What Is Your Story

Received a call late yesterday asking if I would mind being the guest speaker at our networking group meeting next Thursday. Well, as one not above a bit of shameless self promotion of course I said yes.

Then came the tricky part. What to present about. Clearly as a learning consultant and performance technologist there is no shortage of subject material. The question is not so much finding something to present but narrowing down the field to a specific topic. Will not divulge the topic chosen here because some of you who are going to hear me on Thursday may be reading this and don't want to spoil the surprise.

However, this led me down a path of thought regarding presentations at groups where everyone is comfortable. Generally in a networking group that meets regularly, you get to know what each person does within a couple of months. Perhaps six months if the meetings are not weekly or every two weeks. This often results in each person delivering the same presentation meeting after meeting.

The repetition of a presentation has both good and bad points. First the good. The more anyone hears a consistent message the easier it is to remember. Thus when a potential for referral comes up your message may be front of mind.

However, it is also true that the more you hear the same message the less you listen to the message. Each of us has a hundred different things going on in our lives and if we can tune out a presentation while attending to some other "urgent" thought, we will do so. As a result your message falls on deaf or semi-deaf ears losing that repetition value.

The key is to keep your message clear, concise, understandable and exciting. Keep them on the edge of their chair each time you present. Think about it, were the presentations at your last networking meeting better when a guest was present. Of course they were. There was someone new to listen to the pitch.

The moral being that you have to have a story to tell for sure but the more ways you can tell that story the better the chance of it being heard.

So, before you present your ideas to another group of potential clients or people who you want to refer you to clients ask the simple question. What is my story? And, who cares?