Public Speaking Expert

A former colleague left to set up some kind of business to do with public speaking. He did have a fairly short-lived video channel where he posted up vlogs about software. 

He was a terrible speaker. 

There was one video where I thought his dialogue was so funny, I typed up the transcript, so I can laugh about it in the future. Well, I have found the notes. Here it is:

The reason for that is that a good friend of mine, erm, erm Neil, who I went to university with, erm, commented on Facebook, er and said, you know ‘what do you mean by “Digital Service”, surely it is just software?’.

Erm, oh erm and, I…yes it is just software, erm… but I…I’m trying to make a distinction, erm, erm, trying to make a point about, erm, er the nature of software and the nature of delivering software and that to me, erm software IS a digital service.

Erm, erm… you know… erm, there’s there’s, you’ll not have come across a software project that erm… simply, erm… you deliver the software and you walk away, erm that never usually happens, you you, you are actually delivering a service, because erm when you deliver software erm you sort of committed to support that software, you committed to provide a service, erm, for me, software engineering is actually all about, erm, taking a service and transforming that service, such that you are providing new features, new functionality, maybe you are joining things up.

Maybe you’re, erm, erm, you are seeking to refresh that service, you are seeking to, erm… ensure that service is continuing to deliver the value it’s meant to deliver. You are maybe looking to make sure the service is more efficient. You, you’re using, you’re developing some software, delivering some software to transform a service.

“Software” vs “Digital Service”

I hope you understood that, because I certainly didn’t. 

People often add filler sounds like “erm” when they are nervous, but he had all the time in the world to write a script, record it, and edit it. It’s not a great promotion of his “skills” that he is selling.