It’s been an interesting few weeks culturally. I saw Madame Butterfly last week and this week heavy metal band Metallica. Yahooo! Hey, I might not be very religious, but I do have catholic tastes when it comes to music.
As I stayed quiet for Madam Butterfly and behaved like an aging rocker at Metallica I pondered the lessons inspirational, humorous, and motivational, business keynote speakers – Irish or not, might learn from both performances. (The references to motivational, humorous, Irish, Inspirational business keynote speakers are a gratuitous effort to gain search engine attention). Anyway, back to the lessons!
Did the performances have much in common? Well you felt exhausted after Metallica’s non-stop hard-driving performance while you slept (just a little) during Madame Butterfly. I don’t know what real opera buffs think but the length of some of the scenes in Butterfly was a weakness. It sometimes took too much time to get to the point which is a regular failure for keynote speakers – inspirational or not.
On the other hand Metallica were in your face all the time, rarely pausing for breath which is great for that audience. If there was one minor weakness in the performance of the heavy metal icons it was they operated at two speeds – fast and very fast. Keynote speakers who do not vary their performance, pacing, voice projection will lose their audience very fast.
Metallica and Butterfly both provided awesome music. OK, I know some of you might not have that opinion of … of Madame Butterfly. Metallica and Madame Butterfly have great longevity and status because they make a connection with their respective audiences – something that is critical for a motivational keynote speaker.
The world’s best selling heavy metal band provided another crucial lesson to the budding keynote speaker irrespective if she is an expert on foodservice, humor, inspirational, cancer – whatever. The band really "turned up." Once on stage, they performed like their lives depended on it making good visual contact with all sides of the arena as they pranced around the stage located in the center of the arena.
Many motivational keynote speakers rarely change their material and rehash the same material over and over. Metallica did play some really good old material but the bulk of the show was comprised with songs from their latest and really powerful CD Death Magnetic. The lesson for the up and coming and even seasoned inspirational keynote speaker – Keep creating new material and new products. You’ll stay relevant longer and people will come back again and again. Metallica have been playing Chicago since 1983. Long may it continue.
And in an effort to come up with a really snappy end line, I’d have to say Metallica Rocks, Madame Butterfly Flutters. As Metallica fans will know ‘And nothing else matters.’
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