The Business of Professional Speaking: Harnessing the Power of Messaging
As a keynote speaker, you are on a mission to help your audience through the power of your words and your unique delivery. The greatest challenge you will face is having your message understood by you audience and inspiring them to convert to a new way of thinking. If you’re really good, the experience will be truly transformational.
There is a certain amount of sorcery in delivering a powerful message. Your objective is not just to motivate them, but also to inspire them to retell your message (thereby generating word-of-mouth). You want them to buy into your unique key ideas. Sounds pretty lofty, doesn’t it?
The reality is that every successful keynote speaker does exactly this – whether they are a thought leader, a product pitch, or a political platform. Successful keynoters who have mastered the business of professional speaking know how to get their audience to hum their tune long after the event is over. You might think it’s an art, but in reality it’s closer to science.
As a rule, fewer than 2% of consumers (and often less than 1%) will buy into an idea upon the first exposure to one they haven’t heard before. A bond of trust has to be achieved through the Creative Repetition of a clear, simple message.
It takes at least seven exposures to your message before it is engrained in the minds of your target audience. That is, if you want your prospect to respond to you with their heart as well as their head, you’re going to have to break through their conscious objections and seed the message deep down. One common tool which accomplished speakers use is the power of repetition.
Branding for Professional Speakers
Did you know that Australians spend more per capita on personal/professional development products than any other country in the world? In my world, speakers are regularly booking Business Class seats on Quantas, as this marketplace is robust. Tour promoters bring speakers into their audiences on a regular basis.
These high volume speaker bureaus in Australia have a couple criteria for the speakers they book; 1) Those who can change hearts and minds through the power of their words, and 2) People who can close product sales back-of-room. One method that is nestled deep within these top performing speakers’ material is something I call Creative Repetition.
The process of Creative Repetition is not new to the world of corporate branding. Successful companies spend heavily on keeping their brand front and center in the minds of their audience. The same can be said about internationally touring professional speakers, whose first impression carries a lot of weight. The way the consumer perceives you is typically through communications designed to promote a feeling. Are you seen as smart? Trustworthy? Caring? Forward thinking? The answer is the result of your Branding, whether you’ve done it intentionally or not.
How you are perceived by your audience has everything to do with the brand you put forward. Notice your own response when you think of brands like Toyota, Nike and Starbucks. Notice how you came to have those responses. It was almost certainly through repeated exposure to their message, their logo and their media.
What are the top speaker brands that come to your mind? Most people will say Anthony Robbins and Zig Ziglar. Some industry enthusiasts may reach for names like Brendon Burchard, Darren Hardy, Meg Robbins, Larry Winget or Jeffrey Gitomer. Have you ever heard of Conversion Marketing, a marketing book that condenses knowledge on website conversion from 7-years running an online ad agency. Bryan’s Fortune 500 experience includes running high impact marketing campaigns for Microsoft, Eastman Kodak and Xerox.
