In my previous post, I referenced an amazing experience I had with Guy Kawasaki at BlogHer. (If you don’t know who he is – google him – very cool guy who’s done some awesome things) I promised to tell the story – and here it is – and it’s definitely one I’ll never forget.
Guy was one of the keynote speakers at BlogHer. He talked about self-publishing your book instead of going the traditional publishing route. After finishing his interview with the moderator, they opened the floor to questions. And I did something completely out of my comfort zone – I asked the first question. As terrified as I was to ask a question in front of 5,000 people, I became even more terrified when the video image of me was projected onto the large stage screens. That was a whole lot of me I wasn’t expecting to see.
So what’s the first thing I said? I believe the quote was, “Oh my God, I can’t believe my hair looks like that – hold on”.
Yes, I actually said that.
Then, in front of 5,000 folks, I hair flipped and tried to shake it a bit to look better on that HUGE screen. (It didn’t)
After the laughter died down and I stop looking like a freak, I finally said my name and Martinis and Minivans. What happened next is where the cool part starts. Guy Kawasaki, upon hearing the name of my blog, said, “Women come up with the best blog names.” I felt like a kid who is picked to be line leader on the first day of school. Way cooler than I actually was. I didn’t hear any of his answer to my question because I kept making sure pee didn’t come down my leg and that I didn’t start picking my nose or something.
As if that wasn’t cool enough, he took a picture with me afterwards and gave a bunch of attendees free copies of his book.
Ok, that’s a great story, right? Oh no – that’s not all.
A few hours later I get an email from…. GUY KAWASAKI!
He was writing because someone put on Twitter that she thought he was being sexist with that comment about my blog name and he wanted to find out if I was offended and if I felt the same way as she did.
I sat there with my jaw open. First because I received an email from him, and secondly, because who the hell would get upset about that???
We proceeded to write a few emails back and forth discussing the insane nature of that comment and I reassured him that his worries were for nothing. Actually, I believe what I said was, “Don’t worry your pretty little android head over it…”
But the final icing on the cake was this. As I was typing my last email to him about this topic, my computer starts to make a weird noise. Within five seconds it starts to make a sizzling noise and sparks start shooting out the side of the computer. Within two seconds from that moment, my computer shuts down and can’t be turned on again.
An email to Guy Kawasaki was so powerful that it blew up my computer. That folks is true power.
But it hasn’t ended there. Guy’s social media guru, Peg Fitzpatrick, who was with him at BlogHer, wrote about this experience (minus the computer blowing up, of course…) for The Huffington Post today. Check it out - http://www.huffingtonpost.com/peg-fitzpatrick/words-have-power-use-them_b_3670379.html
And I sit here, still in amazement of the whole thing.
And there you have it. A question, a video screen, a tweet, an email, and a dead computer. All because of Guy Kawasaki.
