PATRICK GEDDES

Have you ever been spellbound? By that, I mean, have you ever been so drawn in by someone’s ideas, communication skills, words, gestures, facial expressions—their presence—that you couldn’t take your eyes, or ears, off what they were doing right in front of you? This has happened to me. More than once. In fact, lots of times. I have been wowed by some of the most remarkable, well-known speakers of all time— Zig Ziglar, Brene Brown, General Colin Powell, Madeleine Albright, and many others. I’ve also been impressed beyond words by watching and listening to several relatively unknown presenters such as Fariba Amidari, Jade Simmons, and Akeem Iman-Jones. On the other hand, I have been in situations where I have had to listen to long, boring, unappealing presentations by some of the worst speakers ever. Completely untrained, uninformed, or unprepared. I felt as though my time had been wasted. (Obviously, I won’t call them out by name!)