Are You the Butt of Speaker Jokes?

Thanks to Jiten for his question on group involvement today!

Hey everybody thanks so much for tuning into my speaker blog. If you’re watching this video on anything other than www.TopherMorrison.com, we are glad to have you, but you may want to head over to www.TopherMorrison.com and subscribe to my speaker’s blog. You can get all sorts of information on how to shift from becoming a public speaker into a professional speaker. Not to mention, there is a lot of great stuff over there so check it out! I’m going to answer today’s daily question. It comes from Jitten Patel. I’m going to answer his question and then I’m going to tell you what this cool thing is here that I am spinning in my hand. Anyway, Jitten asked the question. He said “Hi Topher. Most speakers do the raise your hand and say I or say this or raise your hand and give a high-five, they ask the audience all the time, does that make sense? Is that the most effective way to speak to a crowd?” It’s kind of a multiple-layered question there. So first off, I don’t think that there is anything wrong with checking in with your audience and asking them if what you’re saying makes sense to them, as long as if they have a question you are willing to stop and elaborate.

Checking in with your audience from time to time is a great thing to do. There is nothing wrong with that. However, I do have a problem with the whole raise your hand and say “I” and getting people to raise their hand and agree with you. Every speaker trainer out there who teaches you to do that is going to tell you that you need to engage your audience or get them to participate. If you can’t get them to agree with you or participate, two things are going to happen. Number one, they’re not going to pay attention and number two, they are not going to buy your product. I agree with both of those things if you are a bad speaker and don’t know how to hold the attention of your audience. Otherwise, you better have them constantly have them raise their hand and say “I.” I fundamentally have a problem with that kind of stuff because there are too many people doing it nowadays. Follow the Walt Disney method of business: observe the masses and do the opposite. I don’t know about you, but I’m sick of looking at all these speakers having people raise their hand, high-five, and chant.

You know, when Tony Robbins did it in the beginning, he was the only one doing it and it was cool. When a Brian Tracey, Bob Proctor, or Les Brownman were doing it back in the 80s, it worked. But the thing is, now there are all these other speakers and they are copying them. I don’t think that they are being authentic and I caution you to not do it. If you are one of those speakers who like to do that, you need to realize something: You have become the butt of the speakers’ jokes, meaning all the people they make fun of is you. I don’t know about you, but I don’t want to be the butt of somebody’s joke because I’m the butt of my own jokes – I have no problem of making fun of myself. So don’t do that stuff. I think it’s old. Do you really want to model a 1980s motivational speaker? The new speakers of tomorrow are going to have a lot more sophistication.

The other speakers will sit there and tell you that you need to get the audience to raise their hand and say I otherwise they won’t buy their product. I don’t deny that but I do deny whether or not that’s the best thing for your audience. You know? All these people get into this business to “help people”, but is it really helping somebody in the audience if you manipulate them to buy your products unknowingly or unwillingly? I think that’s shitty, personally. I’m not into using the mind-manipulation tactics that so many people do especially from the profession that I came from in LP. People are sick and almost get a kick out of it, that’s why I got out of the LP. I’m not a fan of the whole raise your hand and say stuff but I am a fan of you checking in with your audience sincerely and making sure that they’re understanding your content because let’s face it. Sometimes we go too fast. Alright so I hope Jitten that that answers your question or at least gives you a good start.

If you’d like to get some different strategies on how to actually hold the attention of your audience without having to be the butt of everybody’s joke and become one of those 1970s/1980s motivational speakers, check out www.BulletproofSpeaking.com. You can get a free eBook there called “The Professional Speaking Secrets of Topher Morrison” but even more, pony up the dough, dust of your wallets, and pay me a mild amount of money each month. I think it’s like the cost of a small dinner for two, it’s like $47 bucks a month to get like a total crap-ton of information and crap-ton is a numerical term for lots. There is a whole bunch of stuff there. Once you sign up for the free thing, you will have the opportunity to sign up for the paid version but you don’t have to, you can just get the free eBook but let me tell you, there is a lot of great stuff in there. Hope you check that out. Now, here is the cool little thing. I just found this. I love this. So, I’m always traveling. I’ve always got my headphones and they are pissing me off because they always get wound up and I got this little thing now and what you do is you put your little cord in here and then you can wind it up and then, you get the idea right?

And then you can put it in the other end and then it doesn’t tangle. How cool is that? I got that at Office Depot, there is a little tip for you as well. Alright guys, have a great day. Check out my speaker blog www.TopherMorrison.com. Also check out my free eBook at www.BulletproofSpeaking.com and last but not least, if you have a question for me on how to become a professional speaker, put it in my Facebook page facebook.com/professionalspeaking and I will answer your question as soon as I humanly can. Have a great day, buh-bye.