Channel Your Inner Jimmy Kimmel

He is my audience engagement and speaker hero and I simply adore him! So, when I watched his 13-minute monologue last night about his newborn son Billy, who was born with heart disease, Jimmy Kimmel took engagement to whole new level.

Jimmy Kimmel – you are a beautiful man! I am so happy to know that your Billy is doing well and will be OK.

Even in the most trying of times, Jimmy Kimmel stays true to his incredible gift of engaging an audience. He is completely vulnerable, he thanks everyone who helped save Billy’s life at Cedars-Sinai Hospital and Children’s Hospital Los Angeles. He thanks his show staff, ABC and his family. No one gets missed.  You feel his heart and you can picture him asking the hospital staff for their names and letting them know they matter, even in the critical moment his son was facing.  He made us all feel better by cracking jokes and letting us know ahead of time there was a happy ending. I’m sure there were even jokes in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Thank you Jimmy Kimmel for being so human.

Whether you are speaking to an audience of 1 or 100 – think of Jimmy Kimmel and engage them the way he would. Audiences are everywhere. Whether it’s a hospital staff audience or a television audience, every audience matters.  We may not have the impeccable comedic timing Jimmy Kimmel has, but we all have a heart. Use it when you speak.