Matt Church is the founder of Thought Leaders Global, and is without a doubt Australia’s and possibly the worlds foremost authority on the topic of Thought Leadership.
In this 10-minute video, Matt has a slightly different take on how you can Work Smarter. Packed with 15 ideas to get you on track to working smarter, just click on the image below to get started.
This month's White Paper is Million Dollar Expert; How to capture, package and deliver the ideas in your head.
A million dollar expert is an infopreneur who has successfully commercialised their thought leadership and is running a practice that is turning over a million dollars or more a year with only one or two support staff.
Most infopreneurs think this is impossible when they first hear this definition. “Make a seven figure income selling my expertise?” And it does sound a bit preposterous. How could you possibly charge a high enough rate and sell enough hours or days to make a million dollars in a year?
Matt Church has developed a systemic methodology to grow a practice to a million dollars based on diversifying modes of delivery and taking the appropriate steps at each revenue level. It’s a method that has been proven to work – at the time of writing about 1000 people have been exposed directly to this methodology, and over 50 of them have reached $720k or above in their practice (what we call “black belts”). Most of them are now million dollar experts.
In this e-book, we are going to share the heart of this methodology with you.
When speaking in public, there are 15 questions in the minds of your audience members that need to be answered before you deliver the content of your message. These questions are often unconscious, but answering them in advance means that people are more receptive to what you have to say and more likely to remember what you said.
The first set of questions are all about making your message a priority:
1. Why this message? I read a piece recently that suggested that there are 3,500 books being written every day, and the question is not "How will I find time to read them all?", but rather, "Of those I choose to read, which ones are worth my attention?" Sharing information any other way is much the same; the audience gives me an hour of their time, so I had better give them something worth listening to. (IMPORTANCE)
2. Why this message now? Almost every audience you will address will feel that they have a lot on, and that all of it is all-important. This is something you need to navigate every time you are attempting to gather people's attention around your idea or cause. They must give it a sense of urgency! (URGENCY)
3. Why are you the person to tell me this message? This is where you begin to build credibility around who you are and your message. If you get a great response to your first two pieces around the message and the urgency of it, you can spend less time on the third credibility piece. (CREDIBILITY)
The second set of questions are all about positioning who you are and what you do:
4. Who are you? The critical thing whenever you talk about yourself is to do so humbly. Make sure you own your success but be quick to share how you have learnt from mistakes and failures. (DISCLOSURE)
5. What do you do? Think like an engineer as you talk through what it is you do and how you go about doing it. See if you can elevate others. State the fact that you are surrounded by some seriously smart technical cookies. Then proceed to explain how person X's genius allows you to get Y done better than others. (PROCESS)
6. Why should I care? You need to link what you know to what people want. If you can link how what you propose helps the audience get what they are in business for - people get that you are delivering a message just for them - that addresses their real work challenges. This makes you super relevant. (BENEFIT)
The third set of questions are all about knocking down barriers and subconscious objections:
7. What's wrong with you? At some time in your life you will be the odd one - maybe you are short, maybe you are bald, maybe you are white and the audience is not. Be careful that you don't come from insecurity when framing out a what’s-wrong-with-you concern. (PERSONAL)
8. What’s wrong with them? Think through your audience and see if they have a professional bias or some such. Eg. Engineers over specify things (like bridges so they don't fall down), accountants analyse things. Frame their bias in a complimentary way and position the disruption or change that is instructing your thinking. Ask for thoughts - then position your message. (AUDIENCE)
9. What's wrong with your message? If a message is hard to swallow or you know something might be poorly received it’s useful to get that elephant out the front of the room and name it. (MESSAGE)
The fourth set of questions switch the smart cookies on to your talk:
10. What's it like? This question is basically addressing the need for referencing. This helps people to see that you are not passing off ideas as your own. Quote others, hold up books, references, shared experiences and use analogies to start your conversation. (ABSTRACT)
11. What's it about? This is a question that positions your message into a primary overarching context. Basically pick a word that sums up what you want to discuss and share it at the outset. Then, what you want to do is build a memorable phrase that anchors that word in a way that's easy to recall. (EXISTENTIAL)
12. What's in it for me? The ‘me’ in this case may be 'my group' or 'my division' or 'my family' and it’s not an unreasonable question for someone to ask. Take time to get really clear what the pay off is for your desired audience. (INTRAPERSONAL)
The last three questions are about action and driving change:
13. What's your point? Make sure that your point is clear and well articulated. Your three or so great points nest under your primary context, (question 11) and make it real. (CLARITY)
14. How is it unique? Make sure you can explain how your idea is unique - look for a point of difference. (DIFFERENTIATION)
15. So what should I do? Our final frame is the action frame. Pick three, five or seven simple actions that people can take. Make them practical as well as conceptual. (PRESCRIPTION)
If the message you deliver is relevant, thorough, elegant and unique - then they just might act on it.
M@
In the below 6-minute video, I share with you my 8 favourite books on productivity. I briefly discuss the main idea behind each book.
This month's White Paper is The Power of Positioning by Matt Church; A chapter from the first book in the Ideas Series; Original perspectives on life and business by leading thinkers.
We are not what we do – but we do need to be able to answer the question, “What do you do?” in a way that makes us better known and creates more business. As a card-carrying introvert, I find the prospect of commercial networking about as attractive as having root canal treatment. Still, I recognise that without customers, clients and attendees at my events, my business would dry up quicker than a well in the outback.
Download your complimentary copy today, after answering some brief questions.
Enjoy!
M@
Leaders today need to go old school. They need to get out from behind their strategy and bring leadership to life.
Motivational leadership is the ability to influence culture and drive change. It’s applied powerfully at home, in communities and organisations everywhere.
We need leaders who can lead. Leaders who can remove fear and replace it with confidence, remove confusion and replace it with clarity and mobilise us all in pursuit of a better future.
It seems that strategy is failing many as it is almost impossible to create solutions for futures further out than 12-36 months. Make no mistake, strategy is critical, it’s simply not all it’s been made out to be. The idea of motivational leadership trumps strategy every time.
Motivational Leadership (Rah Rah!) is the missing link between what we know we should do (strategy), the willingness to do it (attitude) and getting it done (execution). While the principles of Rah Rah are simple, the application of them requires a combination of art, finesse and courage.
One thing though is universally true, you cannot hold a torch to light another’s path without also illuminating your own.
In anticipation of the upcoming Master Class with Michael Port, this month's gift is a chapter from Michael's book; Book Yourself Solid.
Book Yourself Solid, reveals why self-promotion is a critical factor to success, giving you a unique perspective that makes this guide much more than an ordinary "how to" manual for getting more clients and raising a business profile. In this chapter, Develop a Personal Brand, Michael explains why Personal branding is far more than just what you do or what your web site and business cards look like. It is you — uniquely you. It allows you to distinguish yourself from everyone else: what is unique about who you are, what you stand for, and what you do.
Download the chapter from Michael Port's book here
Enjoy!
M@
P.S. Come and join me, along with a small group of Thought Leaders, at a very special Master Class with Michael Port, where you will have the opportunity to be up close and personal with Michael. We simply cannot wait!
There’s a popular saying that if you win the hearts and minds of people their feet will follow. Typically, though, it is easier said than done. Not that it is particularly difficult to achieve but, rather, many people do not know or have access to a specific process for doing so.
To build advocacy through winning the hearts and minds of your people (which could mean anything from your staff to your audience at a conference) there are four critical keys that each tap into a desirable outcome.
The four keys are:
The combination of the four elements above allows the thought leader to work effectively with both the hearts and minds of their audiences.
For a Thought leader to be commercially smart, someone, somewhere, must buy their great ideas. That’s the secret by the way; stop selling and start letting people buy. For this to happen you don’t need to figure out some slick sales script, you don’t need to handle their objections, you don't need to learn the six magic steps of influence. What you need to do is know your stuff, know their needs and place you and your ideas into the conversation, so that they click. This is the same whether you are talking about people outside your organisation or Thought Leaders practice or to your staff internally. Whether you are talking to a large crowd or one-to-one, you need to make it easier for them to want to listen to your ideas.
There have been some attempts to evolve traditional selling such as integrity sales or relationship selling. While they have their merits, tried and tested sales techniques are increasingly experienced by our customers as tired and broken. Thought leaders need to do something different to take the relationship to the next level. It’s our belief that clicking is the next stage for selling to evolve to. We believe clicking is the key to selling ideas in the crowded, post information age, always on, attention deficit economy.
Here is a process you can try:
Thought leaders don’t sell, they understand. If you don't know why people might benefit from your ideas, then spend time getting to know them and ask their permission to use them as a pilot to test and prototype your offer. Initially they may not even pay you, but if it works they will tell all their contacts and mates about you. If it doesn’t, then what you will learn from this experience will be invaluable. This is thought prototyping though. Once you know their needs and can show them how you have a solution, then they invite you to dance! It’s really simple. All you need to do is:
The idea that you have integrity is the price of entry. Without this, others will not buy your ideas, your approach, or you. As a consequence, thought leaders embrace this new approach, because they can evolve from selling to people, to clicking with people. Clicking is simple fun of service to the people you are communicating with and earns you the right to pitch your ideas and approach.
M@
* Extract from the book Thought Leaders, written by Matt Church, Michael Henderson and Scott Stein.
Before you open your mouth to speak, there are some questions you need to develop answers for, think of this as the pre-work for any speech.
7 Great Questions
1. The context
If you could summarise your speech in one word (x), what is it about?
2. The key points
What 3, 5 or 7 points are you hoping to make about that context (x)?
3. Importance
Why is context (x) important? This is all about answering the question, why this message?
4. Urgency
Now that you have established that (x) is important, you need to make it urgent. So, why do we need to care about (x) now? Note: You will see at this point we are not discussing your points, simply the big picture context of your speech. This can normally be summarised in one word.
5. Problems (common)
What common problem/challenge or aspiration does the audience have that needs to be fixed?
6. Problems (deeper)
What deeper problem do they have to fix that your speech addresses?
7. Prescriptions
What actions can the audience take after your presentation that will make a difference with (x)? (List 3 things the audience can do immediately to make a difference around (x))
Anyone can speak to drive business, they just need to learn the formula's.
M@
And receive a free information pack, including a chapter from the best selling “Thought Leaders” book.
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