The moment I heard that rich baritone, I had to know: Who is this guy?
His was a voice like no other: rich, resonant, confident, congenial. The words sounded like warm syrup as they rolled from the store entrance to the checkout area where I was waiting in line.
He poured forth every time a shopper arrived or departed: “Welcome to Walmart. So glad you’re here.” “Thank you for shopping at Walmart. Hope you have a fantastic day. Please come back, we’d love to see you again.”
When I reached the checkout clerk, I asked about the vocally gifted greeter. The woman chuckled. “Oh, he’s my husband,” she said. “He does have a nice voice, and let me tell you, I hear it all the time.”
She knew him well so I had to ask: “Has he thought about doing voice-over work for radio or TV? What about being a DJ or a sports announcer or something like that? He could record audiobooks. He could do commercials. He could do all sorts of things. The man has a gift!”
She gave me the smile of someone who had heard it a hundred times. “When you leave,” she said, “tell him what you just told me.”
I did, and he responded with a gracious thank-you. “I hear that all the time,” he said.
“Well, what about it?” I asked. “Have you contacted any radio or TV stations or whoever needs great voices? Do you have a demo tape?”
He looked surprised. “Who, me?”
“Absolutely,” I said. “You have a real gift.”
As we shook hands and said goodbye, he softened his voice to say one last thing: “You really think so?”
Who knows what it was: excessive humility, skepticism, self-doubt, a lack of self-awareness. Something was keeping him from fully appreciating and exercising his extraordinary strength. He’s using it well at Walmart, of course, but could he use it there and beyond?
The truth is, each of us has a great strength that remains largely untapped. It might not announce itself so frequently or publicly, but it’s there. You know it is.
What’s yours?
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