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How To Speak From a Higher Level of Being

by Burt Dubin    

Picture this: The wise sailor accepts the winds and tides as they are. The wise sailor doesn’t try to change the winds and tides. The wise sailor engages the winds and tides to move the boat across the waters. Across the briny deep from where the boat is to the desired destination. Are you with me so far?

Imagine this: Your speaking business is your boat. You’re the Captain as well as the navigator. The waters of the briny deep are the present times, the here and now, the ocean in which you sink or swim as an expert in the business of speaking. Are you still with me? Good. The winds and tides are the feelings and attitudes, the climate and environment in which your clients and prospects do whatever they do.

Now, please reflect upon this reality: The feelings and attitudes of the people who lead the organizations you serve as an expert who speaks, simply are. (Just as the winds and tides simply are.) And these organizational leaders want to be successful at whatever they offer the universe of markets and people they serve.

So, why this explanation? Because times have changed. As we start the new century, the new millennium, attitudes and feelings are evolving. There is now a ground swell of recognition, of receptivity, of awareness of the non-physical aspect of life. And:sensitivity to the place of the human spirit in the world of work.

For example, Barbara Scofidio, the editor of Corporate Meetings &Incentives magazine reported an experience of what she called, "service with soul." (Her words) She referred to the experience she had on a Southwest Airlines flight. As recently as a year ago I don’t think you’d have seen the word "soul" in a corporate magazine.

Here’s more: Leonard Berry, in his new book, Discovering the Soul of Service, (1999, The Free Press), writes that the core of every successful organization is "a soul, a value system..."

Barbara wrote, "I could almost feel the soul Berry describes in the way Southwest handled my flight."

John B. Izzo, PhD, in his Awakening Corporate Soul, (ISBN 0-9682149-01-6) writes of "the 4 paths to unleash the power of people at work." He says "The soul wants to make a difference." I was at his program at the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers (CAPS) 1998 Convention. He said we who speak are to share our unique essence (our soul and it’s values,) with our audiences.

And longtime speaker, Kathleen Hawkins, in her SPIRIT Incorporated, (ISBN 0-87516-717-9,) writes of the "spiritual laws operating in the workplace."

There’s no denying this rising tide of corporate receptivity to our authentically sharing who and what we are at the essence level as part of our message.

A growing sense of self is pervading people at every level of the corporate world. A personal dignity, an enhanced awakening to the rightness of personal autonomy is sweeping through the world of work. There’s a heightened concern for self, for personal growth as a human right and as a direct result of the work we do. People long to actualize their true potential. And they want this to be one of the outcomes of the work they do.

It’s now appropriate for us, as experts who speak, to recognize and salute the rightful place of the human spirit in the workplace. At every level of the workplace. From the mail room to the boardroom. And every level in-between.


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Burt Dubin, a 20 year veteran of the business of speaking, coaches and mentors speakers and wanna-be’s world-wide. Burt works with people who want to be speakers and with speakers who want to be masters. The words of his clients, the admiration and respec