Monday 14 November 2016

Public speaking - find performance tips from musicians, comedians and athletes

There are thousands of public speaking tips and resources available, but if you want to learn how to deliver content effectively, listen to creative performers speak about their craft. When you are speaking in public, you are sharing information that you have probably already written. Comedians (generally) do the same thing. Musicians do as well, performing music that has usually been written, arranged, and recorded before. All of these people will riff and improvise around their core content, and those nuances greatly enhance and inform the performance, but their performance will almost always follow a fairly straight line to its planned conclusion.

What unites a business speaker with a comedian or a musician is the fact that they each share information publicly in a manner that is presented consistently, and with the appearance of spontaneity. Their audiences share similar expectations that they will be engaged, that they will be provided with relevant information, and that they will share “moments” that may change their lives, if only in tiny, subtle ways.

Consider for a moment why people attend live performances in music, theatre or athletics, rather than watching it onscreen at home. Why do you do it? Getting to a live show can be a pain - you have to buy tickets, you make plans to readjust your day, you have to get babysitters, travel, find parking, and find a restaurant before or after the show. It’s a lot of work and expense. So why do so many people do it?

If you are a business speaker, you can learn as much from musicians, actors, comedians and athletes as you can from other business speakers. Public speaking isn’t just about business - there is a lot of “show” that goes with it, and the best source of show business expertise comes from those who deliver a show night after night. If you think public speaking is hard, try singing, cracking jokes, or carrying the expectations of fans on your shoulders.

A live performance, even when its entirely scripted, delivers a balance of fear and confidence that can’t be found in a published or recorded work. As an audience member, you participate in the delivery of the “product,” sharing in its balancing act of fear and professionalism. In a live performance, anything can happen (and often does). This is a part of the experience that is rarely articulated - the entire production can crash and burn at any moment. It’s the same in sporting events - as an  audience member, it is exciting to watch professionals perform at the peak of their abilities, in the moment, because they are trailing the edge between grandeur and failure. It’s exciting to witness, and your presence within a broader audience adds to the drama. When a live performance is perfectly executed in any genre, it’s a rush for everyone involved. There is a release of energy between performers and their audience that is legitimately exciting, and collectively invigorating. 

Like anything else in business, the key to success is often to model the success of others. You may never be the Jerry Seinfeld or Wayne Gretzky in your field, and you shouldn’t try to be - but they can give you a lot of ideas from their experience that you can curate into your own distinct, successful presentation style.

Sharing Ideas


The following video is a long one, and pretty NSFW (thanks largely to Louis C.K.), but it’s worth watching - not only because it’s funny as hell, but because it shares dozens of tips about how to deliver a good show (which in their case, when you think about it, is an effective 90-minute verbal presentation). These guys talk about using fear to your advantage. They discuss understanding the needs of your audience, the benefit of rehearsing your work, and acknowledging all nuances of the physical space you are performing in to avoid surprises. They talk about creating “moments” with an audience, and using an audience’s reaction to your benefit. View this clip through the lens of delivering content to your audience, and you will learn tonnes about how to assess your approach, and how to deliver your ideas confidently and effectively.


Find Your Core

Similarly, check out Robert de Niro as he discusses the subtleties of his acting approach. Haven’t you seen a speaker that clearly “overdoes it” with their energy and gregariousness? You can learn as much from the poor speakers as the effective ones, so consider how de Niro’s approach may apply to your speaking style. There is something to be said for a “less is more” approach, and he defines how he makes subtlety work for him. I present this to you to suggest that, with all the tips in the world, you still need to be “you” when you speak. Audiences can smell inauthenticity, and it kills effectiveness. Over-reaching and over-delivering is rarely good.


Ninety Percent Mental

Creative professionals always advise aspiring professionals to find their voice, be extremely well-prepared, and be ready to go. These lessons are clearly transferable to business speaking. Wayne Gretzky once said “Ninety percent of hockey is mental and the other half is physical,” which applies to public speaking too - everything that is carried by your voice and body begins in your mind. You must be clear on your message, you must have clearly-developed content, and you should present it well. Embrace your fear, and use it to your advantage. Rehearse your content and understand it well enough to improvise if necessary. Engage your audience to support and enhance your message. Make them part of your performance, and understand that they went to a lot of effort to see you in person - so include them in the process, and give them what they want, which is the counsel of a professional at the peak of their ability - one who will provide moments and an experience that may change their lives, if only in a tiny, subtle way.


Wednesday 9 November 2016

Understand Your Enemy - Brand Identities in Politics

Marketing works. I’m not talking about advertising - I’m referring to the science of developing a methodical understanding of a defined audience, targeting that audience with a relevant, resonant message, and articulating that message to them as a clear brand promise. A strong integrated brand message will transcend communication mediums, and a well-developed strategic message is usually more important that how that message is tactically conveyed.

Americans chose to elect a Republican government yesterday, and the Republicans were successful largely because they provided a brand promise that resonated with an actionable majority of the electorate. That’s marketing, in its purest form. You don’t need to market to everyone - in fact, you shouldn’t even try. Great marketing defines a target audience, and engages them with targeted, resonant messaging. While great marketing doesn’t engage non-target audiences, it should still be built on a clear understanding of what their non-target audience needs. “Know your enemy and know yourself” (Sun Tzu) has been a battlefield standard for centuries, and it is the core of effective strategy in warfare, business, and politics - but still, people forget that this standard is made up of two essential parts. 

The primary product that Republicans were selling - their Presidential candidate - had obvious flaws, but those flaws were clearly less relevant than the promise provided in his core brand identity. The Republican Presidential candidate clearly knew himself - he understood what his audience wanted, and while that majority of voting citizens will learn over time if their chosen brand can deliver on its promise, at this moment, job-effectiveness is almost irrelevant. Right now, what matters is that his audience made a choice based on the brand identity that was presented to them, and whether anyone likes it or not, that’s how democracy works.



What I find more interesting in the U.S. election is that the opposing brand identity under the Democratic banner was burdened by significant strategic marketing errors. With the benefit of hindsight, I suggest their greatest error was that they understood their supporters, but they failed to understand the competition. They didn’t know the enemy. As they watched election results unfold, commentators were stunned at how results were not matching polls. It was immediately evocative of watching Brexit returns. The commentators expressed evident, repeated disbelief as reality outstripped research results. Even the Republicans seemed a little surprised - but not as much as everyone else. Research is the key here, for in both the U.S. election and the Brexit decision, one side of the political equation did not understand their opposition, and they therefore failed in their fundamental research positioning. They did not ask the right questions. What they could have done with that research is another question, but effective market positioning flows from effective research, and they obviously failed in this regard.

It’s no surprise to me that the leader of the Republican party (and now the President-Elect of the United States of America) is a service industry marketer. As a hotelier, he would understand a thing or two about human motivations. As a real estate developer, he would definitely understand how to motivate people on an emotional level. Residential real estate is rarely built on rationality: the decision-making process around choosing a home is deeply, fundamentally emotional, and any successful residential real estate entrepreneur knows how to target emotions. Emotions, once engaged, are very difficult to change. You can’t prove emotions wrong. Emotions are often impervious to logic and reason. “It feels right” wins over “the research shows…” with surprising (and sometimes alarming) frequency. If you know yourself and your audience, and you understand what motivates the emotions of your audience, you will earn some success. If you can provide something that your competition cannot provide in equal measure, you will earn a majority of success. 

At the time of this writing, the Democratic Presidential candidate received a majority of the popular vote, but did not win the White House, nor did the Democrats win a majority in the Senate or the House. That’s the way the U.S. system works, and this certainly feels like the 2000 election all over again to me. Still, what’s most remarkable to me is how insanely close these results can be. In spite of the quality of all marketing efforts, success or failure in American politics is still decided by thousands of votes from the millions cast. Again. It demonstrates how iffy marketing can be in general, and how tenuous its successes (and failures) can be. Brand communication requires effective research, focused targeting, and great messaging - and then you have to reassess and do it all over again. The biggest mistake any marketer can make is to feel they are “safe” - to feel that their support is assured - because it rarely, if ever, is.


The marketing lesson is that complacency, at any level, is not good idea. This is the “know yourself” part. Understanding your enemy, and constantly reassessing their assets and capabilities, is essential. The greatest tool in a strategist’s kit is research - especially when it comes to understanding what went wrong, so that a momentary failure can be assessed and incorporated into future strategic plans. Right now, both sides of the political spectrum should be doing a lot of research and analysis to figure out why everyone was indeed as surprised as they are right now - and understand how they may do things differently next time.