IN THIS ISSUE

THIS WEEK’S QUOTES

A NOTE FROM SHARÍ

Recently Alex Hormozi sent a couple of newsletters where he shared his quick thoughts on speaking and selling from the stage.

And I have some thoughts on those thoughts.

If you’re not familiar with him, Alex Hormozi is an entrepreneur and investor. His most recent book, $100M Money Models, broke the Guinness World Record for fastest-selling nonfiction book with 2.7M copies sold in 24 hours.

I’m genuinely a fan of his work. So, naturally, I perked up when I saw his speeches-focused newsletters.

The concepts he shared were simple and straightforward:

Overall, he gets it right. Hormozi serves a broad audience and these tips are solid for just about anyone.

But there’s some nuance I’d like to add to the conversation for my niche business-minded and speaking-inclined audience.

Enjoy!

FEATURED ARTICLE

One of the most valuable things you can do in a talk is leave something out.

In your business, do you offer a multi-step, multi-phase process that promises a transformation from pain point to solution? Sure you do! That’s the cornerstone of any services-based company.

And if you were asked to speak to a roomful of influential people about that transformation, you’d probably deliver a speech that walks through that process.

After all, it took you years to develop it, it’s genuinely helped your clients, and you want a speech that offers real value. One that’s not salesy and doesn’t blow smoke.

But a speech that walks through the full roadmap of your process usually backfires (and not for the reasons you might expect).

When you try to take someone from point A to point Z in a speech, you don't actually get them anywhere.

If you want to create speeches that are designed to sell your services, while simultaneously serving your audiences, then you need to choose depth > breadth.

Here's the playbook.

Show them the map. Then focus on one part of the journey.

What that looks like in practice:

Take your audience from point B to point D. Not from point A to point Z.

Here's what happens when you do this well.

They think: if she can deliver that much on one slice, what does working through the whole process look like?

By having restraint in the amount of content inside your speech, you’re actually providing more value to the audience while also increasing the perceived value of the rest of your services.

Let’s say you're a sales trainer whose signature framework is a five-part sales conversation model. You've been invited to speak to a room of agency owners.

The instinct is to walk through all five parts. Resist it.

Instead, show the full sales conversation model on one slide near the top. Name the five parts.

Then spend the rest of the talk on part four: handling objections. In addition to providing objection-handling scripts you’ll also delve into the psychology underneath why objections happen and what they're actually telling you about the deal.

That’s depth > breadth.

By the end, the audience has something they can use in their next sales call on Monday. They also know there are more parts of the system they haven't seen yet.

Plus, during the Q&A, something magical will happen.

Questions from the audience will be about your objections speech along with questions about the rest of the model.

That’s great because:

And for the right-fit audience members, they’ll reach out wanting to know what it’s like to work with you and learn more.

That’s the power of restraint.

ONE QUESTION, ONE ANSWER

Offering slides as your lead magnet is pretty much table stakes at this point.

Most audiences (and meeting planners) expect it. The vast majority of speakers offer their slides, so the perceived value of "here are my slides" is very low.

So, I wouldn’t recommend using them as your lead magnet, unless…

…you give a little umph to those slides.

You see, most attendees won’t review the slides. People are more inclined to engage with novelty and newness rather than looking backwards and reviewing.

So, if you want to use your slides as a lead magnet, you need to add something else. Something that’s different and new from the presentation they just saw.

What, then, should you include?

Well, in the article above, I talked about how to set up your depth > breadth speech.

So, what if the slides you’re sharing with the audience at the end include another slice of your framework?

All of a sudden, those slides become much more compelling and much more valuable than everyone else’s slides.

Here's a reframe. Instead of thinking about your free resource as a “lead magnet,” think of it as an Audience Activator.

A lead magnet sits in an inbox. An Audience Activator moves someone toward actual action. When done correctly, the action they take primes them even further to work with you.

Slides with a bonus slice of your framework is one version. There are others that move audiences to action faster. The right one depends on your speech, your offer, and the audience in the room.

That's just one slice of the work we do in 1:1 consulting. Start with a strategy call

Here are some links I thought you’d enjoy.

I offer a limited number of Executive Clarity Sessions each month for founders and senior leaders.

If you're reading this thinking, 'I know I'm leaving something on the table after my talks,' that's exactly what an Executive Clarity Session can help with.

In about 30 minutes, we look at where you're speaking (or where you’d like to be speaking), what's happening (or not happening) after your speeches, and what one shift would make the biggest difference.

If you'd like to do that together, you can request a complimentary session.

You'll share a bit about your role and situation, then request a time. I personally review every request and only approve sessions where I'm confident I can help.