How do you communicate without turning your audience off?

So I often get asked, how do you 'do' your Heart Brand? 

What is your Heart Brand and how do you develop it? 

And how do you get away from all that corporate technobabble when you're trying to just share your journey, your story, or sell your product and your service or whatever that thing is that you are trying to do?

Well, let me share something with you.  

I'm driving, it's literally 8:52pm on a Sunday evening and I'm driving back to Norwich after taking my daughter home after spending the weekend with her, and I'm listening to a podcast by Gavin Bell, 'The Funnely Enough' podcast and in all honesty it wasn't what I expected, but it's really, really cool. 

I'm listening to one of Gavin's guests who is a writer specialising in 'copy and marketing content'. Her name is Ann Handley and what I'm finding really interesting is the way she talks about how you should communicate your message through a book, blog or social media post.

Her ethos behind communication is actually what I talk about all day long, and it's my methodology, 'Heart Brand'. 

But I'm hearing it from another person's perspective.

The way I explain 'Heart Brand is when you are unapologetically you, you share your story in the way you speak, the way you would literally if you are having a brew with me.

Just sat there having a cuppa and just being yourself and just chatting, it's comfortable, relaxed and never strained.

Imagine just chatting with your best friend over a beer. It's how you would share your story or how your day's been, the good, the bad, the ugly, the ups, the downs, all down to the epic excitement in your voice when you are sharing a win you've just had.

But how do you communicate this 'Heart Brand'? 

This message, this way of sharing a story and developing a connection with your tribe? 

Well, you do exactly what I'm doing now. 

It's now 8:54pm and I'm driving home and I am literally just talking into my voice recorder because that is the way that I can communicate my message and in case you didn't know Google loves it. Ann refers to this as your 'ugly first draft' which I love. What I find with my clients is that's the best way to get them to start, we can add bells and whistles later.

You see when you are communicating it's preferred by Google that you write as you speak, Google loves relevance and not something stuffed full of 'keywords' that don't fit the context of what you are writing about. 

So when you type as you speak, it flows more naturally!

So for context and a look from my perspective...

I'm literally speaking as I'm driving, straight into my iPhone, I'm running the voice recorder and documenting everything I'm thinking.

And the great thing is that being an ex-police officer, I'm not actually breaking any laws.

What I'm going to go do is get this audio transcribed and then I'm going to just tidy it up so it reads well and add a few bells and whistles to my 'ugly first draft'.

If you know me, if you have seen or read any of my content you will get a feel that it reads just like when we are talking, like you're having a brew with me, a cup of tea or coffee, whatever suits you. 

I will be having tea obviously, hahaha #TeaWithSte

But what you're going to get is an experience when you read something of mine as if you were sat there having that conversation with me. 

And that is very much your

'Heart Brand' voice. 

It is nothing but you, completely and utterly unapologetically you.

These two fab people, Jason and Sarah are from my Facebook community 'Tea With Ste' and are being unapologetically themselves and sharing how their 'Heart Brands' are having a huge effect on them and there businesses.

And it shouldn't be any other way.

You don't have to put corporate psychobabble on top of your words. You don't have to make it sound or read professional, because answer me this...

Is your personality when doing business, anything but professional?

Of course, you will adapt your speech and tone etc, depending on who the person is that you are talking to or indeed how well you know them, but that's getting granular. 

In the first instance we want people to get a feel for who you are and what they can expect, so just be you, sound like you and talk like you. It will provide a much more positive and emotional bond with your audience!

If you're trying to speak to a human, if you're trying to connect with a human and have an emotional interaction with a human, then write as you speak is my advice to you, because people will get a better sense of you. People will find your mannerisms endearing your accent and tone interesting. 

And when you listen back to your audio you can adjust what you need to so that it reads correctly. 

So I want to thank Gavin and his podcast guest because it's been a real eyeopener for me, to hear his guests perspective on what I preach daily.

Sharing your 'Heart Brand' voice, it leads into the full Heart Brand package.

And it's something that I can elaborate on a little bit more when I write this up because that is exactly what I'm going to do.

And of course, I have because you are reading this now!

'Walking my talk!' 

If you would like to hear how I gave birth to 'Heart Brand' and how it became my signature methodology then you can watch my Ted Talk via this link ??

The audio will be interesting. It'll be interesting to see what I can do with it. 

Do I pop this onto a podcast? Because it's something that I could really, really do. 

This is my thoughts. It's my feelings. It's actually my passion for how we should communicate with people.

People say to me, Steven, how did you get to communicate with people so well?

I think, Ooh, because compliments make you feel a little bit cringey sometimes don't they? If you get a compliment and you're not used to it. 

The worst thing is I'm sure for a lot of people when you get a compliment and then you share the compliment as I've just done here, you do feel a little bit self-conscious and a little bit cringy, cheesy, creepy, whatever words you want to use. 

But I've taken the skills that I developed from my 10 years of being a police detective, I always adapt my communication style to meet the needs of my audience.

I'm never anything but me. I might adapt my tone, my phrasing, clarity, simple words, but I'm still being me. 

When I was in the police I was trained in a process called the Conflict Resolution Model, part of it was just literally clear, simple, loud commands. 

Now I appreciate that isn't going to work in a sales or every social setting but the thing to take from this is the fact that clarity will help you.

Clarity in your message with the minimal amount of jargon.

Remember a confused mind will always say NO!

So in summary, 

• Adapt your communication style to meet the needs of your audience. 
• Be completely and unapologetically you so that you get the right outcome for both the listener, the reader, and yourself. 
• It's okay to be a little bit selfish because you're doing something for a positive impact on your audience. 

I hope this has been useful. I hope it's a good read, leave me a comment. Tweet me or Instagram Stories me @MrSteThompson.

I'll see you on the other side of whatever platform you're on. 

Take care and much love BIGDaddy out.