Let’s play a game.
In seconds, I will connect you to every human on planet Earth. They’re all eager to hear from you. It’s the biggest stage there is. Everyone will see you and hear you.
Ready?
3 – 2 – 1. You’re on.
All eyes are on you.
What do you say?
More importantly, what do you do?
I’ll let you simmer in the discomfort for a second.
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Was that enough? Let’s get on with it. I know exactly what you should do. It’s three things.
1. Resonate
2. Elevate
3. Articulate
I could write a book about these three. But I’ll keep it short for this post.
“I liked her from the first moment I saw her.”
“I never felt like I could trust him.”
“First impressions matter.”
“I had a gut feeling.”
When the broadcast begins, all that matters is how you move on stage, how you smile, how you use your whole body, your hands, the sound of your voice, and your mood.
For many moments, it doesn’t matter what you say but how you say it. It doesn’t matter what you talk about, but who you are.
You can’t fake it. The whole world will tune out if they think you’re a phony.
Your job is to resonate, to tune into a specific frequency (imagine rotating the dial of an old radio), and make your audience “vibrate” in a similar way an opera singer can make a glass vibrate (and eventually shatter).
I do this by being very intentional and open with how I move on stage. I smile to them until they smile with me. I usually joke around in the first few minutes of a presentation. I ask questions that help the audience learn something about themselves. I show my empathy and my humanity in every way I can. If I stumble, I will own it. I will show courage. I will show myself. I will be naked.
That’s what I call resonating.
“Just a lot of mansplaining.”
“I already knew everything about it, but she brilliantly connected the dots.”
“He stated the obvious.”
“What she said just felt right.”
Your audience is not dumb. They don’t need you to state the obvious. All they crave is for you to elevate them to a higher level. If they resonate with you, they are ready to follow you to think more deeply, reflect on higher concepts, and grow.
Your job, in general, is to transform your audience into somebody new. This phase sets the altitude of that change.
I do this by asking a thought-provoking question. I hold my answers and conclusions, letting the audience connect the dots on their own. I share quotations that may be difficult to comprehend. And I intentionally avoid helping the audience understand them. They will absorb them. At this point, in a workshop, I would let my audience state their goals—not just tell me who they are but who they want to become.
That’s what I call elevating.
“That story she shared was so memorable.”
“All that data was very confusing.”
“What stuck with me is this one idea.”
“The whole talk didn’t gel with me.”
At this point, what you actually say becomes important. You can introduce your ideas and use words to articulate them. Your storytelling didn’t matter at all in the resonate and elevate phase. Now, telling stories is your most powerful tool. You can take your audience on an adventure.
They are resonant and elevated: they can access your ideas.
If you feel they’re disconnecting, resonate with them again.
If you feel they’re pitching down, elevate them again.
Then articulate.
I do it by reconnecting all the concepts I introduced at the start. Still, now they assume a new meaning because the audience is connecting the dots differently. I might even show the same slides I displayed initially.
That’s what I call articulating.
Your final address looks like this. Isn’t it beautiful?
The world audience is an impatient bunch. Your slot is almost over, but you managed to resonate, elevate, articulate, and eventually transform them into someone new. Well done!
I will soon add a video showing these three phases in action.