Public Speaking Tip: Pretend Your Audience is Listening in Their Second Language

Category : Entrepreneurship
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One of the biggest keys to success in life is being able to communicate clearly.  If you’re the smartest person in the world, but can’t explain your ideas to anyone else, it doesn’t matter.  Many people struggle translating their ideas into actionable chunks.  Others struggle with getting up in front of a crowd.  They talk too fast, use jargon, business buzz words and end up losing their audience.  The best public speakers I’ve seen talk slowly, clearly and have broken their ideas into small pieces that people can understand.  I left the startup panel at SXSW 2010 thinking that Naval Ravikant knew what he was talking about.  He talked slowly, clearly and delivered insight.  If you watch the best TED Talks, they all do the same thing.

I’ve always been interested in trying to improve public speaking, but never had a good idea until I came to Chile.  We were at an entrepreneurship panel held completely in Spanish with four speakers.  Most of the speakers talked slowly and clearly, but one was clearly nervous, making her speak even faster than normal.  I had trouble understanding her for awhile until she worked out her nerves.

So pretend your audience is made up of people who know your language as their second language.  If you do this, you’ll speak more slowly, use smaller words and break your ideas into chunks.  I’m not suggesting you dumb down your presentations.  Speaking simply and clearly is not dumb.  In fact, many times it’s even harder.  That’s why you often see websites with a full paragraph of text without having any idea what they actually do.  But that’s for another blog post.

Public Speaking Keys

  1. Slow down.  Then slow down again.  You’re probably still talking too fast.
  2. Avoid jargon and business buzzwords.  Communicate simply and clearly
  3. Relax.  You know more about your subject than your audience.

First Impressions from Santiago

Category : Startup Chile
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I’ve been in Santiago for the past five days for Startup Chile and finally had a chance to write down some initial impressions.  Jesse and I have been really busy getting our IDs, a bank account and searching for an apartment.  The Startup Chile program has helped us cut through all of the red tape that others might have to go through and it’s been super efficient so far.  Jesse and I have been walking all over the place, getting a feel for the city.  I’ve been really impressed with all of the other entrepreneurs in the program I’ve met so far.

It’s been 70-80 degrees and sunny every single day with low humidity.  The weather reminds me of Palo Alto so far.  Santiago is a huge city with about 6m residents.  It’s in a valley, so there are some problems with smog, but I haven’t had a problem yet.  There are a few days when the mountains are a bit obscured, but for whatever reason the smog doesn’t seem to get down into the valley and has not bothered my lungs.

Santiago sort of runs west to east and as a general rule, the farther east you get, the better the neighborhood.  We’ve only explored comúnas (districts) Providencia, Las Condes, Vitacura and a bit of Nuñoa and the downtown around our office.

Eastern Santiago very developed and clearly first world.  If it weren’t for everyone speaking Spanish, I could be in any other mid to large city in the US or Europe.  The center, where our office is located, is a little older and really busy, but still nice.  There’s people everywhere during the day.  It’s filled with shops, restaurants and businesses.  We’re not sure what it’s like at night, but people have told us it can get rough downtown.  There’s got to be at least 6-7 universities headlined by Universidad Católica and Universidad de Chile, so there’s lots of young people seemingly everywhere.  We haven’t checked out the Western side and everyone’s told us to stay away.

The metro is modern, efficient and cheap.  It costs about $1.25 to use it and you can get just about anywhere you want using it.  There’s wifi everywhere, probably more than in Madison.  There’s public wifi hotspots all over the place.  People eat dinner between 830-1030 and go out to bars/clubs at 12-1, which stay open until 6am.

Not many people speak much English, but they love it when we speak Spanish, even if it’s bad.  Our goto phrase has been estoy tratando de hablar español, pero hablo como un niño de cinco años, which means I’m trying to speak Spanish, but I speak like a five year old.  That usually gets a laugh and then we’re free to practice.  I can still understand pretty much everything people are saying, but I’m still struggling to speak quickly.  I can tell I’m already getting better though.

Everyone here looks younger than you’d expect and I have a feeling it’s because Santiago is a walking city, the weather is awesome and the food is really healthy.  Chilean food uses awesome ingredients, has correct, non American portion sizes, but is sort of bland.  We’ve had a bunch of chicken/rice, pork chop/mashed potatoes etc for main courses.  There are tons of Peruvian restaurants in Santiago and we’ve found that it’s the place to go for a good meal.  It’s like Chilean food, but with more spices.  I had some top notch ceviche last night.  If you’re in Madison, go to Inka Heritage to get a feel for some of the stuff we’ve been eating.

Chileans excel at making sandwiches.  They use really good, fresh bread, avocado, tomato, fresh wet cheeses, lime mayo and all sorts of fresh goodness.  If I wanted, I could survive on the diverse array of Chilean sandwiches.

The fresh fruit and veggies are awesome and cheap.  I bought medio kilo (1lb) of fresh strawberries for about $1.25 from a fruit stand and really flavorful avocados cost between $.10 and $.20.  It makes buying a much worse quality avocado for $1-$1.5 seem insane in the US.  I can’t wait to start cooking with these ingredients once we get an apartment.

I’m not a fan of fruit juice in the US, but the juice here is unreal, cheap and is sold everywhere.  So far, my favorite is frambuesa (raspberry), followed closely by frutilla (strawberry) and piña (pineapple).  It costs about $.50 for a really big glass.  The raspberry juice tastes like the fresh raspberries we used to get out of my grandma’s garden and put on top of schaum torte.  My family probably only gets this part, but you’ll have to take my word for it.

jugo de piña

Dominó is how fast food should be.  They are everywhere here and always busy.  They sell sandwiches and hotdogs, but use really fresh, good ingredients.  It’s still cheap and fast, but it doesn’t taste like fast food.  Dominó would do really well on any college campus in the US.  My favorite thing from Dominó so far is a hotdog with crushed avocado, tomato, cheese and a little mayo.

I’m much less hungry here than I was in the US.  Part of it is that it’s warm, so my body needs less food, but I think another part of it is that all of the food is very healthy and therefore more filling than in the US.  I bought an orange soda yesterday and there were only four ingredients: carbonated water, sugar (not high fructose corn syrup), orange juice and I forget the last one.  Even being here a week, I already feel healthier.

I’ll have more blog posts coming about the Startup Chile program and some of the interesting people we’ve met so far.  I promise my next post will have lots more pictures.  I had problems with my iPhone for a few days, so I’ll be sure to put more in next time.

What I’ve Learned In 12 Years of Reffing Soccer

Category : Personal Thoughts, Sports
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I’ve been reffing soccer since I was 12. I grew up playing soccer and wanted some extra spending money as a kid, so it was a natural fit. Over the past 12 years, I’ve learned a ton about myself and human nature in general.  I think some of the lessons I learned growing up as a referee led me be independent and to start my own business.  I even used some of my reffing money to finance my first business.  As I’ve been involved in entrepreneurship, I’ve found that reffing has taught me a ton about business, psychology and life in general.  Here’s a few:

1. The loudest people usually know the least

The people who yell/complain the most, usually know the least.  The people who are mostly silent or pick their spots to speak up usually know their stuff.  Parents, coaches, players.  People complaining about small issues usually don’t know anything and it’s best to ignore them. They just want attention.

2. You have to work hard and earn people’s respect

If you walk around slowly or don’t move outside of the center circle, people will think you’re lazy and will take every opportunity to criticize you if you’re not giving full effort. People are more willing to give you the benefit of the doubt if you’re working hard, even if you make a mistake.

3. Bullies like to pick on people they don’t think will fight back

I’ve seen coaches and fans brutally abuse 12-14 year old female referees because they know that the kid isn’t going to respond.  Which brings me to my next lesson:

4. Stand up for yourself and others

I threw out a 40 year old coach in my first game when I was 12.  He cussed me out even though I got the foul correct because he believed that the other 9 year old had tried to injure his player.  If you see someone bullying someone else, say something.  Even if you don’t get them to stop, the other person will appreciate it.

5. People live vicariously through others and it’s not a good thing

The worst parents to deal with are those who are living through their kids.  They are horrible to referees, but even worse to their kids.  Thankfully, my Dad never pulled some of the crap I see every season.

6. If you show people respect, they will likely respect you back.  If people won’t respect you back, don’t listen to them and move on.

If you start a relationship by respecting the other person, they’ll likely respect you back.  People deserve your respect from the start.  They don’t have to “earn your respect.”  But if you treat someone with respect and they don’t give it back, don’t listen and move on.  They’re not worth your time.

7. Be aware of politics

Believe it or not, there’s a ton of politics in the referee world, all the way up to the world cup.  Make sure you know the politics of any industry you’re in.  If you don’t like playing the politics game, it’s ok.  Just do what you enjoy.  Try not to bring politics into your own organizations and life, though.

8. Prepare and research for what you are about to do

The best referees that I know research the teams, history, players and coaches they are about to ref.  They know who plays club together, top goal scorers, enforcers.  It makes the job much easier.  Same with just about all aspects of life.

9. Take Responsibility

Show up on time, dress in a uniform and take responsibility for your calls.  You cant hide from players/coaches/fans when you’re the only one with the whistle.  Own up to your mistakes and people will respect you.  If you screw up, tell people you screwed up.  They will respect you for it in the end.

10. Be consistent. Be fair. Don’t call ticky tack, crazy calls that nobody understands.

Just like in life, be consistent and fair.  Don’t try to show people how smart you are.  Be fair and don’t be a dick.

11. Don’t be afraid to do what’s right, even if it’s hard.

It’s hard to disallow a goal in the 89th minute for a handball that only you saw.  Or an offside call that is really close.  You have to do what’s right, no matter what.  Even if it’s painful short term.  You have to live with yourself and you’ll feel better if you do the right thing, even if it’s hard.

Bonus time.  Here’s 10 things I’ve seen on the soccer field in the last 12 years:

1.  My first game.  Coach calls 12 year old me a “fucking idiot.”  I kick him out.  In my third game, I kick another coach out for saying similar things and he sits menacingly on his car trunk watching from the parking lot.

2. High School Game – Red player slide tackles blue player from behind.  I call the foul and give a red card to the red player.  Blue player’s teammate jumps up and jumps on red player’s back, grabs his hair and smashes his face into the ground repeatedly.

3. 14 year old kid tells 19 year old me “I’m going to find out where you live and kill you.”  I give him a red card, laugh and say “what are you going to do, do a bike by?”  Parents tell me I shouldn’t have given him a red card because he has “emotional issues.”

4. Coach is a state cup game attempts to punch 18 year old me in the face after I throw him out for swearing at me repeatedly.  He says “If you’re man enough to throw me out, you’re going to have to be man enough to make me” and has to be restrained by field marshals.

5. Parent is unhappy that his son has been red carded for saying that 21 year old me is “a fucking terrible idiot.”  Parent goes Bobby Knight and throws a chair onto the field, in my direction.  He’s ejected too.

6. U10 game.  Goal keeper makes a great save with his stomach and gets the wind knocked out of him.  Father gets really mad and announces to the parents sideline that he’s going to make “his little pussy” get back in the game.  I tossed him and he got a 3 game suspension.

7. Parent of 16 year old female select player screams at her daughter the entire game.  His kid is the best player on the team, but he thinks she can do better.  It gets so bad that the girl breaks down crying and screams at him that she wants to quit.  She had scored 2 goals and her team was winning.

8. Parents follow me to my car and attempt to not allow me to leave.  I’m 17 and it’s a u15 game.  They were mad that I called the game because of lightning while their team was losing.

9. U13 game.  Manager comes over to me to pay me before the game.  He looks me in the eye and says really slowly “This is a really important game, make sure you call it fair” as he’s handing me my pay envelope.  I didn’t think anything of it.  After the game, there’s an extra $40 in the envelope.  Bribing the ref in a u13 game?  Seriously?

10. Very clean high school girls game.  60 minutes in, a red player comes in screaming and makes a horrible slide tackle on a blue player.  I give her a red card and ask one of the other girls what that was all about.  They tell me that blue player had stolen red player’s boyfriend earlier that summer.

I probably have another 50 stories I could share, but I’ll leave those for another post.

On a serious note, 90% of referees quit in their first year.  The pay is great, but most people can’t take the abuse from parents and coaches.  There’s no other job where adults think it’s ok to scream and swear at 12-18 year olds and drive them to tears.  I would love to go to some accountant, attorney, construction worker, sales exec’s office and scream at him whenever I think he’s made a mistake, just so they can see what it’s like.  I’ve actually told that to parents as I’ve ejected them.  It doesn’t usually make an impression.

I’m Moving to Chile for Six Months for Startup Chile

Category : Entrustet, Startup Chile
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I’m moving to Santiago, Chile for 6 months in two weeks to run Entrustet.

About six weeks ago, I saw an article in Forbes by Maureen Farrell that talked about a program launched by the Chilean government to attract startups to Chile.  As I read, I found out that the Chilean Government was offering US startups $40,000 to move operations to Santiago for up to six months.  Startup Chile’s goal is to attract 25 high tech startups to Santiago for 6 months, put them in free office space and connect them with Chilean entrepreneurs, VCs and potential employees.

Members of the Startup Chile program, along with the Chilean Minister of the Economy, fanned out across the US to try to recruit startups.  They went to Stanford and Berkeley and met with Vivek Wadhwa and Mike Arrington of Tech Crunch.  They met Mark Zuckerburg of Facebook and countless valley VCs.  Next, they crossed the country to talk with entrepreneurs in Boston and NYC.

As soon as I saw the program, I knew I wanted to apply. I love to travel and my biggest regret of college was not studying abroad in a Spanish speaking country because I had to pass up a semester abroad to run exchangehut.  Convincing Jesse was easy.  We both love to travel and do new things and we’ve both worked on Entrustet all over the country for the past year and a half.

On September 20th, we submitted online applications and hoped for the best.  Two days later, Startup Chile told us to be ready for Skype interviews.  Our Skype session went really well and we were told we had to create a 3 minute video that showed why we wanted to be selected.

We wanted to do something to stand out and Jesse and I love to cook, so we did 1 minute on Entrustet and then shot a Chilean cooking show.  I had seen Anthony Bourdain’s No Reservations that featured el lomito, a slow braised pork sandwich with crushed avocado, lime mayo and a huge slice of tomato.  We also picked cold avocado soup as our starter and cooked a Chilean dinner at 10pm after I got back from reffing soccer.  Evidently, Startup Chile liked our video, because four days later, we got an email saying we’d been selected.

Now we had to decide if we really could go.  We wrote out all of the pros and cons and then drafted emails to all of our investors, mentors and advisers.  Next, we talked to everyone individually to hear their concerns.  We got tons of support and most people were very excited.

For us, the decision was easy.  We spend most of our time each day online or on the phone.  We rarely have in person meetings and we travel to the east or west coast every six weeks or so.  Entrepreneurship is an adventure every single day.  You never know what kind of challenge you’ll deal with or what kind of surprise each day will have when you flip open your laptop.  We feel like going to Santiago for Startup Chile is just another adventure that will help us concentrate on creating an awesome product that people want to use.

I’m really excited to move to Santaigo to run Entrustet.  I can’t wait to see the city and meet the founders of the 24 other companies that were selected.  We’ve been location independent many times before, and we don’t think this will be any different.  For us, the pros outweigh the cons by a longshot.  We also know that if anything happens or for whatever reason it’s not working, we are only an $750 plane ride home.

Jesse and I both keep active personal blogs, so if you want to keep up with what we’re doing in Santiago, make sure to check back here often.  I also update my Tumblr mini blog pretty much everyday and it’ll be the place where I’ll share short observations and pictures.  If you want to learn more about what we’re up to in the Startup Chile program, make sure to check out the Entrustet Blog.

I’m really excited to go and can’t wait to write my first post from Chile!