Gianna's Glimmer: What An Evil Latin Teacher's Memorable Approach Can Teach Us About Planning Events

Hi there,

Quick one this week (that's what a Glimmer is - a smaller sparkle of a Gem that provides a glimmer of inspiration!).

I'm deep in prep for my upcoming TED talk, "Your Life is The Event - Make Sure It's Worth Attending," and between now and the stage, I'll be sharing little tidbits and real-life examples of what it looks like to plan your life as intentionally as you'd plan an event. Today's proof point came from my kid’s mouth at my own kitchen table…on a regular Monday.

My son just started 4th grade at Stuart Hall for Boys here in San Francisco, and I asked him the question I always ask: what was your most memorable class this week? Without hesitating, he said Latin. (Latin. Huge shock, I know.)

So I did what I do - I probed with my favorite W-ord… “why”? And here was his surprising answer:

She calls herself "the evil Latin teacher." Unexpected, a little provocative, and it works — it grabs attention immediately and keeps kids (and apparently me, since I remembered her from our pre-K school tour years ago) wondering what "evil" even means. In an otherwise conservative Catholic school, she stood out as refreshingly different.

The chairs. They spin, they recline, they're actually comfortable. My son raved about furniture - which made me laugh, because it's exactly the instinct behind custom chairs I've built for events with chargers built right into them, or bringing in truckloads of soft-seating, throw pillows and even blankets to create an “oversize living room feel” rather than a sterile general session. Small physical comfort details signal "we thought about you," and people notice, relax and engage more deeply.

Study breaks built around curiosity. Her classroom is full of interesting objects, and when kids ask about them, it always leads to a story. This is basically my pro tip in miniature: story is what makes an experience stick, not the facts around it.

Everyone gets a job. Scribe, zookeeper, timekeeper, and other roles I'm sure I haven't heard about yet but will learn at back to school night. This is co-creation 101 - when people have a role in the experience, they're invested in it, and engaged not just attending it as a passive audience member.

They write everything by hand. No shortcuts, no typing. When I asked if she has some special teaching method to make Latin stick, my son said no - she just makes them handwrite it all. Which lines up exactly with what I tell people about reading analog books and journaling by hand: the friction is the point. It's what makes memory and intention actually take hold. And anyone who knows me knows I give away a logo’d moleskin journal at every event for those handwritten notes.

Gianna's Glimmer: The most memorable experiences rarely come from the subject matter itself - they come from the details, the story, the comfort, and the sense that everyone has a role to play. In other words - you remember the experience and how it made you feel.