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The Value of Telling A Story with Michael Hudson

The Value of Telling A Story with Michael Hudson – 081

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Michael Hudson is an idea junkie–he is educated far beyond his intelligence. He is a recovering college professor, which means he is a teacher at heart. He has consulted with over 3,000 businesses on strategy, culture and leadership, and has given over 8,000 public presentations, including keynotes.

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Shifting from Time to Value

  • What is the most important thing you can share about pricing?
    • It starts in your brain.
    • Most people assume that whenever you quote a price the customer will want a lower price.
    • Get in your head the value you bring and the price it is worth, and then you do not have to explain it.
    • Initially, he wondered how he could get people to pay him and spent a lot of time figuring out the justification for his price.
    • He changed his perspective to focus on value, rather than cost.
    • Use “investment” rather than “cost” when you discuss price with your customer.
    • Before his perspective change, he underpriced his services.
    • Think about the things that create additional value in the engagement to help develop the price.
  • What was your first exposure to value pricing?
    • A customer discussed a major project to build his culture and improve his leadership.
    • He wanted to know how he was going to get value if he invested in Michael's services.
    • Michael laid out the cost of the customer's current mistakes and helped him discover a 10X return on the investment.
    • No one had ever asked what the ROI would be on the investment.
    • If you are a technician who loves what you are doing, you can easily fall into the trap of undervaluing your services. (The E-Myth, by Michael Gerber.)
    • When you begin to focus on the objectives that you are trying to achieve, you begin to figure out how to save the customer money.
    • If you do not show your customer additional things beyond the price, you are doing the customer a disservice.
    • Get yourself out of trading time for dollars.
    • Once you stop thinking about dollars and start thinking about the impact, you realize you can create a lot of value in small periods of time.
    • Shift your perspective to what your contribution is to the company rather than how many days you are there.
    • A little nugget of information can produce most of the value from an engagement.
    • “I do not get paid for what I do; I get paid for what I know.”
    • “I get paid to show you how to implement what I know” is what truly creates an impact.
    • Recognize that your contribution that far exceeds the time involved.
    • If you have confidence in your ideas and mastery of your trade, you can create extraordinary value.
    • The best ideas will never go far if you cannot communicate them.

[clickToTweet tweet=”‘I get paid to show you how to implement what I know' is what truly creates an impact.” quote=”‘I get paid to show you how to implement what I know' is what truly creates an impact.”]

Storytelling Matters

  • What is your background as a public speaker?
    • It started with him being the scared kid, where he heard, “sit still and shut up” from his teachers.
    • He withdrew and became petrified to speak in front of others.
    • It changed when he watched a speaker in 2nd-3rd grade who told stories as he sat and listened, engrossed.
    • He learned that “storytelling mattered.”
    • His speaking philosophy is “tell them a story and then teach them a lesson.”
  • How do you create value for the audience, the host and yourself?
    • You have to believe that you can deliver in a way they have not heard or have not seen how they can apply it before.
    • Have the guts to focus, narrow and target on the specific objective.
    • The speakers who are effective have hundreds of things they can talk about, but they limit it to the 2-3 for that specific audience.
    • Practice. Rehearse in front of the mirror.
    • Get into the audience's head to figure out how the message can connect with them.
    • Only then, can you get the audience to where you want them to go.
    • You will impact the host after you impact the audience.
    • The host will see the light bulb moments, and they will understand that is why you were hired.
    • The lesson is about equipping the audience to go where you want them to go.
    • There needs to be a call to action in the lesson to get the audience to try it.
    • Your signature message comes from you and your experience.
    • It may not be the experience the audience has, but in your sharing, you bring your vulnerability.
    • Show where you faced a similar problem and how you solved it or how the audience can avoid what you did.
    • Jim Rohn, Zig Zigler, and Tony Robbins all share their personal stories and experiences that are used to set the stage and share their lessons.

[clickToTweet tweet=”Ask, ‘What are people going to do differently as a result of me being there?'” quote=”Ask, ‘What are people going to do differently as a result of me being there?'”]

Pricing for Public Speaking

  • What is the typical compensation model for speaking?
    • Industries tend to have ranges of standard fees.
    • Fees for a keynote vs. 1/2-day workshop vs. 1-day workshop vary all over the board.
    • It boils down to what are you bringing to the table and how will it affect the people in the room.
    • If you do not have personal stories to share, you are just a textbook speaking from the front of the room.
    • When you use stories, you connect authentically with the audience to show them how they can do it.
    • You equip them with something that becomes memorable and easy to share, giving the message a greater impact.
    • The greater the impact, the more value you will receive for delivering the message.
    • As a speaker, the value starts with you.
    • The take-home materials that you provide should enable the audience to implement your message.
    • Be sure to think through the whole process for the audience member, including what happens after.
    • Think about your pricing in the terms of what you teach someone to do and then do the math.
    • The math can change the perspective of the meeting planner.
    • The speaking message is more important than the delivery, but delivery still matter.
    • You should first ask, “What are people going to do differently as a result of me being there?”
    • Do the preparation for the result first.
    • Think about what stories you have to tell, based who the audience is, to connect with them.
  • What is one of your best stories about creating value for a customer?
    • Strategic planning is a nebulous idea for most.
    • It is hard to measure the value of strategic planning, as the result might be 5 years down the road.
    • He structured the process in a table:
      • The event itself
      • The event's time/date
      • The participants
      • What we will realize if we do it
    • The conversation was then changed in the mind of the customer.
    • He defined what the outcomes were and moved the conversation away from price.
    • Then, he offered options, based on the outcomes the organization would receive.
    • They chose the most expensive option.

About Michael Hudson

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