Almost 18 months ago, Dave Luehr from Elite Body Shop Solutions made a declaration that to help as many people as he possibly could he needed to become the best communicator that he possibly could.
Who is the best speaker on the planet?
Dave asked his online business coach, Brendon Burchard, who he thought the best speaker on the planet is. Without skipping a beat, he replied Bo Eason. This name was vaguely familiar to Dave, so he went and looked him up and as it turns out, Bo Eason was a popular NFL Player. Bo, played for the Houston Oilers back in the 80’s. Dave proceeded to check out the videos of him online and discovered that after he was injured playing football, he went on to become a famous playwright and Broadway actor.
Bo wrote a play called “Runt of the Litter”, a semi-autobiographical account of his life. After touring with this show for over 20 years he started to hit the road as a public speaker telling his stories. Dave found himself in California, attending one of Bo’s workshops. He spent a day learning how to create better stories. The fastest way for people to get to know you is through stories but what Bo taught him was it isn’t always the stories you want to tell; it is usually the stories you don’t want to tell that make people relate to you.
While Dave was learning from the best speaking coach in the world, he was introduced to a guy name Jean Louis Rodrigue who is a Movement Director. Jean Louis has worked with some of the most famous actors and actresses in the world, teaching them how to move onscreen. These include Tobey Maguire, Leonardo DiCaprio & Margot Robbie.
Dave also found out that Jean Louis has been working with Austin Butler, the actor who plays Elvis in the newly released movie directed by Baz Luhrmann. Everyone in the Bo Eason community has been raving about this movie.
Jean Louis teaches actors to move, he teaches them to embody different wild animals and to embrace our predator nature. For years people have been taught that they cannot use their bodies to express themselves. They play it safe, for example some of the biggest guys on the planet walk around with their shoulders and head down to appear small. You see people on stage, hands crossed in front of them which signals they are trying to protect themselves. This is all instead of being the person they were meant to be, like a predator.
Jean Louis is Dave’s physicality coach, they are working on Dave’s storytelling, making them better because most of what you say is not in words that you use but how your body is. At the recent CARSTAR Conference, Dave gave a speech that he had been working on for a year and a gentleman who he knew quite well said “I knew your presentation was going to be awesome, just by the way you walked on stage.” Dave said that was the biggest compliment he could have ever been given. It was not the story, not the information he shared but because he didn’t betray his body on stage.
When you can do that, when you learn to do it correctly, like Jean Louis teaches, people will not be able to take their eyes off you. It is like watching a Cheetah move back and forth on the stage. Public speaking is one of the most fearful things – it is more frightful to most people than dying – people would rather be the guy in the box than the one giving the eulogy!
Do you feel there is anything you can do to become a better communicator?