This was a week of many meetings and many conferences…from San Francisco to Santa Clara, Los Angeles to San Diego.

I saw 21 presenters – many of them great – and along the way, I met a lot of exceptional people.

On stage at the extraordinary Brendon Burchard event in Santa Clara, the one and only Rick Frishman moved about the platform with the kind of energy and intensity I’m quite certain most speaking “coaches” would have snuffed out. He was wired, fast talking, self-interrupting, hilarious and brilliant. He reminded me of a circus emcee, zipping from one side of the stage to the other, constantly in motion, keeping us all entertained and engaged with his gravelly upbeat voice, his non stop chatter, and his smart ideas.

My favorite moment by far was when he realized he was running out of time. He started moving quickly through his slide deck and then hesitated on a relatively complex slide.

“Ya see that?!” he called out to the audience, pointing at the slide. Everyone nodded. “Yes!” we all said.

“Well, now ya don’t!!!” Rick cackled and he clicked the slide away. 

The laughter that ensued was over the top. 

Rick’s delivery style was as festive as his content was smart. As he said himself, “You gotta have some fun.” Completely and utterly brilliant.

Brilliant as well, and in a totally different way was Darren Hardy who runs Success Magazine. His was a masterful, MASTERFUL, presentation. Beautifully crafted with a strong opening, a strong close, visually-rich slides, great humor, honest “reveals”, fabulous examples, and a profoundly important, society-challenging message. The full package. Go see Darren speak if you ever get the chance. He is a true pro.

And last that I have space to mention here was Lisa Nichols, whom I saw speak yesterday in San Diego at the Young Women’s Leadership conference sponsored by the Jenna Druck Foundation. Lisa had 250 young women, ages 11-18, calling out “Yes, YES!!!” for their dreams — “Yes, YES!!!” in affirmation for what they believe in, for who they are and for what they want in life.

Her bits were polished and beautifully crafted–some part-sermon, some part stand up comedy, some part storytelling–but she won my heart during her Q&A when for each question she was asked, she sincerely thought through her response. She paused, she considered, she decided to open up her soul–and what she said was utterly unexpected.

As she had told the girls earlier, “You can ask me anything…what did I say? Anything…ANYTHING…you want—on one condition: that you can handle the answer.”  

During the moments just after a question was asked, Lisa would be still. You could almost feel her searching her soul for the most honest response, and during those still moments, you could have heard a pin drop.

We knew from the type of pause and the way she hesitated that what she was about to say was not going to be a canned response. We knew it was fresh, for this time, this moment only. We knew it was special.

Lisa went to the edge with us as her audience and she let us right into the core of who she is–not who her persona is but who she is–and that… is something to behold.

One often sees false vulnerability on the platform. One often sees planned vulnerability.

But raw unexpected pure vulnerability?

That is a true gift to any audience.