Michelle Obama Live

I had the pleasure of seeing Michelle Obama on her live Australia tour this week at Sydney’s Tik Tok Centre – a fabulous venue overlooking Darling Harbour.

My girlfriends and I did have nosebleed seats, as you can tell from my photo (!) – but we had a fabulous evening out nevertheless.

I have always been somewhat in awe of Michelle Obama, having observed her in her first and second terms as US First Lady and how she clearly saw the role as a tremendous opportunity – and honour – to do vast amounts of good in the world as a result.

I was then deeply moved when I read her book, Becoming, where she openly talks about her upbringing, how her parents parented her and her brother and how she was taught she could do – and be – anything she wanted.

She earned a place at Princeton and was one of the few black students to gain a place. I can’t imagine the challenge that must have posed her at such a tender age but she overcame those challenges (and thrived) as she has so many since.

There were aspects of her live tour I really loved and aspects too that I was actually quite disappointed by.

She comes across as hugely authentic, warm and connected to the people around her (the audience). Her natural leadership oozes out of every pore. Her presence is electric and I particularly enjoyed how she spoke, how poised and measured she is in conversation and how genuine she really is.

What I felt the talk lacked was deep opinions.

She shared a lot about her upbringing and views on parenting – which although interesting, I had read about these elements of her life before.

She also talked about her newfound love of tennis and knitting (which I admit, was a surprise).

Sadly, I felt the conversation lacked real depth.

I was hoping to be moved and inspired…

And to hear her deep opinions about the current political landscape, her views on women in leadership, and more of her thoughts about the enormous amount of good work she has done over the last two decades – and continues to do.

But I felt the talk took 60 minutes to reach 20kph – and then abruptly ended.

As Michelle herself pointed out, Barack was first sworn in as President in 2009 – so 17 years ago – which perhaps means she has moved on from that time in her life.

But it did make me wonder why she had chosen to tour the world now, if it wasn’t to be a voice for change and for our positive future.