President Obama did something many politicians and speakers tend to forget. It's about the audience - not the speaker.

In Barak Obama's DNC acceptance speech, he turned the tables on language typically used. He could have said... "I did this... I did that... I'm your man" - the entire speech. He didn't.

Instead he frequently brought the audience into the storyline.

Messages along the lines of: You did this. You made that happen. We move forward... were used to generate more engagement.

When he refered to the leader of the Republican party, the President never used names. He stopped using "you" language and went to "me" language. "My oppenent" was repeated a few times. This distances audiences from the subject matter. Whether you're running for political office or your trying to engage a room full of people as a motivational keynote speaker, you run the risk of turning people's attention away when "me" or "my" is used.

President Obama used "I" language in association with leadership messaging throughout his talk. Yet, when it came to communicating his desire to have you decide he's the candidate you should choose, he was back on the "you" train.

When you bring the audience into a story, they feel it's about them. When your audience is transported into an experience, you have a higher degree of impact and influence. Hence, use "you" or "your" language to strengthen your message.

As the 60 days of campaigning proceeds, notice how often the politicians say, I or Me vs You, Your or We. Notice how engaged you are when they speak to you that way. How does it make you feel? What direction does you mind go?

After coaching New York Times bestselling authors, thought leaders, CEOs and politicians on advanced speaking techniques - there is one thing yours truly is sure of. "You" language is the quickest, most effective way to have instant impact and lasting influence.

The "you's" engage hearts and minds. Hearts and minds drive votes.

Let the Oration Games begin.

Motivational Keynote Speaker

Turned Secret Shopper...

Erin, a meeting planner for a large financial services company, had a choice to make. During hotel site inspections, she interviewed chefs. Two categories emerged. One said, “What menu do you want?” The other said, “Here’s what we can do” and fed her. Guess which one she picked? It’s time for us to refocus on solutions - in a secret sort of way.

Recently, one of our clients needed help in addition to a motivational keynote speaker. Many of their franchisee’s were not adopting the new sales system. The old way? Wait for the phone to ring, then give the customer what they ask for. The new sales approach? Guide the customers to exactly what they need – and more. Our client was frustrated! A number of the franchisee’s didn’t and won’t buy-in to the better sales model. I offered to be a secret shopper in preparation for my opening keynote at their conference.

Store X was friendly. But our relationship immediately took a Thelma and Louise cliff dive. Within seconds she gave a link to their website. Instructed me to pick what I wanted and to call back with the order. I even gave her a second chance.

“There are so many choices,” I said on a return call. “I’m lost.” This confounded Store X. Still no questions. Sure, she offered products. But, no true solutions.

Awwwwwkward! It would be a tomblike conference hall after announcing – “Folks, you suck at sales.” Fortunately, Store Y came to the rescue.

Store Y, thank goodness, stepped up with enthusiasm and a ton of exploratory questions and consultative selling. He actually directed me to additional solutions I hadn’t thought of. He emailed photo examples. Plus, he added very compelling ideas to generate additional revenue for us.

Consultative selling has been around for a while but it is amazing how, in a world of increasing overwhelm, we’re more desperate for solutions than ever. Think of your top three customers or clients. Better yet, if you work for somebody, think of your boss too. These people are dealing with intensified responsibility, information overload, an array of options with reduced finances in a time crunch.

 To say, “Pick what you want” borders on insulting.

Instead, parcel your questions into five categories. Then you’ll uncover solutions that will endear them to you.

1. Responsibility – What various responsibilities does this person or company have? What are the needs of their customers or employees?
2. Information – What insights could be useful to them? What ways can you eliminate information fatigue?
3. Options – How might you filter all options on the table? Drawing from your expertise, what ways can you focus their options?
4. Financial – How can you ‘save them’ or ‘make them’ money?
5. Time – What are all the ways you can save them AND their customers’/employees’ time?

Stop asking your boss or your customer choose what they want. Cover these five key areas. Ask questions. Show what you can do for them. That way, happy bosses and loyal customers isn’t a secret solution any longer.

The tree removal crew showed up on time. Nice. What caught our attention in particular? When Marvin and Bud, each made eye contact, and said with absolute sincerity, “I sure appreciate the work. Thank you Sir!”

Huh?

When’s the last time your mechanic, barista, cable guy, nurse said that? They might be friendly and nice, you could even get a thank you note from head office, they may even be the type who appreciates having the job... but these tree trimming and removal employees acknowledging the work to the customer stood out for one important reason. Dallas Tree Wizards were clearly not coming from a place of entitlement. They didn’t think they deserved a paycheck. They appreciated the client enough to say so. This couldn’t happen by chance…

“Who owns the tree removal services Tree Wizards?”

“Dallas Arbor, Jim Chase, Sir.”

Dear reader, we have a growing epidemic in our society today. It’s called entitlement. What does this humble Dallas Arbor do to create a culture of gratitude over entitlement? Talking to this Jim was worth every second.

“Tell me about yourself.”

“I grew up in an orchard and tree nursery. With nine kids in my family, living on a 20-acre lot, my entrepreneurial nature sparked when I climbed my first tree. Combine that with my artistic nature and I found the magical combination of risk and reward of tree removal.’

Jim’s tree trimming and removal crew loved their work and seemed fearless as they danced from limb to limb. These tree specialist guys mirrored Jim’s passion for Dallas trees and craftsmanship. According to this professional tree service owner, “Climbing is goal oriented. A thinker’s paradise! It rewards you with daily thrills, finding solutions, and then achieving them. The thrill of overcoming fear and repeatedly accomplishing your goals.”

“Okay, I get you like goals. But what do you do to get such appreciative and grateful employees?”

“We only surround ourselves with tree removal people who absolutely love this work. Their passion is my passion. The stakes are high; it’s dangerous. It’s risky and the solutions are always customized. No two trees are alike. When you swallow your fears and trust your abilities the magic happens. Creativity, consistent communication and teamwork combine to make our clients (and us) thrilled with the end result. That – is a cool feeling!”

“That’s great,” I said “so you tell your employees to thank their customers for the tree removal work?”

Jim stared for a second. “I don’t ‘tell them’ to say anything. They interact with the customer in any way they want. Vince, they just love their work and the money is icing on the cake. Every time they get sent out on a job, they appreciate getting to do what they love to do."

Ding! It finally made sense. These tree trimming and removal Wizards defined work as more than just money.

It looks like a simple formula for a grateful, appreciative culture. Engage with people who:

1. Match values with the job.
2. Have a passion for the work.
3. Sync their goals with the customer’s goals.
4. Repeat daily.

Countless business owners admit when hiring, “You never know who will work out.” Looks like the Tree Wizard is the hiring wizard too.

His secret… have professional tree service employees out on a limb of gratitude.

Leading up to the Olympic games athletes get a great deal of support and attention. Clearly, during the Games the accolades and adoration spikes. After the big event athletes become ostensibly invisible. That's life - true. But this post Olympic invisibility is more intense and tough on the psyche than you may realize.

This is not much different from the psychological after effects in the days and months after you've planned your wedding or any event that took all of your attention. With post Olympic depression, for medalists and participants alike, the let down can be fierce. Established National Olympic Committees play a key role in helping Olympians with the transition but maybe you can help more than any NOC.

Post Olympic competitors, to a large degree, retire after the games. Another four years running around in circles, chasing a ball or trying to get to a white line faster than the other guy becomes somewhat pointless. The love of the sport is not what it was and the sense of loss is profound. Until the Olympics the first thing on your mind as you got out of bed was swifter, higher, stronger. Post Olympics the feeling if similar to being cut from a space ship. The tether is severed and you feel lost while floating aimlessly into deep space.

Victor Frankl's book, Man's Search for Meaning and his theories on logotherapy point to a "sense of purpose" being the reason survivors of concentration camps were able to stay alive. He noted, the people who died gave up. They were lost and had no purpose. It's unnerving to admit but there will be Olympians after London who feel the same thing. Their sense of purpose will be gone and there will be some degree of depression. For some, the depression is only a nuisance. Some of it will be life threatening.

In our financial times it is all the more troublesome that retired athletes from the Olympics will face challenges in finding work. If you run a small business and you know an Olympian, reach out to them. Only a select few will be a motivational keynote speaker. Fewer still will get the endorsements necessary to keep them hopping. Grow your business with an Olympian at the helm of a project. Involve them in an initiative you've needed help on. If you work with a large corporation, reach out to an Olympian you know, or know of.

Feeling needed… Exercising your character strengths… Channeling your energies to a new project… these experiences can help an Olympian through an intensely difficult time. At the same moment, you may find yourself working alongside a person who's DNA is about extraordinary achievement and world-class excellence.

The Olympics are over but those people (formerly known as athletes) are not. If you know of an Olympian – reach out. If you don’t contact your National Olympic Committee. Let’s keep cheering for them after the flame burns out.

Urgency changes your approach.  Think of times in your life where urgency created extraordinary outcomes.  BUT… instead of being victim to urgent situations be the architect of your results. Use urgency as a useful tool.

You know the right tool can save you a vast amount of time.  The wrong wrench used in removing a goofy European automobile's oil-filter can take hours. The right wrench can take seconds.  Imagine being a motivational keynote speaker writing an essay with a quill on a piece of parchment versus writing it on a laptop computer with the appropriate software. It makes perfect sense to use the right tool to accomplish what you want. This frees you up to accomplish more (or have more free time) in another area.

Yet, some tools are not easily acquired.  Urgency is one of them. 

If urgency was a tool in your toolbox of skills, wouldn’t it be great to reach in and use it like a wrench?  Yet, urgency has naturally been dreaded as an external force, a force to handled, be coped with or managed. For example, NASA’s Apollo 13 mission got a dose of urgency when Jim Lovell radioed, “Houston, we have a problem.”  Urgency set in motion Gene Kranz(now a motivational keynote speaker) and his team. Mr. Kranz clarified their efforts with the words, “Failure is not an option.”

Urgency is the state of requiring immediate action.  It involves focusing your absolute attention. It is a quality that conveys earnestness or the need for doing something quickly.  It can be a pressing need.  Urgency implies importance and necessity. 

Negative connotations for urgency include pressure, stressing out, hurrying and rushing.

Urgency is the root word in emergency. If it’s an emergency, it can’t be good.  But if fast results are what you want, then it's to your benefit to turn urgency into a positive tool for you to use.

In the Olympics, if a tennis player knows she’s behind, urgency demands she step up her game.  By being overcome by the pressure, stressing out, hurrying or rushing, she can blow her chances of a comeback. If she uses urgency as a tool, she’ll quickly turn things around.  If she focuses on what’s necessary and important, she’ll improve her game and put momentum in her favor. That Urgency Monkey now climbs all over her opponent’s back. With enough of a killer instinct, she could keep building on the pressure to cause her opponent to choke.

Peak performers use urgency to their advantage.  The tennis player who did not panic stayed on her game.  She didn’t rush her strategy.  She didn’t hurry past opportunities to take advantage of certain shots.  Urgency as a tool was essential in her approach.

Reach into your tool-box and grab urgency as your own. Use it to build your business, drive sales, and get more of what you want in the business of life.

For our loyal readers we have a FREE eBook for you. Get Everything Done FSTR dives deep into the topic of how to get your own urgency tool into your toolbox.

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NY Times bestselling author, Vince Poscente, is the founder of Libretto Publishing and has written five books translated into more fourteen languages. He writes about harnessing the speed of change, the way to reach BIG GOALS in less time, accelerating potential of human capital, how to get out of your own way and best of all, instant impact with lasting influence. Learn more about this expert on alignment, agility and efficiency.

Olympic Speaker

The media scambles over themselves during 17 days to get "their story." Between the medal count and crafted storylines some newly minted Olympic speakers supercede their 14 mintues of fame. For months after the Olympic Games event planners make assumptions about bringing in an Olympic speaker. Here are the five most common assumptions that can hurt your future corporate event. The five selction mistakes for your

Olympic speaker:

#1. Big Names Draw Attendees. FALSE. This number one assumption is everywhere. Assuming a gold medal Olympian speaker will draw attendees has proven to be false. In a recent study commissioned by the National Speakers Association - there is little correlation between big names and attendee draw. Solution: Invest in great speakers (who don't have to be celebrities) then use video clips plus personal video invitations to drive interest. You will also get bigger numbers next year with a proven speaker this year.

#2 Celebrity Olympic Speakers Can Recreate the Experience. RARELY TRUE. It's tempting to name names but it's really not the Olympic speaker's fault. It's the planners who assume the story they remember from the Olympic games can create the same expereince at the event. Hire a newly famous gold medalist and you will normally get a speech that is underwhelming. There are exceptions - those are the exceptional Olympian presenters who are still speaking today (and even then there are painful exceptions). Solution: Hire an Olympic speaker who can recreate an Olympic experience.

#3. The Interview Format Works Best. SERIOUSLY? Sure, it's better than leaving an unexperienced Olympic speaker out on stage, alone, fumbling with what to say. But these planners have forgotten the number one rule in event planning - the experience is paramount! You've spent tens of thousands of dollars to ultimately watch an Olympic speaker sit in a chair and talk about themselves. Mildly interesting is not the goal of any event planner. Solution: Hire an Olympic speaker who engages the audience eye to eye. Look for an Olympian who is a professional at connecting compelling content to powerful story telling.

#4. His/Her Olympic Story Will Be Great To Hear. NOPE. Let's recap other Olympic speaker bombs in the past. "I did this. This happened to me. I did that. It was hard work. I didn't give up. I won. You can too." Solution: Hire an Olympic speaker who uses "YOU LANGUAGE." Instead of saying what happened to them, the Olympian presenter should draw people into the story as if it is happening to the audience.

#5. A Gold Medal Means He/She is Good At Everything. This is a pervasive assumption. From experience, I can tell you for a fact, when someone finds out you were and Olympian on the golf course they automatically think you are a great golfer. I'm not. The same can be said for table tennis, canoing, climbing, diving board tricks, waterskiing, cooking... you name it. Your Olympic speaker needs to be previewed before you hire them. Solution: My mom used to say, "When you assume you make an ass of you and me." Don't assume anything about the Olympian's speaking ability. Preview and vet their ability and content. If the content is not innovative or counter intuitive it will be between boring and forgettable at best with your audience.

In the spirit of full disclosure, I did not win in the Olympic Games. But, this turned out to be a HUGE advantage as an Olympic speaker. Why? There were no calls for someone who placed 15th in the Olympics. For years I had to hone my craft at speaking. Multiple speaking awards later (including the Council of Peers Award of Excellence from the National Speakers Association - names include Ronald Reagan, Og Mandino and Zig Ziglar), an opening keynote at MDRT (the Carnagie Hall of speaking) and 17 years of speaking professionally around the world the results can be viewed on this video.  If your newly crowned Gold medalist speaker can do this. Hire them. If they can't, hire someone who can.

An Olympic gold medalist is an automatic Olympic speaker. Yet they rarely have the chops to be a naturally good speaker. With the phone ringing all the time, it doesn't seem to matter they don't speak well. They have little motivation to improve. Motivational speaking isn't their only concern. The five assumptions above are alive and well with far too many meeting professionals.

Enjoy the Olympic Games in London. Then, leave your assumptions in the file cabinet.

Hire and Olympic speaker who can light your people up with wisdom, wit and insight.

Our shopping cart company... Shopify posted this interesting article:

8 Tools to Research Your Competition

Summer has a way of taking control. Sure, you plan your holidays as you flirt with the illusion of steering your course. But, between kids and other responsibilities, summer sits in the drivers seat and takes you for a ride. Push bossy summer into the back seat and give it a jolt of healthy, quirky fun.

Below is a Summer Bucket List by our 14 year-old daughter Alex. Her ideas might take a left turn here and there but the concept is definitely worth a test drive.

Alex's Summer Bucket List:

1. Have a summer pool party with friends (just for fun)
2. Get dressed super fancy for one day
3. Go one week without chocolate
4. Walk around the lake with our dog Annie
5. Have a two-person scavenger hunt at the mall
6. Listen to Spanish radio for an hour
7. Volunteer at C.C. Young Retirement Home for an afternoon
   
8. Solve a Rubix Cube
9. Do the splits
10. Prepare a full meal for the family
11. Learn a song on piano
12. Make exact Elf spaghetti (Chocolate syrup. Maple syrup. Sprinkles. M&Ms. Pop-Tarts on cold spaghetti noodles)
13. Get “slushied” Glee style
14. Watch Forrest Gump

Here’s Alex’s roadmap for your own Summer Bucket List.

1. Host a special get together with friends.
2. Get dressed up.
3. Nix a vice for a period of time.
4. Take a pet for a long walk.
5. Make shopping an adventure.
6. Stretch your brain.
7. Help local senior citizens.
8. Solve puzzle.
9. Teach your body a new move.
10. Prepare an innovative meal for loved ones.
11. Learn a song.
12. Reenact a scene from a movie.
13. Reenact a scene from a TV show.
14. Watch a classic movie you haven’t seen (or read a classic book you haven’t read).

Too busy to start your list? Then make a bowl of spaghetti, cover it in chocolate, maple syrup, sprinkles, M&Ms and crushed up Pop Tarts. The sugar rush will give you a 45 minute window to not only make the list but also do everything on it.

Vince

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NY Times bestselling author, Vince Poscente, is the founder of Libretto Publishing and has written five books translated into more than twenty languages. He writes about harnessing the speed of change, the way to reach BIG GOALS in less time, accelerating potential of human capital, how to get out of your own way and best of all, instant impact with lasting influence. Learn more about this motivational keynote speaker.