Jul 23, 2020
How To Be A Distinctive Speaker
James Taylor interviews Scott McKain and they talked about how to be a Distinctive Speaker
In today's episode Scott McKain talks about How To Be A Distinctive Speaker.
Scott McKain is an acclaimed keynote speaker, best-selling author and globally recognized authority on how organizations and professionals create distinction to attract and retain customers — and stand out in a hyper-competitive marketplace. His client list includes some of the world’s most distinctive companies – including Apple, SAP, Merrill Lynch, BMW, Cisco, and John Deere. Scott was inducted, along with Zig Ziglar, Seth Godin and Dale Carnegie, into the “Sales and Marketing Hall of Fame”. And after thousands of presentations in all 50 states and 23 countries, he was also honoured with membership in the “Professional Speakers Hall of Fame”.
What we cover:
- How to be distinctive in a hyper-competitive marketplace
- Why every speaker needs to pay their dues
- The one question every speaker needs to ask themselves
Resources:
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Read full transcript at https://speakersu.com/how-to-be-a-distinctive-speaker-sl072/
James Taylor
Hi, it's James Taylor, founder of SpeakersU. Today's episode was first
aired as part of International Speakers Summit the world's largest
online event for professional speakers. And if you'd like to access
the full video version, as well as in depth sessions with over 150
top speakers, then I've got a very special offer for you. Just go
to InternationalSpeakersSummit.com,
where you'll be able to register for a free pass for the summit.
Yep, that's right 150 of the world's top speakers sharing their
insights, strategies and tactics on how to launch grow and build a
successful speaking business. So just go to InternationalSpeakersSummit.com
but not before you listen to today's episode.
Hey there, it's James Taylor and I'm delighted today to be joined by Scott McKain. Scott McKain is an acclaimed keynote speaker best selling author and globally recognized authority on how organizations and professionals create distinction to attract and retain customers and stand out in a hyper competitive marketplace. His client list includes some of the world's most distinctive companies, including Apple SAP, Merrill Lynch, BMW, Cisco and john deere. Scott was inducted along with Zig Ziglar Seth Godin and Dale Carnegie into the sales and marketing Hall of Fame. And after thousands of presentations over 50 states and 23 countries, he was also honored with membership into professional speakers Hall of Fame. And it's my great pleasure to have Scott join us today. So welcome, Scott.
Scott McKain
Yes, what a privilege. Gosh, I, I can hardly wait to hear what I
have to say after that. That was extraordinary. I'm grateful. And
thank you for allowing me to be a part of this.
James Taylor
So share with everyone what's going on in your world just now.
Scott McKain
Gosh, it's a busy time. I'm working on my next book, which will be
we just signed the contract for it, in fact yesterday, and it'll be
released at the end of this year. And the title of the book is
iconic. How organizations and leaders attain lose and regain the
ultimate level of distinction. So I'm really excited about that.
I'm we're going back and forth and polishing the manuscript before
publication, but really excited Time for that. And then I'm also
out there speak it. I just got back from Australia and got the hit
Oh, just traveling all the time doing what we do is speakers. So
it's a, I'm very blessed. It's a very fortunate, fortunate set of
circumstances for me.
James Taylor
So how did a young man from Indiana end up as one of the most top
keynote speakers, but tell talk a little bit about what their
journey was like? You
Scott McKain
know, it's funny, I was thinking last night, I was anticipating you
might ask that question. And I was thinking last night on on, I'm
14 years old. I'm a freshman in high school. I'm part of a trip to
a convention at Purdue University. And I'm literally on the back
row of the first level of this auditorium. And they introduced an
outside speaker. And I was moved not only by the message, I set
there at 14 years old, and I still remember thinking that's the
coolest thing in the world. It was the first time that I'd ever
heard a professional speaker and I remember thinking not Not only
was I moved by his message and impacted by what he had to say, but
I also remember thinking, that would just be the coolest, coolest
job in the world. But I'm a freshman High School, right? So I don't
remember, other than other than prom and and then commencement. I
don't remember a single night that went by, that I didn't take this
little tape recorder and stand in my bedroom for all four years of
high school and do two things. One is I would give a prepared
speech and record it. And then I would stand and I would try to
pick out something in my bedroom. And I would make myself give a
two minute speech on something that I saw in the bedroom. In other
words, could I give a two minute speech on a coat hanger? Could I
give a two minute speech on a doorknob? Could I and it I wanted to
practice being able to think of my feet to be able to stand and
communicate and keep it going For that, for that period of time.
Interestingly enough, the first speech contest I won was based on I
looked down and saw a key ring and I made myself give a, a two
minute speech on a key ring. And then I got the idea that
leadership is not about being the biggest key. It's about being the
ring that ties all of those unique keys together in a meaningful
poll. And that was the first that was the topic of the of the first
speech contest that I wanted when I was in high school. I got an
opportunity to in high school when I was 14, the little local radio
station offered me a job and people say, Oh, you've got a radio
voice. That's why they did it. Well, no, I was 14. My you know, is
you know what, when you're a guy and you're 14, your voice is all
over the play, you know that but my dad owned the local grocery
store and they thought if they hired his son, then dad would buy
more commercials on the radio station rather than ads in the
newspaper but, but I think it helped me train my voice because I
was always trying to sound Unlike an adult, I was always as my
voice was changed was always trying to drive my voice lower. And
then with radio people say, Well Did that really helps you for
speaking. The only thing that helps you speaking is when you click
the mic on, you'd better have something to say. And so it helped me
on my, but there's there was little in that that helped them in
terms of speaking. I got involved in a student organization. In the
United States, it's called FFA. At that time it stood for Future
Farmers of America. It was an agriculturally related organization,
not just for farmers, but for anyone involved in the industry of
agribusiness. Today's just known as FFA, because it's not it's
moved from production agriculture to the entire the entire field.
But the crazy thing was, it's really a leadership development
organization. And it It got me, you know, inspired by speaking
contests and it got me speaking and I was elected State President,
Indiana and then later a national Officer of FFA. So I took two
years out of college to fulfill those responsibilities, which
basically was traveling and speaking By the time I was 21, I had
given a speech to the board of directors in general motors in the
boardroom at the GM headquarters. I had met with the President of
the United States in the Oval Office, I had spoken in front of
25,000 people, I had had those opportunities, but the time I was 21
but the other thing that happened was, is I would speak at these
rural meetings in the United States. You know, somebody mom might
be the local bank president or somebody dad might be involved with
another civic organization. I'm speaking to the students, but the
parents happen to be in the in the room and so somebody would come
up and say, Hey, you know, our bank tellers need to hear that
speech. Could you come into the bank and, and give that speech? And
that's how I pay boy through college, was traveling all over the
Midwest, you know, given given those speeches, and it was it the
other thing was, it was it was the greatest learning laboratory you
can imagine. Because when people say, Well, what does somebody 2223
years old have to say to business people, older adults. Well, what
I did was kind of make a report of what I've learned from other
business people. You know, here's, here's what I learned when we
visited General Motors. And here's what if you're sincere people
love to help. So what would happen is I'd give a speech at some
small community and one of the entrepreneurs and say, hey, I've got
an idea for you first, you know, so I'd write that down. Next
speech, I'd relate their idea. Well, one of two things would happen
James, either they'd write down the idea, the audience would write
it down, oh, that's a good idea and write it up, or somebody would
come up and say, I've got a better idea. Well, that so for the next
decade, I'm I'm doing that, and it was the greatest learning
laboratory you can imagine it didn't pay much
James Taylor
that what that what you just described is you and I were talking
earlier about we're both drummers and that sounds very similar to I
think a lot of my musician, friends and family members who paid
their Jews. You know, you go and play all those club gigs. You
know, there's like, three men and dug in there, and you're you're
working on your craft and you're continually but you have, you have
such a love, you know, passion for what you do that's taking you
through all the time, you're continually working with people that
are better than you, you're kind of learning from those and adding
those new distinctions.
Scott McKain
So true. I gave 1003 speeches through through the student
organization. But I mean, literally standing up at a banquet or
standing up at a luncheon or doing a high school assembly you're
doing, I gave 1000 free speeches before ever got paid. Now, I'm not
encouraging anybody to go and do 1000 free speeches, but to support
what you're saying, James enthusiastically. It is about paying your
dues. And I think unfortunately, I have seen really good people try
to move that process too quickly. And so they get booked for
speeches before they're really ready. And this is a referral
business to a great degree. It's certainly a reputation business
and so they they intentionally damage the future of their career.
Because they put themselves through great marketing. And through
all of these other things we learned how to do as speakers. They
put themselves in a position for which they're not ready. It's
like, you know, if you're just learning the game of basketball, you
don't want to be on an NBA court yet. Yeah, right. If I'm just
learning the game of football, I shouldn't be on a premier league
field yet. Because my skills not only are my skills not that
proficient, it'll also really make me look bad. And with such a
reputation business, you can't afford that.
James Taylor
And you want that kind of sustainability. I suppose. It's a little
bit like a TV show like American Idol, for example, where you see
young, really talented people, you know, they've got they've got
that that core part of town and they get pushed onto these big
stages. And very early on maybe before they've, they haven't
Nestle, paid the dues, they haven't done all those little kind of
club gigs to work up things. And the first time they're actually
getting in front of people, it's in front of, like 20,000 people.
And they're doing five nights in a row. And then there's something
their voice goes because they haven't learned to look after the
tone of their voice and things like that. Yeah. So so in this time
you were kind of going through those those early stages and doing
those first thousand talks. Were there any mentors that you had as
a speaker, people that took you up under their wing, even maybe
people you knew or maybe people you looked at from afar and you
said, I want to be like that I can see that's who I I look to to
train to attain that level of mastery.
Scott McKain
I want to share a couple quick stories. If I could. James, I was
speaking at for the student organization FFA. I'll never forget in
Illinois at the Fieldhouse for the University of Illinois, about
3000 students in the audience. And on the afternoon keynote, the
keynote that night was a man named Grady Nutt and he was a humorous
but yet a very serious in terms of he had a he had a great message
you He his tumor as a vehicle for him. So he wasn't just a
comedian. And I'd read about him and I wanted to see him. And he
was speaking that night. So I speak that afternoon goes great. I
hear him that night. And it was just the most amazing speech. In
terms of audience, he blew the roof off the place. It was so
incredible. And I walked up afterwards just to shake his hand and
he sees me and he says, you need to be doing this for a living. And
I, I was so enthralled with him. I do want familiar with it. He
said, No, he said, I walked in this afternoon just to get a feel
for the arena and the field for the crowd. And and I just walked
in, nobody knew who I was, and they just introduced you. So I sat
down in the back row, and I listened to your speech and he said,
You ought to be doing this for a living. And then he said, and I
will help. And as as Grady's career continued to grow, and
audiences certain of his older audiences couldn't afford to have
him back. Great. He would say, I've got this young guy, he's just
getting started in speaking. But But He's really good. You ought
to, you ought to book him. And so that's how part of my career got
started was just the little audiences that couldn't afford radio
more because he paid his dues, and he's working his way up and I'm,
you know, I'm here. Tragically, Grady was killed in a plane crash
coming home from a speech in 1982. But he was a great influence on
my life. The other one that really inspired me. They brought me
back to speak at this FFA convention 10 years after I had been a
national officer, and my wife and I are checking in the hotel and
the other speaker and there's 25,000 students in the audience for
this event. And they just bring me back because I'm an alumnus,
right. I'm a I've been at the been a part part of the program. So
I'm checking it out and the other speaker is gonna be Zig Ziglar.
And I can't wait to hear because I'd never heard Zig Ziglar person
had every book at every everything and at the front desk, There was
a note and it said, please call Mr. Ziegler's room had his room
number, when you arrive he wants to see if you would like to go to
dinner. And I joke I feel like a shortstop playing Little League
that Derek Jeter wants to know if I want to go get a coke or
something. I, I remember trembling when I when I called and he
answered the phone and I said, you know, we'd love to my wife
sweet, so, so just the three of us went to dinner zig and my late
wife and I, and Zig sat there and he said, Scott, you know, I
looked before the convention and he said, I didn't see your book.
Where's your book? And I said, was a guy I've never written a book.
And he said, Yeah, I haven't either. My wife and I kind of like
look at each other because we've got, we got like, 10 on the shelf,
right? We've got every Zig Ziglar book. He said, But you know what?
Every morning I get up and and I write three pages. And after about
six months, they tell me I've got a book. And then he just sat back
and smiled and it was like the lightning Whatever top my head. And
he said, I think that he said, I've looked and learned and I know
your message. And he said, it's a really a good one. And he said,
it needs to be in a book. He says, I bet your problem is is the
problem I had, which is to write a book seems so challenging. It
seems so overwhelming. Don't write a book, but write three pages
and do that every day. And the next morning, I got up, I wrote
three pages. And it's the first three pages of my first book all
businesses show business and he
James Taylor
had so many great little I remember early and probably about 14
married about that time, going and driving to though heading to
different places. And listening to his audio tapes. I'm going to
give me a bunch of audio tapes. And he had that real he had that he
had a certain kind of voice. And I'm guessing being from the UK,
I'm guessing was very informed by the, the, you know, the church,
that kind of pastors speaking there was a sudden lilt in a certain
way that it can when you hear great, great preachers for example,
it has That kind of feel to it. I just remember all these little
things. I remember one of the ones he said, you know, get them
laughing every seven minutes. You know, there was there's things
like that. And there was there's lots of ways I think, Rory vaden,
who we had as a guest on this as well, I know, was kind of in the
same way that Grady took you under his his wing. I think that Rory
was one of those people who went on to Zig under many I know
there's many of people like that. And I was recently speaking with
Dr. Shirley Davis and Les Brown was that person that took her under
his wing. So that's that's it just we hear the story time and time
again, you're the mentor and mentee and just kind of passing on to
the onto the next generation. As you were going into this world was
any advice you got? I mean, you speak about this idea of having
distinction and we are in a super crowded world now it feels like
with with speakers and speakers coming in all the time from
different areas. How did you learn to To stand out what was your
How did you in this kind of hyper competitive marketplace of
speaking? How did you find a way to be distinct?
Scott McKain
It's a great question. It's, it's a, for the, for the first major
part of my career. When someone said, What do you speak about? I'd
usually say well, about an hour. What What do you want me to speak
about time management? All right, I'll be so stressed to get that
speech done. I'll have to learn it, you know, to give it I would go
anywhere to talk about whatever you wanted. And what you got was
based on my experience of giving a lot of speeches, you know, I, I
was, I was a serviceable speaker with a very, very generic
presentation. Which was good enough to get me booked and good
enough to book a lot of speeches at an OK fee. And then I had to
really pull back. Saturday, my first wife, Sherry, developed
ovarian cancer. And we didn't have any kids and I'm a sole
caregiver. And it was a very trying time. And after Sherry passed,
I had to reboot my business. And this is a hard business to get
into. It's a really hard business to get back into. It's it's
difficult to position it's even more difficult to reposition,
right? If I'm new in the market, then all I have to do is to get
you to understand the best about me, and I'm positioned to
reposition I've got to get you to forget what you knew and get you
to start thinking something different so it's always more difficult
to reposition. So I started calling the speakers bureaus that had
booked me and I asked them, okay, when you recommend me to a
client, what do you say? Which I think is what I look back now.
stumbled onto that question, but I think it's one of the most
critical questions that we can ask when you refer me. What What do
you say about me? And the number one overwhelming answer was a
really good speaker and a really nice guy. Well, don't get me
wrong, I want to be, I want to be a really good speaker. I work
really hard at being a really good speaker. I choose to be I want
to be a nice guy. But there I can't picture the Vice President of
Ford. When they're talking about the sales meeting coming up. I
can't imagine that person saying, you know what we need this year.
We need a really nice guy, though they say we want someone who will
teach us about. So as silly as it sounds, James, I started saying I
gotta figure out how to stand out and I started researching how did
companies that were distinctive in the marketplace, what did they
do, and executives that that had risen to the top as leaders as
managers. What did they do? And were there any common threads that
and all I was trying to do was to take my business to that level.
And and as silly as this sounds I look back now. But I'm midway
into my research and it was the blinding flash of the obvious that
wait a minute if I really need this, how many other companies and
managers and leaders and salespeople are out there that need the
same thing? And so that was the genesis of the whole thing that
created with distinction was and I realized along the way, too,
it's not differentiation. I don't think different is better.
Different is just different. If I slap every client in the face,
I'm different. It doesn't mean they'll ever book me again. But
they'll go and he's really different. Right? So it seemed to me
that there was a level of sameness, which many speakers are what I
was right in other words, I'm I'm just out there doing a good job.
There's a lot of folks will do a good job. I hope you pick me. It
also those are the ones that they're always saying, well, could you
do it for a little bit less? Could you do it for, you know, we're
having to negotiate fee, then you go to the next level, which is
differentiation, there's something about them that's a little bit
different, a little bit unique makes them stand out. But the higher
level then becomes distinction. And distinction is where you are
known for something to such a degree, that you are attracting
business. Even as you pursue bookings, you're also attracting it.
Because people are saying, oh, if we want to know about how to
create distinction, this is the guy yeah, this is the person that
owns that. And and that's the highest level. So that's where that
all came from James, I was just trying to save my speaking
business, and then realized if I needed this in my business, what
were the what was the likelihood that other business professionals
were looking for the same answer
James Taylor
that's almost like you think of you two iconic, iconic brands.
Think of like Volvo safety owns a word and it is not it doesn't own
four by four it doesn't own SUV owns he owns a feeling or or an
emotion I think it's like Sally hogshead and fascinate sure she
comedians that that word. So you were actually building up the
ownership almost ownership or distinction. So as that word got
talked about more and more and more because of you, and maybe not
because of you, it was you were you were there. You thought you
were kind of able to kind of go on that tide the whole time. ride
the wave. Yeah,
Scott McKain
exactly. Exactly. And and so then what happens? And it's kind of
interesting, because it's part of what I wrote about in the first
book on distinction when there wasn't anything out there on it
really is that then the next wave becomes copycat competition. And
now you go online and you see everybody talking about how to stand
out and it's hard to stand out. What you're talking about is how to
stand Right. But the other thing and that and that's where the new
book is leading, is that people would come up and they go, Okay, so
people really done once you talk about so now, Samsung than in the
original book was part of that sameness now has risen up to the
point of differentiation, maybe distinction. So if if Samsung is
distinctive, whereas apple. So there had to be something beyond
distinction. And that's where the new book is going with iconic, is
that distinctive means you're at the top in your particular market
segment. But iconic brands are ones that are talked about, you
know, if we're talking about how you run a retail store, we're
going to be talking about Apple regardless of the way it goes
beyond their specific industry. You know what I mean, if they
become cultural icons, not just the predominant provider, in their
respective industry? Yeah.
James Taylor
And I'm thinking that, I guess also that helps on the referral
party. You mentioned earlier because it makes the referral bit so
much easier. Because you're not you're not in a world of just like
lots of other things if if someone mentions that I need a someone
talk about come and talk about distinction, or I need I'm thinking
about someone like how to be a remarkable brand I think like Seth
Godin like remarkable you know, the certain kind of words that that
you can you can think of other other things that we can be doing as
speakers to realize that, you know, this is this is an industry of
referrals from other speakers from bureaus from people that hear
you and see you on stage is anything that we can be doing to to
kind of help that process that we are being that person is
preferred.
Scott McKain
One thing that we've learned and we've we've used fortunately very
successfully, James is really, really important question. And it's,
it's drilling deeper with the clients that you already have. And in
the fundamental question that you ask yourself is this who is my
clients customer How can I help my clients serve their customers?
I'll give you an example. I'm speaking for Bridgestone tires, big
meeting for Bridgestone tires. And it went great, great crowd,
great group. And so I basically asked myself, our office and our
team asked the question, so who's their customer? Well, our first
response obviously would be Oh, it's anybody that buys tires, but
that's not really it, because it's the dealers that sell the
Bridgestone tires to their customers and the dealers that have
bridgestones and michelins and good years and Yokohama has and all
of those Okay, so how does Bridgestone gain greater mindshare with
those dealers that are their customers. So we went to them and made
a proposal and we said, just as you had this meeting, every one of
the dealers that are selling your tires have a meeting. What if
You've sponsored me to be the keynote speaker for that meeting, you
could get up and introduce me get your time in front of all the
sales people. Look, they're going to ask you to sponsor a cocktail
reception or something anyway, so it's in your budget, but sponsor
me as the keynote speaker for all of those events. And we booked 15
more full fee dates with them as a result of just that question,
and then I did all of those, well, then all of those dealers then
have a need for training programs, they have a need for some kind
of follow up. So with with several of them, I've done additional
work then for those dealers that they paid for, because they didn't
want to be beholden to just one company. So it probably ended up
being 23 to 25 programs at a significant fee. Just from that, and I
can give you several other examples. We did that with Cisco. We did
that with Juniper Networks. We've done that with SAP You know, with
with other companies with Apple,
James Taylor
so that's almost like going going, you know, we often are taught to
think of what is the transformation that you want to have in the
organization you're going to speak for. But this is actually going
one step further. This is saying what is the transformation that
you want to have in the lives and the organization's of the other
customers of your of the people that you're going to speak? So
going that level? And I guess, because then you speak your topics
around is brand marketing as well. That's the kind of thing that is
to em problem for every Vice President of Marketing Director, man,
they're continually thinking that question is that continually
thinking of the customers challenges that is, that is their life.
And so if you're coming along, saying, actually, I have something
that's not only going to help elevate your brand amongst those
those customers, but it's going to help them solve some of the
deeper challenges in their organizations and you know that that's a
total Win, win win
Scott McKain
in See, I think many times and we'd Seek referrals, right? That's
just part of the process. Regardless of where you are in your
career, you still want people to refer you so we try to be easily
referral. I'll talk more about that in a second. But, but what I
realized was if I asked the CEO of Bridgestone to refer me, first
of all, who's going to refer me to that, that might be limited,
he's sure not gonna refer me to his competitors. He's certainly not
going to refer me to so he might have referred me to some of these
other tire dealers, but to formalize the process means now instead
of maybe booking one or two or three that he had referred me to,
now, all of a sudden, I've got 20 you know, programs. Yeah. And,
and I'm, and I've also now I'm a resource for them, because when
they get great feedback from their customers, what do they want to
do? So they booked me two or three more times. I didn't include
that number, right. Hey, Scott's done such a good job in it. You
know, A lot of times to the referrals that we can get our internal
within the organization, we tend to think of external, but but with
a with an insurance company, for example, if I do all the agents,
why don't they refer me to the internal meetings that they have of
their wholesalers? Yeah. So we referrals can be. The best referrals
to me are drilling deeper within the clients that we already have,
and finding additional ways to serve them, rather than thinking and
that's, that's part of what you know, I preached in the speeches as
well, is that we've got to find ways to transcend transaction. And
many times as speakers were looking for a booking of that speech,
and I've noticed the more that I try to help clients the more
speeches I end up booking the more that for example, Bridgestone It
was about how do you leverage your budget. You're already being
asked to buy the cocktail hour or sponsor one of the meals. You're
going to spend the money anyway. This is a more memorable way for
you to take that investment of your budget and really make an
impact. So those are the things that when we start looking for how
to be of help. One of the things in my early early days of speaking
a guy named Joe Charbonneau, the late Joe Charbonneau at Dallas,
Texas, had so many things he did the two things that Joe said, he
said, Get a legal pad, put it on the phone, draw a line, divide it
in half. Every time somebody calls about a speech, put a checkmark
every time somebody calls about help put a checkmark in the other
column. When you have more checkmarks of people calling you for
help than calling to book a speech. That's when you know you have
viability in this business. Because they look at you as a resource,
rather than as a vendor. Yeah. And I love that
James Taylor
I guess I guess that's that's that's obviously we're busy, you
know, corporates going in general as it used to supplier
relationships is not transactional systems it's building those
relationships and you almost I mean I think some of the best
products and almost kind of don't know where one company starts and
the other one and it's these close relationship and as we're going
to start to move I want to get to some real quick fire questions
here we Scott is there a what's in your speaker bag? well isn't
that a bag that you carry with you to all of your your speaking
gigs you never leave the home in your office without
Scott McKain
I was with my wife Tammy was here to hear that because she's like
he has more junk it is bad. I am a muck what I call this the I love
technology. I carry my laptop. I carry an iPad, I carry a Kindle. I
carry all of the dongles the attachments. I bought a let me about a
roll over here and get it I bought the this is the slide clicker. I
carry with me everywhere. With me This is the best slide advancer
that you can that you can possibly get it a lot of speakers they'll
handle this at the event of perfect cue when you carry your own and
and the AV crew sees that you carry your own even if you don't use
it they know they're dealing with a pro yeah and and it no matter
the circumstance no matter the situation that is in and you can
find that online at and I'm I'm not a compensated endorser, I just
think it's the best thing going just all of that I carry all the
you know the I carry I carry a multiple outlet you know plug so
because so many times hotel rooms don't have enough outlets for
everything. And so that's everything is on my Kindle. I carry a
cannon on that one on the
James Taylor
on the power of having the extension. If you want to like make
friends very quickly airports be that person that has
Scott McKain
Idea point. Oh yeah, cuz now we're by plugin that I carry this
camera. It's a Canon g7 x. And I carry this with me everywhere
because it's just absolutely fantastic to do a video blog or, or
whatever. So I will get a little selfie stick and this camera. And
after the event I'll just shoot a little video saying, Hi, Scott,
it was great to be with you at the XYZ Corporation event, I'm just
leaving the hotel or I might be in the cab, I'm in the cab. But
man, I'm still on a high from what a great experience that we had.
So let me remind you, of these three points. We talked about your
event, ABC. So then we send that to the client afterwards and say
how would you you know if you'd like would you like to distribute
this. So then they send that as a post event follow up to remind
everybody which then keeps me front of mine. One of the things I've
written about in every book is my belief that mind share proceeds
market share. Every business that I work with wants to grow their
market share, it's the wrong place to start as a speaker, it's the
wrong place to start. People aren't booking you if they're not
thinking about you. So your key is how do you create innovative
ways to stay front of mind for them and, and so anything that you
can do to shoot a video that says thanks that they distribute is is
critical and and, and we'll do that. So I carry a bunch of stuff. I
carry a digital recorder with me as well just to make certain the
sound is perfect. The other thing is, and this is a great one, it's
a zoom f1 field recorder. And so I can pin the lapel mic on one on
one lapel as they pin the other one for the speech. And now I have
a perfect digital copy of my speech. I do that for two reasons. One
is to edit to us on things that we might be, you know doing in the
future. But the other thing is to get it transcribed. Because if
you want to scare yourself to death, get a transcription of your
speech and the imprecision of the language that we use on the
platform. And so part of what I'm trying to do is to get better
with my language, get better with my descriptions and be more
precise, because every word matters when we're on the platform.
So
James Taylor
long answer that question, but I was I was talking to guests
recently that on that precision point, I was thinking I was talking
to one of our other guests who works with helpings because with
this speech, especially non native speakers, and should we have to
remember now is 95% of business conversations are happening in
English, are between at least one of those people is not a native
English speaker. So most business conversations are going on and
not with native English speakers. So you have to be clear, there
has to be a real sense of clarity in what you're seeing that makes
total sense to be able to kind of go through those as well.
Scott McKain
Oh, and you bring up some Important point, James. Because as your
career grows, and you start doing more international programs, you
know, the easiest, the quickest example is I tell a story about a
taxi driver. And when I'm telling the story in the States, he, he
gets my luggage and puts it in the trunk of the car. Well, if I'm
speaking where you are, it's, it's the boot. And so you don't get
in line you get in the queue. Part of what we have to do as
speakers is to make certain that we're using the terminology. Even
the slang I know, many times those of us in the States, you know,
we'll talk about knocking it out of the park. Well, there's a lot
of parts of the world that have no idea that that's a baseball
term, you know, hitting a home run, well, that speech was a home
run. Well, that may not be the most appropriate expression in other
places. So there's so many if you can put a fine point on that the
the audience, almost subconscious picks up yeah, that you're using
their terminology not your own.
James Taylor
And what about book is the one book that you would recommend that
people check out could be on the crafter speaking it could be on
the on the business side of speaking or something that just more
generally is going to help them understand this this this, this
took us home in terms of distinction.
Scott McKain
So many of my friends have written so many great books, it's it's
it's hard to know, you know which which ones to recommend, but let
me share two with you real quickly. One is my buddy Joe Callaway.
And his book is be the best at what matters most. And I think many
times as speakers there are so many things that we can be doing
that we end up chasing a lot of different opportunities. What
really the client is looking for is us to be the best to what
really matters most. And it's just brilliantly done. And then Phil
Jones has a book called exactly what to say. And we've been working
on this and applying this and it is absolute Li fascinating how
just changing a few words could dramatically improve your ability
to, to communicate. For example, one of the things that a quick one
he says is, you should say, Now I want you to be open minded. And
the reason that you say that is because no one wants to be
perceived as closed minded. Right? So you have by saying that
you've predisposed the listener to agree with what you're saying,
because the subliminal message almost is, if you object to it, it's
not because it's wrong. It's because you are close minded.
Right?
James Taylor
I think Phil did a good job with that distinction there. Because
actually, the shape and the size of that book and the way that book
is branded is I think it's a very good example of distinction
standing out I can, I can see that book. I've had that book, and I
can have it sitting in the cross in the room and I know it's his
book because it also released his website and it's got visiting
Tegrity Dan is going on?
Scott McKain
Absolutely, absolutely. And that's you mentioned a hugely important
word, James, that the integrity with all of your materials, and the
congruency so that the website looks like the book looks like the
visuals looks like. So there's that. And that's, that's branding
101. But yet again, we as speakers, that's part of what's so hard
about this business is that, you know, we want to get to a high
level, you're dealing with high level companies, but yet you you
don't have the resources that they have in terms of design and
branding, and, and just number of people. I've got to go give a
speech on Sunday, plus, I got to finish the book, plus, I got to
look at website proposals plus i got, you know, and we're always
juggling. And many times when that happens, it removes the
consistency and the congruency. And it's unintentional, we don't
even realize it. It's happening.
James Taylor
And is there an online tool that you find really useful for
yourself as a speaker or an app that you find you using all the
time as a speaker?
Scott McKain
Well, I need to find some more I keep I keep looking for, you know,
for something better. But one of the ones that we use all the time
is called close clo z. And it's an app on the iPhone and an app
online. It's a relationship management app. But part of what I like
about it, is it how you can also do email through it. It's
calendar, it's scheduling, but it also does email and it will
notify you when someone has read the email that you sent. So part
of what I love about that is if if I send an email to somebody, and
I know that they've read it, from a timing standpoint, I might wait
15 or 20 minutes, and then I call them yeah, and typically the
response is, oh my gosh, I was just thinking about you. No kidding.
Wow, great. Well, that's it. So it's clo z great. I want to use it
our office in like the whole lot
James Taylor
and kind of final question for I want you to Imagine you woke up
tomorrow morning and you had to start from scratch. So I'm gonna
let you position yourself any way you want in the world of Las
Vegas, any city you'd like. But you have all the skills you've
acquired over the years, but you know, no one, no one knows you.
What would you do? How would you restart your speaking,
Scott McKain
I'd write the book. The biggest mistake I've made in my speaking
career was I was a speaker for 1012 years and didn't write a book.
And so when books came into the market, matter of fact, there was
one book that came into the market. It was somebody I know was in
one of my speeches, and we'll talk about how and then he wrote a
book about what I haven't been talking about that particular time.
And I know that they were on a similar track, so I'm not saying it,
but, but had I written the book and got it out. When I first
started talking about this, it would have predated that book by by
yours, but I gave the speech I didn't write the book and to several
things that when you write the book, the book is key to success.
publishing your authority in the marketplace on that subject
matter. Secondly is the book is the best business card you could
ever possibly have. With third and the unintended consequences, it
improves the precision of your thinking. If I'm standing in front
of a group, I can read their eyes if I'm coming, if they're getting
what I'm talking about or not. If I since they're not getting it, I
can do another story. I can use another example or I can pull
questions from the audience. The book, I don't get a second chance.
And so the language in your thinking, has to be more precise, has
to be sharper. And writing the book was such a great mental
exercise to get my content better. That for all of those reasons,
the first thing I would do, because part of your your, your
question evolved, I still have the knowledge of the subject matter.
The first thing I would do is write the book.
James Taylor
Well, Scott, it's been an absolute pleasure speaking to you today.
Thank you so much for coming on. We could have talked to talk
because you just so wealth of knowledge in this you and you have
certainly paid your dues in this business. So Scott, thank you so
much for coming on. I look forward to hearing you speak on stage
soon.
Scott McKain
James I look forward to it. It's been a real privilege and pleasure
See you again soon. Thanks. Today's episode
James Taylor
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