This Tuesday!

A message from Steve...

Sometimes the best lessons don’t come from a presentation, they come from the scramble to get to that presentation.

I had a presentation for a group of IT Healthcare Executives on the calendar for next Tuesday. Well, that’s what I thought. That’s what we all thought, until 10:00am this past Tuesday, when I found out the presentation was not next week. It was that afternoon, in Chicago. It was... This Tuesday!

Now, in 30 years of public speaking, I’ve had my fair share of travel hiccups, delays, and last-minute adjustments, but this one was a first. And in that moment, there were really two options: panic or practice what we teach.

The Game On Nation team and I jumped into action, not with chaos, but with clarity. Not with frustration, but with focus. It became very clear, very quickly, that this wasn’t just a travel situation. This was a real time opportunity to apply the fundamentals we talk about regularly, including the power and importance of emotional control, critical thinking, and common sense.

We stayed steady. No one spiraled and no one pointed fingers. We simply asked, “What’s next?” and got to work. Flights were checked, options were weighed, communication was clear and constant. With the understanding, flexibility, and support of our client, something remarkable happened. At 10:00amEST we realized our dilemma, and at 12:15pm EST I was on the last seat available on a flight out of Tampa. By 2:25 CST, I landed at O’Hare, and by 3:45pm, I was downtown greeting our client with a relieved smile, ready to deliver the presentation, and with a crisis averted.

What wasn’t lost on me was the content of that presentation. Our theme was “Cultivating Authentic Connection” and our framework for this core session is based on the importance of connecting to Self, Others, and Purpose. On a day when everything felt like it could unravel, those principles held us together. What got me from here to there was that we:

- Stayed connected and remained grounded.

- Managed our emotions, communicated clearly, and had each other’s back.

- Worked together, never lost focus on the end game, and stayed connected to our purpose.

It’s one thing to talk about these ideas in a controlled setting. It’s another thing to live them out in real time when the clock is ticking, the stakes are real, and the margin for error is slim. That Tuesday became this Tuesday. Not a story about what went wrong, but a reminder of what can go right when we stay aligned with what we believe and how we operate.

As leaders, teachers, coaches, and presenters, with full calendars and daily demands, things are going to come up, schedules will shift, plans will change, and details will get missed. And when they do, it’s not just about fixing the problem, it’s about how we show up in the process.

So, the next time you find yourself in a moment like that, here are three simple reminders that helped us get from here to there:

1. Stay emotionally grounded: Your reaction sets the tone for everything that follows.

2. Think clearly before you act: Slow down just enough to make the right next move.

3. Use common sense: It sounds simple, but it’s often the thing we forget when things speed up.

At the end of the day, this wasn’t just about making a flight or delivering a presentation. It was about taking accountability, honoring a commitment, and doing everything we could to follow through. And here’s to doing it the right way, especially when you find out that morning that the meeting, the game, the opportunity, the presentation is not next week, but it’s actually... This Tuesday!

This Tuesday On.

Travel Flex On.

Game On.