Exponential - Andy Stanley

Andy Stanley has been a hero of mine for some time. He speaks concisely and honestly about whatever his topic. I particularly love any talk he gives on vision or church health. He spoke at the Exponential Conference about vision and it was a great reminder, but one comment set the stage for the rest of the conference. He said (paraphrase) "Have you noticed how many conference speakers tell you to buy their book when they are speaking? That drives me crazy! Just tell us what you have to tell us. Don't try to get us to buy your book! I have a book on vision. Don't buy it! Everything in this talk is in that book, so if you buy that book you'll be wasting your money!"

This is so true. So many speakers seem to try to shape their talk as an informercial for a potential book sale. Andy spoke on the first day of the conference and it became entertaining (and a bit painful) to hear guys plugging their books in their talks. Some even said, "I know Andy said not to buy his book, but I hope you'll buy mine." One guy even invited us into deeper relationship with him by buying his book. He really was suggesting that we could be friends, since we'd be having a "conversation" through reading his book.

Attention seminar/workshop speakers: we all understand that you are passionate about your topic, or else you wouldn't have written the book. We all understand that writing a book is really really hard work. But look, if we liked your seminar, we'll likely buy the book. Telling us to buy your book makes us not want to.