{"id":426,"date":"2013-04-01T07:36:05","date_gmt":"2013-04-01T11:36:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/?p=426"},"modified":"2013-06-12T17:45:39","modified_gmt":"2013-06-12T21:45:39","slug":"how-i-followed-the-tampon-guy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/how-i-followed-the-tampon-guy\/426","title":{"rendered":"How I followed the Tampon Guy…"},"content":{"rendered":"

At the start of a corporate training session, our leader initiated an icebreaker<\/a>. Nobody in the room knew each other, so the leader asked us to get up and \u201cshare something about yourself that no one would know from reading your resume.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most people I know hate icebreaker games like these. Me? I\u2019m a good sport. Sure, icebreakers can be a little hokey, but I like the interaction. I also enjoy listening to other people\u2019s offbeat stories, learning a little about them, and maybe even getting a good jump on remembering names.<\/p>\n

I quickly thought of something unusual to share about myself when it became my turn. I then listened to the first speaker: a big, burly man. He blurted out,<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m Mike. When I was in college, I was the guy who stocked feminine hygiene products in public restrooms.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"feminine<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

photo credit: Dani P.L<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The audience burst into laughter. It seemed so unlikely: Mike was very big and masculine! And what a tale to blurt out in front of a room of 20 new colleagues. I admired his guts.<\/p>\n

Mike went on to explain that he didn\u2019t put that job on his resume. He never even told any of his college chums about his job.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt paid good money,\u201d he admitted. \u201cBut I\u2019d rather have my friends think I was a small time drug dealer than the tampon guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

This just made everyone laugh harder. I was no exception.<\/p>\n

But when Mike sat down, it was my turn to get up. The room was still laughing.<\/p>\n

\u201cHi, I\u2019m Laura,\u201d I said. \u201cThis one time in college, I was in a public restroom. When I left the stall, I saw a huge man standing in front of the tampon machine. He had his back to me and I didn\u2019t know what he was doing, so I clocked him on the head with my purse and ran. Was that you, Mike?\u201d<\/p>\n

The room laughed. Mike nodded with a grin.<\/p>\n

\u201cOccupational hazard,\u201d he said. \u201cHappened all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n

I sat down, enjoying the continued laughter. I wished the guy who followed me would have told a story about how he accidentally walked into a ladies\u2019 room and found a gigantic man passed out on the floor, covered with tampons.<\/p>\n

But he didn\u2019t. I don\u2019t remember what the guy after me said. Something truthful, I\u2019ll bet.<\/p>\n

The point of the icebreaker wasn\u2019t necessarily to tell the truth. The point was to connect with the other people in the room. When I saw an opportunity to make a personal connection to Mike and my new colleagues, I didn’t tell the story I had planned to tell.<\/p>\n

Is it really lying if everyone knows it\u2019s a joke? Or if an outrageous lie serves a higher purpose?<\/p>\n

You can plan your presentation content for months, weeks, days, or even minutes — but you also need to be flexible. Be present. Practice improv<\/a>. Watch and listen for late-breaking opportunities to give your presentation a little more impact.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

At the start of a corporate training session, our leader initiated an icebreaker. Nobody in the room knew each other, so the leader asked us to get up and \u201cshare something about yourself that no one would know from reading your resume.\u201d Most people I know hate icebreaker games like these. Me? I\u2019m a good […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":427,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-426","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-presentation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=426"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":446,"href":"https:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/426\/revisions\/446"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/427"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/maniactive.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}