S. 2 Ep. 51 – The Best Way To Capture Leads On Stage

Taylorr: Okay, we did it, holy crap. Welcome. Technically Speaking. Arel, amazing to have you today, man.

Arel: Amazing to be here and hanging out with two rockstar, sexy lumber jack men.

Taylorr: Oh.

Austin: Oh, sexy lumber jack men.

Taylorr: I need a mug with that.

Austin: We’re going through a rebrand.

Arel: Let’s call it Spade to Spade.

Taylorr: Let’s call it Spade.

Austin: Dude, I’m going to blush.

Taylorr: We’re going to change Speaker Flow.

Austin: Wow, holy cow.

Taylorr: Change it to limberjackmen.com. It just doesn’t sound right, though, so, probably, not, huh?

Austin: Nope. Let’s not do that.

Taylorr: Probably not the brand we need.

Arel: You don’t want that SEO, you don’t want that.

Taylorr: Yeah, bad SEO’s. That’s right, bad traffic. Not qualified leads.

Austin: Yeah. Well, I don’t know, never say never.

Taylorr: Well, what are we doing here? Oh, man, Arel, it is awesome to have you here, we are, super, excited to unpack you and all of the things you’re up to. You have quite the background, man. In fact, we always like to do a little bit of digging before we get on a show, do some research, making things interesting, get to know you a little bit more. And we saw that you are one of the hosts of a Disney+ show. I think it’s called Family Reboot, if I recall.

Arel: That’s correct.

Taylorr: So, what’s it like to work with Disney and how, and what’s, yeah, just unpack it for us, man?

Arel: I’m happy to give you the quick story of it. So, I wish how I got the thing was a little sexier than what I’m going to say. But one day a few years back, I get a random email from a producer that says, I saw one of your speaking videos on YouTube, have you ever thought about doing television? And I was like, you’re going to put me in a hotel and steal my kidney, I know how these emails.

Taylorr: I know how these go.

Arel: That’s like the equivalent of, hey, I’m a prince in Africa and I need somewhere to put my money, right? You don’t believe those, kind of, outbound emails. And then, it turns out that that guy was, actually, one of the executive producers of a show called The Doctors. And The Doctors is a talk show, medical-based show. So, I looked him up, he was a legit person, I got onto The Doctors as a guest through him. So, I’m like, okay, this guy’s legit, he, really, is a real person; so, he, kind of, had this vision of creating a talk show. 

So, we met with a bunch of networks from Oprah to Ellen through his connections. And it was, actually, Fox that shot a talk show and it was me shooting a whole talk show and the show didn’t get picked up. They did the pilot; it was a whole thing, and it didn’t get picked up by the network. So, it’s, kind of, like, oh, wow, this was this cool, amazing thing, this was back in 2017. But the way serendipity works is Disney bought Fox around that exact same time. So, one of the producers somehow must have gotten hold of that video, and even though, that show didn’t work out, they were like, well, he might be a good fit for this other show. 

So, we get in touch with them and have great conversations, we start shooting the show and I’m speeding up a lot of the like, it doesn’t happen that quick. We started the show in 2019, and then, the pandemic hits, and then I’m like, I have no idea if the show’s going to continue. And then, we finished shooting the show in 2021 and it came out in 2022. So, this was a journey that started four or five years ago that now is just being public to the world through lots of twists and turns. And it all started with having a speaking video on YouTube that someone randomly came across and said, let me reach out to this guy.

Austin: Wow.

Taylorr: Man, serendipity indeed.

Austin: Yeah.

Arel: Yeah.

Austin: That’s a weird path.

Arel: It’s my Justin Bieber moment. It’s my Justin beaker moment. Yeah.

Taylorr: Yeah.

Austin: Yeah. Hey, you have to get found somehow. Look, right there, there’s something to be said about being willing to just put your stuff out there. Because you never know, like you could always get found by some random TV producer that takes you on a multi-year adventure in TV production, you never know.

Arel: No, honestly, and I can’t stress this enough. I have 200 subscribers to my YouTube channel, right? I have, at most, a couple of hundred likes on videos. So, it’s not like I’m this huge social media icon by any shape, form or fashion. So, I can’t stress that enough, if you put good content out there, you don’t need a billion people to watch it, you just need that right person that can open a door, and I think if anything that I’d like for anyone to get, here’s my story, which, again, it’s not the sexiest story, but it’s just be willing to put content out there, instead of judging it or going, oh, I’m not getting a lot of likes, reviews. At the end of the day, the right person in the right place can change everything.

Austin: Oh, man, true that.

Taylorr: Good lesson.

Austin: Yep, it’s a good reminder. Have to just keep your eyes peeled, be willing to take a leap here and there. So, look, you’ve been doing this for a while, you’ve been all over the world, five countries, I think I saw, most of the continental United States, if not all of it.

Arel: 48 states, man, Hawaii and Alaska be tripping. I’ve never spoken in Hawaii and Alaska.

Austin: Are those, really, the ones.

Arel: Those are the only, the non-contiguous states, man. Suck.

Austin: Oh, man. Look, if you’re listening to the show and you have an event in Hawaii, freaking call Arel.

Austin: Let’s close that loop up.

Taylorr: Let’s get it done. Fifty.

Austin: I know, seriously.

Arel: I’ve been stuck at 48 for 10 years.

Taylorr: There are just no events in Hawaii and Alaska.

Arel: No one in Hawaii or Alaska has liked me at all, yet.

Austin: Taylorr, let’s just put on an event, man. We have to help Arel.

Taylorr: We’re going to get it done.

Austin: Hit this vision. Yeah. But, really, though, you’ve, probably, gone broader than, I think, a lot of people in the industry do, and so that’s awesome. Respect. What is it about what you’re saying that captures the attention of people in the way that’s led this to build and become what it’s become?

Arel: Yeah, that’s a great question. I think that my approach to speaking, though initially, felt frustrating was, actually, the best thing that ever happened to me. Is I, really, cared about the art of speaking, first and foremost. I think that I, generally, believe public speaking is the most powerful form of impacting someone’s life in the shortest period. I can go from a stranger who spent an hour on stage, and if I do that job correctly, have indelible impact on someone’s life. So, I cared very deeply, I started very young, I was 22 when I started speaking and I was smart enough to know, I didn’t know anything but hungry enough to want to learn as much as I could about storytelling and packaging a story and putting it together. 

So, what happened is I, kind of, started with what my interests were. I think lots of people spend, maybe, 40 years in an industry or 20 years in an industry, and then speak. I, kind of, had that like, well, I started right out of college while speaking to students, primarily, as my first audience, and I was talking about how I grew up in the projects, grew up on welfare, person of color, inner-city and still got to college, started a business when I was in college and graduated and why they can do the same, no matter what their background was. 

So, what happened was my speaking journey, actually, kind of, followed my maturation process as an adult. So, my first leg was with students because that’s what I knew, and then, I started developing the business side of it and I started understanding business, and then I started speaking more about the business side to students. Then I started speaking more about business to businesspeople, and then started speaking to older folks who want to interact with youth, right? So, professional development for high schools and educators and principals on how they can better interact with them, so I, kind of, became this bridge character.

And then, what I think kept happening is this evolution of what am I interested in and what do I care about and what is my current positioning and how do I align my positioning? So, the breadth of my work started in the high school, middle school space, then went into the college space, then it went into the nonprofit space, then went to the Department of Labor to workforce development, which is the WIOA, Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act. Then I did a ton in the Department of Education with Gear-up and Trio. 

So, I was in the schools, but, technically, getting Department of Education money, because I was looking into that. And then, now, I’ve gone, really, heavily and deeply into the professional development space and I’ve been working with a group called Community Action Agencies, which got an incredible amount of funding during The Cares Act. So, they had an incredible amount of funding and needed to spend it. 

So, it’s been learning what the market is and that’s a whole evolution, which I’m happy to jump into, but it’s also my speaking business matured with me versus what, I think, for a lot of people is they, kind of, stick with one pony and they ride that pony and then they become very mechanical onstage and you know they’ve said the same joke a thousand times and they’re just dialing it in and I never wanted to dial it in. And I think that’s been, at first, I thought it was a disadvantage, but now I realize that it’s been one of the biggest advantages in my speaking career of having my business mature with me versus being fully matured when I started the business.

Austin: Well, you say fully dialed-in from a content perspective, but you did decide to go and try to get as dialed-in as possible from the craft perspective of being able to deliver content, period, whatever content it may be. And, really, this is, kind of, an interesting conversation to have because it’s so atypical from what Taylorr and I, usually, see, in terms of somebody coming into the industry, because you, really, came at this from an angle of wanting to speak right out of the gates, right? Did I hear that right?

Arel: Yeah, that’s a hundred percent. When I was in college, there was a speaker that came to my college and rocked it. I’m still in touch with him, his name is Victor Antonio, he’s, really, big in the sales space, he was in a different space when he came into my college. He was, more, doing diversity speaking, and I was like, man, dude, I want to do what you’re doing. And he said to me, well, just do it. And I was like, well, don’t I have to wait 20 years. And he was like, well, you could speak to students as a big brother perspective, where I speak to students as a father figure.  So, that was the initial thought of like, I can just take what I’ve done to succeed in the student-space, and then, teach it through a big brother lens. 

So, I became, really, really, really, fascinated in trying to figure out what’s the best way to teach an idea and deliver it so people get it, and then, once I, really, got that structure down, I can then go manic, which I do, on a subject and learn an incredible amount about a subject, and then place it into the presentation. But the nuances, it’s not teaching stuff I don’t know, I have to make sure it has applicable experience in my own life, so that I know that it’s not just I’m regurgitating something from a book that I, actually, don’t know how to apply it, which I think there’s a distinction between regurgitating like, you read ‘Think and Grow Rich’ once, and now you’re speaking about visualization and all of that jazz versus applying it. 

So, I think there’s an element of, one, learning the craft of speaking. Two, getting, really, maniacal about learning a specific idea, applying it into your life, trying to, I, actually, think you should try to break everything you learn. I think most people try to, actually; you learn an idea, right? Whatever it might be like, oh, the best way for customer service is this thing. And then, they try to teach everyone that. I, actually, like to take the approach of trying to break why it doesn’t work and say why this idea does not work. And if I can break it to the point where it’s like, well, I can’t break it because it just works. Then I know I found the idea that I want to share at that period of time.

Taylorr: Yeah. Oh, fascinating. I just love the counter intuition, if you will, thinking differently, it’s a different perspective, you’re not, yeah, to your point, regurgitating the same old, same old, you have a process that you’re following. And it sounds like you’ve, to pick up on the starting point of being, I don’t know, enthralled with the art of public speaking and doing it well; you also have this, I don’t know, ability to engage and involve the audience. And was that always innate for you? Did you learn that in the process of public speaking? How did that skill come to be? Was it always top of mind for you? 

And the reason why I ask this is I think there are different flavors of speakers, talk at you type of information, get the audience, really, involved, make it the most about the audience. And I see more of the talk at you type than the, actually, getting the audience involved type, so how did that come to be in your own speaking, was that always innate for you?

Arel: Yeah, it came about through the lens of I, the way that I approach every single speaking engagement is I imagine if I’m sitting in the audience and I’m listening to me speak, right? So, I’m in the audience listening to me. When am I going to be bored? When am I going to be.

Taylorr: Oh, interesting.

Arel: Speaking too much. When am I going to be like, oh my gosh, I need to stand up or, oh my gosh, I need to, so I’m, actually, again, I’m always trying to break it and then see how to make it work, where I think most presenters are thinking about, oh, this is a great idea, everyone would love it. But then I imagine, why wouldn’t I believe this? Why would I get bored with this? Why wouldn’t I? So, I’m, constantly actually, trying to disprove what I’m teaching and finding where I would not like something, because I believe if I take it from that lens, then I, actually, will create something very, very engaging and informative. 

And I think that came from, in the beginning of my trajectory, I thought all speakers sucked. I thought they were all bad, right? Because every event I ever been to, that I was forced to go to sucked until I saw one, two, maybe, three speakers, and I was like, well, what the hell are they doing? That’s, totally, different than everyone else. And then, I realized they weren’t speaking at me, I was part of a conversation with them. Now, it was 1 to 100, but it was, actually, a back and forth. And once I realized there are ways to sit and think and ask myself, well, am I doing that when I’m speaking or am I just a talking head? And if everyone else is a talking head, I don’t want to do that. 

And that’s where I started realizing the importance of call-in responses, pausing so your audience can fill in the gap of what they’re saying, having them do pair and shares with the person next to them, or crowdsourcing ways of doing activities that engage them. So, I’m just a big advocate of speakers, actually, looking at your presentation as if you were in the audience and saying, if I didn’t know me and had no ponies in the race, where would I get bored? Where would I disengage? And then saying, well, what can I do here? Why wouldn’t I believe this? Why would I say that works for you and that wouldn’t work for me? And then, when you try to break it until it can’t be broken, then you, actually, build something, pretty, powerful.

Taylorr: Wow.

Austin: Yeah.

Taylorr: That’s awesome.

Austin: Such a cool mindset. You mentioned, there have been a few people that have, sort of, shown you that there’s a right way to do this, at least relative to the other ones that you feel bored you silly. So, if somebody else is listening to this and going like, ah, man, some inspiration might be cool. Who has inspired you that you think other people could look at?

Arel: Yeah. So, T. Harv Eker is one of the most engaging speakers I’ve ever seen. So, I saw him, really, early in, so I was very lucky. Jonathan Sprinkles, one of the best platform presenters in the world, in my opinion. Tony Robbins, love, love Tony. The only challenge, and I will say, this is a caveat, is most speakers when they see a Tony Robbins or T. Harv Eker or Jonathan Sprinkles, they become a diet version of them, a Tony Robbins lite. We’ve seen how many speakers go, Ugh. That’s Tony’s thing, man. Or you see Eric Thomas, who’s incredible. But everyone puts a hat on and starts yelling at you and it’s like, you have to understand what are the elements that’s working for them. 

And then, not, necessarily, copy it, but realize what is the foundational concept that they’re trying to; so, maybe, they’re using voice modulation. I’m, really, big in the idea of vocal variety; like emotional roller coasters. So, you have to take people low, and then, you have to go, really, high, say something, really, wild, and then say something, really, sad. Because that’s, actually, what movies do. So, I think you can find a lot of inspiration from folks like Jonathan Sprinkles, T. Harv Eker, Tony Robbins, and I think you can also find a lot of inspiration from movies. 

I’m, actually, big in watching movies and saying like, well, kind of, emotional arc does, if I look at the Avengers, which is, probably, one of the most commercially successful, but well-written movies ever existed. What, kind of, journey do they put you on? And then, the last secret that, I think, has helped me with engagement is I, actually, study standup comedians, a bunch. Louis CK, Bill Burr, Dave Chappelle, Aziz Ansari, these guys are masterful at saying wild things, taking you on a journey, and then, using vocal modulation, dropping their voice. So, I, actually, get, really, interested in that because I think comedy is, actually, the hardest art form to succeed in and make money with, a standup comic. 

So, if you can find someone who’s, actually, good at it, you have to ask yourself, what are they doing? So, I pull a lot from those speakers, but I also pull a lot from movies and from standup comedians.

Taylorr: Yeah, I love that.

Austin: Wow.

Taylorr: It’s like reverse engineering; it’s like the meta level of understanding of this art.

Arel: Yeah. I’m pretty, I don’t want to say psychotic, that’s, probably, not the right word, but I’m pretty, I love this form. I love the form of public speaking and, I think a lot of people think having a good message is enough and it often isn’t, and then, there are other people who think just being a good presenter is enough, and it isn’t. You have to marry the content and the context, and I’m obsessive about it

Austin: Well, it’s working for you. So,

Taylorr: That’s right.

Austin: Nothing bad to say about that.

Arel: Very good, thank you.

Austin: So, you’ve taken this concept and segued into an entire technology company, really, built on engagement and helping the audience be involved. So, yeah, can you give our people a little bit of an understanding of what you’re doing with Talkadot?

Arel: Yeah. So, what’s often interesting is that when you’re in a service-based business, you start becoming well aware of all of the challenges in it, right? SpeakerFlow was created because there’s a service-based business with the speakers, but there are problems that get created as you try to do your service. So, what happened for me is I made a realization a long time ago, which was, the best way for someone to book you to speak is if they see you speak, period. There’s nothing that’s more effective than that. 

Now, what happens is at the end of your talk, people come up to you if you do a good job, you get this rush of people, but you get this line that’s like, let’s say 50 people are waiting for you. And the guy who’s talking to you right now is like, oh my gosh, I love my local museum, you have to go visit our local museum, I think you would love it. And they’re just shooting a breeze or they’re saying, I want to be a speaker, how’d you get into speaking? Right? But then there’s someone in the line who’s like, I want to book this guy to go speak at my company or my association. 

And they’re getting impatient, and they don’t want to wait, and so they just leave. And then, when that person leaves, we’d like to think that they’re going to message us right away, but they check their phone, and they get an email. So, I was always like, I had this stressful relationship with that post-event rush because I wanted to talk to everyone and give everyone their attention, but I also wanted to pull speaking leads, right? So, I didn’t know how to do that well. And then, the other thing that I hated is because I’m not a celebrity like a Gary Vee or Grant Cardone, where my name is more important than what I say, though, they great stuff, but their name is more important than what they say at this stage. 

I noticed I have to keep selling myself and I hated that. I hated not getting that respect, I was like, man, I’ve been in this game for almost two decades, man. But one person saw me speak, but they bring it back to this committee of people and there was one person on the committee who hadn’t seen me speak, and they’re like, well, why should we spend all of this money on this guy? Where’s the data? Show me that objective proof that this person’s worth it. And I didn’t have it and most speakers don’t have those two problems solved. 

So, working with, actually, someone who became a coaching client of mine, who wanted to get into speaking. She had sold a software tech company, had 25 million downloads in the app store and she sold it, and she did very well, and she’s like, I want to get into speaking. So, I’m teaching her about speaking and she’s going like, yo, this space is real archaic. And I was like, yeah, it’s handshakes and people you know, and cloak and dagger. And she’s like, well, what if we can use technology to solve some of those problems. 

So, with her, kind of, genius idea, we partnered on the idea, brought in a third technical co-founder and built Talkadot. And the whole point of Talkadot is to pull the leads from your audience through a survey that we do at the end. That survey collects data, that data, then, gets turned into a beautiful report that you can easily share, so you can prove how effective your presentations are based on the audience’s feedback and pull leads from your audience by just asking them to take a two-minute survey. 

So, we like to say that at the end of your presentation you can take five minutes at the end of your talk and turn it into a calendar’s worth of speaking engagements by how you can brand it, how you can send that report to people, how you can send it to potential bookers, how you can use that report to get rebooked by showing how well you’ve done and how to get spinoff talk. So, it’s, literally, the thing I wish I could have had, and I think that’s how a lot of products it created, because that’s the personal need and that’s how it showed up.

Taylorr: Man, that’s so cool. Yeah, you created, it was a gap, it was a massive hole, you spot it, you filled it and now there’s a tool to help people out with it, which is super cool. So, basically, the premise, just so I understand, and we can get the listeners onboard too. Basic premise, there’s a survey, it’s very quick to fill out, which somehow segments out some leads that you can then talk to while also getting feedback on how you did as a presenter from their perspectives, right?

Arel: Yeah, exactly. So, every speaker has, typically, a contact slide at the end of their presentation of some sort.

Taylorr: Sure, sure.

Arel: Which has their email, social media; so, we say, replace your contact slide with the Talkadot slide that gets you contract slide. I’m still working on that, it’s not perfect.

Taylorr: Nice.

Arel: It’s not perfect. It’s not perfect. It’s the Talkadot QR code, so you ask people to say, hey, if you thought this presentation was helpful, love to get your thoughts, scan this QR code and at the end of the survey, you can get access to an e-book, a video, or some, sort of, next step, which is, actually, really, helpful. Or you can give them copies of your slides, whatever you might want to give them as a little bonus, right? Then they take surveys that are questions that we have discovered that event planners are saying, this is how we make decisions on speakers. 

So, interactive, inspiring, actionable, relevant, that, kind of, stuff, and they can gauge it with a, really, quick survey. And then, it asks a question, do you book speakers? And if they say, yes, it takes them in one direction. If they say, no, it takes them in another. If they say, no, but I know someone who does, then it takes them in a whole different other direction. What’s so great about that is it’s not hitting people with questions that’s not relevant to where they are. So, if I am someone in the audience who can book speakers in that survey flow. 

So, not only have I given you my feedback, if I’ve raised my hand and said, yes, I book speakers. Yes, I want to book you. Yes, here’s my information. They also can, at the end of it, schedule a meeting on your Calendly, or you can book me right then and there. So, when they are, pardon the term, because it’s a little crass, but I think it’s appropriate. Dan Kennedy says, you always want to get someone when they’re in heat.

Taylorr: Yeah. Fair enough. Yep.

Arel: So, it’s like, when these people just saw you, that’s when they’re most in heat.

Taylorr: That’s the impulse.

Arel: For you.

Taylorr: The impulse. Yeah.

Arel: So, you want to grab them right then and there, so when they take that survey their results, automatically, get turned into a report and social media shareable images so you don’t have to go to Canva and recreate it, or take screenshots of random email messages, you get the testimonials and the data’s right there. And then, you can go into the backend, pull leads, follow-up with those people, so you don’t have to worry where it’s coming from. So, it’s the thing that like, I genuinely think it makes your life much easier, because now, instead of just posting pictures of yourself speaking, you can post data. And that is, totally, a differentiator from like other speaker right now.

Taylorr: Yeah. Heck, yeah.

Austin: So, how much do you feel this concept is about the speaker versus is about the audience’s benefit versus about the decision-maker? Because we’re talking about this in the context of people that are, probably, going to go use this, right? But does this improve the lives of the person that hired you and the people sitting in the audience as well as, obviously, benefiting the person on stage?

Arel: Yeah. I’ll give you a great story. It 100% helps you get better at your craft because there’s always feedback your audience can give you that they’ll never have the guts to tell you to your face. Perfect example, I’m doing a presentation for 350 people. And I’m using a word that I had no idea was wildly offensive. Because in 2022, you can get canceled for anything, right? So, I was using the word tribe. And I was saying, you have to find your tribe, find your belonging, find that group of people that you resonate with and let me show you how to do that. 

And then, I got all of this feedback that was like, yo, using the word tribe is, really, offensive if you’re non-indigenous, if you’re not Native American and we’ve stolen so much from them, please stop using that word. And I had person after person on my feedback form telling me this. And I’m like, yo, no one’s ever told me that. So, now, I’m rubbing these people the wrong way. It’s like me using a derogatory term to these people. And I had no idea. And I’m a big believer that the English language has something called synonyms. 

So, I can use the word belonging and not use the word tribe and it still allows me to say what I want to say, but it allows me to catch, well, maybe, my audience said it was boring or, maybe, I’m using words that are offensive, so I can, actually, get that 1% improvement as a presenter. The other thing that it helps, from the client perspective, is they have to justify costs all of the time, what most speakers don’t realize is when an event planner books you, they’re putting their job on the line, in many cases. They’re booking you, and if you suck, that’s bad, or if you spend a lot of money on me or, you, the speaker, that could be, really, detrimental. 

But if then you can go, wow, look at the audience, a hundred percent said it was valuable, 96% said they want to hear them speak again, and 98% said it was actionable. Now, the decision-makers who have to convince the people who write the checks that it was a good investment have that ability to do so. So, the event planners win because they can justify why folks are worth what they’re worth. The speaker wins because they can market and present themselves, and then, the audience wins because you can, actually, get better at your craft with these little 1% changes that you, probably, never would get because someone, unless they’re, really, really, bold, may not walk up to you and give you that piece of feedback. 

And I get stuff like that, that just, wildly, helps me improve my game and, again, this is where my maniacal, obsessive mind comes in. I care about all of these comments because if I’m not getting the large majority of the audience to feel like I impacted them, that means I’m not doing my job enough. So, I want to hear what they’re saying, and then, use that to improve my messaging to improve the impact of the audience.

Taylorr: Man.

Austin: Beautifully said. Yeah.

Taylorr: Yeah. Exactly what we needed to hear.

Austin: It’s so good because today, I think, probably, more than ever, but people need to feel heard, and so you’re giving people the opportunity to express themselves and, I think there’s value just in that too, outside of even you being able to improve, it shows the people that you’re speaking to that you, really, actually, care about what they have to say. And there’s something to be said about that. 

It makes people buy into you even more because it makes it feel like there’s a relationship there, it makes it so there is a relationship there to some degree, at least compared to what it would look like if you got up on stage and just talked a whole bunch, and then just dipped out, like take your check and leave; what’s, kind of, the old way of doing things, in some regards, you know?

Arel: Yeah. And I, really, love that you said that, because I never, you said something that I don’t think I ever put words to properly. It gives everyone the chance to feel seen and heard in your audience, right. And a lot of times, even if someone complains, if they get the chance to complain, then they go, okay, I got to say my piece and it takes the sting off of them walking around ruminating on how much.

Taylorr: That’s right.

Austin: Something you did or said bother them. So, I, really, appreciate you saying that because I didn’t, really, grasp that. And I think you’re a hundred percent right that in this world, people care of being seen, being heard. And sometimes that’s just enough. You’re a hundred percent right.

Taylorr: Heck, yeah.

Austin: Oh, boy.

Taylorr: Man. Okay, Arel, so I’m going to put you on the hot seat for a second. It’s going to be how we’re going to end our episode today. It’s going to be a fun little challenge. So, I think we talk about post-event lead capture, people get the gist, put a QR code up on a slide. People scan the thing. Maybe they use SMS opt-in. But no one, really, I think has perfected the spiel to give the audience to get them to do the thing. You’ve had some at-bats at this. We’re your audience; I want you to pitch us to scan that QR code at the end of an event, just like you would any other time.

Arel: Great. So, I’ll say it, and then, I’ll tell you what all of the psychological triggers are, if you’re interested, because I.

Taylorr: We love that, let’s do it.

Austin: Even better.

Arel: Yeah. So, I come down to the last five minutes in my talk before I go into my big finish. And I’ll go, out of curiosity by a show of hands, how many people felt like they learned one thing today that was valuable that you can use in your lives? Oh, well, thank you. I got 50%. Okay. Now a hundred percent, right? Well, the best way for you to pay me back, and I’m so glad that you got something, is to give me your feedback and what you thought about this presentation. I want to know what you liked; I want to know what you disliked, because I’m on a mission to get my message in front of as many people as I, possibly, can. 

And by you giving me your thoughts about today, I’ll know what to do more of and I’ll also know what I can do less of so I can be more impactful for folks like you. And as a small thank you for all of you giving me your feedback, at the end of the survey, if you put in the code list, I’ll, because we’re talking to speakers here, I’ll give you a list of 17 organizations that book speakers, just as a small thank you for you giving me your feedback. So, let’s take two minutes, fill it out, and when you’re done filling out the survey, just look up and put your phone down so I know you’re done, and I’ll leave you with one last thought before we go. 

So, that was, kind of, the intro and I’ll give you the quick psychological triggers. So, the first thing I do is I asked, did anyone find this to be valuable? I raise my hand and I look at the audience. Now, reciprocity shows that they’ll raise their hand too. And at that moment they have the highest level of feeling like they owe me, believe it or not. Because I just poured into them for 55 minutes or whatever, an hour, hour and a half, two hours. And if they said, yes, I got something from it. They want to help me; they want to pay me back. 

So, I go great, the greatest way you could help me and pay me back is to take two minutes to fill out this survey. So, I say two minutes because I’m letting them know, it’s not a Nielsen rating survey that’s going to take 45 minutes. It’s super quick. Scan the QR code. And then, I tell them, I want to know what you liked, I want to know what you disliked and the reason, so I give a because. So, that I can give the best possible experience for folks like you. So, now they realize that they’re trying to help me. And then, I say, I’m on a mission to get my message in front of as many people as I can. 

So, for the people who give me just feedback, that’s letting them know that their feedback is supportive of that goal. But for the people who can book me in the room, they’re like, oh, he wants to get his message in front of more people. Do you book speakers? Yes, I do. I’m letting them know that I’m available to be booked without ever, actually, saying I’ll let them know. I tell them what I want to do first, and then, I don’t say as a bribe or I say as a thank you, I’ve got this cool thing that I know that they’re, probably, going to want, whatever the presentation is, like, here’s this cool thing. 

So, put in this code and at the end of the software it’ll give it to you. And then, I say, put your phone down and look up and I’ll leave you with one final thought. So, what I’m saying is, we’re not leaving until you do the survey. So, go and get it, tweak it. And if you don’t take it and you’re looking down at your phone, because you got on Instagram, we just going to stick around for a long while. So, I want you to put your phone down and look up so I know we can move on. So, what happens is with that script, I get about 60 to 80% on average of an audience, where most people with 600 people might get 30 people to fill out a survey. 

So, our, actual, fill-out rate is super high and folks who start the survey and finish it are around 95%. So, most people who start, it’s short enough that they finish. But there are a lot of little triggers in there that move people to take action that the average bear, probably, wouldn’t catch and it doesn’t seem like I’m doing all of those things, but it increases the ability for people to take it and finish it.

Austin: Oh, my gash.

Taylorr: Oh, man.

Austin: Talk about being maniacal about the psychology there.

Taylorr: Yeah, for real.

Austin: Holy crap.

Taylorr: Holy crop. Arel.

Arel: It’s wild. It’s wild.

Austin: Dude, that’s brilliant.

Taylorr: Brilliant.

Austin: Brilliant.

Taylorr: Brilliant. We learned so much. All right, so let’s wrap this thing. Where do they download Talkadot? How do they get access to it? Let’s make sure we get this in front of every listener. Guys, just go download the thing after Arel gives you the link. Okay. Arel, how do we get access to Talkadot?

Arel: Yeah. So, just go to talkadot com. So, if you want to talk a lot, go to talka dot.com, I’m working on these, they’re not perfect. But T A L K A D O T.com, talkadot.com and you can get a free account, it’s, totally, free to use and you can do all of the things that I talked about. There’s, obviously, an upgraded option to get more pro features, but everyone can get a free account and do all of the things we talked about.

Taylorr: Guys, there’s no reason that you should not go to the show notes and click the link and start getting the feedback from your audiences. And if you’re using Speaker Flow, it integrates beautifully, so we’ll throw that in too. If you like this episode, don’t forget to rate it, like it, subscribe to it, and if you want more awesome resources like this, go to speakerflow.com/resources.

Arel: If you want to be in the know.

Austin: Seriously, go to Talkadot.

Arel: If you want to be in the know, get yourself some Speaker Flow.

Austin: Okay, see you later.

Taylorr: That’s how we’re wrapping it up.