Show Notes
Welcome to the remarkability Institute. This is Bart Queen, your host. Today. I am very excited about the program I've been doing around virtual communication. If you're joining us for the very first time today, what I've covered over the last podcasts, you're not going to want to miss. So make sure you go back.
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00:01:24] the very first one, I gave a high-level overview of what a virtual meeting really needs to look like. That there were three major buckets to that. There's the pre virtual meeting. There's the actual virtual meeting. And then there's the post virtual meeting. And in my first podcast, I spent a fair amount of time on each one of those.
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00:01:48] On the last podcast, I began to dive into the actual virtual meeting's actual content structure. Now guys, one of the things I shared was that most people think that 90% of the struggle is actually doing the meeting. It's actually now me interacting with the technology, and the student it's wrong.
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00:02:10] It's really only 10%. 90% of the struggle is getting them to come to your meeting, getting them there, and then number two, driving them to action. Once it's done, it's not the actual meeting itself. It's getting them there, getting them to commit. And then how do I drive them? What's the action to take them forward.
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00:02:34]The third piece that I shared was that idea around the actual content structure. And I shared several pins principles that are the foundation for us to build from today's podcast is actually getting into the content structure components, the actual components, as you began to craft content. So now, if you are at home, you're in your office, your listing, you have a place where you can have pen and paper.
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00:03:05] I will definitely be able to take some notes, guys. I think you'll find some interesting things you can use immediately. And if you happen to be driving in your car, maybe, you can relisten to this again. You can turn your phone on record and listen from that perspective. That way you'll have some notes, guys.
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00:03:23] All right. So the versed very first key component that we want to look at in content structure is what I call your three teas. Now, your three teas are your topic, your theme, and your title. When I'm coaching someone. And I ask them, do me a favor and write down your topic. Most people will give me a title.
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00:03:49] Guys, what's the number one purpose of a title, whether you're writing or you're speaking,
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00:03:54]most of you will say something to give the listener or the reader a sense of what you're talking about. Incorrect. The number one purpose of a title is to grab someone's attention period. I want you to start getting creative with your titles. Now with the title, you're allowed two subtitles, one subtitle, clarity to the topic.
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00:04:21] the Second subtitle benefits the listener or the reader, depending on what you're trying to accomplish. I want you the next time. You're. Going to spend a Sunday at a Barnes and Noble or a bookstore. You're just going to hang out, drink coffee, look at magazines and look at a couple of books. Look at how that principle is lived out on almost every single book that you pick up.
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00:04:44] What makes you pick up the book? It's either the title or the picture of the book. And then you look at the subtitles, which give you clarity into that title. A topic is the bull's eye center of what you're trying to talk about. So let's say the topic is just, it could be XYZ solution. It could be risk. It could be security.
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00:05:10] It could be happiness. It could be humor. It could be anything, but you've pinpointed that topic down to something, boil that as simple as you can make it. Your theme is a common thread that you run through your content, a mountain climbing theme. A gardening thing, a physical fitness theme, any type of theme that you feel like you'd like to run through it.
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00:05:38] Guys, this is a tremendous opportunity for you to share a little bit about yourself in building a common thread. One of my favorite examples of this is a book called beyond the summit. Tom Skinner is the author's freestyle mountain climber who climbed almost every single mountain in the world. He decided
to write a book about what he's learned about mountain climbing and equated to business leadership, the book's topic, the business leadership theme in the book, mountain climbing title of the book beyond the summit.
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00:06:21] A brilliant use. breaking out the three T's, the second major component. Anytime you're crafting a meeting and especially in the virtual world, it is your open and close. These are critical. That's a starting place in the ending place. Now, if you'll listen last week, you heard me talk about what's the purpose.
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00:06:44] Is it education? Is it selling? Is it building awareness? What's the purpose. So once you've pinpointed the purpose, you have to have a starting place and an ending place. That's all an open-ended closed. Does it frames
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00:07:00]
Bart: body of what you want to share? It frames the body of what you want to share, the meat of what you want to share.
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00:07:09] It gives your listener a natural starting place and putting this puzzle together and fitting the pieces together. And it gives you a listener, an exit point. The third major component then is the body. Excuse me, guys. It's the meat of what you want to share. And the last point, the last key component is what I call foundational information.
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00:07:38] It's the logistics, it's housekeeping issues. It's credibility building both for yourself and for your business. If that's what you need to do, it's also the background. Now that background should have been from your discovery situation. Why you're there? What are you trying to solve? Remember, no pain, no value, no business.
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00:08:04] So if you're not relating what you're bringing to the table to some type of an issue challenge or a pain you're hitting, you're just going to be missing the Mark guys.
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00:08:14]Now, with those in mind, let me get into a little bit deeper detail around this idea of your body, the content, the main body of what you want to share. No more than four key points, anything more than four key points, guys. You're on that verge of how do I tell them more? Not how do I get them to remember more?
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00:08:37] And with each within each one of those four key points or four main objectives or format ideas? No more than four sub-points within each one of them.
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00:08:49]Three is ideal. Three major points and three subpoints are what you want to strive for. Now, if you want to go for three major points and four sub-points for each one, that's absolutely fine. Nothing wrong with that. If you're going to follow a body structure, that's more of a Ted type talk. It's one message backed up by three supporting points.
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00:09:13] So study a good Ted Talk. They have one thing. That's the message they're trying to drive one single message, not three messages, one single the message. The greatest example that I enjoy on Ted talks like that is Simon Sinek. Start with why the one, especially that I enjoy is inspiring leaders. This is the one where he shows the golden circles.
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00:09:38] If you, by chance, seen that or read one of his books. He's got one major point and three supporting points that back it up. If you go to the other side of a traditional keynote, remember a traditional keynote is really 60 minutes or 90 minutes on the longer side, where at Ted type talk is more of that 18 to 20 minute kind of a Mark a typical keynote.
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00:10:05] You've got three major points that you're working with. Three major 0.3 major ideas that you're trying to drive. Whereas in the Ted type talk, it was one major idea backed up by three supporting points.
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00:10:20]
Bart: you're in the technical world, and you're doing some type of a demo of a solution, a product, a service, a piece of technology, I can't encourage you enough.
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00:10:31] No more than five features. Five features that you want to share, that you're prepared to share based on the pain you're trying to solve, based on the pain you're trying to solve. You only want to map the features to the pain. Now, if you're actually doing a demo and someone asks you about, does it do this or do that?
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00:10:52] Show them yes. Share it with them, but keep your demo on message. If somebody comes up to you and says, I want to see everything, you might as well walk away. Cause they're setting you up for failure.
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00:11:08]You've got to keep your demo simple. No more than five features to walk in prepared to show based on the pain. No more than four key points. Go more than that too many. They can't remember it. I could ask you who are the three Stooges. Most people can tell me if I asked you what the seven dwarfs are, you're going to struggle a little bit.
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00:11:29] If I said, can you name all the reindeer without singing the song? Most of us are going to struggle a little bit. Three is your ideal for your hitting max. Now, remember that your key points, whether they're. Four, there three there too. You're doing a Ted type talk. You're doing more of a keynote. Your key points must be three things.
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00:11:52] I want you to remember this. Now your key points must be simple. They must be repeatable, and they must be memorable. If you follow this straightforward structure, you can speak for five minutes or speak for 15 minutes. Within that structure gives you the freedom to expand, and it gives you the freedom to contract.
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00:12:19] And our typical three-day program, I share this a lot. It's called a framing concept. You frame your content at a hundred thousand feet at 50,000 feet. And at 25,000 feet. If you happen to have touched base with me on our teachable program, if you want to sign up for that, we've got the whole program online that you can do it at your pace.
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00:12:41] I'm going to teach you the same idea, a hundred thousand feet, 50,025. That's the framing concept that you want to put your content into.
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00:12:52]Now, when you break into that body, and you've got your three or four key points, pinpointed, remember no more than four supporting points to your key point and those supporting details. Let me just give you some examples of what those could be. They could be third party validation. They could be an example where you're going to say, for example, I worked with back up your point, statistics is a great place to put and your supporting points.
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00:13:27] What I call soundbite soundbites, a quote from another person, a quote from an author, a newspaper, an article, something that backs up your reference, those supporting points should all enhance your major points. So remember in that Ted type talk, it was one key message with three major points that back that up now, you can have supporting points within each of those major points.
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00:13:55] So now you've got supporting points, supporting the supporting point, supporting the main message. It's a framework and a structure to work within. And when you have outlined that structure, it becomes so easy just to plug it in, to plug it in. And it becomes straightforward to remember that you can talk about it and share it and have a conversation.
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00:14:20]Now, with your body, I've given you all kinds of ideas on how to be able to do that. Let's get into your open and close. Cause this is where I feel like this is the most difficult. There are a couple of pieces that you can build into your open and close. I can't encourage it. You always need to kick off with what I call a grabber.
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00:14:43] Or a hook avoid at all costs. Hi, my name is if you open up your virtual meeting with hi, my name is Bart, and I'm here to talk about X. Let me tell you about my company. Let me tell you about me. I can promise you; people are going to go. So what, who cares now? Remember that in a virtual situation, you have eight seconds to engage them.
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00:15:08] Eight seconds. So you can't really engage them. Hi, my name is that's not going to get you anywhere. You've got to start with something that grabs our attention and pulls them in.
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00:15:18]Then, don't be afraid to share your position. Now, your position is your feeling. It's your emotion. It's your position on the topic? So I might say to you. If I could write the script, every 17 and 18-year-old should get this information around communication. That's my position. I could tell you that content structure is critical to your success as far as I'm concerned.
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00:15:47] I can tell you that content structure is critical and creating timely and timeless content. That's just my position. So I've grabbed your attention—story and analogy, a quote, an example. I've got my position, then don't be afraid to share your whys. So if I said, I personally believe it's revolutionary.
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00:16:11] You want to share your whys? I believe that for three key reasons and tell them why you believe it. So guys, remember that people buy why you do what you do before they buy you, what you do. That was the assignment, Senate principle. It's powerful. It's tremendous. Put it to use. I know when I first learned that it changed everything that I do.
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00:16:35] I had a friend send me a link to his video, inspiring leaders. I went back to my office. I sat and listened to it. Now, guys, I have a training room with a whiteboard. That's almost the whole length of the wall. It's my favorite place to work. I must have spent three hours trying to articulate my wife. Not why my communication programs, not why communication is important, but why do I get up and face that battle every single day?
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00:17:05] Why do I care so much about that? Why is it my passion, and why is it my purpose? I linked those as part of my open. I make sure it's relevant to the audience I'm speaking to, but I always do my best to get my wise out. And then there's the action step. What do you want the listener to do opening action.
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00:17:30] Step, as you begin to talk about your content closing action step, what do you want them to do when you're all said and done? When you walk out the door? These are not optional. These are important that you build in. Remember that opening action steps are broad and soft. They're verbs, see, understand, gain, visualize.
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00:17:55] Imagine they pull the lessor into your content. Closing action steps are concrete by the implement, build, create, commit to a partner. They're very specific. Opening and closing action steps are critical to pulling your listener into your content. Once you've shared your content, what do you want to drive them to do?
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00:18:23] Now? This is where I come back to the structure I shared with you in the beginning at an overall perspective of the pre virtual meeting, the post virtual meeting, and the actual meeting itself. If you'll remember if you've listened to that particular podcast in the pre virtual meeting, you set up a quick five minute, two minutes, one minute call after the actual meeting to touch base with your client, the customer, to make sure that they get what they needed.
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00:18:53] That's your opportunity to drive action. But if you haven't built that in there, We lose if you've not built it into the pre virtual meeting, and then you don't build it into the actual meeting. What do you want me to do as a listener, as I share? And what do you want me to do as a listener? When you're done, you miss opportunities to drive your listener forward.
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00:19:15]And then I can't encourage you enough in the open you need examples.
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00:19:19]Examples should take you no more than 90 seconds. If it's anything more than 90 seconds is too much, this is just proof points. So if I gave you my position on a topic, I told you why I believe that's important. And then I went, for example, I'm giving you a proof point. It's all part of my open move, these pieces around any way fit.
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00:19:43] Most of us do a pretty poor job at examples. The classic example of that is in an interview. Someone asks you, what's the number one thing you bring to the table, and you say the number one thing I bring to the table or your organization would be my sense of honesty. And that we stop. And nine times out of 10, what is the interview ask you?
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00:20:04] What's the next words out of him out of his or her mouth? Can you give me an example? They should never have to ask for that. You should always be saying, for example, give them the proof points and then tell them what's ended for them that with them, the benefits, if they take the action step you wanted them to take, what will they get if they learn about your solution, tool or product, what will they get?
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00:20:33]Benefits drive people to action. Now I can't encourage you enough, not just one benefit. So if I said guys, here's what we're going to do. I want you to all come water-skiing with me today. And I said, what you're going to get is great exercise. Now, for those of you who care about exercise, you'll say I'm in.
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00:20:54] But for those of you who could care less about exercise, you'll probably go, Nope, not interested. But if I said, guys, what I want you to do is go water skiing with me today. Now you can go water skiing with me today. Here's what we're going to find one. We're going to get some great exercise. Get a chance to get some fresh air.
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00:21:10] Number two, I'm having a whole huge dinner, barbecue catered afterward with steaks and all the accrue into Mons and your favorite beverage. And then most importantly, we get just to kick back and relax. Hang out in an easy chair. The more benefits you list, the greater chance you have of driving someone to action, but
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00:21:34]
Bart: got to make sure they're listening focused.
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00:21:35] You've heard me talk about that. Listen, focus, listening focused. You don't know who your listeners are. You can't offer the right benefits. Those are key components, just in the open. How do I grab their attention? Number one, number two. What's my position on the topic. How do I feel about it? Why do I think that's important?
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00:21:57] The action step I want you to take, listen, learn, gain, see, visualize, add an example or two proof points that your solution tool, product, or service does what you say it does. And then, in the end, what are the outcomes? What are they going to get? What are they going to receive? All those key components make up a solid open-ended close.
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00:22:23] You can expand those, or you can contract those. You can take pieces out and only share some of them share all of them, whatever fits in my mind. Remember, most importantly, never muddle, the open, never muddled the clothes, muddle the middle, but never the open or the closing. Now the last key thing we want to look at is what I call foundational information.
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00:22:53] I get a kick out of most people. Cause this is what they open with. I get, "Good afternoon. My name is Bart Queen. I'm here to talk about it. I come to the table with X. My company comes to the table with Y, and everybody rolls their eyes and says, who cares or someone opens up with him again? My name is. It's the last thing you ever want to do now. It's the last thing you ever want to do face to face.
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00:23:17] And it's even more important that you don't do it during a virtual communication. Remember, you have only eight seconds to engage them. Do your grabber, do your open, and then come to this foundation information. That's critical to share based on what was done in the pre virtual meeting. If you have done your pre virtual meeting properly, you don't need now to build your personal credibility or your company's credibility.
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00:23:47] Sure. Do you want to share how much you care? Do you want to share what you're trying to do and how to empower them? Yes. Mentioned that. But it is not the place for you to give your resume or your company resume that should have already been done. And if you felt like, or you feel like there are going to be people part of your virtual meeting, that we're not a part of the pre virtual meeting, then when you send out your email, inviting them to come to your meeting, I would have put that information in there.
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00:24:19] Now, if you want to touch base on one or two points very easily in a seamless kind of manner, feel free by sharing an example, an experience, or a story, but steer away from that idea of your resume list.
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00:24:34]Now don't talk, don't forget to talk about the meeting logistics. These should have been mentioned in the pre virtual meeting and in the email that invited folks. This is a camera on camera off. Mute on, mute off. When you're going to take questions, how you want to handle things in the chat room, all those meeting logistics critical to your success in a virtual meeting, less stressful in face to face.
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00:25:03] Cause somebody can just raise your hand, and you can talk about it. You want to set the expectation virtually. This should all be done. It should be just a reinforcement period, easy. And then, before you get into the body of what you want to share, confirm the discovery information that you got on that pre virtual meeting based on our meeting last week; these were the three key issues that you talked about.
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00:25:32] These are the five key issues that you said we were going to approach today. Is there anything else that we need to add to this, confirm that discovery information, and then go cause you've given them a reason to be in the seat, no pain, no value, no business. You've got to bring all these pieces together seamlessly, and it's gotta be done in a clear, concise manner because your engagement is the biggest challenge you face in the virtual world.
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00:26:00] These core components just allow you to build anything you want into them. They give you the freedom to be yourself. They give you the freedom to carry the conversation the way fit. It gives you the freedom to share whatever content you feel like is important to that listener group. So in real actuality, if you're looking for freedom, The freedom lies in your structure.
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00:26:28] The freedom truly lies in the structure that you work with. It allows you to take a deeper dive into connection. It allows you to dive deeper into a conversation, and it definitely allows you to be more interactive if you so choose. So I can't remind you enough that structure allows you the freedom to do what you want.
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00:26:55] Now what I want you to do based on these three podcasts that we've delivered for you. I want you to begin implementing these ideas, these concepts, these principles, these components into any virtual meeting that you're doing, and build them into your face to face. Notice how easily it will fall into place.
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00:27:16] It may feel a little cumbersome to start because you're not used to it, but once you understand that structure, When someone says, can you be ready in five minutes? You're going to say absolutely. When someone asks you to a meeting, you mind getting up and talking about it; you're going to say absolutely.
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00:27:33] And when someone says, we want you to prepare for a sales meeting for a Ted talk for a keynote for a demo, I say, absolutely no problem. You find out what the issues are. You craft your open, you craft your close, come up with the body of your meat, that maps to the problem, pain, an issue. You build in your four Hs to the best of your ability, and you are ready to go.
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00:27:59] Remember everything that I've been sharing with you has been about building your confidence. It's been about building the connection, and it's about building the conversation virtually. I want you to be successful. These ideas will help you be even more successful than you already are.
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00:28:19]This is Bart Queen. This is the remarkability Institute, and we'll see you next time.