Sometimes if you’re a writer, or a speaker, or a performer, as you’re preparing and you type that last period, you say that last word, make that last move, you have that moment.

You think to yourself: “Boom. I did it. That is it”

Mic. Dropped.

You get up from where you were writing or practicing your speech or rehearsing your dance and you might even make a little victory lap, give yourself a wink or a pat on the back. 

And then, feeling assured that you just created something that everyone is going to get excited about, you hit publish, or go off to give the talk, or perform the dance.

But then sometimes something funny happens. That blog post that you saw as your drop mic moment really doesn’t get read or shared or commented on. The line that you thought was the clincher in your speech gets no response from the audience. You take your last dance step and you only get polite applause.

It makes you wonder if it was still a drop mic moment if no one else seemed to recognize it?

In many ways, I think those moments aren’t always for the audience. They happen because we’ve overcome some internal hurdle – a struggle to put words that resonate with us on the page, or to piece together the steps that feel just right. We need those drop mic moments to move us forward, whether someone else recognizes them or not.

Too often people take the unrecognized drop mic as a sign that they should give up, that what they have to say must not be resonating.

But audiences are fickle. Their attention is pulled in a million different directions. And yes, while never having anything you do resonate with anyone is maybe a sign that you either a.) haven’t found the right people to resonate with or b.) aren’t creating things that resonate, it’s important not to come to that conclusion too quickly. It takes some people years, decades, or even practically a lifetime before others can see what they’ve seen all along.