The unfortunate consequences of using marketing speak and saying words you don’t truly believe in.

Watch Michael Bay’s appearance here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23ypkgYO4Rc

Read more thoughts on the art of communicating week-daily at https://michaelgerharz.com/blog

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A couple of years back, director Michael Bay had

one of the most devastating performances on a big stage ever.

In a Samsung press conference, he totally lost it.

It was heartbreaking to watch.

He lost it so thoroughly that his lizard brain kicked in with a flight reaction.

He literally fled the stage after about a minute into his appearance.

What had happened?

Bay was supposed to endorse Samsung's new curved TV sets.

Apparently, he had been instructed to just read the text from the teleprompter.

But he missed a line.

So he got off script and tried to improvise.

But he totally failed to do so which made him feel so embarrassed that his

lizard brain commanded him to hide from further embarrassment and leave the stage.

Looking at the scene once again, it makes sense.

Bay was trying to act as if he cared for the TV sets saying words he didn't believe

in on a cause he didn't believe in.

He really didn't care.

It wasn't his words.

It was the marketing departments words.

It wasn't his cause.

It was Samsung’s.

And that's why he really couldn't improvise.

Since he had nothing to say, he didn't know how to say it.

Well, while that's certainly an extreme example, it's a similar pattern that

we can observe with lots of leaders who feel uncomfortable on a big stage.

It's when they have to say words that someone told them sound good rather than

say words that truly matter to them.

The Bay effect is what happens when you try to use marketing speak that

makes things sound cool rather than speak about the things that actually

are cool in words that are truly yours

. Once I change this for my clients, time

they start to feel comfortable speaking about the things that matter to them in

front of even the largest of audiences.