"Must've been a good speech!"

If you've read Michelle Obama's memoir Becoming, you'll recognize those words which became her refrain. She explained that this refrain was something of an ironic inside joke between her and her husband following his electrifying 17 minute Keynote address at the 2004 Democratic National Convention (DNC).

Barack Obama, then a humble state legislator, her words, completely electrified the crowd, and in so doing garnered immediate descriptions in the media like "I've just seen the first black president." , "Phenom", "overnight success" and "rock star". He wasn't even the Senator from Illinois yet! His performance set off interviews and floods of people asking and wondering whether he would run.

Would he have become the US President in 2008 without that speech in 2004? We'll never know. But what we know for certain is that speaking compellingly in front of an audience is a skill worth honing. This holds for audiences of one, one hundred or one hundred thousand.

What you know counts.

Who you know counts too.

But how you let them know what you know, that's PRESENCE.

Could your next speech be your defining speech?