The wish to become a celebrated musician is a common childhood dream in this nation of tune carriers. But few are chosen.
To the many who detoured along the way, only a handful make a concerted effort to still fulfill that dream somehow, someway.
Motivator Lloyd Luna, a marquee name in the arena of professional speaking, has enough tools to give his ability to write songs its much-needed release. It surely helped that he is a made man. But it’s his gift to naturally speak from the heart that eventually did the trick.
“Music is an expression of yourself and it takes resources to deliver your stuff,” declared Luna during our conversation last Friday at Crowne Plaza Hotel Galleria where he was at the forefront of the 1st Philippine Duet Summit, a speaking expertise conference of good promise.
It is a duet because it intends to institutionalize speaking engagements involving two speakers, in effect delivering messages in two different voices like duet hit songs seamlessly do.
The author of several self-help books on business and life approach initially found learning formal music unaffordable that he ended up playing church organ in Sta. Mesa. “I’m doing it for the last 20 years and going strong,” he said of his musically engaging routine.
By 2016 he was already a force to reckon with in public speaking, with an annual average of 120 inspirational speeches filling up his schedule. Earning the tag “productivity humorist” has given him bread, while his business acumen meant multiplying money.
It was time to reconnect with his old dream and the result is a seven-song package of his ballad compositions sung by carefully handpicked singers.
The collection dubbed Songs Of My Heart can be heard online and features a piece he wrote for his wife Beth and another based on the historic collapse of Golden State Warriors in an NBA Finals series versus LeBron James. Two singers each interpreted two, with Ava Jugueta doing “Buwan at Bituin” and “Kung Ikaw Ay Darating,” and Erwin Lacsa providing voice to “Mali Ba” and “I Always Will.”
Luna humbly noted, “It was my last-minute effort to satisfy my dream and it was an intense songwriting stretch.”
Not that he has no time to do what he wants. But he has priorities away from music. The fact he was able to cross it out off his bucket list is evident of his strong spirit in finishing races.
The founding member of Philippine Association of Professional Speakers, Inc., Luna is hailed as the first Filipino to represent the country in a Global Speakers Summit. He is set to do a talk in Paris this coming May 25.
His 16th book is about “stepback leadership” which he simply defined as “putting the people at the center of it.” To further explain he immersed himself towards the ways of the Ifugaos who built The Banaue Rice Terraces through collectivism and collaboration.
He pointed out, “My talks are not about me anymore. It’s about the audiences.”
Sincere, from the heart. “‹