Ep42: How I Turned My Best Selling Book Into A Keynote

[00:00:00] Today, I'm excited to talk to you about how I turned my book into a keynote speech.

[00:00:05] Now, before we dive into this episode, let's start with. What is a keynote? A keynote is a presentation that surrounds a central theme in what it is you're trying to convey and what your talk is about. And you would present a keynote at conferences, seminars, events, and you would set an underlining tone.

[00:00:23] And what you would do in that presentation is summarize the core message or the most important aspect of what it is you're delivering. So you have a theme when it comes to a keynote. And a successful keynote inspires, educates and motivates your audience to take action and to leave them thinking about what it is you just delivered to them. Now the really cool thing about having a book is you're able to use that as a platform to build your keynote presentation, and it also creates opportunities for you to actually land those keynote speeches. Now recently I was lucky enough to deliver a keynote at a university. And when they asked me to speak at the university, I asked, them what the topic was, what they'd like me to cover. And I also asked about their students, what are their students looking for?

[00:01:08] And they said that. The students were coming towards the end of their degree and they were leaving university going into the real world as such to have full-time jobs. And I thought to myself, okay, which book of mine can I use? Which would be beneficial to those students to deliver a keynote. And that's when I thought, okay, evolve your skills. I believe tailors to them, leaving university to develop skills and learn their skill set, to perform best in the industry that they in.

[00:01:35] So that was the book I use. So let's now break it down into steps of how I did that. Step one, of course, it actually begins with writing a solid book and having that right structure and doing it well. Because when you do this, when you actually have that right structure in your book,

[00:01:51] it's taking your reader on that journey from the problem that they want solved. To where they are at the very beginning to where they end up at the end. And that's how I think about delivering a keynote speech where you're taking the audience through that journey of, okay.

[00:02:06] What is the problem or the issue at hand? Where does that story begin and where does it end and what are you going to get out of it? After that speech is finished?

[00:02:15] And how do I progress through that speech to create maximum impact for you to remember it?

[00:02:21] So that is where the two begin to align. It begins to align before the speech is written or before the presentation is done. And that. is step one, to create a good book that takes a reader on that journey.

[00:02:35] Step two is to identify the actual core themes of your book. What is inside your book, that's going to be really important in delivering your speech. And in essence, it's going to be easy to consume from the audience. So the whole premise of my book Evolve your skills. Is to develop your skills with passion and purpose, whether that's the skill set to. Lead a team, whether that's to. Practice playing tennis or how to box we'll play a musical instrument.

[00:03:03] There is an approach of how to learn skills. And my book was broken down into three parts, learn, apply, perform. So you want to learn the skill. Then you want to apply this skill and you want to perform this skill. Those are three separate parts. And I use those three parts. In my presentation in my keynote.

[00:03:21] So that was the core theme. I translated that core theme from my book into a presentation.

[00:03:28] So that is step number two is what is the core theme that's in your book? What are those core themes that you're going to use in your presentation? Step number three is deliver your story. Now a keynote needs a narrative and that's going to heat and get audiences engaged. When you tell your story, people are going to become more receptive, more relatable, and they're going to be impressed.

[00:03:49] And they're going to be along that journey and they're going to be along for the ride as you deliver that keynote. So I structured my keynote around personal stories from the very beginning., and I also included different stories about other people throughout the presentation, as anecdotes and illustrated, those principles of learning, of applying and performing from my book. So by sharing my own experiences and as well, those really interesting stories of others. I made the content relatable and really impactful.

[00:04:20] So that is step number three.

[00:04:22] Step number four is you want to develop clear takeaways. So every keynote you should leave the audience with clear, actionable takeaways. What have they taken away from your talk? And that's what I included in H pot of my presentation. So it ended with specific strategies that the audience could implement immediately. So think about what takeaways you can give the audience, because you don't want to ramble on without giving them direction in where to go next. You want to be able to deliver a clear message with guidance on how they're going to move forward. And if you've written your book in that right way. You're already going to know you. and it's going to be super easy to use those takeaways into your presentation. For example, if you've got a book and you've structured each chapter or each part to have takeaways or lead them to that next level. Remember that and use that in your keynote, because like you do in your book. The keynote really takes the audience member onto that journey of where do I start and where do I end and where they end up. Is going to be a place that they want to keep moving forward from. Step number five is to use engaging visuals. When you do your talk, it really, really helps. But you also don't want to overwhelm the audience. . Now how I do this with evolve, your skills is I have a presentation with slides on and those slides.

[00:05:41] They're very simple and they're there to make the audience think about their own skills because how I tailor the presentation is I give them a skill card then the little cards that I give them before the speech, starts before the talk starts, where they write down the skill that they want to learn. Because my talk is about developing their skills. I get them into the mind frame of the skill that they want to learn.

[00:06:04] What that means now is that in the mind frame to think about the skill that they want to learn. And to go through that journey with me through those visuals and through my voice into developing that one skill that they want to learn, which is essentially what I'm there for.

[00:06:19] I'm there to give them a talk. on this skill that they want to learn individually. So when you deliver your keynote speech from your book, you want to make sure everything ties in around that core message that you're delivering.

[00:06:33] All right. And we're up to the final step is step number six, and that is to practice and refine. So I practice my keynote multiple times and I refine it based on feedback and my own observations as well. So I make sure I pay attention to the pacing, the transition, and I make sure that everything that I'm delivering in this keynote from my slides. Logistically flows. But also again, delivers that experience from beginning to end.

[00:07:00] So there you have those steps.

[00:07:02] And one last thing I would also like to add to. Is, it's not a step, but it's something that I really encourage you to do is to bring books to your keynote and give them a way, or you can, you can sell them perhaps depending on the style of event. Whenever I do my talks. I deliver books. I give books away because one, because people need more books in their lives and. Books are a great way to make an impact to build connections and again, establish your credibility as well. But they could also lead to working with someone.

[00:07:31] If people have your book and they take it home with them, they're going to remember you. And that's where the power comes from too. So let's now recap the takeaways for turning your book into a keynote.

[00:07:43] So the first step was to write a good book. The second step was to identify the core things. So you want to focus on the main message of your book that you're going to include in your keynote. Step three was to use the stories, use personal stories and anecdotes to engage your audience because that's going to create the connection. Step four. Is to make sure your audience have something to take away, whether that's actionable tips, strategies, whatever it is you want to leave your audience with actionable insights. And what actually now a step five use visuals, the visuals that are going to compliment your talk and not overwhelm the audience. Examples, short slides, where you can elaborate on each slide pictures that might be beneficial to them. I gave the audience cue cards. They were visuals done up, but they could actually write the skill that they want to learn. And they got to actually take that away with them along with the book as well. So engaging visuals that really help and that really helped the audience on that journey that you've set them up on. And finally step six is to practice and refine.

[00:08:48] So improve your presentation through practice and feedback. What I do is. I've got feedback forms where. Depending on the environment I would exchange a book for a feedback form on that keynote. If it's a keynote, I don't know for the very first time, I would definitely use that feedback form and swap it for a book.

[00:09:06] And I would refine my keynote based on the feedback I get. And we want to include feedback questions about the substance of the content. because that's going to help you in that in the future, deliver a keynote that is going to be a value that's going to change people's lives.

[00:09:21] That's going to resonate and make a huge impact. And he begins with writing a solid book. So I hope this episode provide you with. Awesome lessons on transforming into a keynote speech. If you have any questions or want to share your own experiences, reach out to me and thanks again for tuning into the published impact podcast. Don't forget to subscribe, leave a review.

[00:09:42] Been until next time. Write that book.