Post Secret

Yesterday, I attended a lecture by Frank Warren. Frank is the one who started the program Post Secret. It all started when he tried to get 365 strangers on the streets of Washington DC to anonymously send him their secrets. He now has over half a million secrets in his collection. Through this idea, Frank has learned that there’s one thing that really connects us all: secrets. We all have them. Many of us share the same secrets and do not wish to tell anyone about them. This website allows people to let their secrets off their chest without exposing themselves. During the talk, Frank showed many ways that people have shared secrets together. The picture on the right shows a secret someone sent in. Soon after this card was posted, several people e-mailed him with voicemail messages from their lost loved ones that they still have saved on their phones. Not only has Post Secret been able to connect people worldwide, but they raised over a million dollars for suicide prevention, as suicide is a common theme among secrets that, at one time, the creator also held.

Overall, Frank did a great job speaking. He was funny, serious, and impactful, just like the secrets. He didn’t have any notes or stand at a podium, which really opened up the atmosphere. By the time an hour had passed, many people were willing to go up to a microphone to share their secret with the rest of the room. One issue he came across was that he forgot the order of his slides quite a few times. He treated the issue lightly, which may have even made him more relatable and contributed to his ethos. Throughout the presentation, he told stories about his wife, his mom, his mail carrier, and his own childhood. This seemed to be his main approach, showing that he is like everyone else and has secrets too.

www.postsecret.com