I Spent 20 Years Building This Keynote. TEDx Gave Me 18 Minutes.

Can you read a stranger in six seconds?

I’ve been teaching people to Think Like A Magician since 2002. In 2005 I began presenting Personality Magic, a keynote about reading people and communicating with greater awareness.

For two decades it’s been my favorite and most requested keynote, refined through presentations for companies, conversations with audiences, and thousands of interactions as a professional magician. Until now I’ve only taught it privately, in rooms with the doors closed.

For my first TEDx talk, I challenged myself to condense those ideas into 18 minutes. Hardest editing job of my career.

The method is reading people. The effect is connection and communication.

If you’ve ever walked out of a meeting knowing something went sideways but not knowing what, this talk is about that.

I’ll be sharing more soon about the process and the people who helped bring this to life.

So: can you read a stranger in six seconds? I think you can.