Creating the Death Spiral Monologue

Welcome to episode three. Episode three. About the 20 biggest mistakes that most teachers, presenters, trainers make that blow up their programs, screw up their sales, and how to prevent them, and be a rock star. Okay, so hopefully the episodes you've watched so far, if you tested any of that, you. You should already notice a difference and just trust that it gets easier and easier every time you practice. Okay, so episode three. One of the biggest mistakes that most presenters make is they spend their time telling people what to do, telling people what they know, telling rather than selling, engagement rather than getting people to engage. Remember that if you're in front of a group of people for any reason, online, offline, in your company, whatever, they're there to learn something. They're not there to listen to you pontificate or talk about how great you are. So there to learn something, make it easy for them, make it easier to do that. Remember, a lot of people have a bad memory, bad subconscious memory of school. So the minute it looks anything like school, their brain instinctively, subconsciously checks out, and you might as well be talking to a wall. Many presenters spend a lot of time explaining what they do and why they do it and why it's important and why you should do this and why you should do that. And it's a trap that most speakers get into, and they wonder why they don't get the results that they're looking for. But they become legends in their own mind. As a matter of fact, they actually think that they're doing well. I was working with a group of investment bankers from a large investment bank in New York, and we were doing something really exciting like doing Harvard case studies. And they had to make presentations to executive directors and stuff like that. And so one group came back after making their presentation. I said, well, how did it go? They go, wow, we thought it went great. I go, why? That's great. Why did you think your presentation was great? And they said, well, nobody asked any questions, so that's great. That's not great. If people are not asking questions means they're not engaged. If people are not asking questions because they just want to be done with it and get out of there. If you've got people asking you a lot of questions, that means they're engaged, or at least you've riled something up inside of them and they're hooked into the material and they're very present. So don't become a legend in your own mind. Most people dislike being told what to do, so don't preach to them. So engage them in dialogue through questions. Through activities, through discussions. Most people are inspired by two things. One thing is by actually doing something. So anytime you're teaching something, you can give them something to do, an exercise to do. That's awesome. Or even if you can't do that, if you can just, at the minimum, tell a story, a metaphor, a story about an example of what you're talking about, like I just did, or a story about somebody in the company who did something not to glorify them, but just to dramatize what you're talking about. Why? Because people hook into stories. People love the little bit of drama in stories. And some cases that you see out in the real world that apply to what you're talking about. That's better than just sitting there droning on and on and on about the material. Okay, so here's a little hint. Before you make your next presentation, pick two or three key points that you're trying to make. Not the only two or three, but two or three key points out of the presentation and either create an activity for them to work on or just get them to discuss. Put them into breakout rooms. If you're on Zoom, put them into breakout rooms for a couple of minutes and have them discuss a scenario, come back and give you feedback. How about that? Because at the minimum level, the energy is going to rise up. Okay, so no telling. So the sixth, or, I'm sorry, the fifth piece as part of this episode, episode three, the fifth biggest mistake is talking without asking, which is related to this. Similar to preaching. What happens is, like I said, people drone on and on and on. A lot of times that comes because speakers are intimidated by the audience. They don't want feedback. They don't want people to ask them things that they may not be able to answer. And so they never ask questions and they just keep going. And sometimes, to gain a little more energy, they get louder because they think that's going to work a lot better. All it's going to do is annoy people. You should be asking questions in any presentations throughout, throughout. I tell people that if you're in a teaching scenario, you should be asking question at least a couple every minute. Okay, we'll talk about that a later time. But in a normal presentation, you should be asking a couple of questions every minute or two of the group to just calibrate where they're at. Are they tracking with you? Does this make sense to you? Do anybody have a thought about that? Who can give me an example of that? These kinds of things. Okay. And by the way, if people don't want to respond to your questions. A really easy thing to do. And this happens culturally in some companies and some countries. People don't like to raise their hand and volunteer information. So here's what you can do. Put them into breakout rooms again. But before you put them in breakout rooms or wherever or little pods, whatever, say, look, based on what I'm talking about right now, I'm talking about talking without ask, about asking questions. So I want you to get in your groups and give two or three, come up with two or three examples of how questions would help improve a presentation that you sat through before. And then I'm going to call on one of you to give that scenario to the group, send them into breakout rooms. Now what are they going to do? They're going to talk about it, they're going to engage in that. Why? Because you gave them an assignment, they come back, they. And then you don't even have to call on somebody. You just say, so who would care to share a couple of examples? And people would be raising their hands and putting in a chat box all those kinds of things. It's very easy to do. Don't be afraid of it. Don't be afraid. I think I tell you how to handle pushback in the next episode. But right now you want to get people engaged. Okay? You ask questions like does everyone understand what I'm talking about? How many of you can see an immediate application in your own environment? Okay, so it's also a good idea to ask periodically, ask certain open ended questions like who can give me an example of where they've seen this procedure succeed or fail in our organization? Okay, makes sense. So again, lots and lots of questions in the beginning. Write them down to remind yourself this part. I'm going to ask a couple of questions and here's the thing, here's a rule. If you're going to ask a question, demand a response. Okay? Now there's open ended questions and there's closed ended questions. Closed ended questions are like, does everybody understand what I'm talking about? If so, type in yes in the chat box. If no, type in no. Or give me a thumbs up if you understand. Give me sideways if you're not sure. Give me a thumbs down if you don't understand. And if there's a not understand, ask them what would you like me to clarify? Now you're in engagement. All good. But I'll tell you what. Death on zoom is you droning on and on and on. And what they're doing is they're kind of looking at you see their eyes dropping periodically. What are they doing? They're texting, they're doing other stuff. They're not listening to you. That's not what you want. Keep them engaged. Get them typing in the chat box. Get them answering questions. And the best way to get them to respond in a chat bot in the chat box is by asking them a question. If you. So if I told you, we could start on September 15th or October. October 15th, which do you prefer, A or B? A. September, B, October. Type in in the chat box, A or B. So A, A, B, B, B, A, A. And you gotta go, okay, so about 50, 50. So why B? Who can tell me why? Now I'm engaged. Now I'm engaged. Well, I've got so much material, I gotta get covered. All in time. Let that go. Let that go. If it's your own organization, you got all the time in the length of your organization, okay? If you have a certain amount of time in a webinar, choose it wisely. But understand that if you're doing a webinar, you're going to take them to another webinar or to another masterclass or something else. You're going to teach them all the good stuff there. And in the subsequent other programs, you can't possibly teach them. But. But if their energy is good and they love the program and they're engaged with you and they feel like they've been a part of a discussion. I've said this before, I'll say it again. Presenting is not. Presenting is not a performance. It's a conversation. I'll say it again. Presenting is not a performance. It's not a show. It's a conversation. The way I'm teaching it to you. That's why it's easy. You just need to be yourself and engage people in the conversation. Okay? So hopefully this helps us. In episode three and next episode, we're going to talk about what happens if people do actually ask some questions you're not prepared to handle. And I'm going to show you exactly how to get that done, okay? Because what happens, most people avoid it. And by avoiding it, you bring the whole energy down. But if you know how to handle it, pivot it, work with it, don't even have to know how to answer it. That's a clue. You will create followers, you'll create people who admire you. Your reputation as a leader will go. Will precede you. Okay? So don't ever get. Don't ever become afraid of it. Okay? All right? So if you have questions about this one, go to our Facebook group, which is Lead, Teach, and Inspire Facebook Group. LTI Facebook Group. Lead, Teach, Inspire Facebook Group. Ask any questions that you have. You have some comments about it, you have some disagreements about it, engage there. Be happy to respond to those. And by the way, most all this is a lot of this is coming from the 20 biggest mistakes that almost every single presenter and trainer make in the world and how to avoid and become a rock star. Okay? So if you want that type, you know, give us a comment back, say 20 mistakes, and we'll send you the whole document. Okay? So, again, thank you. Teachers are leaders. Leaders are teachers. The world needs you as a teacher leader more than ever before. Be amazing.