Great communication does not only happen in boardrooms, meetings, or presentations.
Sometimes, the best communication lessons come from unexpected places.
In a recent episode of Communicast, I spoke with Bryan Baldwin, a dynamic professional whose career has spanned music, DJing, production, corporate leadership, sales, and learning and development.
That combination gave Bryan a unique perspective on communication.
Whether you are performing for an audience, leading a sales team, presenting to executives, or building relationships across an organization, the same fundamentals matter: know your audience, tell a story that connects, listen for feedback, and bring energy to the moment.
From the DJ Booth to the Boardroom
At first glance, DJing and business communication may seem unrelated.
One happens in clubs, studios, and live music environments. The other happens in meetings, client conversations, presentations, and leadership settings.
But both require a deep understanding of the audience.
A DJ has to read the room. They need to sense the energy, understand what is landing, adjust in real time, and keep people engaged.
Business communicators need to do the same thing.
Whether you are delivering a presentation, leading a team meeting, pitching a client, or speaking to senior leaders, you have to pay attention to how your audience is responding.
If the message is not connecting, the responsibility is not only on the audience to work harder. It is on the communicator to adapt.
Audience Awareness Is Everything
One of the strongest themes from the conversation was the importance of knowing your audience.
Before you communicate, you need to understand who you are speaking to, what motivates them, what matters to them, and what context they bring into the conversation.
That applies to stories, examples, references, data, tone, pace, and level of detail.
A story or reference that works beautifully with one audience may fall flat with another.
For example, if a presenter uses a cultural reference that is 40 or 50 years old, a younger audience may not understand it. The point may be strong, but the reference does not connect.
The same thing happens in business communication.
Presenters sometimes use examples, jokes, acronyms, or internal language that make sense to them but not to the audience.
Audience analysis helps prevent that disconnect.
Before an important communication moment, ask:
- Who is in the audience?
- What do they already know?
- What do they care about most?
- What examples will feel relevant to them?
- What language or references might confuse them?
- What do I want them to think, feel, or do after this conversation?
The better you understand the audience, the more likely your message is to land.
Storytelling Helps the Message Connect
Music and business both rely on story.
A song can create emotion, build energy, and make people feel connected to a moment.
A strong business story can do something similar.
It can make an idea easier to understand, help the audience remember the message, and connect facts to human meaning.
But storytelling only works when it serves the audience.
A story that is too long, too self-focused, or not relevant to the point can become a distraction.
The best business stories are purposeful.
They help answer:
- Why does this matter?
- What problem are we trying to solve?
- What changed?
- What can we learn from this?
- What should the audience do next?
Communispond’s Business Storytelling Skills program helps professionals use stories to make business messages clearer, more memorable, and easier to act on.
Nerves Can Be a Sign That You Care
Another memorable part of the conversation focused on nerves.
Before a performance, presentation, pitch, or important meeting, many people feel some combination of anticipation, excitement, or nervous energy.
That is not always a bad thing.
In fact, if you feel nothing before an important communication moment, it may be worth asking why.
A little nervousness can signal that the moment matters.
It can remind you to prepare, focus, and bring energy to the audience.
The problem is not nerves themselves. The problem is when nerves control the message.
Strong communicators learn to manage that energy and use it productively.
Instead of trying to eliminate nerves completely, ask:
- What is this energy telling me?
- Why does this message matter?
- What does the audience need from me?
- How can I prepare so the nerves support focus instead of distraction?
Presenters, performers, and leaders all benefit from learning how to turn nervous energy into presence.
Preparation Keeps You From Phoning It In
Overconfidence can be just as risky as nervousness.
If you have delivered a message many times, it can become easy to go through the motions.
You may stop thinking about the audience. You may rely on old stories, familiar slides, or the same phrases. You may assume the message still works because it worked before.
But audiences change.
Business priorities change. Cultural references age. Team concerns shift. Client expectations evolve.
What worked last year may not work today.
Before repeating a familiar message, pause and ask:
- Is this still relevant to this audience?
- Does this example still make sense?
- Am I bringing real energy to this message?
- What does this audience need that the last audience did not?
- Where should I update the story, data, or delivery?
Great communicators do not simply repeat. They refresh, adapt, and reconnect.
Feedback Is Part of the Performance
In music, feedback is immediate.
You can see whether the room is responding. You can feel when the energy changes. You know when people are engaged and when the connection starts to drop.
Business feedback is sometimes less obvious, but it is still there.
It may appear in body language, questions, silence, follow-up, resistance, or lack of action.
Strong communicators pay attention to those signals.
They do not treat feedback as an attack. They treat it as information.
That is especially important for leaders.
If people are confused, quiet, or disengaged, the leader may need to clarify the message, invite questions, or adjust the approach.
Feedback can be uncomfortable, but it helps communicators improve.
Relationship-Building Is a Communication Skill
Bryan’s career path also highlights the importance of relationships.
Moving across industries requires more than technical skill. It requires the ability to connect with people, build trust, listen well, and communicate value in different contexts.
Networking is not simply collecting contacts.
It is building meaningful professional relationships over time.
That requires curiosity, consistency, and follow-through.
Good communicators understand that relationships are built through many small interactions, not one big conversation.
They ask thoughtful questions. They listen for what matters. They follow up. They look for ways to create value.
Those habits matter whether you are in sales, leadership, learning and development, or any role that depends on influence and trust.
Great Communicators Adapt to the Moment
A DJ cannot ignore the room and keep playing the same set if the audience is not responding.
A leader cannot ignore the team and keep repeating the same message if people are confused, resistant, or disengaged.
Communication is dynamic.
It requires preparation before the moment and awareness during the moment.
That is why adaptability is such an important communication skill.
Effective communicators know their message, but they are not trapped by a script. They can adjust examples, pace, tone, detail, and interaction based on what the audience needs.
This is also why presentation skills remain so important in business. Communispond’s Executive Presentation Skills® program helps professionals build the preparation, delivery, and audience awareness needed to communicate with clarity and impact.
How to Apply These Lessons at Work
You do not need a music career to apply these lessons.
Before your next presentation, meeting, pitch, or leadership conversation, ask yourself:
- Who is my audience?
- What do they care about?
- What references, stories, or examples will connect with them?
- Where might my message fall flat?
- Am I feeling enough energy to bring the message to life?
- What feedback should I watch for?
- How can I adapt if the room needs something different?
These questions can help you move from simply delivering information to creating connection.
Final Thought
The DJ booth and the boardroom may seem far apart, but they share an important communication truth.
The audience matters.
Whether you are playing a set, delivering a pitch, leading a team, or presenting to executives, your ability to connect depends on preparation, awareness, storytelling, feedback, and adaptability.
Great communicators do not just deliver their message.
They read the room, adjust to the audience, and make the moment matter.
Connect with Bryan Baldwin on LinkedIn, and explore more episodes of Communicast for conversations on leadership, communication, and influence.
