how to hit an audience that spans quite literally the entire United States and a couple of European countries as well.
It's a new challenge that I'm excited for, but I'm still pretty nervous and I think that's okay.
[00:33:57] Speaker B: Oh yeah, no, it keeps you sharp. No, it's. And I think that's why at least the three of us do it. You know, it keeps you sharp, keeps you on your toes, engages you, get to network really well. You know, a really easy, low hanging fruit that I still do to this day. Is that if I have a new lecture that I'm trying to soft launch or there's something that I'm interested in, there's not a single training officer in the state that I wouldn't feel comfortable calling and asking to. They have to give CES to their people. Almost every department in the state has an EMS training night and a fire training night. If I have a lecture that I want to demo, I'll literally just call Prescott as the chief of Hinesburg and be like, hey, I have a understaffed engine company operations lecture I want to run. It's. It's 60 minutes and it has 30 minutes of hands on. Can I borrow your department to test this out on free of charge? And I just do that over and over again until it feels really good. Then I start applying to conferences, then I start billing for it. I demo lectures all the time with EMS agencies. I'll just call up Scott Kratie and Becky Almey and be like, hey, can I come in and run this lecture at Colchester Rescue for one of your EMS training nights? Every single department I've ever offered that to is like, absolutely. You're going to plan the training for me and hit CES and offer certificates. It's awesome. Great. You know, so it's really easy to do. That's a really low hanging fruit to do to get your lectures out there, and it costs nothing. And honestly, if there's like 10 people from a service you've never met before and it doesn't go very well, you take your notes and you go, thanks, guys, and you head on your way, like, no harm, no foul. It's not like you're in the microphone at Indianapolis FDIC with 117 people, you know, and crickets, you know, you're good, right?
Prescott, as people start to get engaged and as they're looking for a mentor, what are some suggestions you have about how to find a mentor and how to get yourself the help you need as you grow, Especially if you're not finding it where you're where you are?
[00:35:43] Speaker A: Yeah, and thanks for looping that one in, because one of the things I was actually going to say, referencing just the past few minutes of conversation, is the connections that you can make at these conferences. So you don't just wake up one day and say, I think I'll be a conference speaker. You go to conferences yourself. You, you know, education sessions. You have a passion for being educated, and then it sort of sparks something within you that you say, maybe I could do that. Or you have that someone come along and say, hey, you would be good at this. Come follow me. You know, hand over the shoulder situation.
What I would say is if you're searching for that person, think about the people in these conferences that you have appreciated hearing from. And nobody is out of reach. When I say no one's out of reach, I will tell you right now. You mentioned somebody like John Salka who is an FDNY legend, or Frank Viscuso at the Kearney, New Jersey, or, you know, name the doctor, paramedic, firefighter, whoever it is who is like blowing your mind in a conference, go and speak to them. Because what I will tell you, and this has been my experience with numerous people, is when I go up afterwards and I pick their brain for a couple of the questions I've had related to their speech, they say, hey, you know, if you want to talk more about this, and almost everyone, hey, if you want to talk more about this, you know, reach out to me. And guess what? When I've reached out to them, as it turns out, they're human beings too.
And when you have somebody giving them, giving you cell number, email contact, and then sending you presentations that they have done so you can, you know, mimic their style or whatever that is so attainable. The hardest, the single hardest part, and you have to get over this is that initial leap of saying, oh man, this person's super intimidating. They talk on the national circuit. They were just an Acapulco whatever, you know what I mean? Like, go up, shake their hand. I'm so and so and I'm brand spanking new. I kind of want to get into this. Can you help me? And the answer will be an unequivocal yes, I guarantee it.
[00:37:47] Speaker C: And I think that's so on point, right? They're all there because they're passionate about what they've just presented on and they're looking to spread the word and they're hoping to engage other folks to someday hear them at a conference. So they'll almost always say yes, but you're right, if you don't ask, you don't get, you got to get, get up there and, and ask to shake their hand and say, hey, I've got a couple more questions. Do you mind we chat after this offline or can I grab an email contact for you and follow up? That's, that's really huge. But again, I know that's nerve wracking, but think about how nervous they might have been to be up there presenting to you in the first place. We're all human too.
[00:38:27] Speaker B: Yeah. And they know, like, they've been where you are. Every one of them has been where, where we are, you know. And I remember, you know, the people like Chris Matana, Eric Bauer, Sam Ireland, like these big names that I have seen out, just dominating the stage. Like, I just texted Eric Bauer the other day and he texted me back. We were talking about vents. I sent him some pictures. Like, he's great guy, like, super happy to help. Chris Matana, one of my. Who's on the last episode of the podcast. Huge mentor of mine. I met him because I went to a conference. I walked to his booth and I said, hey, I love your programs. I'd like to talk more. Like, do you have a card I can take? And I texted him and he texted me back. And then we went and met up and like, that is how the relationships start. And it's, it can be really tough sometimes to take that initial leap.
I do know that a lot of the speakers that are really doing well right now, they don't want to do this forever. They're looking for the next generation to mentor and take over. Dan Bates is a great example, phenomenal speaker, one of my biggest mentors, especially when it comes to New York State and all the different intricacies that there are with those conferences. He has told me flat out many times, nick, I don't want to do this until I'm 90 years old. I, I need you to get comfortable so that I can hand all these connections and all these accounts and all these commitments over to someone that I trust that will carry the torch in a way that I can be proud of. And so once you do that, you know, don't be afraid to say yes. If someone's like, hey, I need you to do a lecture on kidney disease. You might be like, oh my goodness. I did a 1 to 2pm Kidney lecture on a BLS room with 150 BLS people right after they just finished eating. I want you to think about trying to sit through a kidney lecture. And I was like, you know what? I'm going to do this. I'm going to make the best of it. And I had people laughing, nobody fell asleep. And they all went on about their day, you know, and even if it's not something you really want to do at the moment, take the opportunity because that breeds connection. People come up after the lecture, they'll start talking to you. People will offer you to come back to conferences time after time again. You never know what door is going to be open if you just say yes. So don't be afraid to just say yes.
So, gentlemen, I want to thank you for being here tonight. Hopefully, if you're out there and you're listening to this and you are thinking about attending a conference, you know, maybe talking to a speaker next time you're at a conference, or maybe you want to speak at a conference yourself. I know all three of us, I can speak freely about this, that we'd love to help you. We'd love to, you know, give you our experience, which, you know, arguably isn't. Isn't tremendous. But, you know, we've all spoken at national conferences and local conferences. We're happy to help you get up and running with your first lecture. So definitely reach out if you have any questions. So, gentlemen, thank you so much for being here. David, always a pleasure. Appreciate it. Be safe tonight.
[00:40:57] Speaker C: Thanks for having me, gentlemen.
[00:40:58] Speaker A: I appreciate it.
[00:40:59] Speaker B: Yeah. Prescott, always good to see you. I'm sure we'll catch you for next month. For the next episode and those of you out in the streets and working on the emergency medical services, fire, ems, police, take care of yourselves and be safe.
[00:41:16] Speaker A: Sa.
