Unlock Your Speaking Potential: Creating Impactful Keynotes

In this second episode on John's signature keynote creation process, he shares insights on creating impactful speeches.

John emphasizes the importance of selecting relevant and needed topics for speaking engagements, differentiating between 'nice-to-have' and 'need-to-have' solutions.

He also provides a glimpse into his own creative process, highlighting the goal of achieving emotional mastery for his audience, and discusses the significance of creating a framework for transformation.

Additionally, John touches on crafting effective talk titles, either straightforward or intriguing, and the necessity of an abstract for a speaker.

Stay tuned for an intriguing guest appearance by Mitch Carson, an expert in 'selling from the stage,' in the next episode.

keywords

speaking, keynote, speaker abstract, intellectual property, presentation skills, audience engagement, speaker success, emotional mastery, talk titles, prospecting

takeaways

• Struggling with your speaker topic can hinder success.
• A clear topic is crucial for booking opportunities.
• Creating intellectual property can enhance your marketability.
• Need-to-have solutions are more likely to secure bookings.
• A framework for transformation can differentiate your talk.
• An abstract can be sufficient for getting booked.
• Engaging talk titles can attract audience interest.
• Iterative creativity is key in the talk development process.
• Less is more when it comes to content in keynotes.
• Upcoming insights on selling from the stage are essential for speakers.

titles

• Unlocking Your Speaker Potential
• Navigating the Speaker Landscape

Sound Bites

• "Are you still struggling with your speaker topic?"
• "You will need this."
• "This one step means you can start prospecting."

00:00 Introduction: Struggling with Your Topic?

00:30 Welcome to Present Influence

01:03 Keynote Creation Series: Concept and Positioning

03:37 Defining Your Objective and Framework

05:18 The Creative Process: Iteration and Perfectionism

08:59 Creating Effective Talk Titles

11:36 Upcoming Episodes and Guest Preview

Are you a speaker who's still struggling with your topic?

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Perhaps you want to create

some intellectual property that

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can make you very sellable?

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If you're looking to get booked

as a speaker and paid as soon as

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possible, then you will need what

we're talking about in this episode.

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We're going to cover one step that once

completed means you can start prospecting

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for speaking opportunity right away.

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So make sure you stay tuned to the end.

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Cause I'm going to share with you

exactly the process that I have been

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working on in creating my keynote.

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Welcome to Present Influence the show

that helps business leaders to develop

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the skills to influence and inspire.

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My name is John Ball.

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I'm a keynote coach, professional

speaker, and your guide on the

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journey to leadership level

communication and presentation skills.

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My mission is to provide rising

business leaders like you with

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everything you need to maximize your

impact and present with influence.

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Follow the show on your favorite podcast

app for weekly episodes and interviews

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with influence experts and amazing guests.

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Welcome back then to the second

part of my keynote creation series,

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where I'm inviting you to join

me my creation journey of a new

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professional signature keynote talk.

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In the previous episode on this, I

talked about concept and positioning.

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And if you haven't listened to that,

please do go back and check it out.

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Now that episode was a short

introduction to these longer episodes

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where I will share more of my

creative journey and process with you.

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One thing I didn't share in that

first episode was that I was

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feeling a little challenged in

narrowing down my topic to speak on.

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My professional mission is well,

maybe just a little too big to be

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able to achieve fully with one talk.

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That's probably too big to achieve

full stop, but still it's my mission.

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So I wanted to create something

actionable and that clearly solves

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a problem, and moves people in the

direction of my larger mission.

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One of the things I try to express to

clients I work with who either are or

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want to be professional speakers is

that the problem they solve can either

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be a nice to have or a need to have.

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But if you find yourself approaching

prospects who have tight budgets,

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nice to have isn't a need to

have and is easier to say no to.

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Need to have solutions are the kind

that people will find the money for.

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even when budgets are tight.

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Now, that might not be a

hundred percent foolproof.

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After all, they could always go with

a cheaper speaker or a bigger name

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or someone in the same area as you.

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So need to have is not something that you

could necessarily use to hold leverage

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over prospects with, and nor should you.

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If you're looking to be a professional

speaker in corporate or nonprofit or

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education, it probably is a good idea

to aim for the need to have solutions.

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If you're perhaps in more of

a faith based space, you might

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have a bit more leeway here.

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There are areas of speaking where

perhaps need to have isn't so essential.

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If you're in the inspirational or

motivational speaking space, people

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are probably always going to need

or want those things, so you may

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want to instead focus in on how you

can differentiate yourself in the

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marketplace, or create your own IP, IP

being short for intellectual property,

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if you're unfamiliar with that term.

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When you're approaching prospects,

you will want to be very clear

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about what you're offering them

and what the transformation will

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be for the people who you speak to.

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One of the first tasks that I set myself

when I started drafting my talk was to

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come up with a clear objective . It had to

be an objective I knew I could help with.

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It would be valuable to audiences

and to businesses and be a

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valuable part of my mission.

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With this in mind, I decided that

one of the fastest and most impactful

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transformations that I could

offer would be helping my audience

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to gain some emotional mastery.

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The objective of the talk is going to be

to educate and empower my audience to be

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able to proactively decide how they want

to show up each day and how they want to

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respond to people in their professional

and in their personal environments.

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Now this proverbially kills many

birds with one stone, not that I

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approve at all of throwing stones.

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When I'm constructing a talk, I want to

get all my possible ideas down and start

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pulling out the best bits from there.

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So I don't like to limit myself

or edit myself at this point.

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So I want to have unlimited thinking.

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I make sure I put the objective

of the talk front and center and

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then work backwards from there.

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I didn't want to worry too much about

structure just yet, but I did start

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to think that this could be a good

place to come up with a framework.

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At the moment I have a 9 point framework

which is still in process and clearly

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far too much framework for one keynote.

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It's not a bad thing.

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This is something that could help

when it comes time to create courses

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or books that I may want to go

with the content of the keynote.

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So nothing is ever wasted in this

process unless you choose to bin it.

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I used to be very perfectionistic

about my creative process.

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When I was young, I used

to write a lot of music.

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And I would often throw away music,

sheet music and concepts and chord

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progressions that didn't seem to

work only to days or weeks later,

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try and recall what they were.

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And in the end, I stopped throwing away

my imperfections and realized that the

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creative process for me, at least, and

for many others is one of iteration.

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So the stuff that doesn't seem

good right now might well be useful

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later or lead to another idea

that could be good further on.

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Nothing is wasted.

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Now, I don't recommend that

you necessarily create a nine

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step process for yourself.

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I may well try to simplify mine a little

bit more, just for the sake of brevity.

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I knew I would realistically only

have time in a keynote to talk about

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three elements of the framework.

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Maybe four, if I do have to

extend time on stage or I get

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asked to deliver a longer talk.

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I Wouldn't really go beyond four

just due to the reality of how much

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content people can effectively retain.

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Even four key points in a talk

feels like a bit of a stretch to me.

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If I were to need to speak longer.

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This should really speak to the

people who do try to pack lots and

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lots of content into a keynote talk.

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Less is definitely more.

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If I was asked to speak for longer

than 60 minutes, I would probably

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look to add more stories, maybe do

a little crowd work to keep things

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energized and keep things moving.

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Creating a framework for transformation

can be a really powerful tool and a

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great differentiator in the marketplace.

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It's something that for me also

allowed me to start to create clear

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learning objectives for my abstract.

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If you haven't come across the term

abstract in this regard before now,

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effectively it's a one sheet for a

speaker that has their info, their talk

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or workshop description, and some key

points or learning objectives on there.

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It usually will contain a

testimonial and some references too.

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Now I'm making a version of my abstract

available for you to check out, and you

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can find the link in the show notes.

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You'll see some blurred info sections

because, well, sadly, there are some crazy

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people out there who I don't want calling

me or the referees I have listed on there.

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Of course I don't mean you, lovely

listener, but we should all be

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careful about putting up personal

information out into public forums.

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I've had online stalkers before,

and I promise you it's not fun.

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Something to note here, having an

abstract is enough for you to be

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able to get booked without needing

to have the website, possibly even

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without a demo video, although those

things do help a lot and are good

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to have as a professional speaker.

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I will spend some time further down

the line with this series on things

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like my prospecting practices,

as well as things like website

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creation and demo video creation.

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I have a guest coming up soon,

who has some really nice, specific

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detailed information, exciting stuff

as well on demo video creation.

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So if you're thinking of getting yourself

a demo video, you're wanting to update

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yours, or you're wanting to maybe start to

create one, make sure you subscribe to the

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show because you won't want to miss that.

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My next steps in my talk creation

process are to create a few more

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abstracts because I want to have three,

maybe four talks listed on my website,

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so a couple of talks at least maybe

one, maybe two workshops as well.

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The description and learning

objectives will go onto the

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website when they're finished.

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And I hope that you'll join me

for the episodes on those as well.

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Now I didn't mention before

about my talk title creation.

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So let's quickly get to that

before we finish up for today.

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There are two main schools of

thought that I've come across

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when it comes to talk titles.

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One is the does what it says matter

of fact title Which I call the Ronseal

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title after a long running UK ad for

Ronseal Woodstain The tagline of which

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I should I think they still use today

is does exactly what it says on the tin.

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So, you know if your talk title maybe

does exactly what it says on the tin That

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would be what I'd call a Ronseal title.

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The other is perhaps a little

more abstract, maybe even

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playful, it evokes curiosity and

perhaps even a little humour.

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Might be clever, but it should still

give some idea, maybe even a good idea,

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about what the talk is about without

needing to give away any surprises.

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We could call this one the teaser title,

if you have other suggestions for us to

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call that, I would love to hear them.

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It may or may not come as a surprise

to you at this point that my

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preference leans more towards the

teaser, but it's not essential that

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you only use one and not the other.

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Now, I tend to use the Ronseal approach,

the does what it says on the tin approach

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for workshop titles, because there I

feel it's more helpful to know what's

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coming in a more interactive experience.

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Since my talk is about personal

state management, showing up every

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day as our best selves, I I wanted

something to express that, and after

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a little playful brainstorming,

I ended up with a song title.

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And song titles can be great to use

as talk titles where appropriate.

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I went with Hooked on a Feeling.

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It's a fun song that I could probably

incorporate in some way, and there's a

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subtitle to give a little more insight.

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Which is how to get one day closer

to your best self every day.

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Now, please understand at this point

that I'm sharing my creative process

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as it's moving, not after completion.

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So all of this is still subject to change,

but I'm liking the feel of it so far, and

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I'm sharing this hopefully as a teaching

tool, not as a means for feedback.

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My creative process is mostly a solo

one rather than a community effort.

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However, once the creative process

is complete, I will very actively

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welcome any feedback on the talk

and the content at that point.

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I've left my speaker page website address

unblurred on my abstract if you do go and

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look at it, but the page isn't yet live.

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So I will let you know on this

show when the page goes live.

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But let's leave things here for today

and I want to give you some exciting news

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about my guest for next week's episode.

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I was very happily introduced to

my guest through the Podmatch

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service, which I really like.

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I've met so many amazing

guests through that.

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And Podmatch introduced me to a

gentleman called Mitch Carson.

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Mitch and I have discovered we have

many friends or connections in common.

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He is an expert in

selling from the stage.

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Now it's a whole new ball game for

speakers and communicators where the

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risk is greater, but so are the rewards.

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Mitch is going to be sharing his

insights into effective selling from

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the platform, who it's for and who it's

not for, and the differences in there

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to professional keynoting and why this

episode may be essential for people

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who have their own courses, books,

products to sell from the platform.

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Now, I will share with you, I was

completely absorbed in everything

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Mitch was saying, and I don't

know if I really want to be a

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professional platform salesperson.

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I would like to be able to know that I

could do it , if it was required of me,

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one of my criteria when I'm looking for

guests is that I want guest episodes

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to be unmissable and I would definitely

call this episode with Mitch unmissable.

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So I hope you won't miss it and we'll

follow the show on your favorite

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podcast player or on YouTube, but

for now, wherever you're going,

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whatever you're doing, have an

amazing week and see you next time.