Archive for the ‘Speaking Industry’ Category

by Martin Perelmuter, President and Co-founder

Over the past two years, our busiest speaker has been Simon Sinek, who came to prominence in 2009, following the publication of his book, Start With Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action, and a TED Talk he delivered on this topic that went viral. (It’s one of the 10 most-watched TED Talks of all time, and is rapidly approaching 3 million views.)

Start With Why is based on a very powerful, yet simple concept that offers an unconventional perspective that explains why some people and organizations are more innovative, more profitable, command greater loyalties from customers and employees alike and, most importantly, are able to repeat their success over and over. These are not the one hit wonders. These are the ones who change the course of industries or even society.

The concept is simply this – it doesn’t matter what you do, it matters why you do it. Citing examples ranging from Apple and Harley Davidson to Martin Luther King, Simon convincingly argues that the one thing these and other successful organizations and leaders have in common is that they answer the why questions before the who, what, when, where and how questions. This basic distinction permeates everything they do. For their companies and organizations, this can be seen in everything from their corporate culture to their marketing, and their overall strategic direction, vision and purpose.

The simplicity of this idea is what makes it so powerful, as it can easily be applied to virtually any company or organization, big or small, local or global, for-profit or non-profit… and yet it’s incredibly rare. Most organizations jump right to the other questions and describe who they are, what they do, how they do it, etc., and only consider the why question as an afterthought (if at all).

After reading Start With Why, I started thinking about how this applies to the event industry, and decided to try it out on a few clients. Before jumping into the who, what, where, when or how questions such as:

• Who is in the audience / who are the speakers you are interested in?
• What type of event is it / what are the topics you are interested in?
• Where is the event taking place?
• When is the event taking place / when is the speaker needed in the program?
• how much is your budget?
• etc.

I decided to ask why the event is taking place in the first place. Incredibly (but perhaps not surprisingly), not one person I asked had considered this question. As a result, it made them stop and think, and led to a discussion about their event on a deeper / less superficial level, which gave me some insights that were extremely helpful in recommending the right speaker.

We are all facing time constraints at work (not to mention home), and as a result the natural thing to do is jump right into the who, what, where, when and how questions. These are also easier questions to answer, as they require less thought, reflection and understanding. However, at your next meeting with a client or your team, I’d strongly encourage you to start with why.

Years ago, I heard a quote from Friedrich Nietzsche, who once said that “he (or she) who has a why can endure any how.” And while I don’t normally take business advice from crazy German philosophers (dead or alive), it’s the best management advice I’ve ever received.

Original post can be found here.

Guest blog from Ron Tite

With more technology available to help us tell stories, we’ve lost the art of crafting the content of the stories and have relied on gadgets and software to tell them for us. Here are 5 tips that can help.

1.        Know your audience.
This is not only the first rule of comedy, it’s the first rule of storytelling. If you want to connect with someone, you first have to know what they care about and craft the story with that direction in mind. The same idea can be spun numerous ways. A marketing person will want to hear how your idea connects with customers. An HR Director will want to hear about the effect on employee retention. And your left-brain CFO will want to hear about the financial implications.

2.        Start with the end in mind.
Ideas are catalysts. When executed properly, they create something. So, tell that something. If I told you that I was taking you on a road trip to Las Vegas, your ears would perk up and you’d be excited. You’d probably want to hear more and immediately jump to questions, “Where are we staying? Can we see Cirque de Soleil? Is prostitution still legal there?” But if I chose to tell you in the linear fashion that many tell stories, you’d be bored by the time I said, “We turn right and head on to the Gardiner Expressway…”

3.        Describe the characters.
Even those who tell stories will often take the no-name brand approach, using generic people. “There was this guy…” or “we once had a client…” doesn’t add any colour to a story. We already know this. Ask anyone about their grade 6 class and you get first name, last name. “There was this kid in my class, Gregory Albrecht, who smelled liked pee.” Make your characters come to life and the story will, too.

4.        Move it forward.
While details are nice, you simultaneously have to ensure that you keep the story moving forward. My mom came from a great line of Italian – Quebecois storytellers but it could be painful listening to one of hers because of the wild tangents she’d take you on. Half way through, you’d be 8 generations away from the original plot, looking for an escape hatch to bring you back to reality. Move it forward.

5.        End with what you want them to remember.
“And they lived happily ever after” is often used in fables because that’s what we want kids to remember. It’s like a tagline. There’s a reason taglines are so important in advertising. They sum up everything that preceded them. If you only remember one thing, it can be the tagline because it should summarize all the details. Even Apple, which doesn’t have a corporate tagline, always end their spots on their logo. They want you to remember, “Don’t worry. What you just saw is an Apple product so you can rest assured knowing that it’s simple, innovative and fun.”

A couple of weeks ago, I worked with 600 sales people from Allstream in an interactive exercise that had them crafting and telling stories about the organization. We even picked 3 lucky contestants to get on stage and deliver them to the room. With little time to prepare and no rehearsals, they did it brilliantly. Here’s hoping you can, too.