Meaningful Meetings: Jesse Ferrell on Communications, the Platinum Rule, Self-Assessment, and More
This Enterprise Engagement Alliance series on meaningful meetings kicks off with Jesse Ferrell, Founder of JessTalk, a public speaking and advisory firm focused on helping organizations reach higher levels of performance through better communication across the enterprise. This new EEA YouTube playlist focuses on speakers and innovative formats to accomplish connections and results impossible to achieve on video events.Key Insights
Effective Event Planning
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Jesse Ferrell says his company JessTalk takes his 34 years of experience in casino marketing and role as an adjunct professor on gaming administration to help organizations tap the power of teams. “The success of your team is dependent on how well they work together. Team members must know their role and capabilities and rely on the expertise of other team members. Poor communication results in total chaos within the company and negatively impacts your brand and culture. However, a dysfunctional team can be turned around into a high-performing one.” An inspirational speaker and program can break down the barriers to better communication, he believes.
The EEA Meaningful Meetings series focuses on speakers and innovative event formats to accomplish connections and results impossible to achieve on video events. It is hosted by Bruce Bolger, Founder of the Enterprise Engagement Alliance, and Jaki Baskow, Founder of Baskow Talent.
Click here to watch or listen to the 30-minute show with Ferrel and Baskow and/or read on for the highlights.
JessTalk provides more than just a “pep talk” for your team, says Ferrell. The goal is to help the audience absorb key relationship principles through keynote, workshop, or coaching sessions. “Your team members will learn how to truly know themselves first. Once they ‘get’ themselves they will ultimately ‘get’ others. Know the best tools, systems and processes to increase their bandwidth. Build high-quality, sustainable personal and professional relationships," he counts among the goals of his services.
Before moving into public speaking and providing advisory services, Ferrell had 34 years of experience in the hospitality industry, working his way up from a hotel busboy, blackjack dealer, front-desk employee, to an executive position in casino marketing.
Key Insights
Communication is the number one barrier to building better organizations, says Ferrell, adding that many if not most of the challenges in both business and our personal lives come from a failure to fully understand the other person’s point of view.
Ferrell advocates what he calls the “platinum rule”—doing on to others what they would like to have done on to themselves, consistent with his position that to fully communicate, we must stand in the shoes of those we are listening to.
Consider the benefits of the REACH rule in business and in your personal life: Responsibility, Engagement, Accountability, Connection and How you leave people feeling.
The power of authentic connections. When Ferrell was in college, he looked in the yellow pages to find work in the entertainment business while pursuing his college degree. He got a small job holding sign cards for a Don Rickles event through Jaki Baskow. After college, he pursued a career in hospitality until decades later deciding he wanted to take his career into his own hands and begin a speaking and advisory career. He reached out to Jaki Baskow, and within a short time she booked him for an engagement that helped launch his new business.
How to independently assess your own strengths. When at a crossroads in life, he advises, find a dozen or so of your friends, family, business colleagues or other trusted advisors and ask them to frankly identify what they think are your best strengths, skills, or weaknesses. That can help you determine the best direction to take.
Why people resist change. Most people do not want to go through the discomfort of learning or assuming responsibility for executing change, he observes. It takes either necessity or inspiration to help overcome that resistance.
Effective Event Planning
Pre-event evaluation. Before any speaking engagement, Ferrell starts by interviewing the planners to determine their purpose, goals, and objectives, and learn about the audience. Ideally, he follows up with additional calls to participants to learn about their expectations or, when appropriate, their views of the organization.
Engage with the audience as much as possible when on stage. When possible, set up the stage so that the speaker can easily interact with the audience, including the ability to roam the audience with a microphone or have people on hand to do so. “Ideally, there’s a dialog.” However, Baskow notes that this format, while highly effective, is still not widely used in corporate events.
Follow up keynotes with interactive sessions. Based on the theme of the conference, create breakout groups at which people can develop specific solutions to be shared later with the entire audience, ideally related to the theme or purpose of the event. Or the groups can do exercises related to enhancing communications, breaking down silos, or to address other issues people find vexing within the organization.
After the event. Consider additional collaborative workshops with appropriate stakeholders to further address and sustain any new initiatives identified during the sessions to that there's a concrete long-term benefit.
The intangible measure of success. Speakers know they have made an impact, notes Ferrell, when years later people come up to them with stories of how that event changed their lives or left them with an indelible lesson or memory. "Some of those people have become my best clients many years later."
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