#382 The 3 strategies to improve your speaking, captivate your audience, and turn your message into sales, with Steve Lowell.

EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION
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Steve Lowell  0:00  
I've got a gift. I can take people who aren't really speakers, I can put them on a platform in front of an audience and I can pull magic out of them they never knew existed.

Agi Keramidas  0:13  
You are listening to personal development mastery, the podcast that empowers you with the simple and consistent actions you need to create a life of purpose and fulfilment. I'm your host, Agi Keramidas. And this is episode 382. Are you ready to learn the secret to captivating your audience and telling your speaking into a revenue stream? My guest today explains how we can effectively connect with our audience and how to monetize our methods then it into sales. Before we dive into this fascinating conversation, if you enjoy listening and appreciate what we're doing here, the simple quick favour I'm asking of you is to click the subscribe button. Now let's get started. 

Agi Keramidas  1:06  
It is my pleasure to speak with Steve Lowell. Steve, you are an award winning speaker with over 50 years of experience from the stage. You are also a three time International Best Selling Author and elite speaker trainer. You have shared the stage with legends like John Canfield and Brian Tracy. And you have delivered over three and a half 1000 keynote speeches. You're passionate about empowering entrepreneurs to unleash their full potential as speakers transform their message into revenue and make a meaningful impact on their audiences. Steve, welcome to the show. It's such a delight to speak with you today. Well, thank you. It's great to be here. I was telling you and I will say that very quickly before before we started recording how much I enjoy conversations with people that talk about speaking it is maybe a personal thing of mine as well. As Steven, I look forward to explore this topic of speaking for entrepreneurs, so more generally in that direction. Before we go there, you've shared the states. As I said in the introduction with legends like Brian Tracy and Jack Canfield, can you recount an experience that had a profound impact on your own speaking careers?

Steve Lowell  2:40  
Oh, yeah, there's there's many, but I think the very first one was when I was in my early 20s. You see, I started, I've been on the live stage since the age of six. And now I wasn't a professional speaker at six. But I was a guitar player. And I was playing guitar at you know, different places. And I would always speak with the audience. And then as I grew older, I had a band, and we you know, toured the country and those kinds of things. And when I was in my early 20s, I was starting to realise that my musical abilities were very limited, and they were only going to get me so far. And I stumbled on a videotape of Zig Ziglar. And I'd never heard of Zig Ziglar. And I just thought he was the strangest guy with that southern accent and all of that. And I noticed this guy, he's he's by himself on the stage. He's got no equipment. He's got no bandmates that are, you know, with attitudes, his audience isn't drunk. You know, like, they're real silver people. And he's just speaking, like, he's just saying things and earning a living. And I thought what a great job that sounds like. So I was first exposed to the whole concept of speaking through Zig Ziglar. But then what happened was, I started to take training to become a professional speaker. That was my intention. And I was training with a company called the Dale Carnegie training company. And over some years, I was working with them. And I was sitting at the back of the room of a class I had taken all the classes and I was attending it all the classes. And I'm watching the instructors instruct, you know, watching them coach people. And in my mind, I'm coaching and I'm and I'm watching the instructors, you know, and one of the instructors came to me one time and he said, Would you like to try coaching somebody? And I said, Sure. So I step up to coach somebody. And the participant that comes out is the toughest one in the whole class like he's, he doesn't want to be there. He's negative, he's angry. His boss is forcing them to be there. And he just didn't want to be there. So I started coaching them Within a couple of minutes, I had him totally opened up. And he was dynamic. And he was excited. And he was engaged. And he was all these great things. And at that moment, I said, That's what I can do. I can do that. I can help people, I didn't know I had this gift. But I realised I've got a gift. I can take people who aren't really speakers, I can put them on a platform in front of an audience and I can pull magic out of them they never knew existed. And I didn't know I could do that. And so I learned that day that I had a gift that I could do that. And so I just, I turned it into a business. And I've been doing it ever since.

Agi Keramidas  5:39  
That's fantastic. And we'll come back to that, that gift of you know, being able to coach, others from speaking as you said, can you share quickly also on personal experience about you, you know, becoming a profound experience your own your own speaking, career or improvement? Yeah,

Steve Lowell  5:59  
so there have been there have been many, but I think the one that that immediately comes to mind is when I got to be on the stage with Jack with Jack Canfield we, we spoke at the same event. And, and this, this one wasn't that long ago, this was, I don't know, maybe five years ago or something. And we spoke at the same event, and I was speaking and he was in the front row. And then he spoke immediately after me. And we got to speak a little bit. But then afterwards, I went into the room where it was lunchtime, and we had speakers, we were sitting at the same table as Jack Canfield, and I walked up to Jack, and he was on the table at the table, and I walked up. As I walk up, Jack stopped. He said, Steve, he said, That was a master class and how to give a speech. And I said, Hey, Jack, I said, if I take out my phone, would you say that again? So I took out my phone, and I recorded it. And he gave me this beautiful, you know, three minute testimonial. And it was, and I think that was profound for me, because although I had been speaking for many years, and I had been all over the world, speaking and coaching and doing my programmes, that was the first celebrity speaker, that validated what I was doing. And so I thought well, okay, that that's and then from there, we became friends with Jack we came became friends with Brian Tracy, and well, who I know was also on your show, and, and some others. And so that that was a profound thing for me, because it was the first time I think I sort of felt like I'm part of that world now. You know. And so that was that was cool.

Agi Keramidas  7:38  
Thank you for sending that they enjoyed listening to this story. And also, I appreciated how you said that you directly went for for it. In a way,

Steve Lowell  7:50  
I always do that I always have my phone with me. So that because sometimes, you know, after you speak or something, you're in the halls, and somebody will come by and they'll say, Hey, that was really great. Can you say that again for me. And so I've got all kinds of great spur the moment on the spot testimonials, just from people who enjoyed what I did. I think that's very important. I encourage all speakers to do that.

Agi Keramidas  8:13  
Thank you that that one comes at us the first practical tip you've saved already. I want to go back, Steve, to what you were saying earlier about the the gift you use that words to and you said something, I will rephrase it, in my own words now along the lines of teaching or helping someone to speak even though they they are not speakers or something along those lines. What I wanted to ask about this is what would you say to someone listening right now that, you know, of course they speak, but they don't feel that their voice? I'll put it like that is not powerful enough. And people don't they don't maybe listen to that the way that he would like or she would like. Right.

Steve Lowell  9:09  
Okay, so I think, you know, there are many, many, many tips and techniques for speaking as you know, I mean, I wrote a book on one many people, you know, I wrote a book, many people have written books on how to speak but here are some of the most important things. I think the first thing I think we need to do is when we speak, whether it's, you know, virtual or live, we need to put our mindset in what I call a mindset of service, which means we want to be in service to that audience because what happens with so many people, as I'm sure you know, is they get very uncomfortable and they get very self conscious and that's what stops the voice from being heard. We, you know, when we're uncomfortable, we tend to restrict ourselves and we put this protective wall around us and then we we Don't release our personality, we don't release our communication skills, we don't fully express that which is within us because we protect ourselves. And when we protect ourselves that stifles our voice, not just the voice that comes out of the mouth, but the whole self expression gets restricted because we're protected. And that protection happens, because we are in a mindset of self service, or a mindset of self preservation. And so what we want to do is, before we speak, shift that mindset so that we are in a mindset of service. And so I'm here to serve you, I'm here to serve your audience. And I want to serve the organiser of the event, I want to serve the other speakers, I want to serve the good, I want to be here to serve. And if I put my mindset in this position of service instead of self service, that means it allows me to express I'm not protecting myself anymore, I'm releasing myself and, and so to do this, we have to give ourselves permission to get it wrong a little bit, we have to give ourselves permission, maybe we're going to say the wrong thing, maybe we're going to do the wrong thing, maybe will say or do something incorrectly, but the but if we're in service, if the attention is service, then none of those things really matter. So if you want your voice truly to be heard, release everything about you that expresses by getting your mindset into a place of service.

Agi Keramidas  11:34  
If you enjoyed this episode, can you think of one person that would find it useful and share it with them? I'd really appreciate it, it helps the show grow. And you will also be adding value to people you care about. And now let's get back to the episode. Thank you for this advice, you reminded me something similar that I it was taking my attention of how well I will perform? Which is as you said it was the self preservation my performance? And is shifting the attention to how can I serve? And you know, I'm not necessarily now speaking in terms of speaking in front of an audience or when even if you speak with three members of your team or, you know, the members of your family or whatever, I believe the same principles in general applies, don't you think?

Steve Lowell  12:34  
Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, sure, if getting into a mindset of service in every area of life, you know, is a is a good thing to do. But I think there are also times when you do get in need to get into a mindset of self service. And they we have to take care of ourselves, you know, we need to take care of our health, and we need to take care of our bodies. And we need to take care of our mind. And we need to take care of our emotions, we need to take care of our spiritual life. So there is you know, a lot of self service involves. But I've always found that when I was even when I was playing music, getting on the stage, it was really more on my mind about how can I entertain this audience. And I think that's where it came from. When I was young. When I was playing in bands, I would see a lot of other bands play. And what I noticed about most of them is they would have what's called a setlist, which means on the floor, they would have in front of them a list of songs that they were going to play in the order in which they were going to play them. And I never understood that because when I played in my band, my next song that we were playing was determined by how well the audience enjoyed this song. And then so I was always how can we best attend to this audience? What did they like? Do they like the fast song? Do they like the slow songs do they like country? Do they like rock and I'm listening, and I'm watching and I'm paying attention. And we always try to guide what we were doing based on what we're serving them the best. And I think that trends transposed into my speaking business, my speaking career. So I want to serve. And so definitely in every area of life, I think we get into a mindset of service, we become more valuable to everybody including ourselves.

Agi Keramidas  14:12  
Absolutely. Still, let's change a bit direction and discuss this speaking and monetize and I have read and heard you talk about monetize your methods with speaking show, bringing the conversation to this particular topic. So first of all, when you say monetize your speaking Can you tell me what you mean by that? Yeah,

Steve Lowell  14:43  
I mean making money through speaking. And there's a multitude of ways to do

Agi Keramidas  14:48  
as a speaker human as well,

Steve Lowell  14:51  
not well. So it's monetizing, making money through the spoken word. So using speaking to make money So if we so if we if we break down the speaking business very simply into two categories, we've got the speakers who speak to be paid. So they go and they speak and they get paid to speak, and then they leave and go to the next one. And then so right. So that's the speaker's fee side of the world, then there's the I call it speak to sell, right? So you're speaking in order to generate business. So those are the two ways. So when I say monetize your speaking, it could be either way. It could be either way. And so there's a whole discussion around the advantages and disadvantages of each. And how do you pursue each because the, the process is completely different, the skill sets are different, the everything is different.

Agi Keramidas  15:47  
Great. So thank you for clarifying this. And I did not mean for professional speakers that appear on stage to in order to get paid are meant more in the sense of an entrepreneur who speaks to people all the time. So I suppose you would agree with me that many struggle to achieve that when they speak or? So will be very good at it? What, what do you think are some common reasons why this happens?

Steve Lowell  16:20  
Yeah, there are some very common reasons. And the good news is they're not difficult to overcome, right? So. So here are some of the most common reasons. First, it starts off again, with mindset, if we you know, and I won't spend a lot more time on this. But if we, if we go into a presentation, and our objective is primarily to separate the audience from their money, then it's a problem. It'll never, it'll never succeed. But here are some functional challenges. And the first one is, is. And I made this mistake for decades, not years, decades, I made this mistake. And the mistake was, I always thought that if I get in front of an audience, and if I teach them a lot of great things, if I teach them how to do this, and how to do that, they're going to walk away with some amazing value, they're going to love me, and they're going to want to hire me or join my programme. And I've learned the hard way that that's the absolute opposite is true. You see, the biggest mistake I see that that entrepreneurs make one of the biggest mistakes is that they teach too much. And what happens now is the audience thinks that they have what they need. So we've always been taught as entrepreneurs and even as speakers, we've been taught to solve problems, and our job is to solve the client's problem solve the audience's problem. But from a speaking perspective, our job is not to solve the problem. If we solve the problem in the audience's mind, then they don't need us anymore. So our job is not to solve their problem, our job is to reveal the problem, our job is to change something in the audience's mind that makes them go like this, we want the audience to go you know, I've never thought of it like that before. I've never heard it like that before. We want to change their perspective, we want to rattle their beliefs, we want to shake their paradigms a little bit. And now when we do that, now they're open to learn, they know they have to learn something new. So that's, that's the first thing we need to do. The next thing we need to do is we need to step back from the objective of separating them from their money and go more into the objective of positioning ourselves as somebody they need. You see, any time we speak or present, we only position ourselves in one of two ways. And there are only two, we either position ourselves as somebody they need, or as somebody they don't. And so if we give them too much content, and if we if we solve their problem, and if we teach them all kinds of things. And if we give them all kinds of solutions. We're positioning ourselves as somebody they don't need, because they're going to take all that great stuff, and they're going to go away thinking they can do it themselves, and they don't need me anymore. So to position themselves as somebody I need, I need the audience to go, man, I never thought of it like that before I'm doing something wrong, I need this person to help me. That's where we have to get the audience. Then after we do that all the high pressure stuff doesn't need to be done. It's just a matter of sitting down with them and figuring out how you can serve them. Now there's all kinds of strategy, you know, behind how do we get the audience there?

Agi Keramidas  19:40  
Yes, since you mentioned it, I would like to ask for two strategies, one for reads row one for revealing the problem as you said and to unfor positioning oneself as the person that the audience needs. Right.

Steve Lowell  20:00  
Okay, so revealing the problem. This is the this is the big work. This is the kind of work that I do with a client. So we figure all of that out. But here's the here's how we do this. I'll give you an explanation, then I'll give you an example. The explanation is we need to find a way that draws a straight line between us and the audience's problem. And it's a straight line that they didn't know existed. And that's, that's the difficult thing. So it's like the audience, when they first see you, they don't know that you can solve their problem. And then you have to show them that the way you can solve their problem is by revealing a problem they hadn't thought about. So I'll give you a simple example. Okay, so when I speak, I usually tell this story. I first I asked the audience this question, I asked the audience, you know, put up your hand, if you or somebody you know, is in the market for a tennis instructor. Now, when I do that, most people don't put their hands up. Some do, some don't. But usually out of 100 people, one hand might go up, because people just generally aren't walking the earth looking for a tennis instructor. So I tell the audience this, I say, I'm going to bet that at least 30 of you, out of 100 are in the market for a tennis instructor right now. Or you know, somebody who is. So the audience starts thinking, yeah, how you going to do that? You know? So then I tell them about this guy named Brian. Now, Brian came to me about 20 years ago, and he said, Steve, I'm going to all the events, I'm shaking all the hands, I'm speaking with all the people. He said, I'm just not getting the business that I need. I said, Well, Brian, what do you do? He says, I'm a tennis instructor. And we see what the market is for tennis instructors. So whenever he says, I'm a tennis instructor, what he's doing is he's positioning himself as somebody they don't need. So we taught Brian how to position himself as somebody they do need. So now, if you saw Brian today, and said, What do you do? Brian would say something like this, he'd say, Well, you know how sometimes kids have so much energy, they're bouncing off the walls, they're so excited, they're making all kinds of noise. And the parents have no idea what to do with these kids. He'd say, Well, what I do is I take these kids, I take kids of any age, I bring them on a tennis court, I absolutely exhaust them. And then I hand them back to their parents. And then I asked the audience, put up your hand, if you just might know somebody who might be in the market for a tennis instructor, and all of a sudden, every hand in the place goes up. Now, here's what it demonstrates, it demonstrates the point that just by changing the way you speak, by drawing a straight line between yourself and the audience's problem, a straight line that they haven't considered before, you can change the room from I'm not interested to tell me more very, very, very quickly. So drawing that straight line. That's the work. That's the part that I do. That's what I do is I help people draw that straight line. So there is no short answer to how to do that, because everybody's different. But the outcome is when you speak, you position yourself as somebody they need instead of somebody they don't. And to do that, we need to be clear, what exactly do they need, that they don't really know they need? And that's how we do that.

Agi Keramidas  23:28  
This is great. And I appreciate that it is very individual as an answer. But I think they're the example you gave is quite early debatable, because it is it goes from it is what you said reveal the problem that they didn't know that they had, which is make sure that different.

Steve Lowell  23:50  
Yeah. And they're thinking I never thought of it that way. I never thought of a tennis instructor like that before.

Agi Keramidas  23:57  
I suppose not. Now that I've asked that I was asking for you for one more strategy about positioning myself as someone who needs in a way it's a part of it has been answered. But if you can add to that.

Steve Lowell  24:10  
Sure. Yeah. Okay. So there are three outcomes that we want our audience to feel when we speak. And the first outcome is the one that is most often missed. And here they are. Well, let me back up. Have you ever heard the old adage that people buy from those they know like and trust Have you heard that before? Everybody knows that? Right? Okay. So I'm here to tell you that that's not true. It's not true. Because I know lots of people that I know very well, that I very much like, and I trust them with my life, but I would never hire them or buy from them because I don't believe they're qualified to solve my problem. Whatever it is, but so know like and trust. Yes, they have to be there but that's not that is not why people will hire us, nor is it why people buy from us. So there are three other outcomes that absolutely must occur. Number one is the audience needs to feel understood. So what that means is, the audience needs to feel, you know what he gets me or she gets me. And you said the word when I talk about Brian, the tennis instructor, you said the word relatable, that is mandatory, has to be relatable, the off audience needs to think that but that is more than the audience relating to the speaker, the audience needs for that speaker understands me. So when we do Brian, the tennis instructor, everybody in the audience who's ever experienced children, they go, Yep, that's me. That's me, I get that, you know, so we need to get the audience to that. And this is where so many speakers really mess it up. Because they get the audience they get in front of the audience. And they think, if I can get the audience to understand me, they're gonna want to hire me. But the exact opposite is true, we should be saying, if I can get the audience to believe that I understand them, then the audience is more likely to move forward. So that's, that's number one, the audience needs to feel understood. Number two is the audience needs to feel a safe now safe, meaning that your objective is not to just separate them from their money. And the way we do that, of course, is by positioning ourselves in this position of service. So the audience has to feel that we are there to serve, not there to take not there to just sell. So they need to feel understood, they need to feel safe. And they also need to have confidence, they need to have confidence that you can actually do what they need to have done. So this is why the Brian, the tennis instructor thing works for me so well, because they see it right before their eyes in 30 seconds, the whole room goes from, I'm not interested to tell me more. And like that. So I demonstrate that. So as a speaker, what we want to do is we want to find a way to demonstrate our skill in front of the audience instead of just telling them about our skill. So those three outcomes, they want to feel understood, they want to feel safe, and they want to feel confident. And if we achieve those three outcomes, and if we draw a straight line between us and their problem that they hadn't considered before. Now we've positioned ourselves as somebody that just might need at least somebody they're willing to investigate. Thank

Agi Keramidas  27:30  
you, Steve. You've seen me smiling all along it. It's like a mini masterclass on how to monetize your message. So thank you very, very useful, deep sense of, obviously each can apply to their own circumstances. I understand also that you would like to offer to the listeners a free copy of your book. So can you please share? How can people find out more about you? And what is the gift that you want yours? Yeah.

Steve Lowell  28:08  
Yeah, I like to give your audience a PDF copy of my first book, it's called from stage fright, to spotlight 99 Speaker secrets to breaking the rules and mastering the stage. And I wrote this book back in 2010, I think or something. And, and they can get it at my website at Steve Lowell. That's ello W E ll Steve lobel.com, forward slash free dash book. And they just sign up and they'll get it right away. And it's a fun read. It's 99 little, you know, little pieces. So you can take it and pick it up and read it anywhere if you open up to a page and there's good things to read there. And, and so it's an easy book to read. But there's a lot of interesting things in there that will people really help people I think,

Agi Keramidas  28:53  
thank you. I can't help but think for similarity, because my first book which I released last year was about 88 actionable insights. So now you hear the 99 from you, which is yes, so that's very interesting. Maybe someone has written 77 have something.

Steve Lowell  29:14  
Or maybe somebody wrote about the extra 20 between yours.

Agi Keramidas  29:21  
That's great. Steve, I do have before we conclude the I do have two quick last questions, which I always asked my interests and the first one is What does personal development mean to you?

Steve Lowell  29:35  
Sure, personal development means to me, continued growth so that I can continue to serve.

Agi Keramidas  29:43  
And hypothetically speaking, if you could go back in time and meet your 18 year old self was one piece of advice you would give him.

Steve Lowell  29:52  
Oh, my I would look myself in the face and get over yourself. That's what I would get over yourself. Because I was I had such a Oh, yeah, I had such a poor self image. And I just I was always worried about what other people thought and, and so I just get over yourself.

Agi Keramidas  30:12  
Very, very wise piece of advice. Indeed. Steve, I want to thank you very much for the truly fascinating conversation I will confess right now that there was another big topic that I wanted to discuss with you, but we didn't even have, I didn't want to, you know, just scratch the surface Aqua left this completely out because it will easily take equal

Steve Lowell  30:39  
time of that. Why don't we do this again,

Agi Keramidas  30:43  
that's a good idea actually. And we can discuss I will tell you which one it was it was the signature talk, which is something I think very important, very unique to each of us. So that's great. We will arrange for sure a part two and go into that. I want to wish you all the very best with your mission and with what you do in your life. And I will leave it to you for your parting words of wisdom.

Steve Lowell  31:15  
Well, thank you for that parting words of wisdom is understand this basic principle that speaking is not about a transference of, of information. Speaking is about a transference of emotion. So if I can get you to feel about my message, the way I feel about my message, now we have communication.

Agi Keramidas  31:40  
And before I end today's episode, an invitation to you listening right now. Find me on social media and send me a direct message. You can tell me who your favourite guest has been so far or who you would like me to interview next, or what topic you would like to hear. Drop me a line and I look forward to chatting with you. Until next time, stand out don't fit in!