Michael Gendler

🌎 Co-founder of the @ultraspeaking method
💡 improve your speaking and communication skills
🎙️ communication lectures on

[Michael Gendler @MichaelGendler]

the best public speaking advice I’ve ever received:

⭐️set an intention

seriously. Here’s why:

Your brain’s default intention is “ME-focused” 🙋‍♂️
- I want to be impressive
- I want to appear smart
- I want this to “go well”

A more useful intention would be:
- Be present and open
- Be of service to the audience
- Lead with curiosity

By explicitly defining your intention, you’re much more likely to hit it.

It’s super cheesy and advice I would easily ignore in the past.

But now, it’s the most impactful ingredient in my success as a speaker.

[Michael Gendler @MichaelGendler]

friendship is a two-way apprenticeship

[Michael Gendler @MichaelGendler]

I don't think this is true.

People judge you everywhere we go.

Social anxiety is a signal that you haven't accepted yourself enough to break free from other people's judgment.

[Mark Manson @Markmanson]

Your social anxiety is stage fright for a show no one bought tickets to.
ㅤ
You’re agonizing over an audience that doesn’t exist.

[Michael Gendler @MichaelGendler]

@awilkinson yes! let’s go for a walk if you’ve got some free time

[Michael Gendler @MichaelGendler]

you improve at speaking when you improve at separating stimulus from response

[Seth Vargas @ohsethy]

There are only two people on earth that can get me to watch television

[Michael Gendler @MichaelGendler]

@david_perell Eminem

[Sara Vienna @sravienna]

The lore of Summit is high...
Hugging favorite team mates from across the world you haven’t seen for a year.
Running across the room during a game of hottakes, defending your viewpoint.
Getting on the mic with a little help from @MichaelGendler.
Hearing from design greats like @ThisIsBobBaxley a career well-lived.
Giving awards for the best of Metalab.
Giving a talk with my team on our relationship with AI.
Allegedly causing an ATV pile-up with tons of belly laughs.
Buying out restaurants for dinner, where a breadstick fight may or may not have been had.
Screaming Four Non Blondes "What’s Up" at the top of my lungs.
These are just a few things that happen when our team at @metalab gets together every year to celebrate and connect.

Work with world-class humans on game-changing products, we’re hiring
https://t.co/jNLx5TKvjQ

[Michael Gendler @MichaelGendler]

@matthewhirschey @drew_bent @Ultraspeaking But the real pros don't even announce the pivot.

They just smoothly shift direction mid-sentence. They trust their brain to find the new path while keeping their voice confident.

The stumble becomes invisible because they don't treat it like a mistake. They just keep going.

[Michael Gendler @MichaelGendler]

@matthewhirschey @drew_bent @Ultraspeaking This inevitably creates stumbles (for everyone).

The "pros" are just better at gracefully recovering from the stumbles.

They might say "Actually, let me take that from a different angle" or "What I really mean is..."

[Michael Gendler @MichaelGendler]

@Montebello We should do this at Ultra

[Will Mannon @will_mannon]

This week I opened for Hannibal Buress.

Let me explain....

Earlier this week I attended @awilkinson's IP3 Conference. 150 entrepreneurs and creatives from around the world traveled to Victoria, Canada, for three days of conversations and activities, all while surrounded by breathtaking nature.

This year’s theme was comedy.

Some comedy legends were in attendance:
- Lead writer for The Simpsons
- Founder of “The Onion”
- Comedian Hannibal Buress

One night we all went to a theater in downtown Victoria for a performance. There would be music, improv, and standup. Hannibal would close out the show.

Earlier that day, the conference organizers asked if I was up for a surprise set.

Of course I said yes.

Halfway through show, the hosts broke the news:

“Coming to the stage, our next guest is a standup comedian in China. Please welcome…Will Mannon!”

I grabbed the mic and kicked off my set…in Chinese!

People looked shellshocked. They thought I would say one sentence then switch to English.

But I kept going, all in Mandarin.

The laughs started to build. It was so absurd. They knew the punchlines based on my intonation and timing, even though nobody understood a word.

I performed my opener and a super-abbreviated version of my closer. Less than two minutes total. Then I thanked the crowd (in Chinese), dropped the mic and exited stage left, to what sounded like big applause.

Hannibal called me out during his set: “Shoutout to my guy with the Mandarin comedy. How crazy was that?!” Later he grabbed my number and said I could try out a similar gag sometime at his new club in Brooklyn (maybe mixed in with an English set, who knows). “People will love it.”

The rest of the conference I kept getting props from people for the set. It was the perfect icebreaker to meet way more attendees. Andrew also gave me a shoutout the next morning at breakfast. But most importantly, I made an unforgettable memory at the best conference I’ve ever attended (on my 32nd birthday no less).

What a rush.

I’ve studied Chinese for thousands of hours since college. I do it for pure enjoyment – I simply love how it feels to say the words, to always get better, to connect with people a world apart.

But sometimes, following your internally-driven passion can have surprise external payoffs.

Sometimes you get to open for a famous comedian at a world-class conference.

Earlier this week I attended Andrew Wilkinson's IP3 Conference. 150 entrepreneurs and creatives from around the world traveled to Victoria, Canada, for three days of conversations and activities, all while surrounded by breathtaking nature.

This year’s theme was comedy.

Some comedy legends were in attendance:
- Lead writer for The Simpsons
- Founder of “The Onion”
- Comedian Hannibal Buress

One night we all went to a theater in downtown Victoria for a performance. There would be music, improv, and standup. Hannibal would close out the show.

Earlier that day, the conference organizers asked if I was up for a surprise set.

Of course I said yes.

Halfway through show, the hosts broke the news:

“Coming to the stage, our next guest is a standup comedian in China. Please welcome…Will Mannon!”

I grabbed the mic and kicked off my set…in Chinese!

People looked shellshocked. They thought I would say one sentence then switch to English.

But I kept going, all in Mandarin.

The laughs started to build. It was so absurd. They knew the punchlines based on my intonation and timing, even though nobody understood a word.

I performed my opener and a super-abbreviated version of my closer. Less than two minutes total. Then I thanked the crowd (in Chinese), dropped the mic and exited stage left, to what sounded like big applause.

Hannibal called me out during his set: “Shoutout to my guy with the Mandarin comedy. How crazy was that?!” Later he grabbed my number and said I could try out a similar gag sometime at his new club in Brooklyn (maybe mixed in with an English set, who knows). “People will love it.”

The rest of the conference I kept getting props from people for the set. It was the perfect icebreaker to meet way more attendees. Andrew also gave me a shoutout the next morning at breakfast. But most importantly, I made an unforgettable memory at the best conference I’ve ever attended (on my 32nd birthday no less).

What a rush.

I’ve studied Chinese for thousands of hours since college. I do it for pure enjoyment – I simply love how it feels to say the words, to always get better, to connect with people a world apart.

But sometimes, following your internally-driven passion can have surprise external payoffs.

Sometimes you get to open for a famous comedian at a world-class conference.

[Michael Gendler @MichaelGendler]

@Montebello @NatlParkService hahahhaha

[Michael Gendler @MichaelGendler]

@garethkthomas aw man i’m so happy to hear this!

[Michael Gendler @MichaelGendler]

stoked on this one

[Dr Rangan Chatterjee @drchatterjeeuk]

What if trying to manage your anxiety is actually making it worse?

This week on my Feel Better, Live More podcast, I’m joined by @jonnym1ller and he explains why anxiety might not be the problem itself but a signal from the body that something deeper needs to be felt.

Throughout the episode, Jonny and I talk about three powerful skills that can help us move from overwhelm to calm:

1️⃣ Top-down tools like mindfulness
2️⃣ Bottom-up tools like breathwork
3️⃣ And emotional fluidity – learning to truly feel what’s underneath the anxiety

Jonny also explains why emotions like sadness or anger usually only last 10–20 seconds and how resisting them is what really keeps us stuck.

If you’ve ever felt stuck in your head… or like stress is running your life… this episode is for you.

🎧 Listen now on Feel Better, Live More Episode 569

[Michael Gendler @MichaelGendler]

@Montebello HAHA

[Michael Gendler @MichaelGendler]

My word of the year is: non

non-judgment, non-striving, non-attachment, non-doing, non-interference.

Letting events take their course.

Allowing things to be.

Trusting in life.

[Michael Gendler @MichaelGendler]

my date came 30m late, sat with me for literally 5m, and left me sitting with a $200 bill.

doctors, man.

[Michael Gendler @MichaelGendler]

@ChrisWillx @neuranne big fan of Anne-Laure’s work