Springsteen, the jumbotron and you...

So I'm at my first (ever) Springsteen concert over the weekend. An intimate gathering with 40,000 of my closest friends at Nats Park here in DC.

• Three hours and 27 minutes into the show, I can't stop thinking about one thing.

The guy is 74 years old.

And he is playing song after song of a 30-song set. With no breaks.

• One brief story about being asked by George Theiss to join a band in 1965 named The Castiles (yes, the band was named after a shampoo brand that Theiss was using at the time).

But Bruce quickly gets back to the music with his E Street brethren...

As he nears 55 years of performing with his "current" band, Bruce has a number of important lessons for us as presenters.

• Allow me to mention just one in this version of The Sip...and it has to do with height.

Setting Bruce's incredible fretwork and crowd involvement aside for just a second, I'm reminded of a coaching session I did on Zoom a few months back.

The client was prepping for her first briefing with her Board of Directors. In an effort to "build her up," I told her that she needs to go into the boardroom on the day of the meeting and take up all of the space she is entitled to.

• "Teresa," I said, "if you are 5 feet 6 inches tall, I want you to be 5 feet 7 inches in the meeting. Stand up tall and deliver your message."
• She began to grimace on the Zoom screen: "Lane, I'm only 5 feet tall."

In all fairness, she was sitting down for our virtual coaching session: )

I quickly pivoted, "but Teresa, you are really compelling when you talk about this material, and you are so put together. The clothes, the hair, the face, you are going to nail this talk. All 5 feet one inches of you!"

So as Bruce continued on with the seventh song of his encore, I couldn't help but notice that this 5 feet 10 inch giant of rock n roll was larger than life. Yes the 40-foot Jumbotron helped, but his conviction in what he was singing made him every bit of 6 feet tall.

The Takeaway: When giving your next talk, be one inch taller. You've earned the right to take up all of the space that you need.