In this episode, we talk about how you can engage your audience or market so that you excel in your presence out there and build a following that is going to champion you. If we don’t get this right we are going to feel deserted, it leads to feeling ignored and there is no growth. But if you get it right, there is a crowd and it is populated, you will enter into conversations and ultimately it becomes a stampede as they want to be a part of the community.
The 3 principles that you need to know to building engagement with your market:
Speak to their desires. Understand their dreams and aspirations.
Get their commitment to do something.
Decision is simply the catalyst. Only a few them are immovable.
The Engagement Elevator
This framework helps us to understand the following 3 pillars of engagement:
Heart: It is about incorporating the emotional side. It may be a story, a statement or something that grabs them emotionally first. It’s a ‘why’ statement.
Head: It is about engaging their rational thought process. Your communication with them should speak to the logical part of their mind.
Hands: It is behavioral. Get them to do something. Get them to make a movement or take an action. It is how you get results.
Dealing with the head and hands together, you have given them the logic and the action items. It is how you get your audience to take a Decision.
If you get the head and heart together, you speak to their logical and emotional side. That is how you incorporate their Aspiration.
When you incorporate their heart and hands, their decisions are driven more by heart and less by logic. That is how you create a Mission.
All this leads to generating Engagement with your audience and marketplace.
— Begin Transcript —
Hey there, Mel Abraham here, the author of the #1 bestselling book, The Entrepreneur’s Solution and the founder of Thoughtpreneur Academy where we teach you how to brand yourself as a market leader and an influencer so you can more income, more impact and more freedom. And welcome back to this episode of The Entrepreneur’s Solution show. In this episode, we’re going to talk about how do you engage your audience.
I think that we’re in a situation in today’s world, in today’s economy, today’s society where we’re starved for engagement. It’s not products and services that most of our customers and clients or our team members or even our loved ones are looking for. They’re looking for engagement. They’re looking for that presence in there and those that get this right, those that get this right are going to blow the doors off.
Those are the companies that are going to thrive.
Those are the people that are going to thrive.
Because they’re engaging people and creating community. So, in this episode, I’m going to talk about my framework called The Engagement Elevator and we will work through that and I’m going to give you a tool called The Engagement Matrix and the engagement matrix, if you want to download that just go to MelAbraham.com/session089 and you will be able to download that action guide. If you are not at your computer, you’re running around, you’re doing some things, you’re at the gym; whatever it is, as long as you are not driving, just be safe, alright, you can text me. Text me MYLEGACY one word to 38470 and we will make sure that we get you the download link so you can get all the tools, all the value out of this episode that you want.
So, let’s jump in to really understanding:
How do you engage your market?
What are the 3 pillars to market engagement as we move forward?
And we think about this thing, then we go, “Alright, well why is it even important?”
Because listen, if I have a product, if I have a service, if I have something that works, why should I really care about engaging my audience? They’re going to come to me because I got that product or service.
Not true. The question is, they may come to you, they may come to you even once, they may come to you even twice but are they going to stay with you? Are they going to become the champions in your world?
That’s what I want to create.
I don’t want to create customers.
I don’t want to create clients.
I want to create champions.
I want to create the people that are willing to fight for me. The people that are going to rally for me. The people that are going to turn around and scream to the hills to let people know, “Hey, I did business with Mel and let me tell you what happened. Let me tell you how my life, my business and my world is different because of him.”
And so, that’s the thing that I think we need to think about.
How do you do that?
How do you do that?
Because if we don’t get this right, what’s going to happen is that we may have a good product, we may have a good service, they may last for a little bit but in the end, we’re going to feel deserted.
We’re going to feel like we’re on an island and nowhere to go and no one’s there to share it with and it’s unfulfilling and it doesn’t feel good.
And which ultimately leads to feeling ignored.
We’re not even seen. They don’t even know we exist and so, one of the challenges is, “Alright, I got to get myself out there. I got to position myself in a way…” Whether you’re in the product space or in the space that I spend a lot of time working is—building the personal brand, the influencer space, the wisdom space as we call it or sometimes the expert industry it’s called.
Again, if you don’t get this right, then there’s no growth.
Because if you are ignored, or you’re deserted, then how do you grow? I mean, we can create all kinds of stuff in a vacuum but then it’s not a commercially viable option. What do I mean by that? I mean that you can’t make money at it.
And so, we need to make sure that it’s a commercially viable option. It’s commercially lucrative so we can grow and especially, in the expert space, so we can grow and get our message out there. We can create a movement, create a mission. We can do some things at a far greater rate.
The other thing that happens is that when we get this right, all of sudden, instead of being deserted, there’s a crowd. It’s populated.
They’re coming in and it’s … I mean think about this for a moment, that you’ve got a product or service or the knowledge you have, the expertise you have is at a such a high level that people are lining up for it.
Now that’s a cool thing. I mean, imagine that for a moment.
What that would be like?
How would that shift your business?
What would it do for you to be able to know that there is such a high regard for what you’ve got?
And there’s such a deep relationship with the people that are in the mix with you that they’re going to be standing at the door day-in and day-out to do that.
The other thing that happens when we get this right is that you actually enter into conversations.
I think one of the challenges that we have in today’s world is we’ve allowed this concept of social media and they call it social media but unfortunately, I think that social media has a tendency and the capacity to de-socialize us. In other words, to completely work the opposite, to do things that are not what we thought it was going to do.
Here’s what I mean by that is how many times do you hear people talk about, “Well, I’ve got 10 thousand Facebook followers and I’ve got 5 thousand views on my YouTube channel and I’ve got 300 likes on this post.” It’s ludicrous because what we’re doing is measuring vanity metrics. And I get it and maybe it feeds your ego but it’s not creating connections.
What we’ve done is we’ve allowed social media to take connections, relationships, engagement and reduce it to what we call contacts. Contacts and connections are not the same thing. Contacts and conversations are not the same thing. Our market, our people, our team, our industries that we’re service are starved for conversations so give it to them because those that give it to them are going to thrive because you are now all of a sudden, the people on the other side of that conversation are saying, “I’m being heard” and that’s the key element to it.
And if we have conversations, now it’s a stampede.
They’re going to be beating down our door because they feel wanted, they feel heard, they feel part of a community, they feel part of a team, they feel part of a movement and a mission at a far greater level than just buying something for the sake of using something. So, we can deal at the commodity level where we’re satisfying a utility need, we’re satisfying something that they need to solve a problem. That’s at the commodity level or we can deal at the commodity level where we:
Create a movement
Create a mission
Where they feel like they’re part of something
You look at something like a Tom’s shoes where they’re giving shoes away to children in other countries. One of my clients that I’ve worked with does all kinds of community service or Clifbar does that and gives their people time off so they feel that they’re serving at a different level, they’re serving not only to create a product but they’re on a mission to make a change, to do things at a different level and that’s what creates the stampede.
So, that’s the keys behind this is that because if we don’t get it right, we now know that we’re going to be deserted, we’re going to be ignored, and there’s going to be no growth. If we do get this right, we’re going to create the stampede and I want a stampede for you.
So, if that’s really why this is important, what do you need to know to really build this engagement in your marketplace? What are the key principles?
I want you to write these down because these are the key elements that go into building engagement with your marketplace.
And the first one is this: Speak to their desires. Speak to their aspirations.
Understand what it is they’re dreaming about.
Understand what it is they’re thinking about.
Understand what it is that they’re aspiring to.
And let’s speak to them. Listen, there’s a whole host of people out there speaking to the negative, speaking to what’s not possible.
Why not speak to what is possible?
Why not speak to what is the possibility that exists in each and every person’s lives?
And they give them the pathway to make that happen. Okay, so the first thing is this: When you look at your communications, when you look at the dialogs you have, when you look at your marketing, when you look at your posts, when you look at all of that, are you speaking to their aspirations?
The second thing is this: Get their commitment.
Get them to be committed to something. We live in a time where I think that some people struggle with this…I know growing up we used to say, “Are you commitment phobic?” I didn’t get married until later in life and so people say, “Well, does he have a problem with commitment?” The answer is ‘absolutely not’.
If you look at my history, if you look at my background, I’m perfectly find with commitment. I just happen to wait until I found that one person that really floated my soul and that it was working on both sides and I have. I’ve been married now almost six years to a beautiful, beautiful, intelligent soul that is my partner in life and everything.
But what about your customers?
What about your clients?
Let’s get them to commit to something. Get their commitment to do something. Get their commitment to be something more and know that you’re going to and allow them to know that you’re going to nurture them and support them in that journey.
I know in a lot of my Facebook groups that’s one of the things I’m trying to do is to be there for them, to get in there and to support and know that, you know what? They’re not alone.
The third principle is to realize that the decision is simply the catalyst.
So often, I see folks that are reluctant to make a choice, reluctant to make a decision and what they do is they feel like, “If I make a decision and it’s the wrong one, oh my god. It’s the wrong one, now what?”
See, with that kind of thinking we believe that the single decision sets wheels in motion and feet in concrete so we can’t move, maneuver or adjust and that’s a complete myth. See, the one decision and the only reason we make decisions is to make a decision to get more feedback so we can make the next decision better, that’s it.
Think about it this way: Think about a stalled car. If you’ve ever tried to push a stalled car and get it started, the most difficult thing to do is just the start. Is to start pushing that car and once the car is moving, steering it and adjusting it and getting it moving in the right direction is much, much easier.
But if we start and stop, start and stop, start and stop, that’s exhausting. Realize that we simply want them to make a choice and I’m not concerned about what choice it is as long it’s an informed choice and it’s the right choice for them.
Some people ask, “Well, do I need to sell them into my programs or sell my product?”
And the answer is, “No, I really don’t think so.”
If we’re good or articulating the value that comes out of what it is that we do, if we’re good at articulating the solutions, the problems that we’re solving with the solutions that we have. If we’re good at articulating who it’s for and who it’s not for, and we done that effectively, they will make the right choice.
I don’t need to convince them.
I don’t need to twist the arm.
I don’t need to cajole them, manipulate them or do any of that.
That’s the difference between what we call convincing selling where we’re trying to convince someone and conviction selling saying, “Here’s what I have. Here’s what it can do. Here’s is the solutions that it brings. Here is how well it works. And I’m here for you.”
All I want people to do is make a good decision for themselves and if that means that they’re joining me, I love it. If that means that they’re not joining me now, I also love it. I want them to make the right choice and if there is questions, unanswered questions that’s keeping them from making that decision, that’s my responsibility to make sure they’re answered. So, the decision is simply the catalyst. It’s the starting point. It’s not the ending point.
And very few choices and decisions that we make are in concrete, are something that you can’t move from. So, we want to make decision. So, decision is the catalyst in building that.
So, if that’s the case, how do we make this happen? So, you now know the principles, let’s look at what I call The Engagement Elevator framework. In order to do that what I’m going to do is I’m going to jump to the iPad and we’re going to draw this out, we’re going to build this together and so you can understand the dynamics of what goes into what I call The Engagement Elevator. So, let’s jump to the iPad real quick and let’s build this thing out together.
Alright so, so, this is really about understanding the 3 pillars of engagement in this process and it’s an interesting dynamic to figure this out and say, “Alright”. Effectively what we’re really trying to do is engage the different aspects of their beings (if you will) and I’m not trying to be wohoo here but I mean it that we’re trying to engage the different aspects of their being.
The first is this, is their Head. This is about engaging their rational thought process. Now, I will walk through what I think the order in which these may play out in once I put these all down. Look, I want to engage their rational thought process, I want to make sure that part of my communication with them, my engagement with them brings about and speaks to their logical end, their logical mind.
In fact, when I build out content, I teach people in Thoughtpreneur Academy, I had to build out content. I have a tool, a template call the CPT that allows them to understand how to do that and capture their information so they deliver it in this way and hit on all these element. So, the first is to understand that the head which is really speaking to the rational side.
Which then, let’s look at the other side of that which I’m sure you’re probably thinking about already and that’s the Heart. This is about incorporating the emotional side.
So, what are the things to do? and this is what I would look at is that a lot of times, I’m going to start with the emotional side first. It may be with a story, it may be with a statement, it may be something that just grabs them emotionally first.
It’s a why statement in a way and then we will justify it and we will come over here and speak to some of the logic, the data, the statistics, the information, the how to’s in doing that. So, we need to make sure that if we’re going to engage at a high level that all of my communication have each of these components—the head incorporated, I have the heart incorporated (the rational and the emotional).
Then we come in and sometimes people will stop there. But I think there’s another place that we need to go and that is called the Hands. And that’s really about behavioral.
That’s about behavioral. In other words, I need to get them to do something. I need to get them to make a movement, to take an action.
If I’m looking to move them to change, you’ve heard me say this before that entrepreneurs and thoughtpreneurs, no matter what they do—their products, their services—their primary focus is to improve the human condition, to change and shift people’s lives for the positive.
So, in order to do that, you will start with the thought change. So, we start with thinking first but in order to really get different results, I got to get to actions. That means that I need to at some point deal with the behavioral to really get them to make a decision to do something and then, go do it which leads me to this next piece of understanding this framework and this model of doing that because if we’re truly going to get into what I call Engagement, we need to think about a couple of things.
One, if I’m really dealing with the head and the hands together, in other words, I’ve given them the logic, and the action items I need them to take, and I’ve done it effectively, what you’re going to do is you’re going to get your audience, your marketplace, your people to actually make the decision. To actually make the decision.
So, the key is to really make sure that you understand how you’re training them in this process, what you’ve given them to make a decision to buy, to make the decision to do, to make the decision to not do, to make a decision and that’s going to be a logical element coupled with the action.
But if I get the head and the heart together, in other words, I’m speaking to the logical side and the emotional side, that’s when we incorporate what I call the Aspiration and that’s why it’s important to make sure that we’re not speaking just to one side or we’re not marketing to just one element. I come from, listen, I’m a CPA, I’m a left-brain thinker, I come from a world of analysis and data. It’s columns and rows and stuff like that.
But I learned really quickly working with businesses and entrepreneurs and I could look at the businesses that thrived, the entrepreneurs that thrived, the creatives that really thrived. They had the left-brain side going but what really drove them is the right brain, the emotional side. The balance between the two, the interplay between the two becomes important. So, your communications in engaging people need to balance and intermix between the two.
And then, when we’ve incorporated the heart and their behavioral choices are driven less by the logic. It will still be driven by the logic, the rational mind, that decision that they make and more by the heart that’s when all of a sudden, you’ve created a mission. And that’s what’s really going to drive people.
And so, when you do this, when you understand this framework and you look at the keys to how you’re communicating, how you’re doing whether it’s your Facebook ads or your direct adverts, your display ads, whether it’s communications, whether it’s posts, whether it’s videos, what are you doing to make sure that you deal with the elements of heart, head and hands? Because when you get that right, you’re going to get them to make a decision, you’re going to get them live into the aspirations and they’re going to be driven by a mission.
So, hopefully that makes sense to you as we’re coming to this. Here’s the tool that I want to give to you. When you download the action guide, you’re going to get access to what’s called the engagement matrix that’s going to walk you through a series of questions, a series of effectively six elements, six questions—it’s about understanding the pre-frame.
How do you set this up initially?
And then, what does the actual conversation look like?
Because if we intentionally orchestrate it, if we intentionally set up things then from the beginning, when we communicate in marketing, in posts, in products, in videos, we start to drive them through this engagement elevator and we use the engagement matrix to bring it to life.
So, do me a favor? Download the engagement matrix. Download the action guide to really start to build this out and start to utilize it. When you go the next time to post something, when you go the next time to write an email, when you go the next time to create marketing, go in there and build it through the engagement matrix. You’re going to fill in the blanks. It’s a matrix like I said.
So, there’s 6 boxes in there with 6 specific questions. I want you to take that topic or that area and I want you to fill it in before you go and do something. So, that’s it for this episode.
I hope that you found this of value. Make sure you download the action guide. If you are looking for the action guide, just go to MelAbraham.com/session089 or text me, MYLEGACY one-word to 38470. I will send you the download link.
Hopefully you found this of value. I know that when I taught this live, people have freaked out. I mean, this really revolutionized the way they communicated, the way they did some things in their posts, in their advertisement and in their emails. So, get this, understand it, implement it, execute on it.
If you found this of value, do me a favor: Share this. Share this video. Share this knowledge. Share it with people because I really believe that people are looking for a new paradigm. They’re looking for a way to take control of their lives and do things differently to elevate themselves and this is one of the keys.
And if you’ve got questions for me or challenges or things that you need to help with respect to business, entrepreneurship, the expert space, becoming an influencer, just go to AskMelNow.com. Leave me your question. Leave me your comment and let’s see if I can get that answered for you so you don’t feel isolated, you don’t feel isolated, that you don’t feel alone and that I can become your kind of back pocket mentor in the process.
And then, in the process, make sure that you’ve subscribed and not only subscribed, leave me some comments. Let’s keep the dialog going and let’s really kind of blow the doors off. I’m looking forward to seeing you in the next episode and in the next episode. Until then,
May your vision be brand, your journey epic and your legacy significant!
See you soon. Cheers. Bye!!
Download. Do the work. Let’s make a difference. And I will see you soon. Cheers. Bye.
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Like this? Please share it and help a few more people bring their dreams out of the darkness and give life to them again. Cheers, Mel
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