ANECDOTE
Last week, I presented my keynote “Tick Talk: What to Say When Every Second Counts” at Renaissance Weekend in Charleston – a gathering of top thought leaders, Olympians, astronauts, Nobel Prize winners, entrepreneurs, executives, and nonprofit directors.
Afterward, a professor came up to me and said, “I’m considered one of the country’s experts on my topic. I went back up to my room after your Tick Talk® session and completely redid the lecture I’ve been giving for 24 years. I realized there was nothing people could do at the end of it, so why listen?”
Wow! The most meaningful compliment a communicator can receive is when people circle back with, “I CHANGED WHAT I WAS GOING TO SAY AND DO as a result of what you said and did.”
That’s changed behavior. That’s communication that improves results. And that’s our primary goal as communicators.
Your effectiveness as a communicator and leader is directly proportionate to your ability to win buy-in to your ideas, initiatives, projects and programs.
If you want to have people at hello, communicate as if every second counts – because it does.
Click here to get my Tick Talk® tips to make every second count.
ACTION
Are you giving a presentation in the near future?
If so, ask yourself these questions:
Am I sharing a “haven’t-heard-that-before” 60-second intro that earns people’s attention?
Have I crafted an “easy-to-remember, hard-to-forget” call to action that will keep my message top-of-mind?
Am I sharing a “put-people-in-the-scene” origin story so people know where I begin to care about this issue – so they begin to care about it too?
Am I wrapping up with a passive “leave-money-on-the-table” close, or am I wrapping up with 60 seconds that actually motivate people to want to follow up and take action?