Latest / The Innovation Show / From Rambling to Impact The Power of Making a Point
Transcript
- 0:00Before we start, I want to thank our sponsor Kyndryl, who runs
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- 0:24to the very essence of today's book, I am going to keep the introduction succinct.
- 0:29I'm going to literally get to the point if your goal is to have and
- 0:33deliver a clear point, today's book is in an invaluable guide.
- 0:37No matter who you are, how you're communicating what you're saying,
- 0:42or who you're communicating to, you need a point to create impact
- 0:46without a point everything you say is.
- 0:48Pointless.
- 0:50This book is not about general communication.
- 0:52It's about a specific element of communication.
- 0:55It is about point training.
- 0:58It is a pleasure to welcome the author of that book who kindly asked
- 1:02me to cover and endorse this book.
- 1:05The Language of Leadership, and endorse the book, which I did,
- 1:09and we were gonna cover it today.
- 1:10And then what he does is he goes and re-release this at a 10 year anniversary.
- 1:15We welcome the author of Get To the Point, Joel Schwartzberg.
- 1:18Welcome back to the show.
- 1:20Thank you so much, Aidan.
- 1:21It's a pleasure to be here
- 1:23It's great to have you.
- 1:23And we had Joel on a long time ago, actually shortly after the release of,
- 1:28get to the Point, this one I'm holding.
- 1:30There's a new release out.
- 1:31I have it on my kindle.
- 1:32That's the one I prepared for today.
- 1:34But.
- 1:34The reason Joel, I wanted to share it was I was thinking about the curse of
- 1:39Cassandra, the famous Greek myth of Cassandra, who was gifted with knowing the
- 1:43future, but nobody could understand her.
- 1:46She talked gibberish to people, and that's not an insult to many
- 1:51innovators out there, but oftentimes an innovator knows the future, has a
- 1:55sense of where the future is going, but cannot deliver the point succinctly.
- 2:01Like you say in the book, it's like drinking water from a
- 2:03hose pipe for the listener.
- 2:05So I thought that was an extremely important thing.
- 2:08And every year around New Year's, I release a show that's
- 2:11usually around self-development.
- 2:12So either around the body or the mind or something like communication.
- 2:17So that's why I thought this was such an important point to get across to people.
- 2:21And I wondered what your thoughts were about that, about innovation.
- 2:24I think this applies directly to innovation because whether it's
- 2:28innovation or revolution or new technology or a breakthrough campaign,
- 2:34how does your team learn about it?
- 2:37through communication.
- 2:38We haven't yet developed a telepathy system and we're
- 2:43not using performance art.
- 2:45We are communicating, especially leadership through email, through
- 2:49slides, through presentations.
- 2:53And so it comes back to some foundational elements as foundational as Aristotle.
- 2:57How do you make sure your audience receives your message and just because
- 3:03we have more platforms than ever, it doesn't mean we can disregard or dismiss
- 3:09some of the basic rules of communicating.
- 3:11We just change some of the tactics we use to best leverage each
- 3:15of those platforms, including
- 3:17You
- 3:17mentioned the platforms and there's a lot of water under bridge
- 3:20since we did the first episode, which was pre, it's BC before.
- 3:26Since then, we've had an explosion in remote work, explosion in tools like Zoom,
- 3:31Microsoft teams, et cetera, and therefore communication becomes ever more important.
- 3:37And to add to that new generations into the workforce who, whether they
- 3:41know it or not, work to different operating systems of communication.
- 3:44I wondered what you saw change over that period of time.
- 3:48I think over a long period of time, I have seen some progress and some advance.
- 3:54At the start, I think people thought everything that worked
- 3:57in a room could work in a Zoom.
- 3:59but then they learned that when they weren't paying attention or they didn't
- 4:03seem visually interested or they weren't leveraging chat, that money was left on
- 4:09the table and we're not using this as effectively or efficiently as we could.
- 4:14One of the things I learned recently is that on your team there are extroverts
- 4:19and introverts, and we need to pay attention to the introverts in particular.
- 4:24Otherwise, we'll have the same voices giving feedback again and again.
- 4:27While introverts don't like to speak in public.
- 4:31don't like even to unmute so much and to spotlight their voice, but
- 4:35you know what they enjoy doing or what they're comfortable doing.
- 4:38Chatting.
- 4:39So one of the things that Zoom or Teams allows us to do or allows them to do
- 4:45respond in a way that's comfortable for them, and then if they're comfortable,
- 4:49they're going to say more and they're gonna say more meaningful things.
- 4:54I found, I find chat in particular in a lot of different ways, a very useful
- 4:58mechanism that only exists in the virtual environment and doesn't really
- 5:02exist in the live IRL environment.
- 5:07So I think.
- 5:08We've come to a place where we recognize there are actually benefits to using Zoom.
- 5:13It's not just a break glass in case of emergency it's its own platform.
- 5:18Just like video, just like Slack, just internal chat.
- 5:23These are different ways we can communicate and we could
- 5:27leverage each one uniquely.
- 5:29I was telling you all fair.
- 5:30One of my practices is to wear a pin and, I haven't been doing it recently
- 5:33and I wanted to explain to our audience, 'cause I got a few emails,
- 5:36why aren't you wearing the pin anymore?
- 5:38I changed studios and my new studio was really warm, so I
- 5:42don't wear a jacket anymore.
- 5:44And I sometimes wear a t-shirt now or just a shirt, so it's difficult to wear a pin.
- 5:48So to make up for that, I still have the pins, I have loads of them.
- 5:51I have this one that I've been dying to use for this episode, and it's
- 5:54an exclamation mark, literally.
- 5:56Perfect for this show.
- 5:58Get to the point.
- 5:59So let's start with the problem.
- 6:01To get to the point of the book is beautifully succinct as you would expect
- 6:05for a book about get to the point.
- 6:07But you recall your sixth grade project on the neutron bomb as an
- 6:12example of where this can go wrong.
- 6:15Right when I gave speeches, or even when I wrote reports in school, when I was in
- 6:23grammar school, this is the assignment.
- 6:26The pros and cons of this.
- 6:29Compare and contrast these two things.
- 6:32Or write a five paragraph essay.
- 6:36And what's wrong about all those things is we weren't training or
- 6:39I wasn't trained to make points.
- 6:42I was only trained to describe things.
- 6:44So when I gave that speech on the neutron bomb, or an even better example,
- 6:48when I was in fifth or sixth grade, I wrote a report about the Supreme Court.
- 6:53And I wrote about the history of the Supreme Court and I wrote about how many
- 6:57members are on it how long it's been in effect, how one becomes a justice.
- 7:02And I turned it in and my teacher said this is very descriptive
- 7:07and you define the Supreme Court.
- 7:10But I noticed you didn't mention any cases, and really it's about the Supreme
- 7:15Court cases where they become relevant.
- 7:18this is where I think my mind was at least prepared with the understanding of, oh,
- 7:22it's not about just describing something.
- 7:25It's not just a Wikipedia page.
- 7:28You're actually making an argument, as we used to say in debate, but a proposition.
- 7:32An assertion, a suggestion, a recommendation, and this is
- 7:37the heart of making points.
- 7:38And I recognized it later when I began coaching.
- 7:42And the people are coaching.
- 7:43Yeah, they were doing great gestures.
- 7:45They had good volume, they had good speed.
- 7:47And when I asked them for what the point was, what the one thing they
- 7:51wanted their audience to take away was.
- 7:54It would take them 10 minutes.
- 7:57And Aidan, we, I like to say we're very used to this word point.
- 8:01We hear all the time, get to the point, what was the point of all this?
- 8:04And we've called it different things in the past.
- 8:07When we were in college, it was called a thesis.
- 8:10In PR it's called a key message.
- 8:13Sometimes in leadership training, it's called an elevator pitch.
- 8:16my wife's fourth grade language arts class, it's called a So what.
- 8:20So we're used to this idea of making a point but I like the word point because
- 8:26it's something we're accustomed to and it really drives to the heart of the
- 8:30idea of what you wanna leave behind.
- 8:32I worked for a leader before and she had this great line.
- 8:35She used to say, every slide in your pitch deck should be marry me,
- 8:40because that's what her line was, but.
- 8:43I,
- 8:44mentioned that because it is such an important skill for salespeople, and I
- 8:47know Joel, you travel the world teaching and, training teams all over the world.
- 8:52You mentioned you're going to Mumbai, which is incredible to
- 8:54see the wise leaders there that understand that investing in their
- 9:00sales teams or any of their leaders.
- 9:02To teach them this content is so valuable.
- 9:05And you say here, the error that you just mentioned there with you
- 9:09now, we'll forgive you as a sixth grader, but when you're an executive,
- 9:13I don't blame the executives, Joel, because the same thing that we see
- 9:16here is what we see in innovation.
- 9:18Where if you don't know the content, if you don't know it exists,
- 9:22how are you gonna get better if the organization doesn't invest
- 9:25in you and you say in the book.
- 9:28For example, a salesperson will describe their inventory, but never say, this
- 9:32product will make you more successful.
- 9:35Activists, you say, who detail their initiatives, but don't say,
- 9:39this campaign will save lives.
- 9:41Designers who display beautiful images, but don't say, this branding will
- 9:45inspire customer loyalty, business leaders who share their project
- 9:48plans, but don't say, this endeavor will revolutionize our industry.
- 9:53They're the things you're trying to extract from people.
- 9:56But if they don't know, they don't know.
- 9:58you and I, and probably every single person in your audience
- 10:00has seen this presentation.
- 10:02Hello.
- 10:03Welcome everyone.
- 10:03I'm so excited to tell you about this idea.
- 10:05The first thing we're gonna do is talk about the history of the idea.
- 10:09we're gonna talk about how we came up with the idea and how we're rolling it out.
- 10:14We're gonna talk about the investment we're gonna make in the idea.
- 10:17We're gonna talk about the people in the idea, and then we're gonna
- 10:19look at some milestones we hope to who get to in three months, six
- 10:24months, one year, and in two years.
- 10:27questions and one person, and that sounds normal to a lot of people.
- 10:32Yeah.
- 10:32Alright.
- 10:33person may raise their hand and say, yeah, why are we doing this?
- 10:37You never got to that.
- 10:39And the example you gave was definitely a client I had who sold hats and
- 10:44calendars and brochures, and she described each one with specificity.
- 10:49This hat will never get crushed.
- 10:51This brochure will never get wet.
- 10:53This pin is actually a magnet, so it'll never ruin your clothes.
- 10:58But then I said, you know what?
- 10:59I never heard, like you said, if you buy my products, you will be more successful.
- 11:05And that was her point, but she was too busy describing her inventory.
- 11:10And you're right, people don't know this.
- 11:12They don't know that they're being pointless and that's why they ramble.
- 11:17That's why they need three times as long 'cause they're searching
- 11:20for that thing, but they don't know what it is that's missing.
- 11:24I've learned so much from your book and I've put it into practice over the years,
- 11:28and I also have a Joel Schwartzberg.
- 11:31Check over at the end of every, article I write, And I start off actually by
- 11:35writing out what my point I'm making here.
- 11:38And we may as well say it because we're, I'm gonna bring it up now.
- 11:42One of the things I do use AI for is I don't use it to write the articles,
- 11:46but I do it to question me and I'll go.
- 11:49What's
- 11:49my point in with this article?
- 11:52Why would this be relevant to a business person, et cetera?
- 11:56That's one of the things that has changed for you since the first edition.
- 12:01Yeah, I had to address AI and if you go to LinkedIn, at least in my algorithmic
- 12:07journey everyone's talking about it and.
- 12:12lot of people, unfortunately, have separated into two extreme camps.
- 12:16One is it's coming, give into it, let it do everything.
- 12:19The other is not on my deathbed.
- 12:23I would never use ai.
- 12:25It's the death of thought.
- 12:27And really it's a, it's in the middle 'cause it's how you use it and I love it.
- 12:32Now you described you using it as if I were next to you and saying.
- 12:36What's my point?
- 12:37Was my point clear?
- 12:39Was this point emphasized enough so that people will take it away?
- 12:45Now I'm writing an article for Toastmasters Magazine of all things
- 12:48that's gonna come out next year about the ways I think people should use
- 12:53AI based on the biggest faults of ai.
- 12:56And of course one of them is accuracy because we know all about that.
- 13:00It even says on chat, GPT, this may not be a hundred percent accurate, one of
- 13:05the other biggest things is authenticity.
- 13:09What do people complain about ai?
- 13:10It doesn't sound like me.
- 13:13It sounds like a version of me.
- 13:15That's very adjective frieKyndryly.
- 13:18That's very redundant.
- 13:20That's very verbose.
- 13:25To get to that version of authenticity, really the bottom line is to look
- 13:28at your AI output and ask, is there anything in here that if I said it
- 13:33aloud wouldn't sound like my voice?
- 13:37Is there anything in here that's emphasizing the wrong
- 13:41thing or misprioritized this?
- 13:44And is there anything in here where it's so proud of its own
- 13:49wordage and I call this, there's a real word, a GRANDILOQUENCE.
- 13:53It loves GRANDILOQUENCE.
- 13:55Fancy way of saying things that it gets in the way of the message.
- 13:59Here's the really funny thing, Aidan.
- 14:00I wrote this with these qualities to look out for authenticity, mis priority,
- 14:06GRANDILOQUENCE redundancy, inaccuracy.
- 14:09And then I discovered something unique that maybe has been
- 14:13talked about a little bit.
- 14:14And that is that there's one thing AI wants to do that's more important to it
- 14:19than accuracy, and that is to make you.
- 14:24Happy.
- 14:26It wants to serve you, and it's built that way.
- 14:30And I'd love to tell you this quick story to test it.
- 14:33I once I brought up ChatGpt and I said, what is your favorite color?
- 14:38And it said, red.
- 14:40And I said, my favorite color is blue.
- 14:42Blue and it said, yeah, blue is pretty good.
- 14:46I said, I think blue is the best.
- 14:49And it said blue is pretty good and so is red.
- 14:51And I said, I want your favorite color to be blue, not red.
- 14:56it said, okay, my new favorite color is blue starting now.
- 15:03Wow.
- 15:04Now that was what you call a low stakes situation.
- 15:07But you can imagine the higher stakes of that, and that's going on all over
- 15:12the place where it really wants to be your cheerleader your yes person,
- 15:18and that's the prime directive.
- 15:21So that's probably one of the biggest things you have to be careful about
- 15:25when it's gonna do something wrong or use a different voice or say something
- 15:29inaccurate because it thinks that what, that's what you want to hear.
- 15:32I dunno if you saw the show, the Boys on Amazon, have you seen, you're nodding.
- 15:37Okay,
- 15:37I've seen it little.
- 15:38so you know the character, the main character who.
- 15:41Let's just say is a presidential type character homelander
- 15:46head superhero.
- 15:47At one stage, he gets angry and he's like going, oh my God, I'm
- 15:49surrounded by these yes people.
- 15:52But what he is talking about are sycophants.
- 15:53And syco
- 15:55Defense.
- 15:55exactly how I think of ai.
- 15:57But I've, again, with my ai I use it actually for training, I feed into it
- 16:03every day, what I've eaten, my fasting, my training sessions, et cetera.
- 16:08And I tell it to be a pain in the ass gym instructor.
- 16:12And it is.
- 16:12And it's really hard on me.
- 16:14So it'll be like going whoa, wait, you shouldn't have had that carb.
- 16:18And I'm like going, oh whoa, okay.
- 16:20And it's very annoying, but you want that type of accountability from it.
- 16:24And again.
- 16:26You can, do this, but it's not nice to hear that, to get that type of feedback.
- 16:29I'll say this, that we talk about jobs being lost.
- 16:33I think that everyone is afraid of their job being lost and these are writers
- 16:38and editors they should take on the skills of prompting and output editing.
- 16:44those are gonna be critical skills 'cause.
- 16:47Everyone seems to agree, or at least everyone who cares, seems to agree that
- 16:51the AI output by itself is not enough.
- 16:54It's flawed.
- 16:55And you correct that both in the specificity of your prompt, like
- 17:00you said, be a hard ass gym coach and looking for these things.
- 17:05Authenticity, GRANDILOQUENCE verbosity in the output and voice.
- 17:11If editorialists are trained in those things, their jobs will be
- 17:16valuable because that is a valuable add-on and second lens to what AI
- 17:22And we're gonna come back and share some of these ways to avoid verbocity and
- 17:28GRANDILOQUENCE, , et cetera.
- 17:30So, we'll, we'll come back to that.
- 17:31I learned a new word today, but I just wanted to flag something,
- 17:34Joel, and I think this is really important and you call this out, that
- 17:37presenting is a skill and not a talent.
- 17:39And the reason I share that is I think where.
- 17:42It becomes ambiguous is where people mistake.
- 17:45Being comfortable with speaking in front of crowds, is being a good
- 17:49speaker and maybe sometimes so does the speaker because they're like going,
- 17:52Hey, I don't mind, I can wing it.
- 17:54And you say,
- 17:55Right.
- 17:55the love of God, don't wing it.
- 17:58Yeah.
- 17:59Yeah, that's like nails on a chalkboard to me.
- 18:01When people say they can wing it not to throw lawyers under the bus.
- 18:06But sometimes when my clients are lawyers or subject matter experts
- 18:10experts, there's this presumption that because I know this issue inside and
- 18:15out, therefore, ergo I can speak to.
- 18:19As if those came from the same place in our brains which we know they don't.
- 18:25that's why when we practice a presentation, it's not just about
- 18:28thinking it out, it's about saying it.
- 18:31mouth is can speak, but it's rather dumb.
- 18:35Our brain is smart, but it's mute, so they need to work together.
- 18:41yeah, everybody needs a point.
- 18:42If somebody rambles, back to your point about this being a skill, not a talent.
- 18:46If someone is rambling, it doesn't mean they were born a bad public speaker.
- 18:51It means that they don't know their point.
- 18:54And I'll tell you the truth, I teach third through seventh graders now in
- 18:57an afterschool program in my community.
- 19:00So these are eight year olds, and I'm not, I am resisting and rejecting
- 19:06their inclination to write it out word for word and memorize it.
- 19:11Even for third graders, and I'm getting a little pushback for
- 19:13this, but they understand what it means to have an opinion.
- 19:18This is what I say to the third graders.
- 19:20I say, if someone wants, asks you how good this new superhero movie was, you go
- 19:26home, write that review, memorize it, come back, and then from your memory, tell them
- 19:33what you wrote about that superhero movie?
- 19:36No, that never happens.
- 19:37You just tell them, you make your point to them.
- 19:40And so they understand this idea of a point.
- 19:44limited notes or an outline to remind themselves of the
- 19:47things they might forget.
- 19:49Me, I'm using very simple language here and we start with smaller presentations
- 19:54and speeches and work to larger, but it does prove to me that everybody,
- 20:00regardless of your challenge, regardless how, where or why you were born can
- 20:06understand the concept of moving a point from their head to their audience's head.
- 20:11There's a whole section on making points in speeches, and you say, the biggest
- 20:15reason not to write a speech is that you don't want to have to read it.
- 20:19And reading forces you to look down often and you lose , eye
- 20:22contact with the audience there.
- 20:24And a almost like an energy , contact with the audience.
- 20:28And also this is really important that our brains process writing
- 20:31and reading differently.
- 20:32So it almost confuses the audience.
- 20:34And it confuses the brain.
- 20:35The brain makes this assumption, oh, we're reading now, so I don't need to
- 20:39turn on the passion, part of the brain.
- 20:41I don't need to turn on the excitement part of the brain
- 20:46'cause we're reading, right?
- 20:48So the brain's not going to know that.
- 20:50This is why, and I've seen this over and over again, so I totally believe this.
- 20:56If you read it.
- 20:57Robs you.
- 20:57Unless you are a fantastic actor or actress, it robs you of your
- 21:01passion because your brain says, I'm reading and that's why it's dull.
- 21:06Now, let's not even get into memorization.
- 21:08'cause when you're, that is so perilous.
- 21:12But that is the same thing as reading.
- 21:13You're just reading it from the passages in your brain that you've
- 21:17memorized versus reading it off a piece of paper and what the kids.
- 21:22of it as, I ask them, what's the difference between reading a speech
- 21:26to your audience and writing an essay and reading that aloud?
- 21:30Are those the same things?
- 21:32And they generally say no.
- 21:33And then that begins the discussion on what it means to make a point.
- 21:38So yeah, the speech writers hate when I say this, but it's
- 21:41really not about the words.
- 21:43It's about how you convey that point authentically and effectively
- 21:49to your audience so that they, and this is important too, 'cause we
- 21:53often use a word like impact or change, but those are broad words.
- 21:57So what are we talking about when we talk about impact in an audience?
- 22:00I love how a marketing firm put it, and I'm borrowing it from them.
- 22:06But they put it in this language.
- 22:07If I nail this presentation.
- 22:10If I write this email effectively, or this slack message, will
- 22:16feel, or do, feel, think.
- 22:22Or do, if you affect that, you win.
- 22:25Even if you are imperfect, even if you don't sound like Michelle Obama, even
- 22:30if you lost that one word, are more of a delivery person than a performer.
- 22:36I always stress the difference between performance and presentation.
- 22:40You are not a performer.
- 22:42You are a deliverer, and so long as you deliver that point, you succeed.
- 22:47But if people come away from my presentation and say, oh
- 22:51man, Joel, he was so funny.
- 22:52He was interesting.
- 22:54He was charismatic.
- 22:55Can't wait to see him again.
- 22:56Yeah.
- 22:57So what did you learn from that session?
- 22:59I don't know something about points, but he was great.
- 23:02I failed.
- 23:03That's an epic fail because my job was not to make me look good or to
- 23:07make people think of me as a great public speaker but to receive my point.
- 23:11So it makes them more effective communicators.
- 23:15speaking of actors and speaking of actresses.
- 23:19We'd do something pretty cool.
- 23:20I read in preparation, not just your books and the new edition, but an INC.
- 23:25article that you wrote, and the INC. article was about a brilliant speech from
- 23:30Demi Moore, and you mentioned how you can lose impact on how the effectiveness
- 23:37of language and language is really the operating system for the human mind.
- 23:41So the language you constantly iterate to yourself and your constant monkey
- 23:47chatter and monkey brain chatter is so effective to you as well.
- 23:53And if you can change that language, you can change how
- 23:55you then perform in the world.
- 23:56And I share that because there's so much more in this speech than just
- 24:00a brilliant speech by Demi Moore.
- 24:02There's how she was affected by a seed planted in her mind that
- 24:06actually was a toxic one as well.
- 24:07So I'm gonna share that for our audience here and then Joel is going
- 24:12to deconstruct it for us and tell us why it's such an effective speech.
- 24:16Oh wow.
- 24:18I really wasn't expecting that.
- 24:22I'm just in shock right now.
- 24:24I've been doing this a long time, like over 45 years, and this is the first
- 24:29time I've ever won anything as an actor.
- 24:35And I'm just so humbled and so grateful.
- 24:3930 years ago I had a producer tell me that, I was a popcorn actress
- 24:48and, at that time I made that mean that this wasn't something that I was allowed
- 24:54to have, that I could do movies that were successful, that made a lot of money,
- 24:58but that I couldn't be acknowledged.
- 25:00And I bought in and I believed that.
- 25:04That corroded me over time to the point where I thought a few
- 25:08years ago that maybe this was it.
- 25:10Maybe I was complete.
- 25:12Maybe I would, I've done what I was supposed to do, and as I was
- 25:15at a low point, I had this magical, bold, courageous, out of the box,
- 25:23absolutely Bonker script come across my desk called the substance.
- 25:28And,
- 25:30the universe told me that you're not done, and I am so grateful
- 25:33to Corley for trusting me to step in and play this woman.
- 25:39For Margaret, for being the other half of me that I couldn't have done without
- 25:44for looking out for me to the people who've been with me for over 30 years.
- 25:49Kevin Youin.
- 25:50Jason Weinberg, everybody at CAA, Untitled, lead.
- 25:54All of the people who've stood by me, especially the people who've believed
- 25:58in me when I haven't believed in myself, and I'll just leave you with one thing
- 26:03that I think this movie is imparting, is in those moments when we don't
- 26:08think we're smart enough or pretty enough or skinny enough, or successful
- 26:11enough, or basically just not enough.
- 26:15I had a woman say to me.
- 26:17Just know you will never be enough, but you can know the value of your worth if
- 26:23you just put down the measuring stick.
- 26:25And so today I celebrate this as a marker of my wholeness and of the
- 26:31love that is driving me and for the gift of doing something I love and
- 26:35being reminded that I do belong.
- 26:37Thank you so much.
- 26:40a bit of a tear jerker for me.
- 26:41I think that's such an effective speech, not just.
- 26:43It probably is because of her point, and it's probably just because
- 26:47there's so much meaning in it of how the words of someone else can
- 26:51inspire or restrict somebody's growth.
- 26:54And there's so much in that.
- 26:55I just absolutely love the point, but Joel, I'd love you to deconstruct it, as
- 26:59I said, tell us why it was so effective.
- 27:03Sure.
- 27:04And to tell you the truth, I love to use examples from people from whom
- 27:08you don't always expect speeches.
- 27:10I don't think.
- 27:11I'm going to make a lot of progress by showing you JFK or Ronald Reagan or
- 27:15Martin Luther King because we already hold those people in such esteem.
- 27:20And there is a strong focus on words there.
- 27:22Here we're used to a lot of thank yous a lot of blather, a lot of things that
- 27:27aren't interesting, and I think a lot of celebrities actually goof this.
- 27:32Because they don't come prepared with a point.
- 27:34They may come prepared with a lot of words but I see a lot of epic fails
- 27:38because they don't make a point.
- 27:40Now here, Demi Moore, she had a point and she also had a story.
- 27:44She wanted to talk about how she was able to advance from this caricature
- 27:51of her as a popcorn actress and become and realize for herself.
- 27:58convey to others that she could do more.
- 28:02the point was so compact and she used words like a, a popcorn actress
- 28:08and she was able to summarize it, that it really came through.
- 28:11But let's actually unpack this.
- 28:13So the first thing that I think she did right was she ditched the script.
- 28:17Now, it may be possible that she memorized it because she's an
- 28:20actress and she could do that.
- 28:21Most of us can't memorize something and say it authentically.
- 28:25But it gave her, as you said before, more eye contact and more authenticity.
- 28:29When she did thank people, she didn't just say a bunch of names, which would.
- 28:33You know, not interest us at all for each person.
- 28:36She talked about why.
- 28:38So she talked about why Margaret Qualy was the other half of me that
- 28:42I could have done without, or she thanked the director for trusting her.
- 28:48Her story is so compelling and she leveraged it that way, although
- 28:52that doesn't mean that any story from us has to be cinematic.
- 28:57But her story was about her decades long.
- 29:00Narrative and like I said, of being labeled as this popcorn actress.
- 29:05What it did was that story made her relatable because
- 29:09we've all been stereotyped.
- 29:10We all might've been limited by someone else's sense of us.
- 29:15She also talked about impact, not just events.
- 29:19When she was called a popcorn actress, she talked about how that hurt
- 29:22her, how that hurt her self-esteem.
- 29:25Finally she ended with a call to action.
- 29:29She said that for those of us who feel that we may not be enough,
- 29:33which is a lot of people know that we need to have faith in ourselves,
- 29:39we need to celebrate our wholeness.
- 29:41And really, it was a story about transformation, but it was, what
- 29:47I always tell my students is.
- 29:49Don't forget the what this means to you, why this matters
- 29:53to you, how this can help you.
- 29:55And she did that by saying, I hope you learn from my transformation so that
- 30:00you too can raise your sense of what you can achieve and your own ambition.
- 30:06and genuinely one of the reasons I do the show, because as I said to
- 30:10you at the start, there's so many brilliant people out there who struggle
- 30:15with the communication of a point.
- 30:17Or communicate their brilliant ideas or even their self-talk like we saw
- 30:21with Demi Moore there, that it's just, it's just toxic and holding them
- 30:25back from a life worth living really.
- 30:28So it's, it's why I really like doing these type of shows at
- 30:32january, the root of January is this.
- 30:34Word Janus, which is the Greek God of new beginnings or doorways.
- 30:38And I love that as a, just a mental model for January's, a chance to just
- 30:43get going and lean into these things.
- 30:45So just a moment on this because I really wanted to double click
- 30:50on what is a point, because.
- 30:53Again, we can get lost on this and we can think maybe the title or
- 30:56the topic or the lack of uniqueness is the point, but actually you say
- 31:02it's something totally different.
- 31:03So I really love to hammer.
- 31:04If there's nothing else we get across from today's episode,
- 31:07it's what the heck is the point?
- 31:08I often say that in my training, if you got nothing else out of this, let's
- 31:12discuss what, how we define a point.
- 31:14First, let's talk about what a point is not 'cause this is critical.
- 31:18If we're not making points, what are we making?
- 31:20Topics is number one.
- 31:22Sometimes categories, sometimes catchphrases, themes,
- 31:26observations, ideas, titles.
- 31:28We sometimes fall in love with titles.
- 31:31But a point is, like I said, a proposal, an argument, an
- 31:34assertion, there were two exercises.
- 31:38If you don't mind my sharing one was in the original version of the book, and
- 31:41that's called the, I believe, that test.
- 31:43But another one that's just as useful that I added in the new
- 31:46second edition is called the XY test.
- 31:49They're both very easy.
- 31:50The I believe test goes like this.
- 31:52You take what you think is your point a colleague, to a partner, to a vendor,
- 31:57to a customer, to a colleague, and.
- 32:00It's one sentence.
- 32:01It's the one idea you want them to take away about your
- 32:04differentiation, your value.
- 32:06You put the words, I believe that in front of it, and you ask yourself one question.
- 32:12Is what I have now, a complete sentence.
- 32:16it impress my elementary school teachers as a complete sentence,
- 32:21not a fragment or a run on?
- 32:24it is a complete sentence, then you are on your way to making a strong point.
- 32:29If it is not, you need to reimagine it so that it's, and
- 32:32lemme just give you one example.
- 32:34I believe that podcasting not a complete sentence, so podcasting is not a point.
- 32:40believe that the importance of podcasting, the value of podcasting, the future
- 32:44of podcasting, not complete sentences.
- 32:47So none of those are points.
- 32:49I, you know, the value of podcasting, the future of podcasting, remember,
- 32:54we're using, I believe that as a test, not necessarily using those
- 32:57words, but when we say, I believe that podcasting is the best way to reach
- 33:03our Generation Z audience, that's a complete sentence, and that is the kind
- 33:09of point that makes you go, Hmm, okay.
- 33:12Tell me more.
- 33:13I'd like to reach a millennial audience, and I know they like podcasts.
- 33:16Let's get to the nitty gritty of using podcasts to reach our millennial audience.
- 33:21And the second test, which I just added really kind of brings us into
- 33:25an algebraic function, an equation.
- 33:27It's called the XY test.
- 33:29And basically it's this phrase, if we do x. Y, the letter Y will result.
- 33:37So in the phrase, podcasting will enable us to reach this generation Z audience.
- 33:42The X is podcasting.
- 33:44The a y is reaching this particular audience.
- 33:49A teacher might see it the same way.
- 33:50I'm using this very specific multicultural curriculum so that
- 33:56more kids will be able to graduate.
- 33:59Now, an X without a Y sounds like I wanna use a multicultural curriculum.
- 34:04To which someone said, well, that sounds cool, but y now a Y without
- 34:09an X sounds like I wanna get more of these kids to graduate.
- 34:13That sounds awesome.
- 34:14How are we going to do that?
- 34:16So that's why you need both X, the mechanism to effect y, the outcome.
- 34:22I thought that was such an important one for.
- 34:25We've all had that colleague who is, comes across with great
- 34:29credibility, great gravitas, and oftentimes we don't know why.
- 34:33We just go that person, Joel is great in meetings, isn't he?
- 34:36Or he's so wise, et cetera.
- 34:38And again, back to that point I said about the Demi Moore effect, you want people to.
- 34:44Be able to do that themselves, to impart their brilliant knowledge.
- 34:46Like you said, introverts, neurodiverse, people are often a bit more shy in those
- 34:52kind of surroundings, but if they have these tools and they can just deliver the
- 34:56point, at the very least, they don't have to do all the fluffy bits around that, but
- 35:00be able to deliver the point effectively.
- 35:02Something you said is stuck in my brain earlier about sales teams.
- 35:06The truth of the matter to me is in an organization is in sales.
- 35:12Everyone, not just the sales team, because if you're not selling a
- 35:16product, you are selling an idea.
- 35:18It may be a micro idea for that week, it may be a huge campaign
- 35:22for the year or for the quarter.
- 35:24In either case, just like you wouldn't just share news about
- 35:29a product, you shouldn't just share details about an idea.
- 35:33You should be selling both.
- 35:35So what does it mean to sell an idea?
- 35:38That is to make a point.
- 35:41Brilliant Joel.
- 35:42And there's a last point on that, which is, so the.
- 35:44I believe test.
- 35:45There's the XY test and then there's the truism buster test,
- 35:48which is just the cherry on top.
- 35:51Yeah, the truism test is because I found a lot of people who
- 35:54are passing the, I believe that test, but we're stating truisms.
- 35:58Our idea is new.
- 36:01The sun is hot, is white.
- 36:05I I believe that politicians sometimes don't tell the full truth.
- 36:12These are things that on their face, which means.
- 36:16You don't need to give a presentation about them.
- 36:19We assume them to be true.
- 36:20It's like one plus one equals two.
- 36:23when you make your point and it passes the, I believe that test could,
- 36:26you could say that I believe that a lot of people are using podcasts.
- 36:31I believe that this organization was founded in 1898.
- 36:36But that's not a compelling point.
- 36:38And in fact, it fails the XY test the ways that you can.
- 36:44Fix something that's a truism or at least root out.
- 36:47Understand that it's a truism are asking two questions.
- 36:50One, is there a feasible counterpoint to this?
- 36:54someone could reasonably argue the opposite, then it's not a truism.
- 36:58Or if it's something your audience is unaware of that you need to educate
- 37:02them, then it is not a truism because you're giving them new information.
- 37:08just be careful, you know, because.
- 37:12A sales pitch could start with, Hey, did you know we were founded in 1899?
- 37:16And by the way, this has so many features.
- 37:19And then the, the client might leave by thinking, Hey, did you know
- 37:23that company was founded in 1899?
- 37:26So be careful about what you're saying.
- 37:28Make sure you're putting mustard on, which is what I like to say.
- 37:31You're emphasizing the true point.
- 37:34You could say that as many times as you want because no one will come back
- 37:37to you later and say, Hey, you know, Joel was great, but you know what?
- 37:40He made his point too many times.
- 37:42That doesn't happen because the point is the gift.
- 37:45The point is the one thing you need to get on your bicycle and deliver from
- 37:49point A to point B. And if you do that.
- 37:52You succeed because that's the goal.
- 37:54Just like it was for Demi
- 37:56Before we sharpen our points and we'll tell our audience how
- 37:59to do that, I thought a really important thing was to call out.
- 38:02We are told to do this.
- 38:03We're told to tell 'em what you're gonna tell them.
- 38:05Tell them and then tell them what you told them.
- 38:07But when I read this book, and particularly the second time
- 38:10actually, it was tell them the point, reiterate the point, back up the
- 38:16point, sharpen the point, deliver the point, and then tell them the point.
- 38:21So it's a different, it's actually a different lens to see it.
- 38:24And a couple of things Watch out.
- 38:26You say here, and I've been, I've been guilty of this and, and actually.
- 38:29I, I realize why I've been guilty of this.
- 38:31It's depends on how you're introduced.
- 38:33Sometimes, or sometimes if you're speaking at an event or running a
- 38:37workshop, you'll be introduced as, actually, you know what, this is Aiden.
- 38:41We'll let him do his own introduction, and in that moment you lose the, the.
- 38:47The opportunity to deliver a point, or if you deliver it, it's almost,
- 38:52you deliver this important point and then you have to kind of back out and
- 38:54go, lemme tell you a bit about myself, but from reading this, I was like
- 38:57going, I can still get around that.
- 38:59I just need to, to sharpen it, my intro a little bit better.
- 39:03Yeah.
- 39:03In fact, I used to begin my years ago, I used to start with about two
- 39:07or three minutes of my background, why I was credentialed and why
- 39:11I have the reputation or the qualification to speak to you today.
- 39:17Aristotle would call that ethos.
- 39:19But the thing is they already chose me.
- 39:21I might even be in a program, somebody probably introduced me.
- 39:24I don't need to spend my time with that.
- 39:26That's like saying I started in such and such year.
- 39:29So I wanna start with my point.
- 39:31And in fact, got a challenge once from someone who was opening a conference
- 39:36and introducing speakers, and he said, I don't have a point because
- 39:40it's really the speaker's points.
- 39:41I'm just introducing them.
- 39:43To which I said, well, isn't it your job to explain to the
- 39:47audience why you chose them?
- 39:49Why they are relevant to this conference and what you hope and believe they
- 39:53can get out of that presentation.
- 39:56just like you said, when you introduce a panel, you wanna do the introducing
- 40:01for a lot of technical reasons 'cause you don't want them to go on and on.
- 40:04It could be a whole mess.
- 40:05But you are doing your job as a moderator to tell the audience why this
- 40:10topic and these experts are relevant.
- 40:14So I think that's true, and I do like what you said about that old idea.
- 40:18Tell him what you're gonna tell him.
- 40:19Tell him, tell him what you told him.
- 40:21Let's, you know.
- 40:21Channel Simon.
- 40:22Cynic a little bit here by saying it's more about the why not the what.
- 40:28Start with a hook that introduces the point.
- 40:31Tell the point.
- 40:33into your first which supports your point.
- 40:36Your second idea would support your point.
- 40:38Your third idea would support your point, your charts, and your data,
- 40:41which support your point, your stories, which support your point.
- 40:44And by reinforcing your point, make your point the very last thing you said.
- 40:48'cause at the end of the day, the ball game is about delivering that point.
- 40:53Not delivering perfect words or being seen as a, a great presenter.
- 40:57of the things I definitely benefit from Joel is.
- 41:00Almost doing the show for 10 years now, a decade long doing the show, but
- 41:04also writing about it and continually letting those ideas marinate.
- 41:09And then when I am mc or an event, or I'm a keynote speaker, it looks
- 41:14like it's effortless, but it's like so much knowledge compounded.
- 41:18But to your point as well, I can then introduce the speaker
- 41:21very, very differently than anyone, any normal mc would.
- 41:24And by that I mean some mc who's just reading.
- 41:28Oh, this is Joel Schwartzberg and, and trying to spelling your name
- 41:31wrong and not knowing your book titles, all this kind of stuff,
- 41:34Oh,
- 41:34but I, I say that for a reason.
- 41:36There's a couple of things that happen at events and, but maybe we'll turn
- 41:39the spotlight on that for a moment.
- 41:42Let's think about our audience here.
- 41:43So most of 'em aren't professional speakers, but maybe called
- 41:47to be on a panel sometimes.
- 41:49And sometimes you're called on a panel and you're trying to make a point, and
- 41:53then you get sidelined by somebody else.
- 41:55And sometimes they're trying to hijack you.
- 41:56Sometimes they're trying to make their point through you or trying to compete
- 42:00with your point, and you give advice in the book on how to deal with that.
- 42:03Yeah, this was new for the second edition because.
- 42:07The, one of the top questions I would get during the q and a session of
- 42:10the training is am interrupted all the time, and it may be a panel,
- 42:16but usually it's just a meeting.
- 42:18What do I do that doesn't make it awkward?
- 42:20Doesn't make me seem mad.
- 42:22and you see a lot of this on social media too, but this is the trick that I learned.
- 42:27I forget where I learned it, honestly.
- 42:29I would love to give credit for it.
- 42:31but this is what I recommend when someone interrupts you.
- 42:36Let them finish their sentence.
- 42:39Don't interrupt back.
- 42:40That creates awkwardness.
- 42:42You don't want to go after them.
- 42:43Hey, hey, hey.
- 42:44'cause that makes everyone feel awkward.
- 42:46But you don't wanna just sort of recede into your corner and
- 42:50not having made your point.
- 42:52You need to make your point because you are our subject matter expert,
- 42:55whatever you're doing in that meeting.
- 42:57So here's what you do.
- 42:58You let that person finish their sentence, then you thank them
- 43:03as much as it hurts to do it.
- 43:05You thank them for their point.
- 43:07You may even say, oh, that's pretty wise, or, I'll have to think about that later.
- 43:12But I just wanted to finish what I was saying.
- 43:15Thank you for that input.
- 43:16That's very interesting.
- 43:18I just wanna make sure everyone understands the
- 43:20point I was making, which is.
- 43:23And what that does is it settles everybody because you then just complimented
- 43:27the person who interrupted you.
- 43:29So there's no weirdness.
- 43:30We're all friends here, and you still get to finish your point, I know it's a very
- 43:35tactical thing, but I, I just loved it
- 43:38another really important one, and we're gonna come to sharpen your point
- 43:41in a moment, but is your endings.
- 43:44And, and I realized this one, I could foresee this when I ran an event, the
- 43:48reinvention summit this year, at the end of my keynote, I had to then send
- 43:54people for coffee and I was, and firstly, there was gonna be like a five minute.
- 43:59Piece played before coffee and I was like, my ending was
- 44:03actually quite making a point.
- 44:05It was dramatic, and it was a call to action
- 44:06and then I had to go, okay.
- 44:08And, I gave, I just gave it a beat, as you say.
- 44:10So give it a beat and then go, let's go to coffee.
- 44:14Because, to change, to have a new mc on to actually announce that
- 44:18just felt awkward or just like a waste of a couple of minutes.
- 44:21But really, I probably should have.
- 44:23And your endings are really important.
- 44:24This is my way of introducing endings.
- 44:26Endings are so important and they're not just a throwaway idea.
- 44:30For example, this medication will save lives.
- 44:35All go for.
- 44:39Yeah, there's this research on something called primacy and recency, and these
- 44:44are the two zones of where you get your audiences the most of their attention,
- 44:49and it's also the zone of memorability.
- 44:52They'll remember the first part and the second part.
- 44:54The first part, because that's not competing with anything else.
- 44:57You said you just started the recency part is because it's the last thing you hear.
- 45:02So you don't want the last thing be.
- 45:04Alright, now it's time for q and a. Alright, now let's
- 45:06bring up the next speaker.
- 45:07Now let's have lunch, or I'm gonna end with this quote by someone
- 45:11who died a hundred years ago that I thought was kind of funny.
- 45:13You know, really that's the last thing you want people, so you're
- 45:16ruining that opportunity for recency.
- 45:19But the, you alluded to the fix, which is pause.
- 45:23it sink in.
- 45:24When it sinks in, it becomes part of people's memory.
- 45:30But don't just pause because you know to put a pause there or for a break.
- 45:33Let's understand that audience needs time process everything you say.
- 45:40We often think the moment it escapes our mouths.
- 45:42They got it and they could write it down, but it's not true.
- 45:46for us because we've been practicing this for weeks.
- 45:48We've been thinking about it for months.
- 45:50We perfected the words, we perfected the PowerPoint.
- 45:53They are hearing it for the very first time.
- 45:57they need to listen to it, hear it.
- 45:59So digest it, apply it.
- 46:01Is this relevant for me?
- 46:02Should I bring this up at the next meeting?
- 46:04Should I tweet this?
- 46:05Should I think more about this?
- 46:08Should I make this part of my goals?
- 46:11the speaker is about seven sentences down the road, seven sentences
- 46:15you never heard because you were busy processing that point.
- 46:19So at the very end where you're taking the last opportunity, you're taking advantage
- 46:23of recency to make your point, stop.
- 46:26Count to four or five in your head, no one's gonna think you fell asleep.
- 46:32so you let that sink in almost to say, let's gimme time
- 46:36to let them write it down.
- 46:39Way they'll remember it.
- 46:40And you know, I don't talk about a lot of tactics in my training.
- 46:46I mean, I don't talk about 25, I talk about five, but one of
- 46:49them is definitely pausing.
- 46:51'cause we often think pausing is for a dramatic effect.
- 46:54And it is.
- 46:55But pausing is critical to helping our audience process
- 46:59and digest what we're saying.
- 47:01It is also critical for helping us contemplate what we're about to say.
- 47:06So our mind scripts, our mouth, and our mouth can say it.
- 47:11'cause often we lead with our mouths, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
- 47:14And our mind is like, wait, wait, wait.
- 47:15I'd like to make sense of that.
- 47:17I'd like to put those words in a particular order.
- 47:21like to swap out that word for this word, but I can't do that unless
- 47:25you give me time to script you.
- 47:28So that's the beauty of pausing also,
- 47:30when I finished rugby, I was a cocommentator.
- 47:34So in sports games, the Cocom, so you have the commentator who covers all the
- 47:37action and the Cocom is there to come in for a bit of color every so often.
- 47:42right?
- 47:42Right.
- 47:42And that was so bad.
- 47:44The first one.
- 47:44I remember the guy, and he was a brilliant, he was a South African
- 47:48guy, very animated, and he's like going, wow, what an amazing
- 47:50score, Aiden, what do you think?
- 47:52And he turns to me and I'm like, oh yeah, it was a really good score.
- 47:54He scored in the corner, right?
- 47:57So it went, it went, but went on and he's like, the play went on.
- 48:01There was a breaking plane.
- 48:02He is like, he's going, let me just give you a tip, Aiden.
- 48:04He said, when you're about to speak, take a deep breath and then just deliver it
- 48:10as a breath and your volume will raise, your articulation will be better and it
- 48:16will stop you saying or or filler word.
- 48:19And it was a brilliant piece of advice to, I've carried it everywhere myself.
- 48:23So.
- 48:24The, the breath to avoid the filler word, but also to just deliver with impact.
- 48:29There's two things in there.
- 48:30One is the breadth to avoid filler words.
- 48:31The other is the importance of volume.
- 48:34And
- 48:34I'm talking to the ladies who listen to this show.
- 48:38Half of our audience are female.
- 48:41And what I find a lot with many women is they will say to me, it sounds like
- 48:46I'm being aggressive if I raise my voice in a meeting or sometimes when I'm
- 48:50speaking and I'll go, absolutely not.
- 48:53That's not the case.
- 48:54And if somebody thinks that they're the problem.
- 48:58Right.
- 48:59Yeah.
- 49:00And I, I, I hesitate before using that phrase, raise your voice.
- 49:02'cause in school we learned that was like yelling at someone.
- 49:06So let's talk about raising your volume, by which we also mean raising your energy.
- 49:10If you actually raise your volume, you'll have more energy.
- 49:14so when you do that.
- 49:17You are not only more audible, which is obvious, oh, I need to reach
- 49:21the people in the back of the room.
- 49:23But it increases your impression of auth of authority, of credibility,
- 49:31of confidence of subject matter, knowledge of leadership.
- 49:38And I don't just say that because I assume it, I've run this particular test
- 49:42o over 10 years in all of my trainings.
- 49:44Here's what happens.
- 49:46People share their points and then I ask one or two or three people, and
- 49:50they're men and women, and I ask them to say it again, but say it with a volume.
- 49:55That is uncomfortably loud, weirdly loud, awkwardly loud.
- 50:01Don't scream or shout.
- 50:03Just do it at a volume at which you would probably never do it.
- 50:07And they're like, okay.
- 50:09then they speak like, you and I are speaking now like this as opposed to
- 50:14like this, and this is what I think.
- 50:16then I asked the audience and their participants and their colleagues.
- 50:20What changed in your impression of that person as a result of the volume?
- 50:25And here's what they say, person sounded more confident,
- 50:30excited, more authoritative.
- 50:32And here's my favorite one more.
- 50:34Assertive and being more assertive is very valuable because that's
- 50:40what you want to do with a point.
- 50:43Now to elaborate on what you just said, Aidan, some people may come
- 50:46into the root and feel like because you are louder, you are coming
- 50:50across as aggressive or shrill even.
- 50:54that is not about you.
- 50:55That is about them.
- 50:58that is about sexism and it may happen, but your job is always to speak up
- 51:04even when their job is to grow up.
- 51:07So I really recommend people are do that.
- 51:09Now, some people attach volume to a male normative behavior that comes from long
- 51:16ago when only men were in charge and they were loud and they were confident.
- 51:23So they try to distance from that.
- 51:24And that is an antiquated point of view.
- 51:26We do wanna get away from that.
- 51:28So it help if it's helpful for you to think of it as energy versus volume.
- 51:33I use those interchangeably, but go back to that test.
- 51:37I do.
- 51:37And that's across all genders, across all ages, across all experiences.
- 51:44When you speak up, you sound more interested in what you're saying
- 51:49and you sound more confident.
- 51:51And if I can insert something here, Aiden's, something I
- 51:54learned only weeks ago this theory called emotional contagion.
- 52:00This isn't even in the book.
- 52:01Emotional contagion.
- 52:03You can Google it where there's research saying that when you're
- 52:06talking to someone and they're excited.
- 52:09So let's say I'm talking to you, Aiden, you're excited.
- 52:12I will wanna mimic that excitement.
- 52:14So if you're smiling, I'll smile.
- 52:15If you're excited, I'll be excited.
- 52:17And because I'm mimicking it, I become excited.
- 52:20So basically, I will be as excited as you are.
- 52:23If you are not excited, I will not be excited.
- 52:27So that is a really great thing to think about when you know you need to
- 52:31not only make your point, but be the cheerleader for your point so that
- 52:37your audience can also be excited.
- 52:39as I mentioned to you, I work as an mc sometimes at events, but actually the
- 52:43show is the best preparation you can ever get for that because as you know
- 52:47and anybody who's been on the show, I do look at the person speaking and I nod
- 52:52and smile 'cause I'm actually absorbing the content and I don't have just a list
- 52:56of questions that I follow verbatim.
- 52:59And I think that's actually the death of so many conversations.
- 53:02And in particular, if you've ever been on the show, I remember always.
- 53:05Do you remember Wayne's World, Joe?
- 53:08That's true.
- 53:08Yeah.
- 53:08There's a scene where they go to the local radio station and they're
- 53:11being interviewed by the dj and he is looking down and he is pressing
- 53:15all these sound effects and he's not listening to 'em, and they're like
- 53:17going, I could say anything to you, man.
- 53:20And, and he's like, Uhhuh, Uhhuh.
- 53:22I won't say what they actually call them, Google that one.
- 53:26But it's great.
- 53:27But I always have that in my mind that it's so.
- 53:31It just breaks the connection between you and the speaker.
- 53:34You don't get to that extra level of depth, and as a result, you break
- 53:38that emotional contagion between you.
- 53:40And I think it's just such a secret sauce of any conversation is to be making
- 53:44eye contact and actually playing off what they're saying, not actually just
- 53:49following a script and going, yeah, we must get a, I must ask my questions.
- 53:52I think that's just such a breaker.
- 53:54So speaking of breakers.
- 53:56And I thought we'd, we'd land the ship.
- 53:58We'd we'd and, and there's a specific point for this landing the ship.
- 54:02We'll talk about that in a second.
- 54:03We will actually finish with that.
- 54:05But before we do is to how to sharpen your point so we know what the point is.
- 54:10I hope we know how to tighten the point, deliver a point.
- 54:14We know some how to pause around the point, but there's four specific
- 54:18tactics that help sharpen a point.
- 54:20And these alone.
- 54:22First, if we get the point and then if you use these, you will be even
- 54:26a better writer as a result of that.
- 54:29So one thing interesting I learned after coaching people about to make
- 54:33this higher value outcome when they make their points was that when their points
- 54:39ended with impacts on living things on people, on animals, on customers,
- 54:45on clients, on society, on patients.
- 54:49It had more resonance with the people listening.
- 54:52There was more of a human to human connection.
- 54:56so what I also encourage now is when you end your point with an
- 54:59impact, bring in a living person.
- 55:04Is this affecting a human being somehow, even if you're selling
- 55:09Coca-Cola, is it making someone happy or fulfilling their lives?
- 55:13When you do, when you mention that person, you include them in your impact.
- 55:18You just have a stronger, more memorable, ending and a, a meaning
- 55:23and a value, to what you're saying.
- 55:26You mentioned that there's another one, there's four actually in
- 55:29the book, and we're gonna let people get the book to do that.
- 55:31It's a really short read.
- 55:32I highly recommend it.
- 55:33It's one of those books, it's not just a read, it's a playbook.
- 55:38So you have to return to it, maybe check in with it every so often,
- 55:42and it's just really effective way to become a better communicator.
- 55:46But one, I loved a amongst the four there, and I guess it could be the one you chose
- 55:51as well as adjectives your own term.
- 55:54Yes.
- 55:56Yeah.
- 55:57What I found now, this applies to writing as well.
- 56:00found is that we have an over-reliance on what I call adjectives.
- 56:04A adjective is an ad adjective, and sometimes adverb.
- 56:08That's so broad.
- 56:09That it's virtually useless.
- 56:11It's a waste of a word.
- 56:14I often say, you know, yesterday I had a very important, very valuable
- 56:21and very meaningful tuna fish sandwich for lunch, uh, because I was hungry.
- 56:25I love tuna fish, and it meant a lot to me that day.
- 56:29Now when I use the same words, meaningful, valuable, important I
- 56:34would use for a tuna fish sandwich, would I use that for a campaign a
- 56:38huge game changing marketing idea?
- 56:41I wouldn't.
- 56:42So we need to avoid these words.
- 56:43Very good.
- 56:44Awesome.
- 56:45Great is a word we hear all the time.
- 56:47This idea is great, you know, well, lots of things are great and what's
- 56:51great to you may not be great to me.
- 56:53So to solve the adjective problem, we again introduce this word.
- 56:56Why?
- 56:57Why is it great?
- 56:59idea is great because it'll save us money that we can apply toward r
- 57:03and d or this idea is great because it'll help us, lose fewer files
- 57:09because they'll be kept in the cloud.
- 57:11Now you have a real reason.
- 57:15So you move from this idea is great to, this idea is great because it
- 57:21will enable us to save our files.
- 57:23Now we don't even need the adjective anymore, so let's turn
- 57:26it from a three part to a two part.
- 57:28This idea will enable us keep and better save Our files go right from the
- 57:36X to the Y, the means to the impact.
- 57:38And we don't even have to use that adjective of great at all.
- 57:42So the three step process, identify the adjective.
- 57:46Great, very good.
- 57:47Could I apply this to a tuna fish sandwich?
- 57:49Then ask why and make that your point, and then remove the adjective.
- 57:54So now you just have a means and a real specific and meaningful impact.
- 57:59And speaking of which I'm holding up here, the pin for those people just
- 58:02listening to us, it's the exclamation mark again, and I loved how you.
- 58:06I put this, so picture in your mind a gymnast going over the horse.
- 58:11And then where you see this, so many times I'm thinking of that movie where
- 58:15the girl has broken, her ankles, straps it up, but still sticks the landing.
- 58:19That's the term I was grasping for earlier on.
- 58:22Sticks the landing perfectly and sticking the landing is how
- 58:25to finish your presentation.
- 58:27It's how to make your point effectively.
- 58:29It's how to end a meeting.
- 58:31It's how to inspire a team.
- 58:32It's how as a innovation or a corporate innovator to inspire
- 58:36somebody to invest in your idea.
- 58:38Let's finish on sticking the landing.
- 58:40you know, we talked about recency, the power of recency.
- 58:43We talked about making the point you, the last thing you say, sometimes people
- 58:48could say, okay, so I'll make my point.
- 58:50Then I'll talk about how they can get their parking stickers validated.
- 58:55Then I'll talk about where we're going for lunch.
- 58:58Well, listen.
- 58:58The last word is the last word before you walk away.
- 59:03Sticking the landing means saving all that stuff.
- 59:07For the middle, even the q and a, for the middle, you could even have two endings.
- 59:11So I hope you see how this idea is gonna save the world.
- 59:15Then you do q and a, then you talk about the agenda.
- 59:19Then you say, before I leave, I just want to reinforce that without a point.
- 59:24Everything you say.
- 59:25Could be pointless.
- 59:27you restate it in a different way.
- 59:28But the bottom line is before you walk away, the very last thing you should
- 59:33be doing is reinforcing your point.
- 59:36'cause you know that's the stickiest moment of your
- 59:39Beautiful man, and you didn't finish on up talking or anything.
- 59:42That's a little teaser.
- 59:43Check out the book to find out more about that, Joel, for people who
- 59:46do wanna reach out to you, people who want to invest in their people
- 59:49who are constantly selling our.
- 59:51Ideas.
- 59:51Where's the best place to find you?
- 59:53I always direct people to my website, which is www.joelschwartzberg.net,
- 1:00:00J-O-E-L-S-C-H-W-A-R-T-Z.
- 1:00:03BER g.net.
- 1:00:05That's where I have my videos.
- 1:00:07I have all of this podcast and other podcasts I've been on, and one of
- 1:00:11the big reasons I like to send people there, not just to find out more about
- 1:00:14my books, but I've written hundreds of articles for Harvard Business
- 1:00:18Review Fast Company inc.com, Newsweek.
- 1:00:22I put them all there and all the titles are very intuitive.
- 1:00:26So if you think you talk too quickly, if you think you don't know how to start
- 1:00:29a speech, if you think you're not being authentic or confident enough, how can
- 1:00:34you, make your presentation better?
- 1:00:36That way you can almost look at this library of titles and find
- 1:00:40what most matches your need and then read those free articles.
- 1:00:44I'm not gonna finish on that because I'm gonna finish with you landing your point.
- 1:00:48Once again, I wanna point to the, speaking of which point, to the library here
- 1:00:53behind me to point out Joel's two books.
- 1:00:55There's actually three, so there's the updated version of
- 1:00:57Get to the point there as well.
- 1:00:58It's a brilliant read.
- 1:00:59I learned so much.
- 1:01:01As a speaker, as an mc, as a podcaster, as a writer in this as well, and it's just a
- 1:01:07always a pleasure to have you on the show.
- 1:01:09Joe, what is your last message?
- 1:01:11To get the point across to our audience.
- 1:01:13My last message, and I'm gonna borrow from some media
- 1:01:16training here in media training.
- 1:01:18There's always a last question and the last question is often,
- 1:01:21so expert, anything else we missed or what else do you wanna say?
- 1:01:25And that spokesperson will often think, all right, what's the 13th
- 1:01:29most important thing, I wanna say that I haven't said yet?
- 1:01:33Well, that's the wrong internal question.
- 1:01:35question is, how can I use this opportunity to reinforce the
- 1:01:39most important thing I said?
- 1:01:41Again, primacy and recency.
- 1:01:42So to you, Aiden, and to your audience, my message is make sure you're
- 1:01:48conveying your most valuable point.
- 1:01:51You're championing that point.
- 1:01:54That is the best way to make people feel, think and do.
- 1:01:59Author of the Language of Leadership and get to the point.
- 1:02:03Joel Schwartzberg, thank you for joining us.
- 1:02:06Thank you
- 1:02:07And I want to thank also our sponsor, Kyndryl, who runs and reimagines the
- 1:02:10technology systems that drive advantage for the world's leading businesses.
- 1:02:14With a unique blend of AI powered consulting, built on unmatched managed
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- 1:02:26You can find Kyndryl at K-Y-N-D-R-Y-L ndl.com.