An NSA member traveled two hours to a talk and left confused: he knew less about the speaker than about the audience's story, yet felt inspired to act. The speaker had centered the presentation on a survivor's sister, making her the hero. Great speakers shift the spotlight to the audience, not themselves.
I got done with a keynote, and this is about 3 years ago. An NSA member drove 2 hours to see my speech. I had never met him before. Like, I knew of him, but I'd not met him. And he was newer comparative to my length of career. He was newer. And so he sat in the audience and he got done and he goes, I'm confused about it. And I go, what are you confused about? He goes, I've never seen a speech where I knew less about the speaker when they were done and yet was so excited what I was going to do in my own life. You know nothing about me and my speech except my sister, because that's who it's supposed to be about— you, the audience. I'm not even the hero in that part, right? It's about the call I got and wanting to be there for her. But she's the hero because I talk about how strong and courageous survivors are. That's when we know we're connecting, when the room can go, oh, I don't even remember the speaker's name. I remember the county tissue guy. I have no clue what his name was because they were never thinking about me during the speech, right? That's the game changer.
