Remarkability Institute with Bart Queen

Bart Queen:  Welcome to the remarkability Institute podcast. This is Bart queen, your host. I'm really glad you're with us today. I recently had someone give me a call and ask me about the fear of public speaking and when I tried to address the issue with them. As I listened to him, he kept talking about all the things that he would naturally not do when he was standing in front of a group of people, and I laid out to him the idea that this is the issue that every single person faces when they think about public speaking.

If I can really write the script, I take the word public speaking out of our vocabulary. I really truly believe it puts just fear and uncomfortableness in people's hearts. So the question becomes for all of us who do any type of communicating, whether it's a small group, one-on-one, a large group, 5,050 or 500, how do we come across more naturally?

I think the best way to come across and their real natural sense is to take a mind shift from this idea of public speaking to just having a conversation. If you and I went to Starbucks and had a cup of coffee and we sat at one of those cushy kinds of chairs, and we're just going to chit chat and have coffee over something, we wouldn't even think twice about the way we're seated in a chair.

We wouldn't think twice about what we do with our hands. We would gesture and just have a conversation. Most likely, we would look at each other as we shared whatever we were talking about. But as soon as you say to someone, Bart, can you get up in front of the group and share with them what your department, your division or company has been doing for the last six months? All of a sudden, people shift in their minds from having a conversation seated to standing to feel like their public speaking and presenting. I think this is the biggest challenge. Every single one of us faces, and to get past that, we've got to do a different mind shift. Here's the first mind shift.

Last fall, I had an opportunity to spend six months in the Asia pack. One of the stops on my trip wasn't Singapore. Now, the package that the client put me up with was in a hotel called the Marina sands. I don't know if you've heard of this hotel. It's a beautiful hotel. It's almost a city within a city. It has absolutely everything, from shopping to casinos to a spa.

At the very top of this hotel is a platform, and when you're on the ground, and you look up, it looks like Noah's Ark kind of landed up there. Now, this hotel is made up of three towers, and across the towers is this platform. There's a pool; there's a place you can eat. It's just beautiful. Now I'm an early riser, so I like to get up in the morning, go to the very top and enjoy some coffee.

Now, as I'm enjoying my coffee, I'm reading USA today on the back page of the very first section, there was a small article about a black market organization, heisting men's kidneys. Now, according to the story, two men are out. They finished up work. They're going to go have a drink, glass of wine, a cup of coffee, whatever it may happen to be that's appropriate, and one says to the other, you know what?

I think I need to go up and get some emails done before the end of the day. The other gentlemen say, "Oh, I'm just going to hang out for a little while." According to the article, a beautiful woman approaches him and says, can I buy you a drink? And this guy, being a gentleman, says, why, of course. And they start the conversation.

Well, according to the story, the next thing that the man realizes is he wakes up in a bathtub full of ice with a small sign on the top that says, we've harvested one of your kidneys. You need to call nine one one immediately. Now. I had never heard this story before, and when I shared this story with folks, many people will go, well, Bart, I've heard that story before, Bart, I even saw a movie about this kind of an idea.

Now, if I were in a classroom situation, I'd say, how many of you have heard this story before? And many of them would raise their hand, yes.

I make the other point for those who raised their hand and said, no, they've never heard it. I tell them that most likely a break at lunch. When you go home tonight, you're going to say to a family member, a colleague. The story that I've just shared with you. Now, I don't know whether this story is true or not.

That's not why I shared the story. Some people say that somebody put it out on the internet and it just went viral. Again, my point is not whether it's true or it's not true. My point is this. For those of you who had heard it before you went, I remember this, and for those of you who hadn't heard it, you'll most likely go tell the story.

So here's the paradigm shift. I want every single one of us to take. As we think about talking to our customers, we talk to our clients as we're sharing information, as we're speaking in our teams, our units, or our divisions. The question in your mind should not be, how do I tell them more? I see this a lot from salespeople.

It's this idea of showing up and throw up. How do I throw as much information at these people as I possibly can, guys? Just from my experience out of coaching folks out of the last 20 years, I don't think that's the right perspective. I think the question we should ask ourselves is, how do I get people to remember more.

How do I get people to walk out of my meeting, out of my sales call, out of my talk, out of my presentation, out of my keynote speech, out of my podcast, whatever it may happen to be guys, and walk down the hall and see someone else and say, I was just in a short meeting with Bart, and these were the three things that he said.

How do I get that kind of retention and memorability into my conversations? To my presentations to my webcasts, to my zoom sessions, to my one on one conversations. In my mind, it comes back to just something very, very simple we need to get away from, how do I tell them more to how do I get them to remember more.

No. I think there are two ways that come to my mind right off the top of the bat that can help us do that. The first one is what I call a seven-factor phrase. Now, if you think about it, what is a seven-factor phrase? And most people will come back and say, Bart, that some type of a phrase that I have seven pieces to it.

That's what I typically hear, but let me ask a different question. How many times does someone have to hear something before they remember it? Now, moms, dads, think about how many times you have to say to your children, pick up your clothes. Go, do your homework. Don't do that. Take out the trash. It's more than once.

Most likely. I was always taught; it's three times you need to say something three times before it begins to stick in someone's mind. Guys, that's not correct. The actual number is seven. You have to say something seven times for it to begin to stick in someone's head. Now what I'm teaching with the MBA students at say, Duke University or NC state, their final for me is just a five-minute talk.

As we walk them through the skillsets and through this information at the end of the semester, each one gives a five-minute talk, and I will tell them in that five-minute talk, you have to have a seven-factor phrase. You have to say something seven times. They'll come back to me and say, Bart, there's no way in five minutes.

I can say one thing seven times, and I'll come back and say, if you don't say it seven times, you flunk. I put that much emphasis on it because I want them to grasp the power of what this does in the way that we communicate. It never fails. A student gets up, they do their five-mi...

Bart queen here, and welcome to the remarkability Institute. Now, if you've been following me over the last couple of weeks or so, we've been focused on this idea of how do you physically come across or what I call your delivery mechanics.

[00:01:42] Your delivery mechanics are just as important as your content, and many times folks will spend hours and hours and hours on crafting content. You've probably done that. Maybe you even spent all day on a Sunday. You didn't spend time with your family. You locked yourself in your home office, maybe even drove to the office, and said, I've got to get this presentation together.

[00:02:05] And you go to the nth degree on what that PowerPoint slide is going to look like, and if you're crunched on time, like the majority of folks, you're doing that kind of twisting and tweaking right up to the very last minute. What just absolutely amazes me. Out of all the years that I've been coaching and helping people is this, they spend hours and hours on making a perfect PowerPoint slide, but they won't spend any time around what does this physical thing, you're you, yourself look like when you're sharing information.

[00:02:46] Remember that I've shared with you many times that what you say and how you say it, guys, has to match. Those two things have to be the same, and when they're not the same, people don't buy into what you're saying. People buy what they see before they buy what they hear. It's got to be congruent. You've seen this many, many times.

[00:03:07] We can see this from our politicians, our world leaders, many times, maybe a government office where they're sharing information, and you go, I just don't believe what they're telling me. Often, that's because what they say and how they say it just doesn't match. You've also heard me say that if I could give this to every 17 and 18 years old, that I would know guys.

[00:03:31] Anytime I have an opportunity to travel internationally, I go overseas. I do my best to find a youth group or a nonprofit that I can give this information to. That's how important I feel like it is. Getting it out to our high school students, I think, is critical. I can sit next to somebody on an airplane, and they'll say, well, Bart, what do you do?

[00:03:54] And I'll come back sometimes, and I'll say, I'm in the confidence business. And they'll say, well, what does that mean? And I'll share with them how this skillset, just this vehicle in helping our young people, gives them the confidence to stand up on their feet, articulate their message, what they're passionate about to get out there and make a difference in whatever they want to do in their world.

[00:04:20] In my years of working with MBA students, one of the schools that I worked with came back, and they had done some type of a small survey, and they found that the students who went through this program went through this confidence-building program, learn to articulate themselves. If they practiced and showed those things during their internship, they received a 10 to 15% higher.

[00:04:45] First-time pay offer than someone who was not giving you. Giving anyone the ability to articulate what they're passionate about, what's important to them to communicate their message is the key competitive advantage that you're looking for. It will set you apart from everybody else. You and I have both heard our ability to communicate verbally, and our ability to communicate from a written perspective are the two things that will set you apart above everybody else.

[00:05:20] But it's the two things we spend the least amount of time with. So as we walked through our program today, guys, as we share our time, I want you to become aware of the number one skill. The number one skill that will separate you from everybody else. What I want you to do is not only learn about it, but I want you as soon as this podcast is over, begin to implement it with your family, with your friends, with your colleagues, with your presentations, with your demonstrations, with your WebExes, with whatever you're doing virtually.

[00:05:55] Now, here's what I'm going to promise that you're going to find. Number one, you are going to be perceived as far more confident. Number two, you're going to find that you're far more articulate in your information because you're focused because of this one skillset. And number three, and in my mind, the most important, and you've heard me say it many times, that you can exponentially grow your ability to influence people.

[00:06:22] Now, if you've been listening to some of my podcasts, I've given you an overview of your posture, the number one skill that communicates confidence before you open your mouth. I gave you some ideas and tips and tricks around movement. Now remember this, the number one reason you move is to raise that level of engagement.

[00:06:40] The question that we're going to look at today is what drives movement, and that's that idea of your eye contact in my mind. In my mind, of all the delivery skills you're going to look at the delivery mechanics, your eye contact is the number one skill you should practice. Guys, forget about posture.

[00:07:01] Forget about movement, forget about gestures. Forget about all those things. Focus just on this one. The simple idea of your eye contact. Now, here's, here's your rule of thumb. It's that simple. It's this easy if you want to come across as knowledgeable if you want to be perceived as a subject matter expert if you want to be able to drive people to take action, if you want to be influential in what you do if you want to connect with people, if any of those things mean anything to you, this one skillset.

[00:07:40] Will be the foundation. It will be the cornerstone. It will be the catalyst that will create that for you. So here's your very simple rule of thumb. Do not speak, do not speak period, unless you're looking at a soft set of eyes. Do not speak unless you're looking at a set of eyes. This will change everything.

[00:08:06] Little children do the best at this. Parents, I want you to think back when your children were, say two to about five or six. Yeah. How many times when you were at your laptop, or you're doing something, you're watching a game. One of your children came up to your side, grabbed your shirt, sleeve, your pant leg, and said, mommy, mommy, mommy, mommy, daddy, daddy, daddy, daddy.

[00:08:31] I have a question for you as you think about that, as you remember that. When did they stop? They did not stop until you looked at them. Little children are brilliant cause dad, mom; if you're not looking at me, you're not listening. How many times when you were younger did a parent walk up to you and say, young man, young lady, you look at me, what I'm speaking to you.

[00:09:01] They wanted that eye contact when you were a child, or maybe how many times have you said that to your child? Young man, young lady. You look at me when I'm talking to you now, in that situation, most likely you were kind of in trouble. So make an application of a teacher that you admired, whether that was high school or college.

[00:09:24] Think about who did the majority of your teachers talk to. If I thought about that, most of my teachers talk to the chalkboard or the whiteboard as they taught, and I can tell you from my experience that's what I may be picked up my phone. I had a chit chat with a buddy. I looked at something important to me.

[00:09:45] I thought about what I was going to do after I got out of class. It gave me an opportunity to check, just check out. But guys, if you'll think about the teacher that engaged you, t...

Hey there. Bart queen here. Welcome to the remarkability Institute today. Guys, I want to take a very strong look at one area around communication in that physical delivery on how you come across, whether you're doing something virtually or doing something face to face. In this particular area. If I could write the script, if I could have my way, if I wave my magic wand, I'd make sure every 17 and 18 years old got this kind of information.

[00:02:14] Guys, I truly believe it would change how they do their college presentations, for lack of a better term. I truly believe it would change in that first job interview when someone says to them, why should I hire you over everybody else? And I, I believe it would begin to change how they're going to interact with their spouse or significant other whoever they're going to spend their lives with.

[00:02:38] One of my famous sayings, or one of the one of the things I like to repeat, one of the things that are important to me is this very simple concept that people buy what they see before they buy, what they hear, that people buy what they see before they buy what they hear. Now, if we. Embrace that concept.

[00:02:59] Then what we say and how we say it has to match. So for those of you who are parents out there, I want you to imagine that you're looking at one of your children, especially when they're younger, and you say, did you do that? And you can envision your son or your daughter putting their head down, kind of scuffing their feet and saying, no mom, no dad, I didn't do that.

[00:03:24] And you can look right at them. I know you are guilty. I know you did it. That is a great example of what you say and how you say it has to match. Maybe you've had the experience where you've met someone, and you went up to shake their hand, and you reached out, and you said, very nice to meet you, and they looked at the floor and said, yes, nice to meet you as well.

[00:03:52] That's another great example of what you say and how you say it has to match. The challenge here is when they don't match your credibility, and your trust factor goes down. The classic example I see, especially in the corporate world, if someone is in a small group meeting, they've done a presentation, they'll say, now are the, are there any questions?

[00:04:19] And when they say, are there any questions? They, too, they take two steps back if you think about it; I'm sure you've seen that situation play over and over and over again. Or maybe by chance, the presentation is over. An executive in the room raises their hand and asks a question, and the person who is about to answer it steps back two or three steps.

[00:04:43] I can promise you, even though they don't realize that they're stepping back, the visual that the audience sees says this is what it says to them. They're on the run. They don't believe what they've been telling us, and they're not confident in what they're telling us. This very simple concept of what you say and how you say it has to match is powerful.

[00:05:08] People buy what they see before they buy what they hear. Guys, I know you've been in a situation where someone's stepped up front, and you went, Hmm, boy, something about him or her. I'm not trusting. I do not like it. I'm concerned about whether we want to believe that people judge a book by its cover or whether we want to accept that concept.

[00:05:30] It's true. As soon as you and I walk into a room to do something, people will begin to look you up and look you down, and they get an assessment about you. They're already going to begin to say, wow, this looks like it's going to be good. I'm a little concerned. I trust them. No, I don't trust them.

[00:05:51] They're going to make all those perceptions before you ever start. So if you happen to be at your desk, you happen to be at your house, you're seated. You got a pen and paper in front of you. I want you to write that simple concept down to people by what they see before buying what they hear. I want to be able to build on that idea.

[00:06:14] Now, as we walked through this podcast today, guys, I'm going to be giving you a high-level overview of what I call the D delivery mechanics, the pieces that makeup everything that you need to think about when you're delivering a message. Now that's whether that's face to face or that's virtual. So realize if you're doing something virtually, they do not see some of these things, but these other mechanical pieces will come through in the way you carry yourself.

[00:06:43] They're going to hear this through your voice. If you're face to face, I want you to embrace this idea. Every single thing counts, which you don't think counts, counts, which you may not have worried about, may count to one of your listeners. Now. I'm not asking you to change who you are. I'm not asking you to change your choice of clothes.

[00:07:09] I am asking you to think through each one of those pieces and make sure that there isn't anything that you're doing that's a distraction. If there's something that's a distraction, I want you to think about getting rid of it. Just this week, I led a program around virtual communication, and one of the things that I highlighted in this virtual perspective is just for us guys, what is your shirt look like so I can incur and encourage you enough in those situations.

[00:07:43] Get rid of stripes and get rid of plaids. When it comes across on the video, sometimes it can seem like those things are moving, and then it can be a distraction for you. For you ladies, many times, you may wear a lot of Jangles or bracelets on your arm, and every time you took your hand up or take your hand down, you'll get that jingling sound.

[00:08:05] I'm not asking you guys again to change anything about what you do. 

[00:08:09] I'm 

[00:08:09] Bart Queen: asking, I'm asking you to build awareness around what may be a distraction. So let's take a couple of things in mind. Realize that people buy what they see before they buy what they hear. Big principle to think about. And number two, get rid of any of those distractions that may cause your listener, whether you're virtual or face to face, to not pay attention to what you're saying.

[00:08:35] Now, as we get into the area of the make of the mechanics, there are a couple of things, or let me give you a list of those things that I want us to build awareness around. Number one is your posture, whether you're standing or you're seated. Number two is physical movement. Whether you're standing or seated, whether you're face to face or you're virtual, it matters.

[00:09:00] I contact one of the probably the most important skill I want you to truly embrace and probably make a paradigm shift around from there, your physical gestures, what you're doing with your hands, your facial expressions, what you're doing with your face. You're smiling and realize that people can hear a smile on your face, which leads us to the last big component around your vocal variety.

[00:09:28] Now, vocal variety has five core components to it. There's the rate you speak fast, low; there's volume, loud, soft, there are your God-given pitch and tone. Just how your voice sounds, there's influxion, which is up, down in your voice, or maybe some of you might call that modulation, and then the power of the pause.

[00:09:56] This is your ability to give a sense of a sound bite. This is your ability to get rid of your ums and ahs. It may take us two different sessions to get through this, depending on how we break it apart. So if we only get through half of it,...

This is Bart queen, and welcome to the remarkability Institute. Great to have you all back.  Now, if you've been following in the last series that I've been sharing, we've been focused on this idea of your delivery mechanics. And if you're just joining us, one of the things that I've spoken about many, many times is this idea that what you say and how you say it has to match.

[00:02:05] It is the driving principle at looking at what a lot of people may call body language or what I call the delivery mechanics. How you physically come across. Now in our first couple of sessions, the very first one I, I covered this idea of your posture and your movement, bringing those two pieces together. I did one single, separated podcast guys just around eye contact and the power of what that can bring to the table.

[00:02:37] Today, I want to focus on a couple more of those pieces. I want to be able to take a look at gestures. I want to be able to discuss facial expressions, what you're doing with your face, and then I want to get into this whole broader concept of vocal variety. So let me come back to this idea that people buy what they see before they buy what they hear, which has to be congruent.

[00:03:02] So, as we go through this section today, I want you to realize that these mechanics are kind of the cherry on the top. They don't fall into the bucket of what I call your power skills. Your power skills are your posture. Your eye contact, the power of the pause, and a short to medium sentences. Those four things are the things that give you the greatest confidence and the greatest power when you're communicating the additional mechanics of your facial expressions, and your gestures, your vocal variety of some of the other pieces are cherry on the top.

[00:03:42] They continue to enhance what you're doing. But if you said to me, Bart, where should I focus? I'd say focus on the power skills first. Now, I also taught you and shared with you that every single thing counts. So I am not diminishing these. These are important, but if you gave me an opportunity, if you said, Bart, give me a choice.

[00:04:07] Go to your power skills first. Now as we walked through these this afternoon, this morning, wherever you happen to be listening, as you're driving to work, whatever you happen to be doing, I want you to take some notes on some of these ideas, whether their mental notes are notes you put on some paper because there are some pieces here that I want to make sure that you can remember.

[00:04:32] If you can do that, you'll find that when you go to practice some of these ideas, you go to implement some of these ideas. You can come back to your note, and you can physically implement each of these pieces one by one. Let's dive in this afternoon in this idea of gestures, the number one purpose of a gesture, number one purpose.

[00:04:58] Is to enhance your content. Now, when I'm talking about enhancing your content, I mean two things. The number one reason that most people gesture is an emphasis is what you see a lot of. The second reason you gesture is what I call visualization. If by chance, you've ever watched. Drew Carey show, whose line is it?

[00:05:26] The next time you're channel surfing and you come across that show, do me a favor, hit the mute button on your TV. Just watch their gestures are so effective that you can tell what they're talking about without even hearing anything. The majority of those gestures are more for that idea of visualization.

[00:05:48]Now, there's a couple of components within both of those you want to think about. If you think about this idea that people gesture to add emphasis, that brings us to a couple of dues and does not. I want you to consider you'll find a lot of people who will point. Now, if you're a parent with small children, you'll see them do this often where someone is pointing at you.

[00:06:15] How does that get perceived. Most people would say, well, Bart, that gets perceived as condescending or scolding, a basic rule of thumb, never, ever point. I want you to break yourself of that habit. So if you can visualize what president Clinton, President Bush, and President Obama did when they pointed, they kind of.

[00:06:44] Made a little fist, and with their thumb, they would emphasize something in my mind that is still pointing. What I would want you always to do is what I call an open Palm. So if you can do me a favor with your hand, make a finger point, like you're speaking to a child, you're pointing at them. Then do what the presidents did.

[00:07:10] Make more of a fist with your thumb. And notice how that comes across. And then I want you to do what I call an open Palm. You're taking your Palm; it's open, you're directing it forward. Your fingers are not spread apart. Your fingers are together, your thumb is apart from your hand, and you make a gesture.

[00:07:30] Now, as you look at that, ask yourself this question, which is more open and approachable, a finger point or more of an open Palm. I am mystified why our leaders, our executives, don't understand this: one simple comment, one simple concept on using your gestures. Again, we don't even know we're doing it.

[00:07:59] We're not even thinking about it, but we're trying to emphasize a point, and you're pointing at people. That open Palm will create a whole big difference. Now, remember, it's about connecting and having a conversation. So if you're at Starbucks and you're sitting with your friend or a spouse or somebody you care about, a colleague, you're not going to point at them.

[00:08:19] You're going to do more of an open type of a gesture, always an open Palm. Then that brings me to the second kind of guiding principle, never back of the hand. I'm not saying that your listeners can't see your back of the hand, but I see this a lot. I'll see someone standing in front of an audience, and they're going to show the number two, and they'll go, there are two things you should think about, and they'll do the back of a hand.

[00:08:50] Now, in other parts of the world, this is extremely offensive. Most people will say, well, Bart's, that's doing the peace sign. No, the peace sign is more Palm forward. So the basic rule of thumb is if you've got notes in front of you, mental note guys, never back. Rule of thumb, Palm, always forward, Palm, always forward.

[00:09:14] Now, with that, I want to add one more thing. The Palm always leads. Suppose I would share with you that we have increasing costs, and I was standing in front of a group of people. I would put my Palm up, and I would take my hand up. The Palm always leads. If you wanted to share something about decreased risk, take your hand up in the air, face the Palm down and say, this is decreasing risk.

[00:09:44] Bring your Palm down. The Palm always leads. So number one, no finger point guys. Number two. No back, no. Back of hand. Number three, the Palm always leads. Now, a couple of more do not, and I have names for these so that it will help you remember how many times have you been standing or seated in an audience, and you've seen somebody do what I call spider pushups.

[00:10:19] It's where they put their fingers touching each other. They're creating this, and they're bouncing their hand back and forth like this. This is what we call spider pushups. If someone is doing this, answer this question, where's the focus? Yes. You're probably focused on their hands. If you remember, the number one place you as a listener should be focused on is their face.

[00:10:47] Everything you do with your gestures should emphasize a point, visualize the p...

Welcome to the remarkability Institute. This is Bart Queen, your host. Now, if you were following me last week, I covered an episode around visual AIDS. This is the second piece to last week's episode. So if you missed last week, guys, do me a favor. Go back and pay attention to last week's episode first, and then join me on this one.

[00:02:05] We're covering today is the second major bucket on how you use your visuals. In last week's episode, I spent a fair amount of time talking about crafting your sides, not detailed things, but simple ideas that will keep you the center of attention. Everything that I talk about around communication boils up into three major buckets.

[00:02:33] How do we build trust? How do we build engagement, and how do we build a relationship? And when it comes to this use of visual AIDS, building that trust and building relationship is critical to your success, whether using PowerPoint, a whiteboard, chalkboard, a flip chart, or you're showing some type of a prop, maybe a piece of equipment that you're showing them.

[00:02:59] I want you to remember that you need to be the center of attention, not your visual, not the whiteboard or the chalkboard people buy from people. They buy from people that they like. They're going to buy you first and then get your slides. So everything that you do, you have to keep yourself the center of attention.

[00:03:21] Now, on last week's episode, I asked you to take a paradigm shift around how you craft the slides and today's episode. I'm asking you to take a paradigm shift around the way you use your visuals, how you interact with a whiteboard or a chalkboard, how you interact with your PowerPoint, which is the visual itself on the screen, your laptop, that equipment, and your audience.

[00:03:48] If you will take that paradigm shift for me if you'll take everything I'm sharing with you and make sure that you are the center of attention, here's what you're going to find. Number one, you're far more engaging. Number two, you're more connected to your audience. And number three, your ability to move the listener forward is exponentially much greater.

[00:04:09] As you think about using your visuals, there are three major areas where you interact. If you're taking notes with me today, I want you to note these three major areas where you interact, number one, the way you interact with the audience. Number two is how you interact with the visual itself, what's up on the screen or the whiteboard, or the flip chart itself.

[00:04:33] And then how you interact with equipment and a PowerPoint perspective. That's your laptop. Now, if you've been following me through the series of episodes, you have heard me discuss what we called your delivery skills, your eye, contact, your paws, your gestures, your facial expressions. Movement and your posture, when you think about those delivery skills, which three interact in the areas that I just mentioned to you of the audience, of the visual and of the equipment.

[00:05:13] Take a moment and think through those just a little bit. If you came back and said, Bart, the number one skill I practice with the audience is eye contact. You are correct. And here's the paradigm shift you're going to take. When the average person presenter brings up a slide, as soon as the slide comes up, what do they do?

[00:05:38] You're correct. They begin to talk right off the top of the bat. Now let me ask you this question. What is the listener? What is the audience doing? the audience is trying to consume your slot. Now, you and I are both intelligent. Your audience is intelligent, but guys, they can't read the slide and listen to you simultaneously, they can only do one thing at a time.

[00:06:03] They're either reading or listening. They're either reading or listening. A great example of this. If you will think back to when you were in grammar school on the days when you were little, and you came in after recess at lunch, and the teacher read to you when the teacher read the book to you, and she or he wanted to show you a picture in the book, can you remember what happened?

[00:06:29] Remember, the teacher would turn the book and slowly show it to the class. Now, let me ask you, did the teacher speak? Nope. The teacher was silent because they knew you were absorbing the picture and connecting it to what they just read. The majority of you will lock yourself in your home office on a Sunday and make sure your PowerPoint slides are perfect.

[00:07:01] But when you bring it up, you don't give the listener an opportunity to absorb it. Why bother we do this because you have spent so much time around that side, it like the back of your hand, and when it comes up, you're immediately going to try to discuss it. But you have to give the list or an opportunity to absorb it.

[00:07:20] This is the first paradigm shift you're going to take around this idea of using visuals. Now, the second skill set, when that visual comes up, is the power of the pause. You've got to pause and let them absorb it. Now, here's your kind of guiding principle around that. Guys. You do not have to wait for every single person.

[00:07:45] To absorb the slide. Cause somebody's going to look at your side and they're going to go back down memory lane and think, wow, that's pretty cool. They're going to be thinking about their job. They're going to be thinking about whatever's up there. The majority of your audience, when they have consumed it, they will look at you now.

[00:08:02] Here's where it connects to your eye contact. As soon as most people are looking at, you begin to speak again, the person who is so absorbed in the slide, as soon as they hear you speak. They will come right back into your content. But from an eye contact perspective, the slide comes up. Watch your audience; see what they're doing.

[00:08:25] If they're reading your side, don't speak. Now I have to chuckle here because for some of you, the amount of information that you all put on a slide, I could take you all out to a three-course meal, come back. We could watch a movie, and somebody would still be reading your slides for the volume that people put on a slide.

[00:08:45] Now, that's where I want you to reference back to last week's episode because I gave you some very strong guidelines to make readability high. So let me recap what I've shared with you. You bring up a slide; the slide comes up, your audience is reading it. You have to pause. Now, remember they're working, you get a chance to relax.

[00:09:08] So if you'll think about it, this is an opportunity to look at your notes. If you need notes, this is an opportunity to take a sip of water. This is an opportunity to glance at your audience and see what they're doing, and then be able to reconnect with them. So here's the thought from an engagement perspective, when you transitioned from slide to slide, this is an opportunity to reengage your audience.

[00:09:34] This is an opportunity to reengage your audience, but you have to give them a chance to absorb it. Now you can decide the percentage of 50%, 75, 85 90. You decide you have to be able to read the situation. But remember, give them time to read it. A good rule of thumb is you read it. And once you've read it, go again, nine times out of 10, they'll be with you.

[00:10:01] So here are the first two skills—your eye contact. Wait for them to absorb it. Pause, don't say anything to the majority of your audiences with you. The third one is in this idea of, with your equipment. You have to be able to move. Now. Here's what I see—a lot. Someone is using PowerPoint. They are...

We've been hitting a gamut of communication topics. Now, if you've been following me, there were three major buckets that we would spend time around. The first bucket was around this idea of delivery, physically, how you come across the second bucket was around crafting content, your message, your presentation, your keynote speech, and the third was around interaction.

[00:02:05] Today. I want to take us deep into this idea of the way we use our visuals. I am not going to spend a lot of time giving you tips and tricks on how to create your PowerPoint slide. I'm going to give you a high-level overview of that, but where I want to spend the heart of my time with you is how we use our visuals.

[00:02:27] Not how do we create our visuals? The University of Illinois did a study on the use of visual AIDS. Guys. They found that someone who uses visual AIDS is 85%. They are 85% more effective than someone who doesn't use their visual AIDS. So the question you and I have to ask ourselves is not whether I can use visuals for my presentation, my meeting, my talk, my virtual webcast, my zoom session.

[00:02:58] That's not the question. The question becomes, how do I use them in such a manner that I stay the center of attention. Guys, just from my experience of helping folks for over the last 30 years, it is critical, no matter what communication channel that you're using, that you stay the center of attention.

[00:03:20] I want you to remember that people buy you before they buy visual AIDS. I want you to remember that people buy from people that they like, and I want you to remember that people buy from people. They don't buy from companies. So when we slap up a bunch of slides, and you thought you have the ability to sell your company, your solution, tool, or product, you're missing the Mark.

[00:03:45] They're going to buy you first. And then they're going to get your visuals. Now, those visuals could be PowerPoint, a whiteboard, a chalkboard, or a handout. It could be a prop, whatever you decide to bring to the table. As we walked through this brief session today, I'd like you to do two things for me.

[00:04:03] I want you to take two paradigms shifts, a paradigm shift. Number one, I want you to think differently about how you craft a slide and paradigm shift. Number two, I want you to think differently about how you use the visual. Now, if you'll do those two things for me, here's what I think you're going to find.

[00:04:24] Number one, you stay the center of attention. You stay at the focal point. Number two, you're going to find that engagement goes through the ceiling when you make these paradigm shifts. And most importantly, in my mind, you'll increase your ability to influence people. Now want you to remember something. John Maxwell said that leadership is nothing more, nothing less than pure influence, guys.

[00:04:50] What we do when we use our visuals when communicating, we are influencing people. We are taking them from point a to point B. We're taking them from a place where they are uncertain to a place where they are searching. And I want you to remember primarily right to sound now for me, that the purpose of the visual aid is to enhance your content period, visual laser, not your notes, but that's how most people end up using their visuals.

[00:05:22] Now, in our segment today, I'm going to break it into two major buckets. The first bucket I'm going to cover just some tips and tricks that may help you craft your slides. These are very simple ideas that will keep you the center of attention. Then I'm going to spend the majority of our time together, really talking about how to use those visual AIDS in such a manner that you stay the center of attention.

[00:05:46] You keep your audience engaged, and you keep this idea that it's a conversation. Let's look at the first idea that I want to share with you around crafting your slides: idea number one, one idea per visual. So if I'm looking at your slide, if you're crafting a slide that should communicate one idea, you could have five bullet points on there.

[00:06:12] Six bullet points, whatever you decide. You're going to have a cartoon. You can have a quote at the bottom, but as long as all those things on that one slide communicate one idea. Then your wedding. The second one, I call the golden rule. The title must convey the essence of the slide. I should be able to read the title of your slide guys and know exactly what you're talking about.

[00:06:39] So many times, I see people bring up a slide and you read the title, and when you're trying to make a connection to what's in the body of the slide. And there's no connection. You should be able to look at the title of that slide and know exactly what I'm going to be talking about. Now, I want to make an application with that idea to a whiteboard.

[00:06:59] How many times have you walked into a business meeting, maybe you walked in late, and there's a bunch of things on the whiteboard, and there is no title on that whiteboard, and you sit down, and you're trying to catch up, but you have no idea what that person's discussing. If you will put a title on your whiteboard and then put underneath it, whatever you want if you will put 

[00:07:20] a 

[00:07:20] Bart Queen: title on your flip chart, title on your chalkboard, I don't care what you're doing up there.

[00:07:24] If you're handwriting, put a title and then put everything in it. The principle applies one idea per visual. So whatever you put up on that whiteboard, you've got a title, and then everything underneath it should be communicating around that single idea, goals, and rule number three, no more than seven words in a title.

[00:07:47] Now I know as you're thinking, Bart, that's a lot of words in a title. Yes. I'm trying to think maximum here for you, especially for those folks of you who are in technology. When you need several words, now, seven in the title can include an, a, or XY. So you may need those kinds of simple words.

[00:08:07] And that's why I'm allowing you to expand and did that total idea of seven words per title. So let's look at what I've given you. One idea for visual, the title. It must convey the essence of the slide and no more than seven words in a title. So let's look at the next golden rule. I want you to think about this.

[00:08:31] One is critical, and this is where I get the biggest pushback. Pictures are better than text. Pictures are better than text, or you've heard the old saying that one. 

[00:08:42] picture 

[00:08:43] Bart Queen: is worth a thousand words. So I'm going to ask you a question. When you think of someone in the marketplace that you said, do a tremendous job with pictures in what I would call their presentations, who comes to mind.

[00:09:01]the person that comes to my mind was Steven jobs. Think about when he launched a new Apple product; he was in his teens, black uniform, black t-shirt, black turtleneck, black jeans, black shoes up on stage, age, very conversational behind him, when he launched a product, typically a bunch of pictures.

[00:09:23] Cause he knew that you would identify with the picture, glance to it, and stay focused on him. The other brilliant thing that he did was he would put music behind it. So you and I both know that when you see a picture, and you hear some type of music, you get an emotional connection. Steven's jobs were brilliant at the principal.

[00:09:46] That people buy with emotion, and they verify with facts, and he drov...

Welcome to the remarkability Institute. This is Bart queen today. Our whole focus is around content. It is probably the number one question that executive salespeople, engineers, and technical folks ask me, how do I craft my content guys? Nine times out of 10, they come to me with a deck of slides and saying, here's what I've come up with.

[00:02:05] And I have to tell them you're doing everything in the wrong order. The never one purpose of any type of visual, whether you're using a whiteboard, a chalkboard, or a flip chart, is to enhance your content. But most people, when they get directed to create some type of a message, go right to their laptop, and they start cranking out PowerPoint slides.

[00:02:27] One of my favorite executives once said that if you use PowerPoint, you have no power, and you have no point. I don't have anything. The thing is PowerPoint. I think it's a tremendous tool, but where I have concerns is how we use PowerPoint. So w with that thought in mind, let me just back up a little and let's talk about structure.

[00:02:53] On Sunday. I had an opportunity to relax for a little bit, and I caught a national geographic special in this special. They were talking about some of the greater things that have been built in America. The two things they highlighted was the golden gate bridge. And the Hoover dam and they were talking about the importance of the structure and how important that design was to make the bridge viable for a long time and the dam viable for a long time.

[00:03:29] And as I was just relaxing and enjoying the special, the ideas of that structure came to my mind when it comes to our content. So let me use the golden gate bridge specifically as an example; that bridge from point a to point B is 1.7 miles. Now, this is a suspension bridge. But the beams that go across one on the left and one on the right that they built the rest of the structure upon is what carries the cars from point a to point B.

[00:04:07] Now those beams are suspended. But what I want you to realize is because they had those two beams, one on the left and the one on the right that allowed them to do whatever they wanted to do. On the bridge to build the bridge. You and I, or on vacation or going to work or whatever it may happen to be, can go across it.

[00:04:29] And then on top of it, they put the guide rails. There are sidewalks on either side, and then there are small fences to keep people from falling off those fences. And then sometimes they put in a guide rail in the middle. 

[00:04:45] But 

[00:04:46] Bart: here's what I want you to realize as it relates to the way you structure your content.

[00:04:51] The two major beams that take you from point a to point B give you the most effective way to take your customer, your client, or your listener from where they're currently at or what sometimes I call their current state to point B or that vision state, where you're trying to take them. That adds it is an efficient manner for the listener to go through your content.

[00:05:18] The guide rails, once they're put on track or top in my mind, are the things that keep you on track. I want you to realize that there are three things you have to control. Anytime you're sharing a message. Number one, you have to be able to control yourself. Number two, you have to be able to control your content or your conversation.

[00:05:43] And number three, you've got to be able to control the situation you're in or the circumstance in which you're communicating. The guide rails allow you to take your listener from point a to point B. The safety rails allow you to stay on track. So here's the principle. I want you to Mark down. Here's a principle.

[00:06:05] I don't want you ever to forget. There is freedom in structure. There is freedom in structure. There is freedom in structure. Now I never want you to memorize what you put in the structure. What I want you to memorize is the structure itself. As I walk you through this today, when you get done at the very end, I want you to have a structure you can speak through.

[00:06:30] We've all been caught in a situation where someone says, you know, Bart,  I didn't plan. I didn't ask you to, but would you mind getting up and sharing about what your team's been doing? What's your division has been doing? And you look at that person and say, Oh, I'm not prepared to do that.

[00:06:47] If you have a structure in your head, all you have to do is plug and play. You look like a rockstar. Not because you took a ton of time to plan, but because you had a structure to work through in my mind; structure in your content is one of the foundation cornerstones that allow you to be successful.

[00:07:14] And out of our time today, I want you to walk away with some of the principles that will allow you to build that structure. Now, if you'll learn those principles, if you'll learn the structure, here's what I think you're going to have. You're going to have freedom in the way you craft your content in your word choice.

[00:07:34] You're going to have freedom in the way you work the conversation. And you're going to have freedom in the circumstance that you're in to flex and adapt. And that's all you need to do is to have this conversation. So please remember it's a conversation. It's not a presentation. It's a conversation.

[00:07:55] Whether you're giving a keynote speech, you're doing a Ted Talk, Guys it's a conversation, whether it's five minutes or 15 minutes, Giving you the confidence to speak no matter what the timeframe is, is what I'm committed to doing is to give you those principles. So let's take a look at one of the first principles I want to share with you.

[00:08:17]It's what I call the 75% rule. If I asked you to come into my organization and speak for 60 minutes, nine times out of 10, you will work through enough content to fill that 60 minutes. I don't think that's the best approach. I want you to take an approach to what we call the 75% rule. So if I asked you to come in and speak for 60 minutes, if you apply the 75% rule, most of you are going to get, okay, Bart.

[00:08:51] I'm going to craft content for 45 minutes, pretty obvious, but there's one slight change. I want you to make it. Out of that 60 minutes, before you apply the 75% rule, I want you to back out what you would probably call Q and a time I'm going to call it banter time, conversation time. Let's say, for example, that I decided to do a 15 minute kind of banter Q and time I'm going to take my 60 minutes.

[00:09:25] I'm going to back out my 15 minutes. That leaves me with 45. Now, guys, I want you to take the 75% rule.

[00:09:36]If you do that, you're resting it a little bit more than 30 minutes or so. That's the amount of time I want you to think about filling your audience will much prefer that you end early then go longer. They will appreciate you giving them time back. Now, remember one of the other podcasts I've shared with you that the driving force is getting them to say, tell me more, tell me more, tell me more.

[00:10:06] So if you end five minutes early and they say, wow, Bart, this was great. Can you say a little bit longer? Can you answer some more questions? Feel free to stay. Cause now, guys, I'm guaranteeing you that they are engaged in your content, and you are winning. Now they want you to stay. You always want to finish up in respect a few minutes early.

[00:10:29] Now, if you're doing a keynote type speech or a Ted type talk where you have to meet 18 minutes, and a Ted type talk on a ...

Welcome to the remarkability Institute. This is Bart queen. If you've been following us over the last couple of podcasts, we've been focusing on this idea of around crafting content. Crafting content is probably one of the most difficult things to do well. If you don't do the hard work upfront and keep it simple, the complexity of your content for your listener for the receiver is even more difficult.

[00:02:10] Statistically, we are told that we should be crafting our content at an eighth-grade level. Guys, there are some organizations that will tell you it should be fifth-grade level. I'm not talking about your vocabulary; your work with a Ph.D. group of folks use Ph.D. vocabulary. What I'm talking about is sentence structure.

[00:02:34] I think the greatest example of this is you say today, those who remember when USA Today launched in the eighties. Everybody made fun of that paper. They said this newspaper would never be successful. They called it "McPaper" because it was written to simply, and they added color. But what I find fascinating is that the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal they followed suit.

[00:03:06] They began to add color, and they made it simple to read, and for the listener to consume one of my favorite books, when I talk about content, is why business leaders speak like idiots.

[00:03:20] The subtitle is a bullfighters guide, the whole focus. All of that book is creating content to the point that your listener can absorb it and walk away with it. Crafting your content and understanding the structure of your content is foundational to build the message that your listener can walk away with.

[00:03:48] So, as we spend our time together today, I want you to walk away with the key components. The structure at a high level so that you can craft that content, fill in the buckets, and then whatever you want to do within them. You can now there are, in essence, three major buckets today that I want to make sure you build your awareness around.

[00:04:18] Number one, bucket, number two, the body of what you're sharing, whether that's the body of a keynote speech, the body of a Ted type talk, the body of what you and I would call a presentation or a sales call. The other major bucket that you have to build into or think about is what I call foundational information.

[00:04:47] This is foundational information or pieces like the logistics of the meeting. When you're going to take a break where the cocktail party is after the meeting's over those logistical pieces. The second part of that is your credibility, the credibility of your company, and the credibility of yourself. And the third bucket in that foundation is the background.

[00:05:14] This is the information you should be pulling forward from a discovery or research piece that gives you the foundation to share your three key points, your four key points, or five key points, whatever you're going to do. Now, the first thing I want to address is what I call the three T's. So if you have a pen and paper, I want you to note these three T's are your topic, your theme.

[00:05:44] And your title. Now, I want you to notice the order. I put them in topic, theme, and title. If I'm doing some type of a communication class, and I've got people beginning to work with content, I will ask them to put down their topic. 99% of people will put down the title. That's not what I want you to note first.

[00:06:10] It's the last thing I want you to get you to do one purpose of a title. The number one purpose of a title is to grab your listeners' attention. Now, when you're crafting your titles, whether you're doing something more from a written perspective, say you're writing a white paper, writing a book, or you're doing it from what you're going to probably call it more of a presentation type situation.

[00:06:37] You're allowed two subtitles. You can do two. You can do just one. One subtitle gives clarity to the topic. The second subtitle is a benefit to the listener. If you're speaking or a benefit to the reader, if you're writing number one purpose of a title, grab your attention, your two subtitles, then give a benefit and clarity to that theme.

[00:07:05] So don't put—marketing optimization. Don't put financial optimization. That's boring. Come up with a title. How to go from zero to 60 in 12, the top three ways to succeed in your business. Those are the kinds of titles that grab someone's attention. And then you can do your subtitles. Here's what I want you to do the next time you go to your local bookstore, you go to Barnes and noble.

[00:07:35] You go wherever you might look for a book on a Sunday afternoon when it's pouring rain and you going to want to drink a cup of coffee and relax, pick up any book, and you will see this principle lived out in some form or another. The very first thing I want you to note is the topic. So I want you to picture a bullseye, and that red bull's eye in the center of your target is your topic.

[00:08:01] It's boiling it down to something simple. It is not a sentence. It could be your solution, tool, or product. It could be a pain you want to solve. It is very simple. Now, this is where most people get hung up because they're going to go. I don't want to say that. That's okay. I'm not asking you to say it.

[00:08:23] I'm asking you to get a razor focus on what the content has, and then you can expand and talk from there. Your theme is where you want to build something into your meeting presentation or talk a mountain climbing theme, a gardening theme, and an athletic theme, a marathon theme. Now, what I want you to remember about this theme is this can give you an opportunity to express something about yourself.

[00:08:57] I just had a friend who just bought a motorcycle, and he's all excited about it. It sounds like that's a passion for him so that he could build this idea of his love for motorcycles into what he wants to share and to his. So next podcast, he's going to make an analogy around that allows him to speak expressively.

[00:09:21] His passion comes forward, and here's the interesting thing. Any one of his listeners that has a love for motorcycle is going to want it to jump onto that podcast because they have something in common with him. And here's that me too. Factor again. This is where you win the quicker. You get someone to say, me too.

[00:09:41] Me too. You pull them into your content. Now, guys, this information I've just shared with you. It's just around your topic, your theme in a title. One of my favorite books on business leadership is called beyond the summit. Skinner is the author's last name, presale mountain climber, almost climbed every single mountain in the world.

[00:10:05] He decided to write a book. Now he decided that this was what the topic would be business leadership, what he realized was all the principles he learned in climbing a mountain. He could apply to in business leadership, the title of the book, Beyond The Summit picture on the book.

[00:10:28] I believe it's K2 topic in the book, business leadership. The theme in the book mountain climbing in my mind, a tremendous example of someone who leveraged what I call the three Ts. Now that second component, when you're crafting content and your structure are you're open and your close. These, in my mind are the most important.

[00:10:54] So I want you to remember something don't muddle the beginning and don't muddle the end. If you want to muddle something, model the middle; you want an open that grabs them and pulls them in immediately. Guys, remember you have 30 seconds to engage a...

Welcome to the remarkability Institute. This is Bart Queen, your host today. Now, if you've been following at all over the line, the last couple of sessions, I've been focused on this idea of content structure. And today, I want to take it one more level into actually what I'm going to call building the conversation.

[00:01:59] Most people, when they start to dive into this, always, you use the term bar to have to go present, and I have to give a public speech. I have to public speak. I am not fond of either one of those words. If I could write the script, we would take the word presenting and public speaking out of the vocabulary.

[00:02:21] I think all that does is put fear in people's hearts. If you look at it, the number one fear in America is public speaking. The fifth fear in America. Is death. Now, if you follow Seinfeld and remember one of his famous quotes, he said most people would prefer to be in the casket than giving the eulogy.

[00:02:44] Why do we want to put fear in people's hearts? Because they feel like they have to stand in front of a group of people and share their message. I might toss to you whether you're standing or you are seated. It is a conversation. But here's how people's minds think. If I invited you to go to Starbucks and have a cup of coffee with me, we sat at a table, sat in a cushy chair, and we had a conversation, get to know each other.

[00:03:12] We would not take one moment to think about how we're seated in that chair. We would just get comfortable. We would not take one moment to think about what you are doing with your hands? slightly, you got a cup of coffee or whatever you're drinking in one hand, and maybe you're gesturing for the other.

[00:03:26] And you're not even going to think twice about it. And most likely, we would look at each other as we have this conversation. What I find interesting is as soon as I say, now, John, can you get up in front and share with us what your division is doing? All of a sudden, John goes from the seated position of having a conversation to a standing position of presenting.

[00:03:51] I'm going to challenge you. There should be no difference when you're standing than when you're seated. You just happened to be standing. I don't care whether it's five people, 50 people, or 500 people when you're standing with a coworker after work in your car. And you're talking about the day and bantering about the weekend.

[00:04:10] Do you feel like you're presenting when you're at home in the kitchen with your spouse or significant other, your family, whoever you spend time with, do you feel like you're presenting? No. Do you feel like you have your conversation? But because we get into this mindset of presenting in my mind, you let go of all the natural things that you do so nicely.

[00:04:36] One of the most important things we can do when we communicate, whether you're standing or seated, is be conversational and be authentic, be who you are naturally. But here's what happens when you put yourself in presenting mode, you put yourself in performance mode, and when you put yourself in performance mode, you put yourself in perfection mode.

[00:05:02] And when you put yourself in perfection mode, you feel like it has to be done a certain way, and then you fall apart. But when you just have a conversation, With whoever you're discussing something with, you don't think of any of those other things. You don't put yourself on a performance treadmill. If there's one thing I wish I could get all of us to do, if there were one place that I'd be committed to helping anyone with, it's getting off that performance treadmill and letting you share your heart.

[00:05:34] I truly believe that you should let your life speak. And when you let your life speak, you're letting your words speak and your body language, speech in congruency. And when those two things happen, you get power. I remember reading a book called to let your life speak by Parker. And he said, when your true self and your true service come together, that's when you find your vocation.

[00:06:03] That's when you find your groove, that's when you find your gift that you're going to share with the world, but you can't share your gift with the world, whether that's on a personal basis or professional basis if you're in prison station mode, you could only do that when you're in conversation mode. So I'm going to share some things with you today.

[00:06:23] They will help you stay in this idea of having a conversation and not presenting. And this still is an all-around structure. It's still all around your ability to communicate whatever you want to communicate. I would believe that your structure is foundational to what you're going to communicate. It is a cornerstone.

[00:06:44] You build everything from that structure, whether it's a complex structure or a simple structure. But there are some challenges with a structure that I constantly hear. Number one, if there is a lack of structure, people are verbose. They're all over the place. People will say I lost track. I went down a rabbit hole.

[00:07:08] I didn't stay on track, and I didn't even get through my information. That's because they had no structure, no guidelines to work with. When you drive down the road, there's a line on one side of the line on the other that keeps your vehicle. This is where you're supposed to drive between now, as they're passing lanes, okay.

[00:07:28] Here's a place where I can come out of the structure and come back into the structure. But if you don't have some type of structure, you can't do that. You're just all over the place. I think my greatest experience of that was the very first time I went to India. I remember when my driver picked me up at the airport and where we came out of the airport, and he's going down this major highway, and for four or five minutes, he was in what I perceive to be a lane.

[00:07:58] And as we went down the road, all of a sudden he's out of the lane and all over the place. And I being a little more fearful, said, don't you want to stay in your lane? And I still remember him saying, here in India, we don't do that. And I was fascinated how they have a lack of traffic accidents, but they're all over the place in moving and jiving with each other in their vehicle, no structure in the way they drive, making it work, but no structure.

[00:08:29] So the typical challenges of a lack of structure. You ramble, you're verbose. You lack clarity. And by no means, are you concise? I think the other factor that happens when you're not, you don't have a structure to work within; you do a data dump. This is where people show up and throw up. This is where you fire hose people with information.

[00:08:51] This is where you're throwing anything you can to make it stick up on the wall, instead of having a focused message. And when you don't have structure, you can't stay on track. And when someone asks you a question, then it is not even relevant to what you're talking about. You get sidetracked, you lose control, and then you lost your moment to drive the listener forward.

[00:09:16] Now, those are just some of the challenges that I typically see in helping people as they go to craft content. The other big challenge I get from content is a mindset by people. They will say, if you're going to make me worth it, work within a structure in narrows me, it limits my big beef. I get all the time.

[00:09:38] The second thing they'll say is, that's just not who I am. I talk from the cuff, I just get up, and I am spontaneous, which is how I've always done it. Those are some of those m...

Welcome to the remarkability Institute podcast. This is Bart Queen , your host. I hope all of you are doing well today. 

[00:01:46] I typically get asked how do I go from feeling confident? To not feeling confident to feeling confident to not feeling confident. And a lot of times, people let their emotions drive them if there's anything that I've found out in my experience of helping and coaching folks. 

[00:02:07] Is that emotions have no intelligence when it comes to the skillset of communication. Now, as we spend our time together today. What I'd like you to do is open up your mind to the three goals and the five components that will help you become more effective or what I call a more strategic communicator. 

[00:02:29] I think if you have an open mind around those things, you'll gain some principles and ideas today in our short amount of time together. That you can immediately, make an application to implement into your life and see the effects. The outcomes and the results that happen from it. 

[00:02:47] I want you to go from this idea of how everything feels to a place where you're relying on the skillset to carry you through every single time. 

[00:02:59] Now, to lead you to those skill sets, I want to lay one more piece of the foundation that I think is important. And that's the three overall arching goals that each one of us should have in the way that we communicate. 

[00:03:12] Now, this applies to whether you're giving a keynote speech. You're doing a presentation. You're doing a one-on-one, you're doing a training class. You're having a conversation with your children. I have found that these three goals go all the way across the board. Goal number one is to build trust. This should be the most important thing that we do when we're communicating with our family, our friends, and our clients. 

[00:03:41]

[00:03:41] There's one important principle in this idea of building trust. Something I picked up out of a book called God is a sales person. Now it's not a religious book, but the author drives this point home. He said that people buy trust before they buy a solution tool or product. You also said that people buy trust before they buy the provider, meaning you or me.

[00:04:06] The CEO of Pepsi once said that the new global currency, the new global currency, is not going to be money. It's going to be trusted. So the question that you have to face and the question that I have to face every single day is how do we build trust between yourself and the people that you're communicating with. 

[00:04:29] I think every day before we. Let our feet hit the floor with our families and with our children with our spouses. We should. I ask ourself as a simple question. What's the one thing I can do today to deepen the trust in my relationship with my spouse? I'm up. With my children. How can I deepen that trust between my company and my clients? 

[00:04:52] How can I deepen that trust between myself, my company, and the marketplace? 

[00:04:59] Now, I believe that there are four key pillars to building trust and how we communicate. Pillar number one. Is that our content must be clear. It must be clear. 

[00:05:13] It has to be easy to understand. So here's a principle I want you to make a note. If you happen to be listening or you've got a pen and paper in front of you. I want you to write this down. A confused mind will always say no. A confused mind will always say no. I got that principle out of a book called real leaders. Don't do PowerPoint. 

[00:05:35] Tremendous book. If you have not read it, I highly recommend you pick it up. But the author drives this idea home that as soon as someone says in their head, I don't get what you're telling me. They stop listening, and then we've lost all the way through. A confused mind will always say no. Pillar number one; your content has to be clear. 

[00:05:58] Pillar number two, your content has to be concise. 

[00:06:03] We know for a fact that most people are verbose. You've got somebody that you, you listen to, maybe a friend, and you find a look at them and say, what's the point. W, w. W. What are you trying to get to? What are you trying to tell me? Your information has to be concise. It's easy for all of us to be verbose much more difficult. 

[00:06:23] To be concise. I always remember something that Winston Churchill said. He said the shortest speeches are always the toughest because it requires an economy of words. So it's not the idea of how do I tell them more anymore. It's how do I get them to remember more; you remember that and one of the podcasts if you listened to in the past. 

[00:06:45] So the first two pillars or it has to be clear and it's got to be concise. The third pillar is critical as you and I communicate about our companies. It has to be consistent. 

[00:06:59] One of the companies that I've had a longterm relationship with when I was speaking with the. The CMIO. I said, what's the biggest challenge that you face in communicating with your company. And he said the biggest challenge I face is a clear, consistent message out in the marketplace. So he said, Bart, do me a favor. 

[00:07:18] Go out and talk to the employees. Ask five, six, seven, ten employees who we are and what we do and come back and share with me. What was the response that you got? I did just exactly what I wanted. He asked me to do. I came back, and I said, here's what I found. Every single employee gave me a different answer to the question. 

[00:07:38] On who they are and what they do. That lack of consistency. Creates confusion in the marketplace. Well, one sales person says the other sales person has to be able to say now that can vary just a little bit, but the essence of the message has to be the same. This is another place for that seven-factor phrase that I've mentioned in the past comes in. That gives you that kind of consistency in your message. 

[00:08:08] And the last pillar in developing this sense of trust. Is your competency your competency? Now what I mean by that are your stories, your examples, and your experiences. This allows you to bring your individual Allotey to the company message. This brings your uniqueness to the message. It allows you to tailor that message depending on who you're speaking to. 

[00:08:34] It allows you to personalize it. 

[00:08:38] That very first overarching goal is this idea that we have to build trust. And the four key pillars to building trust. It has to be clear. It has to be concise. It has to be consistent. And you bring in your competency, your uniqueness. Now, the second overall arching goal that we need to think about when we communicate is you have to be able to build a relationship. 

[00:09:03] There are two things here. I want you always to remember people buy from people. People don't buy from companies. They buy from people. And the second thing I want you to think about in that principle is that people buy from people that they like. That they like. So if we look at these first two goals, we have two factors that we have to build. Number one, we have to build a trust factor, and we have to be able to build that quickly.

[00:09:30] So think about if you're giving a keynote speech, you want to build that trust factor almost immediately you want people in your audience saying, wow, I'm just like Bart. I'm just like a bill. I'm just like John. I'm just like Mary. You want t...