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Whether as a speaker at a big event or a participant in a small meeting, we all have an audience.

Everyone Has an Audience

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How do you want your audience to perceive you?

Everyone has an audience. How do you want to influence yours?

Everyone has an audience. Do you know who your audiences are? What do you want them to learn from you? How can you influence them?

On Your Feet co-founder, artist and accidental movement starter, Gary Hirsch, got AM:PM PR’s Speakeasy guests pondering these questions and shared some ideas for influencing our most important audiences.

Popular corporate consultant, improve pro, artist and bot army general teaches AM:PM PR's Speakeasy guests a few things about engaging audiences.

Gary and his partners have been hired by Intel, Disney, Nike, Apple, P&G, The British Ministry of Defense, a small band of Northern Californian Buddhist monks and so many other organizations to use improv to improve communication, leadership, idea generation, brand building, organizational development, and collaboration. He shared some of what he’s learned from these enviable experiences.

Learn by observing

gary hirsch audience

You can learn a lot by observing audiences.

“I often go to plays and sit where I can inconspicuously see the audience’s reactions,” Gary said. “People behave completely differently than they would on their own. Audiences are an interesting and unique organism.”

Start paying attention to audiences of any size and try to understand what influences them. What catches and keeps their attention? What do they seem to want? Try shifting your perception away from the traditional audience/speaker relationship and to make the audience the focal point.

We’re all creators of content. We all have audiences. How can we make the most of those interactions? How can we ensure the impact we hope for?

Let go 

gary hirsch domino effect
Don’t be afraid others will steal your great ideas. Openly sharing your ideas and expertise can give you credibility and build your reputation.

“Letting go” helped shape Gary’s philosophy as an artist and professional communicator.

“It’s so easy for us to hoard information and ideas. We grasp on to the idea of intellectual property,” he said.

Gary had an epiphany with his Bot Joy, business. What started as a small totemic art project for On Your Feet clients grew into little bot armies  hidden around cities across North America and Europe. Demand for these little bots grew with orders from fans and from more cities who wanted a little joy spread in their own region.

In order to grow and feed the demand he needed help. He decided to invite others to build their bot armies. He realized by letting go, the importance and impact of the Bots could outlive him.

Applying the creative principle of ‘letting go’ to the professional world your work can have greater impact, too.

More lessons from Gary and On Your Feet:

  • Inspiration can come from anywhere
  • Listening is hard work
  • Things almost never go (or feel) like you think they will, and this is (almost always) a good thing
  • Trying something different can be better than trying harder
  • Stories help create meaning
  • T-shirts can make good uniforms

Learn more about Gary and how you can steal some of his ideas at BotJoy.com.

Make sure you get invited to our next event by joining the Speakeasy Facebook Group page.

gary hirsch with dominos

 

 

 

 

Make an impression.

Catch attention and have a ridiculously good time

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TEDx speaker, artist and corporate coach, Gary Hirsch, at AM:PM PR’s Speakeasy on involving your audience in what you do and make 

As an artist, illustrator, improviser, and co-founder of On Your Feet (OYF), Gary Hirsch, collides improv with business to help companies relate, create and collaborate – all while having a ridiculously good time.

For the past 16 years Gary Hirsch has worked with some of the world’s most innovative organizations exploring how improv impacts communication, leadership, idea generation, brand building, organizational development, and collaboration. OYF’s global clients include Intel, Disney, Nike, Apple, P&G, Daimler, The British Ministry of Defense, a small band of Northern Californian Buddhist monks (really) and many more.

He talked about his work and the inspiration behind it at a very popular TEDx talk last April.

The OYF network includes improvisers, filmmakers, anthropologists, advertising, marketing and research folks, and the former snow cone king of Portland, Oregon. Core beliefs listed on the website include:

  • You can only get so far sitting down.
  • Learning is often emotional and experiential before it is intellectual.
  • You shouldn’t have to pay extra for the emergency-exit row.
  • More heads are better than one (under the right conditions).
  • Actions speak louder than mission statements.
  • Giant Post-It sticky-backed notes are the greatest invention in world.

 

Artist Gary Hirsch behind a small unit of his Bot Joy army. Each Bot is individually painted and numbered and programmed with special abilities that include bringing you joy, making you feel loved, calming you down, giving you energy, taking the blame, inspiring you and saying “yes” whenever you need to hear it.

 

Gary has created his own pet project and creative outlet – Bot Joy. What started as hand painted bots on the backs of dominos to inspire his clients at Pixar and others has grown to an army of more than 23,000 little robots and several bots as big as the side of a building inspiring bravery of patients at children’s hospitals, cities that need encouragement and beneficiaries of gifts from friends or family who want to offer support in a lasting way.

OPB’s Oregon Art Beat featured Gary’s work when they joined him at Randall Children’s Hospital last year and his work has been exhibited at The Cleveland Museum of Art, The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and in galleries in Portland, Seattle and Las Vegas.

His Bot Joy project has inspired others to “steal his idea”, with hundreds of students and artists making their own bots around the world.

Bots are multiplying and taking over the world to spread joy.

 

Unplug for your kids.

Unplugged Bots on Wired’s “GEEKDAD” Blog – Shared Post

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By Erik Wecks, GEEKDAD

 

At his day job, Gary Hirsch is a business consultant running a company called On Your Feet which uses improvisational theater to help businesses communicate and collaborate. When not working with managers from Nike and other large corporations, you might find Hirsch busy painting robots on the backs of dominoes or out and about Portland, Oregon, leaving his creations all over town for people to find.

BotJoy fan Jeff Probst with artist Gary Hirsch

In early 2012, his “What Brings Portland Joy?” project asked finders of his bots to post pictures of their bot with things which brought them joy. In true Portland style, he soon had pictures of kale, roller derby, and beer. Recently, Hirsch was asked to have his bots included in the swag bags for both the Emmys and the Golden Globes. Joy Bots and other Bot creations by Gary Hirsch have now been showing up with the likes of Downton Abbey‘s Elizabeth McGovern; cast members from Glee, True Blood and Breaking Bad; and Survivor host Jeff Probst, who recently ordered 100 of them to give to the guests on his talk show.

 

Not only are Hirsch’s bots hobnobbing with the rich and famous, but they are also becoming well traveled. Hirsch says that he has received pictures of his bots from all over the world. “There is a part of the website ‘Where in the world is your Bot?,’ and folks love sending in photos of their Bot in exotic places: Bali, Egypt, Nairobi, and the Arctic Circle to name a few.

 

After meeting the art therapist at Randal Children’s hospital in Portland, Hirsch asked if he could make a special “Brave Bot” for kids being admitted to the hospital. Now each child admitted to the day surgery unit gets a special Brave Bot with instructions that read:

  1.  Allow your robot to get to know you by letting him hang out with you in your room, on your windowsill, in your pocket, or wherever you like to spend time.
  2. Listen carefully, when needed, your Brave Bot will use his robot powers to give you a little bit of courage to face the things that feel uncertain and scary.
  3. Keep your Brave Bot with you anywhere you go for a little bit of courage where ever you are.

Gary Hirsch's Brave Bot

“I hear some amazing stories of how the Bots are helping,” says Hirsch, “For instance: Ava, a wonderful 8 year with type 1 diabetes holds on to her Brave Bot every time she gets an injection. Her Mom just told me that now Ava is able to give herself insulin injections with the Brave Bot watching.”

When asked why he thinks these bots seem to have helped, Hirsch answered, “The Bots are small, feel great in your hand, the kids are always bigger then the Bot, they can talk to it, they feel in control. Somehow the Bots help you have conversations with yourself that you might not have otherwise. I have really no idea how they work. I just make them and let the people that have them do the rest.”

I asked Hirsch how he came up with the idea for the bots.

“I had this idea about 5 years ago: What if you had an imaginary robot that followed you around all day and gave you outrageous compliments? It was a fun idea to imagine, so I included it in an illustrated journal that we made for our On Your Feet clients and gave them out when we were running innovation and creativity sessions. The image of a robot following you around giving you compliments kept haunting me… I mean seriously, how cool would that be? It would be invisible, and only you would know it was there, and it would say things to you like “Nice pants” or “That was a smart thing to do” or “You made the right choice.”  So two years ago, I thought, “Let’s make the robot real” and after playing with several surfaces, I stumbled onto the domino. Now instead of an invisible robot, you have a small one that you can take anywhere.”

One of the things I love about each bot is that it is a numbered piece of art. I have bots which Hirsch gave me in the 15,000 range. He told me that recently he passed number 17,000 and has left hundreds of them around cities like Portland, Oregon, and Austin, Texas. Hirsch is incredibly generous with his bots, giving away thousands of his creations. The rainy night I met him, Hirsch stuffed the pockets of my jacket with several bots for me, and some for my kids as well. He also produces large scale installations of his bots which used hundreds of individually crafted pieces. Hirsch says that he can lose himself for hours while painting bots and is nowhere near bored with the project.

Gary Hirsch original bot.

Hirsch has branched out from the original joy bots. There are now 26 different Bots. “You can see them all on my Etsy site with new ones sprouting up all the time. My favorites are:

The Launch of the Unplugged Bot:

Recently, Hirsch’s brother came up with an idea for a new bot, the Unplugged Bot. The Unplugged Bot assists its owners to unplug once in a while and re-connect with the real world. Like all his bots, they are hand-painted and one-of-a-kind.

“Do you know someone who needs to unplug? Who has to check their electronic devices every 20 seconds?”

 

Read more by Erik Wecks

Follow @erikwecks on Twitter.