Meet the Moment draws on a career in business communication and the words he prepared after four years of caring for his wife.
Daniel Leger’s twin daughters had just turned 13 when he had to speak about their mother’s life. He had cared for his wife for over four years as she fought an aggressive cancer. Now her mother and friends would join the girls in listening to her eulogy, and he wanted to give each of them something they could carry through the grief ahead.
That was one of two addresses that shaped Leger’s book,Meet the Moment: How Great Speeches Can Impact Business, Life, and Loss. Both took place in 2019, when his professional life called him to an investor conference as his family faced losing her.
The People Listening to Her Eulogy
Remembering his wife meant making room for laughter alongside the devastation of her death. Leger wanted the address to reflect the life they were mourning, with their daughters’ needs at the center of what he would say.
The speech also came at the beginning of single fatherhood. Leger’s account follows the years of caregiving into the responsibility of helping two young teenagers grieve and move forward.
“I had to meet the moment,” he writes.
The phrase became the title of a book combining his family’s story with guidance on public speaking. The ideas come from moments when Leger had to find the words himself, including a loss that brought him before mourners many years earlier.
A Son Had Spoken Before
Leger was one of ten children. His father died when he was an infant, and his mother raised the family alone. During his junior year of college, she died too. He delivered her eulogy.
Years later, Leger’s would approach the same task as a husband and father. His daughters were now among the listeners, adding another responsibility to an occasion he knew from his own youth.
Those losses belong to the memoir’s account of how speaking enters family life. The person preparing the address has a relationship with the deceased and with those gathered to remember them. Leger’s experience of both relationships gives his book its personal starting point.
Hundreds of Clients in Another Room
During that same year, Leger’s firm asked him to lead the speaker lineup at its thirtieth-anniversary investor conference. Hundreds of clients would attend. Leger understood the assignment as giving them confidence in the business’s future through a clear presentation.
Nearly 25 years in asset management gave him experience addressing investors and stakeholders. Leger’s career included senior fundraising and marketing roles, and he delivered hundreds of speeches along the way.
Before that work, Leger earned a Ph.D. in political philosophy and international relations at the University of Notre Dame. His thesis became a published book. Meet the Moment draws on his academic background and speaking experience to address the events of 2019.
Preparing for the Occasion Ahead
Public speaking can bring fear into an already demanding situation. Leger wants teaching to address that apprehension and help people recognize the opportunity to serve those listening.
His book moves between memoir and guidance, placing the subject in professional life and in the experience of honoring someone loved. A business address asks the speaker to consider what an audience needs to understand. Leger’s wife’s eulogy required attention to what their daughters and fellow mourners were living through.
He also connects his interest in speaking with rebuilding social confidence after COVID and sustaining human connection as AI becomes more common.
The Next Meet the Moment
Leger hopes to write further books about people facing adversity at work and home. This first volume begins with his own responsibilities as a speaker, then follows them into life afterward.
The investor address was part of an ongoing career. The eulogy became part of a family’s memory as Leger was now forced to raise his daughters alone.
