How To Craft And Deliver Your Message
Our guest this week is Steve Lowell who has been on the live stage since the age of 6; that’s over 53 years ago. For 30 years he has been training and mentoring professional speakers around the world to craft and deliver their unique message in a way that positions them as the unmistakable authority in their field. He’s the president of the Global Speakers Federation, past national president of the Canadian Association of Professional Speakers, and a two-time, number one, international best-selling author.
Questions:
- How would you describe your expertise?
- What are some of your philosophies that guide you through your speaking career?
- What characteristics do you think a professional speaker should possess?
- What advice would you offer aspiring speakers to help them grow their business?
Artificial Intelligence Generated Transcript
Below is a machine-generated transcript and therefore the transcript may contain errors.
James Taylor 0:00
I’m James Taylor, and you’re listening to the SpeakersU podcast a show for aspiring and professional speakers. This episode is with my co-host, Maria Franzoni. Enjoy the episode. He has a phenomenal guest. This week. Our guest this week is Steve Lowe, who has been on the live stage since the age of six. That’s about 53 years ago. for 30 years, he has been training and mentoring professional speakers around the world to craft and deliver the unique message in a way that positions them as the unmistakable authority in their field. He’s the president of the global speakers Federation, past national president of the Canadian Association of Professional speakers caps, and a two-time and number-one internationally best-selling author, Steve Lowe, please welcome to speaking business TV.
Steve Lowell 0:53
Alright guys, so glad to be here. And thank you for the invitation. I’m excited about what we’re going to be doing today.
James Taylor 0:59
Fantastic. Beautiful background as well. I love your kind of blue skies blue sky thing about today,
Steve Lowell 1:06
hey, we just had that made this is only about the second or third time we’re using it. We had one that was branded with our business. But we put we got this one so it’s not branded. And we have it set up in my home studio in my house, which is really like, you know, an extra bedroom in the basement.
Maria Franzoni 1:23
Without shattered that illusion doesn’t exist. I thought he was standing in there. So I must get my glasses redone. So Steve, before we start, I would really love to understand because obviously you’ve been James has given away your age has been you shared how long you’ve been speaking, what does your speaking business look like at the moment? What is it made up off?
Steve Lowell 1:44
So my speaking business right now is made up of events. So I hold my own events, my wife and I together, we hold our own events virtually now, for the last two years, prior to COVID, we’ve been holding our own events live and holding them all over the world and traveling around the world. So we hold events with a very specific focus, and then we bring our own audiences in, and then we generate revenue from that. And the other way we do is we speak at other people’s events. But these are not corporate or Association events. And I do that work. And I have done it did it for years. But my business has sort of transformed a little bit. So we spend most of our time in front of audiences, who are not corporate audiences, and not necessarily Association audiences. And normally they’re thought leaders, and they’re entrepreneurs. And they’re experts in their field. And, but they’re usually entrepreneurial-type audiences. And we present certain content, and it drives business to us. And, and what’s interesting is, we’ve been able to figure out how to do that with all without all the hard sell, and the irresistible offers like and all of those things, which is a, you know, which is a gift to be able to do, but really stressful when you’re not really sold on that kind of approach. So that’s basically our business model. Now.
Maria Franzoni 3:01
I like that I like the fact that you don’t do the hard sell. And I think if you’ve got something that genuinely helps people, I don’t think you need to do the hard sell. Share with us what your expertise is please, Steve. Sure. So
Steve Lowell 3:13
There are two different tracks. And one of them is I work with thought leaders and innovators who have a unique or complex idea, but they don’t know how to speak about it. And you’ve probably heard folks do this, where they try and explain what their concept is or their idea and they get lost in the details. And your eyes glaze over. And you go Well, that sounds cool, but I couldn’t repeat it. So part of what I do is I work with those thought leaders and those innovators and help them craft a message and present a message that makes it you know, on a grade seven level so that their audiences and their stakeholders can not only understand the idea but can now make a decision whether or not to buy or adopt the idea. So that’s, that’s one big part of our business is working with them. The other big part of our business is working with entrepreneurs, coaches, speakers, trainers, consultants, experts, service providers, and we help them develop what we call the perfect sales system. And it’s about using speaking and adding speaking into their business model and then using a very specific step by step process to go through the entire sales function, leading a prospect from Attention all the way to a close. So we have that business model as well. And so I’ll speak about that if it’s an entrepreneurial model and I’ll speak about this other thing if it’s a if it’s a thought leader audience.
James Taylor 4:37
So I’m wondering then on that second grouping, that I using stages to drive people into their service business, the other products that they have, they’re using as an as a type of funnel I guess to bring people into their world to raise awareness. How we can work with these people when we’ve seen that that move from in-person stages to virtual stages has the As the model changed, or is it just really just a different type of format?
How has the model changed from in-person to virtual
Steve Lowell 5:03
Yeah, it’s a different type of format. And it was, it was an interesting change for us. Because when the pandemic hit, we had just come off of pretty much a world tour, we’ve been all over the world. And we had another one scheduled, and we have had lots of events planned, for 2020. And of course, the pandemic hit, and then every one of those doors closed, I mean, it just full stop. And so we, you know, did the whole pivot thing very quickly. And we had to because we didn’t have an online business, we didn’t do a lot of I’ve done these things in interviews and podcasts. But we didn’t hold our events virtually at all. So we had to learn very quickly how to make the shift over to the virtual platform, which we were able to do. And so the model itself hasn’t changed that much. It’s just a function of how we do it this way, rather than standing on a stage. And as you know, you know, you’ve gone through the same thing. And as you know, there are pros and cons to that. But the model itself is pretty much the same.
James Taylor 6:08
So with all these different models, I’d love to know what the guiding philosophies have really taken you through your speaking career, because it sounds like you’ve gone from the kind of corporate keynote speaker speaking those conferences to what we might think is more of a platform speaker, and they’re quite different skill sets, they’re very difficult. Very rarely do you find speakers are able to be comfortable in both of those places? So take us through your, your philosophy about how you think about speaking then.
Steve Lowell 6:35
Sure, so when I was doing a lot of corporate speaking and association speaking, I mean, I loved it, you know, we as speakers that’s in our blood, as you will know. And there’s no place we like more than being on stage in front of an audience. And doing the corporate and association work was was great. And I loved every second of it. And what I found was, you know, sometimes you go to an audience, and they’re all in right there. They’re fully engaged, and they’re excited, motivated, dedicated, committed, and all of those things. Sometimes you go to an audience, and you can tell they’re there because they’ve been told to be there. And they’re not overly receptive as much. And so I always found that I got so much more myself and I was able to deliver so much more value with those audiences who were all in. And so I stumbled across this process, I saw somebody speak at an event one time, and I was so impressed with, this person. So and this is years and years and years ago, is 25 years ago. And I remember thinking to myself, you know that that guy, it was a Male Speaker, that guy’s having so much fun up there, I want to have that much fun. So I started slowly changing the business model. And the philosophy that I’ve sort of developed is this. Speaking, in the world that I speak, speaking is not about a transference of information. Speaking is about two things. Speaking is about a transference of emotion first, which means if I can make you feel about my message, the way I feel about my message, now we have a channel of communication. So that’s the first thing. And the second thing is speaking is about an altering of perspective. So if I can use my content, to change the way you think, change your perspective on something to rattle your beliefs, or shake your paradigms, or have you look at the world differently in some way, then that’s a big win. Now we use information, of course, to do all that. And there is education and entertainment, and all of those things that we’re expected to do as speakers. But the philosophy that I’ve sort of adopted is, in my mind, when I’m preparing, and when I’m delivering, I have to remind myself, this is not about a transference of information. Yes, I’m going to transfer information, yes, I’m going to entertain, I’m gonna do all those things. But the two primary objectives for me are number one is I want you to feel about my message, the way I feel about my message. And number two is, I want you to walk away thinking differently about your condition, thinking differently about your business or your life, or, you know, I want to rattle a belief, I want to change something in you. Because what I find is if you just take information and walk out the door with it, then it just kind of dissipates. And frankly, if I can’t, you know, if I can’t go beyond your intellect and into your imagination, I should just send you my PowerPoint slides, and you can go to the bathroom and read it. You don’t need me, right? So I get to reach past that intellect into your imagination. And I have to do those things change the way you feel change the way you think. So that’s been a sort of a guiding philosophy that has driven me through my business over the last 15 years or so.
Blend storytelling and information education
James Taylor 9:44
So on that the terms of those different styles. They’re very info, I mean, I’m thinking like almost like the ancient Greeks logos, pathos, ethos, you know, with Aristotle in terms of how you think about So so that your audience has been much the rational way. So that maybe the informational style or kind of workshop-style where you’re putting a lot of, I find a lot of those speakers where they’re talking in terms of frameworks of concepts or things, things like that. In the other style, which is the more transformational, transforming the audience, changing perspectives, I find that those audiences, those speakers use storytelling more. So like so where have you come to on that like that blend between the storytelling and the kind of informational educational framework where do you find yourself sitting now,
Steve Lowell 10:37
right dead center. And so I love what you’re talking about here, because all of the things that I do have a framework, I’ve got models, I got systems, I got frameworks, that are all sort of my stuff, proprietary stuff, which, which I think is important to have most of our content to be something that we created. So I’ve got lots of models. And whenever I speak, there’s almost always a model or a framework involved in there. And what I found is that, you know, you’re correct, some people are very motivated and get inspired by a change in the way they feel. But other people get very motivated and inspired by the way in the if you change the way they think. And so it’s the models that do that. It’s the frameworks that change the way they think. And so what I’m finding is there are some people come up to me, and they’ll say things like, you know, I got so motivated, got so excited, I’m going to go and try that. And other people come up to me and say, I learned so much, and you’ve changed the way I’m looking at my business, and I’m going to try this. So it’s kind of right down the center. I always when I speak, have a framework that I demonstrate. And I do it in a way that they can see that there’s an opportunity for change, and they learn something new. But that’s not enough. In my judgment, they need to be excited about what they’ve learned.
Maria Franzoni 11:58
loving this, I am loving this. This is a masterclass of how to do it. Right. I’m going Hallelujah because everything you’re saying is so spot on. I am feeling good. You’ve changed how I feel. You see, I was feeling very blonde and a bit dumb. Now I’m feeling good. Steve, tell me I think we can probably pick up some of the answers here anyway, just by watching you in action. Talk to me about the characteristics that a professional speaker should possess. And we could probably talk about you because I think you have those characteristics. But if you could tell us those inform us, please.
Characteristics a speaker should have
Steve Lowell 12:34
Sure. So I’ll tell you what, what I look for. And I think that this is a very personal thing because you know, you’ll go to an event and you’ll have a speaker on this stage and you talk to one person, they’ll tell you how awesome this speaker was, he talked to another person and they’ll say, yeah, it wasn’t my cup of tea. So it’s a very, you know, personal thing. But there are several things that I believe, are important for professional speakers at all levels. I think it’s important for the, you know, the seasoned pro, who is, you know, deep into the heart of their career, and important for those who are aspiring and just jumping into the fold. So you know, who dr. john volador is our good friend, dr. John from the US is the past national president of NSA and the immediate past president of the global speakers Federation, he’s got these three philosophies that I like. And he says a professional speaker should have expertise, eloquence, and ethics. And I like those three, I think those are fundamental, foundational. And if you don’t have all three of those, you’re going to struggle in the speaking business. But if we take those three, and we make those the foundation, building upon that foundation, I think that there are some other really important skills and really important attributes that we need as speakers. Number one is, I believe, we need to be infinitely curious. We need to be able to what I call it I say pull profundity out of the mundane. And what that means is, you know, we go through our lives and things happen to us every day. And there are stories there. There are lessons there are, there are models there. And so we look around our world. And we find the lessons and the magic and the profundity that’s in these things that most people consider mundane events every single day. And so we build stories, and we build lessons out of those things. So I think that is an important thing. We need to change the way we look at the world every single day and find things that can support our expertise and our philosophies and our positions and all those things. So that’s one. Another one that I think is and we touched on it earlier. And that is, I believe that a speaker needs to have the ability to catalyze change, which means just we were talking about before, which means when I go see a speaker, what I like is when that speaker makes me go like this when I go Hmm, I’ve never heard it like that before. How can I use that like when there’s that boom in my head that makes me reconsider whatever it is, I think I know. And when a speaker can do that, I think that’s the speaker that gets recognized. That’s the speaker that gets remembered. That’s the speaker that gets called back. And of course, there’s a whole bunch of things you don’t want to do. You don’t want to go over time. And you know, all of those, all of those things. But I think these are two really important gifts for speakers, if we can pull profundity out of the mundane, then audiences love that. And if we can shift something in that audience, and if we can just make them look at their lives a little bit differently than they did a minute ago, that’s very, very powerful as well. And then, you know, the other thing I think, is we need to have the skills to deliver. And I don’t subscribe to the theory that there’s a right way and a wrong way to necessarily get on a stage and speak. If I was to say there’s a right way and a wrong way I would say the right way is whatever gets your message across the way you want it given across and that works for you, then it’s the right way. But when I get off the stage, what I asked myself is, you know, did I give them something they’ve never seen before? And did I excite them about it?
Maria Franzoni 16:12
And not all of this is a masterclass. I love that profundity out of the mundane. That’s good. And I also like those, oh, aha moments, those aha moments when I was running my speaker, Bureau, those speakers that made me go, Oh, I hadn’t heard it like that. Those were the ones that got the big fees, the ones that got paid the highest money, but they had to have all of the things that you said that they had to be able to deliver it they had to be eloquent they had to it’s, it’s great if this is a masterclass James,
James Taylor 16:42
I should talk about mascots, something you just mentioned there reminds me of something I learned from not a professional speaker, a professional author, Canadian, Malcolm Gladwell, a great Canadian writer, who were outliers. And he has a good masterclass, calm, he has an online course on storytelling, it’s good. Not just for authors, but for speakers, lots of people can use it. And he mentioned something in there, which I think is almost is another layer that you can go to with what you just said about that, wanting to have a change happened to that person in the room. And I can’t remember the phrase that he uses I use all the time, I call it intellectual popcorn. So where you share a story, where you know, it’s going to create a change or a perspective change in that audience member, but you know that it’s got enough of a hook in it, that on Monday morning when they’re speaking to their colleagues, they’re gonna say, Oh, I heard this guy stevia day. And he said this thing I like, and it’s kind of a viral nature to it as well. And they’re really hard to come up with because you duplicate a lot of things you’d like the friend to find him. He’s brilliant the 10,000-hour rule is probably an example of people say like, 10,000, that gets repeated. And I think if you can do what you just mentioned there, that ability to create that change in the audience member, and then for them to almost be your viral. I know, we’re talking about viruses and stuff just now into other people to create that change in them. That’s cool. But it’s really hard.
Steve Lowell 18:13
You know, I want to kind of our stories for a moment, because though that concept comes up all the time, as you know. And I believe that telling stories from the platform, how can I put this, I believe that there is a misunderstood opportunity that a lot of speakers don’t know about and that and it’s this telling stories is great. It’s awesome. It does everything it’s supposed to do and you do not need to be able to do it, and we do it and that. But the question is, what stories do you tell? And what I found is the best stories that that when I tell them that get me the best results are not my stories. They’re your stories. Yeah. So when I can tell the audience’s story from a perspective they have never considered before. That’s the kind of story that I like to use. And I have I don’t know, if you’ve seen this model that I use, I’ve used it all over the world called the repin meter. And it measures, you know, it helps people measure the state of their reputation, and that I can show it to you if you like it’s very cool. But what it does, it’s a story. But it’s your story. It’s not my story. And so what I do with these stories, I have lots of this. And what I do is I put the audience in their own story and they kind of figure out where they land in their own story. And then they say to their in their minds, they’ll say, Okay, this is my story. I recognize this story. And I’m in this spot in this story. And I need to be over in this other spot in the story. How do I get how do I change my story? So when I can tell the audience’s story, rather than somebody else’s story or in addition to somebody else’s story, then it has a profound impact. And that’s something I don’t see a lot of speakers do. And when I do see a speaker do it. I just go there it is. Oh, that’s beautiful. He just told me you’re She just told me my story.
Advice for aspiring speakers
James Taylor 20:01
Yeah. And it is a yes. And to that, I think the speaker said, another CSP speaker, I think was Marilyn Sherman was want to talk to me about it, which I loved. And she started using m books. And then she transferred it into her speeches, was when you’re using stories, really try and have quite a breadth of stories in terms of the people whose stories those are. And he said, what’s interesting when you do that, in a book when someone’s reading that book, and they read a story, you’ve explained a story, that reader is going I know someone just like that, I should get a copy of the book for her. And he said you can do the same thing in speeches. And you can get super strategic about it as well if you want to go that way. So you get like a mix of industries levels. So someone, either, as you say, either identifies themselves, or they identify a colleague or a friend or a loved one or someone that say, Oh, I heard the speaker the other day, Steve, and he told the story. And I thought just about you because it sounds like you as well. So that viral nature as well. 100% Yeah.
I’m James Taylor, keynote speaker, and speaker business coach, and this is the SpeakersU podcast. If you enjoy listening to conversations that will help you launch and grow your speaking business fast and you thought possible, then you’ve come to the right place. Each week we discuss marketing strategies, sales techniques, as well as ideas to increase the profitability of your speaking business and develop your craft. You’ll find show notes for today’s episode, as well as free speaker business training at SpeakersU.com. This week’s episode is sponsored by SpeakersU the online community for international speakers, speakers helped you launch, grow and monetize your speaking business faster than you thought possible. If you want to share your message as a highly paid speaker, then SpeakersU will teach you how just go to Speakers.com to access their free speaker business training. I’m intrigued. So you’ve your you’ve led caps, the Canadian professional Speakers now leading up the global speakers Federation. And so I’m sure this is one of the questions you get most often but I’m gonna ask you anyway, cuz I think it’s like your expertise. What advice would you give to those aspiring speakers who are just maybe getting on that first round, just getting started to help them grow their business? Because I’m very conscious that those speakers are coming in now. You and I, grew our business initially, pre COVID or before COVID? Yeah, they’re going to be grown growing their businesses, PC of push COVID after COVID. So what advice would you give to those aspiring speakers listening to this now watching this just now in 2021?
Steve Lowell 22:45
So you know, as well as I do that we could go all day about advising aspiring speakers. So I’m going to condense it to what I think is if somebody asked me what is the one piece right now, I think it would be this, it would recognize the enormity of the opportunity that lies before you through the virtual world. And so let me explain that. It used to be not so long ago, that if you were going to if you went to a convention or a conference, and they piped in a speaker through video, it was accepted. But it was there’s always a little Well, he was only there by video, like there’s this little there was always a little checkmark above it, right. But what we found is and Marie, I’m sure you have noticed this or you can debate this if I’m off. But what we’ve been what I’ve found is that not only is the virtual delivery, more expected and accepted, in many cases, it’s preferred now. So here’s what that means. It means that I’m at my place in Ottawa, Canada, you guys or your place over in the UK, and we’re here, I speak all over the planet. Now I’ve been you know, I’m going to be in like 16 countries over the next month. And I’m not going to have to leave my house. So there’s an enormous amount of opportunity here. And the way that we leverage that opportunity is through connection, equity. So it used to be two years ago or three years ago, if you’d asked me what my main advice would be, it would be more along the lines of being ready to hit the stage. And when you hit the stage, make sure you rock the stage and all of that. And all of that exists. It’s still there and it hasn’t gone away. But I think if you want to make an impact in this world as a speaker starting now, you need to be able to deliver virtually at the same level at you know as a professional speaker on a platform, but understand the magnitude of the opportunity that lies before you and start leveraging the connection equity. And the way to leverage the connection equity is through the speaker associations. That’s why I’m so passionate about being the president of the global speakers Federation because of the global speakers Federation Through my association with caps and Canada, you know, through caps into the through the GSF. That connection equity has created not just a global business for Jane and me, but we have established lifelong friendships and relationships that will be with us forever because of this. And of course, that expands our business. So I would say find your local speaker Association, wherever it is, if you don’t have one in your country or your area, then there’s a virtual one, the virtual Speakers Association International, find an association to get involved with and start learning from those people start growing with those people start sharing with those people belong to that association and leverage the connection equity that’s before you because it has never had this measure of opportunity.
Maria Franzoni 25:49
Love that mountain, I responded James to one of the points that Steve made about the virtual piece, is that okay, can I put my two penneth worth in? Go for it? Go for it. I agree. I haven’t disagreed with you yet. It’s like, it’s like you’ve paid me but you have. So we found it through a COVID. First of all, there was definite resistance to the whole virtual thing. But I know of clients who would read previously run one event, maybe two events a year now doing 40 or 50 events, because it’s so easy, very short times and involving all of their company employees globally. Now, they’re not going to stop, they’re not going to stop doing that. They will I’m sure have the person we’re all desperate to get out and do something and meet people absolutely, that networking is invaluable. But that the virtual is not going away. So you’re right. Vikram bol is listening in. And he says interesting, we have another Facebook user saying Hello. I’m sure they all agree. I think you’re right. Sorry, James, carry on.
James Taylor 26:47
No, I was just as you were saying, and I was thinking about, I was thinking about earlier this morning about what kind of events in-person events are we going to see in the future? Because I did, I don’t subscribe. And I know you described as either, that is all going to be virtual. That’s not where we’re going. So we’re gonna see this blend is a hybrid type of thing. And so I’ve been thinking about it. And like you were saying, Maria, I think for a lot of those a lot of events, I used to do a lot, which was an internal global event for a company. So they bring all their top executives from all around the world together into one space, or in one region. I think those are unlikely to go back to the way that they were in person. There’ll be they’ll use much more virtual for those. I think anything that’s client-facing, I think there will be more of those happening in person again. And I also think there’s an opportunity here, because at first, when I started seeing this, I thought, well, why would anyone want to book those speakers that do the side rooms at conferences, the more kind of workshop-style was the point in doing that when you could do it virtually? My thinking has changed a little bit, though, I think what we might see is those speakers who are very good at the can seminar-workshop side, internally in organizations, rather than all those employees, going to a conference and then doing those side rooms, that great speaker trainer going to that organization and more regionally and they’ll bring their workers together regionally in that space because I’m hearing just time after time after time, there’s a real yearning just now for collaboration with people, but I don’t necessarily think the big large conferences is going to be the way that that’s, that’s going to work. So I think it’s kind of nuanced, but who knows, it can change completely in six months, though.
Steve Lowell 28:36
Yeah, I agree with this. And this is what I’m hearing as well, the hybrid direction is what seems to be prominently in the minds of people. And, and I like it, but you know, I’ll tell you as a speaker, if I’m given the choice to be here in my studio at home, or being on a stage in Singapore, I’m in Singapore, right? I mean, I mean, I would give this up for any life stage in the world, because I just love being on the stage. But if it’s just not practical, it’s great to get to know that this is an acceptable way to do it now.
James Taylor 29:08
Yeah. Yeah. All right, good. I think this may be gone for some of the people that are attending and watching this just now. thinking what is your intention to speaking? And so I’m gonna use Steve, I think this is the best job in the world. Because we get to travel, we go to amazing places and connect with new audiences and learn about new cultures. And it’s fun to I love this pub. And so I would be I’d be on that flight with you in Singapore, go to sing
Maria Franzoni 29:35
egg in my office, my office.
James Taylor 29:38
I love it. But to be fair, I was having a conversation with the number of speakers the other day, who was saying, for them, the biggest reason their intention on speaking, is to get a message out to create that transformation to get a message out, and the traveling that all that stuff’s secondary. So for them, they’re feeling empowered. Just now. Because they feel like you’re saying, Steve, we’d have this global audience much easier to get to. So if you just take it from the perspective of is your topic, your your, that thing that is your core and the delivery devices is almost irrelevant, then there’s a completely different way of looking at it. So I think this is great. This is the main amazing thing about the industry, you can come at it from all different perspectives and have different tensions to what to do. And it’s, it’s very welcoming for everyone. So, Steve, I’m sure there’ll be lots of people watching this just now listening to it. Say, okay, I want to connect with Steve, I want to find out a little bit more, I’d also maybe get some directions on you if they’re not a member of a speaker’s Association because you’re now the president of the global speakers Federation, which is the kind of, I guess, like the mothership of all it’s the top is the top one is, where’s the best place for them to go to connect with you.
Connect with Steve
Steve Lowell 30:55
The best way to connect with me is really on LinkedIn. And I mean, I have a Facebook page, Steve Lowell calm, or a website. And Steve law comm is a very basic sort of a business card website, by design. But the best way to reach me is on LinkedIn, I do LinkedIn live a couple of times a week, I’m doing one shortly after this call with you guys. I post things up there, and I connect very well with folks on LinkedIn. So that’s the best way to go. The other thing is this if folks want to talk to me, I’m going to spend some time with you if you want to. And the way you do that is just going to meet Steve lowell.com www dot meet Steve Lowell Comm. That’s my calendar link, go in there and book a call with me. And I’ll spend 30 minutes with you and chat about the speaking business. And when you book the call, just make sure I mentioned this, this show, and give me a little idea of what you want to speak about. And, and I you know, I go through those and, you know, accept most of them and don’t accept all of them. But you can do that. And because I’m happy to speak with speakers around the world, it’s part of my passion to give to this community. That’s why I went through, jumped through all the hoops to become the president of the GSF so that I could have some sort of a positive influence on our speaker’s community. So connect with me on LinkedIn, and or book a call with me on the calendar link.
James Taylor 32:18
Well as a Canadian, you Steve being so giving like that, I guess my wife’s Canadian. So I find Kenny’s very, very giving. Now one of the things very giving thing that you’re doing. And Maria is very excited about this. I’m nice. I want this, I want this. So you’ve kindly offered a special offer for anyone that would like it. Can you tell us a little bit about that, please?
The High-Impact Keynote Template
Steve Lowell 32:40
Yeah, it’s called “The High-Impact Keynote Template”. And it’s a framework for a keynote style address that I developed many years ago, over years. And now it’s not the right way to create a keynote. It’s a way that works. And so it’s a PDF, I’ll give this to you. And I’ll just sort of fan through like, it’s all fill in the blanks kind of stuff. And it follows a very specific format. Very, very, very powerful. So to get that connect with me on LinkedIn, and just say, I’d like a copy of the template, and one of my team members will reach out to you and get it to you. So it’s, it’s just a fill in the blanks thing is beautiful, but it’s accompanied by a training video, and to get the training video, then you join our private Facebook group, and then the training video is in there. But even just with the template just with the document, you’ll be able to create a very good keynote address. And when I teach this to groups, My mission is to get their entire keynote down to two minutes. And then and so to do that, I’m it’s hard man. So to do that, we put almost everything in the message in a single sentence, get it down to two minutes. And now you have forensically dissected your message to the point where you’ve got the skeleton. And now you can start adding in him all the other stuff to make it bigger. But if you can express your entire keynote message in two minutes, now you know that you have gone through forensically and you have only the most important words in there. And that’s what this helps you to do.
Maria Franzoni 34:13
I like that because I think most speakers give too much in their keynote. So if you can get it down forensically and really deliver that strong light there, I’ll see you all in the Facebook group, because I’m going to after this time straight there, I’m going to be there first in the queue. And thank you so much, Steven, thank you for sharing your tip, which is obviously to become part of an association Speakers Association. I too have a tool of the week because James and I love gadgets and software. And the tool that I have to share is if any of you are out there creating a podcast and what you may know is that we take this content as well that we do on speaking business TV, and we turn it into a podcast. Now, creating podcasts can be a bit expensive when you’re having to have a professional editor and having to have you know mastering that The audio and getting it right. And there’s lots of you know, you’ve got to add the music in the beginning and add the music at the end if you want to do it right. And we were advised to try a piece of software by our Podcast Producer because he was retiring. And he kindly said, I have the solution. And it’s brilliant. It’s called alley to a Li t EU, we will have a link on the speaking business tv website, and his podcast editing software that makes it absolutely easy. And I can see that Steve is writing it down. It costs you $32 a month. I mean, how cool is that? You’re doing the podcast a week. It’s nothing right?
James Taylor 35:38
So, Maria, we’re gonna have to maybe have a little bit of a contest, maybe what we should do is we should take one of these episodes. And I’ll have my human editor in the Philippines. We’ll start he’ll start editing doing his but human version. And then you can use Allah to to do your fancy virtual version. So you finish his first movie. Okay, that’s that could be a future contest. I think it will do that. Yeah,
Maria Franzoni 36:06
like, give them time it will do the same. Of course, you know, I won’t be using the software be Shawn. But yes, we can do that. We can absolutely do that. Brilliant.
James Taylor 36:13
Great. So we’re gonna have all the links of it’s been speaking about today, the ones from Steve, the ones from Maria there, you can find them all just go to speaking business.tv and just enter your details there speaking business.tv. And it has all of the show notes for this episode, as well as all the previous episodes that we’ve had like one or they’re great tools and gadgets and things. So just head over to speaking business.tv if you want to find out more about that. So, Steve, thank you so much for joining Marina today on the show.
Steve Lowell 36:45
Well, I got to tell you, I have to congratulate you, both of you on the work that you’re doing because the value that you are delivering to our speaker community is just off the charts and and you know, James, you know, I love you I love your work. We’ve done some things together before and, and Marie, I’m just getting to know you. But I have to tell you, I just love the work that you’re doing. I love being involved in it. And thank you for having me on because it’s a real privilege to be here with you.
Maria Franzoni 37:12
Oh, it’s been a pleasure, absolute pleasure. And I think everybody’s learned so much. We’ve had some wonderful comments saying how fantastic the content has been. And that’s down to you, Steve.
James Taylor 37:20
Thank you. Well, thank you. You can subscribe to the SpeakersU podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts while you’re there. leave us a review. I really appreciate it. I’m James Taylor, and you’ve been listening to the SpeakersU podcast.
