Question ~ How do I get my message across
every time?
Answer ~ Many people are often faced with
the threat of miscommunication because of a poor
choice of words. To get your message across every
time and in each and every situation, choose one
"takeaway" and repeat it again & again.
What’s a takeaway? It’s the one action you want
your audience to take or the one piece of
information you want them to remember. Here are some
examples
- If you are in a sales setting, you want your
audience to remember the benefits your service
provides over your competitor’s service.
- If you are in a social situation, you want
your audience to perhaps give you their number
or remember you when they want to call up
someone to go on a date.
- The only exception might be a lecturer or
trainer who wants their students to remember ---
everything!
In every situation in which you interact with
someone else, there is likely a single thing you
want them to do or remember. If you can identify the
one takeaway before you interact with your audience,
you’ll have far more success in shaping your
“presentation” (your actions, words, and voice) to
get your point across.
I made what I consider to be a big mistake last
month when I was introducing someone. I outlined the
information to cover and jotted some statistics that
I wanted to share down and carried them with me
onstage. You would think that since I teach all this
stuff I would follow my own advice. For some strange
reason, I thought I didn't need to practice what I
was going to say out loud.
Not practicing aloud caused me to relearn 3 very
important things.
- When you introduce someone, even if it's
with a testimonial, the focus should never be on
you. To get your sincere message across every
single time, your words & your actions need to
be completely of service to the person you are
introducing and what you say must always focus
on the benefit of your audience listening to the
next speaker's wisdom.
- I didn't focus on one simple takeaway but
rather on a list of statistics that because we
were running short for time, didn't powerfully
lead back to the audience benefit and my total
admiration, respect and love for the upcoming
speaker.
- You never need a list to share from your
heart. Just keep it simple & sincere to achieve
maximum impact.
The learning point here is that even if you are a
professional speaker, you must always practice any
speech that you will give aloud beforehand, if
possible. Hearing yourself speak aloud usually makes
it instantly clear where your focus should be and
what words are "listener & speaker friendly" meaning
easy for the audience to understand and easy for you
to articulate and express comfortably.
It is imperative that you time yourself
especially when introducing someone else. Your
message needs to be short & sweet with a clear
takeaway.
Another tip when you introduce someone is to make
sure that you do a fantastic build up and always end
with the person’s name. For example, “Put your hands
together and make some noise for a man who travelled
all the way from Ann Arbor, Michigan --- a man who's
in the top 1% of marketers & entrepreneurs in the
world -- THE man who is about to teach you how to
create outrageous wealth ----Mr. --- Stephen ---
Pierce!”
Finally, a word about mistakes. We learn far more
from our mistakes than our successes. In reality,
most mistakes aren't even noticed by your audience.
It is very important not to "beat yourself up" when
you don't perform as well as you think you could
have. Remember the journey to your full self
expression and confident communication is travelled
one step at a time. Don't expect yourself to be
perfect. Welcome the opportunity for learning and
congratulate yourself for having the courage and
persistence to improve yourself with every speaking
opportunity.
