Book 9 of 52 in 52: The Message of You - Judy Carter

I named 'The Message of You' as one of my top books of 2013 - and vowed to re-read it this year. Mission Accomplished - and frankly, I'll probably be reading it again before years' end. It's THAT good.

For years, I struggled to find a program that could teach me how to write a great keynote. The best advice I found was 'Have a great opening, make three points with three stories, and have a great close - and be funny'. I built my keynotes based primarily on those concepts - stringing together my best stories, trying to create a 'silver-thread' to connect them - and off I went.

While I received good feedback from my audiences, I was never quite happy with my end results - I always felt more like I was performing a 'Greatest Hits' act, vs. really giving the audience what they needed.

I believe I ended up buying 'The Message of You' after seeing it on Judy Carter's Facebook feed - we're friends, though I bet she doesn't know me from Adam - and that's OK. I picked it up on Audible, then on Kindle, and my eyes were opened to a whole new structure of writing keynotes. Judy reads it herself on the Audio edition, and brings great personality to it over the 10+ hour recording.

Part One does it's best to set the reader up for success, providing Judy's credibility, introducing her premise for writing the book, and walking us through discovering our own message, and its value.

Part Two goes into 'Judy's Seven-Step Method for Writing a Hilarious and Inspiring Speech' - covering all the aspects of writing a keynote, from the promise to the premise to the process to her own special ingredient - 'The Heart Story'. She also throws in a big dose of instruction on how to be funny, a crucial aspect of any speech, at least from the audience's point of view.

Part Three ties up a few loose ends, including instruction on how to book yourself, how to prevent disasters, and delivery ideas, as well as an inspiring close that will put you in the mindset to really get 'The Message of You' out there for the world to hear.

Chock full of exercises to help you discover your message, and links to her websites that will match you up with a buddy and go more in depth on certain subjects, 'The Message of You' has all the information you'll need to discover your message, and will take you far down the road of developing & delivering it as well, if you've got the time and discipline to do so.

I now use her format, and variations of it based on topic, audience, and discipline, to coach my clients - and they've had great results. I've used the format on my own keynotes, and my presentations in Kansas City & Toronto last Fall were improved over anything I'd done in the past.

The risk in letting you know about 'The Message of You', and recommending it so highly, is that you'll all go out and buy the book and decide you don't need a coach. But I think you'll find the book just puts you in that much better a position to HIRE a coach, and channel your energy and enthusiasm into a focused effort to share what you have to tell the world. Hire Judy. Hire me. Hire the Toastmaster in your club you admire most. Hire SOMEBODY - and use the book to take you down the path of writing your ultimate speech, and share with the world your ultimate message.

5 Stars out of 5.