World of Speakers E.08: Guido Romeo | Watch other speakers

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World of Speakers E.08 Guido Romeo  Watch other speakers

Ryan Foland speaks with Guido Romeo, a journalist turned professional speaker and panel moderator from Italy. He speaks about communicating complex issue to audiences, to engage and inform effectively.

Ryan and Guido discuss how to observe other professional speakers effectively, and steal their presentation skills and make them your own, to become a better speaker.

Listen to this podcast to find out:

  1. How to get inspired by other speakers from around the world and “steal” their skills

  2. What to look for when choosing a great speaker agency.

  3. How the power of keen observation can transform your speaking skills

  4. Top tips for becoming a master at panel moderation

  5. How using your unique voice can make you a memorable (and successful) speaker

DOWNLOAD AND LISTEN TO THE PODCAST ON ITUNES OR SOUNDCLOUD

 

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Transcript

Guido Romeo: I’m Guido Romeo, and I’m at World of Speakers. I just spoke with Ryan Foland about robbing public speakers, and how that’s not a bad thing. You rob a speaker by listening to great speakers, observing what they’re doing, and learning from them, so you can find your own voice.

Ryan Foland: We are back with another episode of World of Speakers. Today we are talking with someone all the way around the world in Italy. Guido Romeo, I appreciate you jumping on the call with us.

Welcome to the show. I’m excited to get to know about your past, and your path to, would you call it your speaking career? Is speaking one of the primary ways in which you make money, or is it something that’s an offshoot of what you actually do, and speaking is more of a fun hobby?

GR: It’s not a hobby, because I get paid fairly well for speaking, but it’s definitely an offshoot. I don’t consider it my primary career, although I have lots of fun doing it, and find it very enriching.

Confronting an audience you can look in the eyes is a privilege for a journalist like me, because I never see the people who read my work. An audience keeps you in check sometimes.

RF: Being a journalist sounds exciting. Talk to me about that.

Did you always want to be a journalist?

Was there a clear path for you?

Did you have an influence when you were young?

Were you always into the news?

What’s the backstory behind you as a journalist?

GR: I had influences in some family friends who were journalists. I looked up to them.

Being a journalist was my second choice.

My first choice as a kid was to be a ranger. Because I lived in California I used to see all these rangers in the national parks, and that was the coolest thing to me.

RF: That’s where you get horses, flat rounded hats, you get to talk about Smokey the Bear, and hang out in the wilderness?

GR: Right. You can shoot sometimes. They have a lot of privileges. But that didn’t work out.

We moved from California to the East Coast, and then to Italy. We don’t have rangers in Europe.

My background is in economics, but I started out as a science journalist, because I saw it as a good niche to start in.

It was a lot of fun talking to scientists because they’re much more interesting to talk to than politicians, or business people sometimes.

Although, I must say, I have many business people among my friends, and they are very brilliant people.

But being able to question Nobel Laureates on the principles of physics, and getting them to explain neutrinos, and stuff like that, I felt undoubtedly privileged.

RF: It sounds like you were a translator for scientists. Would you consider yourself to some extent a translator, because you had to translate scientific findings so they could be understood by the reader?

GR: I would agree it is a form of translation work.

But I would also say it’s even more than that sometimes, because you have to put things in perspective.

Scientists have a very clear scientific framework of the world, but our readers are not all scientists, they’re laymen. You have to bring in social and political issues. Sometimes scientists don’t really perceive the big picture so well, or they don’t give enough importance to it.

It’s an interesting job. It’s somewhat difficult at times, but it can be very amusing.

RF: How much do you travel?

Are you primarily in Italy?

Are you called upon to speak around the world?

GR: I speak mostly in Italy nationally, and sometimes other European countries. I did some gigs in Brussels for the European Commission.

I write for an Italian business paper, which is a bit like the Financial Times. I have much more visibility, and much more of a “name” nationally than internationally.

RF: When I think of a journalist, I think of someone who is outgoing, but more so in the way they express themselves.

I don’t necessarily imagine someone who is behind the paper to be on the stage.

How did that transition happen for you, and at what point did your writing turn into speaking?

GR: I’m an accidental speaker. Years ago I was working with a much older journalist who was my boss. He’s pretty famous in Italy, and elsewhere.

He was getting so many requests that he couldn’t keep up with them, and so I started as a stand-in, moderating things.

Then I developed my own line of talks, which is a bit different from his line. It’s always about world science and business, but it has a different spin.

I grew into speaking.

Being a journalist, writing and having your byline in the paper, and being asked to moderate or speak go hand in hand.

RF: You said it was accidental.

But were you really at the right place at the right time, or was it more than just that? It was probably quite the path to even get to where you had that accidental opportunity.

Or was it really just a total accident?

GR: From the very beginning I saw it as an opportunity, so that was very clear to me.

I went through some scary moments in the beginning.

At one point I had to talk and moderate for two hours on stage in front of 1,500 people. I didn’t have any actual training, but since I’m a journalist people expect me to be able to do anything.

People see journalists as minor superheroes.

Once I managed that I saw that as my watershed moment. I thought if I can do this on a big stage, in front of a large audience, I can do it more comfortably.

That being said, keep training. I still do speaker training as a student. I think you need to keep learning. I look up to much more famous speakers than me, especially the guys who work on TV, and talk on the radio.

Ryan Foland with Guido Romeo  - Quote on continuous learning - World of Speakers Podcast (Blue) _ Powered by SpeakerHub

I did some radio work. That helped with my pronunciation, and hearing the way my voice sounded. For radio the level of your voice needs to be stable.

But you need to keep exercising. It’s a little bit like singing. Singers have to be much more disciplined. I go through that kind of training.

RF: Do you plan to make a transition to training other speakers?

It sounds like you’re honing your craft.

Do you work with other people at the same time, or are you really focused on gaining the expertise, and stage time for yourself?

GR: I’m already a trainer as a journalist.

I teach in journalism schools and workshops. I do things with companies.

But I wouldn't go into training speakers, at least not in the near future. I don’t see myself doing that.

RF: I want you to think on your feet, just like your opportunity to get on stage and start speaking.

You have an opportunity now to pretend like you are a speaker coach. How is that?

GR: Well, I can share some of my tapes.

RF: I’m giving you the opportunity to identify yourself as a speaker trainer, so that after this podcast you can say, “I’m also a speaker coach.”

GR: I’ll add that to my resume!

RF: I’m curious to know, now that you’re a speaker coach, what some of your tips are?

Because I think students make some of the best teachers.

Ryan Foland - Quote on students as the best teachers - World of Speakers Podcast (Navy)  Powered by SpeakerHub
 

Especially because when you’re in the audience you have a different perspective.

You have a unique perspective as a writer. You’re someone who is more into the way things work. You started in economics, moved on to science, then to interviewing some of the most brilliant minds in the world, and translating that.

How do you suggest to someone who is wanting to spread a message how to hone their craft? Are there any exercises that you do? Are there any lessons, or teachers that you’ve had that just stick out, and things that you would share if somebody like somebody like me forcing you to?

GR: My first tip is really observe. Journalists are used to doing that.

I was reading a story in the newspaper once, and my partner said, “You guys just read things differently.” I think that’s because when we read, we act like thieves.

When I read something about a house let’s say, I look at how that house was built, and what I can take from that house.

I reverse engineer the story in my head, finding out how the writer built that story, did he fact check his stuff, and stuff like that.

My first tip is to use that same thief attitude when you hear who you would consider a good speaker at a conference.

Look at what they’re doing.

Ryan Foland with Guido Romeo  - Quote on the thief attitude - World of Speakers Podcast (Grey) _ Powered by SpeakerHub

Try to deconstruct how they build up a relationship with the audience, or with the other speakers if it’s a panel, because it’s not always very scripted. Also look at their timing.

When you get on stage and talk, already have planned your timing. Say you have five minutes. You’ll give a one-minute introduction, then allow three minutes for chitchat with my fellow speaker. Then I will transition, then I will do this and that.

Observing is a great part of the game.

RF: Let’s dig into that for a second, because that is an interesting approach. The fact that you observe, and deconstruct other people that you see, knowing that’s going to give you more insight to read behind the scenes.

That makes me imagine reading a novel, you have these slight motifs that are definitely weaved through, that the author intends. But if they’re really good at it, the reader won’t notice. It will internally create this series of dots that the reader might connect together.

That approach of observing is one of those pieces of advice that sometimes are so obvious that you totally forget about it.

I think that allows anybody to watch, whether it’s a TED Talk, or whether it’s a recorded video of somebody that has spoken at some conference, or even just in person, and gain useful information.

What do you do after observing? Because I’m sure as a journalist you read other people’s articles, and you have this “thief mentality” where you’re looking to see how far they dug into the story.

In a day of fake news, there’s probably a lot of fake speeches, where people are not fact checking, or it’s maybe more off the cuff. But what do you do with those elements?

Let’s say you’re at a conference. You watch a speaker, you deconstruct them, and you have this “thief mentality.”

Do you then try to incorporate the things that you liked into your own speaking pattern?

What do you do with that?

Because I love that as a tip.

GR: The first is to observe, decide what you like, and what you don’t like.

When a thief walks into a house, he looks for the precious stuff. You want to take up the precious stuff, what you think is useful. Don’t just copy, select.

Ryan Foland with Guido Romeo  - Quote on selecting the precious stuff - World of Speakers Podcast (Navy) _ Powered by SpeakerHub

Is the guy using quotes?

How is he using them?

 Is he using jokes?

Does he have a challenging audience?

How does he break?

How does he relate to the audience?

Building a relationship with the audience is very important. That’s another crucial part that I’ll get back to.

You can learn from your selected observations. Some people are just very gifted, and they’re very good at talking. As you were saying, they’re just outgoing, and they’re naturals. But there are many things you can learn.

As you were mentioning, TED talks, and speakers on YouTube are a great source of samples.

Observing, selecting, and learning also helps you develop your own style of speaking.

Ryan Foland with Guido Romeo - Quote on your own speaking style - World of Speakers Podcast (Blue) _ Powered by SpeakerHub

RF: I’m just imagining a speaking thief. They’d be someone in the classic dark outfit, with a large beaded beanie, and classic black goggles.

I don’t think I really got it at first. When you said “thief” I thought you meant it’s about finding elements, and digging down.

I have this image is in my head of somebody with a knapsack, and creeping in the back of the room to steal.

Like you said, a thief goes into a house and finds the jewels that they want. That’s a huge takeaway, because you have to come up with your own style, you’ve got to like what you’re saying.

You can observe, and basically steal the jewels of the processes, procedure, quotes, jokes, things that other people are using, put them in your bag, run away, and do what you want with them. I like that.

GR: Bear in mind you’re not just stealing, you’re reformulating.

Stealing is the first step. But once you have your bounty, you digest it.

You will never perform the same sequence, in the same way, or at the same time. That means you have to develop an original way of using all the tricks you stole from other people.

Another tip is to have your own voice.

There are certain standard rules for being on a stage, there’s certain timing, etc. But you have to have your own voice if you want to be an effective speaker.

RF: I’ve heard about people having a certain voice when they write.

Would you say that crafting your own voice in written word is parallel to crafting your own voice in the speaking world?

GR: Somewhat. When I talk I feel a bit more free, meaning I can throw in the occasional joke.

I write both for print and online.

 But especially with print you have so many constraints in terms of the style, and especially the length.

You have to cut down to the bare essential facts. In speaking, you have much more freedom.

Writing is the skeleton, the bones of your talk. Then you want to dress it up.

If you’re reading especially a news story on a mobile device, you want something that’s pretty dry, and gets straight to the point.

But when you’re listening to somebody, you want to hear something that is a bit more entertaining, so you should curate that as a speaker.

RF: We’re robbing observations, we’re finding the right jewels we want, and using those to help find our own voice. I like that your tip is not to hire a coach to help you out. You are your own robber coach.

The more exposure you have to talks, speeches, and videos, the more you have to pull from, and the bigger your bounty. Then you rearrange it.

Ryan Foland with Guido Romeo - Quote on exposure - World of Speakers Podcast (Navy) _ Powered by SpeakerHub

This makes me think of garage sales. I don’t know if there’re garage sales in Italy. I’m a garage sale fiend. If I drive by and see a fluorescent sign, it’s almost as bad as texting and driving, because I just can’t keep my eyes off it. I have to pull over and check it out.

GR: We, unfortunately, don’t have garage sales in Europe.

RF: These are used things people have, but don’t have a use for anymore. You take these different items, bring them back to your own house, and recreate them into something unique.

It’s almost like a design on a dime concept.

Where a person can look at sequencing, timing, jokes, a certain intro, or structure, and pull those off of somebody else’s lawn.

Then they can get some sandpaper, put some spray paint on it, add a couple bedazzles, and now it’s literally your own.

You’re hand-selecting a treasure, but then turning it into your own thing. I just thought about a garage sale shopper in that respect. That’s all good stuff.

Ryan Foland with Guido Romeo - Quote on exposure - World of Speakers Podcast (Navy) _ Powered by SpeakerHub

Now you’ve got this base level to build your speaking voice off of. Let’s say you’re comfortable speaking, and you feel like you have your voice. What would you say to guide medium or advanced level speakers so they can get better and better? Because you’re constantly honing your craft. How would you suggest other people continue to do that?

GR: One thing I always make a note of is to prepare, and be there in advance. That helps me a lot, especially when I’m moderating a panel, or I have a complex series of things on stage.

Because it’s great to make acquaintance with the people you will have on stage, especially if you’re hosting a talk.

Then you get to know them, get to know about their personal details, about their personal and professional life.

That makes it much more pleasant when you’re in front of an audience, and you transition to the other guy in the panel, and you say, “Oh, by the way, this guy has won a field medal for something.” 

Small things like that help you put them at ease, which gives the room a totally different climate.

RF: It sounds like you make it more personable that way.

I’m curious. How early do you show up?

How early would you suggest to show up?

If you have an event, do you show up an hour before, a half hour before?

When do you get to know people you’re speaking with?

Do you cyber stalk them online, in the nicest way possible? Do you look them up, and feel them out?

Or is it more of this natural, organic, you get to meet them, and feel them out initially in person?

GR: LinkedIn is a totally legit way of stalking people. I research people before I meet them. That’s part of being a thief.

You prepare before going in the house. As a journalist, I’m used to doing that.

Before I meet somebody, it’s normal procedure to check them out, and see what they’ve done, who they know.

I started as a  journalist when social media was in its infancy, and we didn’t have social networks.

Social networks in that sense, especially LinkedIn, are just wonderful for getting stuff. But also just Googling a name, and figuring out what they’ve done, what is not in their LinkedIn resume is useful.

I show up five to ten minutes before the first person I want to meet shows up. Usually, you have agreements with the organizers about when people are coming in.

I usually ask them to come over, and have coffee, or we talk one on one. I like to have at least half an hour to talk with people. It’s good for them as well.

I do a lot of stuff with CEOs, and I talk to managers.

Talking beforehand makes them feel a bit more relaxed, because sometimes some people feel very awkward about going on stage with somebody they don’t know.

RF: I love this idea of working with the organizers to let them know that you want to have 30-minute coffee with the people that you’re having a panel with.

That’s a great idea. Then it’s facilitated, it’s part of the process, and you’re not catching these people off guard.

Most likely that helps people to lower their guard, which makes your job as a moderator that much more successful.

GR: Exactly. When you’re a speaker you have to think of yourself as a host in a house. You want to make everybody comfortable, you want to be in control, but you want to have an easy going climate there.

Ryan Foland with Guido Romeo - Quote on moderating a panel comfortably - World of Speakers Podcast (Black) _ Powered by SpeakerHub

That’s also the environment where you can throw in some difficult questions. If you’re doing an interview, or you’re bringing up a difficult topic of discussion, that helps, because people will be more open. The audience will get more out of it, because the speakers will be less uptight.

RF: That reminds me of the concept of someone with their mammalian brain.

I talk about this a lot, where our bodies are basically set up to react to outside stimulus in a way that ensures our survival. We use our fight or flight instincts.

It sounds like that really helps get someone, or a panel you’re moderating for, past that croc brain. You’re getting them comfortable with you as the person who is moderating.

Then they’re able to spill their guts, or answer those difficult questions. You’re almost warming them up, right?

GR: That’s right. But that also helps you keep them in check. I did a talk last year with a lot of local authorities.

I ended up having 16 people on the same panel for over two hours. It was crazy, because you couldn’t have anybody actually talk, it was so packed.

It helps a lot when you tell people how many minutes they will have, so they can structure their discourse.

Because most people come on the stage over prepared.

You want to tell people in advance, it will be organized in this way, you will have five minutes. If you have seven minutes you tell them five, so they will stick to the time.

The other thing is slides. You have to be really careful with slides, because those are an audience killer.

Ryan Foland with Guido Romeo - Quote on slides being an audience killer - World of Speakers Podcast (Navy) _ Powered by SpeakerHub

You’re the screen director there, you’re the movie director, you have to think of yourself in that way.

RF: I think that’s the art of moderating, the art of hosting.

I’m super passionate about that. I’m the Ginger MC, self-named. I do a lot of conferences, and hosting. I love it, because you’re able to interact with people on stage, but also have that directorial control.

As a host or moderator, you’re responsible for the audience perceiving this event as being entertaining and of high value. Not everybody realizes how difficult it is to be a good moderator. But I think people are very quick to point out moderation that is not done well.

GR: It’s like cooking. Everybody knows when something doesn’t smell or taste right, but being the chef, it’s a totally different business.

Ryan Foland with Guido Romeo - Quote on panel moderating - World of Speakers Podcast (Grey) _ Powered by SpeakerHub

RF: I like that.

Moderating is definitely like cooking.

These are great tips of how to improve as a speaker. Basically stealing the jewels from other people’s speeches, and using those observations to find your own voice.

Getting there early to relate with people, to get to know them. This allows them to drop their guard, but also puts your in a position of authority when it comes to moderating.

Let’s take a step back and hear about some of the things that have worked for you to get here in the first place.

Some people want to make money while they’re speaking.

Some people want it to be their full time income.

Some people don’t even care about the money, they have a message they want to share.

What are some of the top tips you’d give somebody so they can turn that corner from volunteering as a speaker, or raising their hand to be a moderator, to flipping it, and having people approaching you to give those talks, and people asking if you can moderate?

Are there any things in particular you’ve done that have worked very well, that people can duplicate?

GR: You have to think of yourself as in the market for attention.

On one extreme I would say you’re not doing it for money, you’re not doing it professionally, but you’re doing it for advocacy.

You have to figure out what is your message, why would people want to come and listen to you, and you have to advertise that.

Do that for a blog, through a web page, do something, but start spelling out what you stand up for.

I’ve been a transparency activist for a couple of years here in Italy, and in Europe. Once you put your face on that, people will start asking you to talk for 15 minutes about why transparency, and access to information is important.

I was already writing about that, and I wasn’t making any money out of it, I just wanted to get the message across.

If you want to make money, you want to have a profile that is relevant.

Where you’re either very good at talking about something, like cooking. We have a lot of cooking shows on TV in Italy and in Europe, so if you’re good at cooking that’s definitely the place to pursue it, I would say.

RF: What are your thoughts on being really good at one super narrow topic, or being well versed, or very good at various topics when positioning yourself as a speaker?

It sounds like we’re talking about your personal brand. If you are seen as an activist in all of your writing and social media, that puts you in that box as an activist.

Would you suggest people focus on a specific niche, like cooking? Do you think that there is value in having multiple things to talk about?

GR: You need to be able to talk about multiple things. Personally I don’t write about stuff I don’t know, and I wouldn’t talk about things I don’t know. If they ask me to do a talk about Italian theaters in the 19th century, I would have to decline that.

You have to identify those areas where you feel competent, you feel relevant, and you have an added value. Because the stage is really a truth moment.

Ryan Foland with Guido Romeo - Quote on identifying your competent area - World of Speakers Podcast (Blue) _ Powered by SpeakerHub

We spoke earlier about moderating, but moderating is easier because you’re not in the limelight so much.

But if you have to do a TED talk, you have to really prepare, and have a curriculum. You can’t just come out of the blue and talk about something.

Or you have to be very good at recounting something. If you work on TV, that’s very easy. Or if you do a series of talks on YouTube, and you’re a YouTuber, that can work really well for you.

I have a friend. We were colleagues at a business news agency. He rediscovered himself as an innovation storyteller.

He tours companies, and schools, and they pay him to tell stories of great people who did great things in technology and business, such as the founders of Bank of America. But he really prepared for that. He started small and grew into it.

Something else that has helped me scale up my speaking career, and budget, is getting an agent. The right agent can do great things for you. So far I’ve had three agents. The present one is definitely the best one.

RF: Are these people who are part of speaking associations, or are they actual speaking agents?

GR: I don’t know how it works in the States, but I don’t think it’s that different. There are agencies that range in their activities.

But typically they go from organizing events, to having a palette of speakers they can offer companies, or other festivals.

That helps you a lot, because it helps you concentrate on the content, on your training, on what you have to prepare for.

They deal with the money side of things, which is always pleasant, because very often they’re able to negotiate better than you are. They free up a lot of time you would have spent dealing with the boring things.

RF: Right. All of the administrative stuff, the contracts, the back and forth, and even scheduling.

GR: Yes. They also make you look more professional, because they say, “Well he has an agent.” 

It’s also part of positioning yourself. If someone else is selling you, he will probably sell you better than you’d sell yourself, unless you’re great at doing that.

But I’ve personally found that very distracting, so I was very happy to have somebody else doing it for me.

Very often they go out and look for gigs for you, so that’s very nice.

RF: That really lets you focus on your craft, and what you’re actually doing.

Here’s a random but on topic question. There’s this ongoing debate: I ask everybody if they feel there’s a difference between the terms public speaker and professional speaker. Do you prefer one over the other?

I’ve had some people shy away from the term public speaking, because they feel it puts them into a certain category, versus saying “I’m a professional speaker.” How do you describe yourself? Are those terms intertwined for you?

GR: They’re pretty intertwined. I consider it a professional activity because I get paid for it. I probably would say public speaking.

But I probably wouldn’t do it if I wasn’t paid for it.

RF: Paid implies there’s a professional element to it. Because you’ve got an agent, so you’re good to go with that.

GR: Well yeah, they make some money off of me.

RF: But it sounds like with an agent, or an agency, not only are they out there helping you find opportunities, they’re selling you at a higher price.

Even if they’re taking out a certain amount in fees, you’re still in a net positive situation.

GR: Totally. I’m very happy to pay them their fee.

Their fee is usually a percentage of the gross payment. The higher the payment, the higher the fee they get.

Be savvy when picking your agent.

You don’t want to be the small fish in an agency where they have lots of big fish, because you will be neglected. But you also don’t want to be the most important, or one of the top guys, especially at the beginning. You don’t want to be one of the top guys in the place where they have few speakers, and they don’t have volume.

Ryan Foland - Quote on belonging to an agency - World of Speakers Podcast (Blue-Grey)  Powered by SpeakerHub

I’m with an agency now that has mostly cultural and tech innovation related people there. Lots of journalists and academics. They have 20 to 25 speakers. We don’t really overlap each other, but there are some points of contact.

When a company is looking for a speaker on a certain topic, they know that agency will have a profile, and they might find somebody who is relevant to what they want to do there. It helps to be with the right people in that sense.

Of course you have to have a trusting business relationship with them

RF: You’ve got to choose the people you’re going to rob with wisely.

GR: Exactly. Choose your accomplices wisely.

RF: I think that’s great.

This is inspiring me to get a bit more serious about finding an agency.

I’ve had enough success, and I’m able to find places that are looking for me to speak. But it takes a lot of time, I don’t like some of the administrative work, is causes a lot of brain damage.

About being selective, I wouldn’t have thought to ask those questions about how many speakers do you have, where do I end up on that lineup, is there overlap with other speakers that you have. That makes me think about a press kit.

Do they handle your press kit?

Do they do all of that?

GR: They handle all of that. We worked on it together.

I gave them some materials, and they drafted up a short bio. But you have to work with them, because it’s yourself they’re selling, so you want to have a hand in that.

I consider myself pretty good at figuring people out in the first 15 minutes. If you go and meet an agent, in the first meeting you will see the people you will have to work with, and you’ll get a gut feeling of if it’s going to work out.

RF: That goes back to your original observation. I imagine your ability to read people is super tuned in.

I can imagine you sitting with just about everyone, secretly doing an interview, and digging down to find that story within.

I think that’s an amazing quality. We should all be a bit more of a journalist when it comes to that type of investigative work.

GR: Journalists come in two types. The journalist who says “Hello, how am I doing?” And it’s all about them. Then the guys who I consider the real journalists, who self efface themselves, and try to understand what’s going on around them. That witness kind of journalism is the kind I look up to.

If you can get yourself in the position where you’re at a good observation point, you can really take in things. Being a journalist for more than 20 years now has helped me a lot, because it’s all about observation.

RF: People are observing you too.

I like this idea of hi, how am I doing versus hi, how are you doing. I think there’s not only two types of journalists, there’s two types of people really.

When people start to speak more, there might be more ego involved. But it’s a good reminder to always say, how are you doing, not how am I doing.

GR: Totally.

RF: If somebody wants to find out more about you, read your articles, what’s the best way for them to get you. What’s your social media platform, do you have a website to point them to? How can people continue this podcast into infinity, as they follow you for the rest of your life?

GR: I have a Twitter account with the handle @guidoromeo. There’s also my website, which is www.guidoromeo.com. Most of my stuff there is in Italian, but there’s occasionally some pieces in English. I always tell myself I should do more writing in English, but my assignments mostly come in Italian right now. That’s one of the things I want to develop in 2018.

RF: There you go. It has been fun to meet you, get to know your tips.

I think I’m forever plagued now. When I am watching a speaker, or watching a talk, I will remember this conversation, and I will think about putting on a beanie, and my little black mask, and I will be looking for the jewels to leave with. I think that’s so great.

Every time I’m garage saling I will probably think the same thing. The difference is that in one case I’m taking from others, and the other I’m walking around, and able to pick out things that are ready to be taken. I think that’s really the case.

There’s so much great information, there’s so many amazing speakers. Some of them you have to go and steal from; their nuggets, their timing, and their jokes, and how they do it to make it your own.

But at the same time there are speaking garage sales everywhere. I have found so many people like you who are just willing to put stuff out on the lawn and say, “If you want that, take it, give me 50 cents for it.” Because it doesn’t take anything away from you when you’re able to help someone else out.

I think this is going to help a lot of people out. I’m excited to follow you, and get to know you a little bit more.

I don’t know Italian, that’s not one of my goals for 2018. But maybe connecting more can give you an excuse to get that English going.

I think your ability to take the written word and transform it into spoken word, as well as moderating to help get those words out of people, is admirable and exciting.

GR: Thank you.

RF: When you’re back in the US let’s go garage saling, and at some point let’s go rob some stuff.

Ladies and gentlemen, this has been another episode here at the World of Speakers. Be a robber, go find what works for you, find your own voice, and don’t be afraid to just observe. Because the more you observe, the more you’ll find, the more you’ll learn, and the more you can share your message with the world. All right everybody, we’ll see you next time. Thanks. How do you say goodbye in Italian?

GR: Ciao.

RF: All right. Ciao everybody. We’ll see you next time. Thanks.

 

A bit about World of Speakers

World of Speakers is a weekly podcast that helps people find their own voice, and teaches them how to use their voice to develop a speaking business.

We cover topics like: what works versus what doesn't, ideas on how to give memorable presentations, speaking tips, and ideas on how to build a speaking business.

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