Video 2: The Key to Unforgettable Speaking

TRANSCRIPT

The Key to Unforgettable Presenting

The idea that I want to talk about today is why telling your story is possibly the single greatest move you can make in order to become a paid speaker.

Storytelling is not only the most influential way to reach your audience, it’s also the most memorable and dynamic way to present. And so by doing so, you will set yourself apart in the eyes of anybody in the audience who might be thinking “hey I want to book you for my event that’s coming up.” So not only is it a great way to influence it’s also a unique way to show that you are an expert communicator. It’s not actually about being some kind of expert. It’s actually about getting more authentic sharing something of value and then doing so with a plan.

The question I sometimes ask myself is ‘what is something personal that I can share because it’s also universal?’ It’s not about you airing your thoughts and sharing stuff you haven’t dealt with yet. No, not at all. It’s about you being specific about your own experience because there’s this magic that results in that becoming a universal relatable story. The more you design with this in mind, the better.

I’ll give you an example of this. Here’s a simple question to ask yourself, that could lead to a story: “What is a skill that you learned from your first job that you still use to this day?”

I want to say why this is useful. First, this question will cause you to share a story that tells us something about who you are and will also allow us as listeners to reconnect nostalgically to our own younger version of ourselves. So you have two levels of connection: the connection of who you are and the eyes of your listener, and the connection of having your listeners journey back to the person that they once were and what they know now. It’s a no lose strategy from my perspective.

I will tell you a quick story of a time when somebody did this. I went to an author talk once. The author had written a book on the history of Merrill Lynch. He had been one of the CEOs of Merrill Lynch. He’s an investments guy, your classic coiffed, wealthy white man. He seemed to be a few cuts above us. He was very polished and he was a great speaker, but there was definitely a level of intimidation. This is a guy who’s owned a ski resort. He’s not exactly ‘one of us.’

At the end of his talk, I put up my hand I asked this question.

“Could you tell us what your first job was, and what’s a skill that you learned from it that you still use to this day?”

He thought about it and said, “You know my first job actually was working in a horse stable. And I did so because the owner of that farm was a business owner and I admired his success and I wanted to learn from him. And I knew that I was a nobody. I was a 16 year old. So I got a job working for him, in the horse stable. My job was literally to shovel crap all day. All day I shoveled horse manure.

But you know what? I worked really hard at it, and I made every effort to impress this person and eventually we had a conversation and he ended up becoming a mentor of mine and he’s a big part of who I am to this day.”

“What did I learn from that that I still use to this day? I guess it’s that sometimes you have to shovel a lot of shit to get where you want to go.”

This got a big laugh from the audience. Even the author was smiling as he shared the story. He was going back on this journey, just like we were.

And you could feel in the room this sudden and profound sense of connection. This was a special, unscripted moment.

This is why the key to unforgettable presenting is to tell your story. Because it was so memorable I’m describing the story I heard from an author in a talk from more than six years ago. But I still remember like it just happened.

Your audience will remember your message if you get them to connect to who you are.

They will remember that feeling of connection.

The number one way for you to differentiate yourself as a speaker to stand out and get booked is, quite simply, to tell stories like that.