Did you know that I actually do not love getting on stage, having the spot light on me, being the extreme center of attention?
I get on stage because it is such a powerful way to spread my message.
I get on stage for the ways I believe I can change lives. I get on stage because I want to share the ways of communicating in business that I have seen transform teams, presentations and client exchanges.
It’s not all altruism, of course.
I am giddy when I watch an audience members slow smile as I relay the precise, ineffective “Business Speak” that they have to hear droned about their company every day. I love when I see two people in the audience share a knowing glance and head nod as I talk about the horror of slides full of bullet points being read – verbatim – in a way-too-long company meeting. It feels awesome to have that kind of immediate feedback that what I am saying is resonating.
But ultimately, I get on stage because I really want to change the world.
I want to spread the word that there is a better way to live, to work, to talk with each other. And I know that those who don’t know about this better way yet aren’t stupid (of course they aren’t) – they are simply well-trained from a lifetime of boring business communication all around them. It’s not their fault. I want them to know there is a simple way to shift into effective, powerful, real communication – even in business.
There is no better medium that I know of for spreading a message far and wide than public speaking.
That’s why I gather my anxious butterflies into formation and hit the stage. It isn’t because I love being on stage for the activity of it. Though I do love the stage for the outcomes it produces.
How about you? Why do you do what you do? Is it possibly not as obvious as we might think?
[Thank you, Joel Olives, for this breath-taking butterfly in flight image.]