This Tuesday evening I presented my keynote talk, “Four Community-Based Marketing Cornerstones for Your Business”. This was my first time speaking about community-based marketing. It took a lot of rehearsing and I was completely “off the book” – I spoke for about 40 minutes without access to notes (they were at home).
Overall the response was very positive. The presentation was to the Sheffield Coaching Exchange and 25 people were present. Eleven signed up for my Community Marketing Conversation and several others have indicated they will be in touch with contacts and possibilities for future presentations. See my recent post about public speaking events for the theory behind what I did.
I won’t dwell on the feedback from the session, primarily because I would like to see how it pans out over the next few weeks. This is a new experience for me and like everything else, it is important to take time to work out the best approach and learn the lessons.
In this post I’ll break down my talk, show how I structured it and explain the decisions I took. I am not going to go into detail about the content: book me to speak if you’re interested!
Introduction
This was practically the same as the excerpt from my keynote talk I published a couple of weeks ago. The recording was from the Public Speaking Academy‘s retreat weekend. Since then I performed it for a group of friends. The feedback from Tuesday suggested this was the least popular part of the talk. Some people thought it was too long and some could not see how it related to the rest of the talk.
It comprises three main parts:
- a teaser about the general theme of the evening
- biographical information about me
- introduction to the four cornerstones (and one keystone) for community-based marketing
The purpose of the biographical section is to establish my authority as a speaker, so it is important to include it, especially with an audience who did not know me. (No-one present was previously known to me.) Previous feedback was that it sounded impressive – which is the point after all!
The feedback was not particularly negative and I suspect, part of the problem was it paled in the light of the rest of the talk. I shall consider ways of making it shorter.
Teaching
The aim of this section is to offer substantial memorable teaching. I deliberately chose not to use PowerPoint or written notes. My thinking here is something memorable is more likely to stick in people’s minds and influence their thinking about their own coaching business. Of those who responded when asked about this, 12 indicated they were happy not to receive notes and 8 would have liked them. This is something to think about further but it seems I may be on the right lines.
I explored the four cornerstones in turn. The first is use of stories and I illustrated this with three imaginary coffee shop proprietors. I acted out each one, allowing them to tell their story.
My intention was to model the prospects for the three businesses. I divided the room into three groups, according to the coffee shop they would most like to visit. I was then able to ask questions for the other 3 cornerstones of prospects for the 3 businesses. This was highly participative and people entered into the spirit of it.
Conclusion
The conclusion fell into 5 parts:
- I reviewed the 4 cornerstones and the keystone and suggested two ways to approach the keystone (how to market your business)
- first, by applying the coffee shop model to their own business. I invited them to jot down insights about their own business during the break and then we had a few minutes to discuss issues arising in small groups before a final plenary to discuss what came out of the discussions.
- second, by signing up for a Community Marketing Conversation. I prepared a matrix of available dates and times and allowed people to sign up who couldn’t make the times I suggested. This approach simplifies arranging meetings.
- An example from an existing client.
- Various ways they could support my work, eg by signing up for a conversation, signing up on my website, completing an evaluation form, etc.
Feedback
All of this will be subject to review, particularly as I meet participants face-to-face over the next few weeks. It will be interesting to find out how helpful the talk was to them as they reflected upon it.
To finish this post, I’d like to share this testimonial from Lisa Read, the Leader of the Sheffield Coaching Exchange:
“Thank you for an inspiring and thought-provoking talk at Sheffield Coaching Exchange last night. You got us all thinking about how we can market our businesses to our local communities more effectively. You also reignited our passion for how our coaching contributes to our city. I’ve come away entertained and with lots to think about. I’d recommend your services to other small, local businesses, and I’d encourage all to listen to you talk.”
This is an overview of what I did. Please feel free to raise questions in the comments or discuss some of the issues.