Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Lean Startup Conference Ignite Talk - DONE!

I applied last year to speak at the Lean Startup Conference, but I didn't get selected.  This year I tried again, and they picked me. Yay!

Thanks to the Lean Startup Conference organizers: Ritika Puri, Sarah Milstein, and Eric Riess for giving me the opportunity to be a part of the fun 5-minute Ignite talks!  For those of you who don't know what an Ignite talk is...it's 20 slides on an automatic timer every 15 seconds.  No exceptions. 

I spoke about the art of turning hospital gatekeepers into advocates so we could test our MVP (minimum viable product) at UCSF.



Thanks also to the incredibly supportive crowd at the Fairmount Hotel Grand Ballroom who laughed at my jokes. Maybe it helped that there were free drinks before the talks began. :)

Practice. Practice. Practice.


Thanks also to the 50+ people who let me practice with them before the big event.  Once my DohJe teammates heard the talk 10 times, it was time to move on to a new audience. At first I gave my talk to my favorite coffee shop owners. Then my neighbors and friends.  Then I got into an awesome group of other Lean Startup Speakers to practice together over Google Hangout.

Oh, and I also practiced on my 3 and 6 year old boys.  For anyone who knows me, you know that I have always spoken fast and tend to mumble. Always. So, I practiced reading Curious George books to my kids very SLOWLY with strategic pauses for emphasis.  They both said, "Wow, Mom, I can understand every word you are saying."  I guess I should have been practicing speaking slowly much sooner.  But it's one of those weaknesses that at age 42 I thought I would never really be able to improve. I've tried, but it's never really helped much. Until now.

I guess you really can teach old dogs new tricks...if you try hard enough. 


In the couple days leading up to the conference, I gave my talk to the wonderful woman who colors my hair, Lynette at Curlzalamode, the cool clothing shop worker who helped me pick out a new outfit to wear, and the bike store owner where I was procrastinating by test riding some bikes.  You never know who will give you the best feedback. The bike store owner had been in PR and was a phenomenal coach...and his dad had been the VP of HR at Stanford Hospital for 20 years. If you watch the video you will see why that was so crazy to me.

On the actual day of the talk, I gave my talk a few more times... to the fabulous drag queen makeup artist I was lucky enough to have do my makeup and the awesome blowout magician, Suzie at Blowology.

Deliver one main point and focus on how to help the audience absorb it. 


I've never put so much time into a presentation, but it really makes a difference. The big thing that clicked for me on this talk was letting go of what I wanted to say and focus on delivering one main point in a way that the audience could actually absorb (Thanks, Sally Kohn!)  In order to get to the point where my test "audience" did not have the deer in the headlights look, I had to cut out around 15 minutes of additional content that I originally tried to cram into my 5-minute talk.

Thank you everyone who helped me. I am truly grateful for your time and support!

Monday, December 15, 2014

'Selfie' tutorial from 15-year old selfie expert plus chance to win $25 Amazon gift card

Hello!  Sorry we've been so quiet on the blog for so long!  It's been a busy second half of the year. We will fill you in on all the news soon....

In the mean time, here is a fun little post from one of our newest team members, Kirsten Spraker. Kirsten is heading up DohJe operations on the east coast. She was an Air Force helicopter pilot and her military experience will be a huge help as we work to bring DohJe to military and VA hospitals in 2015. Here is Kirsten at the top of Mt. Fuji. She was stationed in Japan with her family before returning to DC in Aug. 



Attention CAREGIVERS:  help us get the gratitude flowing! Patients are looking for you to send their gratitude and close their gratitude debts - they really want and need to find you!  Haven't posted a profile picture yet on DohJe?  Don't have a headshot readily available? No problem!

I bet you have a smartphone with a 'selfie' camera option or you know someone who does. How in the the world do you take a good selfie, you ask? Well, DohJe, Inc. consulted a 15 year old selfie expert to offer some tips. Who better to consult than a teen who has taken 1000's of selfies already in her life! Take a look at this quick, helpful tutorial to learn how to take a perfect selfie worthy of posting online for patients to find you...

Send us a note to selfie@dohje.com after watching this tutorial and let us know if it was helpful!  


Remember the goal of your DohJe selfie is to help patients recognize you, so think about wearing your scrubs and whatever hairstyle, glasses, etc that you wear to work. 

CONTEST:  At the end of January, we will give away two $25 Amazon gift cards for...
1.  The most helpful feedback 
2.  The best DohJe style selfie


You can attach your selfie to your DohJe profile from the "edit profile" page. 

If you don't have a DohJe account, click "sign-up" in the top right corner at DohJe.com and we will work with your facility to get you up and running right away!

We are so proud of all of you!
Kirsten