On Paying Presenters by Bendyogagirl

This is the text to my latest blog post, which can be found here. The blog has more links in it than this text…

Thanks to the amazing Mollena Williams, and the incredible Andrea Zanin, I’ve had some very good reading this week around presenting, being paid to present, and some event revenue models. If you haven’t read their posts, and you are a producer and/or presenter in sex positive contexts, (or considering becoming one) please do so. There’s also some interesting dialogue here, if you’re on Fetlife. Topologists’ words are actually what has catalyzed me writing about this, because his observation that the cost of kink events would have to be exponentially higher in order to pay presenters is, in my opinion, spot on.

This post is probably going to be a little long – I’ll be writing about presenting and producing…

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Seth Godin – Conservation of energy in conversation [Communication]

Conservation of energy in conversation

If you escalate (cut off in traffic, angry at the gate agent, frustrated at your boss), you’ve just added (negative) energy to a conversation.

If you escalate (high-pitched enthusiasm, a hug, encouraging words), you’ve just added (positive) energy to a conversation.

Once the energy is added, it has to go somewhere. Often, the person you’re engaging with throws it right back, or even increases it. A talented, mature person might take your negative energy and de-escalate it, or even swallow it and permit the conversation to calm down or end. But don’t count on it.

Sure, you can ‘win’ a conversation by overwhelming your opponent with energy they can’t handle. But of course, they’re not your opponent and you don’t really win. Being aware of the energy you add or take from interactions is a sophisticated technique that radically changes the outcomes of the conversations that fill your day. Add the good stuff, absorb the bad stuff and focus on the outcomes, not the bravado.

Interview with Sarah Sloane

Originaly posted on BeASexEducator.com

How long have you been teaching?

I’ve been teaching technically since 2000, at the behest of the members of the club that I was pledging (though I’d done some corporate training prior to that). I started to teach at other local groups, and then offered to present at Black Rose’s big event a year or two later…and I was off and running.

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