The Most Powerful Tool on the Internet
Buried under the apps and the software services, hidden behind the glossy sales pitches and the Insta photos, often lost in the clickbait and the shiny headlines, is the one the tool that can truly make a difference in this wild thing we call the Internet:
Our voice.
We don’t hear enough about that, because it’s not very sexy on the surface. But dig deep and look a little harder, and there can be no more important thing for our journey as entrpreneurs, business people, and most importantly, humans.
But what is our voice and how do we get people to hear it?
That’s what the entirety of this whole blog (and Moment Film Co as a whole) is about: helping people and companies find their voice and project it to the world. It’s about standing up and telling your story.
Because you story is your voice. Your perspective is your voice. What you have to offer is your voice. And the only way that voice gets stronger is to tell it again, and again, and again.
A lot of really good marketers talk about story all the time: Gary Vee, Seth Godin, Jeff Walker, the list goes on and on. But the one thing we don’t talk enough about is ‘the voice’ itself, and how to shape that.
What is ‘voice’ exactly? It’s your unique point of view. Yes, it’s your own story. But it’s also the poetry of how you say it. The ability to connect with others. The magic of presentation.
I remember one of my first speaking gigs for my start-up RadicalMail in front of about 300 investors at a Boston Incubator event. What my company did was very cool, especially at the time: we had a cloud based software platform that allowed people to build their own RadicalMails, which were basically emails supercharged with movies and ecommerce capabilities. It was alot like SquareSpace or MailChimp today, but years earlier.
So I decided during my 8 minute talk I would build a RadicalMail, then send it to myself and open it up in my inbox and play it. I practiced, and practiced, and practiced, and really dialed the whole thing in. My voice was feeling pretty strong. I had a very unique thing to present to the world.
But a funny thing happened 5 minutes before I was supposed to go on. The Internet went down. Which meant I was SOL. The clock ticked and people scrambled to figure out what was up, and I immediatly shifted gears to a Powerpoint presentation I had as back-up. But the damage was done. My voice started to shrink, panic set in, I hyperventilated. “Is this how it’s all going to end?” I asked myself. In some grey convention room in Boston?
The light went on and I walked out onto stage. My computer was sitting there on the podium. There wasn’t a sound in the room. And the timer started.
8 minutes. Then 7:59… 7:58…
I froze. Someone in the audience coughed. I heard some whispering. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw the tech guy. He was giving me the thumbs up.
When I hit ‘start’, my RadicalMail Builder came up beautifully. I stammered at first, but then went back to everything I had practiced, every moment I had spent pacing back and forth in the hotel room. My voice returned.
It wasn’t absolutely perfect, but it did work. When it was over, people clapped (maybe politely). I remember walking off stage thanking every God I had met along the way.
So the question is: do you have a voice? Does your company? Is there a stake in the ground that is most definitely yours, and would you go to the mat protecting it? Even if the Internet went out?
If you’re unsure about that answer, there’s some work to do (there always is). One of the best things you can do though is start sharing your voice, with whoever will listen. Because your voice is the most powerful tool on the Internet. Bar none.
Maybe start today.
