Mic Drop

The Virtuoso (ft. Felipe Gomez)

Episode Summary

Felipe Gomez regularly gives some of the most unique, awe-inspiring keynotes in the industry. This week we talk about the deep love of creating impact that connects us all, what it means to be a virtuoso, and how to treat an audience of one, an audience of 100, or an audience of 1,000 with the same sense of personal connection.

Episode Notes

The Virtuoso (ft. Felipe Gomez)

Singing, laughing, and connecting your way to the big stage

OPENING QUOTE:

“I really thought about it, but when I was there on the stage, I said, what the hell? I'm going to sing. I'm going to make them sing.”

-Felipe Gomez

GUEST BIO:

Felipe Gomez is a multi multi hyphenate who has given over a thousand performances across 65 cities, 25 countries and 15 impactful years. He's an artist, humanitarian thought leader and keynote speaker. Felipe combines his unapologetically bold approach to leadership with an unforgettable keynote format, one that features a grand piano at center stage.

Links:

CORE TOPICS + DETAILS:

[5:16] - Music as an Impact Multiplier

From straightforward keynotes to musical extravaganzas

When Felipe first began delivering keynotes, they were much more traditional — standing up in front of the crowd and speaking. But he began thinking about his personal passion for music, and how it might be able to help augment his keynote message. It was then that he realized that while his message could speak to people’s minds, his music could speak to their heart. The result was greater impact — more memorable keynotes, more connection between ideas and emotions — and he never looked back.

[7:44] - The Making of a Virtuoso

Method, Attitude, & Passion

What makes a virtuoso?

Felipe identifies a virtuoso as having three key traits — method, attitude, and passion.

Most individuals and organizations focus on method. They want to reach new levels of operational excellence, perfect processes, and cutting-edge technology.

But they also need attitude, their “onstage” persona. The attitudes we assume in our day-to-day jobs define whether we connect or disconnect with clients, customers, peers, and coworkers.

Finally, you need passion. It means putting your heart and soul into what you’re doing so that the ordinary ceases to happen and the extraordinary can take its place.

This is how a virtuoso is made, in life, in music, or in business.

[32:25] - Connecting to the One

A backstage ritual we can all learn from

Before each keynote, just before stepping on stage, Felipe takes a moment to consider his audience. Whether he’s about to speak to a hundred people, a thousand people, or 10 people, he reminds himself that if just one person in the room can watch his keynote and change a behavior, think differently, or break out of damaging habits, his work will have been worthwhile. When Felipe does this, it helps keep him focused on the individuals in the audience, not the overall size of the crowd. He forgets the numbers and just remembers the one.

RESOURCES:

[1:25] Learn More About Felipe
[12:16] Attitude-E, by Felipe Gomez

Follow Felipe Gomez:

Follow Josh Linkner:

ABOUT MIC DROP:

Hear from the world’s top thought leaders and experts, sharing tipping point moments, strategies, and approaches that led to their speaking career success. Throughout each episode, host Josh Linkner, #1 Innovation keynote speaker in the world, deconstructs guests’ Mic Drop moments and provides tactical tools and takeaways that can be applied to any speaking business, no matter it’s starting point. You'll enjoy hearing from some of the top keynote speakers in the industry including: Ryan Estis, Alison Levine, Peter Sheahan, Seth Mattison, Cassandra Worthy, and many more. Mic Drop is sponsored by ImpactEleven.

Learn more at: MicDropPodcast.com

ABOUT THE HOST:

Josh Linkner is a Creative Troublemaker. He believes passionately that all human beings have incredible creative capacity, and he’s on a mission to unlock inventive thinking and creative problem solving to help leaders, individuals, and communities soar.

Josh has been the founder and CEO of five tech companies, which sold for a combined value of over $200 million and is the author of four books including the New York Times Bestsellers, Disciplined Dreaming and The Road to Reinvention. He has invested in and/or mentored over 100 startups and is the Founding Partner of Detroit Venture Partners.

Today, Josh serves as Chairman and Co-founder of Platypus Labs, an innovation research, training, and consulting firm. He has twice been named the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year and is the recipient of the United States Presidential Champion of Change Award.

Josh is also a passionate Detroiter, the father of four, is a professional-level jazz guitarist, and has a slightly odd obsession with greasy pizza.

Learn more about Josh: JoshLinkner.com

Episode Transcription

Felipe Gomez:

And I really thought about it, but when I was there on the stage, I said, what the hell? I'm going to sing. I'm going to make them sing.

Josh Linkner:

Hey Mic Drop enthusiast, Josh Linkner here. Delighted to be bringing you season two of Mic Drop. I love our conversations with speakers and industry leaders alike so we can unpack the industry and we can all perform better. Let's get after it and get better together.

Maria Cairo:

Mic Drop is brought to you by ImpactEleven, the most diverse and inclusive community built for training and developing professional speakers to get on bigger stages at higher fees with greater impact, faster. They're not just elevating an industry that we all know and love. They work with thousands of speakers to launch and scale their speaking businesses, accelerating time to success, earning tens of millions in speaking fees, landing bureau representation, securing book deals, and rising to the top of the field. To learn more about the ImpactEleven community, schedule a free strategy session today by visiting impacteleven.com/connect. That's impact, E-L-E-V-E-N.com/connect.

Josh Linkner:

My guest today is a true virtuoso. I'm proud to say he's a friend, inspiration and even a musical collaborator. More on that later. Felipe Gomez is a multi multi hyphenate who has given over a thousand performances across 65 cities, 25 countries and 15 impactful years. He's an artist, humanitarian thought leader and keynote speaker. Felipe combines his unapologetically bold approach to leadership with an unforgettable keynote format, one that features a grand piano at the center stage. Today, Felipe and I talk about the deep love of creating impact that connects us all, what it means to be a virtuoso, and how to treat an audience of one, an audience of 100, or an audience of 1,000 with the same sense of personal connection. Now it's time to meet the virtuoso himself, Felipe Gomez.

Felipe, my friend, welcome to Mic Drop.

Felipe Gomez:

Oh my God, gosh. So happy to be here, a true honor to be here sharing this time with you.

Josh Linkner:

Well, this is not the first time that you and I have shared a stage. Recently we got to perform a little jazz in the Detroit area together, which is really a pleasure. You're a fabulous musician and of course a gifted keynote speaker. As I was reading, you've done over a thousand performances in 27 countries over the last 15 years, and I want to start our conversation by what's different, what's different today versus when we were getting started in terms of the industry and the way you approach the craft, and just how would you compare the differences of when you were getting rolling to where you are today?

Felipe Gomez:

Oh, yeah. I think it's changed a lot, especially because I started speaking in Columbia. I started speaking in Columbia when the speaking business was just starting to kick off. So everything was very basic. It was starting to build a culture that speakers needed to be paid for. There was a culture before that that speakers just came as a courtesy to speak because they were the friend of the CEO or they were a relative or whatever. And the settings and the setups were very, very basic in very little rooms. And even though we still have some of those setups that are also very special, at the time, that was the standard. Everywhere I went, it was a very simple setup with the hardware or the equipment of the hotel or the convention center where we were. No major production, no major screens, no lights. But today I've seen that both the process and the production have been getting a lot of sophistication.

So the process is much more professional, more fluent. The figure of the speaker is much more respected as it was before. And also the production is amazing. You see these amazing productions with huge screens, with amazing stages, broadcasting globally with amazing lights, great sound. So it's really nice to see how the industry has evolved, how the events industry have also grown and settled as a very dynamic sector in the economy. And I think it's really important for companies to have these spaces to not only listen to great ideas from speakers, but to share, connect, network with their colleagues, friends, network, etc. So it's been a beautiful journey this past 15, 16 years.

Josh Linkner:

And one of the things I admire about you so much is of course, that you are a talented musician and you incorporate often, if not the majority of the time, music into your keynotes. Can you explain for us what's that experience like for the audience where it's part music and part keynote, and how has that helped you stand out and apart from other speakers?

Felipe Gomez:

Yeah. Well, actually the first keynote I put together wasn't with music. It was just a traditional keynote. Part of my story as an entrepreneur with all the ups and downs of an entrepreneur. But people always ask me, do you have something else? Do you have another keynote? We want to have you next year? So I started thinking, and my passion is music. All of my education and profession and experience has been in business managing both little startups to multinational corporations. But my passion has always been music. So I wanted to incorporate music into my keynote. And one day I was just listening to my wife. She was actually doing a master's degree in family development, and she was researching the whole idea of virtues on how to nurture virtues in your children as a parent. And the whole idea resonated in my mind because I thought it was very applicable to business.

I think that the developing virtues in business is also important in today's context and environment and challenges. So I started thinking, and then I realized that the root of the word virtue is the same as virtuoso, that it's mainly used in music. So that's how I came with the idea of doing a metaphor using music and what we can learn as business leaders and as salesperson, as business individuals from great musicians, from great virtual musicians to apply in our daily life. So I came up with this idea, started working on it, and a thousand performances later, it's a very solid, well-rounded keynote that it has an amazing impact. Not only because, and I think this is really the true answer to your question, is it's not only something that it's intellectually stimulating and that I'm delivering some ideas that are of use and people can use in their daily jobs and lives, but at the same time, through music, I am touching their hearts.

And I think that's what something people are longing for today. Not only being educated with great ideas, but also being touched with emotional content that really makes you not only think, but feel the importance of how other dimensions of your humanity, not only the intellectual dimension, but also the emotional dimension of us as human beings can come into play in a leadership and in a business context.

Josh Linkner:

You mentioned you speak on virtuosity. What does it mean to be a virtuoso?

Felipe Gomez:

Well, basically what I say is that a virtuoso focuses on three main areas, and I call them method, attitude and passion. And then virtuoso has the capacity of balancing these three balls that you're juggling and not focusing exclusively on one. So if you see in many corporations around the world, I would say most corporations around the world focus on method, on reaching better levels of operational excellence, on improving their processes or incorporating new technologies that will support those processes on making or building a culture of discipline and rigor so that people will really do what they do with mastery. That's something that is very common in every business, regardless of the industry or the geographic, wherever it's located in the world, or if it's a startup or a huge company, there's always a focus on operational excellence.

But then a original musician also focuses on the attitude that he or she has on the stage. How do I behave on the stage that will ultimately define if that artist or if that group of musicians are able to connect with their audience or not. Exactly the same way in business, the attitudes that we assume in our day-to-day jobs, define if we connect or we disconnect with our clients, with our customers, with our peers, with the people that work with us, with our vendors, etc.

And the third pillar is passion. It's putting your heart, putting all of you of the love that you have into what you're doing, and that truly makes the ordinary cease to happen, and the extraordinary starts to happen. And that happens both in a concert. You can perfectly tell when a musician is performing with passion and love or not, but it's exactly the same with a leader. You can perfectly tell when a leader is leading with passion or love or when a salesperson is selling with passion or love or not. So basically what I do is that I take the audience through a journey through music on how these three key pillars of method, attitude and passion, developing a musician and how we can also as businessmen and businesswomen develop these three pillars to become better, or virtuoso leaders.

Josh Linkner:

And I love that. How do you think about virtuoso keynotes?

Felipe Gomez:

... leaders.

Josh Linkner:

And I love that. How do you think about virtuoso keynote speakers? Well, what can we both experience and also up and coming keynote speakers learn as we try to develop our own virtuosity as speakers?

Felipe Gomez:

I think it's exactly the same. I think in all the transversal disciplines that we have to develop as speakers, and that is developing our content, positioning ourselves, selling and delivering on the stage, we all have to focus on those three dimensions. So for each of those transversal disciplines, we need that method. We need discipline, we need rigor, we need systems that support it. We need great processes that will help us standardize our service. That's all about reaching levels of operational excellence as speakers to all the stakeholders, to the customer that is hiring us, to the meeting planner, to the agency, to ourselves. Everything needs to be very well standardized, from an operational standpoint.

Then on the stage as well as the musicians, we have to be really authentic. We really need to be there, present, being there not only saying something that we know by heart on the stage, but we really need to connect with the audience. And we do it through the attitudes that we assume there, the way we look at our audience, the way we use our hands, the way we use our bodies. It's not only just speaking some ideas, but it's being there as a whole, totally.

And then of course, and I think this is what truly makes a virtuoso keynote speaker, is when you really put passion and love into what you do. So I've seen many speakers that are really smart and probably have all the academic acumen and all the track record and all the credentials to have to be experts in their field. But either their attitude or their passion is lacking and there's something missing when you listen to them. So when a speaker is able to balance or to harmonize those three areas, method, attitude, and passion, is when you truly are witnessing a virtuoso keynote speaker.

Josh Linkner:

I love it. And something for us all to work on, all three of those dimensions as we continue to evolve in our careers. I wanted to drill on that middle one. You also wrote a book called, Attitude-E, so that's the attitude pillar there. What is the main premise of that book and how can embracing that approach help you succeed as a speaker?

Felipe Gomez:

Oh yeah, fantastic. Well, that book I wrote on the... It's like a story of my early years of my career. I started my career as an entrepreneur in the technology sector end of the 1990s, beginning of the 2000s, all the .com boom moment. And it was a moment of very, I call it a roller coaster. It was an emotional rollercoaster because things were so hyped with the internet and things were going so fast. And there was so much money flowing and so much stuff going on. And suddenly, there was another one, the whole thing collapsed. So, it was a true rollercoaster.

So the book, it's like the first part tells the story of my life as an entrepreneur with the ups and downs of that roller coaster, as I call it. And then I present a framework that it's made up of six Es, that's why it's called Attitude-E, that make or help you think and behave with an entrepreneurial mindset. And I think as speakers, we all need to embrace an entrepreneurial mindset. This is a very rewarding and a very beautiful craft that we're doing, but it's tough. And most of the times, we're very lonely in this journey, just as an entrepreneur is probably lonely at the early stages of his or her endeavor.

So basically what I say is that you need six elements to truly excel in what you're doing, from an entrepreneurial perspective. Number one is ambition, and it's having a goal, having a clear, like a guiding star where you really want to go. And I encourage people to think big, not to think little, to think big, to have ambitious dreams. That's number one.

Number two, it's energy and in order to fulfill that dream, you have to put a lot of effort and energy. And execute in an extraordinary way. You have to really focus on doing what you do, very disciplined. And that probably, how do you say, merges with a method part of the virtuoso framework. So, that's the second one.

The third one is endurance. And it's about not quitting. It's going to be difficult. You're going to fall, you're going to have pains. It's going to be a difficult journey. As a speaker at the beginning, it's always difficult. But those who have the courage and the grit to really forego those obstacles and those difficulties in their early career, we'll probably make it to a great place. And that's been my experience as a speaker.

The the fourth one is ensemble, it's a team. It's how working with other people is important. And as a speaker, we have to learn to understand how the whole ecosystem of the industry works, where the agencies are, where the meeting planners are, where the clients are. How we interact with each other, how we put everybody into harmony into this system. And working together can help you grow as a speaker and land more businesses, grow, get your fee higher, et cetera, et cetera. Okay? So, that's ensemble.

Then I have elasticity, which is about thinking outside of the box, being creative, just breaking paradigms, being all the times, challenging the status quo. And the last one is engagement. And that's, for me, it's really probably the most important one because it's when you realize that everything that you do, you are not doing it for yourself, but you're doing it for the sake of other people. You're engaging in giving your talent, your time, your voice, your thoughts to other people so that other people can shine. It's being light so that others can shine.

And when you use these six Es that it's the framework of Attitude-E, probably you're going to become a better leader, a better executive, a better speaker, a better agent. So it's a very nice framework drawn from my experience as an entrepreneur, that we can all use in our careers or speakers or any other career that we pursue in our lives.

Josh Linkner:

Beautifully said. I love that multi e-framework. Fantastic. So speaking of virtuosity, virtuosos learn the craft and the intricacies and become excellent. And then of course, they also can break the rules to form their own art. And I wanted to ask you about a rule that appears on the surface anyway, that you have broken. So on your site you talk about aiming for excellence, having a winning attitude, making lasting connections, fostering a culture of innovation, and perhaps other things. And as speakers though, we often hear again and again and again, we have to pick a lane. It sounds like you're in at least four lanes, possibly more. Can you help us decipher that? And what advice do you have for someone who's trying to pick a lane versus picking a few different lanes? Or is there a macro lane when you think of all the things that you offer that all those things fall under?

The reason I'm asking the question, so you are at GDA today, one of our favorite bureaus, and with Gail Davis, one of my favorite humans, and sometimes the concern is that if you say, "Oh, I speak on six different topics.", the bureau community doesn't understand that. It's hard to process and remember you for being multiple things instead of just being really known for one thing. So in your case, you communicate a lot of things. Help us again, understand how you have either picked a lane or chosen to not pick a lane.

Felipe Gomez:

Yeah, that's a very good question, Josh, and thank you for that. And basically what I did is that all of my narrative is completely built in two pillars. And those two pillars are, one is an entrepreneurial mindset, and the second one is extraordinary performance. Those are my two pillars. And I truly think that those two pillars are very interconnected, because I really think that that's what businesses and business leaders need today to excel. Okay?

You cannot be a business leader without having an entrepreneurial mindset, trying to find the next move of the market. Where is the market going? Let's experiment here. Let's do something new. The old mindset of keeping still, it's been always done like this. Theory doesn't work anymore, it doesn't work anymore. You have to have that entrepreneurial mindset.

But at the same time, giving all the globalization and everything that is going around the world, whatever you do, you have to do it in an extraordinary way, in a flawless way. You cannot afford to do it good enough. You have to really make an effort if you want to be successful. So my two pillars are completely interconnected. And I really think that that's exactly what people and leaders need today, those two skills, entrepreneurial mindset and constant pursuit to reaching extraordinary performance.

Now, on top of that, I can build my narrative using different stories. Okay, so one story is my testimony as an entrepreneur, and why did I learn as an entrepreneur? How did I fail, what did I learn from failure, et cetera, et cetera. Another path is doing it through music and how great musicians can teach us to become better leaders. So I think that what's really...

Felipe Gomez:

No. So I think that what's really important as a speaker is for you to define those pillars, and probably you have one or two pillars. No more than two, because those speakers that speak about everything at the end are speaking about nothing. So you really have to focus on that. And when I speak to a client, when I speak to an agency, I'm very clear on telling them, look, my narrative is based on these two fundamentals, entrepreneurial mindset, extraordinary performance. Now, on top of that, I can build a series of stories, methodologies, formats, I can have a one-hour keynote, I can have a half a day workshop, I can have a three-day retreat. I can really build on those topics with the depth that the client wants and it doesn't matter. But for me, it's very clear that those two pillars are the guiding fundamentals of everything I do.

Maria Cairo:

Becoming a keynote speaker is an amazing profession. The top performers earn millions while driving massive impact for audiences around the world. But the quest to speaking glory can be a slow rot with many obstacles that can knock even the best speakers out of the game. If you're serious about growing your speaking business, the seasoned pros at ImpactEleven can help. From crafting your ideal positioning to optimizing your marketing effectiveness, to perfecting your expertise and stage skills. As the only speaker training and development community run by current high level speakers at the top of the field, they'll boost your probability of success and help you get there faster. That's why nearly every major speaker bureau endorses and actively participates in ImpactEleven.

The ImpactEleven community provides you unparalleled access to the people, relationships, coaching and accountability that compresses your time to success. To learn more about the ImpactEleven community, schedule a free strategy session today by visiting impacteleven.com/connect. That's ImpactE-L-E-V-E-N.com/connect.

Josh Linkner:

It's so good, man, and I'm so glad you said that. Just for those people listening, here on the surface I was saying he's covering a lot of different bases, but really you're not. I mean, really, you're very clear on that narrative. And I think that's one of the reasons, in addition, of course, to your own stunning performances, that you've been very successful because the market can understand that. And the way you just described it with a foundation of value and things that people really want, who doesn't crave better performance, who doesn't crave more of an entrepreneurial mindset. And so it's organized in a way that both is attractive to buyers and it's clear to buyers. So I really admire that.

Hey, so switching gears. You were born in Columbia and obviously have spoken all over the globe, you mentioned you started speaking in Columbia. For speakers without as much international experience as you, what should we know about or think about speaking in different countries and different cultures?

Felipe Gomez:

Yeah, great question too. I think it's a gift. It's a true gift to be able to speak in different countries and different cultures because even though there are differences, at the end you realize that we're all the same. We're all exactly the same. It doesn't matter if we're in China or in Japan or in Australia or in Spain or in Germany or in Colombia or in Peru or in the US. Wherever we are, deep inside we're the same. We might have different colors of skin. We might have different cultural customs. But at the end, we cut ourselves, our blood is red. We all have red blood. So it's really nice because you get to feel the differences and how those differences enriches. But at the same time, you discover we're exactly the same.

So I want to give you an example. Many people told me in my Virtuoso keynotes, there's a segment of the keynote where I invite the audience to sing. And it's always the same because people start singing very shy and they really don't like it and they're mad with me because I made them sing. But at the end of the keynote they're singing in ecstasy, they're absolutely happy singing, and the transformation is amazing. And many people told me, you cannot do that in Germany or you cannot do that in Norway.

I spoke last year in the Oslo Business Forum, which is a great conference, 5,000 people, amazing venue with the most amazing setup. And they told me, the Norway people, they're not going to sing, don't do it. And I really thought about it, but when I was there on the stage, I said, what the hell? I'm going to sing. I'm going to make them sing. And it was amazing. At the beginning it was very tough because they were really reluctant to hop on the game and making it happen. But at the end, seeing 5,000 people with their phones up with their lights on, singing on tune and in synchrony. And everybody came to me and said, how the hell did you make 4,000 Norwegians sing?

And it's the same in Norway and in Asia and in Latin America. So it's revealing because you learn a lot when you travel about the differences, but you also realize that those differences are completely superficial. Deep inside we're all the same. We're all people that love to be inspired with great ideas, want to be touched emotionally and want to feel the love of the person that is there on the stage giving their time and their talent to teach us something. And that's what I found. It doesn't matter where I speak, the message is universal, and the reaction and the gratitude of the audience is so overwhelming. But I can say with a lot of confidence that we are all exactly the same.

Josh Linkner:

I love that. I was expecting you to say, oh, well, you have to accommodate to various cultural differences and there's language barriers. I love that you focus on the things that are keeping us connected and in common rather than the things that make us different. What a brilliant way to frame that.

So, you, I believe, are a virtuoso, and that sounds almost like a smug term, like, oh, I'm embarrassed to be an artist or a virtuoso. I think someone who constantly works on their craft and has the right attitude and passion, obviously you have all of those. You are a virtuoso, my friend. And when you think about building your own art, I mean, to me, one thing about virtuosos is that they don't stand still. Sure, they continue to work on their technique, but they're always pushing the boundaries of their art. They're learning more. They're challenging themselves. They're discovering a new version. They're pushing the artistic boundaries.

And so now that you've had this success over 1,000 performances in 27 countries, how do you continue to reinvent yourself? How do you continue to raise the bar of your own virtuosity? How do you change the way you think and grow and learn to become an even better version of yourself?

Felipe Gomez:

So when I started doing Virtuoso, probably the first, I don't know, year or two years, it was a very standard presentation. And one day I thought, and I thought exactly what you're saying, I cannot be speaking about virtuosity and delivering the same thing over and over again. So I made a commitment that day, and I say every time I deliver this presentation I'm going to make something different. I'm going to try something new. I'm going to be experimenting all the time. And I've kept that promise for the past 10 or 11 years.

So every time I deliver Virtuoso so I change something, I add something, probably I remove something, probably I change something places. I say this before that. I try something new on the piano. I change the slides. I try to put an animation on the back, blurred. Very subtle and very little changes, but there are always changes. And I'm measuring from the stage, the response of the audience. And you can perfectly see when people connect and they're nodding and they're really interested and their phones are down, you can tell that worked. And I keep that, and then I improvise or try something different in another area or in another segment of the presentation.

But I'm always, every time I deliver the presentation I'm trying something new. It can be very subtle, like the position of the piano. Where do I put the piano on the stage? And I've tried everything. In the middle, on one side, on the other side, facing the audience. And now I perfectly know that the best way to position the piano is on the right side with the keys looking at the center of the stage, and that's the way I do it now all the time. But I'm experimenting with other things.

So it's a continuous journey of experimenting. I speak a lot about experimenting and innovating. So if I speak about innovating, I need to be innovating myself, otherwise I'm contradicting myself. Right? So it's just walking the talk, try to do what you are talking about.

Josh Linkner:

Well, I love that because first of all, I mean, virtuosity is certainly a mix of art and science, and you're applying art and you're trying to create new things, and you're also applying science, testing, measurement, refinement. And so that is very admirable.

Another thing that you really touched on this is that you're living your authentic self. You're not trying to be someone you're not. You're making sure that it's congruous, so that there's continuity between what you're saying and how you show up not just on that stage, but how you show up in the world. And it seems to me that you've done a very good job of integrating those two things. And when those are tight, when those are integrated and you're not putting on some, "Performance," but you're actually just showing up as yourself, the audience knows, and there's a-

Josh Linkner:

Showing up as yourself, the audience knows, and there's a resonance there, I believe, that transcends any performance trick that you can do on stage. Have you found that, and how do you think about incorporating more and more of yourself into your presentations as you continue to mature as an artist?

Felipe Gomez:

Absolutely. And I think the key there is to have your ears very open to what people tell you after the keynote. And one of the things that I always get back when I finish my keynote is people coming back to me and say, "What you told us is amazing, but what is truly amazing is that you reflect exactly what you're talking about." And I think that's what really makes it powerful, because I've seen many speakers that speak something, but they don't reflect it.

You don't feel a connection between what they're saying and what they're doing on the stage. And these are little subtle things that you have to learn how to do in a very habitus way, but it makes all the difference. And when people come back to me and tell me that, for me it's the best thermometer. For me, it's saying, it was really good. If I finish a keynote and people come here and say to me, "Oh, you're a great pianist.

Oh, I love the idea." But they don't tell me, "You really reflect what you spoke." For me, that's an alarm because that's something that I really want to hear every time. Because it means that I'm being coherent between what I think, what I say, what I do. And I think that is what truly makes a memorable and a high impact keynote. Someone that is completely blended into their story completely, in synchrony with what they're telling.

Josh Linkner:

That is such deep self-awareness and deep care for your audience. So you've talked a lot about how you're showing up. My last question for you in our conversation, I wish we could chat all day, my friend. But my last question is, you've talked a lot about what you're doing, how you're thinking about things. You're learning, you're growing, you're testing, you're measuring, you're tweaking.

When you're on that stage, how are you thinking about the audience? How do you anchor in this mindset of generosity and anchoring to knowing what does that audience need? Because we can agree, a great keynote is not about a speaker, it's about the audience. It's not about, look what I can do.

It's look what you can do. As you are preparing for virtuosity and of course showing up as a proper virtuoso, how do you also anchor your mind in what the audience might need?

Felipe Gomez:

Absolutely. I have this habit that just before stepping into a stage, I say to myself, "Okay, I'm speaking today to whatever, I'm speaking tomorrow to 700 people. If one of those 700 people, if I can touch the heart of one of those 700 people, for me it's a success." So before I just step into the audience, I just say, "Okay, I have 700 or 4,000 or 20." Because I also do very little, very intimate things and that's also very special.

"If one of these people, of these persons can actually get something, change a behavior, think different, because of what I told them. Because this is really what I want, because then your words had an impact." So whenever I am speaking on a stage, of course I have the view of whatever number of people I have in front of me, but I'm just thinking of that person that I'm going to touch.

And if I'm just gazing through the audience and I suddenly see a woman on my right, I say to myself, "Probably that's it. Probably that's her." And I look to her, into her eyes and I speak to her for a few seconds and then a little bit later, I turn to the man on the left. And I speak to him, looking into his eyes, and then I look to the lights.

But I'm always trying to think that I'm speaking to as if I was speaking to my best friend, having a cup of coffee. Making it one-to-one, even though it's one too many, imagining that I'm talking to a friend, to a person, to someone that I'm giving advice to. When I do it that way, it's very funny, but I'm able to connect with whatever number of people I have in front of me. And maybe if you focus on everybody, you're not speaking to anybody.

So you have to make it very personal and imagine. I might be on a stage with a spotlight on with a piano right there, 7,000 people in front of me. But what's going on in my mind, that I'm in this little tiny table having a glass of wine with a friend and I'm speaking to that friend. And that makes what I speak very personal to each one of the 2,700 or 7,000 people that I have there.

Everybody feels it like that. Every single person in the audience feels as if he or she's the one sitting in the little table, in the cozy bar by me, having a glass of wine, having a wonderful conversation with a piano right here on the side. So that's what I tried to do and that makes it very personal.

Josh Linkner:

Well, that's exactly what you've done with us today. We feel, all of us, listening today like that one person that you're speaking to, human to human, heart-to-heart. Thank you for your insights and deep thinking here. Thank you for making us all better. Thank you for your music and your virtuosity and your love, and wishing you, my friend, continued success. Felipe, thank you for joining me on Mic Drop.

Felipe Gomez:

No, Josh, thank you for everything you do with this podcast with ImpactEleven. As I told you once, ImpactEleven is the best thing that has happened to me as a speaker in my speaking life. I'm very happy being part of this community. And thank you for the opportunity for sharing this time in Mic Drop.

Josh Linkner:

Well, there you have it. A massive thank you to Felipe Gomez for sharing his insights with us today. I'm still buzzing from the nuggets of wisdom he dropped about keynote speaking, connecting with audiences, and the true essence of being a virtuoso. If today's episode doesn't light a fire in your belly to get out there and truly connect with your audience, well, I don't know what will.

My favorite parts of Felipe's message are all about connection. Number one, it's not just about what we say. It's about the way we transcend the distance from stage to audience. The passion, authenticity, and intention behind why we do what we do will always have a greater impact than the perfectly constructed story or five point plan. Number two, I'm blown away by Felipe's commitment to connecting with the one, the single individual who might benefit from his message.

When you're standing in front of a crowd of 5,000, it's easy to forget that even transforming one life for the better would make it all worthwhile. And number three, what a great definition of being a virtuoso Felipe has given us, where method, attitude, and passion meet. That's truly what it's all about. Thanks, Felipe, for giving us a peek behind the curtain of virtuosity, and thanks for helping us all elevate our own ability to create impact and move people to action.

Thanks so much for joining me on another episode of Mic Drop. Don't forget to subscribe on Apple, Spotify, Google Podcasts, or wherever you get your favorite shows. If you love the show, please share it with your friends and don't forget to give us a five star review. For show transcripts and show notes, visit micdroppodcast.com.

I'm your host, Josh Linkner. Thanks so much for listening, and here's to your next Mic Drop moment.