Step Up #4 Welcome to step up to the mic. Number four, in the previous podcast, I talked about that I would share the message, how to write a message and what goes into the message. But let me refresh the , the tools, the message, the audience. I use the analogy of an Archer trying to hit a target. You are the Archer, the , the bow represents the tools or the delivery system. The arrow represents the message. The target represents the audience. You're gonna focus mostly on the arrow or the message and a structure of a good message or an effective message. But first I always wanna say, there is no right way of being you at the front of the room. There is no right. Look for a or a right sound or a right language or a right accent or tone. That's all BS. Just be yourself, show up, step up to the mic and be you. Yeah, I know if you listen to more than one of my podcasts by now, you know that that's my credo show up and be yourself. Okay. So let's talk about how you craft a message and yes, you do have to think about how a message being passionate and involved in your message is wonderful. Your passion should show the way you feel should be felt by the audience. It should be felt by yourself as you deliver it. But if it comes out as a bunch of garbled pieces of high energy and intensity, the audience will start to shut down. I often watch activists around the climate change, get lost in their own anger and frustration. Um, it's amazing because sadly, the lack of knowledge of how to craft an arrow or a message loses them and loses their message itself. So what are the elements in a message that are, or should say what works cuz I'm, I'm very practical. I'm only interested in what works, not the fancy words. I want to know what works. So let's break down an arrow. It has a tip, a sharp tip, hopefully with the Arrowhead having a notch on it. So it will stick in the target. It has the shaft, which is the strength of the message. And then on the back it has, what's called the flesh, the feathers that guide the message to the target. Now it's your responsibility as the Archer/speaker to craft the message so that the audience will listen. You see, if you ask, let me give you an example. If you are speaking to the rotary club and everybody who's in this particular rotary club works in the oil industry, getting up and doing a rant about how the oil industry is corrupt and it does, fracking and it spoils the water and it pollutes the atmosphere and attacking them while many of those facts might be true. It's an ineffective message. If you want to change their minds my first step in the process of doing and crafting my message is to look at the audience, how do they listen? What kind of language do they use? Who are they? Where are they? Obviously, me speaking in English, I'm limited to an English-speaking audience. There's not gonna be too many Spanish or Puerto Rican or uh, German people who would automatically listen, just because they have resources in their own language. And if they do, they're gonna have to work to understand my message. So that's the first step is research the audience you're speaking to, how do you want to influence them? What impact you wanna make on them? You see it's not one size fits all every situation and everything that you are doing has a different purpose. So if you are speaking to children, for example, talking down to them is one of the worst things you can do. Treat them as little, tiny people that don't really understand. In fact, I find children understand a great deal more than we give them credit for. So three parts to a message, the Arrowhead, the shaft, and the fletch, the feathers on the end, the Arrowhead is it has another way to describe it. It must be a grabber. It must grab people's attention. It must pull them in. You can use a provocative statement to grab people's attention. You need to be careful with provocative statements. I kinda like them myself, but they have, they have a great opportunity to, shall we say a offend or put off maybe 50% or 60% of, of the audience, although you can use it as a strategy. One young lady, I was coaching. We decided that what she should do in her message, because she was talking about equality of men. And she used to come out on the stage, dressed very business, crisp pants, suit, little white shirt, tied up, you know, buttoned at the throat. And at one particular event, I said, well, let's try this because she wanted to be more provocative. She came out in a wonderful dress, which was very, I would say more nightclub or let me seduce your kinda of little dress black Lacey. She was in very tall shoes. Her hair was swept up in a classic greek style. And she had very bright lipstick on. She didn't look like she was going to be speaking to a business audience. Just her appearance was provocative. It was part of the message. She then said to the audience, are you more interested in my figure and my ...
