16. How to flex your speaking muscle

Want to take your speaking pro? Powerhouse Jacqueline Nagle shares SO MUCH amazing advice about how to make this happen. Even if this isn't you - understanding how to craft your message, shape your stories and give your audience value through speaking, will open up your world in ways you can't even imagine.

Transcript

Sally: Every single person who invests in this skill, their world opens up. What skill do you reckon I'm talking about? Well, it is That Voice Podcast and in this episode you'll hear from one of the best in the business about how to flex your speaking muscle.

I'm Sally Prosser and you're listening to That Voice Podcast. No matter who you are or what you do, your voice matters and unless you've sworn a lifetime vow of silence. This is the podcast for you.

Welcome to episode 16 can you believe of That Voice Podcast, and it's my pleasure today to chat to Jacqueline Nagle, the founder of SpeakableYou. Let's just say if I'm the delivery princess, then Jacq is the content queen. She believes as I do, that every one of you has a valuable story to tell and she pulls those stories out of people and crafts them into compelling keynotes to captivate audiences and to catapult speaking careers. I've worked with Jacq and use a lot of her tips and tricks when I write my presentations and hopefully she'll share some of those with you today. Jacqueline Nagle, welcome to That Voice Podcast.

Jacqueline: Thank you Sally. So happy to be here.

Sally : My first question, if people have listened to the podcast, they'll know this, my first question is always the same. It's could you do your job if you lost your voice?

Jacqueline: Now I've heard you ask this on other podcast episodes, so I'm a little bit forearmed with this. And the technical answer is no. I teach people how to speak and strangely enough, they think that they should be able to hear me speak, to be able to train them how to speak. So the technical answer is no. The one thing I would say though is since you first asked that question, in your very first podcast episode, I've actually become much more conscious of making sure that I record things that I'm doing as I go. So that if that ever does happen, even temporarily, I've got a resource.

Sally : Yeah, it's interesting. I was thinking the same thing the other day with my stuff. I thought with all the videos that I'm making and all the courses I literally could teach from beyond the grave. I mean touch wood.

Jacqueline: You're going to haunt me from the grave is that what you're telling me?

Sally : Interesting to think about. So tell us a bit more about what you do and what's the main reason people seek you out and come to you?

Jacqueline: Yeah, look, I guess I've become known as you mentioned in the opening, I've become known for being able to really shape people's content and really get out who they are, what they know to be true about the world, and not just regurgitate that and tell that, but shape it into a way that an audience loves to hear. So it's like making people magnetic and compelling through what they know to be true about the world. So that's definitely the reputation that I'm building. But why people actually come to work with me. There's about five different reasons that have starting to pop up. And one is that I actually discovered that there's a thing called professional speaking and they can make a career out of it and they can be paid to speak. And for people like yourself, like, Oh my God, I can be paid to speak. This is fabulous.

That's all I want to do. But it's a real muscle craft to get to the best and be paid well and consistently you have to build a muscle.

The second reason is they're professional and they want to start to be paid for their expertise and so they're getting to that point in their career where they realize that they can actually be paid for their expertise. Then there's also people who know that they need to learn to speak and communicate that at a punch through to the next part of their career for their business or their career.

And then there's two other ones, which are the, what I call the trip ups. So one is you're in business for yourself or sometimes by yourself and you're sick of losing work to people who are less qualified than you, but speak a lot better than you basically speak a better game than you. And then the next one is because of what you've done in your life, your career or your business, you've had the opportunity suddenly to speak. You thought you would nail it. You didn't realize that speaking was a completely different skill set to anything else you've ever done and you bombed, you actually screwed it up. And so they are actually the five reasons why people end up in my world.

Sally: Of course I'm on the same page as you with promoting the importance of speaking and, and I definitely believe that if you can speak well it will beat any email, any 50 page report or any carefully crafted text. It's always the best way to connect - why do you think that is?

Jacqueline: I think it's because it's actually that in real life, that IRL that we were all using in our text messaging now you know, in real life across social platforms, the only way that you can actually, you can build a lot of trust and connection through online, through digital, through messaging and all of that sort of stuff through the virtual world. And, and that's born out, dare I say it by the fact that some people can actually, you know, date somebody, build a relationship with somebody on the other side of the world and suddenly it's all on, so that bears out. But I think to build true connection and true belief and true trust is that person to person connection, which happens in real life when you speak and if you don't learn to speak well, people don't know what they should be listening to from you and whilst that sounds crazy if you just are constantly saying whatever comes to mind, just winging it. Just thinking about what's important to you and not actually learning how to speak really well. You might be able to build connection, especially if you're a party person and really outgoing. You might be able to build connection, but you can never take people with you. So if you want to take people with you on a journey, you have to learn how to speak well in real life, person to person, and that doesn't mean it has to be one on one. It can be one to many, but you have to learn how to speak well if you want to be able to persuade people to consider a different point of view.

Sally: I can speak firsthand to this. I'm in the business of delivery and how you say something's really important, but what I've had to work on is developing the right language. Because it's one thing to be able to deliver well and have passion and all of those things, but over time finding the right words, is so critical.

Jacqueline: Yeah. I had this really interesting session with, I'm so Kurek Ashley who was the mindset coach for Kerri Pottharst and Natalie Cook when they won gold in Sydney at the Olympics and he said something that was really interesting when I spend some time with him a few years ago and he said, if you want to be successful in something, you must learn the language of it. Everything you want to be successful in has it's own language and has its own rhythm and we forget about that when we're speaking. And you know, we're working together on a project at the moment and I'm actually critiquing and reviewing scripts and there was one paragraph for one of our speakers that hasn't sat right with me right from the start. And the paragraph is probably about 150 180 words. So not a small paragraph and finally this afternoon I got it. And we changed one word and it completely shifted the entire paragraph. And you know, it's that simple and yet that complex. And so, you know, if you want to be a great speaker, it's not just about storytelling, it's not just about structure, it's not just about having the right stages and having the right people and finding the right audience. It's about actually building the craft of language. Because without that you are dead in the water and you will never be able to wrap up an entire room with you.

Sally: Yeah. And would you say that's the biggest mistake you see people make?

Jacqueline: There's a number of mistakes. There's a, I could go on for days with the mistakes, but the main mistakes that I see when it comes to speaking is actually lack of preparation.

Believing that just because you can speak, you are a speaker. And so therefore having an element of winging it and not putting effort into scripts, not understanding the scripts aren't about you. Scripts are actually about getting the content right in the story, right? Getting the structure right and rewiring your brain to the language that you should be using. So the scripts are actually nothing about you and everything about serving audience. The second thing is, is that people underestimate the power of a single word. You know, Tony Robbins has a saying - and I don't quote a lot of Tony Robbins by the way, but he does have one saying that is "words have the power to build and the power to destroy." And we have to remember that that's how powerful they are. So, you know, the only way that we can recreate an experience, a picture or an emotion in somebody else's being when they're in our audience is through the language that we use.

The only way that we can build a vivid picture or minimize something is through the words that we use. So I see people all the time not investing in language, speaking how they would speak to a particular audience or you know, bringing in jargon. And I think the other day we were in a conversation, you talked about Australian isms when we were working with some of our clients, you know, those isms and those jargon and, and that acronyms and things like that. So that's one of the mistakes I also see with that all the time. And I guess the other mistake that I see is people think because they've suddenly got an opportunity to speak, that they should polish up their speaking and their language. And what happens, you know, with these generalizations, that actually ends up being a narrated piece of speaking. And so you don't end up with connection.

So quite often the most common question I'm going back to my clients with is, how would you say this if we were having a conversation over a glass of wine, use those words, be that specific. Don't say he, she - name them, you know, name them say who, what, when, where were you, what did it look like? What could you hear? What could you feel like use the language, you would use over a glass of wine? And so those three things together as much as they sound really, Oh yeah, they are so critical to building the skill.

Sally: So what are three things that people can do to make their content really sing when they're speaking?

Jacqueline: Yeah. So one of them is actually around what I just hinted at then in it is in using your words on purpose. So it is in actually making sure that you use the words and the language that you have to ignite all of the senses.

So when you take me into a story, what do you see? What do your hear? What do you feel? What's going on around you? Inside you? What are you connecting with? Who's the character that you're speaking to or withm- name the specifics. Set the time up, time frames everything. So tell me where you are. It's 5:00 PM on Saturday. December the 21st I'm in a little black cocktail dress. Like tell me the detail to bring it to life, that's how it sings. But don't do that for every part of the story. So stories need to be shaped. You know, and this is one of the biggest things that we do with people. We need to shape stories. I need to actually speak to what your core message or your core outcome is going to be or what this is. So shape the story and drop me into the moments that count for that message.

So you know, go into three to five key points of the story and drop me in those moments. Bring them to light, ignite the senses. Storytelling - and I guess you would see this as well. Everybody knows we have to tell a story. Like everybody gets it. There's something like 45 million hits on Google when you talk about storytelling and you put it into the search bar, everybody gets it. But most people are just doing this chronological unfold and it's like this monotonous, if you thought about the tone of a story it would be monotony. So find the bits that support the message and drop me into those moments and bring them together and just give me three to five. Don't give me every single detail of the entire story. So stories must be true and they must be accurate, but they must be also shaped to do what we do and if we do that, it's really good.

The other thing is that people need to get beyond, "Oh, if I tell my story and it just changes one person's life, then my work is done." Stop it. That's letting yourself off and that's self-indulgent crap, right? You are still actually at the stage of doing therapy from the stage if you truly believe that. And within what you speak about, you need to give something tangible. So give the audience, something they can use, so it might be a how to, it might be a strategy, it might be the first couple of questions they can ask. It might be the first couple of steps they can start to ask. It might be just a different way of thinking, but don't just be there to inspire and motivate - be there to activate and do that through giving people something that they can use.

Sally : I really like that. Don't be there just to inspire and motivate. Be there to activate. Yeah, love that.

Jacqueline: And when that happens, not only does your content sing and there's structure and story and language, but if you do that, even if people never use what you give them, they will always remember you. It's really interesting because I have a tipping point model that we take all of our speakers through and it's about how do you get from being told that you're so good to people coming up and saying, you're inside my head. Right. And that's actually the tipping point. We want to be in demand as a speaker. And it was put perfectly, I was asked by a speaker, he was, has a lot of stop start in his career and he's not getting the demand he wants, but he does get bookings and he gets pretty good bookings. So I went and saw him do a closing keynote at a conference and I still with him afterwards and I realized what it was was everybody was coming up and saying, you're so good. Your story is amazing. You're so courageous. You are. And it was all about the speaker instead of coming up to you and saying, you know what, when you said that, it reminded me of this, or when you said that, I felt hope. I suddenly realized that I had that in me when they started telling you what it evoked in them. Then you know that you've hit the mark. When they come up, and I say this to people all the time, hearing you're so good as a speaker is the fastest way to kill your speaking career because if they're coming up and saying, you're so good, your story is amazing. I don't have the courage like you, I couldn't do what you did. Blah blah blah. It hasn't landed for them, but they came up and said, you know, because you said this, I now think I just might be able to do that. When you said that it reminded me of this, like when they can give you that response, then you know that you've landed.

Sally : I absolutely agree and that's something that I work on as well. It's about making people relate your content to them. You talked about killing a speaking career. How do you even start a speaking career?

Jacqueline: Well, first of all is not get on every single stage and just speak. That's the advice. So there's a couple of things here. So yeah, one is you need to get started. So you do actually need to build some muscle. So do you need to invest in training and education because no matter how much you think you can speak naturally, it is a muscle build. You and I both know, you know, you come at it from a different angle to me, but we both know it's a muscle build, there's structure, there's strategy, there's theory, there's techniques, there's ways of doing things. That's number one is actually be prepared to invest in the muscle.

The second thing is, is making sure that you have something worth saying. So, you know I've always had the mantra that everyone has a voice and everyone deserves to be heard but I've actually sent to learn that not everybody should be heard. Right. And that's, that's been quite a shift for me. So I still meet everybody with the expectation that you have a voice that deserves to be heard, but you need to have something of value to say. So a lot of people, not a lot of people, probably about 5% of the people that I meet should never take the front of the room because the experience and the knowledge isn't there. It's gleaned out of a textbook. They've watched alongside someone else. It's important that they get their story out, but they have no care and regard of the state they leave their audience in. So you need to have of value to share. You need to be able to hold the space, right? So that's the next thing. I believe everybody has it within them to give a great keynote or a great speech or a great presentation. But I also believe that not everybody should be on the stage at the point in life that they're at right now. So number one is invest. Number two is have something of value to share.

And the third thing is, and so I listened to a Speaker Bureau panel. So a panel of Speaker Bureau earners in the U S about 18 months ago, and the question was asked, when should we pitch you? As in if you want to be represented by a bureau, and the response floored me at the time, and I've become a passionate believer about it. And I'll tell you why in a moment, but the response was, don't pitch us. Don't ever pitch us. Be so good that we come to find you. Be so good that you suddenly end up on a program that we expected our speakers to get. Be so good that one of our speakers hears you and comes back and says, have you heard Sally Prosser? My God, she's amazing. She spoke at NAB just ahead of me and she was incredible. You really should - so be so good that we come and find you.

The second part of that answer is say there's also irrefutable truths about not approaching a bureau too early. If you're going to actually ignore my advice and go anyway. And that is that you have to have your collective collateral together, right? You must have a signature keynote, at least one. You must have a speaker reel done to the standard that bureaus want. And that is not what most video producers in Australia are doing, which is a sizzle reel. They don't want a sizzle reel. They want a speaker reel and there's a distinct difference. You must have your one sheet down. You must have testimonials, you must have social proof, you must have a following or a following growing. And you must be able to give them a clear and concise insight to your specific message within 30 to 60 seconds of meeting you.

Sally : You have to have a lot!

Jacqueline: Yeah you do. I do some work in the US and the US is quite amazing because like a bureauwill not look at you until you have all of that. Australia's a little bit more lenient, right? But if you actually want to make a go of it, you have to actually have that collateral in place. So you can get to between three and $5,000 regularly with a gig with a pretty average one sheet speaker, one sheet and a little bit of a go at a couple of things and a few presentations that you do. You can absolutely. But to get a consistent paid speaking career on the stages that you want, where you're averaging $8,000 and above per gig or $6,000 and above per gig, you must have the collateral in place. You must have the social proof. And it is not a game for amateurs, right? It is a muscle build. It is. You know, you can have an incredible paid speaking career, but you have to have, there are some irrefutable truths and trust me, I've tried to work my way around them, but not just for my sake, but for the sake of the people that I need who are so clever. And I've got so much to say and so much to offer the world, I just want to accelerate it but you actually can't, you actually have to get these things in place.

Sally : Yeah. And if anyone's listening, thinking, geez, I did want to become a speaker but after hearing all that, I don't know where to start. Well, this is exactly what Jacqueline Nagle does. I'm sure lots of people are now inspired to start on this journey of speaking better and keeping in mind you don't have to want to take on stages around the world to work with you.

Jacqueline: So I'm really passionate that speaking is the one thing that unlocks possibility. I watch my clients and some people are just learning to speak, to improve their confidence sometimes, you know, or to be able to get up in front of the room and do their 10 minute pitch at a networking room. Like there's all different reasons, it's not just the very big reasons. But what I notice is every single person who invests in this skill, their world opens up. I'm just reading a book at the moment, which is phenomenal. And they talk about how in the recruitment of astronauts for NASA, they make sure they can speak because as astronauts they had to speak with media, government. They had to not only know how to communicate what it is we're actually doing in a way that gets connection, but they have to inspire the next generation coming through so we can continue the journey. So one of the top criteria for astronauts at NASA in recruitment is they have to be able to speak well.

Sally : That should be, it should be criteria for more jobs I say!

Jacqueline: Can you imagine how much life, how much better our life would be if people had to learn how to speak properly before they set foot in the world.

Sally : That is the only requirement I would meet to become an astronaut. Don't know much about science or maths or physics. But hey, I can speak. So finally, how can people work with you? How can they find you?

Jacqueline: The easiest way is to find me via Facebook or LinkedIn. I'm very accessible in both those forums. We have a free Facebook group, which has a lot of, you've seen the content we put through that. We have 12 months skills development program for people who are not quite sure just how much they can invest. We have three day workshops and 12 month mentoring programs for people who need speaking driven strategies for their business to rise. So there's a number of ways the website's speakableyou.com. But find me on LinkedIn or find me via Facebook. I'm happy to have a chat.

Sally : Jacqueline Nagle, thank you so much for coming on That Voice Podcast.

Jacqueline: Thank you so much for having me. It's always fun chatting with you, Sal.

Sally : Thanks for listening to That Voice Podcast. To get in touch, head to sallyprosser.com.au.