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Adapted transcript of video:

Hi there. Michelle Barry Franco here.

I want to talk with you about one of the most powerful elements that you can bring to any audience, to any speaking opportunity. That element is deep and powerfully expressed love for your audience.

After a speaking event, a woman (who would later become my client), came up to me and said, “Michelle, I never even imagined that I would be a speaker but when you had me get up on that rooftop and you talked me through what I would want to say from that rooftop, I realized I do have a message I really want to share.”

This same woman who couldn't see herself as a speaker just days before is now out there changing lives with this message. That happened because my own love for that audience helped her see her own ability to serve with her message. I know you feel this kind of love about the people that you want to serve as well.

We can feel that love for our audience, but we also need to express that love in our speaking.

Let’s talk with you about how to do that. Here are the three elements that will help you express that kind of love in your speaking.

1. An intimate connection with your audience members. To get there, we have to do a rich inquiry about who they are, what they need and want. Questions like:

-What are they struggling with?
-What's their life like?
-What's a day in the life like for this person?
-What are the thoughts that go through their head when they lay awake at 3 o'clock in the morning and they're really struggling?

    Here is a worksheet that I use and that I share with clients.

2. Use the language that will resonate with them. Use language that resonates with their heart. Because we are now on the other side of the struggle, we forget what it felt like to be in the depths of that struggle. This is why we can now be out there speaking on the topic. Since they are still inside the struggle, they are using language to describe their experience that you're not really using anymore. It’s easy to forget the words when you aren’t in it anymore. Use the Audience Analysis inquiry worksheet linked above to help you re-connect with their experience. If you're really connecting in with that struggle as you work through the worksheet, you’ll see words they use to describe the difficulty. It might be things like, “Oh, I'm so overwhelmed. I don't think I can do this.” Or, “I am in so much pain. I don't think I can stand it anymore.” Or, “I'm not even sure why I even got myself into this situation.”

Whatever the words are, say those words back to them in appropriate parts of your talk. It is such a gift to have someone else understand their struggle in such a way that they get to hear their own thoughts shared back with them. It’s a powerful way to create connection

3. Show consistency – keep showing up. Keep showing up and show up in many ways. You are serving them through this talk but also, share with them other ways you are committed to being of service. Can they sign up for a free gift through your email newsletter? Do you send out tips every week? Do you have a special Facebook group that you can offer to them? Do you have a place you publish that you should point them to so that they can read your other articles and things? You showing that, it's not just about this one talk, but that you are in deep service of them overall as a thought leader in deep care about the issues that they're struggling with.

These three things, deep understanding of what they're going through, using their language, and then consistently showing up… Do those sound familiar?

Doesn't that sound like any kind of loving relationship that you're in? Any kind of meaningful relationship? Because it's really not all that different, right? This is how people know that we care and that we're here to serve, that we're here to be in connected and continuous relationship with them.

This is how you can bring this powerful element of love to your speaking events. During this week of Valentine's, and always, may you be surrounded by love in your own world, and feel that deep connection to love in your service as well. Let me know if there's anything I can do to help.