We’re still delivering an abundance of virtual coaching, and we also recently opened up our office for in-person training for the first time in 2 ½ years. It’s been thrilling. It’s for small groups of no more than six, so it’s also very personal.
Having the whole person in front of us for the whole day, several days at a time, seeing them laugh and smile in all dimensions, has been rich.
Even more remarkable have been the incredible transformations in their presentation skills.
As I sit here and drink my morning tea, in the dawn of the day, I slowly see their faces as the memory of each person from our recent training sessions passes before me.
I’m smiling, remembering their final presentations, how they held the audience in the palm of their hand, how they swept away their hearts and their minds, how surprised they were by the feeling, how surprised the audience was to be so moved, how pleased they each were watching their final video (such a breathtaking difference from their first).
It’s not a special ability that only “some people have”. Goodness! How absurd to even think that!
Every single one of them discovered abilities within themselves they hadn’t previously tapped. They each became compelling, inspiring, handsome, beautiful, lovable. Each one, extraordinary.
I don’t say that lightly.
I don’t pass out compliments freely. You don’t hear me say it until I see it and am convinced that every audience under the sun will see it in them too.
I am a tougher coach than most people have experienced or ever even imagined. I’m hard on people, I pick up on everything, I don’t let anything slide. I’m demanding and, just when they think they can’t do any more or any better, I demand they do more, and then even more, and then even more. Until they discover that ability to really reach others and be heard that has been waiting for them.
Then, before they have time to really catch their breath, I’m working on the next ability. Everyone is saying, “Oh, you’re doing that so well!”, and I demand more, more, more. Until, with an abundance of new abilities, they discover a standard of communication within themselves they never even knew was possible.
Most people come expecting to work on mechanics: slides, body language, gestures, posture, voice tone and projection, how to hide nervousness, stop saying “um”, Where should I be looking? and Am I moving around too much?
They work with too much technology and unknowingly become trapped in mechanics.
I teach them how to speak words that have real meaning. You would think most people know how to do this, but they don’t.
But from that point forward, I work on the invisible.
How to own the room, how to be in the moment, how to lose the stranglehold grip of anxiety, how to be relaxed and natural, what real eye contact looks like, how to quiet the audience’s mind, how not only to connect, but to bond with the audience, how to make each person stop in their tracks and really pay attention, how to make each person feel “You’re talking to me”, how to be compelling and powerful, how to develop a rhythm and turn it into art and create a wave of great rapport. How to sweep them away, how to make them want more.
All of these show up in posture, voice tone, hand gestures, how you walk, every bit of your body language. It even changes your slides.
But the route to the true extraordinary is through the invisible.
The world is enamored of mechanics.
Communication revolves around the human spirit.
When you tap into yours and connect with theirs, even if it’s business, it’s magical.
You create a natural high for them and for you, a natural high that you experience together. When you’re really good at it, you feel love and they do too. Of course, you never mention it and your audience doesn’t either, and may not even know what name to put on it because, after all, it is business. But that doesn’t stop you all from feeling it.
It’s that feeling that gives you a radiance in your eyes that when you look at the audience, just the way you look at them is enough to make them change. It makes them open and warm. It’s the basis of trust.
All of these abilities are within you. You can feel them stir and murmur, asking for release.
Heed their call.
With or without a teacher, with or without a coach, there is no question that they are there and will respond when you turn your gaze to them and invite them to come forth.
Be the cause!