Workshop :)

POINT NUMBER 1: Make a Big Promise.

ANCHOR:  People Don't Buy Paint, They Buy Beautiful Walls

REFLECTION: In your next presentation, how could you use the Big Promise to keep your listeners hooked? Don't sell the features, sell the benefits.

TECHNIQUE: In the next ____ minutes, you will pick up tools you can use to ____, ____ and ____

SALE: Allow to decide what to keep in, and what to leave out. Keep your audience engaged from the beginning because they have an incentive to listen.

Open With Humor:

First of all, I would like to say Thank You. Not only is this a fantastic opportunity, but the weeks of fear and nausea I have endured [pause for laughter] at the thought of giving this important workshop, have made me lose weight [laughter]. A win-win situation [laughter].

But now I'm feeling excited, energetic and I'm feeling pumped up.
Ask me, "Akash, why are you pumped up?"
[Wait for audience response].
I'm glad you asked ;)

The Big Promise

I'm excited - and I know you will be too - because by the end of this workshop, you will have picked up one very important tool that will allow you to create and deliver speeches and presentations that will keep your audiences excited, engaged - and hopefully awake [pause for laughter].


[Esteem More] This one tool will allow you to give captivating presentations people want to listen to, and hence be seen as a respected leader of your organization.

[Gain More] It will enable you to give presentations that gain more supporters for your plan of action and motivate them to act on your vision

[Enjoy More] And finally, when you realize how excited people are about listening to you, you will be able to enjoy the process of creating and delivering dynamic presentations.  

Are you curious to find out what this tool is? (Raise my hand)
All right, that's it, I'm done with my presentation ;) You're going to have to pay me to see the rest of the stuff! [laughter]

Activity
Now, I want you to grab a partner - and don't make me define grab! [laughter] It's not that kind of a workshop [laughter]. Imagine this...you are about to give a 30 - 60 minute presentation on how to become a better communicator. For the next 60 seconds, I want you to talk with your partners and decide 'what is the most important thing you should include within the first 5 minutes of your presentation'? Is it opening with a joke? Starting off with a story? Outlining what you're going to talk about? Jot down all your ideas...and keep your eyes on your own paper! [laughter]

- 1 minute later -

All right, let's hear your answers. Shout out your answers.

Your answers are all good and they have one thing in common - (look to Ian and pretend as though telling a secret) they're all wrong [laughter]. No, those are not wrong, they're all very important, but they're are not the most important thing...

POINT

The most important thing to do within the first 5 minutes of a presentation is to Make a Big Promise. Let your listeners know not only what points you are going to cover, but also let them know what it will empower them to do and to receive.

The Big Promise is probably the most important sentence of your presentation. It's the most important because it sets up the reason why audience members should listen to the rest of your presentation. If this sentence does not hook them in, they will mentally tune you out and leave you wondering why.
When was the last time audience members mentally tuned out because you didn't give them a reason to listen to you?

ANCHOR
There is a sales saying, "People do not buy paint, they buy beautiful walls".
That's so important, you should write it down: People do not buy paint, they buy beautiful walls.
Most presenters allow the audience to mentally tune out - they will outline the points they will cover, but they don't show the audience how they will benefit from listening.

Imagine a speaker starting off with, "Today, I am going to cover Parts A, B and C of the tax code system". How many of you would be interested in that? Not many...[Maybe Kenneth/Ian (laughs) - he's an exception (laughs)]

However, imagine how much more attractive that presentation would become if the speaker were to start off by saying, "In the next 45 minutes, you will discover how to use Parts A, B and C of the tax code system to increase your income income by 20%, gain two extra holidays each year for you and your family, and learn how to legally fire your boss [laughs]". I know for a fact that everyone of you would be paying really close attention to what the speaker had to say [laughs].

REFLECTION
If you aren't already doing so, think about how you can use the Big Promise to fire up your audience about your presentation... Remember, people don't buy the paint, they buy beautiful walls. In your presentations, sell the beautiful walls, not the paint.

TECHNIQUE
You're probably looking for a specific formula to create the big promise, and here it is:
In the next ____ minutes, you will pick up tools you can use to ____, ____ and ____. Fill in the blanks with some compelling benefits, and you have the start of a compelling presentation.

Folks, I'm not only teaching you how to fish, but I'm also bringing you the fish and showing you where the microwave is [laughs]...use it!

SALE

The Big Promise also offers another advantage. It not only keeps your audience tuned into your every word, it also helps you determine what to include in your speech and what to leave out. If you have an interesting story or fact you want to include, but don't know if you should, simply measure it against the Big Promise. If it supports the Big Promise, keep it in. Otherwise, scrap it.

If you want your audience members to leave your speech - hopefully at the end [laughs], feeling as though they benefited from attending your presentation, use the Big Promise.

If you want to hook in the audience at the beginning of your presentation and create a captivating presentation, start off with a captivating Big Promise.

Remember, don't buy paint, they buy beautiful walls. Don't sell the paint, sell the beautiful walls by using the Big Promise.

The Meaning of Life: Simple, yet Powerful

You'll find this to be a very inspirational video. Enjoy!



Cheer up your friends by sharing this video with them on Facebook. Click 'Share':
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How to Sell Yourself to Any Organization

Learn how to sell yourself to any organization.
Don't miss out on this valuable lesson, read on.

How do you sell yourself during an interview?
How do you present yourself to any organization in such a way that they hire you?
How do you get invited back for the KNOCK after you ENTER an organization?

[If you haven't read the last article, Enter and Knock to Achieve Your Dreams, then check it out here because it's been very popular and gotten very high reviews! It's worth your time because it will only take a couple of minutes to read the entire article]

FIND YOUR VALUE

In the last article, I promised to show you how to transition from the ENTER to the KNOCK. It's a simple, yet powerful piece of advice:

If you want to successfully get invited back for the KNOCK, you must first find your VALUE. To do this, you must ask yourself "What talents and skills and experiences and ideas do I posses that can help the firm that I am approaching?"
 
Here's a strategy that may work for you, because it's definitely worked for me. Take a blank piece of paper and construct a diagram similar to this:

This is a Mind-Map: In the middle of the page, write 'VALUE' and then draw other 'branches' with the words 'Skills', 'Experiences', 'People', 'Resources' and 'Ideas'. From these branches, you can begin to brainstorm all the different skills and unique abilities that you posses. 

The above diagram is a quickly sketched Mind-Map. Mind-maps are super useful for brainstorming. You can learn more about them by clicking here.

Here's another example of a prettier mind-map:

Discovering your value with mind-maps

What each of the branches mean:

SKILLS - Under skills, write down the abilities that you posses (e.g. you may have taken a course in website design, so website design is one of your skills).

EXPERIENCES - Where have you worked before and what did you do and learn there? E.g. Have you started your own business? Have you been a leader of a society/community group?

IDEAS - What are your ideas for the organization you want to approach? For example, my idea for the organizations that I approached was to help them market their services to the Toastmaster community because this was a segment of the population they hadn't previously been targeting.

The above three are pretty straight forward. The below two are the ones that most people miss out, and hence are not able to take advantage of!

PEOPLE - Which groups of people do you have access to? For example, as a University student, I have access to University students. This means that I can help organizations market their services to students. In addition, I have access to the Toastmaster community, which means I can help organizations market their services to members of Toastmasters. Which groups of people do you know, and how can you use these connections to help the company you want to work with?

RESOURCES - What other resources do you posses/have access to? For example, as President of my Toastmaster group, I have access to an email database of 9,000 people in University and hence I can send out an email recommending 'Company XYZ's' services to the students. This was my unique selling point to the organizations that I partnered with - this helped me gain benefits worth $130,000 for my Toastmaster club.

After you go through the 'Value Finding Exercise', look at the organization that you want to work with and look for the problems that they are facing. Then try and link your value to propose a possible solution.

Imagine sitting at an interview and then telling the interviewer that you realize, from your research, they are facing Problems X, Y and Z, and here's how you can use your Skills and Resources to work with their team to come up with a possible solution. (Remember, be humble, not arrogant. Propose a possible solution, but say that this isn't the only solution and you're willing to work with the team to come up with better solutions).  I know that if I were the interviewer, I'd be impressed because:

1. You'd done your research about the organization by finding out what problems/challenges they were currently facing
2. You were creative in using your skills to come up with a solution, while being open to working with the organization to find better solutions.

Find a solution by linking together your value.
Show the organization how you can help them,
and they will help you.

Coming up with a solution to a problem that an organization is currently facing shows the organization exactly how you can add value to them. Simply saying, "I'm a very able and creative person and I have lots of hard work to offer to your organization" is not enough to sell yourself. You have to have a specific idea/plan that links your various abilities and skills together and shows exactly how you might be able to add value to the organization.

You might be saying that the organization you want to work with doesn't have any problems/challenges (I doubt!) But, just in case this is the case, you don't always have to build a solution to a problem...You can also propose a better solution/strategy that will help the organization improve it's profits/brand image/employee morale, etc.



For example, I realized that Active Communications Ltd (a firm which provides presentation skills training for executives as well as the general public), was not targeting the Toastmaster community (Toastmasters is an organization that helps the general public improve their communication skills). I realized that because I myself was a Toastmaster, and hence had access to this group of people, I could collect emails of Toastmaster members and suggest that they sign up for public speaking workshops by Active Communications! Viola...it's a win-win situation: the Toastmasters get public speaking training from a renowned training firm, and Active Communications get more clients! :)

I'm sure that you have lots of ideas, resources and skills that can help organizations out. All you have to do is look hard enough, and you'll come up with a brilliant idea that will WOW any organization you want to work with:

1. Find your value. Do the value building exercise to discover what talents and abilities and resources you possess. Write down everything and anything that comes to mind...

2. Look at the specific challenges and hurdles facing the organization you want to work with. Link together your value to come up with a solution (this will impress the organization because it show's you've put in the effort to research their organization, and it shows them one specific example of how you can be useful to them)

3. When you can't find a problem that the organization is facing, find a way to improve the current strategy the organization already has in place. Maybe they aren't targeting a potential market group that they should be? Or maybe they could implement a new software (which you've had experience dealing with) that can improve employee productivity.

'S' for Solution

How do you sell yourself to an organization?

Propose a solution.  
This next sentence is so important you should write it down somewhere where you can always see it: When you show an organization how you can help them, they will help you.

Looking forward to hearing your success stories soon!


P.S. In the next article, we will start discussing specific influence strategies. This is the real exciting stuff! Trust me, you don't want to miss out on the next article. It will show you how to present your proposal/speech in a way that that excites and engages the audience (whether it's a bunch of bankers or the CEO of an organization) !

Stay tuned, and when you enjoy an article, share it with your friends on Facebook :)





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Laugh and Inspire: The Perfect Example

Check out this amazing speech from J.K.Rowling, author of the mega-successful 'Harry Potter' books. She starts off strong (getting several laughs and a huge round of applause within the first 60 seconds!) and goes on to give a very inspirational speech. Just check out the first 60 seconds, and I assure you that you,like everyone else, will end up watching the entire video...


J.K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement from Harvard Magazine on Vimeo.

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How Can You Use the 'Enter and Knock' Technique to Achieve Your Dreams?

How Can You Use the 'ENTER AND KNOCK' technique to Achieve Your Dreams?

 Do you have a brilliant business plan, but you "just don't know anyone who will give you enough funding to get started"?

Which organization or company do you want to work for, but "can't" because you "just don't know anyone who works there?"

What ideas and plans are you holding back because you don't have the right contacts and connections?

While you think about those three questions, come with me on a little journey and you will learn how to use the 'Enter and Knock' technique that may help you overcome these barriers so that you can get started on your dreams:

*****

If you were with me two years ago when I'd just graduated from high school, you would have seen me very excitedly talking to a bunch of friends about a "brilliant business idea" that could potentially make me several hundred thousand dollars in profit. 

While I won't go into the details of the plan, my idea was to export a very popular product from Kenya and into Tanzania (where it wasn't available on the market at that time). Figuring the popularity of the (newly-launched) product in Kenya, I believed that the product would prove equally popular in Tanzania. I had all the proposals written out and a thorough strategy in place, but I never did carry out the plan.

Why? 

Because a little negative voice inside my head said: "You don't have any connections...you don't know anyone who would fund your business plan!" Is there a negative voice inside your head is telling you that you can't succeed because you don't know the right people?

The positive person inside of me answered: "I believe that if you search hard enough, if you're dedicated enough, you'll surely find several organizations who'll be willing to adopt your plan and give you a shot."

Immediately, the negative voice retorted:  "Oh yes, sure, there may be  a few organizations who might be interested in the proposal, but how can you possibly convince any of the big-shots to even listen to you, let alone accept your plan?"

Sadly, the negative voice triumphed, and I lost. As I write this, there is another organization in Kenya that is exporting the very same product to Tanzania  - and they're making a fortune out of it. I let a great money-making idea slip out of my hands because I felt that I didn't have the 'right connections to get started'. When have you ever talked yourself out of your hopes and dreams because you "didn't know the right person?"

Last week, I had another great idea that, had I let slip, would have cost me HK $130,000. Fortunately, this time, when the negative voice inside my head started speaking  ("You don't know the right people!"), I acknowledged that it was correct. It was true that I didn't know the 'right people'. However, "not knowing the right people" or not having the "right network" can not be treated as a valid excuse for you to not carry out your plans. Instead, like I successfully did this time around, you can use the Enter and Knock technique to achieve success.

Before I expound on what the Enter and Knock technique is, think of this: Have you ever seen a person (or maybe it was you) who entered a room, and then, upon entering....realized that they forgot to knock? It happens all the time! 

What happens in this sort of situation? For example, say that you (in a bit of your hurry), enter your boss's office before realizing that you forgot to knock. Most of the time, your boss will just let it slip and you can sit down and start talking. At the end of the meeting, he may add with a smile, "And next time, please don't forget to knock". Not much harm done.


Now, to illustrate this Knock and Enter technique for Success in your career, let me show you how I effectively used it to gain a significant amount of benefits worth HK$130,000.

Imagine that you were with me in Hong Kong on Friday, 13 August 2010 at 2.03 p.m. on the elevator to the thirteenth floor. On the elevator, you would have seen me inhaling and exhaling deeply in an effort to calm myself down because I was heading over to a company called 'Active Communications Limited' (a firm that specializes in providing presentation skills, leadership and managerial training for top executives in Asia). I knew no one at Active Communications, and I had made no prior appointment...All I had was a good idea that I believed they would be interested in. 

When the elevator doors opened, you would have seen me confidently walk out of the elevator and into the offices of Active Communications, where I politely asked the receptionist if I could see the General Manager. Several minutes later, I was sent into the General Manager's Office where I introduced myself before giving a five minute overview of my business plan. [This is the ENTER stage, where you're still seen as a stranger by the organization you've barged into...but at least you've entered, which is better than being a stranger outside the organization]

After talking for 10 more minutes, you would have seen the General Manager stand up, reach across the table, shake my hand and give me his personal business card so that we could talk more about my proposal the following day [This is the KNOCK, when you get invited back by the organization. In the coming article, I will show you how to make sure that once you've ENTERED, you get invited back for a chance to KNOCK]. The following day, the General Manager and I went over my business plan and I was able to secure benefits worth HK $30,000.

Later that very same Tuesday after talking to the General Manager of Active Communications Ltd, I ENTERED the offices of another company, was invited back (the KNOCK stage) and was able to secure additional benefits worth HK $100,000+.


When you don't know the right people and you don't have any polite way to 'knock and enter' the offices of an organization (whether you're trying to get a job there or get funding from them), try the 'Enter and Knock' technique instead. It is not ideal, but it still works a lot of the times. 

Sometimes, you may have to ENTER more than once in order to get an opportunity to KNOCK [For example, I have spent the last month barging into the offices of J.P.Morgan, but I still haven't been invited back. Once I enter enough times, eventually they'll let me knock :).

Don't just take my word for it. Check out Les Brown (a world-renowned motivational speaker) and look at how he used of the ENTER and KNOCK technique:   
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NXS4tWHtItY&feature=related
To see the Les Brown's use of the ENTER, ENTER, ENTER and KNOCK technique (sometimes it takes more than one Enter to get invited back for the Knock), click on the YouTube link and forward to 4 minutes 18 seconds.


The ENTER and KNOCK technique may not be ideal, but it works a lot of the times. As with walking into your boss's office without knocking, your boss will forgive you and you will get the job done [if you know how to get invited back for the KNOCK - an issue we will cover in the next article]. Don't lose out on a brilliant idea like I did just because you don't have the right connections!

Do you have a brilliant business plan, but you "just don't know anyone who will give you enough funding to get started"? ENTER and KNOCK


Which organization or company do you want to work for, but "can't" because you "just don't know anyone who works there?" ENTER and KNOCK
****

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Live Passionately,


Akash P Karia
http://public-speaking-hong-kong.blogspot.com/

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