Two Halfs Of Moving People (ie Quit It!)

Jerry Seinfeld said that all he would want from a psychiatrist is for someone to just tell him to “quit it!” When he was feeling sad or wallowing in his own stuff… he just needed to stop. He’s very resilient and audiences are usually too. When we have a group of people that need to move to the next thing, get in a positive space, pay attention, understand the amazingness of a situation, or whatever; sometimes they just need a quick “quit it!”

It can be a simple sentence that sets a swarm of people on the right track, or it may be a little diatribe.

I was backstage at a show where the host was just miserable. I don’t know if he felt bad about his performance, but it was such a drag. Just like a psychiatrist who cares… just like a friend… I said, “What are you doing up there!? C’mon!” he said, “The audience is just low energy!” I said, “so fix it!”

The power of a host is to change the context. The opportunity of the host is to have downtime to go backstage and reevaluate what’s happening and fix it next time on stage.

He did fix it.

The Two Halves

When we’re guiding a group correctly, we have to get both halves of the process. He got half of it by himself – he empathized.

The other half is to lead them. With my rude nudging (I didn’t want him to introduce me to a cold crowd) he got the second half right too.

If we just do the second half it doesn’t work either, because we just get more distant from them. We force energy and we just become the crazy person in the room. The audience just watches. They don’t join the journey.

Written for folks who want to attract and energize groups

Scot Nery is an emcee who has helped some of the biggest companies in the world achieve entertainment success. He's on an infinite misson to figure out what draws people in and engages them with powerful moments.

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