โYour job when speakingย is to unpack the future so the audience can feel it and deal with it todayโ ~ Thomas Winninger
If youโd been sitting in the audience Monday night at the NSA Kentucky chapter meeting, youโd have heard the words above from Thomas Winninger. Heโs a Hall of Fame speaker and expert on market leadership.
His idea of โunpacking the futureโ immediately resonated with me.
Why?
For years, Iโve promoted the idea that purpose of speaking is to change the way people think, feel or act – in other words, change their perspective.
What Thomas provided was a succinct follow-up to this idea – how to change their perspective.
When you paint the picture of a compelling future, your audience feels a sense of optimism, energy and hope. This is the ultimate benefit of what you provide when you give a presentation.
For example, as a speech coach, I can share the following story with a prospective client or an audience:
โMy client Patti called me the night of her big speech. She said, โYou wonโt believe what happened, Michael! I got a standing ovation at the end of my speech. And that wasnโt the best part – when I finished, people came up and handed me checks and volunteered time to my foundation.โ
I said, โPatti, thatโs fantastic. Thatโs a better result than we expected.โย
Patti replied, โMichael, I appreciate the work you did with me. I was so afraid of giving this speech when we first met. After what happened tonight I canโt wait to give it again.โ
Notice the emotion that was used to connect the story to the emotions of the listener(s). Itโs not as easy to pick up on Pattiโs emotions when reading versus hearing her words. She was excited because she had been extremely nervous and uptight about giving this speech. With hard work and practice, she morphed into a speaker who encouraged an audience to donate time and money to her organization. Additionally, her outlook on speaking changed – she was eager to speak again. Quite a change from her original emotions.
That is the type of response my prospective clients seek. When they give presentations, they want their audiences to take action. By sharing Pattiโs story, I am โunpacking the futureโ with the picture of a desired outcome that my audiences want. They also hear the change in emotion Patti experienced from the time we met to the night of her speech – that is the change they seek.
โUnpacking the futureโ and painting a picture of a result that your audiences want will create curiosity and a desire in them to seek you out to help them make that picture come true for them.
RECOMMENDED RESOURCE OF THE WEEK
Learning how to giveย Stand OUT presentations means little if you donโt have opportunities toย speak.
There are countless opinions about how to most effectivelyย tell the world about you and what you do. Some of these opinions are contradictory, so you can be left scratching your head and wondering, โWhoโs right? ย Whoโs wrong? ย What should I do?โ ย
Fortunately, that source is now available to you. In the book Mastering Your Connections, networking expert S. Duane Plapp Sr. and 13 other authors share tips and strategies that have helped them build successful businesses and careers.
Invest in this book, and in a short time, you will learn:
=>ย How toย eliminate the stress of networking
=>ย How toย avoid the aggravation of ‘shotgun marketing’
=>ย 5 steps to creating a 100% referral-based business
=>ย How toย enjoy the process of meeting prospective clients
=>ย and much more
If you are frustrated by lack of qualified prospective clients and not knowing how to effectively network or ask for referrals, then Mastering Your Connections is for you.
For more information, and to order, click here.