Don’t lose your voice
I’m on the plane back from SXSW Interactive 2008.
I’ve eaten about 3 actual meals in 6 days
I’ve been to 3 panels/sessions throughout all of SXSWi08.
I’ve now heard the phrases: “@alexknowshtml, right? I totally follow you on twitter! *high five*” and “someone told me I need to know who you are”. Weird.
I’ve known who the unicorn was all along.
I’ve had more ah-ha moments than I can count.
I’ve jumped the line. More than once.
I’ve rick-rolled an RV full of people.
I’ve hugged people in real life that I’ve only ever interacted with online.
I’ve rolled up on a larger-than-life town with a larger-than-life posse from Philadelphia.
I’ve experienced a real world meetup of the global coworking email list
I’ve disagreed with people, and was disagreed with.
I’ve sucked (like, pathetically sucked) at bowling while the entire IndyHall team kicked an incredible amount of ass, all along showing serious IndyHall pride. In the form of a can-can dance to bohemian rhapsody.
I’ve consumed so much caffeine that I literally began to vibrate.
I’ve been inspired, and I had opportunities to inspire.
I’ve successfully completed the co-leadership of a core conversation about coworking.
I’ve exercised my undeniable ability to throw one hell of a party by taking over an empty bar called the Mooseknuckle, and filling it with a couple hundred of my closest friends + Robert Scoble. 2 nights in a row.
Gary V and his brother AJ fanboy me almost as much I fanboy them.
I’ve shook hands and shared passions with my peers.
I’ve was reminded how smart my friends are.
I’ve was reminded how lucky I am.
I’ve brainstormed.
It thunder-stormed.
I’ve drank wine from at least 4 different types of containers. Only one was really meant for wine. One of them was the bottle the wine came in.
I‘ve slept on a ranch with goats. I mean, the ranch I slept on had goats present. You know what I mean.
I’ve put my foot in my mouth. Sorry.
I’ve found some emotions that I’d ignored for a long time.
I’ve reminded myself of the perspective I’d been searching for.
I’ve been stunned, absolutely honored, by a comment on my previous post from Kathy Sierra.
Uh oh.
What I DON’T have, is the ability to speak out loud. I spent so much time engaging in reality that I completely blew out my vocal chords and have lost my voice progressively over the last 2 days of the conference. In fact it was gone on the 2nd to last day but that did not stop me from continuing to connect with people, despite the pain of what felt like having swallowed a hedgehog. The spiky blue kind, no less.
Where I lost one voice, I discovered more about another voice. Not the one in your throat (though that voice plays a very large part in this other voice), but the one in your heart.
4 cornerstones of the heart-powered voice:
Voice is passion.
Voice is inspiration and being inspired.
Voice is not asking for permission.
Voice is ownership. And not the singular kind of ownership that we don’t like.
(note: I’m interested in how else you define voice)
One of the reasons I love this industry so effing much is because of the voices that my peers have. The ability to do all of the things I listed above were things I did in the last 6 days, but they’re things that almost anyone can do, as well, assuming they have the properties of voice I listed above.
Again, I consider myself beyond lucky to work in this community (the internet in general, as a community). I work in an industry of peers. Business hierarchy and “internet celebrity-dom” aside, the “rock stars” of my industry are, as I’m quickly learning, people who share the same types of voice that I do. That we all do. Rather than have the Talent:Fan::Leader:Follower relationship of film, music, and many other creative communities, there is a mutual relationship in which everyone simply respects what one another are working on.
Most of the time. (more on that later)
There is the “compete with rather than compete against” type of interaction where there is enough room for multiple properties in the same space and as a result, people force one another to improve their craft (and the craft around them, as a result) rather than force one another entirely out of the realm of competition.
Most of the time. (again, more on that later)
The events of the last 2 weekends have me setting out to inspire as much as I’ve been inspired. To do as much good as has been done for me. By sharing my voice with so many of you, in real life, on this blog, at SXSW or any other conference…I feel like I’ve been privileged to further this goal faster than ever before.
If you have a voice (the 4 point version, again, not the kind that I lost because I don’t know when to call it quits), I want to hear it. I may not have a specific interest in whatever it is that drives your voice, but I’m interested in the fact that the people around me HAVE voices in the first place.
I realize that I lost my voice this weekend because I spent 6 days sharing my voice with everyone I came in contact with. You know what happens when you share all of the slices of pizza in your pie? You end up not having a pizza yourself.
All I’m asking of you is to share a little bit of your voice with me to help my recovery.
Video comments rule, by the way, because they let me hear your voice. Both kinds.
Tags: sxsw, sxswi, sxswi08, voice, passion
13. March 2008 at 02:10
one word … Mooseknuckles !
13. March 2008 at 02:27
Alex, great thoughts!
So many amazing voices this week, many similarly affected by overuse & illness, but continuing to share and connect, regardless. We are indeed blessed with a phenomenally inspiring, talented, sharing, and so very down-to-earth community.
While I was also losing my physical voice (even before arriving in Austin), I found myself connecting with an even more important voice during SXSW. Flooded with gratitude, inspiration, purpose, confidence, and creativity, I look forward to bringing the insights of this journey into the coming ~360 amazing days until our next intense trip to Austin.
Thank you for being the catalyst for getting so many of us from Philadelphia to SXSW this year!
13. March 2008 at 10:30
Inspired Alex. Great seeing you again this year.
Here’s to great things.
13. March 2008 at 11:39
Hey Alex,
I have been following you on twitter and the proceedings at SXSW over the past few days. I dropped you a line on Facebook, but don’t know if you got it.
Anyway I am currently a student at Drexel who is interested in graphic design, web design and web dev. I was wondering what program you went through at Drexel, and your thoughts on it.
Thanks.
13. March 2008 at 12:53
Best. SXSW/BarCamp wrap-up. Ever.
And pretty excellent post on voice. Pretty Bakhtinian, if you ask me. (Which you won’t, but it’s all good.)
Your enthusiasm for the industry is well-placed and, hopefully, cynics won’t get you down. Inspiring and being inspired are part of a larger process.
13. March 2008 at 13:58
@Alexandre:
Thank you, that’s an awesome compliment!
Eff the cynics, I say. They’ll always be there. They have just as much of a choice as I do to do and say what they want.
13. March 2008 at 17:40
Dude!
Just about THE best post ever, and possibly one of the most important!!! You’ve distilled the energy of the group experience as well as words can, and your emphasis on the voices we use to do this and share this are beautifully suggestive. I’ll have a think on the ‘voice theme’ for sure, but next year I’ll make it to the Mooseknuckle so that I too will lose the physical one.
Cynic: From the Latin ‘to sin,’ refers to an ‘icky’ person who sins a lot.
13. March 2008 at 22:40
Jeez man, how do you even have the brainpower to write like that after this week? Awesome wrap-up, and great points (esp love the bit about Talent/Fan Leader/Follower).
Also had a great time talking to you @ 16-bit. Rock on — and keep the energy going.
15. March 2008 at 13:19
Alex - It was so great to meet you at sxsw, and I’m so glad we had the chance to participate in so many good conversations together. Your passion is apparent and contagious. What a fantastic journey we’re on!
yours in hoarseness,
Julie
21. March 2008 at 02:29
Having attended both the Interactive and the Music portions of SXSW I can unequivocally report that Interactive is the spirit of what SXSW is really about. No one at Music that I saw or spoke to had a voice. Sure, they were there to talk, but about themselves. Maybe to give advice, but maybe to flaunt their accrued experience. It felt foreign and without the warm and spirited community that I had been with surrounded by for the past week.
Alex - Two years in a row seeing you at SXSW and you’ve again left an indelible mark on my road ahead for the coming year. Thank you.