The room was dark. The stage was huge. Bright stage lights moved with him as he walked to the center. He stood near the front of the stage and faced the C-Suite executives sitting in the dark, looking out at the dim outline of faces he couldn’t see.
He let his eyes become accustomed to the darkened view. He looked to the far corners of the large room, pervaded and owned the entire space. He absorbed the presence of the 500 beings seated in front of him, felt affinity for them and their pressures, and smiled.
All was done efficiently, but with no rush. He never lost his feeling of being comfortable.
Comfortably and easily, looking directly into the sea of executive humanity in front of him, he started speaking.
He spoke for 30 minutes.
He didn’t make 100 points. He made one, and he made it well.
I had made him promise to email me the second it was over. He was true to his promise. Right on time I received this message:
“I’m writing to you from London. Exhilarated. Home run. My presentation stood out from all of them. I’m surrounded by people who want to talk to me. Everyone wants to take me out to dinner.
“I didn’t rush. This is so different from what I usually do.
“This time I didn’t worry about anything. I knew the message I wanted to get across and I knew that I knew it. You got me to stop doubting myself and that freed me.
“I was 100% focused on the audience as I spoke. I found I could focus all the way to the back of the room and the sides and cover all of them. I felt very connected to them even in the dark and the initial silence.
“I remembered everything you said about words having no power until they create meaning in the audience’s minds. And I focused on creating that meaning.
“I did what you taught me and I stepped into the silence in the pauses in my talk.
“I was sensitive to those points where what I was saying had a lot of meaning. And after I made each of those points, I let there be a moment of silence for the audience to reflect on what I just said, and for the meaning of what I just said to fully develop in their minds.
“It was amazing. It was a completely dark room. I couldn’t see them, but I could feel their energy. And somehow, as I paused, I could perceive the meaning of each point develop its full impact in their minds. Don’t ask me how, but that feeling and perception guided me into knowing exactly how long to pause to let each meaning develop, just as you said it would.
“It was like a powerful mind-reading 6th sense came into being.
“I could FEEL when they really got it. It was as if their mind and my mind connected. And I could FEEL them having realizations in that silence. That gave me a feeling of the true power of communication, and the true power of a great communicator, just as you said it would.
“I was totally comfortable with the silence because you really taught me its function and how to perceive into it.
“I don’t know how you would ever explain this to anyone. But it’s the most powerful thing I’ve ever experienced about communication.
“What I did is so different from any ‘corporate’ presentation anyone has ever seen, including me. I didn’t feel like a corporate presenter. I felt like a great communicator. And I felt that way because I finally, finally learned how to create real meaning in others’ minds.”
This result isn’t something you achieve by improving your “corporate presentation” skills. It’s only available when you’re willing to step beyond what you see everyone else doing and do something very different.
This isn’t a journey about hand gestures or tone or how you make your slides…this is a journey about connection. About one human being creating real meaning for another.
Once you can do that, you can achieve anything.
Be the cause!