“Whether you are communicating one-on-one or with a large audience, asking questions creates a connection between you and your listeners that is vital to releasing energy and raising their interest levels. Because my audiences are often so varied, when I begin speaking…. I pose a question related to the topic I’ll be speaking on. I’m simply trying to get people to engage right away.”

How do you engage your audience?

Are you connecting with them in the first 30 seconds?

One of THE most difficult things for a speaker to accomplish is the “audience flip”. Making it about them (the audience) rather than about yourself.

Art Berg, a speaker who died way before his time, told me that he saw his career change when he caught onto this. It wasn’t easy to make his story “about them” as he was a parapalegic who had suffered a horrible accident. But he did it. Art’s theme was “while the difficult takes time, the impossible just takes a little longer”. Once he turned his speech around and made it about them he saw a major surge in his career.

CONTEST:

During your presentations, how do you connect with your audience?

I’d like to see your ideas posted below by July 1st.  The top 5 ideas will win a copy of John Maxwell’s new book “Everyone Communicates, Few Connect”. (Be sure to leave your e-mail address with your comments so I can connect with the winners).

PS: Someone who is famous for connecting with their audience is Joe Calloway. Joe and I produced “Diary of a Killer Keynote” DVD which includes one of Joe’s most talked about NSA speeches. Right now, we’re offering them at a special sell off price (save $30). Check it out. http://speakerlauncher.com/tools.html

Last week I tweeted this idea and it sparked a mild debate about which was more important – content or presentation style.

So let me preface this post by saying you MUST be good on stage.

Marcus Buckingham is a great example. He knew right out of the shoot how to be engaging and funny on top of great content. Because of that (a few bestsellers and being a hotty didn’t hurt) he rocketed up the fee ladder very quickly.

Like our marketing, our content also needs to be packaged in a clear, digestible format.

I don’t want to leave your session feeling overwhelmed or needing a nap. But I should be able to tell someone (in 20 seconds or less) what I learned.

Content is going to be what rockets you up the fee ladder as well. Here are some things to rate your content on:

1. Relevance

How relevant is your content to your audience? Can they use it? Apply it? Will it inspire?

2. Timely/up-to-date

Have I seen your content before? How long ago? How can you sharpen it or spin it?

3. Unique/creative approach How much time have you spent molding your content into something unique? Something that your audience has never seen before and reflects your personal style.

4. Demand

Is there high demand for your content? Who is going to pay to hear your message?

This post is meant to give you a kick in the butt to examine your content. Maybe you are in great shape, maybe you need work?

Feel free to share your ideas below with a comment.

See you soon Wealthy Speakers!

PS: Did you know that there is nearly 3 hours of powerful content in LIVE version of the Wealthy Speaker Seminar? It’s available now to download directly to your iPhone or computer. It comes with visuals and at just $47 (no shipping required) it’s a tremendous resource! http://speakerlauncher.com/tools.html

It’s rare that they remember the speaker’s name.

But frequently they will tell me a story that the speaker told and we’ll be able to piece together the identity of that person.

Often, when we leave a speech, we’re feeling like a rock star and think that they will never forget us!! But the truth of the matter is that by next month or next week, they most likely will have forgotten our name!

What is it that you are doing within your performance that will allow people to remember you?

And more importantly, how will they tell others? (I believe this to be the key to more spin off).

We’ve talked about the “thru-line” before. http://tiny.cc/LiBEh

It’s typically a short phrase, word or gesture that you use throughout your presentation. You integrate it so well that the audience is saying it back to you by the end of your program.

I remember many moons ago going to a Tony Robbins event – I wanted to see what made this guy tick. He used the term “step up” so effectively in his talk that even now, 10 years later, when I say those words I have a physical response.

You’ve also heard me talk about that famous Joe Calloway speech where Joe used the term “let it go”. Let it go took on a life of it’s own and people still reference it many years later. BTW, if you’ve wondered what all the hub hub about that speech was over, check out the DVD that inclues the full speech and the dissection… Diary of a Killer Keynote.
http://speakerlauncher.com/killerkeynoteDVD.html

If you’ve got something that is really working for you in your speech, I hope you’ll share it. Comment below!

Be memorable!

When you have a powerful line or phrase that
you say throughout your speech you are
accomplishing 3 goals:

1. You are giving the audience something to
remember you by.

2. You are making an idea stick. (The Heath
brothers book ‘Made to Stick’ illustrates
this idea brilliantly).

3. You are giving the audience something
with ‘repeat-ability’.

Now what’s this got to do with t-shirts?

Well, ideally a great phrase or tag line
within your speech will look great on a
t-shirt. Ergo, it passes the t-shirt test.

Let’s take Joe Calloway’s ‘Let it Go’ speech
from NSA a few years back. Joe said at the
beginning….’although people say you should
have 3 points in a speech, I’m only going to
give you 1 idea’. His idea was about letting
things go in your business in order to move
to the next level.

The phrase ‘let it go’ seemed to take on a
life of it’s own and was repeated for years.
This speech stuck! (That’s why I interviewed
Joe to discuss why it worked in my Diary of a
Killer Keynote DVD)
http://www.speakerlauncher.com/killerkeynoteDVD.html

Here are a few questions to help you consider
your powerful phrase:

Is there one thing that you say in your
speech that people will remember for sure?

Would it look good (ie: be short enough and
succinct enough) to have impact on a t-shirt?

When people walk out of the room after a
speech by you, are they able to convey to
another person exactly what they learned?

Does it pass the boardroom test? Would
people repeat your phrase to one another in a
staff meeting?

Sharing one idea or point that sticks is far
more powerful than sharing 10 that don’t.

I hope this will help you design your
powerful phrase and incorporate it into your
speech.

Happy speaking!

ps: If you want to see that Calloway speech
I mentioned, it is included in full on the
Killer Keynote DVD. Check it out….
http://www.speakerlauncher.com/killerkeynoteDVD.html

(you may need to cut and paste this link).

Many times a dancer would be under the
impression that they were incredibly
talented when in fact, they might have
been just average. Sometimes….they
were downright bad.

Which category would you put yourself
into?
__Incredibly talented
__Above Average
__Average
__Downright bad

Seriously, I’m sure none of you would
say downright bad, but the reality of
this industry is that you need to
constantly sharpen your skills.

Some speakers who are booked 100 times
per year at $10,000 per gig still get
help with their content and presentation
skills.

Even Joe Calloway, who many of you
admire, continues to learn and grow
every day of his career.

Because Joe is so talented, he was
chosen to be the 1st subject of my new
DVD series entitled:  The Killer Keynote
Diaries:  How to Develop and Deliver a
Keynote that Blows Them Away.

If you were at the National Speakers
Association Convention in Phoenix, you
might remember Joe’s ‘Let it Go’ speech.
That speech has had resounding impact.

On the DVD, you get the live
presentation as well as an interview
with Joe on what made it so powerful.

We’ll talk about…. opening, stories,
humor, timing, engaging the audience,
corporate clients, taking risks and much
much more.

You’ll be inspired to take your speech
to a new place and perhaps the next
survey you take about talent, you’ll
move up a rung.

This DVD is available starting today.
Click here to get your copy.

http://www.speakerlauncher.com/killerkeynoteDVD.html

(You may have to cut and paste this
link).

In the speaking industry, we can’t just
hope that we might have talent.  We have
to move towards greatness every single
day and this is a step in the right
direction.

Happy Speaking!

ps:  If you’ve already purchased any
Wealthy Speaker product – check out the
special pricing available to you.

http://www.speakerlauncher.com/killerkeynoteDVD.html

During the interview, I talked about a couple of
my clients who were doing some fresh things in
their speech and in their marketing. (Like Scott
Klososky who bought the cow on stage and Steve
Little who has a cool, interactive website).

From this conversation, ‘The Fresh Idea
Challenge’ was born.

I was actually nervous to announce the contest
because I thought so many ideas would come pouring
in that I’d have a hard time handling them. Not!

Let’s just say I was underwhelmed by the
response and it got me thinking…..

1. Either people are afraid to share their fresh
ideas (perhaps others might ‘adopt’ them) or….

2. There are no fresh ideas.

I cannot imagine that it’s #2. In fact, I know
that speakers are some of the most creative people
on the planet so I’m putting out the challenge
again and the winning ideas will be posted on my
website and broadcast on the summer edition of
Voices of Experience.

Here’s what you should do if you have a fresh idea
in the area of marketing (things that worked to
get you booked with clients) or platform (things
that worked from the stage that the audience and
client loved).

Write a 1 paragraph description of the idea and
a 1 paragraph description of the results and
send it to jane@speakerlauncher.com

We know that in our industry ideas are shared and
recycled and reworked – that’s part of the
industry. What we are seeking here is something
that we may not have heard before or new twists on
old ideas.

Your name will be used along with the idea but if
you got the idea from someone else (even if you
put your own spin on it) please credit them as
well.

We’ll keep you posted.

ps: My book ‘The Wealthy Speaker’ was a
complilation of ideas that I gathered from my 18
years with the National Speakers Association.
From the minute I arrived at my first convention
in Washington DC, to last month in Denver, I’ve
been learning. I owe everything I know to NSA’ers
including the likes of Thom Winninger, Mark
Sanborn, Joe Calloway, Kris Young, Mark
LeBlanc…. I could go on for hours. The
spirit of sharing is NSA. Let’s not let fear get
in our way.

Then, you are introduced.

You walk onto the stage, close the laptop lid, and
say ‘apparently, we’ll be doing something
different today’.

That’s exactly what my client June Cline did last
week when her technology failed.

And you know what else happened? She changed up
her program on the fly and delivered an
awesome keynote.

What would you have done?

How much are you relying on technology or props in
your presentations?

This past weekend in Vancouver, the caliber of
keynote talent at the Canadian Speakers convention
was really high. But several speakers shone through
for me and for the most part they used two tools -
their voice and their bodies.

Now I’m not saying that anyone using technology
should stop. But I would ask ‘if the electricity
went off would you still be an effective speaker’?

How much of your presentation stays inside a
comfort zone?

And really the bottom line question is, ‘are you
getting all the work that you desire’? If so,
these questions may not be necessary.

If you aren’t 100% happy with your bookings, then
this exercise is for you:

1. List 3 things that you will do in 2007 to help
move your presentation to new heights.

2. Define 2 risks that you could take to move out
of your comfort zone.

3. Send 1 e-mail to a colleague or friend and ask
them to support you in your goals.

And if you’d like to work on your business over
the holidays, I’ve got a special holiday reading
offer just for you. Check it out.
http://www.thewealthyspeaker.com/system2.html

While speaking to a group of CEO’s, he was making
the point that we all need to do more to give back
to the world and that technology makes it easier
than ever.

He then went on to purchase a cow live during his
presentation from a charity called
http://www.heifer.org. Heiffer provides a
pregnant cow to a family in an impoverished
country and the family that receives the cow (for
daily milk, etc.) gives the calf to another
family. The lives of 2 families were changed with
one click of his mouse.

The risk for Scott wasn’t buying the cow for $500
in front of the group, it was challenging his
audience to do more.

This holiday, I would like to take a risk.

Normally, I would purchase a gift of some sort for
my coaching clients. Sometimes a Starbuck’s gift
card, or personalized stationery. But this year,
I’d like to buy my clients a cow to say the
following….

Thank you for your business this year. I
appreciate you and want to demonstrate this
by paying it forward to a family who needs us
both.

I think my clients will appreciate the intention.

So how can you take a risk this holiday season?

What could you give your clients that would have
meaning?

How can you think outside of your usual routine to
do something different?

What’s your cow?

Perhaps you’ll give an entrepreneur some seed
money through http://www.kiva.org

Maybe there is something closer to home, like the
NSA Foundation’s Katrina Fund? Or a fellow
speaker who could use a helping hand?

If we all took just one risk, something that we
wouldn’t normally do, what would the results be?

Incidentally, Scott’s presentation resulted in
donations pouring in to http://www.heifer.org and
started a wave of something positive. Families
received cows, chickens and a host of animals that
would change their lives, possibly forever.

His risk paid off.

I wish you all a safe and happy holiday season.

The answer to that question is a resounding, ‘NO’!

A keynote has completely different elements than a
workshop (or training or seminar).

Many trainers would like to make the transition
and earn more as a keynote speaker. Many keynoters
would like to make their speech better so that
they get booked more!

Join myself and Patricia Fripp on:
Wednesday, September 27th at 3pm Eastern
for the career catapulting teleclass:

TURN YOUR TRAINING TREASURES INTO KEYNOTE GOLD
http://www.speakerlauncher.com/teleclass.fripp.html

You will learn:

- the distinct differences between keynoting and
training and why you MUST know them

- the quickest, most effective way to design your
keynote

- how to have the audience captivated from the
first 5 minutes

- the inside secrets of awesome story-telling

- the absolutely, undisputed, guaranteed way to
get booked again…and….and again….

http://www.speakerlauncher.com/teleclass.fripp.html

Hold your spot now, we are already 50% full.

Jane Atkinson
Speaker Launcher
519-951-6934
http://www.SpeakerLauncher.com

ps: This class is FREE for Wealthy Speaker book
purchasers, click here to find out how to get your
copy today and join the class for free.
http://www.speakerlauncher.com/teleclass.fripp.html