Announcer: Welcome to behind the mic presented in part by CAPS, the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers. This podcast is dedicated to recognizing excellence in speaking through fascinating stories and interesting conversations with the people who make the speaking world come alive. Now please welcome your behind the mic hosts, Roxanne Durhodge and Carl Richards.

Roxanne Derhodge: Hi, everyone. It's Roxanne Durhodge. Welcome back to Behind the Mic. And Carl and I have had a couple of weeks away from each other, and I could say I've missed hanging out with Carl every single Friday. So, Carl, I'd like you to introduce our guest today, Mr.

Roxanne Derhodge: Alan Moore.

Carl Richards: I missed you, Roxanne. And it's not because we were misbehaving that we were kept apart. It's just the way it worked out. But no, thanks. It's great to be here and welcoming Alan James Moore, who is a safety and motivational keynote speaker like no other.

Carl Richards: A storyteller and career keynote speaker. He got his start doing open mics at comedy clubs, is I've heard from many people, it's a great place to start. He would go on to lead one of the most unique offbeat careers imaginable, including being an exotic dancer, a professional soccer player, a Mandarin interpreter and translator, a kindergarten teacher, and even a hand model among other unique experiences and occupations. Don't know if we'll get to all of that today, but I'm sure we'll be able to cover some of that. He holds a master's of arts in leadership degree and has traveled to over 50 countries and worked on four different continents managing diverse workforces in both English and Mandarin and has held leadership positions in safety for more than twenty years at Fortune 500 companies such as Stanley Black and Decker and Wood Group.

Carl Richards: And he just recently published a book. His first book, Party Crash Your Career and Life, Be Bold, Risk Safely, and Succeed Without Without An Invitation. Alan, or as people like to call him, Al, it's great to have you on the podcast. Welcome.

Allan James Moore : Thank you so much, Carl and Roxanne. It's great to be here. Looking forward to chatting with you fine folks.

Roxanne Derhodge: So Al, you've been you've been doing leadership work for a very long time. And the path that you took to get there, was there did you say, I'm going to be teaching people how to lead? Was that something that was an aspiration of yours very early in life?

Allan James Moore : Absolutely not. I did not I never saw myself as a leader. I was a reluctant leader. It just kind of happened. It started with sports teams when I was in my youth.

Allan James Moore : Would, I was quite a grinder. Quite often I wasn't picked for the team. And instead of some of friends, they would quit. They said I'm finished with this. I wouldn't quit.

Allan James Moore : I was, I would always try and find a way because I felt like I was being overlooked. And so I would develop these other skills. In baseball, I would slide head first into second base when I was stealing a base. Would grind. I would dive for the ball in the outfield.

Allan James Moore : I would run into the catcher if he was blocking the plate. Same thing in soccer. I became a little bit more of an aggressive defender, things like that. And I didn't realize that at the same time as I was kind of growing and getting better at the game with these alternative skills that the others weren't necessarily developing because they maybe were endowed with the natural skills and didn't need them. The coaches were seeing these as leadership skills.

Allan James Moore : And so by the time I was about 15 or 16, I started to become made, I was made the captain of this team or the captain of that team. I was kind of surprised by this and I think, no, no, I'm not the best player. It's Joe. Joe's the best player. And they're like, no, no, it's not about the best player.

Allan James Moore : Leadership's not about the best person. It's about the person who is going to influence other people, who is going to model the way, who's going to show the way that other people can kind of follow. And that's you Al, because you've been practicing, you've been grinding on your own. Whereas Joe is, he was just born that way. He doesn't need to grind and actually has quite a bit of an attitude about him and really isn't much of a leader at all.

Allan James Moore : And then in the workplace, it was the same thing. I didn't, I was the one who entered the workplace without the degree, without all the credentials. I didn't have the alphabet soup after my name. I didn't do very well in high school. Eventually I got that stuff as Carl introduced at the beginning, but it took me ages to get it.

Allan James Moore : I didn't get my degree until I was in my early forties. So I had to grind. And again, the boss coming up to me and we'd like to make you the supervisor. I'm like, you got to be kidding. I'm not qualified to be the supervisor.

Allan James Moore : Again, it should it should be Richard's the he's the guy. No, no, no. Richard's a prima donna. He doesn't grind at all and he doesn't do the overtime or he doesn't try and figure out ways to advance the company or the group or anything. That's all what you're doing Al.

Allan James Moore : You're doing all the little stuff and we see you as a supervisor. And it just kind of went on this way. And then eventually I was like, I guess I'm a leader. And that's kind of how I, that's the process.

Carl Richards: That's a very interesting way that you've expressed that. And I'm fascinated by some of the unique things that you've done as well. How have they played into leadership or have they? Just with some of the other unique things that we mentioned in your bio. You know, we mentioned about the exotic dancing and the Mandarin interpretation.

Carl Richards: And so how have they played into your role as a leader and also even as a speaker?

Allan James Moore : Yeah, great question, Carl. I remember when I first became aware that they mattered was I was applying for the Masters of Leadership program at Royal Roads University. And they were asking me, it was flexible admission because I didn't finish an undergraduate degree. So they had a flexible admission process. I'm going through it.

Allan James Moore : I'm talking to admissions. And she says to me, what have you done? And I said, I've worked here. I've worked there. I've worked there.

Allan James Moore : And she goes, that's cool. I've seen that on the on the resume. I understand. What else have you done? What beyond that?

Allan James Moore : What outside of that have you done? And I said, well, you know, really not much. And she said, anything just like, if you traveled? And I go, oh, I've traveled a lot. Yeah, know.

Allan James Moore : I've traveled to over 50 countries. Tell me about that. And I said, I did work a bit. She goes, tell me about those. And I go, nah, they don't matter.

Allan James Moore : She's like, tell me about them. And I said, well, okay. Was, you want to hear how I managed a youth hostel in Cape Town, South Africa? Does that matter? And she's like, yes, that matters.

Allan James Moore : That's a diverse, that's different. We're not looking for leaders that follow the same path, the London School of Economics, the Harvard, the Yale, the Brown. We're looking for leaders in our program that are kind of offbeat and have done some different weird stuff. Keep going. I go, do you want to know that I was an exotic dancer?

Allan James Moore : She's maybe not. No. But she, and I told her, I said, I didn't take my clothes off fully. Just, just underwear and danced around. That was my rule.

Allan James Moore : It wasn't like the proper thing that you're thinking. But even that I had to get up on the microphone. I was terrified because I wasn't big enough. I wasn't the guy that the steroid fairy didn't visit my house. I like the other guys.

Allan James Moore : So I had to, I was the skinny guy, so I had to figure out a different way to join the group. And the microphone was the only thing that was offered. We need an emcee. Would you want an emcee? And I go, sure.

Allan James Moore : I've emceed all the time. Never emceed. Terrified of the mic. Grabbed the mic. Figured out how to do it.

Allan James Moore : That's what eventually led to me becoming a speaker. So all these little weird things, yes, Carl, they contributed. As they say, it's all grist for the mill. Right?

Roxanne Derhodge: It sounds accidental, but it sounds purposeful it being accidental, Al. Because what I hear is that, like myself, I took the traditional route. You kind of just went out and lived life. But within that inherent, you had certain qualities. And I think it's probably inspiring for others hearing this because you can actually go into a situation and lead and not have to go by the theories or the things I'm supposed to check off.

Roxanne Derhodge: You're just doing and when things come up, you know, kind of in front of you, you address them and then people are like, I want that guy. He does this or he's innovative or things like that. So you've obviously found that unique space. So let's jump into the book because I think the book will probably clarify a lot of this for us. Tell us about what was the inspiration for the book?

Roxanne Derhodge: Is it some of the grit and I'm going to say happenstance? What was the impetus for the, you know, starting to write the book?

Allan James Moore : I'll be perfectly honest with you, Roxanne. It was my speaking bureaus. They were asking me, they're like, Al, we need the book. You need to write a book. It's a modern day business card.

Allan James Moore : Write the book. Write the book. And I kept kind of pushing them off because I was thinking like, how do I collate all of these different unusual experiences? Like the same conversation I had with Royal Roads. No, I don't know.

Allan James Moore : My situation in South Africa doesn't matter. My playing soccer in Scotland, it doesn't matter. And eventually I got in touch with a book writing consultant. I decided to just have a conversation about it. I shared a stage with this great guy, Steve Donahue, out in on Vancouver Island.

Allan James Moore : And he's an adventure speaker like I am. And we were very similar. So I sat down for coffee with him and he was like, tell me a story. He put me on the spot and I told him a story. He goes, that could be in the book.

Allan James Moore : And he told me another story. I told him another one, another one. And this was just rapid fire for about an hour and a half. And he's that could be in the book. That could be in the book.

Allan James Moore : Could be in the book. And I said, how would all these things come together? What would it matter? And he and I, we went back and forth on this and we're trying to figure out like, how can somebody who doesn't go over to Scotland to play soccer or dance around on stage or go over to Taiwan to speak Mandarin? How could they glean from this?

Allan James Moore : Eventually he started asking me a series of questions that at first kind of put me off. He would say things like, I felt like they were almost like discrediting, but it wasn't like that at all. As it turns out, he would say the Scottish thing. Did, was there a scout that flew over? He says, I don't know anything about soccer.

Allan James Moore : Did they fly over? They saw you play somewhere in Canada and they invited you. I said, no, not exactly. I just bought a plane ticket to Scotland. How about Taiwan?

Allan James Moore : You did really well at a company, then the company sent you over there. I said, no, again, no, I bought a ticket and I went over and I paid for my own Mandarin lessons and that kind of thing. And eventually he and I, we came up. He basically said, you're a party crasher. I came up with a metaphor and I said, I kind of party crash.

Allan James Moore : He goes, that's it. That's it. You're a party crasher. And that's what people need to do. People are waiting around for someone to invite them to something that they want to do.

Allan James Moore : And it may never happen. In fact, it probably will never happen. So that is the key. And that's what your book is going to be all about. You're going to tell these stories, then you're going to share the message within the stories and you're going to share other people's stories like people that may be a little bit more famous than me who have done this, who have party crashed.

Allan James Moore : And

Carl Richards: is this going to be the focus of presentations then moving forward? Is what's in the book, at least for the time being, and those stories that are incorporated in there?

Allan James Moore : Definitely. I want to push things. I kind of have two streams. Have I've been working in workplace health and safety for more than twenty years. That's what I did for Stanley Black and Decker and also for Wood Group and currently for WSP.

Allan James Moore : So I definitely want to keep that stream going. Party Crasher will influence that. It will wiggle its way into that stream as well. Party Crasher in terms of kind of motivational, inspirational speaking will be somewhat of its own stream running parallel with that other one. The thing that ties them together is the word risk, right?

Allan James Moore : Two sides of the same coin, right? So risk over here, obviously in safety, we want to mitigate risk and risk safely. I mean, have to risk in order to work, order to walk across the street, but we want to mitigate it to the lowest possible point that we can. Over here, you have to take risks in order to crash your goals basically. But I've kind of discovered that over here you can actually risk safely.

Allan James Moore : You don't have to, there's all kinds of, you both know people who have said, I'm a speaker. They quit their job and they take a second mortgage on their house or a big loan. They push all the chips in and then it doesn't work out and they run out of fuel after two years and they got to come back. So I haven't quit my day job, even though getting 20 gigs a year roughly, and I could quit my day job. But you know what I mean?

Allan James Moore : It's yeah. That's the two streams that are really going on.

Roxanne Derhodge: Risking safely. So let's talk a little bit about that and talk about some of us are natural risk. I'm not a natural risk taker, but I do take risks. Right? So if I'm listening to you and I'm saying, Alan, I have all these big dreams.

Roxanne Derhodge: I don't know because most things don't work out for me or whatever. What kind of tips would you give me about getting, I'm going say a little bit more comfortable risk taking?

Allan James Moore : I would say start small. There's so many gurus in the past that have what I think is no accountability really for their audience members. And I don't believe in that. There's people that say, yeah, basically quit your job, start tomorrow, your dreams start today. Yeah, they do start today.

Allan James Moore : They're right about that. You can take incremental steps. I always think of my favorite movie, Shawshank Redemption. And you've got Andy Dufresne, and he's got the poster of Rita Hayworth on the wall. He's just taking it out and he's chipping little bits away.

Allan James Moore : Each day, he just chips and chips and chips and chips. And year after year, and eventually, he chips a wide enough hole that he can escape and live his life and freedom. And I think that the same thing can be said for us. We don't have to go all in. There's people that say that if you're not going to the max, then you're not going hard enough.

Allan James Moore : I don't see it that way. And it hasn't worked out that way for me. And obviously you can analyze yourself and say, I'm not risking enough. When I went to Scotland, when I went to Taiwan, I didn't have kids. So now my risk profile has changed quite a bit.

Allan James Moore : I have two teenage daughters. I have to pay for the university. That kind of stuff. I have to be present. So now I kind of risk safely.

Allan James Moore : So I would say to somebody, have a look at your profile. If you don't have kids, what are you doing? Go for it. Push pretty hard. If you have kids, if you're taking care of older folks or something, you're like sandwich generation, that kind of thing, then maybe you have to risk safely, but just do something as small as it might be.

Carl Richards: Yeah, I think when you're in your twenties and there's less risk, more time, right? You're probably not married, have that safety net of if something doesn't go right, can go back home, live with mom and dad if you have to. And it's not an age thing, not saying the older you get, the harder it gets, but when there's more things on your plate, just going all in is harder. I went all in in my late forties and thankfully I have a partner who has a good job because me going all in means it's a huge risk, but still there's that concept of risking safely, especially when we start talking about financial risks, Things like, okay, I'm going to create a massive website or go on a speaking tour, things like that where you don't have that guaranteed revenue coming in. So I like this concept of risking safely and not necessarily quitting your job tomorrow.

Carl Richards: Is this part of the is this part of the the talk? Is the risking safely and not going all in, which is counter to what, as you say, what a lot of speakers are telling people to do.

Allan James Moore : Absolutely, Carl. I talk about it like there's a risk continuum. There's a visual within my slides. And on the one side, I have a picture of myself as safety Al. I'm wearing the hard hat and the busy vest and all that.

Allan James Moore : And on the other side of the continuum, have the Party Crasher book. And what I'm trying to tell people is just sort of have a look, and I'm eventually going to build a questionnaire which rates where you are on the continuum. But I'm asking people in the meantime to have a look at where you are on the risk continuum. Are you way over here? Because if you are, and if you do have dreams, then you're going to have to move that.

Allan James Moore : You have to push that dial a little bit. And then you're going to build up the muscle here, and you're to push it a little bit more, push a little more and more. Right? Like for myself, that was the speaking idea came to me probably in 2017. And where did I start?

Allan James Moore : Toastmasters. I didn't quit my job. I didn't quit my job and get this outrageous loan and say, hey world, I'm here. I'm going run out my front door and say, I'm here. Hire me and pay me great fees.

Allan James Moore : I risked incrementally and I started to move that dial. I was terrified, even on its Toastmasters with 10 wonderful people smiling at me saying, it's okay, you can do it. Right? And I was still terrified 2017. But then eventually I was no longer scared on that stage.

Allan James Moore : And I said, let's go to the contest. Woah, let's go to the bigger contest. I won a few contests. Oh my goodness, look at this. I can do this.

Allan James Moore : And then eventually I started to submit abstracts for conventions. It's just that you don't have to be Tony Robbins on day one. So people think, oh, I wanna be an actor. You don't have to be Brad Pitt or Angelina Jolie on day one. Start with local theater and move your way up, my viewpoint.

Carl Richards: I think Roxanne, that we were just referred to as Brad Pitt and Angela Jolley.

Allan James Moore : I'll take that piece of I think that's Brad Pitt.

Carl Richards: I'm just saying I think that was the right order.

Roxanne Derhodge: So tell people what you do. Right? So you have I love the fact that you have two ends of the continuum with business. Right? Actual risk mitigation and risking incrementally to get into your dreams.

Roxanne Derhodge: So for organizations that are thinking, I like what this guy's about, and maybe you're a manufacturing environment and we want to talk to someone like this because we want them to have fun with our crowd, but we also want to keep some of the risk elements in it. Tell us a little bit more about what you offer to companies by way of the services that you offer out there.

Allan James Moore : Absolutely. Companies have these HR departments that are looking for talent. They're looking all over the place outside for talent. They're posting jobs and they're posting on LinkedIn to say how attractive they are. And then they also want to retain the employees that they have.

Allan James Moore : But quite often, they don't realize the talent that they have in house. And how could they? How could I know that Roxanne, I've gotten to know you pretty well, but I don't know if you play a musical instrument. How would I if we haven't talked about it? So, I might ask you a cool question like that and a probing question, but if I'm an HR manager of a company that's got 30,000 people, I'm not finding that out through all the different people.

Allan James Moore : So really it is a service to a company. If a person is willing to knock on the door of HR, they're willing to party crash and say, hey, how you doing? Just wanted to introduce myself. I am very interested in becoming a supervisor at this company. Or this isn't all vertical, right?

Allan James Moore : This can be lateral too. You can say, I'm really interested in this other department. I've been in this department for twenty years. I want to check out that department. And so really for companies it's a tremendous benefit to employee retention and also just identifying skills that they don't know are there.

Carl Richards: Nice. Nice. You're a member of CAPS, obviously, which is a great place to be. We're all members of CAPS for that matter. How's the journey been through CAPS and navigating what you talk about and also expanding your speaking and your networking with other speakers?

Carl Richards: How's the journey been for you?

Allan James Moore : It's been great so far. Think I've been about a year and a half in CAPS and got to go to Costa Rica in December, which was awesome. I'm like, who are these folks? They're booking. They're Canadians booking a convention in Costa Rica.

Allan James Moore : I'm in, let's go. But it's about having people that are going through the same thing as you. One of the things that we lost in COVID, obviously, I'm not sharing anything that's a revelation by any means. We lost that connection. And especially that it's a lonely position being up on stage by yourself and all the promotion you have to do and all that stuff.

Allan James Moore : And when you go into an organization like CAPS, you meet people who are like, yeah, I know that. I know what's going on with that. And have you tried this? Right? There's so many people in CAPS that are willing to help.

Allan James Moore : And it's, it's weird. Like it's you're kind of like, why are you willing to help so much? And I, to be honest, I actually still don't know. There's like power hitters in CAPS that are willing to help and what like, why Aren't you Why would you help me? And I don't know the answer.

Allan James Moore : But now I found that it's circular and it's a karmic kind of flow. Now I'm helping other people because it's like, it's just what you do. So that's how I found CAPP so far. I'm really happy with the experience.

Roxanne Derhodge: Well, that's amazing. And I can say that I had the same experience almost ten years ago when I started off. Just having that ability to speak to others, had been speaking but hadn't done it professionally and it's amazing what people are willing to share and then you're realizing to your point then you're helping others just because you realize what remember what it was like to be the new person waiting around trying to figure it out and getting that support. So that's that's so nice so nice to hear. Alan, this has been an amazing experience having you talk about party crashers.

Roxanne Derhodge: What I'm taking away is that I I need to continue party crashing to get to where I wanna get, and it's a nice reminder to be able to just go after things. So I'm gonna ask Carl to just close off. But what I'm realizing is that if you're looking for something, it's there. Maybe it doesn't have to be the all extreme next step, but just take that little step closer to that goal that you're trying to achieve.

Carl Richards: Al, thanks so much. It has been phenomenal. The book again, Party Crush Your Career and Life Be Bold, Risk Safely, and Succeed Without an Invitation. We're going to make sure the link to the book, as well as all your other coordinates are in the show notes. An amazing conversation.

Carl Richards: How has this conversation been for you? If it's been, oh my goodness, awe inspiring, then guess what? These are the kind of conversations we have at CAPS all the time, whether it be a meeting, whether it be any of our various events, including convention, then this is the place where you can hang your hat.canadianspeakers.org. It's a phenomenal organization. Find out more, go to the website, and see if it's a fit for you.

Carl Richards: We're gonna be here next month as we always are with another great speaker when we go behind the mic. Roxanne, it's been fun. Al, it's been fun.

Roxanne Derhodge: Thanks again, Take care.

Allan James Moore : Thanks so much you guys. Take care.

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