← The Amy Porterfield Show
The Amy Porterfield Show
This One Strategy Helps You Sell Without Feeling Salesy with Colin Boyd
00:58:04
How To Own the Room, Build Trust, and Convert—With Just One Signature Story
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- [00:02]
A
Hey, there. Welcome to the Amy Porterfield Show.
- [00:11]
B
A conversion story answers three questions. It answers the question of, are you like me? Which is showing them that you've been through some challenges. The second question it asks is, can you lead me? So, in other words, you've actually built something significant, you've achieved something, some results, and then finally, is there a path that I can follow? Is there a specific process or methodology that I could follow?
- [00:38]
A
When I was preparing for this episode, I was thinking about all the times that I had imposter syndrome before I went on stage. Because if you know me, you know that I don't necessarily love to speak on stage. And in this case, I'm talking about a physical location where I walk on stage and I'm looking at a bunch of people staring at me. It's not my most favorite thing. Like, if I'm going to do anything, I love a webinar. But speaking from stage, selling from stage still makes me feel really nervous. And I have the worst imposter syndrome. So when I was thinking about preparing for this episode and all the times I've had imposter syndrome with speaking, I thought about a time I had imposter syndrome that had nothing to do with speaking, but probably was the worst case of imposter syndrome for me. So I thought I needed to tell you. So the story goes, I was on a private jet, and the stairs were wet because it was raining. And I fell down the stairs and broke my Gucci sandal and had to wobble to the bus that was waiting for us to take us to the venue. That's basically my story. But let me back up a little bit. I got invited to a really cool Mastermind, and it was with a bunch of really cool people, and one of the members happened to have a private jet. How cool is that? Right? Like, this is not my norm. And so I got to go on this private jet with all these really cool people. We had a great time traveling to the destination. And then, like I said, everyone was getting off of the jet, and I was, like, somewhere in the middle, and I literally fell down the stairs, and my body felt so, so beat up. But you can bet I did not even let anyone know that I was in so much pain, because I think the embarrassment took over all the pain. And like I said, I broke my Gucci sandal. I did. I've never worn them since. And hobbling to the bus was, embarrassingly enough, probably the worst part, because everyone was watching me at that point. But then I got on the bus and I sat down and instantly I just had this wash of imposter syndrome over me like I couldn't even breathe practically. Because what I told myself was you just made a total fool of yourself in front of some people I didn't even know but I loved. Like these were cool people. Like I said, I think I've said that three times. Made a fool out of myself. I was so embarrassed. And instantly I said to myself, you do not belong here. I have no idea how you got invited here, Amy, but you do not belong here. You just made a total fool of yourself. And it's just proof that, that you shouldn't be in this special group. Like it was the worst imposter syndrome I ever had. And I have to tell you, I kind of carried it with me into the next few days. Like I struggled that weekend because instantly I just felt so embarrassed and like a mess and that I didn't belong there. This episode brought up that memory that I'd really like to forget. But I could tell you so many times and imposter syndrome has just taken over and I'm 16 years in and I'm still telling you these stories. So number one, it never goes away. Two, it is easier to manage once you get some tools. And today we're going to talk about some tools. If it comes up for you when you're on stage or when you do a webinar or before you do an important interview, if it comes up for you, we're going to talk about what to do about it. But that's not the only thing we're going to talk about today. Obviously we're talking about selling from stage, whether that stage is your webinar, a podcast interview or on a physical stage. But we're going to talk about so much more that is going to give you the tools at the end of this episode to crush your next presentation. So I'm excited to welcome back a guest that you may remember from Online Marketing Made Easy. But trust me, this conversation, we're taking it to an entirely new level. My special guest is Colin Boyd. So Colin is an international speaker and business mentor known for his genius in influence, persuasion and communication. So he's the founder of Sell from Stage Academy and in that program he helps entrepreneurs turn their presentations again, whether it's a webinar or podcast interview, live from stage into high converting client generating machines. He also has an upcoming book, it's called One Presentation Away and it's a must read. For the record, I wrote the foreword for Colin. He's been a dear friend of mine for a long time, so I got to see an advance copy. It's a fantastic book. So if you want to use speaking, whether virtual or live, as a way to grow your business and build trust with your audience and get known in your industry and sell in a way that really feels natural, this is the book for you. You can absolutely pre order it. He also has a podcast called the Expert Edge. Highly recommend it if you want to add speaking to basically your skill set in terms of how you're going to grow your business. Now, in today's episode, we're talking about imposter syndrome when you get on stage. But beyond that, we're going to go even deeper. I want to get tactical with this episode. So we're talking about how to craft your conversion story. Remember that? Conversion story? It's a big part of this interview. It's a big part of what I want you to take away. Also. Also, how to structure a presentation that connects emotionally and converts and how to confidently sell from stage, even if you're still finding your voice. So, meaning if you're new in business, if you haven't really done this yet, you will get a lot from this episode as well. So whether you're planning a webinar, a podcast pitch, or you're gearing up to speak on stage, this episode is packed with gold. You might want to come back to it again and again, but for this one, grab your notebook, take all the notes you want to, because you do not want to miss a thing. Let's get to it. Well, this topic's important because we're talking about selling from stage today. However, from stage doesn't always mean a physical stage with a big audience in front of you in real time. So what do you mean when you say selling from stage?
- [06:42]
B
Well, for me, the idea of a stage is basically any. Any stage where you can fit physically see the person and verbally hear the person. So that could be a virtual presentation, maybe a virtual event, or a webinar, or it could be obviously an in person event. So for me, a stage is that platform. Now, sometimes people say, well, life's a stage, so you're always on stage. But that's not what I specialize. I don't specialize in life selling. I specialize in selling from a stage. So it has to be visual, auditory, anywhere where you're presenting, they can physically see your body movements, et cetera.
- [07:18]
A
Okay, got it. So I wanted just to kind of start with the elephant in the room, because a Lot of my students and a lot of my listeners today, they don't want to sell. They don't want to sell from stage, whatever that might look like for them. So the thought of selling in any type of capacity freaks them out. And they wish that they could build a business and make a bunch of money, but they don't really need to sell and they know they need to though call and they want to make more money. They want to find their place in the online space. So talk to the listener right now who is like freaked out to sell and doesn't really want to do it.
- [07:56]
B
Well, I think first of all there needs to be a shift of how you view selling because if the listener right now you listening, have a think about someone who has made an impact on your life. Like maybe they've bought your program, Amy. Maybe they've bought one of my programs. Maybe they've bought someone else's program. Or maybe it's a book. Maybe you bought a book or you bought something that, that someone created that had an impact on their life. And have a think about what would be missing if that creator had not have made the offer of the book, of the course, of the program, of the experience. I know for me there's programs I've done and there is no way on earth I would be at the level I'm at, at the relationship level I'm at, at the income level in our business if it wasn't for certain mentors in my journey who essentially made an offer to me. They sold a program and I took it up. Now, here's the thing. This is the kicker. The kicker is that you are that person for your audience. Like Amy can't reach your audience the way you will reach them. I can't reach your audience the way you, you will reach them. So you have a somewhat a responsibility of going. If you want to bring your genius to the world, it is your responsibility to serve your audience to make an offer. And there's going to be people in your audience who will miss out on accessing a lot of their potential in the way that only you can help them with if you don't make an offer or if you don't sell. And so see it as part of your responsibility of making an offer. And this is the thing is it's not about convincing everyone to join. Like if everyone joins, it's actually going to be a bad experience because you're going to have the wrong people in your program. It's actually about finding the right people and attracting the right people into your program and when they, when they join, when they pay and they experience the transformation you offer, there is a beautiful exchange, there is a beautiful transformation that happens. And so to see it as a transformational experience as opposed to like you're taking money from someone, don't see it as taking money from someone seeing, as making an offer to experience a transformation at a greater level that they hadn't.
- [10:13]
A
Experienced before that can change your whole perspective about how you show up and how you talk about your offers to your audience. For sure. Now here's the thing. As someone who's been on a lot of stages I have, I've been on a lot of stages and I've sold on stages because you've helped me. Like you are such a huge part of me learning how to sell the conversations.
- [10:33]
B
Yeah.
- [10:34]
A
Yes. So. And you knew I didn't want to do it either. I'm like, what can we do instead? But this time I was physically on a stage in front of an audience and I was selling, so. And it was important. I don't know if you know this, Colin, but if I got my timing right, which I'm 99% sure I have, actually I know I have. It was right around the time that I was getting out of my partnership and I had to pay off my partner. Right. I had to make that money. I didn't have enough money to pay him off and I wanted it done as soon as possible. So selling on stage became really important. So anyway, walk down memory lane. I'm glad that's all over with. But I've also been on stages before where I thought I crushed it but then I got off and I barely made any sales. This is before I worked with you, of course, but I've had that experience. So my question to you is what's usually missing that when this happens? Like how do you help someone figure out what went wrong so they could come back stronger next time?
- [11:34]
B
So there's only over three things that you can focus on in the mechanism and this is actually something that I talk about in my new book, which I know you wrote the forward for called One Presentation Away. I gotta say, guys, when Amy Porterfield sends you back a text and says, yes, I will be your forward for your book, that's an exciting day. So it was fun.
- [11:55]
A
I really enjoyed writing it. So I wrote a foreword for Stu's book. And I have to tell you, every time I talk to Stu I mention it was probably the best part of the book. So we might have to explore that when the book comes out. We'll see. We'll see.
- [12:08]
B
Yes. So there's only three things that we look at. The first thing is the message. And so the message is obviously there's a lot going on in the message and that is your actual presentation itself. The second thing is the offer. So we've got to make sure your offer is irresistible, like it's something that is really a great match for that message. And the third thing is the audience. And a lot of people kind of overlook the audience sometimes because they think, oh, there's just something wrong with my offer or something wrong with my message. But it's actually all three. It's the trifecta that creates a truly thriving business and a thriving sales mechanism.
- [12:47]
A
Okay, let's break it down. So message, offer and audience. Okay, so talk to me about those.
- [12:53]
B
Yeah, so message. One of the challenges with people's messaging is that they will usually go into their course for the content that they want to do on their presentation to sell. And so they think if I can show the audience that I really know what I'm talking about, that I'm really helpful to them and there's lots of value, then when it comes to the offer, they're going to think, oh my gosh, if I got this much value for free, imagine what I'm going to get when I, when I pay. The problem with that type of thinking is that a lot of the time it leads to the audience being really overwhelmed with things they need to do before they consider your program.
- [13:36]
A
And so the reason they don't buy.
- [13:38]
B
Then, they don't buy. They don't buy. They, you'll get great comments. You'll say, you'll get comments of like, oh my gosh, Colin, that was amazing. Jenny, that was amazing, whatever your name is. Like, they'll say, that was so helpful. And then they'll say, let me just get through everything you've given me over the next six months. And then I'll definitely, I'll definitely consider your program then.
- [13:58]
A
Oh, it's the worst thing you ever want to hear. The worst. And we've all been there, so.
- [14:03]
B
Yeah, totally. And the thing is, is that from people's heart we know that, you know, you attract a big hearted audience. We want to serve, we want to help them. But the problem is, is if you use that type of teaching, that type of approach, you're almost hindering them to actually making a decision because what they're doing is they stay in this information gathering mode instead of going, I'm going all in on this. And so when they haven't actually bought your program or made a true decision, a true commitment, a true transaction, the commitment level's actually fairly low. It's lower than they realize. Have you ever had someone pick your brain, Amy? I'm sure you have.
- [14:46]
A
Oh, yeah. Yes. My least favorite thing, when someone says, can I take you for coffee? To pick your brain?
- [14:52]
B
I hate to pick your brain. And the reason why we hate it is because we sit down, we have the coffee, and we usually buy the coffee for them as well.
- [15:00]
A
Yeah.
- [15:02]
B
And then. And then after they say, oh, my gosh, that was amazing. And then we see them at the local coffee shop, like, three months later, and we say, oh, my gosh, how'd you go with everything I shared? And they say, oh, I look, to be honest, I haven't got around to getting anything done yet, but it's definitely something that I want to do. And you're thinking, oh, my gosh, I just gave them everything. I didn't hold back. And that's because they didn't need more information. They needed to make a decision. They needed to come to a point of commitment of, like, that I'm done living this way moment. And so a presentation should really be designed to move an audience to the I'm done moment. The moment of where they say, I am done living this way, I'm going down the wrong direction with this goal. And then you make the offer, and the offer actually aligns directly with where they want to go. So you're not. You're not selling them something that they don't want already. They already want it, but the presentation is essentially priming them to make a commitment to go after what they actually want and to make that decision in their life. So that's a big shift.
- [16:10]
A
Okay, I have a question for you. Let's get a little bit tactical here, and I'm just going to ask for one example. So one example that you're suggesting not to do is teach this whole system how to do XYZ on a webinar. I get that part. But if they're not doing that and instead they're actually helping them make a decision, Give me one example of what you could do, let's say, in a webinar, that helps them make a decision, but they still feel like you're giving them value.
- [16:39]
B
Yeah. So one thing that stops people making decisions are misconceptions, misunderstandings about the vehicle that you help them with. So, for example, let's say with my vehicle selling from stage, people might Say well I'm not a great speaker. They might say Colin, I'm not a natural speaker, I'm not a natural communicator. And so I need to show them that you actually don't need confidence to sell from stage. You actually just need a structure. And if you follow a structure then the confidence comes out of following a structure. And so that's just one example. So for your audience you want to think about what are the resistance points that your audience would have about the thing you help them with. Right.
- [17:31]
A
So good. Yes.
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B
Yeah. And then once you reframe those essentially it's taking the emergency break off their minds and their hearts. It's preparing them to actually move forward because they might say you know Amy I really want this thing, I really do but and whatever that but is, but I'm not a good speaker but I just don't like selling but I just, you know, I don't feel ready. Whatever the but is they actually that needs to be addressed usually in the front part of your content we kind of need to let down the emergency breaks from those mindset points, those resistance points so that the audience is actually ready to move forward. So like that's one example of, of helping them get to a point to make a decision.
- [18:16]
A
You're going to be so proud of me because I have a webinar coming out. It's a brand new webinar and it's for my very beginner audience. I've been working on it for a while and Michael Hyatt gave me this idea to create what he calls a, a model anti model masterclass. And essentially it's the model they been taught they think is right, they believe in but they're struggling with and really what I believe to be true for them and what they actually need essentially what you just said and so I'm really excited about that but one more question I have so I'm going to go this route. My audience can model something like that. But do you agree that when I'm explaining no this is really what's true for you which is easier essentially it's easier for them to get started with this anti model situation or whatever you could call whatever you want.
- [19:05]
B
The new model.
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A
Yeah, the new model, yes but in that new model I tend to show some examples or kind of tease some content so they understand the context around it correct.
- [19:15]
B
You never want the audience to feel like they didn't get value. But we a lot of the time sometimes think the only way of giving value is giving them the steps but value is actually encompasses so many things. And so one way of giving value is just providing clarity on the plan ahead. So if you stay, there's this idea which I call the lose the sale line. The lose the sale line is where. And this happens one on one selling as well. It's where you get into the mode of showing them everything on how to do it. And this even happens one on one. You can feel it in your body. If someone asks a question, you say, oh my gosh, I know how to do that. And you show them exactly how to do it. And then they, you get to the offer and they're like, oh, you know what? I'm actually good. I think I've got enough already. I'll just work on that. And so you just have to be careful to not get below that line. And so what's above the line? Above the line is story, which I know we're going to talk about today. Story is metaphor, is frameworks, is reframes, is quotes, is case studies. Like, you can get into all of those things and they're going to be very valuable and provide clarity, but if you get too deep into the detail, you're just going to overwhelm the audience very quickly. And essentially they're not going to do anything with it.
- [20:34]
A
Yeah, that makes sense. Okay, great. So that's a lot of great value around message. So the second one is offer. So talk to me about that.
- [20:43]
B
An offer is essentially a space in which you see a transformation. And what tends to happen is people will teach a bunch of content and then they get to their offer and there is almost like a misalignment. Sometimes there's not a beautiful through line or a match. One thing that's really important, which I do cover in the book, actually, is the idea of building a core premise or building a core idea that the offer aligns with. So you want this through line happening when you present, where it's like the whole presentation is built on a core idea, and then the offer is the fulfillment of that core idea. So in your presentation, you're not actually trying to sell your offer, you're trying to sell the core idea or the core premise that your offer fulfills. And so when you get to your offer, it all makes sense. It's like, oh, my gosh, that's exactly what I need. This feels like the natural next step because the offer fulfills the core premise, the core idea that your whole presentation has been built around. And so I think one of the big mistakes is that people don't have a direct through line between their message and their offer. And I will say the power of bonuses is really important. There's about nine elements to an offer but the power of bonuses. I feel like the bonus is really the needle mover. So often people put bonuses in and they're just kind of randomly thrown in because they might see other people. Oh my gosh, you got to have 27 bonuses. I think you're better off being more strategic with maybe four or five bonuses max. But having them so good that people would buy the program just for the bonuses because they're the needle movers. Your actual curriculum fulfills the need for what they're looking for. And then the bonuses are the other thing that gets them across the line.
- [22:42]
A
Good to know. So my friends spend more time on being strategic about those bonuses and my DCA members we go into bonuses in major detail. So you already have access to all that. Okay, so talk to me about the one that I'm actually not sure what you're going to talk about here. The audience. Like what do you mean? That's part of this.
- [22:59]
B
So audience is important because I do think that for a lot of people they naturally need to think about upgrading their avatar. And so their message, their language is focused on people who are struggling in a challenging spot in a difficult place. And if you up level your avatar, in other words, you start focusing on people who are in a professional role or people who are highly driven or people who are entrepreneurial or people who are conscious of a certain thing like all of this sort of language that uplevels the avatar. So first of all is thinking about do I potentially need to uplevel my avatar so the person has more access to resource, they're more resourceful.
- [23:44]
A
Wow, okay.
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B
It's just a good thought to have because sometimes people are very because that's where they came from. They're very focused on the struggling version of themselves which is good to start with. But eventually at some point I think you should think about up leveling that or offering a different program at a higher level.
- [24:03]
A
Ooh, that's good Colin.
- [24:05]
B
The other thought is that finding the right audience match is so important. I remember for me when I was first starting speaking Amy, I had a presentation coming up, it was for a larger conference and this was when I used to get paid to speak and there was about a thousand people in the audience and I remember I wanted some work. I didn't have enough work on it in that month so I basically cut my keynote fee in half which I Wasn't very happy with. And I said, look, I'll just do it. And I came up to the. To the actual presentation itself. And I remember the. The event organizer. I got chatting and I said, hey, I've got an online course that couples really beautifully with this. With this presentation. Would you be interested in. In, you know, presenting it to the audience? And he actually really loved the idea. And so we presented it to the audience. And this is a presentation. It was 35 minutes. And at the end, I made the offer and I did a collaborative close, which is the event organizer kind of just interviews me about the program. It's really soft close. And I remember I sat down after the presentation, and my phone started buzzing, and I thought someone was calling me. And I pulled it out, and it was just like dozens and dozens already of stripe notifications. Don't you love that one?
- [25:19]
A
Best feeling ever.
- [25:20]
B
The best feeling, seeing it on your flutty phone. And it was just dozens of stripe notifications. I ended up doing over $90,000 in sales.
- [25:28]
A
Whoa.
- [25:29]
B
Selling a $500 course.
- [25:32]
A
With a really soft offer.
- [25:33]
B
With a really soft offer. Now, here's the thing is, I went to do a presentation. It was very much the same presentation, but it was a very, like, just not the right audience. Like, completely different audience. And I did the presentation, and. And there was about a hundred people in the room, and I sold about six. And I was like, the difference was just immense. Right? It went from, like, I sold about $5,000 or $90,000, and the conversion rate was a lot. Was a lot lower. And the reason why was they were just not the right audience. And so sometimes maybe your audience is at the right fit for the offer or for the presentation itself. And so just making sure that you're focusing your message, your language on the right person. And that comes down to everything from the. The ads, the opt in page. If you're doing a virtual presentation, if you're doing it in person, it's the. You know, how you're selling the tickets. Just making sure you're bringing the right person in is important.
- [26:34]
A
Yeah, it is, definitely. And I think it's easy to get that wrong. So I'm glad you brought that up. So while you were talking, I was thinking, you know, so much about selling from stage, and you've done it for so long, and you're an expert, obviously, in your field now. You've written a book about it. So, like, this is your thing, and with all that knowledge you have, what's something that you believe about selling from Stage that most people in the industry would totally disagree with. But, you know, from experience, it works. I know that's a weird question, but I know you have something, I mean.
- [27:09]
B
I would say for me is getting your stories dialed in and your stories right is really important.
- [27:17]
A
Okay, talk to me about stories.
- [27:20]
B
Well, most people tell the wrong story. Usually when they introduce themselves, they tell like an overarching personal story of kind of their whole journey about how they got into doing what they're doing and why they do what they do and a bit of their credibility, all that sort of stuff, which is okay. Like, it's kind of interesting, but it's a little bit boring. The story you want to tell is what I call a conversion story. And the conversion story is the story that best articulates the transformation that you help people with. And it clearly articulates or identifies the core premise, the core idea. And so a conversion story, yes, it takes people on a journey, but it's around the specific vehicle usually that you're helping people with. So getting that story dialed is really important. And then obviously, storytelling throughout the presentation. A lot of people don't do enough storytelling through their presentations because the storytelling is the thing that moves the emotion in the audience.
- [28:26]
A
This is something I've never talked about or admitted. But Two things, Colin. One, in all my 16 years of business, you would think I'd have a million stories. And when I sit down to try to think of stories, I can't think of anything. It is crazy. So I don't know if you have any tips for that, but I'll take them all. Okay, good. So don't forget that one. And the second thing is that I feel indulgent when I'm telling a story. Like I'm talking too much. I'm just going on and on. Do they really care? I really get in my head around stories. My friends will tell me this, Colin. They'll say, you're so good at asking questions. And when the questions are on me, I'm really quick. I don't mean to, but I must be subconsciously putting it back on them. I don't want the spotlight on me too much. I don't want people to think I'm too important. I'll talk a little, and then now you talk. So that doesn't make a great storyteller. So, number one, where do I come up with these stories? And number two, how do I get comfortable with telling stories? I hope the listeners have these issues because I just made this all about me. I'm so Sorry.
- [29:34]
B
No, I love this. This is what's interesting is, as you've, you've made it about you, but your listeners are asking the same question. And so that's what a good story does. Is so a great story should be where they hear your story, but they feel theirs.
- [29:50]
A
Ooh, that is good. They hear your story, but they feel theirs. How do you do that?
- [29:56]
B
Yeah, well, you do this. You actually. In the forward. Yeah, 100% in the forward. You wrote for me. You tell your story about launching your first online course product and making like 200 or so dollars, I think it was, and how disappointed you were and how down you felt and how overwhelmed you felt. And you were like, is this even going to work? Like, what's the point of this? Maybe I should just go back to my job. Like, you kind of go into that journey as you tell that story about you, the audience is going to go, oh, my gosh, I feel exactly the same, Amy. That's exactly how I feel. And so a conversion story answers three questions. It answers the question of, are you like me? Which is showing them that you've been through some challenges. The second question it asks is, can you lead me? So in other words, you've actually built something significant, you've achieved some results, and then finally, is there a path that I can follow? Is there a specific process or methodology that I could follow? Right. And so with dca, it's, it's, yeah, you got to build the digital course. And so it's like, there's a clear pathway ahead. And so for your audience, they're going to have their own conversion story. And so to answer the question of, does it feel self indulgent? Because I do feel like usually people are in one of two camps. They either avoid telling their story and don't even want to think about it because they feel like it's too much spotlight on me, too self indulgent. Or they're the opposite, where they're. They want to tell their story and they really make it about themselves.
- [31:31]
A
I've been there too. Yes. I've been on a webinar in the. It wasn't me doing the webinar. Someone else. And I've been watching it and the comments are like, move on, you're talking about yourself way too much. And I'm cringing for the person.
- [31:43]
B
Exactly. Yeah. And they're going on about how many cars they've bought and how many houses they've got and businesses they have and how many employees and people just, they don't care Right. So that's where you have to have to first of all, realize that when you create your story, your story has to share your story, but it really energetically is written as the audience. Imagine almost the audience walking through your story. So imagine your perfect audience member, your customer, avatar, walking through your story and experiencing those moments with you. And if you think about it like that, as they walk through your story, you will tell it differently. You will tell it from the sense of, like, almost in your mind going, I know what this is like. I've seen a breakthrough in this as well. And I've got this secret that I'd love to help you with. And so when you do it that way, the audience, once again, yeah, they hear your story, but they're going to go, oh, my gosh, that's exactly how I feel. I didn't answer the first part of the question, but let me just check in with that. How's that sit for you?
- [32:53]
A
That sits really well. And I want to reiterate, I love that you said this. I've heard you say this before, but I want the reminder where a conversion story is. Are you like me? Can you lead me? And then what's the path?
- [33:06]
B
Is there a path?
- [33:07]
A
Is there a path that I can follow? Okay, got it.
- [33:09]
B
And that is your core premise. That's your core idea. It's not like, let me show you my entire program. It's the core belief, and this is one mistake that people make, is they think they're selling their program. So they're like, oh, well, joining my program is the best way to get a result. And it's like, no, that's. That's not like the audience. The audience aren't ready for that yet. What they're ready for is just an idea. They're ready for an idea that will sit well with them, that will align with your story where they can go, okay, I'm starting to see a bit of a path ahead. That's all it is. It's pretty simple.
- [33:42]
A
Okay. Okay, that makes sense. Okay, I'm with you. So now are you going to tell me how to come up with stories? Because I have zero. I have zero stories.
- [33:52]
B
That's so funny. That is so funny. So there are stories everywhere. Like, absolutely everywhere. And one of the things is just learning to consciously find them in your life. There's a story bank exercise that I go through in conversion story formula, where essentially it's finding there's a few things. One of them is what have been some of the first of all, most challenging Moments that you've had in your life, you just think back when have been some really challenging moments. And I know you've talked about not sharing the open wound, but sharing the scars. It's like those.
- [34:28]
A
Do you agree or do you.
- [34:29]
B
I agree. No, I agree. I'm all for that. I'm all for that. So where are the scars? Where have the scars been? Because they're going to be some of your most amazing stories. They're like the real deep, emotive, powerful stories. Also, what have been some exciting moments that you've had. Just some cool experiences that you've had. I remember, for me, we were in Venice and we went up to the Rialto Bridge, and we were standing there and we were looking at it, and I remember saying to my wife going, babe, it's not that good. Like, I remember looking down going, like, it's actually not that great. And then we're, like, talking to each other. We're looking down the bridge, and then I turn around and we'll go, let's check the other side. And we walk to the other side. And we were standing on the wrong side of the bridge. Honesty.
- [35:23]
A
Stop it. I'm glad that you turned around.
- [35:27]
B
I turned around and I walked to the other side of the bridge. And I'm like, this is flipping unbelievable. Like, I want to go back to Venice right now. Just thinking about all the gondolas and the ships and the. We were looking at because the other side wasn't very full. So I was like, oh, yeah, let's just look at this side first, and then we'll check the other side. And so often in life, we're in the right place. We're just focusing on the wrong thing. We're focusing the wrong direction. We're in the right place we need to be, but our focus is in the wrong way. Now, what I just did then was that was just an exciting moment that I had in my life, and I turned it into a lesson.
- [36:05]
A
Okay, I see what you did there, and I love that story. I was, like, all in.
- [36:09]
B
Yeah. Yeah. Right. So you're probably thinking, I'm sure you've been there, right?
- [36:14]
A
Oh, yeah, for sure. Embarrassingly, yes.
- [36:18]
B
Embarrassingly, yes. I love it. But, like, exciting moments that you've had in your life. Another one is, like, adventurous moments. Have you done something adventurous? Like gone in a helicopter, climbed a mountain? Silly moments, like, funny things that have happened to you where you've fallen over or slipped over or something like that. I think about, like, little heartfelt moments. I remember for me, with my daughter. She was yelling at me across the playground at her little daycare. And as a engaged dad like myself, I'm on my phone and I'm just scrolling through, thinking, she's fine, she's fine. And then eventually she. She runs over. She's got these. These little blonde. Two pink tails. She looks up and she taps on my leg. And I look down at her and I bend down. She whispers into my ear, and she says, dad, could you please hold my hand? I want to go and see my friends. She was too scared to walk across the playground. And so I'm like, oh, my gosh. Massive dad fail. And I realized that so often we're trying to yell at people, to do things, but all we have to do is whisper the right words and they'll come with us. And so that's just another little vignette, a little story moment of me. Now, that moment could have passed. It could have just happened. But all I've done is just gone. Like, when have I had little moments with my kids? Whenever I had little moments with friends. And I just creating a category. And I just keep like an Evernote folder or a notes folder, and I just categorize them. Yeah, I've got, like, the schmuck story. I've got the locksmith locking myself out of the house story. I've got the Georges that whispering into my ear story. Like, I've got all these stories that I've just built up over the years. And you. We've all had those moments. We just haven't categorized them.
- [38:05]
A
And you know what? I've really never done this so good is that we've got the story. Do you agree that? Or maybe you disagree. You take a story that you don't even know if it has a lesson yet, and you take that story and then you start to think, how can I weave this lesson or that use this as a little vignette. Like, that's the part, Colin, I don't do. I'm like, yeah, it's a story, but what's the point of it? But you go the extra mile and you find the point of it.
- [38:32]
B
Yeah, well, for me, I'll. Usually I'll either work one way or the other. It's either I come up with the idea. So maybe I've got five ideas in my presentation. And then I asked myself, when have I experienced that concept before? And some people don't understand that it's not about the literal lesson. So it's not about the. With the Rialto Bridge. It's not about the lesson of when you go to the Rialto Bridge, make sure you're facing the right direction. Right, true.
- [39:02]
A
Yes.
- [39:02]
B
I'm very, very skilled, Amy, as you can see.
- [39:04]
A
Yes, I can tell.
- [39:06]
B
So good. You have to chunk up to conceptual. So you have to go, what is the conceptual or the metaphoric lesson? So there's literal lessons and then there's metaphorical lessons. So with my daughter it could be, you know, don't be on your phone when you're with your kids. That's the literal lesson. But the metaphorical lesson or the conceptual lesson is, is don't shout, whisper. And, and so all of a sudden that becomes a relevant idea.
- [39:35]
A
That is so good. I'm really literal and so I'm going to have to push myself for the metaphorical. But that's the stuff that I love the most. Like your, your story. I was right there with you with Georgia. Like I could see those little pigtails, I could see your little pulling on your leg. And then when you talk about the metaphorical, it hit me because I was already in it. I was invested. So that's what I would like to work on. That's really valuable. I've actually never heard you talk about that. I'm hoping a lot of people listening, they're like, okay, I gotta do some work on my stories.
- [40:09]
B
Yeah, I love that.
- [40:11]
A
Okay, so when you were talking about stories and I was telling you of all my fears of storytelling, it reminded me of a topic that comes up a lot with my audience and I know this comes up with yours as well, which is imposter syndrome. No matter if you've been in business 16 years or 16 weeks, it's gonna rear its ugly head. And I can't imagine, Colin, that it doesn't really rear its ugly head on stages of any kind, virtual or in person. What are you doing, what are you saying to your students, your clients when they get stuck in that complete paralyzation of imposter syndrome?
- [40:50]
B
So one of the biggest things with imposter syndrome is, is that you're in your head, right? You're very much in your head. And so a little tactical thing first of all is if you're coming into doing a presentation, whether it's virtual or in person, get yourself really present. And one really cool process you can use to get yourself present is first of all you can take three deep breaths. So Amy, maybe do you want to do this with me right now?
- [41:16]
A
Yeah, let's do it.
- [41:16]
B
So take three deep breaths through your nose.
- [41:19]
A
I can't really breathe through this nostril right now. Just so you know, I have sinus infection. Sorry, but we're going to try. Here we go.
- [41:25]
B
You can breathe through your mouth. Okay, Just slowly breath through your mouth and just notice how the air feels going through your mouth. Just notice it. Notice it through your. Through your. Your throat, into your chest. Take one more deep breath. Just feel it. Okay, now have a look around your studio and just tell me, like, five colors that you see. Literally, like white, red, black. Go for it. Just say it out loud.
- [41:48]
A
Okay. Blue, white, beige, yellow, and green.
- [41:54]
B
Okay, great. Okay, now wiggle your toes and just feel how your toes feel in your shoes. Just feel how they feel. Yep. Now take one more deep breath in and just feel how the air feels, like going down through your throat. Very good. Okay. And come back to now. Now, what's going through your mind, Amy, right now?
- [42:11]
A
Nothing. I wasn't really thinking of anything. I was. I was pretty present. Yeah. I was pretty present with my body.
- [42:18]
B
Good. So that exercise I do every time before I speak, because what most people think is that, oh, I need to have all my content in my head. No, no, no.
- [42:30]
A
That's what I do. Yeah.
- [42:31]
B
No, you need to be present, because when you're present in the moment, you're going to respond to your audience. You're going to connect to your audience. All of the work should have been done previously. Like, you need to practice your presentation out loud 10 times at least, with your slides, with your presentation, you need to get it into your body before you get up. Like, the first time you present should not be live. Right. We need to do it 10 times. So when you come on stage and present, you're going to have all these little thoughts in your mind of, like, who are you to present? Are you even credible? Are you even good enough? That exercise just. It just. It's a practical exercise that clears people's minds. It gets you present. It gets you in the moment. And when you're present and in the moment, that's like 80% of your actual performance. The other 20% is. Is the preparation. The 80% is. Is just being there, present in the moment, making it a conversation. And so I know that doesn't directly hit imposter syndrome, but it does from a. From an angle of. It gets you out of your head.
- [43:41]
A
Right. I think it actually does help. I don't think imposter syndrome fully goes away. I like tools that will allow me to move past it, even though it's there. So that one Definitely. You know, you mentioned practicing, and so for someone who wants to get better at speaking but feels awkward practicing out loud or watching themselves on camera. Colin, if you made me watch myself on camera, I. I would die. I can. I never watch myself on camera. Actually, I think you did make me recently watch a webinar. And I was so mad at you because I'm like, I'll listen, but I don't want to watch. So is that the only way? Like, is that the real world way you're teaching people to build skill and confidence? Is that it?
- [44:25]
B
I mean, there is something to say about getting the content in your body. And what I mean by getting it in your body is physically saying it out loud and acting like as if you're presenting. Now, you could literally, I know it seems so silly, but you could grab your stuffies from your kids and set them up and pretend that they are people. You'll feel nervous doing it. It's so weird. Like, you'll actually feel nervous when you first start speaking. But as you get into it, your body will start to relax. You'll start to feel more comfortable in your body. The content will feel more comfortable in your body. And so think about it as almost like acclimatization. Like as if you're climbing Everest. You acclimatize at one level and that could be just reading through your presentation. And then you acclimatize it at the next level. That's saying it out loud and practicing it. Then you acclimatize it the next level. Maybe it's getting some stuffies out and standing up and actually doing it and saying it, presenting it, maybe recording it is the next level. And then the next level, that could be doing in front of your spouse. I mean, some people might say that is Everest. That's the top. Yes, you feel comfortable, but. But then, then it's really just, you know, then you can do it to a, a smaller audience. Sometimes people complain about, oh, my gosh, I only had five people show up. It's like, that's great. Do it to five people.
- [45:47]
A
Lucky you. Yes. For your first time, I'm doing this. I've never done this before, Colin, but I have this new webinar coming out and I thought, okay, before I do it to a big, like, couple thousand people, I'm going to do it to really small audiences where we're going to invite a small audience just to come on. They're not going to know that everyone wasn't invited. But I need to practice this with a smaller audience. So I'M all for that.
- [46:11]
B
I love that. I love that. And imposter syndrome as well. So I think imposter syndrome, you can address it from a mental perspective of going, just asking yourself better questions, like, rather than, what will they think of me? Focus on what's great about this opportunity. How can I serve these people at the highest level? If I had these people in front of me, what are they going through? What are their biggest concerns? As soon as you get your focus off yourself and ask yourself better quality questions, just be really vigilant with your mind, because your mind will go crazy. Especially coming into a presentation, it'll go very negative. Just being very vigilant with your mind, that's one thing. But then doing those practical exercises, practicing your presentation, all of it kind of builds. And the greatest thing to. To hit imposter syndrome is actually just doing it despite the fear. And you just learn, oh, my gosh, I didn't die. Things didn't fall apart, and I'm totally fine and I can handle it, so I'm ready for the next level. And so it's so often, you know, people look at you, Amy, they might look at me and they'll go, oh, my gosh. It's easy for them. They don't have imposter syndrome, or they don't have a fear of presenting or being in front of big stages or whatever it is. But I remember when I would stand in front of an audience and I shook so much, I couldn't hold the microphone with one hand. I had to hold it with two hands because my hand and my leg were shaking that much. And that was when I was first starting to speak. That has been just a whole journey. I know you've been on a journey of learning to feel confident. So I just want people to understand that it's normal. We're not superhuman. You just decide to do it despite the fear, and then you start to acclimatize and you go, okay, I can do this. And you get real world experience that builds confidence, and your imposter syndrome won't rear its head as much.
- [48:09]
A
Agree. Agree. I've had that exact experience, so I'm with you all the way. So I want some of your secrets. So I wish I could get in your head and just, like, know all the secrets to being an amazing speaker. But you teach that small shifts in language can make a big difference in how your audience receives your offer. So what's like, one persuasive language pattern or communication tool that you teach that most people probably overlook? But that can instantly make a presentation more compelling and really convert better.
- [48:45]
B
So I think one thing that's really important is getting people to resonate with you and to commit with you along the journey. And so rather than waiting till the end to go, hey, do you want to make this massive decision and join my program? You get them to commit along, along the journey. So in the presentation, stopping and having moments of where you ask them to imagine what it would be like to implement that in their business, or ask them, where are they on a scale of 1 to 10 with implementing this in their business, and if they were to improve it, what would that feel like? What experience would that be like? And asking questions like, is this making sense? Are you guys resonating with this? So what you can do is just asking questions. Because most of the time, people think speaking is about speaking, but there needs to be a balance of questions throughout the presentation as well. And on a webinar, you can get people to write it in. In a live presentation, you can ask for a show of hands and actually put your hand up physically. You can ask people to talk to the person next to them about what they've experienced. Like just pacing the presentation along the way with questions so that when you get to it, you get to the offer and you ask, hey, who here has resonated with this content? Who here feels like they're more committed to this next journey with you? And you're going to have people go, oh, absolutely, resonated. I'm committed. I'm really going for it. Well, would it be okay if I share with you the next steps about what it looks like in implementing this with me? And people be like, 100%, we would love to see that. And so essentially, the idea is that you're pacing people before you lead them. There's this structure in influence which is referred to as pace, pace lead. And when I first studied life coaching, they always used to tell me that a lack of change in a client is usually just because of a lack of rapport. So if you get resistance from a client around getting them to do something or access something in their mind or their emotions, it's because they don't have enough rapport with you yet. And so what you need to do is you need to pace them more. And pacing is not asking them to do massive commitments yet. It's just pacing where they're at, helping them to understand who they are, where they're at, what they're going through, some of the pain they're experiencing, some of the Desires, they have to eventually lead them to go, hey, is this something you really want to change and commit? So it's a pacing process rather than just trying to lead them the whole time. So that language pattern of building rapport, which you have to do with one to many with an audience, and you do that through questions, questions is a great way to pace people, to get people to make small micro decisions so that when they get to the final offer, their decision muscle is already been pumping through the whole presentation and they're ready to make that next step.
- [51:38]
A
Ooh, that's good, Colin. That is good. Okay, we covered a lot, Colin, and I think probably my most favorite topic was around stories because one, I needed help coming up with more stories. Two, this whole metaphors and with your stories, watch me crush it. I'm going to figure that one out. So I'm excited about that. But also conversion story. So conversion story is something you taught me a while ago and there's some steps in there, but once you nail it, I think it changes your whole presentation. So you kind of have an opportunity. Not kind of. You really have an opportunity around learning how to do a conversion story. So talk to me about that.
- [52:15]
B
Yeah, so several years ago I discovered this idea of a conversion story. So people were telling the wrong story. They're either the overview story or a story about them too much. And so the conversion story is that one story that when you tell it, your audience naturally want to work with you. They authentically connect with you and want to take that next step. And that can be used on your webinars, on your in person speaking, on your podcasts, or whatever platform you want to tell stories on. And so I designed conversion story formula as a really short course. It's actually a course. And it's really cheap, by the way. It's $47.
- [52:53]
A
We like that. We like cheap.
- [52:56]
B
We say it might be cheap. I always say it's the price of a few California tacos. And sometimes people say, where are you buying your tacos?
- [53:05]
A
But I know for me you are right, it's the price of a few California tacos. Amen to that.
- [53:11]
B
Yeah, totally. But this story can completely change the trajectory of how you sell and how you connect with your audience. And so conversion story formula, the goal of it is to have people design their conversion story in less than 48 hours. So within 48 hours, it's a really short course and within 48 hours that you would have it written and hopefully shared on some sort of platform, whether it be on social media. Or in person, whatever you've got coming up. It could be a podcast. That would be my goal. I want people to get a result. And so yeah, conversion story formula, it's a really simple structure. We've had almost 9,000 people come through it which is pretty cool.
- [53:50]
A
Whoa, that is so cool. Okay.
- [53:52]
B
And just the feedback is amazing.
- [53:54]
A
Amyporterfield.com Colin I know you all are going to ask 47 bucks to have your conversion story done in 48 hours. Yes, please. So I want you all to go to amyporterfield.com Colin and here's what I'll say before we go. If you do webinars and many people listening do they either do webinars or they want to do webinars. This is not something I teach in dca so I teach webinars but this is Colin's content. I wouldn't like steal it from him although I would like to. Colin, I'd like to steal this and put it in dca. We'll talk later. But if you learned webinars from me or you're going to learn webinars for me, this is an added layer that absolutely should be on there. If you want that edge, you tell a good conversion story. So of course when you're on a physical stage but also it's great when you're interviewed on someone's podcast because you're bringing in that audience. Especially if you're going to pitch something at the end of a podcast you better get that conversion story in there and then definitely on a webinar slash master class. So 47 bucks to learn how to do it in 48 hours. Yes, please. So anyway, Colin, I want everyone to go and check it out because I know how important it is.
- [55:07]
B
Yeah. So good. My goal is that you would get a result and that you would finally feel like, oh my gosh, I found the story. Like I've got that story because I know I speak to people at very high levels and they still struggle with that. When they understand this idea it just changes everything. So it just makes it a whole lot easier. So I hope it's going to bless people and, and serve them and help them to make a whole lot of impact and a whole lot of money.
- [55:31]
A
Oh, I think it will for sure. Colin, I absolutely love having you on this show. Thank you. Once again, congratulations on your upcoming book that we'll link it in the show notes because you can absolutely pre order now. What's the name of the book again?
- [55:45]
B
It's called One Presentation Away.
- [55:47]
A
One Presentation away and it's good my friends I got an advanced copy and also I will link to your conversion story formula amyporterfield.com forward/colin but I'll put it in the show notes so everything is@amyporterfield.com 13 just the number 13 if you want to grab all the great links. Colin thanks so much for being on the show. It is always a true pleasure to have you.
- [56:11]
B
You're amazing. Thanks Amy.