E216 | How to Ensure Your Audience Connects With Your Message

Taking time to do comprehensive audience research before speaking is the single greatest way to ensure our message comes across the way we want. 

…And yet hardly any of us will do this thoroughly enough to make a real difference. 

But we only get one chance to make a first impression and when people are trusting us with their time, money and attention- we have a responsibility to honor them at the highest level.

On today’s episode, we’ll cover the essential questions you MUST ask yourself (and your host) before you ever step in front of a group, including:

?Who will be in the room?

?What are they giving up to be there?

?What’s in it for them?

?How will they be able to apply what you say?

When you’re ready to learn other crucial tips, tricks and strategies for winning over your audience and nailing your messaging, join us at Speaker School.

Only a few spots left for our May 28-29th workshop!

References from the episode: 

• Episode 202: Why Facts & Logic Don’t Change Our Minds
• Episode 205: Strategies For Becoming A Memorable & Dynamic Speaker
• Brett’s Speaking Form 

Today’s episode was brought to you by two of our most loyal sponsors. 

Momentous: As our longest standing partner, Momentous has always been my go to protein and sleep supplement. All NSF approved, these are the cleanest and best tasting performance supplements in the game. Use code BRETT15 for 15% off! 

Dynamic Fitness & Strength: If you’re in the market for affordable, customizable equipment with customer service that won’t be beat, these are your guys. Their team has over 160 years of coaching experience so they obviously know what coaches and athletes want / need; When you’re ready to build that dream facility, or just upgrade your home gym head to mydynamicfitness.com and tell them the Art of Coaching Team sent you.

Brett Bartholomew  00:10

Hey guys Brett here. One thing I think we can all agree on is that our life becomes a little bit easier when we’re around people that know how to listen to us that know how to communicate clearly, that know how to include us in decision making and make our thoughts and feelings and suggestions feel valued. By and large, people that care more, right and care more about communicating in a way that is really inclusive, and distinct and helpful. Well, one thing that we wanted to do to improve that is we have now been the Art of Coaching Speaking school, or don’t let the name confuse you. This is not just for people that want to create a speaking career, although that’s going to get addressed for sure. It’s not just for people that give presentations. This is for anybody in any kind of leadership position, it might be sales and marketing, analysts, HR, anybody that has to learn how to convey a message more clearly to an audience. And we’re really excited about it. We ran some betas of this, we’ve done some smaller scale things because we wanted to kind of keep this private and continue to build it in in a way that is really inclusive and interactive, so that you’re not giving up your time, effort and energy, just to go to some place to be spoken at. Right. And our first one is going to be in May of this year. That’s 2022. Here in Atlanta, Georgia. Now we chose Atlanta because more flights come to Atlanta than anywhere in the world. And no matter what your budget is, we have an option, whether it’s our standard admission, professional admission. And all these things will come with a combination of not only your ticket into the event, and all the things that we’re going to talk about in terms of helping you craft a more personalized and focused message. But also video analysis, post event strategy, we even have options that can help you if you feel overwhelmed by presentations and slide design, I want to make something clear, it does not matter. If you are somebody that deals with tremendous social anxiety, or somebody that has been to toastmasters 400 times, we will meet every single person where they are. And we are committed to giving you a great experience. So make sure that you check it out, you can go to art of coaching.com/speaker. Again, that’s artofcoaching.com/speaker. Right now, if you want to get better at these things, all right. 

 

Brett Bartholomew  02:26

Also a huge thank you to our sponsors. First and foremost, dynamic fitness and strength. A critical sponsor of ours dynamic fitness, dynamic fitness and strength is a manufacturer of American made premium strength equipment. And most importantly, their manufacturing process is top notch in terms of how little they waste, how efficient and effective they are, and their level of customization. Usually, guys, if you wanted something like this, you were kind of caught between two options, you had to pay and religiously high prices for something that the average person you know, unless you’re some head strength coach somewhere, couldn’t even afford or you had to sacrifice on quality, you do not have to do any of that. With dynamic fitness and strength. Their team includes coaches with over 160 years of combined expertise, and the folks that own it and run it and then an automobile manufacturing and high level manufacturing for so long. They’re rewriting the playbook on how to create high end functional, practical strength equipment. So make sure that you check them out, go to artofcoaching.com/partners art of coaching.com/partners. And they’re the first one on the page as they should be made sure you tell them we say hello, also our most loyal and long term partner momentous momentous carries a line of NSF certified supplements designed for anybody who wants to get the most out of what they do. And I love the way they phrase it, do more of what you love, do it longer and at a higher level. It’s hand in hand with what we talked about communication. It is not just for one kind of person. Whether you are a recreational runner, a weekend warrior, or even my father who has an aortic aneurysm and type two diabetes, right? momentous has products that can help you maximize your results. Or at least meet you where you’re at. You can save 25% By using code Brett that’s br e t t 2 5 and again you can find them and everything they do by visiting art of coaching.com/partners Make sure you tell them we sent you they’re phenomenal human beings. Alright, without further ado, let’s get into today’s episode I’ll see you soon.

 

Brett Bartholomew  04:48

Welcome to the Art of coaching podcast, a show aimed at getting to the core of what it takes to change attitudes, behaviors and outcomes in the weight room, boardroom classroom and everywhere in between Hi, I’m your host, Brett Bartholomew. I’m a performance coach, keynote speaker and the author of the book conscious coaching. But most importantly, I’m a lifelong student interested in all aspects of human behavior and communication. I want to thank you for joining me. And now let’s dive into today’s episode.

 

Brett Bartholomew  05:21

Okay, we’re gonna waste no time getting into today’s episode, I want to give you some heavy hitting practical value right out of the gate. Now, this episode pairs really nicely. I sound like I work at a restaurant, it pairs really nicely with episode 205 strategies for becoming a memorable and dynamic speaker. So if you want to listen to that, that’s a great compliment. Another one is episode 202. Why facts and logic don’t change our mind. But today, what I want to talk to you guys about is knowing your audience and why that is so critical beyond the obvious. I know, you hear that? And you may think, yeah, I need to know my audience, because that’s going to impact how my message comes across. Sure.

 

Brett Bartholomew  06:01

But do you do it? Do you know what knowing your audience means? Do you actually have questions laid out so that you can ascertain if you know them as well as you think you do? Remember, most of the things we mess up in life are the things that we think we know, we think we know how to take care of ourselves, get more sleep, invest, we think we know how to just do these basic things. And I don’t mean know the intricacies of them. We think we know the importance of them. But we don’t often reflect on them. And that’s what I want to give you guys a chance to do today. Also make sure because we’re going to touch on a lot of different audience based questions to go to artofcoaching.com/reflections artofcoaching.com/reflections, that’ll give you notes on this episode. So knowing your audience is really part of what we call the personalization, category of communication at our workshops. This all has to do with things like richness of feedback, use of name relatability, your politeness, things that really make people feel heard, validated, and understood. Because remember, no matter what you’re doing, no matter what career field you’re in, by and large, people want to feel like they’re understood, like they’re, they belong. And whenever you speak, no matter how big the audience, you’re also going to have people inherently that are wondering what’s in it for me. And they may not voice that they may come to you with altruistic intentions of really hearing it out. But remember, people spend a lot of their time, effort, money, energy, traveling to events or engaging in things and they want to take home. But oftentimes the person presenting can be so focused on their message, they can be so focused on their moment, their anxiety, or maybe even their opportunity that they start to forget the audience either at the beginning, or even in the middle, and I guess sometimes at the end, but they forget it in general. So here’s some things that I want you to consider when it comes to mastering how to get your message across in the way you intended. And remember, no two audiences are the same. So it is my recommendation, that before you give a presentation, a pitch and proposal, anything like that, that you revisit these questions, I think about it, every time I create something new, it doesn’t matter if it’s a 60 minute keynote, it doesn’t matter if it’s our Brand Builder material, our speaker school material, our art of coaching apprenticeship material, I think about it, even when I deliver these podcasts to you guys. So let me run through some of them and all elaborate. 

 

Brett Bartholomew  08:26

All right, first of all, who’s in the room? And be specific? What is their profession? Or what are their professions that are apprenticeship at a recent one in Austin, we had a member of the Highway Patrol, we had somebody that want to run in politics, we had some strength coaches, we had a couple that worked in hospitality, we have a wide range of folks. So I know just by the professions that are attending, I have to have a wide range of analogies and metaphors and examples to play off of. At the same time. I don’t want to discredit my background, because people like hearing stories about performance, because as you guys all know, we all can learn from different fields, many of us to deal with the same problems, just a different wrapping. But you want to know what is their profession? How many people exactly are going to be there? What are they expecting? And I’ll talk about what to do if you don’t know how to answer. They just stay with me. And let’s focus on this right. But if you don’t know how many people or what they’re expecting, it becomes a little bit more difficult to know how to work in the room. I’ll give an example. Okay. I was speaking in the UK about a year ago, and it wasn’t exactly a year but it was last year. I don’t remember the date. I think it was October. And I was last on the docket. I was massively jet lagged. I know that the group had been bombarded with a lot of excellent presenters. Here. I was having to back clean up and there was about 300 people and then I think there were 200 or more streaming. Don’t quote me on that, but I know there was a large streaming audience as well. And I’m the type much like I’m sure many of you Listening that I try to treat every situation or every opportunity, like it’s my first and my last. So I went up to the host. And I said, Hey, I know who this audience is. But what is something they haven’t gotten? Or what do you think is something they’d appreciate today. And they said, Well, everybody’s just kind of stood on stage. And also people tend to forget about you in the audience at home streaming. So I took that information. And the very first thing that I did is I got off the stage and walked and talked and included some of the people in the audience. Similarly, I brought some people from the audience up on stage, to engage in some more interactive things. And then one time where I probably looked like a crazy person to anybody that walked in the room late, I literally spent about three minutes just looking into the camera to the right of the stage, as opposed to the audience so that they felt included as well. 

 

Brett Bartholomew  10:48

Now, in some circumstances, this might not be appropriate. But in this one, I know that the host was super grateful, as was I because of the last thing I want to do is just get up there and, you know, do the same thing as everybody else. And not that I want to make it, you know, some show about me, but you want to it’s for the audience, right, you want to disrupt their attention, so that you get a little bit more engagement. And so they have a higher likelihood of receiving those messages. But if I didn’t know how many people were going to be there, what they had expected what they had experienced, that makes it harder for me to provide a really valuable and personalized service for them. Now, the next question is really important, what’s it like to be them? This is referred to really as theory of mind, your guys’s ability to really understand that two people don’t always think like, they don’t perceive things the right way, the same way, even if you give them the most, you know, if they have facts and research and just proof, they’re going to interpret it differently. And so you think about this, I think many of you know what it’s like to hear a boring presenter, or a presenter that just wants to make it about them, or a presenter that speaks in either either end of the spectrum, one, so much ambiguity, that it’s hard to really take what they’re saying and make it practical, or to they try to speak with so much jargon that now they’re not relatable. And then I’m sure many of you know what it’s like also, to pay that money to have left your family or your loved ones, whatever. And then to feel like how am I even going to apply this? That’s awful. That is just not a fun feeling. So thinking about right off the bat, how am I going to earn their trust? How am I going to earn their attention? And how am I going to assuage their anxieties again, what I want them to think, feel and do that is a huge piece. So when I reach out, sometimes the people that have me speak, I’ll say, you know, What experiences have they had in the past that they enjoyed, What didn’t you like, what did other presenters do that you loved, and we have a very simple clean form. And we’re gonna teach you guys how to put it together. If if any of you come to Speaker school, we have a whole thing around that. Speaker school, I’ll talk about dates for that later on. But we’re going to teach people kind of how to build that outreach form. And we’ll talk about it also in our coalition if some of you are in that as well. But I don’t want to get too ahead of ourselves. But the main thing is just asking somebody, you know, what are the bad experiences you’ve had? When hosting? What are the good ones? What are the things that you don’t want to see again, or that haven’t really struck with you? And then following that up with what might have influenced their perception? So again, think about where we’re at so far, who will be in the room being more specific? What’s their profession? How many people? What are they expecting? What’s it like to be them? What might have influenced their perception, in strength and conditioning, we knew that we had to do a lot to gain the trust of people in this field more than any other field. And the reason really was, there’s that old quote, The Son pays for the sins of the father. Well, coming up when I was, you know, just doing strength and conditioning, you always heard people talk about oh, the secrets to a faster 40 this to a higher deadlift, people sold a lot of snake oil, and they do in a lot of fields, right. But inherently, with strengthing, auditioning being such a science based profession, you already drew a lot of skeptics, and a lot of people that were pretty combative about their points of view, and then they had been sold bad stuff in the past. So we felt like more than any other field, whether we work with military tech, corporate, we had to work about 10 times as hard to gain the trust of people in the performance field. And that’s even with my background, right, which I’m not saying that I’m the apotheosis of anything. But, you know, my, my background is valid with what I did. I’m not somebody that inflated that and you guys will notice that as well. You can be the best at what you do amongst the best at what you do or just recognize for what you do that does not earn you people’s trust or attention. Because those past experiences have really, really, really done a number on them and it’s going to take time. 

 

Brett Bartholomew  14:46

Okay, the other piece and this comes from the responsibility, what are they giving up to be there, acknowledge that acknowledge that when we do our two day workshops, I know that being there from like 830 to five or you know, 830 to six is a lot. But you know, I acknowledge that and I also help them understand that where the ROI is going to come from with what we’re doing, we make sure that we designed breaks appropriately, you might be able to use that too. If you’re overwhelmed, and you’re like, I think my deck is too long, great, well, then just remember, you know, they’re giving up a lot to be there, the last thing they want to feel is stress. And you’re gonna make them feel more stress, if you have all these slides, and you’re ramming all this information down their throat. So maybe just think about everything you want to cover, draw a line through a third of it, and think, How can I, you know, get more information out of like, instead of just cramming more information there? How can I provide more interaction? How can I provide more deep thought, and, again, I’m sympathetic to opportunities where that’s not the case, I’m gonna go and speak in Nebraska here in a little bit. And I think I have 15 minutes. And what they’ve requested is a pretty in depth topic, I’m not going to be able to be super interactive, there, there’s a different job to be done. But I’m trying to give you guys tips for a wide range of interactions and proposals and presentation. So that is important. Another piece is how might they judge you off the bat, people will judge you, I love all of you, I do, and I love my son, but I’m not going to tell my son, you know, don’t judge a book by its cover. I’m going to say people do judge by a book by its cover. And you will too. But I want you to understand that you’ve got to think a little bit more deeply. And mind you, that’s a horrible phrase in general, right as somebody that’s written a book, and that’s not a flex, I’m just saying, you, you are told by publishers, and by the way, just by the public that like, you have to put together a pretty good looking book cover, because people aren’t going to judge you based on that, you know, so it’s a bad I get what we’re getting at, but like, the point is, is people will judge you, they’re gonna judge all of us. So make fun of that have fun with it a little bit,

 

Brett Bartholomew  16:51

I know that I met this intense bearded guy, and I kind of speak with this very convicting tone, I tried to acknowledge that it’s not to try to come off as superior. It’s the urgency that’s in my voice. That is a manifestation of me almost dying at a young age, having a lot of family that died, I just, I’m that guy that lives as if Tomorrow’s my last day. And I don’t mean to, it’s just how I am. And if you’ve been in my life, and you’ve experienced the things that I’ve experienced, just like people with you, right, we all have these quirks that are part and parcel of who we are. Some people will like them, some won’t. But they are going to judge you. So think of that. When we do our communication workshops, or apprenticeship, I say, Hey, listen, I get the stigma of communication out there. There are people that have made it seem like it’s rah rah, and that it’s self help. But we’re not talking about that kind of communication. We’re talking about power dynamics, difficult discussions, why people are driven to do the things they do, and how to get out of really challenging moments in your life, right how to master your interaction, so that you know how to navigate that. And I’m going to do it in these ways. And I lay out the day for him. And I let them know right there so that if they are judging, oh God, here we go, it’s gonna be this or it’s gonna be long day, or we’re just gonna hear this person, take that away. There’s no different than what I did with coaching athletes. Right? When they’d come in, they’d assess whatever was set up, and they’re like, ah, we have this today, or we have that today. So acknowledge that, you know, I think the best example and people that know me, well will laugh because I always use a rap reference, but an eight mile right, Eminem knows that they’re gonna make fun of him because he’s white, and he lives in a trailer park. So he gets out in front of it, he preempts it, just lock that in. I also consider as we move on, what’s in it for them, guys, there has to be something in it for them. Try to give as many examples as possible when time allows of where they can apply this. And don’t just tell them, show them. And don’t just show them include them. There are a lot of times where I speak where I have the answer, but I want them to engage. So I might say, Paul, what’s an example in your life today, where you might utilize this and knowing that Paul is going to have to code switch because he was probably paying attention. So now he’s stuck for a moment, I’m going to give him a moment to breathe. And if Paul struggles, I’ll give an example from my life using strategic and selective self disclosure and say, here’s what I did. Because I’m really trying to nudge them along. How about you because nobody wants to be made fun of they don’t want to be looked at as an idiot. I’ve seen enough presenters do that, is they they bait people into asking a question, but they set that person up for failure that does not make you look cool. It makes you an ass, frankly. So I’ll give Paul a moment have included and then I’ll say how many other people can relate to like what Paul shared? Do you see that in your life? Or conversely, is there anyone else? And Angela might be like, Well, I don’t do it the way Paul did, but I’ve used this tactic in this situation. And now all of a sudden we have shared understanding. So that becomes something of like, what’s in it for them? I’m not the one up there telling them all the time. They’re learning how to recognize these tactics, tools, techniques. in their everyday life, and now they’re establishing a dialogue. Now we can go deeper. But also just lay that out. I mean, that’s a good landing page if you guys are creating a website, right, great design is great communication. 

 

Brett Bartholomew  20:12

If you went to, you know, that’s a, one of our, I’ll type it in right now, if you went into artofcoaching.com/blindspot, right? And you look, we’re trying to tell you exactly what’s in it for you right away. It says, build your brand and your business the right way, by turning what you know, into what you do. And so you scroll down, and it tells you, hey, does this sound like you? You know, if so, like, there’s this, we provided this, this is what it will help with? Think of your presentation the same way. Think these people just want to know, can I apply this man? I’m, I’m interested in it. Yeah, my attention, but can I apply it? And that feeds into really why they should care? You know, why should they care just because you’re passionate. I’ve seen enough speakers, as I’m sure many of you have, who get up there, and they just talk about what they’re interested in. And that’s fine. You should talk about what you’re interested in, but frame it in accordance with what the audience might, how they might use it, how they might struggle with it. Remember, you’re only an expert, when you’re invited into other people’s life as one, why should they care, your social media following and all that is not enough to make people care, your knowledge and your your PhD is not enough to make people care, you have to help people understand maybe even through the use of narrative, why they should care. 

 

Brett Bartholomew  21:26

In our opinion, it’s very easy to understand why people should care about communication, because it’ll impact every aspect of your life $12 billion a year in health care or more due to lot litigations and lawsuits, relationships loss, you might not have gotten a job because somebody didn’t like the way you came across. And we trained for our health we we worked on improving our finances. But since most people don’t train and communication, they are woefully unaware of why they should care because they’re blind to the ramifications of the things it does every day in their life. I mean, there are people that you check in on and hey, man, how you doing? Good, except I got, you know, this ad at our school drives me nuts, but like, that’s a communication problem. Hey, how are you? Oh, my wife stressed, we have kid number three, that’s a communication problem. Anything relationship oriented is that, but we still have to show them what that represents in their life. Because inherently nobody wakes up saying, oh, I want to be a better communicator. And similarly for you, if you’re getting up talking about the detriments of microplastics in the environment, nobody wakes up and says, Oh, my God, that microplastics we need to solve it all. But when you speak to them about the other things that you know, the root cause, or the issue that having blank in the environment are not training acts are not listening to your philosophy, help them understand what’s at stake. Right? And that goes into again, how are they going to apply it?

 

Brett Bartholomew  22:53

The other thing, I think, and try to give you a number of them, I’ll go through them again, remember who will be in the room, their profession? How many people what they’re expecting? What’s it like to be them? Do you know? If you don’t know? Ask them because most people don’t know what it’s like to be somebody that they’re not ask them. We did audience surveys of more than 1000 people in our audience to learn what they’re struggling with. We want to know what it’s like. And that’s why we depend on you guys giving us honest answers. Yeah, what influence their perception, what are they giving up to be there? How might they judge you? What’s in it for them? Why should they care? Of course, how will they apply it? And remember, you know, what do you want them to think, feel and do. But if you if all of this is still overwhelming, wipe everything that I told you clean? And just answer this? What is your number one take home? And how can you ensure they do not miss it?

 

Brett Bartholomew  23:46

In a week, I have to go give a talk that I have 20 minutes to give 20 minutes to people that have never met me, a bunch of folks that are in investment banking, I don’t have time to prove my expertise, I don’t have time to talk about my background, I have to literally communicate about a topic that was picked for me called communication in the new world. And that is what I have to do. So I have to think about what is going to be my number one take home, especially when the audience is filled with people that work in artificial intelligence, travel, urban planning. That’s a tough one, right? I need to figure out that unifying theme, and I need to make sure they don’t miss it. Now one thing that can help with that if you’re wondering, how are you going to do that soft plug come to Speaker school will teach you. But one thing is just well, how can you ensure they do miss it? And you know this by overloading your slides by trying to make too many complex points by not knowing their fears and their wants and their dreams by not being able to read the room. That’s how you understand now they do miss it. So addition by subtraction I know I might only have one maybe five slides probably erring on the side of five, because I like to lend the use of story and narrative as I make a point. And that’s going to require some different visuals and graphics, right? succinctness is not always a benefit. I know that’s kind of in vogue right now we’re going to do this conference with one slide and, but, but that, that can be cool in some contexts, that can be very detrimental, and other contexts, so, but do what is right for you and what you feel, then knowing how you engage them, I remember one time and uh, you know, this has nothing to do with his personal life or anything like that. But, you know, when Bill Gates was giving a presentation, he dropped, I think it was like marbles or something like that for almost, for a certain amount of time, into a trash can. And it made a really offensive sound. And he was like, That’s how many nuclear weapons there are in the world. Now, I’ve stayed away from those kinds of theatrics. It’s not me saying they’re not purposeful, if you use them great. They, they’re not my style. And I mean, that that’s not a underhanded way of of insulting that. I think those can be very great in some circumstances. So I’m just saying I have not used them. For me, I try to just make sure I thank the audience. And then I get right into a narrative that kind of shows the stakes are frames the story about what I’m going to tell, but think about that, like, how are you going to get their attention early on, when I had to convince a room of sports scientists that communication is not only an critical issue, but highly objective I lay I went with research that the CDC had done on guinea worm disease, and talked about how just through the use of storytelling and personalized communication, they were able to eradicate or pretty much eradicate a disease that has no cell to this day, no vaccine, no cure, no, nothing. It wasn’t a medical issue, it was a human behavior issue. And when you want to change human behavior, you need to understand communication. And so I go into the stats of the approaches. And that really framed a lot of the other things that I was going to talk about, if you haven’t seen it, again, another solid plug, don’t don’t, you know, throw throw sticks at me for it bought in, you can go to our course, just go to I think it’s bought, just go to artofcoaching.com and search for online courses. But I give that story in that presentation there. 

 

Brett Bartholomew  27:15

A couple more is what other kinds of rhetorical devices can you lean upon? And how will you refine your use of those things? So you know, if we think about what a rhetorical devices and there’s many, right, these are also known as stylistic devices, persuasive devices, and it’s just even just rhetoric. They’re just techniques or a language that you use to convey a point. So Aristotle, again, long time ago said logos, an appeal to logic, pathos, and appeal to emotion, ethos, and appeal to ethics. We always talk about Kairos and appeal the time Time’s running out. Similarly, and why said our podcast pairs really good with the episode about, you know, logic. And why that doesn’t always change change people’s mind is because there are far more influence tactics now than we ever knew. So that’s episode 202. And we’ll give you a I think we give you more than 10 rhetorical devices, and persuasive techniques that you can use. But you know, the other ones that you’re just familiar with on a daily basis is just, you know, metaphor, alliteration analogy. There’s so many different things, and they have very odd names, very odd names, but they do not have to be very nuanced. One that we talked about in that episode is aporia. And that’s really just the rhetorical expression of doubt, almost insincere insincerely. The the example I always give is from The Dark Knight, when Heath Ledger’s Joker is trying to really make Batman question whether he’s doing the right thing, you know, or even if I were to look at my son when he gets older, and I say, Hey, buddy, you know, that’s pretty dangerous. Are you sure you want to do this? You know, creating that little sense of doubt, is just making them think, right, just maybe make them think. Steve Jobs had an introduction to touchscreen technology of saying now, how are we going to communicate this? We certainly just don’t want to carry around a mouse, right? What are we going to do? And so it just makes people think, but there are innumerable rhetorical devices. And that’s something that we’re thinking about that fits with you and what works with you as well. 

 

Brett Bartholomew  29:27

And then finally, guys, how can you evaluate yourself or get feedback on how you deliver beforehand? Really, there’s so many people that the traditional speaking presenter type stuff is, hey, just practice, get in front of a mirror and practice and that can be immensely valuable. But you also want to get feedback. And that gets a little bit more difficult because your loved one might give you feedback. A colleague might give you feedback your family might give you feedback, but remember, this can be a very diverse audience. And this is a big reason why we are doing our speaker school is we want people to have a place to practice Micro bits of their presentation or how they speak, even if they deal with just social anxiety, and they have trouble forming words, or if they don’t deal with any of that, but they have trouble creating presentations and narratives that stick. We want to help with that, because that’s something that I haven’t had. And it’s a pretty simple business model, we have an art of coaching guys, we want to help people solve problems that are going to exist for 50 plus years, communication will always be a problem. But I also want to give people access to things that I didn’t have, I’d like to make it a little bit easier. Because I’ll never forget, you know, feeling like it man, I had a grasp on presenting. And then one time I went to China, and it was my first time presenting with a translator simultaneously, and I had to change everything. And I just felt like I bombed. And I realized that I hadn’t practiced in enough context, and it was just experienced that I needed to get. So we’re providing that. But remember the core of what this episode is about, I’m talking a lot about speaking and presenting, you need to know these things. Inherently, whenever, whenever you’re about to dress somebody. 

 

Brett Bartholomew  31:02

So let’s do this. I’ll give you a freebie here. If you guys go to Brettbartholomew.net. It’s just my name Brett Bartholomew.net/speaking, you will see the speaking form that we use. And I’ll make sure it’s linked and you guys can steal it. But if you just click on book Brett, you’ll see it you put your name in, you put your address, bah, bah, bah, bah, bah. But then we ask about the budget, the organization, what made some things good, what in the past what they liked when we asked a lot of questions, and then we we get on a call and we ask even more. But the point is, is you can do your research ahead of time on your audience and help the person that’s hosting or having you out, that’s a tremendous asset. And then you know what you should do, you should put that on your iPad or your phone or in your notebook. So that you know you have these things top of mind, you can always go through them. And it’s just great to be sure that you can honor folks that way. Now, before we close out, giving you some more insight on how this is done. You know, law in other settings, really, this is just empathy mapping, right? You’re you’re thinking about what do others think and feel, so that you can better tailor that message. And that’s where the term comes from. And those of you that have been to our apprenticeship, you know, this message tailoring, which message tailoring refers to the practice of really designing messages at the individual level. So anytime you pass by a radar device that assesses your speed, maybe you’re in a speed limit of 35. And you go over a radar device, and it says you’re 45 That’s the message tailoring because it’s only for you, if you go and put something in your cart online, and you forget about it, and you get hit with an empty cart kind of targeted message that is for you. If you get coupons at your local Kroger or Trader Joe’s, for something that’s based on your purchases to entice you to buy more purchases that’s tailored to you, as is your Google search results, and so on and so forth. Message targeting is more about how to be effective with an entire segment of a population. So you can already see there’s bits of this in speaking in general, because you need to tailor it to certain individuals in the crowd, but target it to the diverse nature of the crowd in general. So message targeting, you know, there’s always an example of when I in weight rooms, you’d see quotes, right? Pain is weakness leaving the body or blah, blah, blah, blah, well, a lot of that was just message targeting. And ironically, it wasn’t even good use of that. Because a lot of those quotes were just messages like strength coaches, like they weren’t really ones that athletes necessary, necessarily would, would respond to message targeting could be if you go to Disney World, right? And they have an ad that’s like cool off from a hot day, grab a Coke, well, they’re targeting that to a broader population, anybody that might be thirsty, anybody that might be hot, or anybody that might like might like Coke, we look at like Black Entertainment Television, right? That’s targeted to be like, that’s more of course, like I’m white, I will watch ve t right. And they don’t care about that. But generally anybody that and you see it with other news stations, right, you have Fox News, and CNN target different people. And within this, they look at big, broad areas. And then they start to get a little bit more segmented. 

 

Brett Bartholomew  34:21

Let me give you another example. If you went into your social media, and you looked at how many people that follow you are male or female, and what time of day they get on that is message that allows you to create better message targeting, because it’s a broad population. But if I go and I interact with some folks, let’s say at our live events, and I say hey, you know what got you here and they say, oh, you know, the way that you phrase this on the website or that then they’re giving me a better idea of how tailoring fits in that the bottom line guys is right now even when I talked to you about the importance of knowing your audience, that’s message targeting Speaking to a broad group of people who want to get better at this, let’s say somebody’s listening, their name is Taylor and I say, Taylor, based on what you’ve told me about your audience, here’s how you can tailor it to other medical doctors who work in these kinds of situations who deal with these kinds of patients. So just think message tailoring individual level or more local level. Okay, that’s, that’s relative message targeting broader level. So now, take a look around, take a look around at product slogans. If I go, let’s see if we can identify these things together. If I go to nike.com, and no, they’re not a sponsor. Right, the minute that comes up is the future is in the air. And for them, it’s celebrating 35 years of Air Max is boundless creativity, innovation and imagination. That would be message targeting, because they’re targeting that message towards a broad group that likes those Nike Air Maxes, right. That’s Nike Air Max is that they like now, if you went on here, and you put Air Maxes in your cart, and then they hit you and said, Hey, Ryan, you

 

Brett Bartholomew  36:08

forgot your Air Max is that’s message tailoring. When I’m dealing with athletes, and I say, Hey, guys, we got blank and blank today. This is what’s going on. I’m addressing the large group. If I come over and say, Hey, Dante, when you’re doing this drill today, do this and this, it’ll get you better at blank, right? That’s message tailoring. I think you guys get the idea. But you need to see it everywhere. And remember, they’re interconnected. They’re interconnected. And you should also think about this. If you own a business, write your message targeting. Like we know our audience is comprised of coaches and leaders who are educated, right? They have good life experiences, but they often undervalue themselves. They’re workaholics not because they always want to be but because sometimes they feel like they need to be because they’re relentless givers. And they tend to downplay what they’re not, and overemphasize what they sorry, they downplay what they are, and overemphasize what they’re not. And sometimes they just need other people to wrap and get their ideas out and, and some guidance and some accountability. And so I can tailor those messages to that. And guys, you know, what, it really comes down to caring. Yeah, it comes down to caring and listening, actually thinking about the perspective of the other individuals, and what they might be anxious about. And I see so many I saw so many strength coaches fail at this. They’re so pumped to run a session in the weight room or whatever. But they don’t realize that not everybody walking in that room is. And so then they just use communicative like force to get them pumped up, as opposed to thinking about, alright, instead of these generic lame messages, how can I make these a little bit more targeted, a little bit more personalized, and all that, and it starts with listening, caring, and really wanting to do it? And, you know, just finding the thing that works for you, right? Like, not all of us are going to communicate the same way. And that’s a strength. But you do need that feedback. 

 

Brett Bartholomew  37:56

All right. I think that’s enough information today. Again, I, this is going to impact every aspect of your life. Think about it, as you go through it, look at different ads, look at billboards, when you’re driving on the interstate, look at products, I’m looking at one more, I can’t stop, I can’t turn this stuff off. I got this notepad from Target, and it’s a stay on track, desktop notepad. Right. So that is message targeting to anybody that needs help staying on track. Similarly, if this company reached out and said, Hey, Brett, what’s your day, like, we’re going to create a notepad exclusively kind of for you and based on your challenges, then that’s going to be tailoring because now they’re making something very much more localized for me, you will also see it in your towns, right? There’s somebody might, your town might have this kind of identity, hey, we’re, we’re the friendly town word Main Street, we’re this. And that can be a broad population, but it’s still tailoring relative to speaking to all the people in that state. All right. I promise. I’ll leave it if you have questions on this. Or you have questions that you want us to answer on the podcast in general, it is way better, way better instead of DMing. us instead of email or anything like that. You can go to artofcoaching.com. Literally, if you just Google Art of coaching, and you type in question, it should come up, we’ll have it. It’s the art of coaching. I’ll make sure that the link in everything because it’s it should be just artofcoaching.com/question but we’ll make sure it’s linked. Fire us your questions, whether it has to do with your staff, a communication issue yourself something you’re trying to figure out, we accept all questions and we’re happy to talk about them on the air. We really really really want to do this for you. So make sure you check the links Hall Ali will pick up the slack, right failed in terms of remembering the URL, but we want to hear from you and we appreciate you guys. Alright, until next time, Brett Bartholomew, art and coaching podcast signing off.