Speaking is a great exercise and it’s a great way to get clients. There are clubs and groups all over that are dying for someone like you to speak to them.
Not only are groups and clubs always looking for speakers, you can create strategic partnerships with other related local businesses and put on workshops for their clients or employees.
Here’s how to make your talk dynamite.
The talk is going to have 6 parts.
Intro – you get introduced and you introduce yourself and who you are. There is an optional part here to ensure audience attention and I’ll tell you that in a minute because it requires some explanation.
Open Loops – Essentially you tease your valuable solutions and offer. More on this in a bit.
Define the Problem – You explain the pervasive problem your audience faces.
Agitate the problem – You exacerbate the problem. You “twist the knife” to make your solutions more valuable.
Give some valuable solutions – Usually some information your audience can use to improve their lives.
Offer and call to action – Their problems can ultimately be solved by giving you money.
The Pre-Frame
A frame can make or break a piece of artwork. A bad frame can make a beautiful painting look cheap and pedestrian, and a beautiful frame can make an average piece of art look magnificent.
A frame can make or break you too.
For example: problems in your life can be framed as insurmountable and un-conquerable, or you can frame your problems as a challenge that can be overcome, because you frequently overcome challenges and obstacles in your life, and you even welcome them because facing challenges and hurdles makes you a stronger person.
Now, think about how a friend might introduce you at a party.
Naturally, how you are introduced will influence the way you are initially perceived.
If someone introduces you with low energy or makes a statement about you that doesn’t put you in a good light, I probably don’t need to tell you that it won’t do you any favors.
It may, in fact, impact you very negatively, to the point where it will kill the “sale.”
So, when you are going to give a talk, make sure you are introduced by the host, and make sure they introduce you the way you want to be introduced.
Things to have the host mention include you being a doctor, having written a book, that you are a friend of the host, an expert in health and wellness, that you played AAA baseball, and whatever else you’ve accomplished that makes you look good.
How to Capture Your Audience’s Attention
Optional – before you introduce yourself you may want to include a “pattern interrupt” to snap your audience out of their current pattern and immediately get their attention.
The people you are going to be talking to already have things going on in their head. They are thinking about work deadlines, kids, Game of Thrones, regular life stuff. So, you have to do something to get their attention. You want to interrupt their pattern. You can do this in a few different ways.
- Video: Videos appeal to peoples’ ADD and automatically absorbs their attention.
- Unusual Picture: Putting up a shocking or unusual picture will get your audience to take notice.
- Shocking Facts: Bewilder your audience and build their attention with some shocking or unbelievable facts. There are plenty out there.
- Warning: A warning disclaimer always attracts attention. Even better is if you create a video introduction with a video warning narrated in a low tone of voice.
- Extended Silence: Nothing builds tension like silence. Your audience will be expecting you to say something and when you don’t, they’ll find it unusual and pay attention when you do start talking.
Introduce yourself and what you are known for. Then, open some loops.
You know when the news teases you about a compelling segment that’s coming up later in the broadcast? Then you sit through the entire program just to get that bit of information they are baiting you with?
Yeah, that’s a loop.
Once a loop is opened, it’s human nature to want to close it. Humans don’t like leaving things unresolved. We have a strong desire to have closure or a resolution. Marketers, authors and speakers use loops to wrangle the attention of their audience.
You can too.
The news opens loops in the beginning of the show with a tease of information presented in a compelling way to make you sit through the entire show.
Finally they close the loop when they give you that info they teased you with.
Great writers do this as well.
They end each chapter with a cliffhanger to make you keep reading all the way until the end. James Patterson is maybe the best at this. Check out one of his books and you’ll see how well he is able to keep you reading. Patterson’s books are impossible to put down.
You can do the same with the information in your talk. Tease your audience what they are going to learn so they pay attention to you the entire time. You can even open a loop in the beginning about the offer you have planned for the end. Then in order to close the loop they have to agree to your offer.
Example: you are going to show the audience some things they can do at home to combat the damaging effects of day to day stress, and you’re also going to show them the most significant way they can un-do the accumulated damaging effects of stress on their body, so they can ensure a long and healthy life without drugs and surgery (which is, of course, an appointment in your office for more information).
I’m going to show you the most effective way to go about doing this in the next post, so stay tuned… and subscribe so you don’t miss anything!
