The Sales Experiment

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Lessons from (and about) Public Speaking

I’ve remained faithful to my current commitment to read or listen to quality, skill-sharpening, mindset-improving content daily.

Unfortunately, I’ve run into a hiccup keeping up with the ‘writing about it’ part of the challenge.

A little less than a week ago, I was wrapping up preparation for a speaking gig. I’ve had short 10-15 minute presentations that were, more or less insurance coverage synopsis talks. I’ve helped team teach 3-4 hour workshops on developing insurance programs for nonprofits and human service organizations.

For some reason, this presentation consumed every gap in my schedule. Thankfully, the preparation helped the talk to go (as far as I could tell) relatively well.

Here are a few lessons I learned about prepping for a speaking opportunity – an opportunity that came about only because of this current 6 month challenge.

  1. Start preparing before you have an opportunity: If you have any inclination toward using speaking or teaching as a marketing tool or value-add for clients, start preparing before an opportunity presents itself. For instance….
  2. Practice in safe environments: Join Toastmasters (the sheer amount of speaking time you can log is helpful) or take opportunities with colleagues to present on relevant work topics.
  3. Draft content: What do your best clients need to know about? What is your message? Start outlining content.
  4. Create 3-5 standard talks: Develop inventory. Have 3-5 topics you could speak 10-30 minutes on each. Make them easy to tailor to different situations.
  5. Choose your technology: Do you have a laptop, a clicker, a working knowledge of Keynote or Powerpoint? One of my biggest hurdles was figuring out how to navigate a PC desktop at work with Powerpoint with a Macbook and Keynote at home.
  6. Watch TED talks:  Get to know a non-slide-ument, more aesthetically pleasing way of presenting that might allow you to better engage your listeners vs. encouraging them to read your slides along with you.
  7. Study and read: I loved reading Nancy Duarte’s Resonate and slide:ology: The Art and Science of Creating Great Presentations along with Carnegie’s Stand and Deliver. I also picked up a few great pointers from Michael Hyatt’s podcast on effective slide presentations and the archives of What the Speak with Bryan Kelly (I can’t tell if this podcast is defunct or not. It’s great stuff, and I hope it will make its way back soon).

It’s difficult to plan before a tangible opportunity – as I would know since I didn’t plan until I got this opportunity approximately 4 weeks prior to the speaking engagement date.

I’m now inspired to pull together a few relevant talks, both geared toward professionals in my industry and toward professionals in the market that I serve.

Most of what we do as professionals might affect others, but it isn’t out in front of others. The prospect of laying an egg in front of 150 decision-makers can be daunting and all-consuming. Preparing early can help to avoid some of the stress.

What have you been doing to prepare for possible opportunities to present? Do you already present on a regular basis?

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Today’s Listening and Reading

Duct Tape Selling by John Jantsch 

I’ve finished the book and hope to write up a book review soon. It’s a great Genesis to maps handbook for a sales and marketing process that considers the best of sales 1.0 along with considering cutting edge tools and buyer styles.

Content Curation Drives Us Nuts, Apple Makes Life Difficult But Wine Saves The Day – WebSearchSocial Podcast with Ralph and Carol Lynn Rivera.

In case you want a different take on content curation practices… a take that differs from the standard line that you have to push out 80% content of others vs. 20% content of your own, then you’ll have a friend in the Riveras. It do appear to be a hill worth dying on for the pair (grammar error intended). Actually, it’s not so much about battling this one marketing urban myth. From what I can tell, it’s more about being intentional about what actually works as it relates to overall marketing goals.

That’s what I like about the Riveras and Web.Search.Social: While they obviously love content and social media marketing, they love being effective even more. They are a worthy listen for anybody who wants to hear about social and other tech-based marketing from professional marketers who use the new tools vs. folks who use the new tools and fancy themselves as marketers just because they know how to schedule tweets.

BTW…. I feel like I’ve heard the 80%-20% rule apply more to ‘give value’ vs. ‘ask for the sale’ instead of content curation vs. content creation. I think many marketers falsely equate ‘give’ with ‘curate’.

Unprecedented and Be Rich – North Point Community Church

Megachurches get a bad rap. I encourage you to watch or listen to one or both of these, especially the ‘Be Rich – 2014’ sermon, where a church challenges its parishioners to give over $2MM on one Sunday, funds that go straight out to local, national, and international charities. In the words of Monopoly, the funds do not pass go (or go to jail, actually), they go directly to the charities.

The business lesson in these two sermons? Be absolutely committed to your mission, whatever that happens to be.

The Owner’s Mind Podcast – Chris Brogan

Great interviews with Rorke Denver (from 10.13.14) and the authors of Same Side Selling, Ian Altman and Jack Quarles.

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That should do it for now…  What did you learn, listen to, or read today? 

 

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Can you own a word?

One idea stuck out to me when listening to Sally Hogshead‘s interview on Bryan Kelly’s What the Speak podcast:

Own a word, not a topic, when you are branding yourself as a speaker.

Sally has branded herself as the expert in ‘Fascination.’

By owning a word – or an idea – she differentiates herself. She’s not just jockeying to be the keynote speaker who discusses the topic of ‘personality styles’. She owns the idea of how people naturally fascinate others.

How much more compelling is the pitch, “I study the science of fascination and how you can bring your most fascinating self to the table” vs. “I can help you understand your personality style so that you can leverage it in your relationships”?

I might be crazy, but I think the pitch that uses the word ‘fascination’ is a bunch better than the second option.

My challenge today: What ‘word’ do I want to own?

Let me preface by saying that I don’t think it has to be just one word. It’s an idea or a perspective…. a point of view.

I’m in the insurance world and it’s awfully hard to have a unique position. If you surveyed 100 independent insurance agencies’ websites, you’d find nearly every one of them uses the phrase ‘trusted adviser’. Or they’d reference being about coverage, not price. Or they say they are all about ‘personal service.’

Are any of those phrases a unique point of view? Do they represent not only a promise, but also the heart behind the promise?

I have two phrases that roll around in my brain:

  1. Protecting vision
  2. Culture of care

I help nonprofits find insurance and those two ideas are where I land. I can’t decide between the two of them.

In one sense, my clients all have a vision to create change. Insurance helps protect the ongoing mission that supports that vision should something happen. I love the idea of couching risk management solutions inside the idea of protecting vision.

On the other hand, I’ve noticed that a corporate culture that places a high value on top-down carrying for individuals within the organization leads to greater care for those that the nonprofit wants to reach. When a leadership team puts a lot of effort into protecting it’s people and resources, it starts creating a culture of care.

I’m stumped: Protecting vision or helping create a culture of care? 

Either one can be powerful in the boardroom, on a sales call, in a proposal, on a platform giving a speech. Instead of talking about the cold, hard details of property insurance, I can relate the coverage to how wise choices help protect vision of the organization and relate stories about how claims could have crippled organizations without proper coverage.

You get the picture.

How about in your world? What is the one phrase or one word that best encapsulates your approach? You don’t have to ever get on the stage to take advantage of this idea.

  • You can be a customer service representative and own the idea of ‘customer dignity.’
  • You can be a software developer and own the idea of ‘attention to detail.’
  • You can be a CEO and own the idea of ‘every employee is an innovator.’

What word do you want to own? Go ahead and own it.

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Listening: I’m still making my way through Bryan Kelly’s What the Speak podcast. I’m binge listening given an upcoming speaking opportunity.

Also, check out Sally Hoghead’s new book: How the World Sees You: Discover Your Highest Value Through the Science of Fascination (affiliate link)

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This blog is a response to Dan Miller’s unintentional challenge from his podcast on August 15, 2014: If you read or listen to 30 minutes of quality content a day, you’ll double your income. 

From September 1, 2014 through March 1, 2015, I will be doing the following:

  1. Listening or reading to 30 minutes of success, growth, business, spiritual, or other mindset-shifting, skill-sharpening content.
  2. Selecting one action item from that content (with some leeway to select an action from a previous day’s content).
  3. Doing that one action.
  4. Writing about the action or some other idea from the reading and listening of the day.

 

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Learn One (and only one) Thing at a Time

The problem with this Dan Miller Challenge that I’ve taken up is that part of the premise is to pick a new action item everyday based on what I read and listen to.

Therefore, I’m often doing something different everyday. Sometimes, these items build on each other. Other times they are completely different.

I’m sticking with this plan for the next 5 months, but I’m realizing the importance of sticking to one main project or skill, even if the

Do you struggle with trying to learn and do too many things at once? 

A couple weeks ago, I read about the importance of finding opportunities to present in front of groups, associations, and other organizations.

I emailed a couple organizations, and lo and behold, I got an opportunity. October 30th.

While I love reading and listening to all kinds of content, this upcoming presentation has become my focus.

I’m filtering all content through my desire to create value for those at the conference.

If you’re like I am and love to read this book, listen to that podcast, watch that series of Youtube videos, then you can relate to my version of adult ADD learning.

In order to make strides in any one area, though, you and I must learn to choose the most pressing piece of learning and focus on that one thing before bouncing to other things.

Just in time learning

Smart Passive Income’s Pat Flynn and Internet Business Mastery’s Jeremy Frandsen and Jason Van Orden introduced me to this idea of ‘just in time learning’.

Just in time learning is a practice whereby you focus solely on learning what you need to learn to achieve the next step in a current project.

For instance, for me right now, I’m focused on the presentation I have to give. My first job is to understand the best method planning and preparing my talk. Therefore, I’ve read a few blog posts and listened to a couple podcasts all around structuring my research, outlining, and pruning of my talk. When I get to the point where I need to create slides, then I’ll focus on that type of content.

Jumping from one thing to another, even within one project, slows down progress.

I get so tempted to try my hand at graphic design by creating slides, but first, I must focus on figuring out the one point I hope the audience walks away with.

Then I will focus on developing the supporting points and how to weave data and stories into the talk.

After that (and only after that), will I study the how-tos and worry about the slides.

Right now, every bit of content that I consume is around public speaking. But I’m drilling down deeper toward specific learning around the step I’m in at the moment.

How to practice just in time learning

Most of us don’t have the luxury of spending tons of time on one project at a time. Our day jobs are filled with a bunch of different people with whom we have a variety of relationships (bosses, colleagues, clients, direct reports).

We might have to stay sharp in a variety of areas.

That said, you and I should also be selective.

What’s one skill we know that would best move our work forward?

If you’re in sales, perhaps it’s learning the age-old practice of cold calling.

If you’re in customer service, perhaps it’s learning how to be more engaging with difficult customers.

If you’re a web designer, perhaps it’s learning a new CMS because WordPress is so 2013.

Pick the one thing and focus on it as much as possible until that one thing is either accomplished or deeply learned.

Write that one thing out on a piece of paper or create a file for it or a note in Evernote.

And get to work. Google it. Youtube it. Buy a book. Go to the library.

Figure that one thing out first before moving on.

I think we would all benefit from that type of focus.

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How about you? Do you practice this type of approach to learning, especially for your work? 

(Leave an answer in the comments)

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Listening for today:

What the Speak Podcast – with Bryan Kelly: I binge-listened to about 5 episodes of this podcast during my commutes today. Michael Hyatt, Nancy Duarte, Chris Brogan, Jeff Goins, and Ken Davis all taught me a little more about public speaking, from preparation to presentation. (By the way, all the sudden these podcasts stopped in July. I’m hoping all is okay!)

SPI 087 : Why You Belong on Stage – Pat’s “Braindump” of Public Speaking and Presentation Tips – with Pat Flynn: This podcast is a wonderful overview of public speaking, especially for newbies like myself.

 

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