TOFU WRAPPED BACON...BE THE BRAND

“Clean Comedian for corporate, government, or personal events. Contact me for rates and availability.” That’s what the post said on the professional speakers and entertainers group that I am a part of on Linkedin. I was intrigued, not because I am looking for a corporate comic, but because I wanted to see the face of the person who would break etiquette and blatantly advertise 

bacon wrapped tofu

on Linkedin. I googled the name and found a youtube clip of a comedy show that he did a couple of years ago. “Clean Comedian” is how this person branded himself and 28 seconds into his act, he dropped the F Bomb. THE F BOMB! Now don’t get me wrong, I am not easily offended by profanity as long as it’s not around my kids, but I AM offended by a misleading branding statement. If you say your book is a best seller, you'd better not mean within your mother’s bible study. If you say you are the toughest man in the world, there had better be a line of broken and battered bodies littering your wake, and if you say you are a clean comedian then you’d better not drop the F bomb. If I were to have a conversation with this gentleman and express my opinion he would probably tell me that he modifies his language based on the event, or he may just tell me to ‘F’ OFF. I would then tell him “you can’t call yourself a vegeterian and have your tofu wrapped in bacon”. Unlike in years past, we no longer have control over our brand. Major companies such as Nike, Apple, and McDonalds spend millions of dollars on creating a branding statement which is nothing more than four or five words that come to mind when you hear a product name. Nike=swoosh, sports, running, football. Apple= Mac, sleek, fast, elite. McDonalds = easy, tasty, kids, cheap. For years, corporations were able to control their brand with advertisments and commercials. This is no longer the case. Thanks to social media and youtube, the control of our brand has transferred to the consumer. If I receive bad customer service, I tell my online community. If I do it in a funny or interesting way then it will ripple into their communities. Videos of me speaking and performing are all over Youtube and Vimeo. Some were put up by me and some by others. Because the internet provides immediate access into our brand, there is a transparency between us and the customer that has never before existed.  The best way for us to promote and protect our brand is to simply…BE THE BRAND. 

SPEECH SERIES PART 5

HOW TO WRITE AND DELIVER A FREAKING AMAZING SPEECH IN 30 MINUTES OR LESS


CHAPTER 5.

To Script Or Not To Script

 I have had more than one person tell me that they don’t like to prepare a speech, they’d rather just wing it. When I hear that I immediately think that they are  over-confident , amateurish, and getting ready to crash and burn. More importantly, I believe that they are missing a huge opportunity to connect with their audience. You may get lucky in front of a group of friends from time to time by delivering off the cuff, but 9 times out of 10 you will suck! John Wooden’s line “ the failure to prepare is preparing to fail” is absolute gospel when creating and delivering a freaking amazing speech. I am a huge propent of scripting. This is where some people disagree with me so read what I have to say and decide for yourself. Scripting your comments will allow you to craft exactly what you want to say and how you want to say it. You may say “Patrick, I don’t want to come across as scripted”. Great point! Then don’t read your speech! There is nothing worse than someone who reads a speech from behind a lectern. I was having a conversation with a fellow professional speaker named Warren Greshes. Warren teaches selling skills and we were talking about how to engage clients on the phone. Warren said “Patrick, give me the first line of your phone pitch”. I told him that I didn’t have a first line. “Why not?” he asked. I told him that I didn’t want to sound scripted. He then asked me if I had ever been to a Broadway show in New York city. I told him that I had seen a couple of shows on a recent visit and He said “Patrick, did the actors do a good job?” “Of course Warren, they are the best”, “Did they sound scripted?” “Of course not”. “Patrick, do you think that Broadway actors wing it or do you think that they work from a script?”. I said that they work from a script. “Why don’t they sound scripted?...BECAUSE THEY PRACTICE !” Most amateur speakers script out their speech, but they go no further. When they get up in front of the room, it is obvious that they are reading a speech. When I deliver a speech, you will hear many of the same stories. I have practiced these stories so many times that even the inflections on certain words are the same from speech to speech. After you script your remarks…PRACTICE! The key here is not to just memorize words, but learn your speech. There is a difference. Once you learn your stories, then you will have the confidence that makes a good speaker a great one, and if you veer off script, you can find your way back. Former Auburn football coach Pat Dye used to say “practice doesn’t make perfect, perfect practice makes perfect”. I realize that this is a Vince Lombardi quote but my blood runs orange and blue so as far as I’m concerned it’s a Pat Dye quote. PRACTICE!!!

DO THIS:

·      SCRIPT FIRST

·      LEARN WORDS

·      PRACTICE DELIVERY

TALKING TIP: DON’T BRING UP A SCRIPT OF YOUR SPEECH TO THE STAGE. IF YOU NEED NOTES, USE BULLET POINTS AND KEYWORDS TO REMIND YOU OF WHAT COMES NEXT. BY THE WAY, 90% OF PEOPLE DON’T KNOW THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN A PODIUM AND A LECTERN. YOU STAND ON A PODIUM AND SPEAK FROM BEHIND A LECTERN.

CAN YOU EAT YOUR OWN CRAWFISH?... Leadership with a kick

As a student at the University of Southern Mississippi, I began a love affair that has endured throughout the better part of two decades. No, the affair of which I speak was not with one of the beautiful southern belles that make up 60 percent of the student body, but rather with a dirty, disgusting looking, beady eyed little creature called the crawfish. Until I ventured onto the USM campus in the early nineteen nineties, the only crawfish I had ever seen had been in the creek behind my parents house and the thought of actually putting it in my mouth never crossed my mind. Imagine my surprise and trepidation when I was invited to a fraternity party only to find rows of tables covered in newspaper with piles of red, steaming, crawfish waiting to be devoured. As the Zydeco band played in the background, one of of my buddies showed me how to pinch the head off of the little lobsterlike creature, peel back the first layer of shell on the tail and pull the meat out with my teeth. I was hooked. It was the most wonderful tasting food I had ever eaten. It even made the beer taste better. I later learned that for generations of louisianians and Southern Mississipians, crawfish is social fare in the same way that chili is for Texans, clams are for New Englanders, and fried catfish is for my native Alabamians. I also learned that they take pride in the spiciness of their crawfish. Cayenne pepper is the predominate seasoning for boiled crawfish, and for many daring souls, the hotter the better. When crawfish season was approaching, arguments would begin to float around the halls of the ATO house as my fraternity brothers would boast about who made the spiciest crawfish. When I later observed one of my drunken brethren writhing on the ground in pain, wiping his tongue after sampling a crawfish boiled in his personal blend of spice, I decided that it takes no great skill to dump heaps of cayenne pepper into a pot of boiling water. The real test is can you eat your own crawfish?

Not long ago I gave four speeches for a major utility company in Tennessee. After the event, I was chatting with the meeting planner who told me of a negative experience they had with a previous speaker. I was told that he was really good, highly energetic and well liked by the audience. He talked about not letting the little things get you down and negatively impact your attitude. She said it was well received until the second day when he arrived complaining about his hotel room, the noise next door, and the food, among other things. This is a speaker who talks about not letting the little things impact your attitude and all he was doing was complaining about the little things. My contact said that she and her staff were put off because this person obviously did not practice what he was paid to preach.  This guy didn’t eat his own crawfish.

Are you a good ambassador of your message? Do you preach customer service but don’t promptly return phone calls? do you promote positive attitude but curse out waiters? Do you talk about teamwork but reject input? Do you encourage donating but don’t give back in your community? The most successful leaders tend to be the ones whose behavior becomes the model for excellence.  Simply said…they eat their own crawfish.

THREE INGREDIENTS FOR KILLER CRAWFISH…THAT YOU CAN EAT:

1. A TABLESPOON OF TRUTH: If you can’t take the heat…don’t make it so hot. Too many times we will promise anything to close the sale or pacify the customer. If you can’t deliver on what you promise, then don’t promise so much. You will always be judged on the margin by which you fail to deliver…and rightly so.

2. A DASH OF OVERDELIVERY: Don’t just do what you say you are going to do…OVERDO. The cajuns have a word, LAGNIAPPE, which means “a little bit extra”. The difference between good and great is found in the lagniappe.

3. A HEAPING HELPING OF ATMOSPHERE.  "Laissez les bons temps rouler- let the good times roll” The best way to enjoy crawfish is in a group of people who are drinking beer, dancing, and having a great time. What kind of atmosphere are you creating? People want to buy from, learn from, work with, and do business with those whom they enjoy being around. If you are not reaching your goals, then look at the messenger. 



 Patrick Henry is a professional speaker who shows audiences how to create extraordinary customer, client, and coworker experiences. He is what happens when keynotes, comedy, and concerts...collide ! Please visit his website at www.PatrickHenrySpeaker.com