Know Your Mission Before You Get On Stage

Why do you stand in front of people, sharing what you know? Is it simply because you know it, so why not talk about it? Is it because you want business? Is it because you like to be in the spotlight? Is it because you want to be seen and known as the expert in your field?

All of these possibilities are valid enough. But if you go on stage with these reasons, and *not* the most essential reason, you are a) going to be perceived as inauthentic, or worse, a phony; b) you will be boring; c) no one will talk about you; d) few will come back to you.

If you’ve gone to Secrets of Impact & Influence: The 2-Hour Event (and those who attended the SII 2-Day Event experienced these intimately)…you know that there are 3 results you want whenever you speak in public: 1) They want more of you. 2) They tell others about you. 3) They come back for more. If your reason for being in front of an audience lacks purpose, you won’t get these results and—well, you know how the rest will go.

At SII 2-Day, I tell the participants, “If you don’t have a mission, get one. You should not be in front of an audience if you don’t have a mission; some purpose that burns you from the core.”

Your mission is grown from one concept: There is a pain in the world that I want to alleviate…and I have a solution to that pain.

When you have something that will solve pain for people, you suddenly and absolutely come alive! When you know what is possible for them on the other side of the pain, your words, your intonation, and your body catch fire. You are a force to be reckoned with. You have a mission: something you want for them. A reason why you’re up there. The world wants and needs that kind of passion and power. If you don’t have it, you must find it. Every leader has a mission. If you are in front of a room, you have a duty to be an example of leadership.

Now, perhaps you have a solution, but you’re not feeling any “mission” from your core. That’s probably because you haven’t gotten in touch with the pain your customers feel. You’re not identifying with it and therefore can’t identify with how powerful it will be for them when that pain is gone. So, start there. Feel their pain and the joy they’d experience with its alleviation.

Or perhaps their pain isn’t very acute. Well, as a business owner, it’s up to you to create the need when you’re talking to them. Let’s take a fairly mundane and ubiquitous occupation: accounting. Let’s say you decide to talk on the (mundane and ubiquitous) topic of “Saving Money on Taxes.” You’re feeling about as thrilled by the topic as your audience-to-be. How do you get in touch with your mission so that you deliver your Experience with power and passion?
If there isn’t extreme pain for people who pay too many taxes, it’s your job to create the pain. In designing your topic, this thought might come to you: “Did you know that 66% of Americans pay $1200 more than they should to Uncle Sam? Government officials are buying expensive dinners and yachts off of your mistake, while you’re telling your daughter she can’t have a new bedroom set.” You want to spotlight their pain, especially if they don’t see it themselves.

Then you want to ask yourself, “What do I want for them?” And you might say, “I don’t want them to be sheep! I don’t want them to give blindly and not question authority. I want them to be individuals and take back the rights they have!”

Suddenly you have a mission! To “take the blinders off” the world, as it pertains to taxes so that (solution) “they are never manipulated again; are in full control of their tax payments; and can buy the things they’ve been depriving themselves.”

Do you think you’d talk passionately if you were alleviating that pain and offering that solution? Far more so than you’d be if you were just telling them how they can save money on taxes. You’d be more passionate, and guess what? They’d feel more passionate about you!

I said this at the 2-Hour and the 2-Day: Your energy equals your results. Low, slow energy gets low, slow results. BIG ENERGY GETS BIG RESULTS.

You must have BIG ENERGY when you are in front of a room. Why? Because you’re a leader up there. If you cannot lead people to a new, promised land, you shouldn’t be up there. And it is your mission that generates the BIG ENERGY.

So…do you know your mission? Why you are up there? If not, it is vital that you generate that understanding. Take the steps laid out in this newsletter, or give me a call for more customized coaching on this topic.