In the altMBA one of our projects was to create a video that will make someone change their mind. 

I chose the topic of choosing to move to a vegetarian diet, despite being a former meathead. One of the most impactful resources I came across when preparing for this was Nancy Duarte’s Ted Talk. In it she talks about two things that really stood out to me:

1. The audience is the hero and the speaker is the mentor. 
   1. Meaning, the audience is the change agent so everything the mentor is doing should be setting up their mentee (the hero) to succeed. 
2. Good speeches follow a pattern of presenting what is, and what could be. 

In addition to all this, I received the feedback from my Toastmasters club that I can be mono-tone, so one of my objectives here was modulate my voice more than I normally would. Of course, I have a ton to work on, but this project was fun and a good stretch that I wanted to share. 

Below is a write up for the project. I hope you enjoy, and, if you are a meathead yourself, consider trying out a vegetarian diet for a week 🙂

Who am I trying to change:

• Meatheads. 
• The type of person who used to go to bodybulding.com for programming when they were younger (i used buzzwords from the site such as: gains, permabulk, etc.)
• The type of person who lifts weights to be generally healthy & strong, but is not competing. 
• Someone who is aware of climate change but is unsure on how they can make a difference.
• Someone who likes saving money with the decisions they make. 

The change I seek to make:

• Have an omnivore who lifts weights try out a vegetarian diet for one week to see how they feel. Follow up resources would be provided to help them with the change, but this initial ask is to commit to giving it a shot. 

Video can be viewed here.

Other topics I considered:

• Asking my co-worker give up alcohol.
• Asking Under Armour’s corporate office to adopt all standing desks.
• Asking my younger sister to try Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu.
• A video to recent college graduates on the importance of articulating their core values, or eulogy virtues. 
• A video to the other managers in my department about changing out interview process.

I chose to go the vegetarian route because I wanted to create a video that I could post on LinkedIn that might actually force someone to consider changing their habits. I have written about the topic previously here on my blog and got a lot of questions back from my connections on LinkedIn. I used to be a personal trainer, and although that is no longer my profession I do still often get questions from my friends & family on the subject of health & wellness; since I have a certain amount of credibility on the topic I might as well use it!

Megaphone by Juan Pablo Bravo from the Noun Project