“Bruce Springsteen says that he knows he's written a good pop song when he can hear 55,000 people singing it back to him. As leaders, we need to hold ourselves to that kind of a standard when it comes to communicating with our audience. Can they sing it back to you?”

-Andy Freed, CEO, Virtual, Inc.

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In this episode of 5 Minutes with Andy, Andy Freed, CEO of Virtual, Inc., shares leadership and communication insights inspired by none other than "The Boss" himself—Bruce Springsteen. Drawing from his experiences as a dedicated Springsteen fan, Andy highlights valuable lessons that leaders can learn from the legendary performer’s ability to connect with his audience.

Andy discusses:

• The importance of storytelling and why great leaders, like great musicians, must tell stories that others can retell.
• Why repetition and clarity are essential in making messages resonate.
• Rehearsal as key to communicating effectively.
• How enthusiasm drives engagement, and why leaders must bring energy to their message, no matter how many times they’ve delivered it.

Tune in to discover how you can apply these rockstar-inspired communication lessons to your leadership style, making your message unforgettable—every time.

Andy Freed (00:12 – 04:53)

Hi and welcome to Five Minutes with Andy. My name is Andy Freed. I'm the CEO of Virtual Incorporated. For the last 25 years, Virtual has helped associations, consortia, and standards bodies as they form, change, and grow. And in this podcast, I'm going to share a little bit of my observations from doing so over the years. Today we're not going to talk about what I've been doing at work at Virtual. We're going to be talking about something that I do a lot of when I'm not sitting around the office.

And that is I am one of these people that is this close to just selling all of my possessions and following Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band all around the world. And the reality is I have seen Bruce Springsteen more times than years I've been alive. And I go to the shows for a lot of different reasons. I go certainly to find myself in his music. I go to lose myself in the moment. But I also go to those shows at times to learn. And I'm amazed by how many things I've learned from watching the way that Bruce does a show and watching the way that he connects to this audience. And there's a few things that I think anyone can take away from one of these and watching these concerts.

The first is storytelling. Bruce is an absolute master of telling stories. He tells these stories in his lyrics, in songs like The River. He tells these stories sometimes just to the audience in talking about his past, talking about his childhood. In his tour right now, he tells a phenomenal story about the first rock band he ever joined with George Theiss and how he feels now with George's passing that he is now the last man alive from that first band.

Story telling is so important because I've heard those stories a few times in concerts, and I can retell them. As leaders, we need to make sure that our stories are good enough that somebody can retell them over and over again. And that's another thing that Bruce does well - he understands the importance of repeating a chorus. So, all of his songs have a chorus or a hook that you can also singback to him. And he says that he knows he's written a good [pop] song when he can hear 55,000 people singing it back to him. As leaders, we need to hold ourselves to that kind of a standard when it comes to communicating with our audience. Can they sing it back to you?

The last piece that I'll say I've taken away from these shows, well, there's two of them. One is he practices. And so many of the things that you see in a show happen not by chance but happen because they're well-rehearsed and they're well thought out. And thinking about these things and practicing a presentation before you make it, practicing a meeting before you make it, thinking about what the outcome should be, is something we can all do better as leaders.

Lastly is enthusiasm. Bruce is always the pinnacle of enthusiasm in every show that he's part of. As leaders, we need to be that pinnacle of enthusiasm of everything that we do. We can't expect our audience to be more excited about our message than we are ourselves. That's something which Bruce embodies everyday by bringing the energy and bringing it to him. If you think of how many times he's had to sing Born to Run, thousands and thousands of times, and yet he brings the energy every time because somebody in that audience is hearing it for the very first time. That's something we need to think about as leaders. No matter how many times you've said it, no matter how many times we've done it, can we deliver something the same way and with that same enthusiasm?

So, in the spirit of that lesson of repeating the chorus, let's go back over those four lessons again. The first one, tell a story. The importance of storytelling. And there's another podcast I've got out on that that I encourage you to check out. Repeat the chorus. Even if you think you've heard it before, your audience hasn't heard it enough. It's important to go back to it. Rehearse. Practice makes perfect. Practice is so important. And lastly, enthusiasm. You need to be the pinnacle of enthusiasm for your message.

So, that's some thoughts from how I spend my off time because after all, I might be the CEO, but Bruce is “The Boss.” Thanks for joining me. Talk again soon.

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