Carey Christie of Seattle

Sometimes in my line of work I am asked to do a bit of public speaking. It’s not usually a huge deal, but it’s often impromptu and not something the audience is expecting. Introducing the real speakers or emcee at a big show. Thanking the crowd for joining us and doing a bit of housekeeping. I once had to stand in for an awards presenter who went missing just before their segment. That was a treat.

I have always muscled my way through it—anxiously. Joylessly. I wanted to be better at it and maybe even really, really good. So, I decided to take advantage of a truly fantastic nonprofit called Seattle Ignite by applying to be in their October 2025 lineup.

IGNITE produces evenings (usually at Seattle’s Town Hall) where where non-professional speakers tell a story to convey a lesson they’ve learned and hope to share. You get exactly 5 minutes and behind you there are exactly 20 slides advancing exactly every 15 seconds. They accepted my proposal and coached me into submission. That’s right. These hot nerds work really hard to prepare folks to do a good job.

I got over my fear of public speaking (mostly) and now you can learn about the dating framework I created so that I could find my beloved without murdering anyone along the way. I used to explain the Six Pack idea to all the singles I met and now I have an actual artifact to share!! Watch this and send to someone you love. It’s only 5 minutes.

The best/most unexpected part was bonding with my fellow speakers. You can watch the whole show to learn about obscure treaties, tiny actions that lead to buffness, saving lives without a medical degree, and lots more things.

Apologies to my children, who are immortalized toward the end of this video. Skibidi.