Why it's time to Stop Improvising when you Speak on Stage

During a presentation a long-time client of mine felt inspired to share more of her personal story than she ever had before—and significantly longer than I recommend in my Speak-to-Sell Signature Talk Formula.

Although it felt right to her at the time, and she got her best conversion ever, she still asked me if she had done the right thing. She wanted to know when it’s okay and not okay to break the rules.

Great question, right?

When It’s Okay to Break the Rules

I told her that it’s best to follow the rules in the beginning, because you want to learn the structure, prove the model, and make sure that you know how to do it.

But, remember, the Speak-to-Sell Formula is a structure, not a script, and I love structure, because, if used in the right spirit, it gives you freedom.

So once you get the structure down—you know all the pieces that need to be in there at some point somewhere; and you've implemented it enough times to understand that if you stick to it, it works, then, like my client, you can start to experiment.

You might feel the urge to try something a bit different and see if it works. Or, because you’re connected to the audience, you might feel the inspiration to bring in your own mojo and magic in a way that deviates somewhat from what I recommend.

All that is perfectly fine.

So When Is It NOT Okay to Break the Rules?
What you don’t want to do is what I did a couple of years ago.

In a media class I took, where we all got a chance to pitch to 20 television producers by Skype, our teacher gave us very specific rules about what to say and what not to say to position ourselves.

Well, being a pro at positioning, I got up there and, arrogantly, broke the rules. I told one of the ladies from the biggest channel that her hair looked great, because we had this girlfriend connection going and I felt comfortable leaning into that.

Everyone in the class, including myself, was very surprised when she sent back her list of interviewees and I was NOT on it. In fact, I was one of only two people out of 18 who did not get booked on that station. Ouch.

But it was such a great lesson about when it’s not okay to break the rules. You see, I tried to improvise from the beginning. I didn’t spend the time learning the structure and proving the model before deviating from it and getting creative.

And, as I painfully re-discovered, that usually doesn’t work.

If you would like to stop improvising—or scripting—when you speak on stages, teleseminars, webinars and interviews, and, instead, use our Speak-to-Sell Formula, in just three days you could be ready to step into the spotlight with a Signature Talk that you love, Irresistible Offers that sell and the confidence that comes from being ready. If that sounds great to you, join me in Tampa, FL, October 15-17, 2015.