BNI 796: Weekly Presentation Coaching 127 - Robert Begley - Professional Speaking Coach - BNI & The Power of One

Summary

BNI & The Power of One: Episode Summary

Title: BNI 796: Weekly Presentation Coaching 127 - Robert Begley - Professional Speaking Coach
Host: Tim Roberts
Release Date: March 14, 2025

Introduction to the Episode

In the 796th episode of the BNI & The Power of One podcast, host Tim Roberts delves into the art of crafting effective weekly presentations within the BNI framework. This episode, titled "Weekly Presentation Coaching 127," features a detailed analysis and constructive feedback on a presentation submitted by Robert Begley, a professional speaking coach and founder of Speaking With Purpose.

Overview of Weekly Presentation Coaching

Tim Roberts introduces the segment by emphasizing the importance of weekly presentations in BNI meetings. These presentations are not merely promotional talks but serve as training sessions for fellow members to identify and generate referral opportunities. The goal is to educate members on the "Who, How, and What" of referrals:

Who: Identifying the ideal referral targets.
How: Strategies to locate these targets.
What: Effective communication techniques to secure referrals.

Roberts encourages listeners to submit their presentations for review, highlighting the collective learning and improvement that occurs when members hear and critique each other's pitches.

Review and Feedback on Robert Begley's Presentation

Robert's Original Presentation

Robert Begley submitted a 30-second presentation, which Tim reviews in detail. Here is Robert's original pitch:

"Hi, I'm Robert Beckley, founder of Speaking With Purpose, LLC. I empower leaders and speakers to deliver impactful presentations that captivate and influence. Whether you're managing a team, pitching to investors, or speaking at a conference, I solve challenges like lack of structure, weekly weak delivery, stage fright, and failure to connect with audiences. If you or someone you know needs to communicate clearly and confidently, get in touch. I'm here to transform your speaking skills and ensure you truly speak with purpose."
(Duration: 29.4 seconds)

Tim's Constructive Feedback

1. Precision Under Time Constraints

Tim acknowledges that Robert's presentation is concise and fits within the 30-second limit. However, he points out that brevity can sometimes lead to overly commercial language, detracting from the training-focused objective of BNI presentations.

Notable Quote:
"You didn’t really hit any of the three parts. The who, first and foremost, is really targeted to the people in the room."
(Timestamp: 05:30)

2. Targeting the Right Audience

Roberts critiques the "Who" aspect of Robert's pitch, noting that the presentation primarily addresses a broad audience that may not align with the actual needs of the BNI members present. By listing scenarios like pitching to investors or speaking at conferences, Robert may inadvertently push away members who do not face these specific challenges.

Notable Quote:
"People always want to buy things they never want to be sold anything. So when you’re talking about my best friend, I might self qualify myself, be like, you know, I actually probably need to do that too. But now I'm buying from you."
(Timestamp: 12:45)

3. The Importance of Specificity

Tim emphasizes the need for specificity in presentations. Instead of vague references like "someone you know," he advises Robert to paint a clear picture of the ideal referral target. For example:

Specific Target: "I want to speak with your business partner who's preparing a big investor pitch."
Contextual Situation: "When you're talking to them and they're discussing their upcoming conference..."

Notable Quote:
"Paint the picture. Two is, how do we know somebody? Like how would I know my best friend might be in need of your services?"
(Timestamp: 18:20)

4. Enhancing Relatability and Engagement

Roberts suggests rephrasing the presentation to focus on real-life scenarios that BNI members might encounter. By doing so, the pitch becomes more relatable and less about selling services, aligning with the training and referral-generating purpose of the platform.

Suggested Revision Example:
"I’m Robert Beckley, founder of Speaking With Purpose. I empower leaders to deliver impactful presentations and overcome challenges like stage fright and weak delivery. If you know someone who’s gearing up for a big conference or investor pitch and needs to communicate clearly and confidently, let me know. I’d love to help them speak with purpose."

Key Insights and Strategies for Effective Weekly Presentations

Through the review of Robert Begley's presentation, several key strategies emerge for crafting impactful weekly pitches within BNI:

Focus on Training Over Selling: Presentations should educate members on how to identify and generate referrals, rather than directly selling services.
Be Specific with Your Target: Clearly define the ideal referral target by painting a vivid picture of their identity and needs.
Align with Members' Real Needs: Understand the challenges and scenarios that BNI members commonly face to ensure relevance and engagement.
Use Relatable Scenarios: Incorporate real-life situations that members can easily relate to, making the pitch more engaging and memorable.
Maintain Clarity and Confidence: Ensure that the presentation is concise, clear, and delivered with confidence to leave a lasting impression.

Conclusion and Encouragement to Submit Presentations

Tim Roberts wraps up the episode by reiterating the value of submitting weekly presentations for review. He highlights the unique perspective gained by hearing one’s presentation through another’s voice, which can uncover nuances and improvements that the presenter might overlook. Roberts encourages all members to participate actively by submitting their presentations to bnipowerofone.com, emphasizing that continual practice and feedback are essential for mastering the art of effective referral generation.

Notable Quote:
"Whether it’s 30 seconds, 45 seconds, a minute, it doesn’t matter. We got to be effective."
(Timestamp: 29:10)

This episode serves as a valuable resource for BNI members seeking to refine their weekly presentations. By focusing on specificity, relevance, and clarity, members can enhance their ability to generate meaningful referrals and elevate their BNI experience through the power of one.

Transcript

Host (0:25)

Foreign. Welcome back to B and I and the Power of One Podcast. Back with our weekly presentation coaching episodes. This is where, again, we are reviewing your submitted weekly presentations. If you ever want to submit one, go to bni powerofone.com super excited. We're getting very close to our 800, 800th that's better English episode, and we got some good episodes coming up. I think based on some of the topics I've seen submitted weekly presentations. We're gonna have a special guest in a couple weeks that I'm excited about as well. So thank you for everybody who continues to listen. If. If you're finding value, continue to showcase. Leave a testimonial review, Apple Podcast, Spotify, Google Podcast, however you may be finding. All right, let's get to today's point where you're doing weekly presentations again, where we are reviewing submitted weekly presentations. Try to help give feedback to make them as effective as possible. Good for all of us to be hearing examples as we work on our very own. Remember, again, the purpose of a weekly presentation is to train our fellow members how to see and bring us referral opportunities. Okay, so it's all about training. We need to be training them on who, how, and what. Who are we looking for? How do we find them? What do we say? Today we are hearing from Robert Begley. He is the founder of Speaking With Purpose. He is out of Manhattan. I think it's the BNI. He told me it's the Manhattan 64 BNI Club. Okay, I'm gonna assume it doesn't say, but just based on length, you guys probably have about 30 seconds. This is only about 83 words. So very short. So I'm assuming it's got to be precise. So here we go. I'm gonna. Robert, I'm going to time it just so we have a reference point. Hi, I'm Robert Beckley, founder of Speaking With Purpose, llc. I empower leaders and speakers to deliver impactful presentations that captivate and influence. Whether you're managing a team, pitching to investors, or speaking at a conference, I solve challenges like lack of structure, weekly weak delivery, stage fright, and failure to connect with audiences. If you or someone you know needs to communicate clearly and confidently, get in touch. I'm here to transform your speaking skills and ensure you truly speak with purpose. Okay, so 29.4 seconds. So I would say right on the time. If it's 30 seconds long and you and I speak at a similar pace. This is not a weekly presentation focused on training. This is. And it might fall victim just to Time, I think, especially when chapters get larger and the time gets shrunk, we tend to see people feel the pressure of 30 seconds and they tend to become more commercial. Like, that does not mean, oh, we shouldn't speak for 30 seconds. It just means when we only have 30 seconds, we have to be even more precise. You didn't really hit any of the three parts. The who, first and foremost, is really targeted to the people in the room. You threw in a someone you know, but the rest of it is very targeted to the people listening to you. Right. So it's whether you're managing a team, pitching to investors, or speaking at a conference, I solve the challenges. So it's. That's a you focus, meaning the people in the room. If you people in the room and then you threw in somebody or someone you know needs to commute clearly and confidently, get in touch. I'm here to transform your speaking skills and ensure you truly speak with purpose. That is very targeted. And again, what happens is people in the room, when they start hearing, like, feeling like they're the. The target of what you're doing, you're selling to them, they naturally shut down. They will naturally start thinking about why they don't need your product and service. And I don't know the makeup of your group at all. So this could be really off. But I would bet a majority of your members are not speaking at conferences or pitching to investors. They may be managing a team, but the real ones that people would get nervous of, like where your real value is, is when they have to pitch to outside things. So pitching to investors, really big deal. Speaking at a conference, depending on the size and knowledge and that kind of stuff, like a really big deal, stage fright, really big deal. But I would bet most of your members don't face those things. Or when you start targeting them, when you start saying, hey, I can help you with these things, they will naturally go, well, I don't need that because I don't face those things, or I can talk to my own team. I'm fine. I don't have investors. I don't speak at conferences. I don't do those things. Now, again, you're in Manhattan. Maybe a lot more of your membership's focus does than say, in Florida or New Hampshire. But I'm pretty confident that most of your members don't. But even if the ones who do, it's just a natural reaction, we tend to shut down. And the problem with shutting down is we start thinking about why we don't need it or whatever. Excuse we have for why we don't need your services, which makes it impossible for us to think about who does, because we're busy thinking about why we don't. And your brain cannot be thinking about two things simultaneously. So even with the who, we're focused on the wrong people. The only other who you put in is someone you know. Like, that's just too vague. We gotta be very specific. So you gotta paint a picture of somebody you're really trying to communicate with. Is it a business owner trying to find investors? Is it a business owner making a presentation at a conference? And then clearly define that person. I want to speak with your business partner who has been assigned to speak at your upcoming company, you know, industry conference. I want to speak to your business partner who's preparing a big investor pitch. I want to speak to your best friend. Like, really paint a picture. When you start with somebody you know, we just, we don't know anybody. It's too vague, right? When you, whenever you ask for anybody, somebody, anyone or someone, you get nobody and no one. So paint the picture. Two is, how do we know somebody? Like, how would I know my best friend might be in need of your services? When you're talking to them and they're talking about their upcoming conference and how they're really nervous because they have to speak, there's the trigger. Now it's, what do I say? Let them know you work closely with somebody who's, whose professional, you know, focus is helping people just like them in that situation and see if you can make an introduction that's really going to be what it's about. Right? So it'd be something like, I'm Robert Beckley, founder, speaking with purpose. I empower leaders and speakers to live, to deliver impactful presentations and get over common challenges like stage fright, weak delivery, lack of structure. I want to meet your best friend who's got an upcoming speaking opportunity at their industry conference. When you're talking to them, you might hear them say how nervous they are to be up to be speaking or even how excited they are to be speaking at the conference. Ask them what are they doing to prepare and let them know that you work with somebody whose purse, whose profession is helping people like them in that situation, and ask if you can make an introduction, something like that. That's hitting all three parts. And if you do it that way, the people in the room who might also be facing those situations will come and reach out to you, but they're unlikely to when you target them. People always want to buy things they never want to be sold anything. So when you're talking about my best friend, I might self qualify myself, be like, you know, I actually probably need to do that too. But now I'm buying from you. You're not selling to me when you're like, oh, I can help you with this, this, and this. Man, I'm good. I don't need that. I'm all set. I don't do that. Or, I'm fine. I'm prepared. I've done it before. Whatever excuse that they come up with, so I'd rework it. And something like that example that I just gave you, you know, you could probably make it even better. That was off the cuff, but hopefully this is helpful. Robert, I appreciate you submitting it. I appreciate everybody who continues to submit them. We've got a good lineup coming lined up here, but that doesn't mean don't submit yours. Get in there, go to bnipowerofone.com, write your weekly presentation. Let me know how long you have. We will absolutely get to them, record them, and you'll be able to learn because you're going to hear it differently. You will hear it differently from my voice than your own, right? Sometimes we have to hear somebody else present it for us to really pick it up on. And again, because this is the skill set you're using each and every week. And it's only in our best interest to become as effective as possible in that moment. Whether it's 30 seconds, 45 seconds, a minute, it doesn't matter. We got to be effective. And it's different. It sounds different. We talk differently during that time. So this is only meant to help. So submit yours, and I'll talk to you all soon.