Editor’s Note: This article is based on Steve Sanduski’s podcast interview with Michael Port, a bestselling author, speaker and entrepreneur. To access more than 100 interviews with industry leaders, subscribe for free to Steve’s podcast, Between Now and Success by clicking here.

“All the world’s a stage,” is the beginning of a monologue from William Shakespeare’s popular play, As You Like It. Turns out we’re all actors playing multiple roles in our business and the better job we do “acting” in each of these roles, the more deeply we’ll connect with other people.

On the surface, thinking of yourself as an actor playing a role sounds like I’m asking you to fake it, to be someone you’re not. Actually, it’s just the opposite.

In my podcast with Michael Port, we discussed his most recent book, Steal the Show, and how to apply the methods of top actors to “connect with, inspire and persuade any audience.”

As a financial advisor, you play in a high-stakes game. You either win the business or you don’t. You either persuade a client to make a certain decision that you think could benefit them or you don’t. You either hit a home run speaking at an event or you fall flat and nobody signs up for an appointment.

Failure is costly and often times it occurs because you lack the knowledge of how to find your audience’s “real why” and make a deep, emotional connection to it.

Make The Connection

Here are five methods Michael shared with me on the podcast that can help you perform better and connect more deeply with your clients and prospects.

1. Be More Honest. Michael said the greatest performers are able to connect emotionally with their audience because they are the most authentic, the most honest. Rather than having the “mechanics” of performing down pat, top performers have tremendous self-awareness and can stay in the moment while communicating. This self-awareness enables the performer to “connect with the audience based on what's actually happening in the room in that moment. Good performance is authentic behavior in a manufactured environment,” he said. It’s about bringing more of who you are to the stage, not a fake persona.

2. Spend More Time Rehearsing. Bad performers rehearse and then when it comes time to perform, “They try to reach back a week or a few days to remember what they did in rehearsal and then repeat it,” said Michael. By contrast, top performers, “know their material well enough to be able to throw it away as soon as they walk on stage, so that what they rehearsed comes to them organically and happens for the first time. They're not trying to repeat an experience that happened before.” When you know your material this well, it flows naturally and doesn’t appear “rehearsed.”

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