Your Perception of Fluffy Content Is Sabotaging Sales

In an effort to be more concrete, more valuable and stand out from the “fluffy crap” online, far too many struggling entrepreneurs focus on packing “how to” content into their marketing. 

It makes sense, on the surface, we’re all tired of the fluffy training disguised as “mindset” work, so we set out to share tangible, practical information that can truly serve our ideal customers.

But I don’t have to tell you that a plethora of free, “how to” content already exists on the internet.  So if your audience truly wanted that information, they’d have it by now.

So the question is: if “how to” content isn’t the answer, but neither is the fluffy stuff…how do you attract clients with your content?

The answer? INFLUENCE. You must gain their buy-in to your ideas aka your content. And in this episode I’m tackling 3 ways you can do so using elements from my Influence Framework. Enjoy.

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Transcript

Well, hey friends, welcome back to another episode of the podcast. I'm so happy you are here today. First and foremost, happy New Year. I'm thrilled to be back. I took a little bit of time off. I hope you did too and just let's do a little personal update for a moment. If you've been following along on Instagram, you would have learned by now that I am a little crazy and I am redoing 75 Hard again which if you have been a follower of the show, I talked about it. I did it last spring. I talked about it on the show with my friend, Frannie, from Ampersand Studios back in July. It's this crazy challenge where you do like two 45 minute workouts a day, one of them has to be outside. Read 10 pages of personal development or nonfiction every day. You have to drink a gallon of water a day. I have my giant, got a brand new, this was a Christmas present for myself, a brand new Hydroflask water bottle, a gallon of water a day. Let's see what else. You have to follow a, you choose your own meal plan. For me, I'm doing sugar-free, no processed foods and you can't have any treats. You can't drink alcohol. No cheats. Have I miss something? 

But anyways, people would ask me like, what the heck? And for me, 2022, I hope the same is true for you. I have some big goals for this year. And specifically, I'm not tied to how I get those goals are so like, epically focused on how I have to make that happen. But what I am fully tied to in 2022 is a phrase that I have as the screensaver on my phone which my client, Clay. We are talking about this over the holidays. And it's this idea that you know, done in half ass, 2022 is the year I'm going full ass. So my phone always says full ass. That is my mantra of the year. And so with that, I want this to be my healthiest year ever. Personally, speaking this year in 2022, in March of this year will be the 20 year anniversary of my mom's passing. For those of you who know me, know my story and my mom died of breast cancer, metastasized breast cancer just before my 18th birthday in March of 2002. So that 20 year anniversary is creeping up. 

She's only 49 when she died and it really gets me thinking like I need to make sure that I'm the healthiest not because I want to fit my tush into like really cute pants. Although I do want that too. I want to feel good. I want to feel good inside out and I want my body to be healthy as possible because I'm getting old. I'm nowhere near 40. I know you're listening, you might be of all different ages. You know, I don't know, there's kind of this point where you start asking some different questions. So I had to say no to all this sugar and goodies that I consumed over the holidays which was probably like a truckload. But anyways, this crazy thing for me, I don't do things, like kind of dip a toe. If you've gauged by now I'm kind of like all in when I go in on an idea. I'm okay with switching ideas but when I have an idea, I'm gonna go all in on it and that's what I'm doing. 

5:29  

And that's really, when we talk about today's topic. No, I'm not gonna ask you to go crazy town and do something as crazy as 75 Hard or sit as crazy as I don't know, whatever business challenge that you can equate that to. But I do want to really push you on a topic today that I am very confident that you are grappling with. And I say this with confidence because it doesn't matter the entrepreneur that I work with whether they have a brand new spankin business or they have been added and have a multi million dollar business, there is a through line that happens and that's what I want to talk about today. 

And really what it comes down to is this simple idea. And it's how as entrepreneurs, we create influence with what we're talking about. It's the word influence. And I know before you roll your eyes and be like, oh, fluffy big. A lot of people have different associations with that word. For me, influence is a very positive word but let me address some things here. A lot of people when you ask them, what is influence, they push back and immediately say, oh, man, like no, that's like, a bad thing. It's like you're persuading, schmucky, getting people to buy into something or an idea that they don't believe in and that is 100% not what influence is. 

6:58  

Here's the real definition. Thank you Google, there's my sights or scene for this dictionary definition about to do. Influence: the capacity to have an effect on character development or behavior of someone or something or the effect itself. Verb, have influence on. The idea of influence. Here's another great one. What do we mean by influence? The power or capacity of causing an effect in indirect or intangible ways to sway someone's thinking. There are some things on here where it could be you could do it for bad reasons, good reasons, whatever. 

The idea of influence is, you help someone see things in a different way. But influence is not holding someone down and saying you must believe this. It's by presenting information in a way where they get to choose, do they want to step into your belief or do they want to bunker down in their own belief. 

Let me tell you a hot topic over the last two years and so many things. People are very hot online. I won't get into it too much. But whether it's the pandemic, whether it's the vaccine that getting masks, whether it's social injustice, whether it's what brand of toilet paper you're using or whether or not you're going to the grocery store, everybody's got an opinion and they're all rooted in our own beliefs. And what we see online is, and this is not what we're talking about today, but let me use this example. People fighting opinions and beliefs with facts, thinking that that is going to convince another person to change their beliefs. That's not exercising influence. 

And let me take a little bit of a leap here, what I see so often happening with entrepreneurs, when it comes to our content, when we're teaching online, whether that's on a podcast episode like this, on a podcast interview, we're speaking inside our programs, or on a Facebook Live or we're doing a webinar or we're doing a video series any of these things. We're delivering information and you see so often entrepreneurs want to show up with fact, or details, or specifics, or logic, or steps, or how to, or just what to do content, knows how to content, and then they wonder why is no one signing up for my free guide? Why is no one showing up? They registered but they didn't show up for my webinar. Why is no one buying my program? Or why is everyone telling me that like the number one objection for my program, I just don't have the money or it's just too expensive.

8:24  

Okay, truth serum for a second. How many times have you thought this for yourself or seen someone else in a Facebook groups like, their reason for why people weren't buying was it was price. Spoiler. We all as people buy some ridiculous crap for a lot of money. I don't think, I know this is a hot topic for a lot of people. But I think very, very, very, very, very rarely is money an actual objection. Case in point, I'm sitting right here in my hand. I don't want to be like super egotistical, A-hole saying this. But I'm holding what a $1,500 iPhone in my hand. Granted, I got it for free on Verizon because I traded in my old phone. So I think I'm paying like $3 a month is what thing was, that was a little random tangent here. But the idea is you have people all over that technically can't afford cell phones that are buying cell phones, not saying that they should or shouldn't. But what I'm saying is, people make decisions, right? 

9:44  

Let me go back, I'm going on a tangent here. But when it comes to our content, when it comes to helping people make decisions, providing information, we have to start thinking about, not just the tips or strategies or techniques we teach. We have to start thinking about how we teach them and whether or not the what we're teaching is actually valuable to our audience. Regardless, if what we're teaching is leading to a sale or it's just leaving to them to have a breakthrough realization, or to get over a pain point or a struggle. It doesn't really matter where it is in the customer journey. This idea it could be in your free content. It could just be you showing up live talking about things. It could be directly on a webinar where you're selling. It doesn't really matter where you're at in your content delivery, we have to really start questioning what are we actually teaching because what we teach in that how to content will really dictate our overall results in business. 

And I can't tell you how many people that I've spoken to over the last year, who are absolute rockstar experts, so dang good at what they do. Creative, resourceful, they will go the extra mile for their clients. They do things in a creative way. They have really big hearts and they are struggling selling their things. They cannot articulate the value. They cannot connect the dots between the tips and tactics and strategies that they're providing. They're doing webinar after webinar. They think, oh my gosh, I need a new webinar. Oh my gosh, I need a new freebie. Oh, my gosh, I need to figure out the emails. Oh, now I have to learn this or that. And they keep coming up with all the lists of things to do because it isn't working. But what if I were to tell you, maybe it wasn't about finding the secret strategy to get to the end result. Maybe it's not about adding another tactic to your list, maybe it's not about I don't know, trying to figure out how to unlock reels on Instagram or whether or not Clubhouse is dead? Or I don't know, whatever list you have, right? I know you have a list. It's 2022. I bet you came up with a whole list of things you want to do. 

12:50  

The question is, is it really about adding more tactics or is it about us getting real with our own skill set and saying, when I show up to the tactics, if I actually look back and audited going live on Facebook, what's on my freebie? Talking on podcasts, my own speaking on my own pod, if I were to take a hard look at that and be super freakin honest, did the content I cover actually influence my audience's thinking? Now notice, I said influenced my audience's thinking. Let me debunk a big thing right here. I don't even know what to call it. But it's not really an issue. But it's a misconception that I think we have and let me step back here for a moment. Whenever I teach webinars or last year when I was teaching the speaking workshops, I talked about some of the mistakes or missteps that we make as entrepreneurs and one of the number one things I see is so many entrepreneurs are just over teaching in their content. And I don't mean by over teaching as in this common saying that a lot of people are going to. You're giving away too much for free. If you go all the way for free, people won't buy and I'm going to say I actually do not believe that at all. I think you can give away so much for free. That's not the issue for people buying. The issue is that we're not teaching the things that actually help our audience take the next step into action. 

14:17  

So let's talk about this. If you're here, maybe you do webinars, you do these things we're talking about and you really love the seven tips, the nine strategies, the how to go from A to B. If you love that stuff, you're not alone. Because here's the big thing is, the reason why so many entrepreneurs including my clients, they tell me you know, Heather, number one when I think about the goal for my presentation, I think about what I want people to get away, like take away from a presentation. I want to be valuable. I want them to be tangible things that they can do. And it's no wonder that they say that because hello, how many webinars  or free trainings, or PDF guides have you downloaded but they're just filled in with fluff, where you just want to stab yourself in the eye with a fork, because you're like, that was another waste of my time, oh I can't get that time back. And worse, that is clouding you now so much when you think about joining the free training. Your expectation is most likely that it actually is going to be fluff and you sit there going, prove me wrong, bro, where it's like now you're double scheduling yourself where it's like you sign up for a webinar but really, you're working while the webinars in the background unless they catch your interest. And it's like, okay, you got to work for my attention. 

It used to be people would sign up for class and they gave you their attention. But now because there's so much fluffy stuff out there, of course, people are skeptical, and so are you. So it's no wonder you're sitting here thinking like, ah, I don't want to be lumped in that category because I know I can help people. I want to help people. I'm sure it's more effective. I could sell more if I dangle the proverbial carrot. Is that a thing? Did I say that right? Anyways, whatever, dangle the carrot and get people to be like, and here's all the fluff now to get the real stuff, go to the back of the room or to get the real stuff buy my thing. I have people directly tell me all the time, I would rather have a lower conversion rate than to sacrifice my soul and be like a sneaky, annoying turd. Yeah, I just had sneaky annoying turd. That's where we're at today. 

16:24  

So I get it. I get it. And I relate with that so freaking much that it kills me if I ever think about my like my podcast episodes, or goodness forgive my like a webinar. I like the idea of somebody walking away from watching one of my videos coming to one of my classes, taking my course listen my podcast and for them going like, ah, that was terrible. Like that was like, oh my gosh, so horrible, that Heather Sager. She thinks she's so funny and she makes up words and oh my gosh, she drilled on herself. You know where I'm going with this, right? But here's the funny thing I want you to think about. Okay, side note, side tangent. Here we go. Sager side note. 

Over the holidays, I read a ton of books. I read a lot of books all the time. Fun fact, in 2021, I read 76 books. Yes, 76. I am an avid reader. And what's funny is, so I use an app called goodreads. It's how I track all my reading. There's a point to this, I promise. I track all my books. But one of the things I love doing is I like looking at the reviews of books, whether it's an audio book, a physical book. I do this with podcasts too, but mostly with books, where I evaluate whether or not I want to buy it. And then I go and as I'm reading it, I get a couple chapters in and I start forming an opinion. Then I jump online because I'm actually curious, like is my opinion in line with the normal like with a consensus. 

And then what I noticed is, as I scroll through the comments, I'm just gonna, I should have grabbed one of these to show you but as I scroll through the comments, let me actually, I'm going to pull up one of these because it is hilarious. So as you scroll through the comments, you can actually see this interesting conundrum. Okay, here we go. Soone of the books I finished before the end of the year was the Big Leap. I love that. And okay, here's the first rating. She goes holy, I'm going to say FD FF, but it actually has the words your holy FD FF. I wish I'd read this two years ago, like self sabotage, success. It's there. Finally an explanation. I'm only in chapter two, but so far, it's gold. That's the first review or the first one. The two reviews down get this. Ted rates it. This book has some truth, some helpful suggestions. However, they're very far and few between. Most of the book is filler stories, stories of the author's accomplishments, hang on, famous people he's helped or status acquired. I would not recommend reading this book. That's one star. Furthermore, there's, I don't see down here because I'm trying to scroll down and find one star reviews. A bullet review, this is freaking terrible. This is a two, this book was confusing mix, like totally all over the map. Here's five stars, then a few stars. 

The point that I'm making here. You can write the most epic book on the planet and people are gonna like and people are gonna hate it. And I know, you know this is true, like, theoretically, right? And conceptually, we know this is true. We know we can't be one for everyone. But what I want you to think about is how that need to not be fluffy, that desire to shove a cram, quote-unquote value down another person's throat. How is that clouding your judgment to pick quality content that will actually serve those who are your ideal customer? Because the truth is, and I don't grant it. I'm very, very fortunate. This podcast has all five star reviews which side note if you have not left a rating to the podcast, I would love it. Nothing would tell me Happy New Year as much as your honest review. All of them are five stars. But I bet you somebody is listening to the show going, who is this chick? She talks way too fast. She's what, no, like, hell, no, I'm gonna go learn from someone else, like too flighty, whatever. They probably have bad things to say. Same thing, people unsubscribe from my email list. I used to be a little hurt by that and now I celebrate it. Because what it means is, you are getting closer to focusing just on the person who your content is for. 

And I know that you know this, but I want you to understand and hear me when I say that need to be tangible, valuable, to be not associated with the fluffy crap of whoever is bad webinar you watched. That desire for you to separate yourself is sabotaging your own success. It is as simple as that.

16:32  

It is sabotaging your own success. And because of your desire, I'm just assuming here because I've been guilty of it too. I see it so much with my clients. It this desire to, there's so many things that you want to teach. And I'm like banging my hand as I say this, because it's like, when I talk with a real client. I'm doing a lot of webinar audits lately, and this the season for webinar audits, especially after the three part series on webinars, which by the way, scroll back a few episodes, that was a hot month in the month of November, if you want to learn how to do a non schmucky, but very effective webinar that's authentic to your style, go back and listen to that three part series. But talking to a lot of people, there is such a feeling of I have to teach them this. They have to know that this is the fundamental principle like this is the thing. And what I want to encourage you to think about as you move forward, whether it's this year or whenever you're listening to this, I want you to start asking, but is that true? Is this my like, need to prove something to sound smart, to be right? Or is this what my audience actually needs? 

22:19  

I think sometimes it's a little bit of ego play where there's a lot of things that says like, have you heard that phrase, sell them what they want, give them what they need. I think we got to dive into that a little bit deeper, because I think a lot of times as entrepreneurs, especially when we're newer to teaching, so let's say you've done things for other people, but now you're trying to teach other people to do the thing that you've done. There's a lot that we think people need, but they actually don't, and that adding all these extra steps or extra pieces actually limit their ability to get things done because the laundry list of items or information we're giving them is on overdrive. I'm now giving you a little bit more to context here. 

But what I'm trying to get you thinking, I'm trying to help you start thinking right now that when people say, you probably heard this, right? One popular belief, how to content is undermining your sales or unpopular beliefs, you're giving away too much for free. It's really not about any of those things. The only question we should be asking is, what specifically is the content that you're teaching? That is the question. So I want to give you a few things to think about today. And I'm going to give you this idea, this is a central idea. It's my influence model, something that I started teaching inside of my program, Speak up to Level up last year, and I've been using it as my framework to help all of my clients design webinars that are aligned to their offers. They feel good, but they provide incredible value by helping people think and move them towards the actions that will help that person be successful and more likely to buy your program.

24:05  

So this influence model teaches people how to get buy in for your ideas. And I'm going to teach you some parts of it today because I want you to put it into practice. I want you to put into practice and I want to have give you a little appetizer teaser here if you've been listening to the show or maybe you're new around here and you like the idea of like, okay, this lady with all of our citations and stories. I like her style, like how she delivers. If you're thinking like, okay, I want to be able to yes, speak more confidently. I want to know where to speak so I can reach my ideal audience. But when I do, I want to not only sound like I know what I'm talking about, but structure in a way where I'm not questioning myself that I know it's in language that's going to resonate and help my audience move into action. Regardless of whether or not they buy their program though that is a beautiful benefit and it happens when you learn to speak magnetically. 

But if you're sitting in that boat, real quick before I give you a couple of these concepts I want to invite you to put on the calendar and you may as well just like cement it. We are bringing back the Speaking Workshops. And that is happening coming up in February and I want to invite you to get on the waitlist for it right now. The Speaking Workshops is an event we did for the first time in September. It was a popup group that we did for a series of workshops to help you become a more magnetic speaker. We talk about specifically how speaking shows up as an online entrepreneur, the kinds of stages you could be speaking on to attract your ideal clients, but how to also ensure that when you do show up on those stages, you're showing up with intention with actual valuable content, and in a way that's magnetic to your ideal person. 

24:05  

So if you've been thinking I need to get more confident on podcasts, I need to figure out how to speak quote-unquote off the cuff more comfortably so that I can put myself out there for panels or Facebook Lives or whatever it is on your list that you're thinking I need to show up in a bigger way in 2022, I want you to save your seat at the speaking workshops. You can get on the waitlist right now, heathersager.com/workshops, heathersager.com/workshops. If you're listening to this episode after they happen, no sweat, you should be able to go to that website and get on the waitlist for the next time we do it. But this is going to be an incredible way for you to get a good start in the year but for understanding really what are the fundamentals it takes to build the skill of becoming more influential when you speak. You already know my feelings on this. You are your best brand asset. You have to know how to speak in a way that connects your content to your ideal customer, and do in a way that is fun and authentic to you can really be persuasive so I hope you join us for the speaking workshops. The first time we've officially announced it, and I'm excited to give you more information on that soon. But let's get your tush on the waitlist so your seat is safe. 

27:00  

Okay, let's talk about my influence model. What we're talking about here is specifically, how do you approach how-to content like tips, tactics, strategies. What you're most likely teaching right now, how do you approach it in a way that is not just how to, but you provoke that person's thinking? Let me give you an example here. I just want you to think about this for a moment. How often do you love being told what to do? How often do you love being told what to do? So if somebody were just barking orders at you, somebody were telling you, I don't know, like exactly how to mow your lawn, or do the dishes, or I don't know why all house slash like domestic things are popping up for me. I don't know about you, I get a little resistant when people tell me like what to, just like, tell me what you need and I'll figure out how to do it. How do you really react when people tell you what to do? 

28:04  

Most often we kind of push back and we want to know like, but why? This is the favorite question of both of my children right now. Anytime I asked them to do anything, it's why, why, why, why, why. And one of my speaking friends used to have the thing that that's called the toddler loop where they say, why, why, why, why, until you die. So it's this idea like we have this innate desire to understand but like, but why? Or other thing if somebody tells us what to do, we push back with objections. So I had an example of that. So let's say for example, I tell you, okay, case in point, let's pretend I'm a health coach. I'm totally not a health coach. This is not health information so there's whatever legal disclaimer do not do this as fact. I'm just using it as an example. We did that like speed that they would do in a Viagra commercial online. It's like the blah blah blah blah.

28:54  

Anyways, okay, here we go. So I want you to think about if I were to tell you, okay, so here are the three things you need to do to not feel had back pain in the morning. Number one, you got to stretch. Number two, you need to drink more water, and number three, you need to walk 3.24 miles a day. When I say that, what's your first reaction? I guarantee you we're like, why 3.24. And then maybe you have some follow up of going like okay, I kind of get like the water, okay, stretching, water, okay. But like, ah, in that right? Unless you're, like your back pain that was like burning on fire to the point where like, I'll try anything. Most likely you're going like, yeah, I've heard that before. Or like, Yeah, I know I need to drink more water or like, okay, all right. The best case scenario. Okay, Heather, like That sounds great. And then you wake up tomorrow morning and you are like you forgot about it. Or you're like No, I'll do it later and then you never do it. 

29:57  

Okay, I know this is a super freaking lame example. but follow me in principle here on how you push back, right? Number one, you push back by like why? Like why? Number two, you push back by like, it's kind of lame. I've heard that before. And then number three, you're like pushing back because it wasn't important enough where you didn't really believe that it would work enough that you weren't going to do anything. Alright, you've been around here long enough? Are you seeing the parallel how this might be showing up for you right now in your content? When you deliver how-to information, when you deliver, hey, here are the three tips of how to get more engagement on your Instagram. Hey, here are the five ways to how to simplify mealtime at dinner, here, there's something, something. When you do that, don't you think your people are thinking like, like but why? Or that's like simple lame. I can get that on YouTube or that's really whatever. Or they're thinking, okay, that's well and great, and then they don't do it. They don't frickin do it. So if they're not going to do the simple advice you give them what makes you think that they're going to take the bull move of buying your frickin program. Sorry, I got a little heated on that one. But you understand the logic here. 

31:08  

And listen, listen, I get it. When I'm talking about here, it sounds so logical when we put ourselves on the flip seat, like when we're thinking, but like, this is what people need to do to be successful, like they want a stress free dinner time so what they want a recipe ideas. Okay, that is true. And we also have to acknowledge that it isn't as simple. If they just wanted recipe ideas for dinner time, that could have gone on Pinterest and got some recipes. But here they are consuming your online training, or your webinar, or your video series or something, right? Clearly, that information hasn't worked because here we are on the cycle. Like for me, for example, back when I was researching. I had diastasis recti. I talked about this multiple times on the show before. I was researching all these things, trying to find a solution. I'd be on one person's thing and I'm like, I'm not gonna do that so then I would go find someone else who was like, oh, well, that makes more sense. Okay. I'm going off on some tangents here but you are following me here on this line of thinking that we need to start actually thinking, like how we consume content versus wearing the hat of I'm the pro. I know why I'm doing this, just say as I do. So how do we do that? We have to establish influence which means that we have to have the capacity to influence, to cause a change, to cause a shift in how other people see the problem or the situation. Do you understand that? 

32:42  

We have to cause a shift in how they see their problem or the context around the solution. Are you following me on that? So how do we do that? Well, I'm actually not going to go into all the frickin details on this because it's going to overwhelm you. But here's what I am going to do. I'm going to give you three things that are going to help you with this. All right, three things, you can handle three things. So number one, I want you to think about this. Number one, context, context, context context. If I had to give you one simple thing that you can do differently, right, your baby nugget step that you can take next time you give a tip, tactic or strategy, just give some context. Give some context of why it might this matter to them. For example, with my weird 3.24 mile scenario, I don't actually have a way for that. So let's go with stretching, stretching scenario. So one of the reasons why, so let's go back. Okay, so you want to get rid of your back pain. Here's three simple strategies that you can do to alleviate your back pain in just I don't know, 45 minutes a day.

33:48  

I don't know, I'm making stuff up here. So the number one principle is stretching every single morning and not stretching in general, but stretching specific areas. Pause. Let's go into the context. What most people don't realize is the whole structure, I'm making stuff up here. I don't actually know anatomy, but the whole structure of your back zips all the way down on the muscles connect all the way down to your toes. I don't know maybe people know that. Anyways, I would give some context around how the back pain is most often associated with weak glutes. I don't know that could be true or your ladies, pelvic floor. Giving some context around but why stretching? What is the specific thing we're trying to accomplish with that? Because then what we're doing is giving them a compelling reason for why. I'll give you another example here. 

One of the number one things people ask me when they interview on podcast is, Heather, how can they be more engaging on camera? They want a tip, a tactic. So I give it to them, but I don't leave it there. I take the mic and I hold it to give some context. Here's the example. Oh, you know, the people ask me this question all the time. The number one tip for how to get better at speaking on camera. Here's a simple one. Look at the dang camera lens. Pause, I take the mic. I give some context. And I say the number one mistake I see so many online entrepreneurs make when doing online video is they stare at the screen with the faces on Zoom, or at their own reflection when they're recording on live or Instagram stories. And it's no wonder we do that, we do that because we want to see the reactions that people were talking to you. That's how we're designed as humans. When it comes to communication, it's two ways. It's not only what we speak, but it's our body language. And when you're in a conversation or you're speaking with other people, they're communicating back to you and it's telling you, is it resonating? Is it not? You tell a joke. Are we laughing together? Are they liking it? Are they with me? That two way communication is so important. So it's no wonder that we're looking at that when we are speaking to a group. 

35:49  

The challenges when you're online, when you are looking at the screens of the faces, and you're getting that two way communication, you speak to them and they're speaking to you through their faces, the challenge is you're getting the benefit of two way communication, but they are not. Because it looks like you are staring at the person next to them. Or worse, it looks like you're staring at their chest which is never appropriate. So what I want you thinking about is as a speaker, your job is to put the experience of your audience over your own comfort. So while you might want to have those faces smiling back at you, because makes you feel good helps you feel validated that your content is great. What your audience actually needs is for you to look at the camera and give them eye contact so that they see feel seen, they feel connected, and they will have a much more impactful experience. Boom! I just said that on the fly. 

Did you follow what I just did there? The tactic would have just been simply look at the camera lens. That would have been a really cute, like Instagram reel, which I'll probably do that as an Instagram reel. However, the context of helping you understand why. And I gave you some education around how communication works. I also helped you feel not guilty for doing it. It's perfectly normal but I challenge your thinking. I challenge your thinking. I give you context. Let me actually ask you a direct question. Obviously, you can't answer it. But I want you to pretend I'm here and you tell me A or B. Which one is more powerful, A, me telling you to look at the camera, or B, me telling you what happens when you don't look at the camera with the argument of why you should. I know the answer to that question is B. Clearly that was B. But was that fluffy crap? No. 

37:37  

So here's the question is, is the issue that you don't want to deliver fluffy crap or is the issue that you don't actually know how to articulate contextual information like that, because you've never learned how to influence through your words. And if that's the case, it's not that you're a terrible speaker, it's not that you're a bad marketer, it's not that you're getting all these things wrong. It's just you haven't developed the skill of speaking even this skill of influential or persuasive speaking. Lucky for you, that's what I'm a pro at and I'm gonna be helping you here on that. That's what we're gonna be working on the Speaking Workshops, by the way. But number one, that's the super simple tip, create context. Now I know what you're thinking. You're going but Heather, you rambled off that context. So freaking smooth, I can't do that. I don't want you to do that. I don't want to worry about that right now. I just want you to start going, because fill in the blank. What's like the three tips? Do this because blank. Okay, that's like, keep it simple. Keep it simple. So number one, for more influence, start providing more context. And context is the why, like, why should I do that? 

38:45  

Number two, I want you to acknowledge the invisible, unpack the invisible knowledge that you have. So here's what I mean by that. When you give someone a tip, when you think about your how-to content, you are not giving yourself enough credit of the thinking going on in your brain for how you got to those three things, or how you got to those recommendations. And the funny part is, you don't even think about it because it's ingrained in your head and you don't even think twice about it. You're like duh, that's just common knowledge. It's not. So number two recommendation for influence, start asking yourself what was the thinking that I had the lead me to this piece of content. And then I want you to pivot make your content about that. If you start teaching a little bit more about your thinking you will influence the thinking of others. Boom, so powerful. 

Number three. Number three. This one is an easy one. I want you to start challenging yourself and saying how can I simplify this? How can I simplify this so? When you do your next video, your next teaching, your next whatever, and you get ready to deliver it. I want you to look at your notes and say, how could I make this simpler? 

40:08  

So thinking about this, if you were, let's just pretend here. Okay, this happened to me over Christmas break. I made fudge, peppermint bark fudge. I hadn't made fudge at all in my adult life. I made a giant thing. I'm like, yes, this is awesome and I planned to give it away to the people. And as I looked at the giant thing, I'm like, I can't give somebody this much fudges, Ridiculous, like it was overkill. So I took, sort of taking pieces away. And I'm like, okay, that's more manageable, then it was still like it was a lot of fudge. And if you've ever had fudge before, it's super rich and it's intense. And nobody really needs more than a little tiny baby nugget. I ended up segmenting the thing into six different servings and gave them to all of my family. My point around this. 

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So I want you to think about the same. Your content next time you go do it, I want you to give yourself an honest thing and go, how could I pare this back a little bit and make it a little simpler? Number one, give some context. Number two, I want you to unpack your invisible knowledge you're thinking. Share it. And number three, I want you to simplify. Simplify it. That's the main thing. How can I simplify this? Okay, I know these sound incredibly simple. But the thing is, the the quote-unquote secrets to anything. They are exercising, things like this, right? It's about understanding how to do these things in an intentional way and start questioning why are we feeling that resistance when we push back on selling or floppiness or whatever that marketing tactic is that you feel yourself pushing back. Don't just like dismiss it entirely. I want you to start asking yourself the question of why are you pushing back on it? And I hope that today's episode really challenged you on your thinking in that way and I can't wait to challenge you even more. Thank you so much for letting me be your speaking coach and it's an honor that you show up each week to the podcast. As you can tell my words are gone. So that is my cue that I am done. But friend, be sure that you join us on the waitlist for the upcoming Speaking Workshops happening in February. You can get yourself on that waitlist at heathersager.com/speakingworkshops. Alright friend, we will see you next week.