As a public speaker, you need to speak to your audience so that they are not only engaged, but also actively listening. If you don’t use their language, they won’t hear you.
Gary Chapman’s book, Love Languages, is a really good book about how we communicate love. If you’re in a relationship or even if you’re not and you want to have a better relationship with your children, Love Languages is about the different languages one uses to express love, and it’s not always verbal. It’s a different kind of language.
For instance, your love language could be about spending quality time with your spouse. If you’re a person that likes quality time, but your spouse doesn’t, then there could be a disconnect between the two of you. Your spouse needs to know that spending quality time together is one of your love languages. It’s how you express love.
I want to talk about a different kind of language. It is a personality language.
Many of you may have studied language methodology and taken a personality test or two in your past. In my career in Corporate America, I took many tests; maybe at the time of recruitment, or at the time of hiring, not only for me, but also for my staff or potential staff, or to become a part of a management team.
I’ve taken tests such as the Myers Briggs personality test and the DISC personality system — they’re all different, and yet there are some similarities. These tests are all great if you’re curious about who you are as an individual and how to fit in. In the DISC system, maybe you’re a high D or a high I. I don’t even remember what that means. One thing I found was that these tests can be very difficult to retain and remember, much less implement.
I’ve found a system that is easy to remember, which makes it totally different. There’s an acronym for it. Anybody who knows me, knows that I love acronyms because they’re easy to learn, easy for you to teach and easy for your audience to remember.
BANK is our acronym for reaching your audience. It’s all about taking it to the bank, taking your money to the bank, that is. The other thing that makes this system so different, and why I want to teach it, is because it’s not about just knowing who you are, but knowing who your audience is so that you can speak the language of your audience. What’s so cool about this system is it comes from a place of honesty and integrity.
Some people may have studied NLP, but sometimes NLP has a negative connotation to it. People think it’s manipulative or kind of behind the scenes, uses coercion, or is weird, but this new language personality system is not like that all. It is honest and right out there. Everybody can learn how to do it. Even your audience will appreciate it because it shows love.
Those who have come through my training know about my sandwich metaphor. The first top piece of bread in your speech sandwich stands for rapport. In fact, all five steps of the speech sandwich build rapport. Using the language of your customers is all about building rapport.
A year ago I found out about this system. I have been using it. You might not know it because it’s invisible, that’s what’s so exciting about it. I can use it intentionally or I can use it free flow. That’s another exciting point about it. The more I use it and the more I get results, the more excited I am.
Next week, I will share the 4-part personality system BANK, which will help you speak the language of your audience.