Are You Connecting?
When you’re speaking to audiences, interviewers, guests and peers, are you connecting in meaningful ways? Are you making an emotional impact?
When I was a kid, I used to love spending time playing by myself. I wasn’t much into adventures with the neighbourhood kids. I enjoyed m own company, making things and living in my imagination. I especially loved comic books and badly wanted to be Superman or Spiderman. Imagining being able to save people and fly or be super strong was cool. Still is.
I really wanted superpowers. I’d have settled for telepathy or telekinesis but more than anything I wanted to be able to fly. Luckily, superpowers in the comic book sense are not a real thing, otherwise, we would live in a very difficult world, one where those without powers would undoubtedly resent and try to control or destroy those who did. Such is our nature and hard-wired dislike and distrust of things and people who are very different to us.
In my mid-20s I discovered that superpowers did exist, just not in the way the comic books portrayed them. There were people who could help other people transform themselves and their lives, people who could influence and persuade others often without them even knowing it and there were people who could make incredible connections and create something new and magical that no one had ever imagined before. What was even more amazing is that these superpowers could be learned.
Discovering this magical world of superpowers was akin to getting my invite to Hogwarts or invited to become the apprentice of Doctor Strange. Offers that no comic book fan would turn down I am sure.
The arts of influence and persuasion were the ones that most excited me and still do. I have a natural interest in psychology and a love of speaking, presenting and performing, so it should be no surprise. It’s a journey I am still on, learning more each week, practising more each week and discussing it all on my podcast Speaking Influence.
One of the people I have been most appreciative to learn from is speechwriter and author Simon Lancaster. If you saw last week’s post you’ll know we did a live event together for his new book launch which I tied in with my new podcast launch. Simon’s book is called CONNECT — How to inspire, influence and energise anyone, anywhere, anytime. As you can imagine, I was excited to speak with him and he very kindly sent me an advance copy of the book so that I could prepare for our chat. The event was great, other than the poor internet in the Welsh valleys but you will have to wait until July for the podcast episode unless you want to shoot over to Podfluence on YouTube?
One of the things we talked about was how to change people’s emotional state and energy, surely a superpower. The answer is one that I’ve encountered many times in my personal development career, which is by being in the energy/state you want people to feel. You know how someone gets super excited for something and unless you’re being a curmudgeon you start to get excited too, the energy is infectious. Or how someone is miserable and complaining and pretty soon you start feeling down too and joining in with the complaining? Energy is infectious.
Would you rather be the person infecting others with good energy or negative energy? Many people won’t even care or may shrug this off but I know the kind of people who connect with this content and that your choice would be to spread positive and good energy wherever you go. If that seems like a stretch right now, you may at least want to get to neutral over negative but whenever we can, wherever we can, we should accept responsibility for the energy we are putting into our interactions with others and the effects that may have. It’s much easier to feel good about that when your own emotions and energy are grounded and feeling good, so remember to support yourself every day in ways that help you to feel great and show up as your best self.
I hope you will all go and grab a copy of Simon’s book Connect and let us know what you like from it. The Kindle edition is 50% off at the time of publication, so you may want to check that out first unless you have Audible credits? https://amzn.to/3NERbs7 You may have to wait for the new podcast episode with Simon but you don’t have to wait to hear my latest episode with Rob Elliott titled how to be more effective in sales and what to do if you mess up. Check it out…
Your musical energiser for this week is from one of my favourite bands of the 80s and 90s, Erasure. Their pop music has always been a great energiser for me and whether you’re starting your week, ending it or getting over hump day, dancing along WILL put you in a better mood.
Most personal brand business owners have three main problems when it comes to scaling their business income: poor lead flow, awkwardness around sales and low delivery confidence. Podcasting, either as a guest or host (or both) can solve all of these problems to get you a hot lead flow, effortless conversions and big delivery confidence. If you’d like to know more about how, book a FREE 15-minute, no-obligation strategy session with Johnny https://bit.ly/38y4Pxl
