Note: Found this video over at Eightblack.com. Thanks! Although the first part of my intro was cut off.
I am still riding the high of introducing Mark Cuban at the Blogworld Expo event the other day. Hopefully I can get video of it. For now though, here’s a copy (.ppt) of the short .ppt presentation I did that got some big laughs, including Mark.
Funny story before I get into the description of my intro. I was told by Rick (the BWE show owner) to meet at the show office at 4 to meet up with Mark Cuban and pitch my intro to him. But 4pm came and went, and Rick never showed, either did Cuban. So I stood there and waited, and waited.
About 2 minutes before his keynote was supposed to start, I see Cuban walking past me alone, and in a huge rush (he was late) and I figured I’d just take charge so I said, “Hey, Mark” and he stopped and I said “I’m introducing you now, it’s this way” and he just looked at me and said, “Great, let’s go, just be brief”. Said in a very nice way, not jerky.
So I followed him down the hall and past the HUGE line to get into the keynote room. He was walking at a quick pace. The dude is taller than I thought he would be. About an inch taller than me and I’m 6′2. A few minutes later I grabbed the mic and did my thing. I think it went over pretty well, although I was nervous as heck.
I started by showing the differences between Mark and myself entitled “Mark vs. Jim”.
Like… Mark has a billion dollars, Jim does not.
Mark owns a major basketball team, Jim drove past Lebron’s house once.
Mark has a private jet, Jim owns a lego Millennium Falcon.
Etc… Got some really good laughs.
Then I lead into… “But, we’re the same because we’re both bloggers.” Ahh, clever eh? I thought so.
Then I told my Markcubanpleasecallme.com story and he laughed some more. Although he commented that he never said he hates me, but I swear the reporter told me that on the phone.
That was that. I wrapped up saying something like… “I couldn’t think of a better person to close out the first Blogworld Expo than Mark Cuban, blogger.” Smooth, eh? Again, I thought so.
His keynote was great, and he stayed for 15 minutes at least to take pictures and meet people. Here’s a video of the swarm of people that got him after he was done.
Mark even referenced me again in his talk talking about the pleasecallme bit. I believe he even said the idea was “genius”. Alright, now my head is really getting big.
Overall though, I was honored to be asked to the intro, and it was a great experience. Funny thing is, I wrote the intro an hour before during a session. I usually do better last minute.
