The same evening I was travelling to Minnesota to address a group of conference attendees, my buddy from the twin cities was flying into Denver to speak at a conference at the Denver convention center.  We both have leadership keynotes that are funny, engaging and transforming so we joked that we should be each other the next morning and stay in our hometowns.

Half serious, we realized our mug shots were too different, (my buddy has hair) and best we haul our bags through security and high five somewhere over Nebraska at 32,000 ft. The more we talked about it, (I tell my friends I’m a professional traveler who happens to speak to large groups of people) we realized that most of our business was out of state.  You come in on a plane and low and behold, you must be impressive.

As a Colorado keynote speaker who has had speeches in all 50 states, we’re going to work on a solution to this situation.  As I head to the airport tomorrow, I’ll be thinking of all the speakers coming to Colorado, (there must be dozens) and wonder who’s coming here from Washington D.C., and does that dude look at all like me?

I look at it that we all are pretty darn awesome, we’ve been conditioned to hold back, judge others (ourselves primarily) and then separate ourselves from others not because of our differences, but because of the judgments we have.

I love that kids get it.

I had a job in Toronto a few months back and visited some schools before a conference I was speaking at.  In one 3^rd grade classroom (28 kids) I visited, there were 18 different nationalities.  A kid from Somalia, a girl from Japan, two from Yemen.  There was an Egyptian, Ethiopian, Chinese, Korea, and on.  Diversity was the norm in that school, there was so much to learn from one another.  What a cultural rich place, all the languages, the customs, the traditions, all working together.  You should have seen the kids at play on the playground; I wish our world leaders could’ve seen those kids on that playground.

Until next time,

Craig

All of a sudden I feel like time slows down a bit.  The snow, the cold, the slowness of winter.  The meeting planner, someone that within 60 seconds you’ve got them pegged….genuine.  The audience, taking their time to sit down, enjoying the conversation with a friend, no need for the double shot, latte vintee with caramel…just the regular Ramkota black, right from the large silver bin.  Mostly Farmers and Ranchers, with calluses that go back decades.  Faces looking relaxed, quite a contrast from the real estate group from Chicago.

There wasn’t a frenzy of posturing, they were polite, but not so to look good or in a people pleasing way, polite because that’s what seems normal.  But most of all there was such a sense of humbleness, not in a shy introverted way, in a way that seemed to say, we’re all in this together, life is about helping others, working hard, and appreciating each day.  Last night I had a chance to hear some stories from a handful of ranchers about life, about love, about loss.  Today I looked out in the audience and only wished I could hear all the other stories, from all 300 of them.

Maybe next time.