Talking and Entertaining are Not Communication!
By Michael Ray Dresser
One day Bob called and asked me to give him a “no holds barred” critique of his speaking performance. Bob was an author and a great radio guest—both entertaining and informative—in the middle of a media tour. Bob also was a fantastic speaker, he could capture an audience’s interest and attention from the moment he uttered his first words. He was on the talk show circuit and was doing two and three shows a day.
So, why call me? His Amazon ratings were not moving and his radio interviews were not generating book sales.
I listened to his presentations and interviews. Bob was talking at the audience; he was lecturing and explaining things to the listeners. He was talking at the audience and not to them. He also was talking about himself and his accomplishments. There was no compelling reason for the audience to take action—to go a web site or book seller and purchase his book.
When you are interviewed or speak to an audience, you have to be intentional. You have to be systematic and have a clear sense of purpose about why you are being interviewed or why you are speaking. You have to know why you are there. What is the purpose of your presentation? Is it to inform? Is it to entertain? Is it to call your audience to action? Or, is it all of the above?
Your presentation has to have a reason for being, otherwise it gets lost in entertaining talk. If, like Bob, you want to mobilize an audience to action (to buy a book or some other product or service) you have to reach them on a personal and emotional level. You must speak to their emotions and to something they relate to personally; what you say must fit within their frame of reference, not yours. You can’t use the time you have to let the audience know how wonderful you are; nobody cares! Your focus must be on what your subject matter does for them. How does the information you are presenting benefit your audience?
If you fail to connect through understanding—empathy—you wind up behind an “empty microphone.” All of your “entertaining talk” will not sell a book, a product or a service.
Considering that the reason for Bob’s media tour was to sell his book, the fact that what he was saying was not relevant to his was not serving their needs or his own. He was not relating to his listeners in a way that he was seen as the connection to solving their problem. They listened but couldn’t hear him. They might as well have tuned in to another radio station.
If your subject happens to be about health care, for example, make a key point. Then, immediately afterward, tell a story about a father who lost his job and his health insurance. Explain how this caused him to borrow money to buy his sick son medicine. This allows your audience to realize—to intuit—that you emotionally understand their concerns. Now your message is about them, not about you (or about our friend, Bob).
When you introduce a relatable “human factor” scenario into your presentation and then tie that to a solution you are offering, to the benefits in your book, your topic or your point of view, the resultant effect is a call to action—a motivation for your audience to pick up a copy of your book, participate in a seminar or whatever your objective might be.
Unfortunately, Bob did neither of these things. Bob did not define why he was speaking in such a way that his audience could personally relate. He, therefore, ended up with no call to action.
Remember, communication is about your audience and how what you say will benefit them. It’s about them. It is not about you!
Communication Is More About Humanity!
We are bombarded with so much information on a daily basis that we have developed a short attention span. The daily clutter of marketing messages alone numbs us. You have to keep focusing your audience’s attention on what you are saying! Unless your audience recognizes themselves in what you say, you have lost them. Your biggest and single most reoccurring challenge to overcome is a limited attention span within a limited time frame.
The average attention span of an audience is about seven minutes and at best fifteen minutes when you are delivering a speech. Research has confirmed over and over that after fifteen to twenty minutes our attention drops dramatically. John F. Kennedy’s inaugural speech was scripted for fifteen minutes and Ronald Reagan gave strict instructions to his speech writers to avoid talks longer than fifteen minutes in length.
Entertain them
Your audience wants to be informed. They are there to be persuaded. Frankly, they are there to be entertained. If you don’t entertain them you are speaking to an empty room! You have to capture and keep your audience. You can’t persuade anyone to do anything if they are not paying attention to you. It is easier to lose their attention than it is to keep it! You have to be instantly memorable and authentic, and you have to give them something to look forward to. Facts and figures – data – will not accomplish this. The secret to keeping their attention and success with your presentation is framing your talk in such a way that they see themselves in what you say, so they hear you beneath your words! You must have a well-defined message and your audience must understand what the message means to them. How do you make sure your audience understands you?
Tell a story. You want impact, you want to be stimulating and most significantly, you want to connect with and engage your audience. You do so by telling stories! Communication is more about someone using the information than just hearing about it. The story or the illustration following what you say will emotionally anchor the experience for your audience. Each time you make a key point, tell a story behind it. When you do that, there isn’t any question about what you mean by what you say! Stories lock in your meaning and allow your audience to recognize themselves in a familiar scenario.
You are now tying your message to an unconscious image that is like an emotional book mark. By doing so you are underscoring your key themes and ideas. These are called Neuro-Word Strategies. It is the combination of adding stories to your talking points. It’s not just a story. It is the content and delivery strategy that will get the response you want.
The Consultation is free…but the information is invaluable!
A Formula for Success
Book marketing experts know that authors who get excited about landing an interview may lose sight of the goal, which is not to gain media interviews, but to sell their books, their products, their services or their point of view. Unfortunately, an interview does not automatically generate sales. Effective interviews generate sales, ineffective interviews merely produce entertaining or idle talk.
The author who can generate sales from a television or radio interview is the author who knows how to communicate to any audience listening to that show. A book or any product, service or a point of view is sold when one listener “connects” with the guest because there is recognition of a common desire, need or experience. Multiply those clicks of recognition and you multiply sales.
But, just the act of writing and publishing a book or any product, a service or a point of view does not successfully bring you to this point. There are steps to take.
The first step is Publicity:
You need exposure, you need press releases, newspaper and magazine articles, book reviews and guest spots on Nationally Syndicated and local talk shows all over the country.
Now you are out there. All dressed up and now what! Oops, now you have to be in front of an audience and talk! And you prepare yourself. You know that an interview is an acquired skill. It is a process with a strategy working toward a fixed finish line. You have to create your message in a way that is real for your audiences. They have to see and feel themselves in what you say. You now have to say it in a way that the audience can relate, a way that allows your audience to experience themselves in your interview message. You now speak to your audience, “one person at a time” and to think of your interview as an intimate conversation with a friend and not a lecture to thousands. You speak to your audience…not at them and learn to always make sure that the effect or the result of your message will match the intent you have going in. It’s important to go into an interview prepared for any question and be armed with the ability to bridge back to message no matter what is presented to you. Your audience is there to be informed. They are there to be persuaded and to be entertained… if you don’t, you will be talking to an empty microphone….and always, always leave them “wanting more.”
Michael Dresser’s Media Interview Training will give you, the authors or the experts, the skills to learn how to use the media, and how to effectively convey your message. You will learn how to leverage interviews to create book sales, how to feel more comfortable on the air and how to relieve the stress and anxiety that can come with interviews. The secrets behind creating effective presentations whether it is on radio, television or a live venue are available and learnable. The consultation is free…the knowledge is invaluable!
- Don’t bury your message in entertaining talk.
- Tie your message to an image (story
- Speak to your audience one person at a time
- Always leave your audience wanting more!
What Your Audience Really Wants
Like all people, audiences want to hear about themselves. They want to know why and how they will benefit from what you-the author-are trying to communicate.
Newsflash! They don’t care about what you’re offering until they understand how it will benefit them or how it can solve their immediate problem. You must actually change-in part-their belief system. And, when the belief changes, it causes their logic to become rewired to fit the new strategy you present.
This change in belief is the first step on your road to successful and effective presentation communication. Contrary to popular conception, when the unconscious question “What are you selling?” is asked and the answer “I’m selling myself” comes back, you effectively turn off your audience. They stop listening; they are not buying you. You do not get packaged up and go home with them. Of course, you have to be credible; you have to be authentic and command the respect of your audience.
When it is all said and done, they are buying what your offering “represents” to them, how what you present to them will make them feel after they have accepted your book, concept, idea, product, service or point of view.
Yes, there must be an element of trust and confidence in you. Above all, they must have a sense of their ability to gain from what you are saying. In the end result, at base, the only thing that will move any audience is a sense of emotional satisfaction and connection that will drive their decision to take action.
The question is: What can you present that will cause the audience to experience a sense of emotional satisfaction thereby making them want to take some form of action? What is it that they have to hear? What is it that they are missing or don’t know that they are missing? Is it different from person to person?
Or, is there one common denominator that resonates with all people at all times no matter your subject matter and gives them that sense of emotional satisfaction? The answer to that question is “Yes!”
What is it we pay for, pray for, and vote for?
The answer is a “solution” or an “answer” to a problem, a possibility of gaining something they want and didn’t know how to get. If your audience does not hear one of these things in your presentation…you have lost them!
Creating Human Presence in Your Media Message
A brilliantly orchestrated interview or a presentation, whether you are speaking to the public through the media or in your office promoting your business services, is an acquired skill. It doesn’t just happen. It is learned. It is a process with a strategy, utilizing precise tactics and working toward a specific end result that has impact and influence. Everything you say and the way that you say it is planned, it is on purpose and deliberate. This allows your results to be intentional as opposed to accidental. This also represents the difference between luck and skill.
It starts by creating, then shaping, and finally delivering your message in a way that is engaging and, most importantly, personal for your audience. They have to see it, feel it and experience themselves as part of what you are saying, because if they do not perceive personal involvement, if it is not about them, you will lose them. Persuasion, a call to action of any kind, can not be stimulated without perceived personal involvement. The poet Maya Angelou said, “People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.”
Being creative and resourceful are great traits, but without that “elusive something” that your audience needs to hear in your communication you can easily fall short of your desired goals. What they need to hear is that “something” that personally relates to them in their life.
The one reality of effective communication is the critical shift from you to them. The first step to making that shift involves developing a sense of human presence in what you communicate. Your message has got to be about someone using the information, as opposed to just offering data or statistics. Your audience has to see themselves, they have to feel themselves, in what you’re saying, and they have to actually live your presentation.
You can relate to someone’s experience of something but not to just information and figures. You can’t influence or persuade anyone to do anything without some them feeling some sense of personal involvement, some kind of recognition of them in what you’re saying.
