Influencers from Around the World - The Crazy Effect

This month's Influencers from Around the World post comes from Yago De Marta. Yago has been a guest blogger at Influence PEOPLE since I started this series. Originally from Spain, Yago now spends most of his time in Latin America working with clients to help them speak more fluently and persuasively. To learn more about Yago visit YagoDeMarta.com or connect with him on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter.

Brian Ahearn, CMCT® 
Chief Influence Officer

influencePEOPLE 
Helping You Learn to Hear “Yes”.

The Crazy Effect

Some weeks ago I met 50 of the most talented young boys and girls in Latin America. They have accomplished their objective - to get the best qualifications of their country. And now, they are called to be the next leaders of their continent. There I was, I had to give a speech about what I would do if I were them, how I would strive to capture an audience’s attention.

I told them, “Speak easy.”

I told them what happened to me five years ago, when I realized of the meaning of “the crazy effect.”

I was in Bolivia because I was working for the presidential campaign when I heard the singer Julio Iglesias was in that country and his next concert would be in the same city where I was staying. I felt very excited because Julio is the greatest Spanish singer, and with more than 350 million CDs sold, he is one of the best-selling artists in the world.

When I arrived at the concert the stadium was full of people! I could feel how eager the crowd was as they waited for Julio Iglesias to sing his songs. He started the concert singing the sound track of our lives. These were songs people had song in their minds thousand of times before. The audience became excited, then happy. They were listening to songs that they loved and they felt as if they were one.

But, here comes “the crazy effect!” Julio started singing songs he first sang in the 1990s. Those songs are in English so most people couldn´t understand the lyrics. Worst of all, those songs were not hits in Latin America.

As he sang “Caruso,” and “To all the girls I’ve love before,” people stopped singing, and some started to whistle (the equivalent of booing in America). Then he sang “Crazy.”

One of the greatest artists in the world was “losing” the audience and I realized how many times I’ve seen the same effect with businessmen. People forget that a speech (or a concert) is not yours; the audience owns the speech.

You can’t say whatever you want. What you say must be:

• Important,
• Interesting, and most of all,
• Relevant

 If you speak about things that only your care about and don’t make it relevant for the audience somehow, some way, you’re dead!

So when I finished to give my speech on “The Crazy Effect” to these young, super talented girls and boys, two guys stood up and told me they wouldn’t dumb down their speaking just to be understood by more people. They were not meant to give people “what they needed” because that’s what they call “populism.” In other words, their speeches would not be about the audience, they would be about them (the speakers)!

Well, oftentimes people don’t know really what they want, they only think they do. However, reality is people need to live a moment that’s worth something to them. So they need things that are interesting, important, beautiful or thrilling…to them. In other words, they need to feel that the speech is “about them.”

You can talk about whatever you want but you have to be understandable, credible and memorable. Whatever you are talking about you have to make sure it touches the people because it has to be about them.

Yago