After I was selected to make a 20/20 Lightening Round presentation at the National Speakers Association annual convention this month, it made me realize how much CAN be said in a short amount of time. If you focus, rehearse, re-focus, reject, revise and rehearse a whole lot more.
Context? The Lightening Round is a 6-minute, 40 second presentation that consists of 20 slides that automatically advance every 20 seconds. Whether you are ready are not. You can decide if I was or wasn’t right here.
It was a simple question, but I had two answers.
There was the one I didn’t like, probably because it came straight from my gut and, ultimately, I knew it was the right answer. I also had the polite, Pollyanna answer, the one I concocted to say aloud when it was my turn to share with the group. Answer it truthfully, or tell the lie?
I went with the lie. I lied to them, I lied to myself and I lied to Mark LeBlanc, who had posed the question at one of his Achiever’s Circle weekends in 2001.
I was there as CEO of a national ad agency and marketing firm, one that I had started from scratch and grown large enough to attract the attention of and eventually sell to a publicly traded company. Gee, I had always thought that the most stressful thing in the world was being self-employed, what with juggling new business efforts and delivering the work, managing cash flow, making payroll–and sometimes not making payroll.
Wrong. Being owned by a publicly held company was much worse. Granted, I never again had to forgo my own paycheck, but I barely recognized my own company after five years or so. Hit the numbers. Hit the numbers. Forget about fit, just, well, you know—hit the numbers.
At least I didn’t have to forgo speaking. Speaking was the best—and my favorite–way to attract and win clients. Yes, I spoke for free. It was marketing, a means to a greater end, and besides, I had no idea you could make a living “just speaking.”
So there I was as consultant/speaker at the weekend workshop, listening with one ear towards growing my agency and the other wanting to know more about booking more speeches, perhaps even paid speeches, like everyone else in the workshop seemed to be doing.
As I listened to each person answer Mark’s question, I silently rehearsed my lie. To this day, I don’t remember what I said, only that it had a sufficient number of words to drown out the three-word answer that kept repeating itself inside my head that night, and the next day, and the next. The chant was going strong a week later, a month later.
Quit the agency. Ridiculous.
Quit the agency. “No way,” I told the voice inside my head. “I’ve got the best of both worlds: a steady paycheck, and I still get to do some speaking.”
Quit the agency. Those words had gone from being my simple, yet scary answer to a thought-provoking question to an all-consuming command.
Six months later, I obeyed. I quit the agency to speak and coach full time, and learned that when you love what you do for a living, life will love you back. Six years after I resigned, in August 2007, at the national convention of the National Speakers Association, I walked across the main stage in New York City to receive my Certified Speaking Professional medallion from—wait for it—Mark LeBlanc, 2007-2008 NSA president. (Fewer than 10% of professional speakers worldwide have earned the designation, which involves a 5-year process of review and financial metrics.)
What was the question that changed my life? It was from a Jana Stanfield’s song:
“What would you do if you were brave?”
And now I’m asking you. . . .well?
We’ve all been there. You’ve suffered through a meeting or presentation where a rambling, all-over-the-place, disjointed, thinking-out-loud, more-likely-than-not rushed person tries to tell, sell or convince of you something. And ‘fess up, you’ve done it yourself to others when making presentations.
As I mentioned last month, the universal problem when it comes to so-called presentation skills is that we just have too much stuff inside our heads. (Actually, it applies to most communication.) We think surely, if we just get enough stuff out of our heads and into the listener’s ears, something relevant will click or stick. They will see things our way eventually.
Maybe. Or maybe not. Again, we’ve all been on both sides of that approach. Here’s a better way.
Instead of thinking about all the stuff you want to say, that you hope you get time to say, think about when it’s all said and done—literally. Think about what happens when you leave the meeting, hang up the phone, send the email or end the conversation. Think about the single most important thing you want remembered and repeated about what you had to say. What do you want that person or your audience to say when asked about what you had to say?
“Well, they talked about this, and they showed us that, and they’re located there, and they were pretty easy to talk to…” OR, “They’ve got the experience we need and can hit the ground running.”
“Marketing is always asking for more money,” OR, “We can increase sales if we improve our visibility with Baby Boomers.”
Obviously (I hope it’s obvious), you want the latter examples, or something like them if you’re making a new business pitch or defending a budget.
That’s how you find your point. Once you know what you want people to remember and repeat, everything you say, or do, or show needs to support, defend, prove, demonstrate or bring to life that point. What facts, features and benefits will prove that point? Which case studies or examples, analogies or stories will make it clear? Remember, your audience extends a thimble’s worth of interest, so choose wisely. Don’t fill the thimble with a fire hose.
NOTE: Your point is NOT “hire us” or “increase the budget.” Those are your calls to action. That’s what you want them to do as a result of having been convinced of your point. If you are tempted to merely repeat your point as a call to action, then one or the other is probably not right.
Pretend you are meeting with your boss for a performance review. When the boss goes home and is asked, “So, how did your meeting with YourNameHere go?” Do you want your boss to sigh and say, “Well, s/he hit me up for a raise”? OR do you want the boss to answer, “That YourNameHere is a real keeper. I gave him/her a raise.”
Focus on finding your point first. That’s what determines how you’ll use or not use all the other stuff you have in your head to set the stage, support and defend your point, influence choice and ask for action.
Because when you get to the point, you’ll get more people to see things your way.
I recently had the opportunity to work with an architectural firm on what most people might call presentation skills. I love doing that kind of work, but I always hesitate when the opportunity first presents itself.
Why? Because most people don’t need presentation skills training. They think they do. They think that if they just knew what to do with their slides, notes and moveable body parts their presentation problems would be solved. Not necessarily; not in my experience.
You see, there are three parts to any message you want to communicate:
1. Content: what you’re going to say.
2. Structure: when you’re going to say it, what comes first, second, third.
3. Delivery: how you’re going to say it, standing, sitting, visuals, gestures, movement.
In my experience, if you want to be clear, confident and convincing whenever you have something important to say, the problem usually starts with your content, not your delivery. The problem is that we have too much stuff in our heads, too much stuff we want to say, too much stuff we think we have to say in order to get people to see things our way.
The problem gets worse when we take all that content and start talking. Our audience has extended perhaps a thimble’s worth of interest, and what do we do with all our stuff? We fill that thimble with a fire hose.
Which is why I am a big believer in working on content and structure before you worry so much about the delivery. In fact, I find that once you know what your point is and how you’re going to support it, with the right mix of facts, logic, emotion, story, examples and benefits, well, the rest practically takes care of itself. OK, with a little coaching, perhaps, but only after you’ve got your head and heart wrapped around what’s going to come out of your mouth. Then we can work on what to do with the other body parts.
You might be surprised at how your delivery comes more naturally, because you’re excited and equipped and can’t wait to share your idea or make your case.
Hmmm. I think I feel a series coming on. The Get to the Point series of tips, tricks and tales for people who want to be clear, confident and convincing–anything but blah.
CAUTION: This post is rated PG-13.
I am a big fan of using initial caps when typing or printing a website url because it just makes it so much easier for the reader to “get it.” That’s why I always use www.MaverickMarketing.com for my consulting and workshop site or www.BlahBlahBlah.us for my speaking site.
Wait till you see the sites my friend Scott “Q” Marcus, THINspirational Speaker and Recovering Perfectionist, told me about. Here are a few where punctuation–a capital letter here and there–makes all the difference in the world.
Enjoy! (And smile, it’s Friday.)
Again, thank you Scott. You can check him out at www.ScottQMarcus.com. And, just in case you didn’t know this already, upper case or lower case BEFORE the .com or .us or dot whatever doesn’t matter. Anything after the .com or dot whatever is, indeed, case sensitive.
Do you have any other good ones? Share them here!
The Search Engine That Could.
Google has bragging rights, no doubt about it. They’re the biggest, some might even say The Best, and they have top-of-mind name recognition all over the planet. Yet, when it came time for a Superbowl commercial, they didn’t say any of that. Not directly anyway.
Instead, they told a story. A love story. No actors, no voice over announcer describing how Google works or why you should try it, not much of a production budget, either. And they still had you at the first frame, intrigued and involved in the message, connecting the dots, theater of the mind in all its glory. I loved the way they even included one of those “Hey, Dummy, did you mean cafes near the louvre?” examples that we’ve all experienced. (Hey Dummy played in my head only.) Plus there was the Six Degrees of Distraction search. After googling “What is a truffle?” our hero searched “Who is Truffaut?” Ha! Betcha haven’t done that more than a gazillion times.
Google could have gloated. They could have been preachy or fact-filled. They could have shown happy, delighted people using the product, even shown them getting married. But they didn’t. They didn’t show an emotion; they made you feel one. “Ahhhhh,” was the resounding chorus in my living room on game day. And, yes, there were a few altos and bass voices from the men in that chorus.
If you want to make a point, tell a story. You and your friends already do. No one sends a one-line email that says, “Every day is precious.” They send you a story that makes your mascara run. (And I know how you guys hate it when your mascara runs!) They don’t send you a one-line email that says, “To appreciate your kids and not go crazy, you should look for laughter every day.” No. They send you stories about kids that make you laugh. (Albeit nervous laughter, because you’re grateful they’re not your kids.)
Don’t brag or explain. Bring your benefits and your message to life with a story.
1. Who is your competition?
That’s neither a rhetorical or “dumb” question. Your competition is both physical and mental. You could probably fill a page with a list of companies you consider to be competitors, and perhaps you should. However, the only competition you have to be concerned with is the competition that exists in the minds of your prospects. Who else are they considering buying this product or service from? Maybe your competition is invisible. Maybe you’re the only source being considered. You still have competition—complacency. Maybe they’re contemplating doing it themselves, or not doing anything. How would that change your marketing or sales message? Your proposal?
2. What does your competition do better than you?
The most difficult (read: expensive) thing to do on this planet is change someone’s mind. So, if your competitor is known for X and does it better, faster, cheaper or whatever than you do, even though you want to pound your chest and proclaim, “Hey! We do X, too, just as good, fast and affordable as they do.” Don’t. Find your own claim to fame that you can own. (Hint: the fact that you’ve been doing it longer may or may not translate to an advantage in the minds of your prospects. It could just mean you’ve got older equipment or a dated approach.)
3. How can you leverage your competition’s strengths?
Yes, their strengths. If they’re known for the biggest and the best, perhaps you counter by being hands-on, hassle free. Two great examples come to mind: a hospital’s obstetrics campaign and Scope mouthwash. The hospital’s competitor was the Big Behemoth (major, leading medical center). The hospital’s ad showed a picture of a small bird’s nest with a single egg nestled in the middle, and next to it an open egg carton full of eggs. The caption simply said, “Us” under the nest and “Them” under the carton. Wow.
Scope mouthwash’s biggest competitor was Listerine, and Listerine was touting “Kills Germs.” Scope countered with “Medicine Breath.”
Both advertisers brought their benefits to life by building their message around what consumers already knew and thought about the competition, their strengths.
4. What can you do that your competition is not doing?
Better yet, what can you do that your competition is unwilling to do? Your answer will surely set you apart in a powerful way—one that would be difficult to copy or counter.
Comments? Examples?
Your belief in me, my work and my relentless pursuit all things less ordinary is both delightful and downright humbling at the same time. So what better time than now to simply say “Thank You” for subscribing to my AnythingButBlah email blast/blog? Thank you.
Actually, now that I’ve said it–and I do still, really truly mean it–maybe there IS a better time to say “thank you”? After all, it’s almost Thanksgiving, and that’s when just about everyone is going around thinking about what they’re thankful for–and you know how I am about doing what everybody else does.
So, how could you be different? What if you said “Thank you” every day? What if you made a point of walking around looking for ways to show appreciation to someone? Ways to compliment someone?
I’ve heard three different speakers in the last month cite various studies on how
powerful those two simple words are when it comes to relationships, retention, employee engagement and performance improvement. How even more powerful it is for leaders and managers to be the ones walking around, catching people doing things right and saying something about it. Want to go the extra
mile? According to research by the Studer Group, one of the most treasured forms of reward in their study of health care institutions is a hand-written thank you note from the boss, mailed to the employee’s home.
Two words, if said more often, could change so much, prevent so much and mean so much to so many. Don’t wait for the dinner table on Thanksgiving. Make someone’s day today. And thank you, again, for being a special part of mine.
Before you say “I tried [direct mail] [phone calls] [networking] [whatever] and it doesn’t work,” look at your message, before you blame the medium. Odds are it wasn’t the strategy’s fault, but more likely that your message was boastful, blatant or boring. After all, no one wakes up in the morning hoping to get a sales pitch, and if your marketing message smacks of “hey, look at me and what I’ve got,” then it’s all about you, not about them, and we all know which of the two it is that people care more about.
Instead, build some intrigue into your message. The title of your program or offering rarely serves this purpose. Same goes for your name and photo. In the precious few seconds you have to get the prospect’s attention, predictability is your enemy. If the person can guess or figure out in a glance, “real estate agent” “consultant,” “vitamins,” why bother reading further or listening longer? Instead, one way to create intrigue is by posing a startling statement that demands clarification from the prospect’s brain. Think “headline” versus “title.”
And when it comes to emotion in your marketing, remember, it’s not a about showing an emotion or talking about an emotion. Your marketing should make someone feel an emotion. Get the prospect to smile, laugh, gasp, ponder, choke up or even wince. Connect to an emotion before you try so hard to convince.
Great marketing for a beverage doesn’t describe the drink or tell you why it tastes good. It makes you thirsty. Your marketing can–and should– do the same.
P.S. I’ll be diving deep into this topic, giving you tools you can use to make it happen, at my 1-day workshop in Seal Beach, CA on Dec. 9th.
Dave Barton, my friend and former co-worker from the City of Long Beach, CA (we’re talkin’ the Way-Back Machine here), sent me the The Washington Post’s Mensa Invitational results because he knows how much I love to laugh and how much I love word play. A playful sort himself, Dave once duct-taped another co-worker friend of ours to the friend’s desk chair as the co-worker tried to carry on a telephone conversation with the City Manager. High-larious hi-jinx indeed. Hmm. I wonder whatever happened to Bob? Might just have to Facebook him. Which would be a lot nicer than duct taping him to a chair.
And yes, I know that the whole Mensa Invitational is probably a hoax, in that the Washington Post doesn’t claim it, but does say that it gets periodic, random email entries they don’t know what to do with. That being said, someone or several someones are pretty darn clever out there, and I applaud their creativity. So here are the alleged winners of the alleged contest allegedly held in 2009, although I think I’ve read a few of these before. The contest “rules” are to take any word from the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and then supply a new definition.
(Rated PG13)
1. Cashtration (n..): The act of buying a house, which renders the subject financially impotent for an indefinite period of time.
2. Ignoranus (n.): A person who’s both stupid and an asshole.
3. Intaxication (n.): Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.
4. Reintarnation (n.): Coming back to life as a hillbilly.
5. Bozone (n.): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.
6. Foreploy (n.): Any misrepresentation about yourself for the purpose of [you can guess or google it on someone else's blog. I chickened out.]
7. Giraffiti (n..): Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.
8. Sarchasm (n.): The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn’t get it.
9. Inoculatte (v.): To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.
10. Osteopornosis (n.): A degenerate disease.
11. Karmageddon (n.): It’s like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it’s like, a serious bummer.
12. Decafalon (n.): The gruelling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.
13. Glibido (n.): All talk and no action.
14. Dopeler effect (n.): The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.
15. Arachnoleptic fit (n.): The frantic dance performed just after
you’ve accidentally walked through a spider web.
16. Beelzebug (n.): Satan in the form of a mosquito, that gets into your
bedroomat two or three in the morning and cannot be cast out.
17. Caterpallor (n.): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the
fruit you’re eating.
The Washington Post has also allegedly published the winning submissions to its alleged other yearly contest, in which readers are asked to supply alternate meanings for common words. The alleged winners:
1. Coffee, n. The person upon whom one coughs.
2. Flabbergasted, adj. Appalled by discovering how much weight one has
gained.
3. Abdicate, v. To give up all hope of ever having a flat stomach.
4. Esplanade, v. To attempt an explanation while drunk.
5. Lymph, v. To walk with a lisp.
6. Gargoyle, n.. Olive-flavored mouthwash.
7. Balderdash, n. A rapidly receding hairline.
8. Oyster, n. A person who sprinkles his conversation with yiddishisms.
Any you’d like to add?
Terri Langhans COE*, CSP**