I had a blast on Wednesday leading up a staff open mic at KQED (again). I wanted to create a safe space for folks to share their talents and passions with each other, and I think we achieved that! We had eight performers share their gifts with an enthusiastic crowd of about 40 staff.
Seeing some of our more introverted staff members step up to bravely take the spotlight was so heartening. My overall message to them was to “reject the false idol of perfection” and to not be afraid of failure because failure is how we learn and grow, and part of what makes us most human. Folks seemed to take encouragement from that.
I had a fantastic team of volunteers who helped me pull this off — Debbie Jue, Tim Olsen, Eric Dhan, Cameron Swan Shami, and Ryan Peters. It made the execution of this event a breeze and helped me to concentrate on just being present and enjoy the moment.
I really leaned into my “Hype Man” superpower this time, which I think helped elevate the energy of the room.
My own performance was … fine. My goal to was to explore what it would be like to do a mostly improv’ed skate dance in front of an audience. It was a little nerve wracking but also a fun challenge. I think I did okay. But of course as soon as I was not “performing” I skated so much better!
Video by my co-worker buddy Debbie.
Pics from Eric D.
