Lauren Clemett: As Andras has explained my background is in brand management. Some of you may or may not recognize some of the logos on the screen in front of you. It has been an absolute pleasure to be able to work in extraordinary places like Saatchi & Saatchi, and Clemenger, and Ogilvys, having my own agency, and so on.
Today I’m hoping to share with you some insight, even if it’s just one percent, of how you can actually become well known, well paid, and wanted through speaking by using your personal brand to do some amazing things. Hopefully that will help you today.
Personal branding is my key thing. That’s the thing that I really am so passionate about. Because I see a lot of people, especially speakers, who struggle to really keep a focus on what they’re doing, and we’re going to be talking about that today.
A lot of speakers make a major mistake when they’re speaking, and especially when they’re speaking to sell something, either to sell their services, or their program, their book, or their course, their training, or whatever it is.
That mistake makes it difficult for you to sell yourself, your services, or your products through speaking. It makes it uncomfortable, it makes it really hard, it makes it difficult, it makes people in the room feel uncomfortable.
It’s a really basic mistake, but you can overcome it really quickly, and effortlessly when you have a strong personal brand. That’s what we’re going to be talking about a lot today, and a little bit about the award winning program that I have. I’m going to be sharing with you some core basics, a 101 that you can put into practice today.
The key interesting thing about being a speaker, and I heard this from one of the other speakers in this fabulous series that is being put together by SpeakerHub, talking about sharing your story, and making sure that you’re authentic from the stage. Whenever you’re speaking you’re sharing who you are, and bringing a bit of your history with what you do.
On the screen in front of you is a school report. It doesn’t matter if you can’t read it. It was typed up back in the 1980s, which shows my age. A little bit about me that I’d like to share with you today is that I’m dyslexic.
A really interesting thing I have noticed is that a lot of speakers have dyslexia. Isn’t that interesting? This is my school report I dug out when I was building my personal brand. In the 1980s, I think I was 12 at the time, my English teacher said to me, “Look, I think you’ve got word blindness,” which back in the 1980s was the term for dyslexia.
He said, “Look, you’re really struggling with this. You’re never really going to understand how to read or write properly, you’re not going to understand the background of it. You do it, but I don’t know how you do it, and you’re not quite grasping this.”
Now that was a pretty mean thing, I suppose, for a teacher to say to a 12 year old student, but he actually was a very good teacher. He took me aside, and helped me with my spelling. He helped me develop a love for books, and I threw myself into novels.
He also gave me words every night that I had to write down in a little book, and take home with me, and get somebody to read them out while I spelled them. The only way I could do that was by forming an image of that word in my mind, not necessarily the way that normal people spelled using all sorts of combinations. I’m not saying they dyslexics are not normal, but I’m going to use that term.
For me as a dyslexic person it was about the shape of the word, it was about the way that it formed together, and trying to just imagine that shape in my brain. Even now when somebody asks me to spell a word I have to close my eyes, and see it in my brain. That’s what I did to overcome word blindness, my disability.
The nicest thing about this report is at the end he wrote the phrase, “If I had a class full of Laurens there’s no limit to how far they can get in that program.” What that teacher thought of me still gives me goosebumps today.
Dyslexia for me was a disability, but it became my greatest asset. Now I’m a bestselling author. I have written about five books, which I’ve got on Amazon. You’re welcome to go to Amazon, search for me, and have a look.
It’s really interesting, isn’t it, that a dyslexic person can become a bestselling author? It really is about understanding that you have a story, you have a background, you have something you can share with the world, be that through books, speaking, or whatever you’re doing, that’s extraordinary.
You should always think about that as part of your personal brand. Never think that people are not going to be interested in your story, it is vital that they get to know who you are.
Writing book has been pretty cool. You can find out more about this book, which is available in Amazon. In that book I talk about discovering your personal brand, and how to package that natural talent and skill, even if originally you thought it was a disability like I did, to really get yourself down to that niche where you can become that sought after expert and specialist in your industry.
This is the most interesting thing about understanding where you’ve come from in your life, even if you’re not dyslexic. You don’t need to have a rags to riches story. A lot of speakers really struggle with that, and think, oh, I’m nothing special. I haven’t had this disability that I’ve had to overcome. I haven’t had some dreadful disease like cancer. I haven’t gone through anything like that to now have an amazing story to tell.
You actually do. Every single person has their own personal brand story. Take the time. One of my biggest tips for you right away in this training webinar is take the time to go back through your life. We’re going to be talking a little bit more about the thread that has taken you all the way through your life to where you are right now.
Make sure you tell your story. As I said, one of the other SpeakerHub Master Class speakers talked about the importance of sharing your story. I absolutely agree with them, that is the most extraordinary thing you can do as a speaker.
Dyslexia, the disability I have, became my greatest asset, and I became a well respected brand manager. I’ve looked after lots of different brands, including the brands on the screen.
Even if you’re just starting out today I’m going to share with you some basics. I don’t do difficult, I only do easy. I’m going to share with you some really basic things you can be doing to A, make speaking easier for you. B, if you already are speaking in different continents, making it really easy for you to sell yourself on stage, to sell your services, sell who you are, to build that trust.
Personal branding: how you make people feel
The number one tip that I have for you when you’re trying to sell when you speak is to understand that the human brain sees brands with emotion, it sees you with emotion. This is the number one thing I want you to take away from today.
Every connection you make when you’re speaking through your books, through anything you’re doing you want to be thinking how do you want to make people feel. When they’ve heard you speak, how do you want to make them feel?
Something I’ve been studying for a while is called neuro branding, and I’m going to very quickly go through a neuro branding exercise with you. I’m going to share with you a very well known global brand.
You have all seen this brand before. There is some fabulous neuro branding that is going on in this logo.
Neuro branding is more than just logos, it’s about the way you make people feel. It’s the way that the human brain sees brands, and how it feels about brands.
This is the FedEx logo, and they’re using some interesting colors to make you feel a certain way, and I go into that more in my programs. But they’re also telling you what to do.
This is a brand that’s giving you an emotion of them actually being trusted to deliver your parcel to the right place, at the right time. Without your package going in a million directions it’s going to get to where you want it to go to. They’re doing that with the colors, but they’re also doing that with the brand.
There’s a really large arrow inside the FedEx brand. In between the E and the X. It’s a really big white arrow. It has been there forever, and now that I’ve pointed it out to you you will always see it, but you may not have noticed before. Isn’t that interesting?
Here is a brand that has been understanding for years how it wants to make people feel. They want you to trust that they’re going to get your parcel to the right place without going to a million different locations before it gets there. It’s about service and getting there.
How can you use really clever branding like this to understand how to make people feel? That is one of the things I am absolutely fascinated by. I’ve been studying it for a while, and it’s part of my training.
Here’s a little insight for you. Maya Angelou, God bless her soul, an amazing woman, once said, “People will forget what you said,” especially as a speaker they will forget what you say, “and what you did. But they will never forget how you made them feel.” They will walk away from a speaking event telling other people how you made them feel.
Really think about that. If you’re a speaker, and you should be going and watching other people speak to learn from them as well, how did they make you feel? When you shared that you went somewhere, and you heard someone speak, what were the words you used to explain them to someone else? Changes are, it was mostly about how they made you feel.
Personal branding is all about understanding how you make people feel. How do they interact with you, how do they engage with you. There are three Rs to personal branding; reputation, recognition, and respect. That’s what you’re looking for when you develop your personal brand to become a speaker, and to sell your services from the stage whenever you’re speaking.
Your reputation is what people say about you when you’re not in the room, your recognition, what you’re instantly known as, and what you’re respected and trusted for. Those are the three Rs. If you can get all those three working together you’ve absolutely nailed it.
I’m going to very quickly share with you the 101, basics to becoming well known, well paid, and wanted as a speaker. Whether you are just starting out, or whether you’ve been speaking for a while. Whether you already have programs and a book to sell when you speak, or whether you’re just starting out and you’re building those things.
I think it’s absolutely vital to have those things. If you don’t already have something, even if it’s just an ebook that you’ve spent one week writing, or a day writing, and stuck it somewhere on a landing page, have something that you can send people to.
Even if it’s just a database gathering exercise, have something that people can get from you when you speak. That’s really vital, because the human brain just wants to be told what to do. If you don’t have anything you’re leaving them at the end, they don’t know what to do about it. It’s really vital you have something to give to them, so think about that as well.
What I’m going to be sharing with you today is a little bit of neurobranding. It’s understanding what’s going on inside the brain of your audience when they’re listening to you speak. There are really only three things that the human brain wants to know. It wants to know do I know you, do I like you, and do I trust you.
Speaking from stage takes a huge amount of trust for people to buy from you. They need to really know who you are, they need to like the idea of working with you, and they need to trust who you are.
Let’s just quickly go through those three things. Hopefully you’ll be taking notes, because we haven’t got a lot of time.
Number one is know me. This is the first thing that your audience’s brain will know when it arrives at a venue, or even before it arrives. If they’re booking their ticket to come and hear you speak at something, or they’re booking their seat they want to know who are you, what you do, and can that help me.
The human brain is 100 times more interested in itself than it is in you, and anything you’re going to be talking about. It wants to know, should I go along and hear that speaker? What have they got? How can they help me? You need to be really clear about that.
There’s a certain part in the human brain called the amygdala. It’s an ancient part of our brain. It’s our fear center. Seth Gordon, a branding guru, talks about it as the lizard brain. It decides whether we should trust something or not. It is there to help stop you from making bad decisions.
Especially if you’re buying something as an audience member from somebody who is speaking your amygdala is the big part of your brain that’s going to be keeping you in your seat. That fear center stops you from getting up, and going to purchase a book, or a program, or talking to the speaker, or whatever else.
You need to cut through that fear center. The number one thing that will set off that fear center, that will put the barriers up, and stop people who want to buy from you when you’re speaking is if you waffle, you give them too much information, and overload them.
If you’re not clear, and absolutely focused on just sharing one or two simple things with people, and you overload them with too much information, their fear center will just shut down. If they don’t know who you are and what you’re talking about, if they don’t understand it they will not buy from you. The confused mind will never buy. It’s really vital you understand that.
An interesting thing about the amygdala, or the human brain, is it’s are being hit with a million different messages every day. By the time it comes and hears you speak it is already overloaded. It is already sitting there thinking, did I put the wash on the line, what have I got to do for dinner tonight for the kids, I have to go and do that meeting at 4 o’clock and I haven’t finished my presentation yet.
In fact, in the 1970s it was estimated that the human brain was seeing about 500 branded messages, and today it’s more like 5,000. Meaning you have to be really clear as a speaker to cut through all of that overwhelm people have. It’s really vital to do so.
Again, make sure you share with people who you are. Make sure you give them some reason to listen to you.
My background of course, as you can tell from my crazy accent, is I come from New Zealand. I now live in Australia, so I tell people my background, I share with people where I come from.
Oprah Winfrey, I had the pleasure of hearing of her speak last year, and she was just extraordinary. She started speaking at the age of three, so she just is so important. She once talked about the fact that your story, your purpose for being is a thread that connects those dots to everything you do in life. It leads to your extraordinary life.
I talk about your purpose as being the thing that keeps you on track when you’re speaking. It’s infusing telling your story, where you come from, and why someone should listen to you. What it is that you do, and how you help people is so vital, because then they know you, they like you, and then they trust you.
My story just very quickly is that I grew up in the bush. This is a picture of the bush in New Zealand at a little place called Hunua where we used to mess around in the bush, and a lot of people would get lost.
It’s a very thick bush. It’s not like wide open English, European, or Australian bush. It’s quite tangled, and thick, and a bit like Vietnam, where you could get lost quite easily. The tools that we used to use to make sure that we didn’t get lost were maps and comases.
The one thing I’d like you to understand when you decide to go out there, be a speaker, and sell programs, sell your books, and so on, is you need to keep on brand. Your compass really is your brand. It keeps you on true north. It keeps you in the direction of your purpose. It keeps you on the tarmac talking about the one thing that you want to be well known, well paid, and wanted.
Don’t go all over the place, don’t overwhelm people with stuff because you think it’s cool, or it sounds great, or you heard it somewhere else. Just stick to your brand, stick to your one area of expertise, and share that with people.
Then use your map, your marketing action plan, to decide where to speak, what audiences you want to speak in front of, and whereabout in the world you want to speak. Whereabout your peers and leaders are who are going to say, “Look, if you’re looking for a great speaker who talks about alcohol abuse, confidence, or motivation then go and talk to this guy, or this woman.”
You need to really think about first getting your brand right. Get on purpose, find your true north. Then figure out where you’re going to speak, who your audience is going to be, and what you’re going to do. It’s really vital you get that right.
I don’t have time to go through how to find your true north on this webinar, but I do have a guidebook for everybody. If you want to get ahold of that go to theultimatebusinesspropellor.com, and you can download it there.
This is a guidebook. It’s brand new, and it is about how you explain what it is that you do, and why someone should choose you. It really helps you define your elevator pitch, your core message for your brand that keeps you on that true north.
The main thing that will happen when you’re speaking from stage is that people will decide if you are somebody worth listening to, if you can help them. They’ll decide that when they come to listen to you speak, when they see a promotion for you.
It’s all about becoming a PRO. PRO stands for Problem, Resolution, Outcome. The interesting thing is that a lot of speakers talk about a problem. It’s actually vital that you go out there, and you talk about a problem that somebody has that you solve, and you talk about your resolution, about how to solve it.
If you become a PRO you talk about the problem and the resolution, and that’s great. But the most important thing when you speak is that you really talk about the outcome. You talk about the transformation that takes place when somebody has read your book, used your services, or done your program.
It’s so vital that you paint the picture of the outcome in the brain of your audience with your speaking. Because if you don’t you just leave them hanging, and that confused mind won’t buy.
I’m going to do a really quick personal branding exercise. I want you to concentrate on two words that I’m going to give you. These two words are going to help you to understand, and see for a fact that the human brain paints pictures. It doesn’t take notes, it takes pictures.
So the two words I just want you to think about, and concentrate on are bacon and eggs. What did you see in your brain when you thought about bacon and eggs? Chances are you saw breakfast, you saw this, you saw bacon and eggs.
You didn’t see the words bacon and eggs, you saw poached eggs, fried eggs, or eggs however you want them. Your brain didn’t paint words, it painted a picture, so you need to talk about the outcome when you’re speaking. It is so vital.
The human brain works in pictures. Paint a picture of the outcome when you’re speaking so that people automatically know what it is that you’re about.
We’ve done that now. I know what you do, and that you can help me. You’ve painted the picture for me, now I want to know more. The next thing that the human brain wants to know is do I like the idea of working with you.
The key thing to remember here is that you don’t want to try to appeal to everyone. This is the second biggest mistake I see speakers make, they want everyone in the room to love them.
A speaker trainer I once had taught me that at least half of the room is probably going to hate you. They’re going to hate that you’re there, they’re going to hate the way you speak, they’re going to hate the language you use. Some of them are going to dislike the way you dress, they won’t even like the way you walk. You’ll never get those people to buy from you.
Just get over yourself, don’t panic. It’s not about getting people all over the world to like you, it’s just about finding the people who you’re going to like working with, who instantly like you because they already know you, and they trust you.
Don’t panic. Don’t try to get everyone in the room to like you, it’s really not important. It’s more important that you decide who it is that you want to work with. Who do you want to be spending your time with. Because life is too short to spend time with horrible people.
This is a book that Robert Sutton wrote. It’s one of the books I read very often. I’ll let you read the title of that book yourself to keep this webinar clean. But it’s an interesting fact, you don’t want to work with horrible people, so don’t try to appeal to everyone.
Think about when you’re speaking you just want to engage with the people who you like working with. Be really specific about the people that you don’t want to work with, and just target the ones you do.
Make sure when you’re talking that you get this feeling of when you’re fist pumping, you’re just going “Yes! This is what I should be doing for life. I love this, this is the thing I do so naturally.” You feel like you’ve engaged the audience, you feel like you’ve connected with them. You’ve gotten great feedback from them, and you feel that coming back to you, the energy in the room.
Just be really proud of the people that have engaged with you. Don’t worry about the people who don’t like you, it’s really not important. It’s more important that you engage with the people who love you.
Think about the people who just want it right now. They already want what you’ve got, and they just haven’t heard from you yet. They just don’t know about you until they’ve heard you speak.
I know a lot of speakers talk about going out there and sell, sell, sell. It’s more about give, give, give. The more you give, the more value you give, the more you will be liked by the people who will love working with you. They already like the idea of working with you because they like you anyway.
Don’t try to sell. This is a really interesting thing. A lot of people talk, they speak, and they give a great presentation. Then they get to the end, and they get really sweaty palms, and they really start to get worried because now they’ve got to sell.
Have you ever heard of a speaker who is amazing, then all of a sudden their characteristics change, their emotions change because they’ve gone into sales mode. According to the lovely sales trainer Jeffrey Gitomer, nobody likes to be sold to. People don’t like to sell, but they love to buy.
Don’t sell, don’t switch into selling, just be authentic the whole time. Tell people right from the start, this is what you want to be doing, this is the outcome you’re going to get if you buy and read my book.
This is why I’m speaking, this is why I’m so passionate. This is my background, this is why I love what I do. Just be authentic, be yourself, and share lots and lots of valuable insights, tips, and information.
At the end of it you don’t feel like you’re selling, people don’t feel like they’re being sold to. They’re being helped, and there’s more you can offer them. Just be really clear about the fact that you’re not selling.
Andras: I just wanted to ask, how do you reconcile making sure that it’s absolutely clear for the audience, apart from the value, what you actually offer, what the service is without coming through as too salesy?
Lauren Clemett: The answer is that number one thing we were talking about right at the start. It’s about having a really strong personal brand, a really strong reason why people should buy from you, right from the outset as a speaker. Let your personal brand sell for you, rather than you having to feel like you’ve got to slip into sales mode.
We talk about this a lot when we’re packaging personal brands with the people that we work with, being really clear about the number one thing that you want to be well known, well paid, and wanted for.
Then when the audience comes to see you they already know that that’s what you do. They’re already expecting it. They already know that you talk about how to have confidence. They already know that you talk about how to deal with alcohol abuse, or people that have relationship issues.
Whatever your key area of expertise is they already know that about you, and they already feel comfortable with the fact that that’s what you’re going to be talking about. By the way, that’s what you’re going to have for them to learn from, and to have at the end of what you speak about.
Most importantly, talk about it right at the start, let people know. Seeding the sale is the the technological term for that. Let people know, look I haven’t got time to share everything with you today, but I do have this, I’ve got a book, or I’ve got a program, or I’ve got a service which is here to help you, and you can learn more about it at the end.
I’m going to share you just one or two percent of what I know, that’s all I’ve got time for today. But there is something else that you can have. That takes the elephant out of the room, people know that there’s going to be more on offer, so that’s a really wonderful way to do it. People will already trust that that’s what’s going to happen because you’re the expert. You’ve already said, this is what I do, this is my key area, this is what I’m good at.
We’ve talked about that people want to know who you are, and whether you’ve got something that’s going to be valuable for them. The next thing they want to know is “do I like the idea of working with you?”
The third thing that the human brain wants to know in order to buy from you if you’re selling something from stage; they want to know you, they want to like you, and they want to trust you. They want to know if you’re going to deliver on what you’ve promised.
I’ve been to many, many speaking events to learn, and just absorb how other speakers do what they do, and so on. A lot of them promise the absolute earth from the stage. They say how easy it’s going to be, they promise that it’s going to be overnight, that you just buy this one program for $4,997, and within a day you’re going to...That’s just not true, it really isn’t true.
I think it’s far more important to be honest with people and say, “Look, my program is proven, I’ve already worked with all these people.” Using testimonials is brilliant, third party endorsement is fantastic. This is the outcome I’ve had with other people, that’s absolutely vital. But you have to make sure people know they have to work at this.
I think it’s ridiculous that 90 percent of the people who download the books, like you’ve done today, and like you’ve done to get that guidebook, all those sorts of things, and they never do anything with it, they don’t take action.
It’s really vital that you make sure you can deliver on what you promise on stage. Because then you’ll be asked back to speak again, you’ll be asked for more, and so on. Make sure that you’re trusted on stage.
How do you do that when it comes to the superhuman brain? The interesting thing is when you decided to become a speaker your brain was probably telling you that you’re a bit crazy. You’re going to have to get up on stage, and talk in front of lots of people.
You’re going to have to know your stuff, you’re going to have to have a program, there’s all this stuff you have to do. Your brain, your amygdala was probably shouting at you “don’t do it, it’s really crazy, you’re just really not capable of doing this!” The self doubt came in.
Maybe even now when you’re speaking, or starting to speak, sometimes you get a bit nervous and so on. Your human brain is telling you, you don’t want to make a fool of yourself, be careful, be cautious, all those sorts of things going on.
The interesting thing is as a speaker if you are speaking you have probably already mastered your own fear center. You have taken control of your own brain, and you’ve said, “Look, I know I can make mistakes, I know I can mess up, I know these things might happen, I know I’ve got all this work to do, but I’m going to do it anyway.” You took control of your own brain, which is extraordinary.
You’ve got a superhuman brain. I’m just letting you know you are superhuman. The interesting thing is there’s kryptonite with the superhuman brain, and it’s called bright shiny objectitis. It’s trying to fit into a presentation as many different topics as possible.
In your speaker bio you say I talk about confidence, I also talk about time management, I also talk about HR, and just trying to add as many topics in there as possible. That just is really confusing, and it doesn’t help with your trust currency.
The reason you do that is because of FOMO, the fear of missing out. If I don’t say that I also talk about snorkeling, or underwater exercises. If I don’t put in that I’m an HR expert, or I’m also a legal expert, or whatever else, I’m going to miss out. I could get to that conference, or I could get in front of those people.
FOMO will absolutely ruin your trust currency. The fear of missing out will make you appear desperate, it will make you appear as though you don’t know what you’re talking about, because you have a million different topics, and it will not help your brand. It will lead to what I call WOFTAM.
You will be out there speaking all over the place, trying to get your speaking gigs, updating your speaker bio, doing 14 different kinds of presentations, because you’ve got different audiences, and you will not get anywhere near the recognition that you need. It’s WOFTAM, waste of flipping time and money, so don’t do it.
Don’t be desperate. Don’t be tempted by the bright shiny objectitis to go and talk about every single topic under the sun. Stick to what you know.
Find your expertise. Find that thing that you do with ease that other people find difficult. That’s why it’s called expertise. I find personal branding really easy, whereas a lot of people have no idea where to start.
What do you find you do with ease, that you just do naturally that other people find really difficult? Just focus on that, and go an inch wide and a mile deep with it. Package everything together. Pull it together as one personal brand, one main topic with lots of different categories underneath it.
Really be niche about your target audience, just the people you want to talk to. Be niche about your topic, be the go to specialist for that one thing that you’re well known, well paid, and wanted for.
Find a single minded purpose. Be really clear about what is it you want to be well known, well paid, and wanted for. What do you want to be respected for? What do you want to be recognized as? What
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