what I learned hosting 50 personal development sessions for pro athletes during lockdown
Last week I hosted a 50th webinar for LAPS. March was a big month with our Ahead of the Game event series and although the first one did go ahead, the others were rightly called off. The team were left feeling bereft and we were left with a void in our schedule.
Even though we're now down to weekly sessions from the original daily schedule, we've run 50 personal development sessions for our members. We've grown quicker than expected, connected with plenty of fascinating people and most importantly, helped our pro and semi-pro athlete members make the most of a bad situation.
I hosted all of the sessions in tandem with a plethora of guests who brought their expertise. It's been a great opportunity for me to learn some new skills and practise interviewing, as well as figuring out how best to run online events. I've been a big believer in their power for some time and see their ability to connect and educate as unparalleled. While face to face events are never going to go away, online events grant phenomenal access far more simply than offline.
I could speculate about the future but for now, here are some takeaways from our event series:
Turn adversity into opportunity
One of the highlights of our year was cancelled. This could have been crippling, but rather than than mope about what we couldn't do, we thought about what we could do. Within a week, we lined up our first week of sessions.
Where are you now free to experiment? What's available to you now that wasn't previously?
Do the most
Running online meet-ups has been on the agenda for some time so it wasn't a 'new' idea. We initially agreed to run one session but then thought, 'why not one every day?' Doing hard things means you learn faster, create momentum and draw attention. One a week would have been easier but we learned so much more from taking the harder path. It made a powerful statement and brought us closer to our members.
Take your idea and 10x it.
What can a new medium do for you?
Unlike our cancelled physical events, we could run online sessions lean and at low cost. We could speak to guests from far flung locations and assemble groups that we couldn't have in person. Why not take advantage of that?
Rather than recreate your previous version online, how could it change?
It's tiring
Using Zoom is oddly exhausting. Being 'on duty' is tiring and as your physical presence in a room isn't a factor, you need to demonstrate that you're paying attention.
Constantly sourcing guests is hard work. We were constantly having to come up with topic ideas, find appropriate guests and promote and present each event.
Moving fast meant that many people were unfamiliar with Zoom and even experienced presenters were nervous about the change in style required. This meant more work at the outset to explain the format. Later there was much less of this affirmation required.
I had to get used to being constantly visible, with no respite as there would be on a phone call. I was also under pressure to look at least vaguely acceptable, something that became increasingly difficult with the grubby beard I cultivated for a personal record amount of time.
Take as much time as you can away from your screen and take more phone calls. Just because you can Zoom doesn't mean you should.
Be flexible
The sessions took many different formats, depending on how the guests wanted to do things:
classic presentation with slides - here I'd introduce and then watch, moderate the chat, provide links and funnel questions in at an appropriate time.
one on one interview - Q&A-style session, sometimes preceded by a short presentation of the topic. With a particularly smart or high profile guest, this required some careful question preparation and to remain mentally agile to make the conversation flow rather than have a sterile list of questions.
panel session - i'd juggle multiple guests, trying to make the conversation as organic as possible. Don't have too many people here; if you do there will be long periods where people don't speak.
Some guests were high profile and I felt some pressure when speaking to them, particularly if they weren't presenting something and the onus was on me to come up with good questions.
See how your guests want to do things and adapt to suit them. You'll get the best out of them and subsequently do best by the audience.
Be scrappy
No one was expecting extreme professionalism or something really slick, especially early on. Rather than get hung up on the tech or what it looks like, be more interested in the content, facilitating questions and ensuring that conversation flows.
Making the experience flashy should be your last priority
Use names on panel discussions
It should feel like you're overusing names. Everyone was hyperaware of the possibility of interrupting so if you don't specify who you want to answer, there'll be crickets.
Name and shame (don't actually shame)!
Each session needs to have a clear learning point
The best attended sessions were the ones with a very clear takeaway. Optimise Your LinkedIn Profile with Sue Keogh and Investing in Property with Lee Pottle were great examples.
Clarity breeds interest
Athletes aren't impressed by names
A peculiarity of athletes is that they're often not aware of other people in their own sport, let alone a different one. They might not even be a sports fan! If it's not a massive name, they won't be impressed by fame.
Think about what the audience will find useful rather than impressive
Sometimes, sessions you think aren't that valuable are the ones that people are really thrilled by
Be humble and take your bias out of the equation. What feels obvious to you might be exactly what everyone wants to know.
Get over yourself
Be wary of calling on people for contributions
This often led to logoffs as did breakout rooms. It needs a high charisma individual to pull this approach off - Kriss Akabusi was the big standout here. Another good approach from Barney Grenfell was to ask questions with numbered responses that people could easily respond to in the chat.
How can you get people get involved in a simple, concise and non-confrontational manner?
Men book and don't show. Women book and turn up!
No great advice here... try to get in front of more women??
Keep voices to a minimum
Be wary of letting people unmute and ask questions. It slows the pace right down and feels cumbersome. Their questions might break the flow of the conversation a swell. Moderating them enables you to ask the right question at the right time.
Let people contribute to a discussion rather than monopolise it
Slow and steady
Don't zip around too quickly and try to keep what the viewers can see consistent by allowing guests the time and space to speak. No one wants to have their screen flickering between participants.
Put the speaker at the forefront and consider pinning the view on them
Not that many footballers turn up
Perhaps there's still some stigma or embarrassment around the topic for footballers? Not so clear on this one.
Book Americans
They're brilliant at this. Really loud, charismatic and entertaining. Derrick Furlow Jr was one of our first guests and was just great.
Find some Americans (or watch Derrick here)
quick tips
use a waiting room to ensure a smooth start
mute everyone on entry
mute yourself when guests are speaking
funnel questions in to the guest - give them less to do not more
use slides to set up topics rather than as something to read from
be prepared to deviate from your questions
overuse names!
I hope this was of some use! Feel free to give me a shout if you have any questions or if you have your own ideas for online sessions.