However, every once and a while, my enjoyment goes beyond learning and on to inspiration. Earlier [...]]]> Over the past few years I’ve coached hundreds of speakers. Without a doubt, I learn something from each one. The diversity of their backgrounds, experiences, and topics make my learning one of the most enjoyable parts of my work.

However, every once and a while, my enjoyment goes beyond learning and on to inspiration. Earlier this year I had the opportunity to coach Ali, AJ, and Carlos for TEDxUofM. The first time I was supposed to meet them, I got hopelessly lost in the confoundingly confusing University of Michigan School of Music. I finally found them and we did a run through of where they currently were. Immediately it was evident that this coaching job was going to be different from most of the rest. First, there were 3 presenters, something I normally recommend against as it typically comes off contrived and chunky. However, they had a natural rapport unlike many I’ve ever seen. They had a natural rhythm not only in their presentation, but in their everyday conversation with me and with each other. Clearly they had spent a LOT of time together.

Not only did they work as one performer, but they also had a clear and evident stage presence which I guess is to be expected from years of being musical theater majors. I clearly wasn’t going to need to help them with their timing, delivery, intonation, phrasing, body language, or stage fright…all very normal things when I work with presenters. They had that down.

They even had the core of a story. But, as it turns out much like the development of a musical, the story needed some work on flow and particularly in the editing room. As I sat back listening to the first run through, I considered the options for the types of feedback I could provide. Certainly, I thought, we could work on story, flow, poignant moments, etc. We could actually create yet another amazing presentation and they certain had more than enough skill to pull it off.

Somehow though, that seemed wrong. The three of them had created the first ever musical written by active students at the University of Michigan, and it was received to critical and box office success. And they had written it in 4 months, something that takes most writers years. Somehow it felt wrong that we should stage a presentation about a musical. My feedback (my crazy idea in an event full of crazy ideas) was that they write a musical about writing a musical. Meta, yes, I know. Truly it was just an evolution of what they had already designed in concept, but they ran with it and made something amazing.

If you want to take your presentations to the next level, you don’t have to write a musical, but pay close attention to their phrasing, their words, their intonation, their body language…their drama played out on the stage. There’s so much presenters can learn from their delivery.

That being said, as wonderful as it was, that’s not what inspired me about Ali, AJ, and Carlos. They decided to “do something. Something that [they] always wanted to do. Something [they] didn’t know how to do…No one ever told [them] exactly how crazy this endeavor we were about to embark on actually was.” What did they do? They went out and wrote a musical. Learning by doing. All too often we let what we don’t know and can’t do keep us from getting off the couch and actually doing something, and until we do something nothing will happen.

It turns out that by observing their own experiences with learning how to write a musical, the actual content of the musical started to take shape.

“While learning, we were somehow writing the answer. Whoa! That’s when major progress started to get made. The best ideas came not from trying to say something or prove a point, but from looking at the piece, listening to it, and then trying to tell the most honest story possible.” It was “so much more informative and educational then anything a book could have ever taught us.”

Often what we already know is the biggest hindrance we have to actually making something happen.

“We were young, optimistic, and downright stupid enough to try. If we would have stopped to actually consider how truly crazy this endeavor was I think we would have collapsed…we were under the wonderful delusion that we could take over the world. But maybe it’s not entirely a delusion. The tenacity and creative spirit required to make something worthwhile is the same now as it will every be…letting the idea lead you, unafraid of where it’s heading. You can’t set limitations on yourself, least of all your work. Limiting your work is the most disrespectful thing you can do to it. And on a larger scale, limiting creative opportunity is the most disrespectful thing of all…we truly believe that a creative mind and sheer hutzpah should be valued as strongly as pen to paper intelligence.”

Ali, AJ, & Carlos, a deep, sincere thank you for inspiring me! May we all be young, optimistic, downright stupid, crazy, delusional, and unafraid enough to take our own crazy idea and make it real!

See the whole thing here and be inspired: