I believe the thing you are built to do is the thing that will feel most exposing to do in public. Not because you are bad at it, but because when it is your strongest signal there is nothing else in the room to stand behind.
My guest this week is Mark Leruste, a storytelling and leadership communication expert, a guest lecturer at INSEAD, the host of The Unconventionalists, and the author of Glow in the Dark. His primary archetype is Resonant Orator and it came back at 94%, where thirty percent is the mark at which I start paying attention at all. Mark is very good at this, and one of the things I tell him on this call is that the things he writes sound like his speaking voice, which is much harder than he makes it look. He is also generous with me here in a way I do not take for granted, because what we end up talking about is how exposing it is to do the one thing you are actually built for.
IMPACT POINTS FROM THIS EPISODE:
⚡ You can practice being exposed before it counts. — For his birthday, Mark's wife gave him a two-day folk singing retreat, and he was terrified. Years before that she gave him a six-week stand-up comedy course, which he found dreadful right up until a scruffy comedy night above a brasserie, where a desk lamp on a rope served as the stage light and all the second-half acts dropped out. He offered to fill the time with no material at all. He bombed, and he got exactly what he needed from it: "I'm just as comfortable being in front of this random crowd of people that I am in front of a crowd of founders, CEOs, speakers. I just need material." Not long after, he got up at the real show and loved it.
⚡ Whatever you hold onto on stage may be protecting you from the room. — Mark's singing teacher made him sing without his guitar, and told him that people who play and sing often use the guitar as a shield from the audience. When I turn that back to his speaking, he moves it straight onto the stage: the guitar becomes the slides, or the words you wrote down, or the structure, or the framework. It is also why he loves Q&A. There is nothing prepared to stand behind, so he has to be raw and in the moment, and in his words, he can dance in it.
⚡ Being excellent and being overlooked can both be true at once. — Mark did not get shortlisted for a speaker award, and he wrote about it publicly. His wife and close friends told him not to, because someone thinking of booking him might see it. He published anyway, because keeping it quiet felt "incredibly out of integrity" with himself and with the people he is trying to serve. He can be an exceptional speaker, and he can also not have been nominated, and both of those can sit next to each other. It is the same thing he tells the people he coaches: the story you are most afraid to share is the story your audience most needs to hear.
PEOPLE & RESOURCES MENTIONED:
CONNECT WITH MACY:
SUBSCRIBE & REVIEW:
If you loved this episode, please take a moment to subscribe and leave a review on Apple Podcasts! Your support helps me reach more thought leaders who are ready to make an impact with their ideas. 🎙 Thanks for tuning in to Own Your Impact!
