10 Years in Business Tip #40–Speak and Profit!!

In my special report, What I Know For Sure: Lessons Learned in 10 Years of Business, I list 75 topic areas that I have bumped into over ten years. Throughout October, I will randomly choose one of the 75 and expound on it. So here’s today’s:

#40 Public speaking is truly the best, most leverageable marketing strategy for service professionals. Trust issues, resistance and skepticism melt away when we see someone in person (for the most part). Nothing else does this like being in the room with your prospects. Get out and speak!

Okay, it’s kind of laughable for me to stuff my opinion on this subject into a single blog post. :-) For those of you who don’t know me, I specialize in teaching a very cutting-edge public speaking training, and for 5 years, have been teaching entrepreneurs to “Speak Free and Profit.” (See ebook to the right of this page and archived posts to learn even more.)

So what *can* I say about this in a paragraph or two? Well, how about this:  some things never change in a wildly changing world. The internet has lulled us into believing we can connect with others through our monitors and iPhones–but the truth is, we still need to experience each other in a live setting. We still crave the connection that is born out of face-to-face, in-person communication. It is not dead, any more than the delicious joy of holding a book in our hands and reading from paper pages is dead. Communing with others live is a delicious joy, too, and as entrepreneurs dedicated to effecting change, we must elevate speaking to the top of our marketing to-do list because it is our job to do what works. Getting people in the room to influence them to act on our world-changing idea, or to purchase something, is just plain being business smart. MUCH smarter than sitting around, waiting for dollars to come out of our Facebook pages.

Speaking is far more “Brain-Sticky” than any other kind of marketing, period. When you speak to a room of people, you have an unprecedented opportunity to remove resistance and doubt and replace it with powerful and long-lasting (if you know what you’re doing) trust and affinity. If you’re a keen observer of human dynamics, you know that an energetic circuit evolves in a room, and a master knows how to use that energy to lift the room to heights of inspiration, hope and empowerment–driving action-and once that has occurred, you have a dozen or thousand new fans who will want more of that experience…in you.

You can’t create this kind of circuit anywhere else. As such a master of live event energy, I’ve tried! You need to get them in the room with you. And they want to be there still, though it’s a tougher task to get them there than it used to be. But as humans, they want to feel the electricity that occurs in the presence of like-minded cohorts, and they want to see you up close and personal.

I always say, “Inspiration sells.” But inspiration gets transmitted best through the energy of live human beings, looking in each other’s eyes, touching each other’s arms, hearing each other’s laughs…and watching you in your grand sincerity and brilliance. Public speaking is, hands down, the most leveragable of all marketing strategies ever conceived. Some things just never change.

Get all 75 tips PLUS much more here! http://inspiredleadershiptraining.com/10Years/report/

And watch for the TOP 10 to be revealed on Halloween…and for great specials to be announced Friday on my birthday!!

 

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10 Years in Business–Tip # 19: What Am I the BEST in the World At?

In my special report, What I Know For Sure: Lessons Learned in 10 Years of Business, I list 75 topic areas that I have bumped into over ten years. And every day in October, I will randomly choose one of the 75 and expound on it. So here’s today’s:

Set out to answer the question,
“What can I be the BEST in the
world at?”
It may take years to
find the answer, but seek it, and
know that it must be answered
one day, so watch yourself and
ask your clients often, “What do
I do best in the world?” The
question is not, “Of all of my
skills, what am I best at doing?”

It’s what are you the best in the
world at. Period.

I was on a telecall a couple of years ago led by an older business man whom I respected–
though I’m embarrassed to say I don’t remember who it was. But he said that on his desk
he had a question: “What can I be the BEST in the world at?” And he admitted that he was
still valiantly trying to answer it. So, I adopted the idea and put the question on my desk,
believing that I *would* answer it. It, like all things that our physical senses experience
routinely, disappeared into the woodwork most days–but every so often, my Reticular
Activating System would have me catch sight of it again and I’d ponder the possibility:
What can I be the BEST in the world at?

Be assured that it’s a game-changer to know you can go toe-to-toe with the best in your
field and give either as good a performance or, more likely, a better one. Suddenly,
with this realization, your stock just took a quantum leap. You know you deserve, can,
and must command top-dollar for what you do–assuming, of course, that it is wanted.
As the best leaf-presser in the world, you may have a tough time with that. But if what
you’re “the best at” is valuable to the marketplace, you’ve just written your golden ticket.

Steve Jobs knew he was the best in the world at
innovation and made no qualms about boasting
so publicly. Writers Lev Grossman and Harry
McCracken wrote in Time Magazine’s October 17,
2001 issue: “Jobs dubbed the $2,495 Mac ‘insanely
great,’ a bit of self-praise that became forever
associated with him and Apple.” He didn’t listen
to his customers or his employees: he knew the
brilliance of his own mind and knew that to succeed,
he and everyone at Apple would do best listening to
it without reservation. They did–and the world was
changed.

On the one hand, you don’t have to broadcast to the world that you’re the best; one can
be more humble about it. But there’s also something very compelling about an expert
who asserts with conviction that he can do something no one else can. Humans aspire
to self-actualization, after all; we are fascinated by the evidence before us of one who
has reached it–at least on one  level.

Just the other day at my public speaking training, I said, for the first time, with clear
eyes and cellular certainty that I am the best in the world at extracting the message
an entrepreneur has been born to shareand that will change the world and
build a business empire. I would never compare myself to Steve Jobs, but I said it
with the same kind of knowing he had that no one can do what I do better. It was true.
It was simple. It was real. And so I said it. And I went on to let them know that come
2012, my stock price would be very different. It wasn’t a ploy or a manipulation. It
was just the truth–take it or leave it. It had impact.

Knowing what you’re the best in the world at is a game-changer. As I said
above, the question is not, “Of all that I do, which skill am I the best at?” It’s What am
I the best
in the world at?

I suggest you write the question out and look at it every day–as that business man has
done, and as I did (and still do). Your subconscious will work on it, and one day, if you
want it enough, if you believe in yourself enough, the answer will come. And it will be
a
brand new day.

Get all 75 tips PLUS an invitation to join me in celebrating 10 years on a free
call October 17th, PLUS much more!
http://inspiredleadershiptraining.com/10Years/report/

Hate to sell? In celebration of my 10th anniversary, I am reprising one of my most beloved programs. A 4-part/2-week course, Grillin’ the Gremlin: Freedom for the Sales Phobic. Learn the 7 reasons you do not sell EAGERLY or WELL. This is the LAST time you’ll ever get his program, and the ONLY time you get to work with me for peanuts. Jump on this. It’s good only until Tuesday Oct 18th! http://inspiredleadershiptraining.com/10Years/gg/

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