Why a Movement Spreads Your Message and Ultimately Helps You Speak More
Change and devotion. I believe that it is at the heart of what we do as a speaker.
We paint a picture of change and then we deliver on that promise to our audience.
We become wildly devoted to that change and helping people create it in their lives or in their world.
After last week's post about creating movements to move your speaking forward, there might be a practical side of you that is wondering why the heck should you be building a movement with speaking at the heart of that movement.
Let's talk about what exactly a movement is, and why it's so wildly important for speakers to create one in order to make an impact.
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What is a movement?
When you think of a movement, you most likely think of a political or a social movement. You think of the civil rights movement and Martin Luther King Jr. Giving the “I have a dream” speech at the Mall of Washington.
You can think of Black Lives Matter, or the Tea Party Movement, or so many different political movements that we have occurring in our society right now.
Yes, movements can be political and social, but they can be so much more than that.
By definition, a movement, is a group of people, typically led by a charismatic leader, such as yourself, that share a vision for creating a positive impact in the world.
Of course, they can be political or social, but they can also be artistic. Or they can be about fitness or they can be health and wellness movements. In the last episode, we talked about how Richard Simmons pioneered a whole industry around better health.
There are also business movements. I think of my friend and mentor, Tara Gentile, over at CoCommercial who is creating a movement around the new economy for small business owners.
We also have personal development movements with people like Danielle LaPorte, Simon Sinek, and Sally Hogshead. Each of them is the creator of their own movement.
There are food movements. When I think of food, I think of my friend and client, Imei Hsu, who you can find over at MyAllergyAdvocate.com.
Imei has over 300 food allergies. She is on a mission to help other food allergy sufferers make food fun again. That is a great movement because she has navigated it all and seen it all, and she knows that people can still enjoy food and their life, despite having a food allergy.
I also think of friends and clients and business owners who start movements around money, like Denise Duffield-Thomas of Get Rich, Lucky Bitch, who wants to empower women to be wealthy, so that we can create more change in the world.
You can create your own flavor of movement. You've just got to have a strong vision for the type of change you want to bring about for your audiences, for the organizations that hire you, and then you have to get people to buy into that change and to raise their hand and to become a part of that movement. That's where your speaking fits into all of this.
Why a movement and how is that going to help you speak more?
The first thing about a movement is that it's more than just one person.
Speaking often seems like a lone wolf industry where speakers are slamming away by themselves, pitching for speaking gigs, coming up with products to sell at the back of the room so that they make more money.
It seems like those speakers have gotten away from why they really wanted to be speaking in the first place. They want to be speaking to connect with people, not just to sell products from the back of the room or to get a referral for the next gig.
Because speaking should be about other people.
[Tweet “Because speaking should be about other people.”]
You can't make it in the speaking industry without your allies and advocates. Your advocates and allies come from the people who are in your audience. The audience is your advocate.
And when you have more than one person or more than just you talking about your message, your message begins to spread by word of mouth. It becomes more impactful.
All of a sudden, your message and your speaking is more than just you. It’s a movement.
Movements also share a vision and your job is really to enroll people into that vision of change.
When you view your speaking as a way to spread your vision and your transformation, it changes the relationship you have with the people who hire and book you to speak.
You're not just pitching them anymore. You're enrolling them into that vision of change and devotion that you have for them.
If you're a corporate speaker, what change are you bringing about in an organization? What do you want to see for them? How can you get them excited about that change so that they want to hire you?
Movements cause change.
On the political and social level, we organize, we get laws passed and we help people who are less privileged than we are.
On the cultural level, a movement can change behavior. It can shift mindsets. It can paint a new possibility.
A movement actually brings about results.
I talked a lot about results last year on the podcast. It's what gets you hired.
It's what gets you paid.
It's what makes the audience devote themselves to you and your cause.
When you create a movement with your message, your message takes on a life of its own.
[Tweet “When you create a movement with your message, your message takes on a life of its own.”]
It spreads.
People step up.
They crave what you're going to do next because they have bought in and believe in the change you promise and deliver.
That brings you momentum. More word of mouth, more referrals, more impact, and more money.
Let's do it. Let's start your movement.
Go to DrMichelleMazur.com/speak to schedule a chat with me to see how I can help you gain that momentum and cause that impact to make the change you want to see in the world. Because a movement starts as an idea. It blooms into a vision and that vision is shared.
You, my dear speaking friend, you're the epicenter, you're the catalyst of the change.
Don't worry. If you hear all that and you're feeling, yes, I'm motivated, and also a little hesitant, you don't want to miss next week's post because it's all about you speaking for impact.
