What does Bill Gates and Steve Jobs have in common with building a speaking empire? And I’m not talking about presentation skills.
I’ll give you a hint.
Before Bill Gates become ‘Bill Gates’ he read a story about computers in a magazine.
Before Steve Jobs had an idea to make the computer screens look good (they used to look ugly and now we have ‘folders’, etc on our computers) he was at IBM’s offices where they created the computer screens first.
What did both of these guys do that could help you build a speaking empire?
They saw ‘The Connection.’
What do I mean?
As a speaker, you know that when you’re delivering a presentation, you have to tell the audience what they get out of listening to you. Why is your presentation important to them? What are they going to learn?
But that’s what average people need to stay interested.
Most people need to be ‘told’ why something is important. They need to be told how this ‘thing’ is going to change their life.
Not Bill Gates or Steve Jobs (or other guys like them).
The magazine that Bill Gates read, went out to thousands of other people. But the ‘other people’ (who were more skilled than Bill Gates) failed to see the future of computers. The moment Bill Gates read it, he saw the future of computers and built Microsoft.
How is it that hundreds of thousands of people read the same article as Bill Gates but none of them saw a future like Bill?
And what about Steve Jobs?
Steve Jobs was inside IBM’s offices and they showed him this ‘thing’ they were working on. What was this thing? It was the future of computers. But IBM didn’t see it. They literally had it right there in front of them but they didn’t see the impact it would have.
[IBM created the computer interface so we can see ‘folders’ etc on the computers…but they couldn’t see what they had]
If you want to build a great speaking business then you can’t be like your audience. You can’t wait for other people to tell you why something is important or how it’s going to affect your life. You have to be ahead of the game and figure it out yourself.
See the connection.
I shouldn’t have to make that leap for you. You should be the type of person who can make that leap without me.
If you take a look at the feedback forms that meeting planners get about speakers then one of the pieces of feedback they ask is, “How relevant was this presentation?”
And for meeting planners, it’s a great question to ask. But as a business-person, you should be able to take information and figure out why it’s important to your own life.
Companies go out of business because they can’t see the connection.
McDonalds can’t see the connection between the fitness lifestyle and their stores closing. The world is focusing on being more healthy and because McDonalds refuses to see the connection, they’re going to go out of business (mark my words).
WalMart doesn’t see the connection between convenience and groceries. They’re working on a new technology that allows you to put food into the basket and it automatically scans it so you don’t have to wait in line. But guess what? Amazon is going to kick their ass when they start delivering food…all people will have to do is order online. But WalMart hasn’t started online delivery…because they don’t see the connection.
You have to see the connection.
How will robots change the speaking industry? We all know that robots are coming. 3d printers are already here. So how will it affect your speaking business? What about virtual reality?
Do you need me to tell you or can you figure it out yourself?
You can be the type of speaker who sees the connection or the type who needs someone to talk about why it matters. Which one are you?