Category Archives: Publicity

Speak With Passion: Your Storytelling Structure

Creative Business Ideas, Publicity, Speak With Passion, Videos

Storytelling Structure

Photo by Alan Levine

When you consider how to tell your story, you’d do well to follow some of the more popular storytelling formats. Using these age-old formats helps to shape expectations and therefore easily have people know how to receive your speech.

The sales speech is basically a long advertisement for a product or service. It’s goal is to have the listener take a specific action. Sales speeches generally showcase the risks of not buying and the rewards for buying your offering. These may combine elements of biographical speeches, but instead of simply connecting with the listener’s emotion, you want to connect with the listener’s wallet.

A lecture demonstrates how to solve a problem. A college lecture, for example, will start with a question, and offer best practices for solving the question. A cooking demonstration shows how to make something delicious. The format of the lecture is a “cookbook” for solving the problem so that you can go home and reliably reproduce their results.

The inspirational speech is best exemplified by Martin Luther King’, Jr.’s “I Have A Dream” speech. Inspirational speeches are ideal for when you want your audience to share your vision. The format is a series of short contrasts: this is what life is like today, but this is what life can be like. The contrasts showcase the divide, and your speech can focus on the steps the listener can take to obtain your vision. These speeches need to be kept relatively short, otherwise they become sermons that people will tire of (too many contrasts become repetitive and few speakers can enthrall their audience for a long time).

The biographical speech shares your personal history with the audience, using specific anecdotes to highlight key points you wish to make. Biographical speeches are great for showcasing how a series of events contributed to the learning you’re imparting, and the stories help the audience remember your “teachable moments”. These speeches can be much longer, but can suffer from the “Yeah, that was your experience – and it doesn’t relate to me at all” feeling. It’s important to somehow take your specific story and generalize it for others to learn from.

The fairy tale is the most ingrained form of storytelling, since these are the stories we heard when we were young. Fairy tales have both a specific format (every day…until…and because of that…and because of that…and ever since then…) and an underlying moral. A fairy tale is a powerful storytelling structure since it allows you to combine fantasy and reality in a simple package with a powerful punch. Crafting a fairy tale is hard – since you really need to distill the characters, their actions, and reactions to their essence to make it truly fairy tale-like. Otherwise, you story becomes a biographical speech, which doesn’t pack the childhood innocence-like feeling you’re trying to evoke.

While it might be tempting to mix-and-match the structures (a fairy tale that’s also a sales speech), be very careful doing so. Your audience won’t know what you’re trying to convey, and are likely to internally have resistance to enjoying your story. Instead, if you want two structures, put them back-to-back, creating a separate “chapter” of your speech.

By matching your speech goals with the right storytelling structure, you make it easier for your audience to “get” your message.

For some great examples of some of the speech structures, I suggest watching Nancy Duarte’s TEDxEast talk:

How to promote my resort?

Publicity

Can you give me some tips to help me promote my resort?

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Jay’s Answer: The key to promoting anything is understanding who exactly would love your offering, and describe how/why they would love it.

1. “Who” isn’t “everyone who’s visiting in your area”. It’s what type of people enjoy your resort the most. Age? Travelling alone? Budget? Luxury? Convenience?

2. Based on people’s experiences in the past, why did they choose the resort? No doubt there are some logical reasons, but the emotional reasons are even more important (color, room size, staff helpfulness, specialty food prep, etc.).

3. How do the people you’re targeting research resorts in your area? Online? Travel agent? Magazine? Word-of-mouth? Put your advertisements where the right people look.

4. Interview your (prospective) guests. Find out their needs/expectations. If you can meet/exceed them, do it. Positive word-of-mouth is the best marketing. If you ask at the end of your stay “was everything okay?” it’s too late.

5. Close the loop. Follow up with your guests (you have their contact information, right?). Find out how their travels went (not just your resort) and find out what other local merchants/services they used. Co-market with these local businesses in the future.

Holidays Tagline

Names + Taglines, Publicity

I work for one of the biggest travel agents in Ireland, we sell package holidays to all the sunny spots in Europe, Med, Greek Islands etc. We are launching our national ad campaign in January, I am relatively new with the company and want to make a big impression with this. One initial idea i had was a big of flip flops laying on a beach with the tag “Step into Summer” hasn’t been ruled out yet but i could use a few more options, any suggestions much appreciated. The focus this year is on family holidays.

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Jay’s Answer:

  • Book Your Sunshine Now
  • When Was Your Last Vacation?

Speak With Passion: Start With the End

Creative Business Ideas, Publicity, Speak With Passion

Start At The End

Photo by tableatny

When you start crafting your speech, start with the end result you wish to achieve. Your audience is likely to only remember 3 things about your speech: the beginning, the ending, and how it made them feel.

Think about a recent movie you enjoyed watching. Now, imagine trying to share the movie with someone who hasn’t seen it. Can you remember the plot’s twists and turns? Can you remember the feeling of the movie? Can you concisely review the movie to encourage others to see the movie?

You want your speech to be like a well-recommended movie. You don’t want someone in your audience to tell about this great speech that moved them – but forget why they were moved. If your audience can’t remember the point of the speech (because did remember they were entertained) – you’ve missed a key chance to spread your message.

What is it you want your audience to feel? Empathy with your story? Anger at a situation? Hope with their life struggle? Excitement through vicarious exploits? A talk without feeling is called a lecture. While there’s nothing inherently wrong with lectures, by their nature they tend to be dry and unremarkable. Remember that people came to hear you talk because they want to feel something new. What feeling can you share to both entertain and inform?

What is your repeatable message? Think about that movie recommendation. If you enjoyed the movie, but can’t put words to specifically why you enjoyed it, the person you’re talking to is unlikely to see the movie (despite your enthusiasm). Each listener needs to know what the point of the movie (or speech) is to decide for themselves whether they also want to experience what you had. So, if you can’t succinctly state your message before you write your speech, how will your audience be able to spread the word (and create “buzz” for you)?

By ensuring your speech is designed around a heartfelt and repeatable message, you’re making it easier for your audience to both remember your speech and to share it with their community.

 

Speak With Passion: It Starts With 3 Questions

Creative Business Ideas, Publicity, Speak With Passion

3 Targets For Speaking Goals

Photo by R e t o

You’ve just been asked to give a speech for an upcoming event. How do you prepare to give the speech for maximum benefit? You start by asking yourself these 3 questions.

What is it you want from your speech? Besides giving a speech that everyone loves, what are your underlying goals for giving the speech? Is it to get booked for other speaking opportunities, sell your latest video or book, get over a fear of public speaking, or impress someone? These goals can be as selfish as you wish. For example, if you’re trying to sell something, you’ll want to refer to it in your talk. Or, if you’re trying to look good for a publicity video, you’ll want to ensure that you’re comfortable talking into microphone.

What is it you want your audience to get from the speech? What specific piece of knowledge are you trying to impart? If you can’t concisely state this goal in a sentence (or two), then you don’t have a coherent message to share. Don’t assume your audience will figure out what you’re trying to share, or fall back and say, “everyone will get something from my speech”. If you can’t concisely articulate your message, how will you be able to tell if you’ve succeeded? By figuring out your clear message, you’ll be able to create both a powerful title and abstract for your speech that sets the stage for your presentation.

What is it you want the organizer to get from the speech? Speakers often forget to incorporate the organizer’s needs into their speech planning. Questions to ask the organizer: Is my speech part of a larger event? From the audience’s perspective, what will come before and after my speech (how can you smoothly transition to what came before to what follows)? What topics will other speakers be covering (you don’t want to repeat, but you may wish to echo their message)? What is the experience you want your attendees to get from the “larger” event? By incorporating the organizer into your goals, you’ll be making the organizer look good, which will later be helpful in getting referrals and future bookings.

When building your speech, refer to these 3 questions often. If you’re not satisfying these three goals, then rewrite you speech to incorporate them. As a speaker, you want to present a clear message, easily repeated, that creates synergy with your audience.

New Taxation Class – How to Get More Students

Publicity, Starting Out

I am having a Computer Institute teaching computer and other course. I want to know some good ideas to market my new taxation courses and attract more student. please help me in this regard. I am only person to teach this course in my city.

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Jay’s Answer: Because you’re the only one to offer such a course, you have an advantage and a disadvantage. Your advantage is that you’ve got a monopoly – if someone wants to learn locally, they must attend your class. The disadvantage is that the awareness for your course in general might be low, and having competitors actually raises the awareness of the need for your offering. And that’s the key – focus on why someone (who specifically?) really needs to take this class NOW. Why would waiting to take the course potentially be a bad thing to them? What specific advantages would your course offer to their business/community? Why should they trust you to teach them this?

As for how to convey your message – first focus on who you’re trying to attract, and then figure out what method of communication would be the most efficient – flyers? Email? Social media? Television? Radio? Advertisements?

Speak With Passion: Become Super Human

Creative Business Ideas, Publicity, Speak With Passion

Be a Super Human Business Speaker

Photo by JD Hancock

If you’re giving an instructional talk, you need to position yourself as an guru, someone who knows all and sees all to make your audience trust in you. But positioning yourself in this way will limit your ability to give a speech with passion, something that is remarked upon, remembered, and shared.

When you first start speaking in public, you’ll likely to feel comfortable talking more about what you know (your self) and less about what your audience is interested in (your content). You’ll soon realize that people invested their time and money to listen to your wisdom, and you’ll quickly remove your personal stories from your presentation to get to the “next level” of speaking.

The next level of speaking is all about your information. It’s packed with great tips and techniques that you’ve learned by doing and researching. You’ve got a lot of great set of slides that highlight your points. Perhaps you’ve even taken an extra step of finding stories about people who followed your advice and seen the results of your wisdom for them selves. This type of speech is likely to be fundamentally useful, but not memorable (except for those that came to learn specific academic techniques).

The highest level of speaking is about sharing your information, but in a way that’s memorable. And to do this, you need to go back to your roots. Why is what you’re sharing personally interesting to you? What excites you day-to-day in doing this work? What personal challenges have you faced trying to implement these ideas (both failure and success)?

Ultimately, people aren’t really interested in learning something new. People crave vicarious experiences. They want to see the world through others’ eyes and be excited to feel what they feel. To speak with passion, you need to be vulnerable. Don’t try to be a superhuman speaker (with no flaws). Be a super human speaker (who is believable). Share your passion, and let feeling imbue your presentation.

Event Ideas For Blue Collared Workers

Clubs + Associations, Publicity

My client is in the business of ‘instant money transfer’ and its offices are all over the globe.
The target audience as per the brief given by the client is ‘blue collared’ workers.
They would like to do a series of ‘low budget’ events ( about 8-10 events a year) and create awareness. Any ideas of any exciting events other than a fun fair…. ( or even a talent show which has been done several times over and it is loosing its charm..)

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Jay’s Answer: How about free calls around the globe (via Skype) from office-to-office on special days? Let people instantly connect to each other, not just with money.

Situations Where A Boy Of 8 Saves The Day For TV?

Publicity

I need some situations demonstrating a boys ability to save the day because he has had a special milk which makes him taller, stronger and sharper. Also a mother has to be seen in a passive role where she give him the milk. In addition to this like the example given below I need him to champion a situation displaying his Taller Stronger and Sharper qualities. One thought which is sort of ok is, there is a match being played and the boy cannot see past the people cos they are all taller than him. He tries in vain. Then we cut to the product window where we see the story of the special milk which is supposed to help children grow in many ways. When we come back to the situation with the boy he has now got an idea runs to the wall behind all the people and demonstrates the 3 qualities of Taller, Stronger and Smarter by trying several times to climb the wall managing it then swinging him self onto a tree from the wall and sitting in it to watch the match with a view that is now way above the heads of the people that were blocking him.

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Jay’s Answer: It sounds like you’re creating “Superboy”, a mild-mannered child who when things get difficult, drinks up and transforms him/herself into “Superboy/girl”. That could mean stopping traffic to save a puppy crossing the road, catching up to wildlife in a local park to get closer to them, etc.

How Can I Enroll More Students at Our College?

Clubs + Associations, Publicity

I have to attract more students in an aviation college. By now i am able to get admissions of 6 students only. Tell me how can I improve the admissions.

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Jay’s Answer: Your problem is either: 1) there aren’t that many people interested in aviation as a career or 2) your college isn’t perceived to be as good as your competition.

To improve admissions, you need to truly identify the problem you’re facing (low admissions isn’t the problem – it’s the symptom) and then create a strategy to address it.