Show Notes
Welcome to the remarkability Institute. This is Bart queen. If you've been following us over the last couple of podcasts, we've been focusing on this idea of around crafting content. Crafting content is probably one of the most difficult things to do well. If you don't do the hard work upfront and keep it simple, the complexity of your content for your listener for the receiver is even more difficult.
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00:02:10] Statistically, we are told that we should be crafting our content at an eighth-grade level. Guys, there are some organizations that will tell you it should be fifth-grade level. I'm not talking about your vocabulary; your work with a Ph.D. group of folks use Ph.D. vocabulary. What I'm talking about is sentence structure.
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00:02:34] I think the greatest example of this is you say today, those who remember when USA Today launched in the eighties. Everybody made fun of that paper. They said this newspaper would never be successful. They called it "McPaper" because it was written to simply, and they added color. But what I find fascinating is that the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal they followed suit.
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00:03:06] They began to add color, and they made it simple to read, and for the listener to consume one of my favorite books, when I talk about content, is why business leaders speak like idiots.
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00:03:20] The subtitle is a bullfighters guide, the whole focus. All of that book is creating content to the point that your listener can absorb it and walk away with it. Crafting your content and understanding the structure of your content is foundational to build the message that your listener can walk away with.
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00:03:48] So, as we spend our time together today, I want you to walk away with the key components. The structure at a high level so that you can craft that content, fill in the buckets, and then whatever you want to do within them. You can now there are, in essence, three major buckets today that I want to make sure you build your awareness around.
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00:04:18] Number one, bucket, number two, the body of what you're sharing, whether that's the body of a keynote speech, the body of a Ted type talk, the body of what you and I would call a presentation or a sales call. The other major bucket that you have to build into or think about is what I call foundational information.
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00:04:47] This is foundational information or pieces like the logistics of the meeting. When you're going to take a break where the cocktail party is after the meeting's over those logistical pieces. The second part of that is your credibility, the credibility of your company, and the credibility of yourself. And the third bucket in that foundation is the background.
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00:05:14] This is the information you should be pulling forward from a discovery or research piece that gives you the foundation to share your three key points, your four key points, or five key points, whatever you're going to do. Now, the first thing I want to address is what I call the three T's. So if you have a pen and paper, I want you to note these three T's are your topic, your theme.
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00:05:44] And your title. Now, I want you to notice the order. I put them in topic, theme, and title. If I'm doing some type of a communication class, and I've got people beginning to work with content, I will ask them to put down their topic. 99% of people will put down the title. That's not what I want you to note first.
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00:06:10] It's the last thing I want you to get you to do one purpose of a title. The number one purpose of a title is to grab your listeners' attention. Now, when you're crafting your titles, whether you're doing something more from a written perspective, say you're writing a white paper, writing a book, or you're doing it from what you're going to probably call it more of a presentation type situation.
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00:06:37] You're allowed two subtitles. You can do two. You can do just one. One subtitle gives clarity to the topic. The second subtitle is a benefit to the listener. If you're speaking or a benefit to the reader, if you're writing number one purpose of a title, grab your attention, your two subtitles, then give a benefit and clarity to that theme.
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00:07:05] So don't put—marketing optimization. Don't put financial optimization. That's boring. Come up with a title. How to go from zero to 60 in 12, the top three ways to succeed in your business. Those are the kinds of titles that grab someone's attention. And then you can do your subtitles. Here's what I want you to do the next time you go to your local bookstore, you go to Barnes and noble.
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00:07:35] You go wherever you might look for a book on a Sunday afternoon when it's pouring rain and you going to want to drink a cup of coffee and relax, pick up any book, and you will see this principle lived out in some form or another. The very first thing I want you to note is the topic. So I want you to picture a bullseye, and that red bull's eye in the center of your target is your topic.
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00:08:01] It's boiling it down to something simple. It is not a sentence. It could be your solution, tool, or product. It could be a pain you want to solve. It is very simple. Now, this is where most people get hung up because they're going to go. I don't want to say that. That's okay. I'm not asking you to say it.
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00:08:23] I'm asking you to get a razor focus on what the content has, and then you can expand and talk from there. Your theme is where you want to build something into your meeting presentation or talk a mountain climbing theme, a gardening theme, and an athletic theme, a marathon theme. Now, what I want you to remember about this theme is this can give you an opportunity to express something about yourself.
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00:08:57] I just had a friend who just bought a motorcycle, and he's all excited about it. It sounds like that's a passion for him so that he could build this idea of his love for motorcycles into what he wants to share and to his. So next podcast, he's going to make an analogy around that allows him to speak expressively.
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00:09:21] His passion comes forward, and here's the interesting thing. Any one of his listeners that has a love for motorcycle is going to want it to jump onto that podcast because they have something in common with him. And here's that me too. Factor again. This is where you win the quicker. You get someone to say, me too.
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00:09:41] Me too. You pull them into your content. Now, guys, this information I've just shared with you. It's just around your topic, your theme in a title. One of my favorite books on business leadership is called beyond the summit. Skinner is the author's last name, presale mountain climber, almost climbed every single mountain in the world.
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00:10:05] He decided to write a book. Now he decided that this was what the topic would be business leadership, what he realized was all the principles he learned in climbing a mountain. He could apply to in business leadership, the title of the book, Beyond The Summit picture on the book.
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00:10:28] I believe it's K2 topic in the book, business leadership. The theme in the book mountain climbing in my mind, a tremendous example of someone who leveraged what I call the three Ts. Now that second component, when you're crafting content and your structure are you're open and your close. These, in my mind are the most important.
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00:10:54] So I want you to remember something don't muddle the beginning and don't muddle the end. If you want to muddle something, model the middle; you want an open that grabs them and pulls them in immediately. Guys, remember you have 30 seconds to engage an audience, 30 seconds.
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00:11:13] Now, if you're doing something virtually, all you have is eight seconds to pull them in to craft some type of an open that is engaging and inspiring and brings people in critical to your content. Your close is just as important because the close is what happens at the end.
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00:11:34] When you send them out the door of your meeting, you're talking to your presentation. And that's when I come back to the principle that I've shared with you, what do you want them to think? What do you want them to feel, and what do you want them to do at the end? That's all part of your clothes. The third key piece is the body of your content, the meat of what you want to share.
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00:11:57] The last piece is then that foundation, your logistics, your credibility, your personal, your professional, and your background. So with that overview, let's break into these more specifically. When you think about the body of what you want to share, I want you to think this no more than four key points.
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00:12:23] And no more than four supporting points. Each one of those key points, the principle of three by three, is your ideal. So if you think about it, the number three is almost in everything that we do. It's in our social security numbers; it's in our phone numbers. Now make a fun application. I'm going to give my age away here a little bit.
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00:12:49] But if I said to you, can you name the three Stooges? One of you is going to say, Bart, there's four. And that would be correct. But if you're in my age group, you'd be able to name the three Stooges. Now, if I said to any of you, can you name the seven dwarfs? You're probably going to struggle a little bit.
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00:13:09] If I said to you, can you name all the reindeer without singing the song? You might struggle a little bit. This principle of three in your communication is critical to your success.
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00:13:25] All here, many salespeople drive one benefit, and I'll share and coach them that you need to have two more. That one benefit may not drive that listener. My favorite sport is water-skiing and if I said, guys, let's go water skiing because you're going to get some great exercise. Three-quarters of you go, "I'm out a Bart."
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00:13:45] I don't want any exercise. But if I said, you're going to get some great exercise; we're going to have a chance to relax, lay in the sun. And I'm having a full barbecue catered from steak to all your favorite beverages and a buffet that you'll never stop. I'll get more of you motivated to come. That's based on that simple principle of three.
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00:14:08] Now, let me make a differentiation here just briefly for you in a typical keynote speech. Typical, you're going to share three major points in that typical keynote. Your three sub-points are going to follow this idea of the point. I want to make a story or an illustration that backs up that point and then application to the people in my audience.
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00:14:35] If you will study a good keynote, it feels start to break them apart. You will see that they use these three principles now; as you and I listened to the keynote, it becomes this simple flow, and it's effortless. And we enjoy every step of it. The people who are giving the keynote spent hours and hours and making sure that those three supporting points.
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00:15:01] We're simple and flawless. If we go to more of a Ted type talk that 18 minute kind of a structure if you'll study those it's one key message, not three messages. It's one message that they're going to drive over and over again. One of my favorite Ted type talks is Simon Sinek. The man who wrote the book Start With Why.
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00:15:28] My favorite presentation by him is inspiring leaders. Now, if you went to Ted talks or you went to YouTube and pulled it up, you will see that his key message is very simple. That people buy why you do what you do before they buy what you too. And he drives that message in his 18-minute talk. And then, he gives three simple illustrations that reinforce that point.
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00:15:55] For those in technology, you're more system engineers, you're more technical folks, and you're demonstrating your software. You're demonstrating the tool or the product; I want you to remember one thing your whole purpose in a demo is to prove it. If you look up the word, demonstrate, the definition is to prove it's not training your customer on it. It's not giving them every step in every piece of technology or functionality or feature.
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00:17:03] No pain, no value. So here's the structure I want you to do. Now I'm going to push it on your demos. No more than five, meaning no more than five features that will solve the problems, the pains, or the issues that they've got no more than five. Now, if someone asks you a question, does it do this, do that, show them, but I want you to have those guidelines that keep you on track.
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00:17:29] And on topic, to solve the pain so many times. And I know you've experienced this. Someone will say, show me everything that is just setting yourself up for failure that will not serve you. Now here's the benefit. If you've done the structure, as I've laid it out to you, either four by four or three by three or some combination of that, now you can speak for five minutes or 50 minutes.
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00:17:58] But if this is what you've done, you open up your laptop. You crafted a bunch of slides. Now you're stuck in your structure. Suppose you do your structure first if you complete your grid and then craft your slides. When someone says, I'm sorry, you don't have 60 minutes, you have 30 minutes. You can adapt. Please remember it's about you controlling yourself.
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00:18:22] It's about controlling the content, and it's about controlling the situation. I want you to have the tools that will allow you to do that.
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00:18:31]Now, I've given you this rough overview of kind of the grid or what I call the body of what you want to craft. Let's move on to that next piece. This is all around your open and close. This is made or break. This is the place that, in my mind, is the most difficult. When I first started in my career, I had two major fears.
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00:18:57] Number one, how do I kick something off and pull them in? And number two, how do I answer questions? Those were probably my two biggest fears. Anytime I went to teach class, give any type of presentation or do some type of a keynote. It is required that when you do an open or close, you have to have a grabber or a hook.
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00:19:22]at all costs. I want you to avoid opening up with my name is if you were doing something at a conference and you were one of the main speakers, nine times out of 10, someone is introducing you. And if they're introducing you, there is no reason for you to walk up there and say, hi, my name is.
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00:19:44] If you and I were doing something at a conference, that was more of a breakout session. Number one, you probably had to put some type of a program description in their handout, their program, their catalog. So I already know your name there on top of that. When you find the room that I'm going to be presenting or communicating it, most likely, there's something out the door that says the title and the Bart Queen show.
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00:20:11] I shouldn't have to open with, hi, my name is, I am not saying not to say your name. I am not saying not to build your credibility.
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00:20:22] I am saying don't make it the first thing out of your mouth.
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00:20:26]Now a couple of things about grabbers and hooks. The only difference between a grabber and a hook is where it takes place a grabber grabs your listener by their shirt, by their coat and pulls them into the content. A hook grabs their same shirt and pushes them out the door and drives them to action.
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00:20:46] Or it is the one thing that you want them to remember. These are not optional. So I want you to think about grabbers and hooks, much like a freight train. You've seen a freight train, and at the front of the freight train, there may be an engine. Maybe there's a couple of engines. All those engines are going to be pulling the other cars.
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00:21:08] That's your grabber. Your hook is an engine at the end of this big, huge freight train. It pushes. Grabbers and hooks are emotional engines. One pulls, one pushes. Now, if you happen to know out of the radio, there was a gentleman that did a tremendous job of grabbers and hooks, Earl Nightingale.
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00:21:39] Whenever he would start his newscast, he would start to tell you a story. He would get halfway through the story, and then he would say part two, and he would give you his advertisement. And then he would give you the rest of the news. When you got through to the end of the news, he would say now the rest of the story, and then he would give you the conclusion for the 55 years he was on the radio.
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00:22:09] That was his same structure. You knew you were going to get a story. You knew you were going to get the advertisement and the news, and then you were going to get the rest of the story. He grabbed you and kept you through that is the power of a grabber and to hook. Now, once you got into the open piece, past the grabber, there are a couple of components that become crucial to me.
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00:22:36] And there is no necessary order that you have to put these in. One of the first things you have to drive is your position or a stake in the ground. This acts as a reference point. Now, when I'm teaching class, I'll get someone to put it in this language construct. I believe something that acts as a reference point.
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00:23:03] If you're not excited about your topic, why should I be excited? For the last 18 years, when I've opened up class, my position has always been ness. I believe that every, 17 and 18-year-old should get this information. That's my position. Whether you agree with it or not so important, but you now know where I'm coming from now.
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00:23:27] If this is where I'm coming from and your listeners way over here, your goal is to bring them to that position. We can look throughout history at some of our politicians where they may beat around the Bush around taxes or education or volatile topics that are happening at that point at the time.
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00:23:50] but yet there are other leaders who will take that position, drive that stake in the ground. And you have no doubt where they're coming from. This is critical to your success. Now, the second thing I want you to add to that position or what I call your belief statements here's my stake in the ground.
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00:24:10] Now, I want you to share why you believe that. That could because it could be because you've experienced it. It could because you pulled something from an article; it could be where you're pulling it from a third party voice that you want to bring in to back it up. It could be out of your own experience, but I want you to develop three.
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00:24:32] Why's why you believe what you believe. Now, this comes back to the Simon sending principle that people buy, why you do what you do before they buy what you do. This is where people relate to you. This is where people go. I think like Bart; I think like Bart. That's those why's.
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00:24:52]The next critical component is that action step. Now, most of you will never fail to have an action step at the end of a meeting talk or a presentation, but guys, here's where I think we fail. We fail to put an action step in the open. Here's the principle. You have to give them a reason to be in the seat.
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00:25:16] How many of you have walked out? Some type of meeting looked at your colleague and said, why were we there? What a waste of time? That's because number one, they didn't know you were there. Or number two, they didn't give you an action step. Step action steps in the open are more broad and soft. Are verbs, learn, gain, see, become aware of imagining visualize those are opening type action.
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00:25:45] Step closing type action steps are specific; buy, implement, use innovate, demonstrate, commit, to partner. Those are specific type verbs that go in the action step. In the close. Remember, you're driving the listener forward, you're driving the listener forward. So let me give you an example. If I said, and I was teaching something today, guys, I want you to become aware of the key benefits that this solution tool or product brings to the table.
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00:26:23] If that was my action step, look at how I've set you up to here. What I'm going to cover. If I said, become aware of, and learn of the key benefits that this will bring to the table, you are now expecting me to cover the benefits. So in my content, in my structure, I might say benefit. Number one, benefit number two, benefit number three.
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00:26:44] Notice how I focus that message. Now my closing action step might be. What I want you to do is implement a solution to our product that will bring you those three key benefits. I crafted a very tight message, but yeah, that's because I understood my opening action—step in my closing action steps. I wish I could get every single person who teaches a module.
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00:27:10] I wish I could get every teacher who teaches a concept in our high schools and junior high schools to frame each module with an opening and closing action step. I think our young people would learn a lot more, and they'd be very focused on that hour or 90 minutes. They're on when they're talking about the concepts in chemistry or history or Western saver.
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00:27:30]An additional point. I want to make sure you make in your open is what I call proof points. And these are examples, simple examples. This is not a story you may have done more in a story in your grabber and your hook, but within the open, don't be afraid to build. For example, it is just a proof point.
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00:27:52] Now your examples have to have four key components to them. They have to have the, who did you work with? What was the problem that they were facing? What was the issue you help them with? What was the solution that you brought to the table? Now, the solution, in your example, or the product tool or service should map to your position; there should be some integration there.
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00:28:17] Remember that your example is a proof point to your position and your topic. And then the last is the specific results that they got by implementing by using, by developing whatever your solution was. And then, last but not least, the benefits that your listeners or I will get.
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00:28:40] Guys, if they take the action step that you put in your open. If I said in the action step, what I want you to do is learn the key benefits that this solution brings to the table. What's the benefit I am going to get. If I take that action step now, here's where there might be a little twist to your language.
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00:29:02] If I said to you, visualize this solution at your fingertips. Then your benefits have got to be the potential cause I'm just visualizing. But am I close if I said implement by using? I could say here are the three key benefits you're going to get. So notice an interesting point. Yeah. Benefits in my open could be the parties.
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00:29:28] for one, two, three, but in my clothes, I get one, two, three. The potential on the open is because I visualized, I get them into clothes because I implemented.
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00:29:44]Those are just some of the key components in this idea of you're open and in the body of what you want to share. This simple overview of your structure will give you the freedom to craft what's most on your heart. And what's most important to your listener. Remember that the structure is the foundational piece to you crafting content.
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00:30:10] to take your listener from point a to point B. It is your safety rails that keep you on track critical to your success. Now in content delivery. If I'm physically saying something, I've always taught you to be concise, but you have to drive that principle in your content.
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00:30:32] What I want you to do is the next time you craft any type of content, built one of these structures or these elements of these structures into your talk to your presentation, into your information, and to your email. Suppose you're just writing an email. I can guarantee you; it's going to give you freedom in your content.
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00:30:50] It's going to give you freedom in the conversation, and it's going to give you freedom in the circumstance you're in. So you can speak for five minutes or 50 minutes, guys. It has been an absolute pleasure speaking with you today and sharing some things about these ideas around a content structure.