In 2010, I received a phone call from Los Angeles. The caller asked me if I would be willing to come speak to his group. The answer was, yes! Another call came in on the caller's side of the discussion. He said he would have to call me back.
I called my wife and told her I was going to Los Angeles to speak. What will you talk about she asked? I told her we hadn't gotten that far but I was going to Los Angeles to speak. That is how an Activator operates.
Not long after my trip to Los Angeles, I was invited to Dallas, Texas to speak on my own stage for the first time. As I spoke at a fancy country club somewhere in the Dallas area, I remember an older gentleman with a long white beard who was sitting at a table near the stage. Promptly, right after lunch and at the beginning of my talk, he stretched out, crossed his arms, and began to snore.
On the left side of the room, as I surveyed the room from the stage, I found a couple of people who seemed to be engaged in every word I had to share. I focused on these people for the rest of my talk.
At the end of my talk, a woman rushed to the stage to be first in line to meet me. She was a professor at North Texas University. She wanted me to come up to Denton that evening to speak to her MBA class. I told her how much I appreciated the invitation, but let her know that I had dinner plans somewhere in Dallas and I didn't have a car. That afternoon, she called on three different occasions, doing her best to get my attention. I did not yet understand how big this feedback was to my first-ever stage appearance.
Also from this crowd at the fancy country club in Dallas, I got to meet an amazing woman named Cindy. One decade later, Cindy has advanced her career and has consumed every coaching offering I have ever created.
Cindy is now a member of my Strategically Maximized Mastermind and my Ideation Mastermind. Cindy and her mother drove from Dallas last weekend to stay at a vacation rental just a few miles from my house. We enjoyed many dinners together and shared many laughs and smiles. Words alone cannot express my appreciation for Cindy and Linda.
