11 March 2015. Geneva, Switzerland
I looked out over the empty row of seats. The lights were down, and the title of my presentation displayed on the screen in big, bold, blue letters, “The Humor Mindset.”
I had just finished a technical run through for a talk I was giving tomorrow, as part of an internal TEDx event at Procter & Gamble in Geneva.
Meeting the Speakers (Round 1)
I started to walk off stage, and handed the clicker to Kevin, the next presenter doing their walk-through.
Kevin and I chatted as the tech people swapped out presentations and had a couple of laughs. He found out that I did stand up and improv comedy, and said, “Oh, I could never do that. It’s so nerve wracking.”
“It’s something you get used to once you do it a lot,” I responded and didn’t think anything of it. We finished our conversation, and I headed towards the back of the room as Kevin started to click through his slides, getting used to the microphone.
On my way back, I ran into Luvuyo, another speaker on the event the next day. We chatted about our excitement for the talks and how we were happy to have arrived traveling in from far distances.
I headed to the back of the room, where I chatted with Derek, another speaker, one who I had shared the car ride over from the hotel. I remember when we had gotten to the office, we had to go down one floor and could either take a flight of stairs or an elevator.
Derek had a small carry on with him, so I had joked that with him and his suitcase, we’d better take the elevator rather than the stairs.
All normal conversation among speakers before a big event.
Meeting the Speakers (Round 2)
Later that evening I returned to my hotel room. I wanted to run through my presentation a few more times before heading off to dreamland. But before the rehearsing I decided to do a quick check on emails from the day.
The email sitting atop my inbox was from Gaby, one of the organizers of the event. It included the list of speakers and their bios. As I read through each one, I thought back to my encounters that day.
Kevin Richardson
Kevin, who I had talked to after my tech rehearsal, was Kevin Richardson, also known as the Lion Whisperer. If you’ve ever seen the video of the man getting hugged by the lion, that’s Kevin Richardson. He helps raise lions starting while they’re young and they treat him as one of the pride.
I thought back to our conversation, about how he said stand up and improv comedy was scary. I thought to myself, “This is coming from a guy who lives with lions.”
Luvoyo Mandela
Luvuyo, who I had talked to on my way back, was Luvuyo Mandela, of the Mandela family, the great grandson of Nelson Mandela.
He’s working to develop responsible, manageable and sustainable interventions to enhance corporate social responsibility solutions (among many other incredible things) in South Africa.
The man who I had joked with about traveling a far distance had come nearly twice as far as me and was a Mandela (South Africa’s version of the Kennedys).
Derek Redmond
Derek, the one who I had ridden over with and had joked probably needed to take the elevator because he had a bag, was Derek Redmond, former Olympic athlete.
Specifically he’s the Olympian who pulled his hamstring in the 1992 Olympics in the middle of a race. And, if you’ve seen the video, you know that he gets up to finish the race on one good leg and his dad comes down to help him across the finish line.
He’s since gone on to play for the international basketball team for Great Britain, win Celebrity Gladiators, and more.
Meeting Them As Humans
I sat in my hotel room, surprised and humbled. Here I was, just a guy from Ohio, talking about humor, sharing the stage with the Lion Whisperer, political royalty, and an Olympic athlete.
First, I thought, “Wow. I’m really happy that I met them first, before reading about who they were, because I had a chance to treat them like actual people, like they actually are. We joked, I wasn’t in my head about what I was going to say, and we connected as humans.”
My second thought was, “I wonder how much of an idiot they think that I am. I had ‘re-assured’ Kevin that stand-up isn’t that scary. I had talked with Luvuyo about having a long flight. And I had joked with Derek about not being physically able to take a flight of stairs.”
The next day we had a phenomenal event. All of the speakers (not just those listed here) had incredible stories to share. I mentioned at dinner how I was happy that I met everyone before I saw their bios, so I could meet them as people and not as their resumes, and they agreed. We shared recaps of our day and what we had learned. Then we all ate fondue.
