I hesitated about the first line of this blog post:
If you don’t know what you want to get out of speaking to your audience, S.T.F.U. until you do.
Too harsh?!!
It may read as HARSH, but it’s actually a big ol’ GIFT and lesson for you!
Did I have to include the inference of the “F word?
YES! Because I want you to pay attention.
So I stuck with it!
PRO TIP: You need to SHOCK/SURPRISE/ SEIZE your audience with the first thing you say or do to get their attention.
BE DELIBERATE
As you’ll hear me say over and over again, be deliberate with the reaction you want to cause in your audience.
HINT: Sex, profanity, pets, kids, celebs, compelling pics, things that are the color red, and-or runny cheese (EXAMPLE: A puppy eating a glistening, drippy slice of pizza with a word bubble that says, “This Sh*t is DELISH!”) all get attention online! These are not the only ways, but I hope you get my point! LOL!
I was deliberate here. Whether you are amused or offended or anything in between, the fact that my acronym caused a reaction in you is good.
If you only get one thing from this post, I recommend you memorize “S.T.F.U. until you know what you want to get from your audience” because it’s the first step on “The Get To The Gift to the Gets” path to how speakers get paid.
BE CLEAR
Too many experts show up in videos or get up in front of audiences without be clear about what they want for themselves and for their audience and it shows.
After mortally embarrassing myself on stage in my youth (yes, more than once) I learned to always be absolutely clear about what I want for and from my audience. But even that doesn’t always mean I got it.
I’ll get back to that later…
When I produced and starred in my first one woman show, “Black Pearls & Strange Fruit: the history of Black American women singers and their struggle for racial dignity”, in the 1998 Melbourne Fringe Festival, in Australia, I had several goals.
I wanted to teach the audience about the injustices these famous singers went through in order to just perform. I also wanted to make my mark as a performer in the Melbourne arts scene. I wanted to put on a show that made a profit.
Unbelievably, I smashed my goals. The show was sold out. It not only made money, I got tons of press print, radio and television. Yes, I was even on Good Morning Australia with Bert Newton!
What I certainly didn’t see coming was my show winning best show out of 500 shows. The prize was being included in the Melbourne International Festival of the Arts the following year with some of the greatest acts in the world. WHAT?!?!?!? This led to more sold out shows and more gigs.
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Get this course!KNOW WHAT YOU WANT
On the other hand, there have been times when I stood on stage or screen delivering valuable content to an audience with very little or no benefit for me. Like the days when I presented at the International Association Of Culinary Professionals conferences for free or a pittance of an honorarium.
Or the times I did freebies for exposure [insert head exploding emoji] before I smartened up.
I delivered value, but neglected to really capture value for myself.
I was not completely naïve. I thought it would be beneficial to me in some way. It helped build my authority. My problem was I didn’t create a clear path to monetize that authority. I certainly didn’t capture value for myself that was at all equal to the value I brought to my audience.
I’ve had it both ways and I can definitely say it is better to be well paid for sharing your expertise and solving your audience’s problems. But it’s up to you to ensure you do.
GET TO THE GIFT TO THE GETS
That brings me to the Get To The Gift to the Gets path that experts who want to paid have to pave for themselves. The 3 Gs if that’s easier for you to remember.
PRO TIP: Use acronyms because they’re easier for your audience to remember!
The first Get in The 3 Gs: Get to the Gift to The Gets path is being clear about what you GET. What’s in it for you? Why and how do you want to benefit from sharing your expertise and message with your audience?
The GIFT is your message. It’s what your audience wants to hear. It’s the valuable information you share with your audience that helps them solve a problem.
The second set of the GETS make sure both you and your audience are getting what you want from your presentation.
To ensure you get paid, you have to make sure there is a clear path between the GET for you, the GIFT for them and GETTING what you both want.
The Three Whats
There are a few moving parts in this concept so it always starts with What? What? What?
Before I create a video, craft a speech, write a blog post, whip up a Facebook reel, devise a workshop, create any kind of content, I start with the Three Whats:
- WHAT do you want?
- WHAT is in it for your audience?
- WHAT do you want them to do once they hear you speak? For themselves? and for you?
Begin with the results you want for your listeners and yourself. Then, devise and design your content to deliver the results you want and they want.
THE GET
Firstly, why are you talking? What do you GET from delivering this speech or video or whatever content you’re creating?
Every person that stands in front of an audience wants one of two things or both: Sales or Influence.
What do you want?
THE GIFT
Next, what’s in it for your audience? What’s the value that you want them to get from listening to your video or presentation? What’s the main point you want your listeners to walk away with? I call this the GIFT. Kinda like the gift I gave you above. LOL!
Whether you’re giving your gift, your knowledge, away as part of your marketing or getting paid directly or indirectly for sharing your gift there are benefits to framing what you say to your listeners as a gift.
PRO TIP: Don’t give away your GIFT without getting anything in return.
I initially started calling it a gift as a coaching technique to help alleviate some of the nervousness that my coaching clients felt when they present. Everyone likes giving and getting gifts. Delivering a gift to someone who wants it is a pleasurable experience.
Framing your content as a gift for your audience releases some of the pressure, fear, and the risk that comes from putting yourself out there.
I also call it a gift so it’s clear that what we say has to be valuable to the people we’re talking to. It’s not a gift if our audience doesn’t give a darn — see I didn’t curse there — about what were saying. If you have never had to endure listening to a speaker that was saying things you don’t care about, consider yourself lucky!
Experts deliver information that helps their listeners solve their problems. If we get that right, they also give us a gift – their attention and that can lead to getting paid.
What is the GIFT you’re giving your audience?
THE GETS
I like to split the last two GETS into Get A and Get B.
GET A is what you want for your audience. What do you want them to do now that they have heard your presentation or read your post or watched your video?
You want to suggest how they can use the value of your GIFT, your presentation to take an action that will build more value for them in the future.
You’ll hear a lot of expert and speakers end their presentations by reiterating their keypoints and framing them as a take away for the audience in the form of a call to action (People often refer to this as a C.T.A.). That’s a powerful move because the repetition helps to manage your listeners short attention spans and gives them a follow up plan to take the first steps to solve their problem.
But too many of them neglect to request something for themselves.
They delivered their gift to their audience. They packed it up beautifully and tied it up with a nice little bow and gave it to the audience. But what do they get?
This is where GET B comes in.
Get B is tied to your initial GET. Why are you talking? What’s the sales and-or influence you want for speaking? What are your goals?
You always want to have an action that you want the audience to take for you tied to what you want.
Depending on the nature of your presentation, GET B can vary.
GETTING PAID TO SPEAK?
If you’ve been paid to present to the audience you could ask them to get connected with you. You could invite them to join you on social media or to get on your mailing list.
SPEAKING TO MARKET?
If you’re speaking to build your audience, your authority, and-or market your business, it could be an offer like buy my book or my course or coaching, etc and still include an invite to stay connected with you on social media or your mailing list or both.
Having a GET B benefits both of you. Your audience gets more help to solve their problem. You get the opportunity to market and sell to them in the future.
You always want to have a GET A for them and GET B for you.
Devise your videos, presentations, any content that you create for your audience starting with the GET in the Get to the Gift to The Gets path because the results you want for yourself and for and from your audience will always inform the GIFT you give them.
In other words, be clear about where you want to go before you create the roadmap to get there.
Jackie Gordon
I've been creating outside-the-box ways to get paid for speaking and performing since 1998 and even won awards! I've been coaching speakers to speak more effectively for years. Now I want to help them get paid for it.
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