The Praise from a Child–nothing beats it!

Foreword: Make sure you don’t miss my free Road Show celebrating the premiere of my new book, The Brander-In-Chief – Wednesday, November 12^th at 3 p.m.

 

I was raised to be a performer. I was the kid that my parents would pull out of the closet (metaphor here) during dinner parties to entertain the adults for about ten minutes and then they would put me back. They programmed me to seek applause and affirmation and it turned out this programming was really a great gift. It helps me today to educate and engage business leaders.

 

Before my marketing career really took off, I was doing a lot of performing: cruise ships, summer music theater, and a local dinner theater for three years. People only knew me as a performer. During these early years my son Alex was very young and he would go to my shows. When I received his praise it meant the world to me. He thought I was cool!

 

Last Saturday I volunteered to perform in a fundraiser to help a local historic theater. A 16 piece jazz orchestra backed me up. Now to a singer that’s like a pilot climbing in the cockpit of a 747! The theater was sold out with one thousand packing the seats. I love applause, it’s what fuels performing, but on this particular night I wasn’t performing for 997 of them. I had three other audience members I was performing for: Danica, my wife, along with Alex, now 12, and sitting between them was my five year old, Alina, who had never seen daddy perform.

 

I sang the Beatles tune, Gotta Get You Into My Life. My wife told me at the end of my song my five year old stood up and yelled, “My Daddy ROCKS!” The reaction I received from my kids after the show was one of the greatest feelings in the world.

 

I think it’s important to expose our kids to what we do. I know that my story may be extreme with performing in a venue such as the historic Meyer Theater in downtown Green Bay, but we all have talents that sometimes we may hide from our kids. They are more interested than you realize about what their parents can do. Quite frankly, before they turn 9 we can’t do anything wrong and by the time they’re 12 we can’t do anything right!

 

If you have kids you know what I’m saying! The point to this Wisdom is when we share our passions with others, whether they be family or co-workers, we reveal a side of us that is truly authentic and admirable. People connect with you. After all, isn’t life all about making connections? It’s proven that the happiest people in the world are those with close relationships in their lives. It’s time to show off a little and let the world embrace you!

 

Joe Kiedinger

 

ACTION PLAN: Surprise somebody this week by sharing one of your passions with them. It could be a collection you have or some other interest! The realer the better!