On a High From High-Wire Act in Vegas

I was in Las Vegas this week, doing a keynote speech for a client.  A keynote gives me a special sort of high, different from anything else I do as a consultant.  One reason is that an hour-long speech requires a much higher energy level than you can maintain for a longer workshop.  It's more intense.

That short time frame also leaves you no margin for error, which is why a keynote's like walking a tightrope in a high-wire act.  If for some reason you get off to a bad start, you have so little time to recover and make it up.  This is quite different from a half-day or all-day workshop.  In a keynote, you must nail it from the start.

The title of the keynote was, "Embracing Change," and it was for a company that's moving in a new direction.  So the point of my speech was to get their international executives motivated, energized, and excited about the new strategy.

An unusual aspect of this keynote was that my keynote was pretty much a surprise to all but two of the people.  The CEO has never had someone from the outside come in to do a keynote, and she wanted her executives to be surprised.  So it was somewhat of a stealth keynote. 

Because of the surprise element, I couldn't interview several participants in advance, like I'd normally do. Such interviews provide a lot of information about what's going on in the organization, and allow me to customize my keynote to their needs.

But since I could talk only to the CEO and one other person, I was flying blind to a certain extent.  That challenge added to the "high-wire" aspect of this keynote.  They were a great group, and everyone seemed to enjoy the keynote.

Another reason for the "high" is that I got to visit my brother, Kevin.  He just moved to Vegas in November, and since we haven't lived in the same part of the country for over 20 years, we don't see each other as often as we'd like.  Spending time with Kevin was an added treat.

And the weather was nice, too.  But it's always good to get back home!