I remember attending a live concert with my two adult son's last year. Now, you need to understand, I am not of the crowd surfing, head banging, mosh pit generation… so I positioned myself in the balcony area… the safe zone, looking down on the crowded floor.

This venue was ideal for a crowd of about 500. It was once an old riverside warehouse in Shreveport Louisiana, that had been converted into an outstanding venue for music concerts… with fantastic acoustics.

And, because I enjoy observing people interacting, I began to observe the crowd milling below, waiting for the main act to come on stage.

You have to understand this set up… the stage is right there… only a matter of a couple feet off the floor and the band plays less than two feet from the front of the crowd. They are practically part of the crowd.
From where I stood… in the balcony, I had an outstanding view of what was to come.
Watching people coming in, the crowd building… suddenly I felt, more than saw, a little surge of energy make its way through the crowd and I saw the road crew made sure the instruments were all tuned and positioned right… doing the sound checks, again… and then again, and suddenly that little ripple of energy that was in the running in and out of the crowd below me surged… and almost as one, they began to move forward, packing in towards the stage.

Then I noticed more people joining the already full crowd, coming from the sidelines.
The energy was growing… anticipation… expectation…
Then, from the back right side of the stage, four musicians walked out and the place went wild. For the next 2 hours, we were completely entertained by an authentic rock band with a gritty sound mixed with a dose of serious heavy rock and a dash of blues.

I was captivated. It was compelling.

I couldn’t stop myself from watching and becoming caught up in the infectious atmosphere of anticipation and expectation which was fully supported by the raw, talented authenticity of a skilled band… masters of their platform…. of their craft. It was compelling to watch.

Standing there, in that balcony of that old riverside warehouse watching this very talented band completely and unashamedly entertain this audience of ‘believers’ with their message, their sound, their performance… I had a epiphany…
I was watching platform masters!
These musicians performing that night were the equivalent of Tony Robbins, Brain Tracy, Les Brown, Deepak Chopra, John Maxwell, Tim Ferris, Brendon Burchard, Malcolm Gladwell and Eckhart Tolle… just to name a few of the platform masters of our era.
So, today I am starting a conversation on the fourth constant factor of platform mastery… and I owe it all to a rock band named Candlebox.
Today, we start a conversation on how to be a compelling platform master.
A speaker who is compelling understands the essentially of anticipation and expectation. They know they are unashamedly committed to bringing their message to their audience in an entertaining and authentic way.

The essential point is, if you are not prepared to walk on to that stage and be a compelling speaker, then why are you even turning up?

You don’t need a mosh pit, or a surging crowd. You just need to know how to use anticipation, expectation, entertainment, and authenticity and over the next four episodes, I’m going to give you the tools to do it.
One of the key lessons I learned from watching Candlebox was the essentially of the opening.
Their opening was simple. It wasn’t complicated. It was real. It was easy to see exactly what they were about. The anticipation was being served. The expectation was being met.  While simple,