Ep. 149 What Does Your Title Say?

Hey there, Mark Brown. What does your title say? You know, titles don't just speak, they yell, they whisper. But unless they bring us in, it doesn't matter.

We may get somebody saying, I don't get that. But if our title can generate some kind of emotion, it can also make a difference. And today let's try to help our friends answer the question, what does your title say?

Say what?

Anyone can give a presentation. Few deliver unforgettable presentations. What's the difference? You're about to find out. Welcome to the Unforgettable Presentations podcasts with your hosts, world champion speakers and coaches, Mark Brown. Mark Brown.

Your life tells story and there's someone out there who needs to hear it.

And Darren Lacroix. And Darren Lacroix.

Stage time, stage time, stage time.

Ready for some powerful presentation. Ahas. Let's dive right in.

Title check, check, check, check. Title check, check, check, check. This, this is just gonna be a short podcast, but here's what we really wanna do is just bring it up. Have you checked your title title inventory? Is it working? If it's working, cool, Congratulations. But if you come out with another keynote or another training, you gotta take the time to see if the title's working. Yeah.

You know, it reminds me, Darren, real quickly, we had a conversation recently with a good friend of ours, Rory Vaden, who runs a branding business, and he had said to us in the con that his first book really, really went well and it was a smash. It was great. And his second book, not so much because he had changed the title to something that sounded very erudite and very wordy, but it wasn't touching the erudite.

And very wordy in the same sentence.

But it wasn't touching the emotions of the reader and they weren't connecting to it. So I guess one of the first questions that I would like us to think about is our title, which may seem really cool to us. Can we be sure it's going to create some kind of emotional response in the person who's going to hear our speech or presentation? When they go to a conference and they see our presentation title and the conference brochure, are they going to say, oh, oh, hey, I want to go and hear that one. That really sounds interesting.

Yeah, give me some more of that. I need some more of that. And Mark, I'm going to take you to the way back room. The wayback. Wayback room. We didn't talk about this, but it's perfect for this one. Back in the day when we were fresh world champions and we had won. We decided to team up and we created an audio program called Secrets of the Champions.

Yes, speaking. That's right. Oh, my gosh. Speaking. Secrets is going way back now to audio cd.

Yeah, it sold incredibly well. All of us sold it. It got a lot of recognition. It was really helpful because people wanted again, the market was speakers, a lot of it. Toastmasters and NSAers. NSAers. National Speakers Association. So people who are speakers and presenters here, these people have credibility as the world champions and they want their secrets, right?

Yes.

And then after the success of that, we came out with another one which was called the Anatomy of an Audience of Audience. Yes, anatomy.

Look, that did sound great. I know the anatomy of the audience. And, and what happened?

Let me, let me, let me properly say this if I can.

What? No one got that?

The only, the only people who purchased it were the ones that didn't even know what it was. They're just like, you haven't given me that. And it was a big aha. And it was the same people who are on the Secrets of Champions. And what we did is we answered questions about connecting to the audience, but we realized it was not resonating the title. See, the content was really good. But unless people want more and think of this for the event planners point of view, they need to have a title in their conference promo that's going to get people to want to come out and forgive me. I've made these mistakes before. A lot of people has made these mistakes before. But if it's cliche, been there heard that. Ben there heard that. So Mark, we changed the title as you know, and it became Connect with any Audience.

That's it different now. Yeah, because. And the one, and the funny thing is when you think about it now from the outside looking in and what we should have done was really, here's the weird thing. We didn't connect our own brains to what the audience was thinking or experiencing or feeling. And now we say how to connect with any Audience. Wow. Because when people hear Anatomy of an Audience, people are thinking, what in the world? Anatomy? Body parts. Nah. No, thank you. When you tell a presenter, a fledgling or emerging presenter, here's how you can connect with any audience. I want to hear that. And a title change was transformational because the title in itself was key to connecting with the audience by telling them how to connect. The first lesson there was ironic, right? We should have known that the first time around. But you want to make sure your title creates a connection point with your audience and gives them an emotional Reason to buy in.

Yeah. So you got to do a title check and you can think, it's cool. We thought Anatomy of an Audience was cool. We did, but we never checked with the people who it was for the customers, the clients. So here we are thinking, ooh, this is cool. It's. Yeah. No, hey, we had.

We had two A's. We had Anatomy and Audience. We had alliteration.

Alliteration. And here's the key. It was the same content. It was the same content. So just in our little conversation before we started talking this through, like, what does your title say? So say what? As Mark says in his past episodes. But what does it say? So what do we want from a title? So, Mark, you just hit the underlying secret of a great title. As Michael Hague would say, it elicits emotion and gets us. And I even had, like, my book 17 Minutes to youo Dream, I had somebody say, I don't know what that is. What is that? Perfect.

Exactly.

It gets people curious. I don't want to give away what it is, but people go back and forth, and this is great title. That's a great title. Unless you're testing with your audience. So one thing could be curiosity. If it gets us curious, if it gets the right people to be curious about what you have about your process, about your insights, about your experience, about your story. So, number one, curiosity. Does it get us curious? Now, it doesn't have to be all of these three things, but it has to probably be one of these three things. So curiosity is one of them. Getting curious, huh? That's a new take. What do you mean by that? Now I got you. You're leaning in and wanting more. Now you're more to read the description. If we don't read the title and get curious, we ain't going to read the description.

Yeah, it's true. It's funny. Your book is also your newest keynote title. And what I like about your title is it has the word dream in it. And dream has been. One may consider the idea dream being cliche, but there's so many ideas and so many people talk about what dream you have. And we're trying to inspire young people. Now, in the midst of our pandemic, when we're recording this about you can still dream for your future. And when you say 17 minutes to your dream, what does that mean? It does generate curiosity. And if you, in your present, if your title is giving away your message, and we have talked about this before, you have to be careful because unfortunately, there are people who will Listen to your presentation title, or they'll read it in a brochure or a conference program and they'll say, secrets to having a great love life. I've heard that before. Been there, heard that. And sometimes a title will give the audience a reason to take a mental detour and says, oh, I've heard that before. Four ways to conquer fear. Yeah, I've heard that before. You know, great. Seven habits to be highly effective. Was that Stephen Covey? No, I tweaked it. It's a little different. But they say, I'm telling you, I've already heard that. And you don't want your audience to say, okay, you know what? I've heard that before. You really want them to say, hey, what's that all about? I think I need to go to this session and I talk to myself when I say this because I have had one particular keynote that works well for me, has worked many, many times in different industries, and I have tweaked and changed that title so many times, and I've landed on how to elevate your excellence. Oh, I got the elevate and the excellent. So elevate means lift up so I can be excellent and I can elevate that. How do I do that? Mark, come to my program and hear it. I'm being really honest now. I've also titled the same program how to Be youe Best. That has also worked. Right. It's how to be your best. Okay, what do I need to do? Come and find out. So both titles have worked, but I've worked and I've tweaked and I've tested and I've tried both titles. Darren said, you got to test with people you trust and put yourself in the audience's chair. Bottom line is this. If your title doesn't make them curious, you could minimize the impact and the potential of having people in the seats to hear your message, to receive your wisdom, and maybe learn more from you through a coaching program or a product you may have to offer them down the road as well.

Yeah, and when we say title, we're also including in that the subtitle because sometimes the title itself might be there to get you a little curious in order to read and understand the subtitle. So the subtitles got to give it some clarity.

Yeah, I agree. And that's the whole point. A subtitle should provide some clarity, but hopefully while it does that, it still gives leaves you with enough curiosity to say, I want to know more. And that subtitle says, I Am going to get more. I do need to attend this session and hear what this presenter has to say. So number one, you want to make sure your title, you could make sure your title has one of these three. We're going to give you three. Number one is curiosity. Will the title cause your audience or your potential audience to say, ah, I need to learn, I need to hear and I want to know more about that topic from that person on that day.

So we mentioned curiosity. Does it make us curious? There's also got to be some clarity to it. You know, we can't have confusion. So Mark, we talked about three. I'm kind of adding a fourth one that has got some clarity now if it's clear enough to make us curious. Done. We're trying to get them to read the description and want more because again, this is about getting you booked. This is whether it's a book title or a keynote title or book, both the clarity and curiosity and then the other two factors. So one of the two is the desire. What does, does that seem like it connects with a desire that I want? So in my old days of creating titles, get paid to speak by next week. That is a desire that someone wants. Create your keynote by next week. That is a desire some presenters want. Get more laughs by next week. You might be sensitive theme here next.

Week, you think, I'll tell you next week.

And it also, by next week, gives us even more desire. It's like, oh, I can get some quick laughs, I can get some paid speeches quickly. I can set myself up. So part of the desire is not just the outcome, but quickly is what I'm saying. So desire a lot. What is that desire that your customers, clients want?

And the thing there is you're asking a question that you as a listener must answer for yourself. And the one way to get the answer is to understand where your clientele is coming from. How well do you know your target audience? How well do you know what's happening in the world right now? How well do you know trends that are impacting their industry or their business? If you can understand where they are coming from, you can then craft your presentation title to speak to their desire and thereby give them a reason to come to your presentation or to purchase your product, your learning program or your book. You know, Darren and I are co authoring a book to be released this summer and the title was also very intentional. In order to speak to the desire of the emerging speaker, even the seasoned speaker or the corporate presenter, or even the experienced presenter. We're Telling you deliver unforgettable presentations. You read that I want to know how do I deliver unforgettable presentations? And the subtitle was also important. How to speak to be remembered and repeated. Wait, if I learn this, they're going to remember me and they're going to quote me, where do I sign? Kind of thing. But that was intentional and deliberate. To speak to a desire of our.

Target audience and then moving over to the thing, the pain, the thing that they want to avoid is another way you could have a powerful title. So two of our programs we have own the stage without investing 3500 in a coach. So how to own the stage desire, what do they want to avoid without investing 3500 in a coach? So the program is some insights that, hey, if you invest in a coach, that's a great strategy. But what if you don't have 3500 and have a lower budget for something like coaching? So we created that program. It's a free online training that we do in order to show people the importance of this. By the way, if you haven't listened to last week's episode, we talk about why to get a coach. Why to get a coach. We have another program called Coaching Secrets. How to get more clients without networking your butt off. Because people like me, who might be a coach but might be introverted, they don't want to go to networking meetings and pass out their business card and do their two minute pitch. Well, if you're the person on stage, you don't have to network your budget. You don't have to network your butt off because you're the expert. So when you can get invited to speak, you instantly have more credibility. Everyone knows who you are. You don't have to pass around your business card. So for coaches, it's how to get on stages, to get clients for what you do and what you love to do. But it's how to get more clients, the desire without working your networking your butt off. That's the pain that they want to avoid.

Yeah, and I hadn't really thought, I confess I hadn't thought much about this in the past. But when you really consider it, when the audience, your audience, sees that you have something, a tool, a technique, a strategy, a process that will prevent them from going through what they perceive to be painful, that's also a quote unquote selling point for your program. And if your title and subtitle can show what the pain they can avoid, that will also give them a reason to listen in because they may not say out loud, out loud. But they're saying, I don't want to go through that. I have to do this. Is there any way I can do it without going through that? And they see your title and they go, there is hope. I want to find out what that person is doing, because if they can help me to do that, it'll shorten my learning curve because I'll take a shortcut to where I want to be and I'll spare myself pain, anguish that may make me want to consider quitting before I do so. And I mentioned the last part about quitting because we have to understand we have an opportunity, but also a responsibility to those individuals who will come to our programs to avoid pain or because they've been scarred by a previous experience. And when you can show them what you have learned in your own experience that can help them get through that, that's pretty powerful. So the cautionary word is this. Do not take lightly the impact you can have when you promise to alleviate some pain. You have to be sure you can deliver. And if you listen to any of Darren's materials, you come to our webinars, you'll notice, particularly when it comes to create your keynote by next week, we have evidentiary proof. We have testimonial video of a client who said, I had two months, but I didn't get to it. Didn't get to it. I only have two days. And Darren said, go to our program. And this particular client has said in public for all to see by applying the principles that were promised through Darren's title, create your keynote by next week. She got it done in two days, but he delivered on the promise. So it's nice to get a cool title. But be sure you can deliver on the promise of your subtitle. Darren.

Yeah. And if you think back to the coaching title, where how to get more coaching clients without networking your butt off, what is it they want and what are they trying to avoid? So if you listen to your market, if you jump on Facebook and LinkedIn and Instagram and just see what people who are in that profession, what they're talking about, especially in an association, because that's where they're more likely to kind of open up and. And be truthful about, like, oh, man, I hate networking.

Ooh.

Like, when. When there's a strategy that nobody likes or wants to do, then maybe your strategy is different. So what's the traditional strategy that's out there? And is your strategy or insight different now? You have to have proved it. Like Mark Saying, you got to follow. You got to be able to prove your idea. Now, there's so much again to titles. When you're testing it on Facebook or Instagram, it's great to say, hey, quick opinion. And A, B, C or D, which title is more interesting to you? People are happy to help with a quick opinion. If it is quick, you don't want to have to put up the whole description. And now they've got to spend minutes reading everything to give you there. So if you say quick opinion, it's quick opinion, but it's going to help you clarify and see what's working. Now, we also got to be careful that we're asking people who are in that interest area in that potential customer arena, because we don't want to base it on people who are not in that industry or having that challenge or having that problem. So test, test, test, test, test, and eventually you're going to hear people, ooh, wow. Reactions tell the story, as we say in storytelling, but reactions tell the story in marketing, too. So make no mistake, this is marketing. But if you have a great speech, if you want to be unforgettable, if you don't have a stage in which to deliver, you're not even unforgettable in a good way or a bad way, you don't have that opportunity, not even been known yet.

Yeah. And please, please hear our hearts here. I know for some, or maybe Toastmasters, you're thinking, well, I just want to get a good contest speech title. And that's fine, too. But we always will. Much. Not always. For the last several months, we've been proclaiming this. If you're a Toastmasters speech contestant, think beyond the contest to what impact you can have outside Toastmasters, within your community, maybe within the state, province, region you live in and the world. I had no idea 27 years ago in August of 1995. We're recording this now in 2022. I had no idea then that my speech of fewer than seven minutes would expand into a program by a completely different name that would touch the hearts of over a million kids on this planet. And I. Please hear my heart. I'm not saying this to brag. I'm saying I didn't see coming. But it was a second chance, everyone. This was a second chance. My message in Toastmasters back in 1995, but then became different titles. Words Count was. Was the title I had. The Words Count title was for kids to look at how their words matter to other kids. That became a dvd, which became an Emmy got an Emmy nomination back in 1999 years ago. And then it began. It changed again. To change a life, how can you change it became a challenge, actually change a life. Words Count was a cool title because kids need to understand that their words mattered. And it's funny, Words Count would be a good title now in this particular part of the time in our history, because what we say to each other every single day, I say all that to say the title went through metamorphosis, metamorphoses, to meet the needs of the demographic to whom I was delivering the message. When I first gave the talk in 1994, it was called the Power of the Tongue, which now is too ambivalent to use again. Okay. I actually changed that title four different times in the course of almost 30 years because of the impact it had. So here's also a thought for you to consider. And I don't want to go down the rabbit hole with this, but just bear in mind, sometimes a title tweak could be necessary, depending upon how times change. Just as a rebranding or reimaging can certainly, certainly help in your business, I don't want to go down that road. But remember, if your title for your target audience will generate curiosity, will provide some clarity. If it will touch a pain point, but also meet a desire, chances are you will generate enough interest in your material to cause people to come to listen, hopefully learn and grow from having heard you deliver your presentation.

Check, check, check. Do a check on your title. Does this title make me curious? Give me a desire. Help me avoid a pain. Is it clear? Does it get me to want to know more? It is. Your career depends on it. Your book sales, your course sales, whatever you use the title for, make no mistake, we're asking you, we're inviting you to please, for your own career. Take the time to step back and take inventory. Just like us. Anatomy of an Audience, which didn't sell. We changed the title to connect with any audience. Same content, much better selling. So you want to be unforgettable? Take some time. Brainstorm. Get together with a friend, over coffee, over a glass of wine. Do some brainstorming because your title matters.

And don't forget to ask yourself one key question. What does my title say? Beyond forgettable. We'll see you next week.

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