Did you ever do anything in your lifetime so much better than you ever did it before that you couldn’t understand it? My son Dan hit a hole in one on the golf course where he plays regularly in Battle Creek, Michigan. He was absolutely amazed and so was his golfing partner. In sports amazing things happen often to amazing people. Sales people might tell you about the best sale they ever made.. The most expensive home, the largest insurance policy, whatever. It is exhilarating, I’m sure. Personally, I feel that way about some of the speeches I have delivered as a professional speaker for over 50 years. Early in my career I might have claimed, “I killed that audience.” I didn’t really kill anybody. There was a poet in Battle Creek who slumped to the floor and the registered nurse tended to him and said, “I can’t get a pulse!” But she did what people do when the heart stops beating and she soon got a heartbeat and the ambulance arrived a couple of minutes later and there was a happy ending. If anyone had died I would not brag that I killed one member of that audience.
So recently I found a huge box of old VHS Video tapes and a few of them are the best speech experiences I have had in my lifetime and as I watched them and watched replays of the expressions on the audiences faces I had to admit that I was performing way above what my skills and talents allowed. It was like someone else was in charge. I never quit working on my skills, on my voice and delivery, my memory and a whole lot more but these special performances seemed to touch the lives of everyone in those halls. Sure I prayed most days before I performed. Often I would pray for some sort of miracle. On those special occasions, some which we captured with good video, yes, on some of those occasions we’ve now found testimonial letters from those who hired me and their remarks indicate that there was something special going on.
All I can figure is that on those special occasions I just got out of the way of my big fat ego and let it flow. About twenty years ago I wrote a song titled “Let It Flow”. It was spiritual and the lyric went,” Let it Flow. Let it Flow. Let the Holy Spirit flow through you. Just let go and let it flow. Let the Holy Spirit Flow Through You”.
Now to balance things I must admit that I have sometimes bombed. One construction company hired me to speak at 7 PM. They closed down the job site at 2PM and all gathered then at the hall. They had an open bar all that afternoon and when I arrived at 6PM they were all BLATTO!
At 6PM they served a chicken dinner. I went on at 6:45PM and my host and I agreed that I would do just 30 minutes but if it was going well I might do 45 minutes. Doing mostly humor I managed to do tolerably for 30 minutes and that is when I made a fatal mistake. I decided to go for 45 minutes. About 31 minutes in, one of the workers took a big chicken bone and threw it across the hall at another worker. You guessed it. Two minutes later there was food flying all over that hall and then they threw their drinks and the boss and I made it out of there safely. He was laughing and he said to me. “Art, you should have quit at 30.”
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