Leverage the POWER of PUBLIC SPEAKING

All right, let's dive into the power of public speaking, why you need to be doing it and how you can get better at it. Shift your mindset. Listen, if there's one tool, one strategy you can be using right now to rise above your competition and gain the attention of the right prospects, it's to be out. Public speaking now looks a little different these days than it did maybe just eight, nine months ago, but let's face it, going to be in this virtual online setting for a few more months. Heck, it could be even longer than that. And you need to differentiate yourself. And the easiest way to do that in an online world is to start speaking, in this case, virtually. Now, let's talk about why you need to be public speaking. Number one, it is the easiest way to stand out from your competition. Let's face it, in the insurance world, there's a lot of bad public speaking, that there's a lot of bad presentations out there, and I want to help you avoid the same mistakes we see everybody else making right now. Which leads to point number two. The bar is so low, if you can put yourself out there and you can be a powerful presenter that has a good message, you're going to stand out. You're going to gain the attention of your prospects. Number three, it is the most effective way to grab the undivided attention of your target prospects. If you are hired to speak at an event or a venue right now, you have your target prospects, undivided attention for that 30, 45, 60 minutes you are speaking. So if you can leverage that and become a powerful presenter, it's only going to help you fill the pipeline. So, again, you can do what you do best, and that is close business. Now, when I talk about public speaking, for most people, right away it goes, there's that fear that sets in. Why does that happen? Well, a lot of people fear speaking because, one, they don't think they have anything to say. Number two, they fear standing on stage in front of a room full of people, and they fear that those folks are actually there to watch them screw up. There is that overwhelming feeling of what's going to happen if I screw up on stage. Now, there are things you can do to overcome that fear, but here's what I'm trying to tell you. It has never been easier to public speak than it is right now. Why? You don't have to stand on stage. Your stage has become your living room, your dining room, your home office, and you're not talking to a room full of heads that are staring at you, you're talking to a dot on your laptop. It has never been easier to dive into public speaking, but that's just the start. Taking the step to actually start speaking is the easy part. Now you got to become a good presenter. So how do you do that? Well, I'm about to teach you a formula that I've used with my coaching clients that has helped them take their speaking to the next level, which has helped them take their prospecting and their engagement, relationships and authority with their prospects in their markets to a whole different level. In fact, public speaking has changed my career. It has allowed me to stand on stages around the country, share my message. Heck, it's allowed me even to get paid pretty handsomely to stand on stage and speak to audiences across the country. So power speaking can be a powerful weapon for you when used effectively. And I'm going to share with you a formula that I teach my clients called Impact, to help you get or create better presentations. Now, before I dive into Impact, I quickly want to talk about some of the mistakes we see out there when it comes to the presenters we're watching these days. Number one.

Speakers who don't share stories, who just stand on stage and regurgitate facts and data. Boring people tune out within minutes. And let's face it, in the insurance industry, those are most of the presentations we're seeing these days. The bar's low. So, number one, we've got to tell more stories. And I'm going to talk and show you how you can do that. Number two, too many presentations focus all of their attention on the PowerPoint. I see speakers today literally spending 90% of their time putting together this fancy PowerPoint and they haven't even thought a minute about what they're going to say. Listen, if you want to become a better speaker, you got to ditch the PowerPoint. The worst thing you can have done to you as a speaker is when you have so much emphasis placed on the PowerPoint. You have so much data on the PowerPoint that people literally want to look at you and go, you know what? You could just actually sit down. We're just going to sit here and read the PowerPoints, because that's all we need to know right now. You have to help the audience keep their attention on you. So when you speak, if you can do anything, ditch the PowerPoint or if you must use one, it is only there to support your stories, support the facts you're sharing. That is it. The attention's on you, not on the PowerPoint. All right, so let's Dive into the Impact formula. How do you use this formula to create better speaking engagements? So number one, you can get hired more often. Number two, you can find yourself with the undivided attention of your target prospects more often and you can get one step closer to becoming the authority in your market. So what is impact? It is a six step process. It's an acronym. And if you check all six of the boxes with your talk, I promise you it's going to be powerful, it's going to be engaging and it's going to call your audience to action. So what is the I Impact? It is intro. Story. Yes. When you kick off a talk, whether it's a keynote or a presentation, start with a story. Start with a personal story. Why? Because out of the gate, it gives the audience a chance to get to know you and connect with you. Now, that story must serve a purpose. You want to tell a story that is going to tie into the message, the topic you are there to talk about. And when you tell stories, when you share that personal story, go into the details. Let the audience literally put themselves into that story. Where are you? What does it look like? What does it feel like? What's touch, sight, sound, smell? Use the five senses when you're sharing stories. But share a personal story out of the gate that gives your audience a chance to get to know you. Now, the M in Impact ties right into that story. M stands for memorable message. You see, you can't just share a personal story with no lesson, no message. That is just a story you just told the audience. It serves no purpose, especially for you, to get results out of that talk. A memorable message, a lesson that comes out of that story. And it's a lesson and the message that sets up why you're there to talk. Now, that is powerful. So when you're putting together a keynote, a speaking engagement, just a presentation to your target prospects, think about what story you could come out of the gate with. A personal story that lets them get to know you, lets you two connect or you and the audience connect a little more. But the memorable message is what is it out of that story? What's the lesson? The message in the story that I'm going to share with the audience, that I learned from this story in my life, this event in my life that I can pass on to the audience. Now, once you've shared your story, once you have shared the lesson from that story, now it's time to get into the talk. And you want to start with addressing the challenges and the problems your audience faces. Today, that's the P in impact problems. Talk about the challenges that that audience faces today. What problems do they have that are keeping them from arriving at their destination, from achieving their goals? Because they're there for a reason. They're there to hear you talk. They're there to become better people. They want to hear you teach them how they can overcome their challenges and achieve their goals. So start with the problems. What are they facing today that's holding them back from accomplishing their goals? Now, once you've established the problem, you got to go into the next step, the A in impact, the answers, the solutions. Now that you've set up the problems, here's the problems, the challenges you face. Now it is time for you to walk through the solutions. This is your plan. We've talked about this. You've been watching my coaching videos. You must have a plan that helps turn an unhappy prospect into the happiest client you've ever had. This is where you share the plan. What's the solutions to those challenges you just laid out.

Once you have walked through that plan, the bridge that gaps from where they are today to where they want to be. The see in impact is case studies. Share case studies. Show me an example now of some client of yours that has gone through this process, this solution you just shared with me and is having massive success today.

And the last letter in impact, the T stands for transformation. This is the most important letter in the acronym you must abide by. You have must. You must give your audience the chance to transform throughout your talk. When they walked in at the beginning of that talk, they may have felt hopeless. They may have felt uncertainty, like they can't accomplish their goal that they're striving to do every single day. But by the end of your talk, you got to give them that hope. You just gave them the solution. You gave them the answer. Now they must feel like they can accomplish that. That's the transformation you want to give the audience. One of the biggest mistakes I see speakers in the insurance industry make is they've got a great solution, they're getting great results for their clients. But if they can't communicate it in a way that lets a prospect sit there and go, hmm, not only I know now do I know what you do, I see the results you're getting, but I actually believe I can do it. That, my friend, is when people start taking action. Too many brokers, too many industry partners right now are sharing this destination the prospects don't believe they can arrive at, so they don't Take action. Make that transformation believable for them. Make them feel like, dang it, I can do it. And I promise you they will walk out of that public speaking engagement. That talk you have given. Taking action and taking action with you. So use this formula the next time you're asked to give a presentation, a public speaking appearance. Heck, it might even be an industry keynote. Follow the six letters of impact I Intro Story M Memorable message P Problems A Answers and solutions C Case studies T Transform that audience. Make them believe they can accomplish what you've just showed them. And in public speaking will become the most powerful prospecting weapon you have ever used. And remember, 99% of your competition is too afraid to do it. So if you can become a better speaker, you, my friend, will separate yourself from competition, maybe for good. And remember, you'll have better relationships, better engagement, and you will become the authority in your market. So do me a favor today, sit down. Think about how you can start using public speaking to uplevel your prospecting up level your business growth, especially as we enter 2021. And you know what happens when confidence and clarity collide. Action happens. I'm here to help you. If you have any questions about speaking how to become a better speaker, you know where to find me. But use public speaking in 2021 to grow your business to heights you could have never imagined. Go make it happen.