As a DJ for hire, I played around a hundred gigs a year for more than a decade. Most of these were weddings. All of these events involved someone speaking in some form or another. It was easy to know a lot about a family organization or group, not just by the music they liked dancing to but by how they approached their speeches.

Some tended to read. CEO’s at corporate events did this most of the time. These readings though thorough, accurate and steady tended to lack warmth, emotional range and connection to the audience. They were more fact broadcasts than connections with humans.

This cool, correct certainty wasn’t limited merely to the C-Suite people. At a gig the week after our daughter was born, an engineer speaking at his daughter’s wedding shocked me. I had just witnessed the miracle of birth. Everything about being a dad for me touched the softest parts of me. This dude? He was different.

His speech read like his daughter and new son in law’s CV’s. He listed their accomplishments…