Every week, my posts for you have been about an observation
or an idea. Today – and only this week – I want to share an opportunity
with you.
More than ever, the ability to speak and communicate is a
highly valued skill.
For a few, it could mean achieving a goal to be a
professional speaker.
However, for many more of us, it is about discovering how to
create and deliver more compelling presentations to enable greater success in
everything from sales to a practice in financial services.
For some, it’s about
motivating prospects to become customers…or investors to become clients.
For others, it could
be about inspiring young people to achieve their potential…or gaining
commitment from individuals to volunteer for a worthy cause.
There is no doubt about it: those who can deliver
compelling presentations can make an impact upon their chosen audiences.
For many years, I’ve been asked if I would consider speech
coaching. Usually, my own professional speaking schedule prevented me from
making such a commitment. However, I was able to make a few exceptions.
The real-life Captain Phillips (of Tom Hanks’ movie fame)
has been a speech coaching client of mine. So, too, the author of the
mega-bestselling book, “Freakonomics,” the co-pilot of the “Miracle on the
Hudson,” the former President of the coffee mega-success Keurig, and a just few
more.
Now, I’d like to offer a unique and elite opportunity to
YOU.
Just 10 Speakers is YOUR opportunity to experience
comprehensive coaching and development in creating and delivering the message
that is important to you.
Class size is limited to just ten.
This means you’ll get the personal attention that you need
to grow as a speaker.
The program is a 180-day commitment.
This means it’s more than just a weekend “boot camp”
experience that touches on highlights and ends. Our program is short enough to
be impactful – long enough to truly develop your skill.
You can determine your level of engagement.
This means that you can decide how much personal attention
you receive – from video conferencing to in-person coaching with me.
To learn about our program, visit https://Just10Speakers.com – obviously, this
is a VERY limited and elite offer, so time is of the essence.
I would love to personally welcome you to our class of Just
10 Speakers!
(Next week, we’ll be back to ideas and observations as
usual!)
Back in the days that I was working a little bit in
television, one staple of every newscast was the day’s stock market report. Each
day, every report would let you know what had just happened on Wall Street.
Yet, while you might be able to decide the stocks or funds
in which you would invest, seldom would you have any control over what those
companies did that would make your money expand or contract.
This past week, I spent time in Atlanta at the “Take the
Stage” event with my friends, Suzanne Evans and Larry Winget.
There, I saw first-hand committed individuals who were making
an investment they could have some control over — for they were underwriting
themselves.
When I was a student at Franklin College in Indiana, I
couldn’t help but notice a quote from Benjamin Franklin that was strategically
positioned on just about everything printed by the school: “An investment in
knowledge always pays the highest dividends.”
Some of the people in the audience where I spoke this week
will obtain significant returns on their investment in knowledge. Others will
not achieve anything.
The primary reason is
because not only do they control their investment — they also control the
actions they will take based on the knowledge they have obtained.
Several writers have observed that there are infinitely more
“wannabe” authors than published ones. It’s not just a function of talent. It’s
because…writers write. The oft-cited line is that the way you become an
author is simply “put the seat of your pants in the seat of your chair.” In
other words — to borrow from Nike — you just do it.
Please don’t misunderstand: you should have a well-balanced
portfolio and diversity in your investments. I’m not suggesting you
should invest in yourself…and nothing else.
Yet, I also do not believe it can be overstated that when you
invest in yourself, the dividends are not merely financial. There are a myriad
of benefits to personal and professional growth.
Scholarship money concept. Hand of male or female putting coins in jar with money stack step growing growth saving money investment
As we enter the final stretch for the year — and the decade — now might be a good time to look at your self-investment.
And, it’s also a great time to examine if you are taking the
action required to make it generate significant returns.
One more thing: it’s been “Ultimate Customer Experience ®
Week” on my podcast, PROJECT DISTINCT! We’ve briefly reviewed the Five Steps to
the Ultimate Customer Experience from my forthcoming book, “The Ultimate
Customer Experience” that has been totally revamped, rewritten, and rebooted. If
you didn’t catch this week’s episodes, please visit: https://ProjectDistinct.com –
In the next few weeks, we will be sharing how YOU can get
your complimentary copy of the book — just for listening to the podcast and
subscribing to my blog. It’s part of how we hope to create a “UCE” for YOU!
Video reminder from Cabo to take care of yourself and take time to recharge for work ahead. It’s required for creativity needed to create distinction for the future!
Don’t be afraid to take a little time to unplug and I’ll see you here next week.
It surprises no one when I tell them that the Eagles are my
all-time favorite band. But, some are surprised when I list a little-known
track from the “One of These Nights” album as one of my favorite songs of
theirs.
“After the Thrill is Gone” sings about a relationship that
has eroded. The haunting lyrics say, in part:
“Same dances in the same old shoes; You get too careful with the steps you choose; You don’t care about winning…but, you don’t want to lose After the Thrill is Gone.”
Don Henley once commented, “As exciting as the whole Eagles
thing was at times, some of the luster was beginning to wear off. We were
combining our personal and professional lives in song.”
Yet, don’t we see the same thing
in our respective businesses, too? Haven’t we encountered employees exhibiting
this outlook? And, tragically, could this be the path we find ourselves on now?
Something works — so, we keep repeating it to the point that
it’s boring, yet we simultaneously become overly cautious because we don’t want
to make a mistake that might shift an advantage to our competition.
The words of Don Henley and Glenn Frey describe for me in
lyrical poetry what Dr. Clayton Christenson was illuminating in “The Innovator’s
Dilemna.” We have something distinctive in our business, career, or life — so,
we milk it to extinction. Sure, we know that we should continue to change,
grow, and innovate — in fact, that’s what made the original success possible.
Yet, we keep dancing the same dance in the same old shoes, carefully choosing
our steps until we stop trying to win…we just seek to avoid defeat.
When I was researching iconic performance for my
latest book, the first factor that became obvious was that “playing offense” is
the initial step for sustained success.
How many times do organizations, departments, and
individuals make their plans based upon what their competition is currently
doing? You know the answer: much too frequently.
As you may know, I have many, many friends in the music industry.
While audiences love when they play their hits, if you’re realistic you can
easily imagine that the members of the Oak Ridge Boys can’t get overwhelmingly
excited about singing “Elvira” one more time. Diamond Rio has performed “Meet
in the Middle” thousands of times — and are probably doing so again somewhere
tonight for an enthusiastic audience.
However, the way the Oaks and Diamond Rio — and YOU — keep
it exciting is to continue to innovate. You’ll hear new material and fresh
takes on older hits when you see them. By keeping themselves engaged and
innovating, they keep the audience involved and interested. They make sure the
thrill doesn’t depart, so they don’t have to be concerned with happens “after
the thrill is gone.”
You and I should take a similar approach…this week!
What fresh take could you
employ on an existing approach — and how can you create something new — to
maintain and enhance your excitement about what you and your organization
delivers for customers?
This past week, I had the wonderful privilege of returning
to my home county in Indiana to speak for our local Economic Development
Commission’s annual banquet. This was the 35th anniversary of the
founding of the effort to attract new business to our area of southern Indiana.
I was the speaker for the event ten years ago, and Executive Director Jim Plump
was kind enough to ask me to return.
“Wow,” I either heard
or said repeatedly during the evening, “has it really been a decade since the
last time I was at this event? Time files!” It wasn’t the title of my speech –
but, it certainly was the theme of the night.
In attendance were high school colleagues of mine, former
work associates from my days in broadcasting, and many more. We all marveled at
how quickly the years have flown by.
After the event, I went to visit family in the northern part
of Indiana. As we watched young kids who seemed as newborns only a blink of an
eye ago, we commented on the swift passage of time.
However, I remember as a freshman in high school that it
seemed as though commencement day was eons away. As a new enrollee at college,
I could not wait to graduate and get into the “real world.” When older adults
told me at that juncture how rapidly time would pass, I thought, “Sure! Bring
it on!”
Now, however, I understand exactly what
they meant.
I’m also reminded of someone I talked about during my speech back in Indiana last week. When I had the opportunity to meet and have dinner with him when I was in my early 20’s, he related the story of his life to me.
He was born in another small town just twenty miles south of
my own. When he got his first Social Security check, he decided he was going to
start his own business so he wouldn’t be dependent upon the government for the
rest of his life. Taking that initial retirement payment, he launched a
restaurant…
You don’t think of him has hailing from Henryville, Indiana
– but, he did. Harland Sanders named his business Kentucky Fried Chicken, now
better known as just KFC.
Colonel Sanders decided that even though
the years up to his 65th had flown by, he could still do something
with the ones he had left.
The point is that even though the years may be
flying by, we can – regardless of our respective ages – create extraordinary
opportunities for ourselves, if we are willing to create distinction in the
time that is our present.
This weekend is one of two during the NFL season that is
always a combination of difficult and enjoyable for me. My Indianapolis Colts are
playing the Tennessee Titans.
While I am fortunate to have many friends and acquaintances
spread into every NFL city, there’s an unusual concentration of my closest pals
in Music City. This, of course, means that the two times a year these
divisional rivals play, I’m conflicted between rooting for my team and hoping
to celebrate another Colts win – and not wanting to hear the inordinate amount
of grief I will receive from my buddies in Nashville if their Titans are
victorious.
Isn’t it amazing how many people identify with their local
teams? My wife gives me a rough time for how much my emotional state ebbs and
flows with the success or failure of the teams I love most!
Yet, there are other products and services where we have
emotional investment, as well. If I see someone driving down the road in a car that
matches mine, I don’t say, “Look – there goes someone who made an identical
choice in transportation as I!” Instead, I exclaim, “Hey – that dude is driving
MY car!”
If you ask me about my teams or my car, I respond with
stories about them. I’ll tell you about how they thrill me…disappoint me…excite
me…discourage me. In other words, I won’t give you statistics and percentages
about their efforts – I will relate stories to convey my emotional attachment.
It’s a bit baffling to consider why more professionals — and
the organizations they work for — haven’t integrated this into their approach
as they deliver a customer experience.
The dictionary says an “experience” is “an event or
occurrence that leaves an impression on someone.” I’d
suggest that “impressions” are primarily made by emotions and feelings – which
are typically conveyed by stories, not data.
For a decade, I evaluated the effectiveness of the stories
told by major movies in my reviews that were seen weekly on television by a
million people across the country. I also had the chance to interview and spend
time with the artists who were writing, directing, and performing those stories
– from Quentin Tarantino to James Cameron, from Barry Levinson to the Farrelly
Brothers, from Tom Hanks to Meryl Streep.
I learned many aspects of storytelling from them – and the
primary aspect was this: for any story to connect with the intended audience,
you must care about what happens to the characters.
Therefore, compelling stories are always about people.
“Wait!” you may be thinking, “What about films ranging from
‘The Love Bug’ about a VW to ‘Transformers’ – those aren’t people!” Yet, what
is engaging are the people who are dealing with Herbie or Optimus Prime
– and that both the car and the Transformer are endowed with human
characteristics, making them more relatable.
How are you telling YOUR story? Are you focusing on the
features and benefits of your products – or telling a story about how someone
is benefiting from using it? Are you describing data about your service – or
relating a narrative about how someone’s life is improved because of it?
Your ability to connect
with customers and employees will only be as distinctive as the stories that you
tell them.
