This one usually surprises people.
I’ll be talking to someone who’s about to present to a senior leadership team or a room full of executives, and they’ll say something like:
“I just need to make sure this lands. Corporate audiences are tough.”
And I’ll often say, “Honestly, they’re not.”
In many ways, corporate audiences are much easier than school kids.
Kids are brutally honest with their attention
When you stand in front of a room full of kids, there’s nowhere to hide.
If you’re boring, they let you know immediately.
They fidget.
They whisper.
They switch off.
They wriggle around thinking, “Please stop talking.”
There’s no polite nodding.
No pretending to listen.
No performance of interest.
Which means if you can hold the attention of children, you’ve already learned some of the hardest skills in communication.
You’ve learned how to use:
- Emotion
- Contrast
- Energy
- Story
- Change of pace
Not because it’s “nice”, but because it’s necessary.
Adults are trained to fake it
Adults are different.
We’ve been conditioned over years and years to look like we’re listening.
We nod.
We keep eye contact.
We take notes.
We stay quiet.
Even when we’re completely somewhere else.
That’s why corporate rooms can feel deceptively calm while attention slowly leaks out of the walls.
And it’s why so many speakers misread what’s actually happening.
They assume seriousness equals engagement.
It doesn’t.
The mistake people make when they “go corporate”
This came up really clearly in the follow-up call.
There’s often this belief that once you move into corporate environments, you need to change how you speak.
Tone down the energy.
Strip out the emotion.
Be more serious.
Be more professional.
I used to believe this myself.
I came from an outdoor guiding background. Dreadlocks, facial piercings, tattoos everywhere.
When I moved into corporate work, I cut the dreadlocks off, took the piercings out, put on a suit, and thought, “Right. Now I need to speak differently.”
Looking back, the biggest lesson I learned was this:
The only real difference between adults and children is how politely they pretend.
Adults are just as human.
Just as emotional.
Just as distracted.
Just as entertained by story.
They just hide it better.
Presence is about engagement, not seriousness
When people struggle with presence in corporate settings, it’s rarely because they’re too relaxed or too human.
It’s usually because they’ve flattened themselves out.
They’ve removed:
- The emotional highs and lows
- The pauses
- The contrast
- The sense of play
In an effort to sound credible, they become forgettable.
The irony is that the very skills you develop speaking to children are the same ones that create presence with executives.
Clarity.
Energy.
Emotional awareness.
Intentional delivery.
Presence does not come from being more formal.
It comes from being more engaging.
What this teaches us about presence
Presence is not about dumbing things down.
It’s about waking people up.
If your message works with kids, it already works with adults. You just need to translate the context, not dilute the delivery.
Adults do not need less humanity.
They need more of it, delivered with intention.
So if you’ve ever felt like you needed to become someone else to speak in corporate rooms, this is your permission not to.
Keep the stories.
Keep the contrast.
Keep the energy.
Just aim it properly.
Want to go deeper?
If this struck a chord, there are two good ways to build this skill further.
If you want a low-pressure way to understand how attention, presence, and delivery actually work, check out my free webinar. It breaks down why people switch off and how to keep them with you, without trying to be someone you’re not.
If you want hands-on practice, real feedback, and a full day of building presence through storytelling and delivery, take a look at the public StorySelling workshop.
Same principles.
Different depth.
