A Moment That Moved Us

Last month, I experienced a moment that took my breath away.

I was facilitating a workshop for 200 school leaders in North Carolina. Principals, assistant principals, from elementary all the way up through high school.

Basically, a room full of people who wake up every day and wrangle chaos for a living. My kind of crowd.

We were in the middle of an exercise I call “Minute to Win It.”

It’s simple: come up front, draw a random prompt, speak for one minute. No prep, no peeking. Just go.

The prompts are sweet and fun. Tailored to be easy to talk about and allow for a get-to-know-you moment for the audience about the speaker. 

• “A memory from third grade”

• “An activity you loved as a kid (and still do)”

• “Something to be proud of”

The first few folks were great—funny, honest, and gloriously awkward when they ran out of things to say with 12 seconds still on the clock. Gold.

Then it happened.

One guy finishes up and is heading back to his seat when a woman reaches out her hand to high-five him.

I, in my boundless enthusiasm and questionable spatial awareness, think she’s volunteering to go next. Oops. We all laugh. She laughs. And then—God love her—she walks up to the front anyway.

She draws a card.

Reads the prompt.

“A fear you’d like to get rid of.”

Oh.

She pauses. Looks at me. Looks down.

The room is still in fun-mode. People toss out silly guesses—spiders! clowns! tight pants!

She takes a breath.

“When I got a phone call last week…”

Still some chuckles. Everyone is expecting another light-hearted answer.

“And it was my oncologist on the other end of the call…”

Cue silence.

Then... gradually murmurs of encouragement building up to all out standing and cheering her on while she goes on to share.

Bravely, rawly—that every time she coughs, her mind jumps to “is it back?” That even a tickle in her throat feels like a threat.

That this fear, this never-quite-gone, quietly-sitting-in-the-corner kind of fear, is the one she wishes she could let go of most.

And then—without drama or self-pity—she shared how thanks to her faith, her family, and her friends (some of whom were in the room with us at the time), she’s been able to maybe not erase the fear… but to feel it, and flourish anyway.

Y'all.

When she finished (a snoodge over a minute, but some things are worth breaking the rules for 😉), the place came unhinged. Standing ovation. Full-on ugly crying. And every single person in that room was different after that moment.

Here’s what I walked away with:

• Leadership isn’t just about titles or being in charge. It’s about being courageous. Brave. Honest.

• Communication isn’t about polished perfection. It’s about being real enough that people feel it.

• And sometimes the biggest breakthroughs come from the prompts we didn’t mean to answer. (Or in her case, didn’t even mean to volunteer for. 😉)

She didn’t just say something brave.

She was something brave.

Your Turn:

Whether it’s presenting in front of a crowd, leading a new team, or opening up about something real—you don’t have to wait for permission or perfection.

And if you want help navigating that space where insecurity meets leadership for yourself or your team, that’s exactly what I love to do. Let’s talk.

You’ve got this. And I’ve got your back. 💛

See you back here next month and until then... thanks for working to get on the same page with the people in your life.

I want Page to speak at an event