You want answers?
I think I’m entitled to them!
You want answers?
I want the truth!
You can’t handle the truth!
Although often misquoted, these famous lines exchanged between Jack Nicholson and Tom Cruise in A Few Good Men underscore a fundamental problem whenever we talk about “the truth.”
We might profess to want answers. Whether it’s our clients to tell us what’s really on their minds. Or even a spouse to tell us his or her deepest desire for our life together. But too often, in prompting people for “the truth,” we get the answer the person before us is capable of pushing out at that moment, but not the really deep, tricky, not yet ready to be articulated stuff.
In a recent podcast by bestselling author and pastor, Rob Bell, Bell tells a story of his son memorizing gobs of information for a science test. He “knows” the material. He can spout off facts, figures, etc. BUT, and this is a ginormous BUT, he can neither detail nor even give even the most basic explanation of what it all means. Bell uses the story to highlight our collective crisis in being able to explain so much of what we claim to know and stand for in the world. And as a result, while full of superficial understanding of a lot of issues (a habit no doubt formed during our primary and secondary education where memorization was often privileged over deep, analytical thinking), most of us feel deeply disconnected from real truth.
Really good, okay not just good, but really epic, game-changing speaking possesses a shamanic quality—both for the speaker, who somehow has discovered his or her truth, and for an audience who said speaker is able to facilitate breakthroughs for. When people tell me that they are scared of public speaking, while I can of course empathize given my own struggles for years in this area (and because I still am working through going into my default mode of trying to “save” people from discomfort while understanding it’s necessary for them), I also know the real issue is that the person before me is circling the perimeter of what s/he was born to say. For when we are conduits for truth, there simply isn’t room for ego or nervous sensation to cohabitate.
A lot of the women at last month’s MasterTreat, irrespective of faith, had these kinds of holy speaking experiences where they became channels for a message larger than themselves.
Las Vegas MasterTreat 2015
From Shannon Elhart, whose equal parts heart-wrenching and heart-expanding story of birthing a child she knew she would lose freed her from a lifetime of trying to stuff down her suffering—to Kathy Kortes-Miller, a palliative care expert fresh off earning her doctorate, who brings passion and skill to teaching others how to facilitate conscious, compassionate and clear conversations about death and what we want for our dying, these women reverberated with the Truth (with a big T). They made us laugh, cry and drop from our heads into our bodies and souls as we received them and their messages.
Other women, like Chris Darling and Marcie Mauro, showed up millimeters away from their truth. From trusting me, their fellow emerging soul-stirring speakers and the process, within 24 hours they were giving arm hair lifting, tour-de-force talks on how to support people with mental illness and how to play nicely with the resistance that so often emerges when we are a heartbeat away from realizing our dreams.
This is why, less than a month since the weekend, these entrepreneurs, academics and thought leaders have booked TEDx talks, presented keynotes, spoken on prestigious panels and completely redesigned their offerings around their “ideas worth spreading.”
We want the truth.
We can handle the truth.
And we are done with subsisting on others’ half-truths and clever, but ultimately empty, communication.
What is the message you are put on this Earth to speak?
And in the name of all that is sacred, when will you surrender to your “call” and speak it?
Freedom—in our heads, in our hearts, in our bodies, in our work and in every facet of our life—emanates from speaking our real truth, our full truth, and inviting other people, once and for all, to do the same.
Coming Up in the Land of Lex
A quick reminder that my webinar (which is going to feel more like a webi-jam), How to Build Your Freedom Lifestyle Through Speaking with Natalie Sisson, is just around the corner. Natalie and I are teaming up on Monday, April 13 at 3pm Pacific/6pm Eastern for a fun, informative conversation on how public speaking can be THE way to create freedom in all areas of your life.
Natalie has been using multiple streams of speaking revenue to grow her multiple six-figure business and reach her global audience, and during this hour together we’ll be talking about:
- How speaking can enable you to live and work from anywhere
- How to position yourself as the go-to person in your niche and secure plum, paid speaking gigs
- How you can use live webinar trainings to build your freedom business
- Why launching and growing a podcast can lead to a big increase in your speaking opportunities (Natalie’s podcast reaches 30,000+ entrepreneurs each week!)
- How Natalie’s Freedom Plan can support you as an entrepreneur, especially if speaking is one of your business, life and adventure goals
Natalie is the real deal. Not only does she get paid to speak at events all over the world, she’s also written a #1 bestselling book on creating a freedom-based business, produces and hosts an award nominated podcast that 30,000+ people listen to weekly, and she has created an international community of freedom fighters in over 140 countries who are creating their own Freedom Plans.
Join us by signing-up now for How to Build Your Freedom Lifestyle Through Speaking.
