Photo by Samuel Pereira on Unsplash
I’ll be honest: I had no idea who we were cheering on when the moderator greeted the middle-aged blonde on stage. Judging by my fiancé’s shrugs and the puzzled looks around us, neither do most of the other members of this crowd. We were all coming for an event organized by a local organization; a celebrity performance was not on the agenda …
60 minutes later, as we walked out of the amphitheater, my fiance and I turned to each other with the same exclamation – no exaggeration: “She was the best speaker of all time.
She was not only the best speaker this local organization had ever invited on stage; she was unequivocally the best speaker I have heard in person or on video in my life. My fiance corroborated the same thing – and he’s been talking about her for over a week.
In the midst of its outburst, my curiosity sparked: why not find out her name and search for her?
Eventually I found her – and I’m embarrassed to admit what I found: she’s not just a mid-to-mid-aged blonde with great speaking skills. She is an internationally renowned CEO and founder of two great organizations, a 6x author, a guest star on 6 TV shows and the host of her own show and podcast. And sure enough, she has over a million Instagram followers, although I’m sure that’s a small fraction of her audience.
At first I was retroactively struck by the stars. Then, embarrassed to have been so distraught. My brain then switched to: It’s logic.
And he did.
His speech wasn’t just moving because of the topic or because of his inherent fame. It wasn’t just what she said, but how she said it. And when. And why. Looking back, her speech was a perfectly executed sales pitch that successfully converted strangers – like me, my fiance, and the approximately 12,000 other people standing in tears as she stepped off the stage – into instant fans. And followers. Supporters. Customers. Volunteers.
I have analyzed and summarized its 5-step formula into a repeatable model that we can – and should – benefit from in sales, marketing, negotiation, and everyday life in general. You don’t have to be a double CEO, acclaimed author, and TV personality to see success with this formula, but if you use it correctly, success shouldn’t come as a shock.
Like a gripping opening scene for an Oscar-worthy film, it caught our attention with a story – but not just any one. Despite being in a room filled for the most part with strangers, this speaker plunged into the most vulnerable time of her life – and she took us with her.
We stood in her kitchen as she received her life-changing news, gasping as she struggled with a trauma-induced identity crisis and cheering her on as she returned from the underworld. Thanks to this artfully crafted account of her past, she has become raw, real, and incredibly vulnerable. She has told thousands of people intimate details of her personal life that most would reserve for a best friend or partner. In doing so, she developed a empathy instant .
We didn’t have time to question his political or religious beliefs or his upbringing; we were too busy soaking up his rare display of vulnerability. Such raw vulnerability is the secret to empathy, and empathy is the first step on the road to trust, charisma, and sales.
Have you ever heard of the “know, like and trust” factors? Those are the top three customer objections – and she started hacking them right off the bat.
For those of you who think “but anyone can tell a good sob story” , you are right. But his goal wasn’t sympathy, a pat on the back, or an audience temporarily in tears. She was there for the long haul, and that meant turning participants into clients, employees, volunteers, affiliates and evangelists. So, she subtly moved from establishing empathy to building something so powerful – and paradoxical: humble authority.
If the words “humble” and “authority” don’t seem to go together, it’s because they usually don’t. “Humble” is so often aligned with modest, gentle people who are afraid to brag. Conversely, “authority” is more often associated with arrogance, pride, and perhaps even righteousness. This is exactly why authority alone would not have been enough.
If she just started bragging about her various accolades and accomplishments (TV appearances, international awards, money collected and donated, etc.) , it might have sounded selfish, arrogant, and even off-putting. Instead, she seamlessly incorporated the impact her organizations have had, quickly glossing over their names as unimportant afterthought.
By the end of the speech, I still wasn’t sure what either company really was – or what role it played. It wasn’t until browsing her Wikipedia page (yes, she has one) that I realized that she is both a founder and CEO – and that her organizations are international companies with hundreds of thousands of followers. supporters.
She had let us flow just enough information to incite intrigue and establish her authority, without reciting her resume to the crowd. The result? A humble authority that increases its “likability” factor, crushing any resentment that a more direct or arrogant demonstration might bring.
Then she harnessed the crowd mentality in the best possible way: in order to score a point and gain audience buy-in, she first united them around a common goal. And a common enemy.
For example, no one likes plane crashes, while most people like the idea of ending poverty, violence and cruelty to animals. This speaker aligned the audience on similar topics, aware that a united audience would be easier targets for group thinking. She harnessed the power of a united crowd to effectively convince, persuade and convert large numbers of people at once, despite their varied backgrounds and perspectives.
It was probably the fastest shortcut to high converting customer acquisition I have ever seen, which she accomplished without a single marketing automation software or tools. Quite impressive, free and far from owning. (So yes, we can steal this tactic as well.)
As a marketer, content creator, and content consumer, I have become very aware that boredom is the kiss of death. It can be as little as one sentence, word, scene, or a second too long on a break in an ad, and your audience is gone. Forever. Pouf.
Asking people to join (anything) is hard enough; Boring them to sleep in the process is a recipe for failure.
This speaker took this to heart. Despite a simple wardrobe, little to no makeup, no theatrical effects, and no props in tow (or in hand), she was the star of her show – and it was captivating. There wasn’t a dull moment or a slow pace; she was all we needed to hear and see, and her one-woman-show drugged us highs and lows of lows, with no special effects or surround sound.
Her stories escalated into a round of applause, tears, cheers and a standing ovation. I have never seen an audience so emotionally invested, even during a first blockbuster over $ 100 million with the best of Hollywood .
Maybe you could tell that she has a strong, bubbly, or charismatic personality. Or maybe an unusually hectic life riddled with sensational anecdotes that make her more interesting than your average Jane. Still, she proved one thing for sure: you don’t need fancy productions, big-budget tech, or a ton of theater to keep audiences’ attention. She held ours for 60 minutes with no ads, posters, pitch decks or gimmicks.
If you’re blaming a tight budget on sales or marketing content that falls apart, the real problem may be that money can’t fix it.
Finally, she did something only hyper-confident and confident executives, CEOs, and marketers can do:
Simple ways to remove the trap are to offer a free trial period, a “no questions asked” return policy, or an equally generous customer-centric guarantee. The idea is to decrease – or eliminate – the cost or level of commitment in order to make the “request” a little less intimidating or consequent, thus lowering the barrier of objection. This idea is not new ; the way she did it was.
With hundreds of thousands of supporters for each of her organizations, she needed no sales. Or any donation. Or any employee or volunteer. In other words, not a everything is so important to her. And believe it or not, that’s a good thing. Because all of her success, confidence, financial security, and self-esteem don’t depend on the actions of one person, she can be 100% genuine by offering the public an easy way out.
It’s almost like reverse psychology: She cares more about what’s best for the audience than what makes her a sale. The authenticity of her selfless, client-focused closing statement is the puzzling part and the very reason she converts strangers into such fervently loyal customers.
Take-out? Once you’re confident and well-meaning enough to allow bad customers to walk away from your product guilt-free with empty hands, the good ones will soar like flies to honey.
This 5-step formula isn’t rocket science, expensive, confidential, or anything that a competent, goal-oriented person couldn’t plan and execute. However, not all executions are created equal, and the very reasons it works so well for this ordinary-faced blonde may be your hurdles to jump through.
- The Outsider Advantage: As a simple-looking middle-aged immigrant with a heavy accent and a tumultuous past, she isn’t necessarily the stereotypical marketer, saleswoman or CEO you are dealing with. you would wait. Thus, it is not difficult for the reality of his performance to far exceed the initial expectations of an audience prone to assumptions.
- The chicken and the egg: which came first, his confidence or his success? That’s a good question, but they probably complemented and uplifted each other. That said, the success she’s achieved certainly helps fuel the confidence that keeps her humble, genuine, and more committed to the audience’s experience than to her own interests.
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