By Carolyn Strauss, CSP

I just spent the weekend at the CSP® Summit in Scottsdale, Arizona, surrounded by 150 Certified Speaking Professionals™, some of the best speakers in the world…. And I couldn’t speak. Not a whisper. Not a croak. Nothing.

I arrived with a perfectly normal voice the night before the Summit. Woke up the first morning with acute laryngitis, and by breakfast had officially been rebranded as a Certified Silent Professional. Which, as you can imagine, is not a designation the National Speakers Association currently offers. Yet.

For a group of people whose professional identity revolves around ideas, delivery, nuance, timing, and the ability to land a point with precision, being silent turns out to be a fascinating social experiment. (And for my colleagues who know me well… especially for me!)

For the entire time I had fully formed responses running through my head, insightful, well-timed, hilarious (IMHO) with absolutely no way to express them. It was like participating in an important Zoom meeting in my head with my mic on mute.

I nodded. I smiled. I gestured. I typed notes into my laptop and according to some of my group members, communicated like a less intelligent Stephen Hawking. At one point, I seriously considered making cue cards using my television background resources.

During lunch on day 2, I sat next to a speaker I’d never met before. He didn’t know me, my work, or my background.

And he talked. He talked about his business. What was working. What wasn’t. What he was wrestling with. And I listened. Fully. Intentionally. Without interruption, not by choice, but by medical necessity. When the conversation wound down, he paused, looked at me, and said: “I just love you.” Which was a surprise, especially since I didn’t say a word.

Part way through the weekend, resigned to my silent status, I’d fully embraced my new role: Motivational Listener. People kept saying, “I’ve never seen you so quiet and calm.” (thanks Thom Singer!)  I was not calm. I was medically muted. But as it turns out, silence creates space. And space is where people feel seen.

My dad used to say, “Keep your mouth shut and smile and people will wonder what you’re up to.” This weekend, I realized he wasn’t being funny. He was being strategic.

I went to the CSP Summit expecting ideas, connection, and professional elevation. I didn’t expect laryngitis to be the teacher. But it reminded me that communication isn’t just about speaking, it’s about impact. And impact doesn’t always require sound.

That said, I am very much looking forward to getting my voice back. Because at least for me, the world is slightly more entertaining when I can talk.

P.S.  Thank goodness for NSA. Just days after the CSP Summit, I was scheduled to deliver two three-hour Vistage programs in San Diego — commitments that had been on my calendar for over a year. Living in Denver and without a voice, stepping into those rooms simply wasn’t possible. I reached out to my NSA community and was met with generosity and care. A California-based speaker who has been part of NSA for decades, and who was already in the Vistage system, rearranged his world to step in so the groups were fully supported and relationships were protected. (Thank you Joel Block and Robert Grossman).

That kind of support doesn’t come from a membership list. It comes from people who genuinely look out for one another. The National Speakers Association is the gift I will never give up!

Author Bio:

Carolyn Strauss, CSP, is a professional speaker, Certified Reinvention Practitioner, and communication expert known for helping leaders stay relevant when what used to work no longer does, and increase their Dollars Per Minute™ in the process. A former on-air CEO on the Home Shopping Network, she sold more than $160 million of her own product line live on television over an 18-year career. A longtime member of the NSA and a CSP brings real-world business experience, humor, and humanity to stages around the world.