At last, I met the Remarkable Ron Kaufman who writes, trains, speaks and consults on his area of expertise – customer service. I heard a lot about him from my friends in Unilever but I never had the chance to be in one of his sessions during my time with the company. Since 2002, I have always wanted to see him in action. I wanted to experience his infusion of magic. My dream became a reality yesterday at the Service Leadership Workshop.
Before I talk about his speaking skills which are remarkable, I would like to share with you this little story. Before the event started, I approached Ron and told him: Ron, I have been waiting for years to meet with you. I am so excited to be here. Ron surprised me by saying: “Come here, let me give you a hug!” Then he added: “Why don’t we take a picture together.” And sure we did. And here is one of the pictures we took after the event ended.
Now, I’m not telling you this little story for the sake of showing you the picture but rather I wanted to show you how Ron hit many birds with one hug! First, he established a connection with me when he knew about my desire to meet with him for a long time. Second, I am sure the delegates who saw the hug were surprised too. They must have thought: “This speaker is hugging people; we have never seen anyone do this before. What else would he do today?” Thirdly, he demonstrated to us he is a speaker who can add value by simply having a small encounter with you. We took the pictures using my friend’s iPhone. The moment, we finished taking the pictures, he shared with us two quick tricks. We thought: This is great, what could we learn from him during the day!
Then, I was disappointed. Ron began his workshop by saying: “Good morning.” I thought this cannot be happening. How can you start with good morning! You should start with a big bang. You should capture our attention. In his language, that was criminal. In a few seconds, I was relieved because he added: “This is not the official opening. I would like to introduce my introducer because the introducer often goes without any recognition or appreciation for their hard work.” Like everyone else, I was taken by surprise. This was the first time I witness the speaker introducing his or her introducer. This was different and created a high level of energy among the hundreds of delegates attending the workshop.
When Ron took center stage officially, he shared with us his passion of creating a world where everyone is educated and inspired to excel in service. His passion about the subject was clear during the entire workshop. This has validated my belief of speaking about subjects that I am passionate about. If you speak, speak with passion or else you will not add value to your audience because it will be clear through your voice tone, body language and your level of energy. If it is boring for you, it will bore them too!
An expert speaker like Ron knows how the different seating arrangements impact the audience. Since he was planning to sprinkle the hall with high energy and excitement; he managed to move the audience to the empty seats in a clever manner unlike other speakers who would order or beg the audience to move to the front. Here is what he did. He asked the audience few questions about traveling by airplanes and then he asked them: If you are traveling on economy class and you are offered an upgrade to business class, would you accept the offer? The audience shouted: Yes. This is when he retorted: Great. Come forward we have empty business class seats. The audience laughed and moved forward to occupy the empty seats.
Ron had the audience move forward not only managing the energy levels but also to accomplish something else. He wanted to fill the seats because he was planning to have the audience discuss and reflect on his questions and case studies in groups of two or three at most. These brief discussions kept us engaged and excited during the entire workshop. He provided us with ample opportunities to exchange ideas and to make notes for our future use and reference.
I could go on indefinitely writing about Remarkable Ron; perhaps about his fascinating stories, fabulous impersonations of his stories’ characters, his crazy gestures, body language or voice tone. However, I will write about the one thing most speakers forget when they speak: Connecting with the audience. During the workshop, one delegate went on the stage and presented Ron with a Bahrain flag pin and asked him if he could wear it. Ron pinned it to his suit without any hesitation and commented: “Now, I feel I am more connected to you.” The audience clapped profusely. Ron you will forever be remembered by the delegates because you were unbelievably Remarkable.