Lesson One
To Inform
To Entertain
To Persuade or Instruct
There are quite a few reasons for an appearance:
• A Campaign might require a Speech to INFORM people about the issues.
• A Show might require a Performance to ENTERTAIN people.
• A Meeting might require a Presentation to PERSUADE people to act.
If you want to work on your performance skills or your pure elocution, great!
But most of our work centers around getting people into action, by “Presenting for Results!®”
Lesson One: When persuading people to take an action, NONE of what goes on is about You!
You want them to listen, to consider, to decide and to act!
• It’s not about you looking good, although that might be helpful.
• It’s not about you being brilliant and analytical, although that might help.
• It’s not about you being articulate, although…
Your responsibility is to capture their attention, focus on the issues at hand, deliver a decisive argument and move the audience to a decision, then — an action! They should get up and go to the polls, to their cars, to their desks, their keyboards and phones to get busy and make something happen!
We have declined into an Entertainment Culture. Even at work, we have screens everywhere and little movies scrolling along all day long. They require nothing of us, save that we keep clicking, or simply watching. No decision, no engagement, no interaction, no decision, save the occasional click to purchase.
Fine. If you like the Status Quo.
But if you want something to change, other people (a lot of them) must get involved… on screen, on the phone, online and at some point, in public — on the street, in a retail establishment or in a voting booth.
Not a thing happens without people calling someone, going somewhere, asking for something, voting for someone.
Before any action, comes a presentation. Maybe it’s in person, maybe on a big or small screen, maybe a phone. That presentation has to be convincing and persuade the listener to Act.
So, here’s The Lesson: When those people you hope to convince sit down to think, they aren’t saying, “Hey, I wonder what John or Chris or Lucy or Nina think…” No, they ask themselves, “What should I do, how shall I work out the argument? What’s this discussion all about? Who’s saying what? Who’s winning? Who’s losing? How can I benefit? What do I need to do to bring something about?”
What those people need is not your opinion, your direction, your pushy, self-interested take on things. Not you, showing off! They want information, a clear sense of what is going on, what should go on, and what has to change to make things go right? Then they need to know what they should do to bring the change about.
Lesson One: “It’s not about you! It’s about them!”
Give them what they need and get off the stage!
You’ll be remembered, then respected and finally, Lionized.
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