Unlocking Unstoppable Success: The Power of Engagement

Today, we dive into the art of engagement with Anders Boulanger, a magician turned expert on connecting with people. Anders shares his insights on the importance of authentic communication in a world overwhelmed by technology. He emphasizes that while AI and automation have their place, nothing can replace the value of genuine human interaction. We discuss strategies to bridge the engagement gap, especially in business contexts, and how to make meaningful connections, whether at a trade show or in everyday life. Tune in to learn how to elevate your communication skills and foster real relationships, because in the end, success is all about engaging with others! The Unstoppable Success podcast dives into the art of engagement with Anders Boulanger, a magician turned expert in connecting with people in business. Anders shares his journey from performing magic tricks to mastering the art of captivating audiences at trade shows for major tech companies like Microsoft and Fortnite. He emphasizes the importance of authentic communication in a world oversaturated with digital noise and automation, where genuine human interaction is becoming a rarity. As he discusses his book, 'Engage First,' Anders provides valuable insights on how to stop a crowd and get them to pay attention, highlighting the need for businesses to rehumanize their approach to engagement. He introduces the 'CEO method'—Connect, Engage, Offer—as a framework for building meaningful relationships with clients. The conversation reveals the challenges faced by salespeople today, who often lack the training to effectively engage with customers in person, leading to a potential 'sales apocalypse' if not addressed. Ultimately, Anders encourages listeners to embrace the skills of engagement, reminding us that even in a tech-driven world, personal connections are key to unstoppable success.

Takeaways:

1. Engaging with people is essential for building relationships that lead to success.
2. We must learn to communicate effectively in a world filled with distractions and noise.
3. Authenticity in our interactions is key to overcoming the challenges of modern communication.
4. The CEO method—Connect, Engage, Offer—can help us create meaningful business relationships.
5. To truly engage, we need to rehumanize our approach in business and embrace personal connections.
6. Understanding the engagement gap can hel

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Transcript

Recording Started

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Well, hello everybody, and welcome to another amazing episode of Unstoppable Success Podcast. And I am Jacob Trumager, your host, and on this podcast, our goal is to help you, our listeners, have unstoppable success. We hear from amazing leaders and professionals from around the world about all of their amazing game-changing insights, lessons, teachings to help you be unstoppable. And today I have the absolute pleasure of introducing everyone to Alan Durz. I'm gonna say an Anders, I'm like Anders, I I cannot say your first name or the right way because it's like my my mouth does not want to do it. My um, but Blue Lol J. I get the last name better because it's just more French.

SPEAKER_01 0:56

No, no doubt. Yeah, no, that's good. Thanks for having me on, Jacqueline.

SPEAKER_00 1:01

I am it's I'm so glad to have you here. I mean, you have you we shared beforehand, you had an amazing um, you've had a great career path. I mean, you were you said you started off being a magician, and then obviously things evolved, you and you changed that.

SPEAKER_01 1:16

I'm still a magician too. You know, you can't you can't take that away from me, you know. But um, yeah, it's it's been an evolution uh in a way. And what's happened is I've kind of found almost like a higher and better use for my skill set, right? And and so the and and also to look at what I have learned as a performer, you know, take a look at that, codify that, and then be able to share that uh to people, whether it's you know, through trainings, through um my book and in different ways so that people can kind of you know leapfrog and and get ahead that way.

SPEAKER_00 1:50

Yeah. So your book, Engage First, right? And you have the the screenshot of that, or you know, the pop-up.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

Yeah, I'll pop it up here. I got I got one here as well. Yeah, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 2:00

You know, you pop that up, and I was and I, and the some of the things that just popped into my brain, and I think this is so important, you know, your your businesses have evolved, but at the at the beginning, no matter what business it is, you do actually have to communicate and talk to people about what you are doing. So I'd love for you to share with our listeners and people who might be watching this on YouTube as well. Um where where did it come from? I mean, you know, where did engage first come from and how did it evolve? Like how did it involve into it?

SPEAKER_01 2:33

Yeah, well, the I mean, the concept actually, and it's funny because I wrote the book and the the title didn't come at the beginning, right? The the idea of it, but once I finally found the title, I'm like, of course, that's the title. Like it was, you know, I feel like silly that I didn't think of it sooner. Uh so when I work in a trade show booth for companies like Microsoft, Fortnite, Veeam Software, a lot of big tech companies uh use our services, uh, is that they're using us to stop a crowd of people and build a crowd so that the message about the solution can be communicated. And you know, tech is like some of these industries where it's can be dreadfully dull, it's not super sexy as far as the content. And so we need something to be able to make people want to pay more attention, to be able to stop them and uh get them to just really tune in. And so, you know, when people would walk right by a booth, they don't stop, they have they could have the best solution in the world, but if people don't really look over there, they don't take notice, it really doesn't matter, right? So that's what I was used for is doing that, and also for building crowds and setting up a speaker in a in a trade show booth so that that the crowd is engaged, their appetite is wet, we're putting in a peak state so that that hopefully that message lands and they're able to remember it afterwards because of that engagement. So it really was like, hey, that's what we do all day long. And there's a few um I guess hurdles in our way right now, or headwinds, if you will. Um, one of them is people don't want to engage for the most part, as far as being engaged with. They're so overwhelmed by everything that's out there right now. You know, how many junk emails did you get today? How many marketing messages did you see? How many ads? Like everything's coming at you. And so with that, that creates an obstacle, okay, for us to engage with an and now when we look at AI, AI is a very powerful tool. I'm not anti-AI at all, but I do think we need a little bit of the old AI, and that is authentic interaction and this idea that everything is so automated, so male merged, so you know it's not really for you. This video by Sora is not real. Why am I watching it? Like, there's so much stuff that's not real, not authentic anymore, that it's becoming more and more important to be able to master those skills that come across in a way that people can truly connect with you, you know. And so that's I think that's my kind of main message in the book and in what I'm about. And for your listeners, wanting to create unstoppable success, you know, we we can't just rely on AI and uh and and technology. We need we need to bring some, we need to rehumanize business, and that's really our our our goal here at Engage It Fi.

SPEAKER_00 5:35

Yeah, so I love that. So two things that so I um uh somebody had coined this and I've used this, but the the CEO method, it's not doesn't stand for chief executive officer, but it stands for connect, engage, offer. Like so you need to connect with people. You have to have a way to actually say something to them. So connect, right? And then engage with them, have conversations, discussions, talk to people. And then, of course, hopefully there's an offer if you're talking about business, you know, after that, right? So that's like something that I wanted to share with listeners is that think about the CEO method, because then you can also, you know, um get Andre's book and then you learn how to basically engage better so that you can do the, you can do the connect, but you have to engage. Um, and then the other thing that you know comes to mind when I'm thinking about what you're saying, it's so important. We need to humanize it and make sure that we're reaching out and connecting with people because people do actually want relationships. And it brings me back to that. Do remember like years and years and years and years ago, there was the commercial, I think it was for, well, forget what airline it was, but it was for an airline. And the CEO or the president of the company or CEO was like standing around his uh sales team, and he just said, Um, we just lost our our biggest customer for a number of years, whatever. And he handed everybody airline tickets. And he said, Go and you know, go and see your customers, go and shake their hands. We're so, we're so, we're so into the facts and the, you know, but we used to do business face to face. So go see your customers, go see your clients. Um, and then they asked him, What are you gonna do? He goes, I'm gonna go see that customer who we just lost to, is who was our first one we've had forever. And and what you're saying and what you're doing, it it like obviously it resonates with me so much because we there's like a push-pull, right, between where we are where people are right now, where they've got so much kind of coming at them and they kind of want to put up the blockers, but at the same time, they also crave connection and engagement.

SPEAKER_01 7:49

And and and that's something we actually call the engagement gap, meaning there's there's the people who don't want to be engaged with, they're they're overwhelmed, uh, they're overbooked, meaning they've got no time, but then they are overlooked. This idea that they do want to be engaged with in a sense, right? Like they're overwhelmed, but if there's if there's an authentic connection, if there's someone who can really help them, they would be open to it, right? And then on the flip side, you look at the people who who need to be doing the engaging. Lots of times it's it's salespeople, it's marketing, it's on that, you know, customer-facing side of things. Well, they're sometimes untrained on how to do this. And and this leads into generationally, people are growing up on their phones, we're not having the same FaceTime that we used to. We don't have to talk to a bank teller or a cashier at a grocery store, right? There's fewer moments where we actually have to do that. Um, and and in some ways, too, they're just not motivated to do it because they don't have to, maybe, or they like with their salespeople that we know in in the tech industry in terms of teams, they only send emails, you know, never get on the phone to talk to someone so that when we see them in the trade shows, uh actually having to talk to a live customer in front of them, they're not real that, they're not smooth, you know, it's it's not not binge-worthy, it's cringe worthy, right? So that's that's where we there is some work to be done, right? And I and we're really kind of you know, kind of waving the flag or or trying to say there is a canary in the coal mine that we want to, you know, look at this and and try to combat this, because there is when I talk to sales leaders, a sales apocalypse kind of happening where what happens when those those young salespeople they grow up to become account executives, you know, in terms of their experience, and they still haven't developed these skill sets, what's gonna happen, right, to the sales force. And who knows, maybe AI will start selling, but I want to buy from people. The trust isn't there for me, right? You know, we need to connect with people, and that's I think that's where where trust really comes from.

SPEAKER_00 9:59

You know, and I would agree with you. I I don't want to engage with a um with a computer or a bot or a chat bot. And it's I find it fascinating, and I understand where their companies look at as a cost savings to have a chat bot or to have somebody answer the phone and say, Oh, well, I can help you. I'm your virtual assistant. It makes me want to not do business with that company.

SPEAKER_01 10:29

Yeah. It's it's the difference between efficiency and effectiveness.

SPEAKER_00 10:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 10:34

Right. And and so that idea that you just make it up with numbers because you don't have to pay this AI bot. Like, but when I ever, if I get cold called by a an AI agent, right? Like sometimes they used to say they're AI, but sometimes they don't now. And I have to say, hey, are you AI? And then they say, Yes, I am, but then I just hang up. And I don't even feel bad about hanging up, right? Because there wasn't, there's not a human on the other end, right? So I really don't give it the time of day at all, right? In that sense. There's something I write about in my book called the uh hierarchy of communication. So think of a uh for the listeners only, think of like a pyramid, right? And we kind of build from the base up. And I talk about different forms of communication, and this really is apropos to what we're talking about, is that you know, if you just look at written communication, right? And that could be a handwritten letter, but it could be actually just an email or something like that. It only has words, right? So we can only use the words that we choose to persuade, to influence, to get our point across, right? If we go up a step above that, we could use some emojis because emojis can give a little bit of a sense of tone. Like, have you ever had a joke that you're trying to make written backfire, you know, and people take it the wrong way? Like it lends a little bit, okay? Not much, but a little bit. Okay. You go above that, then you got your voice. For the people listening to me right now, all they can they can hear the words I'm using and how I'm saying it, which helps. If you're watching right now, well, that's the next level of this kind of virtual idea. You're getting to see me express myself, you're seeing my eyes go up as I try to think of the word, and I'm really I'm using my hands, you know, for for the body language. And that's pretty good. That's you know, as good as we can get, except there's face-to-face, right? And that's at the very top. Now, you're talking about the say, get on a plane, go visit your customers. That's face-to-face, right? Um, that's very effective. Maybe is it efficient? We don't all have time to go see and fly everywhere, you know, in terms of money and everything like that. So what I urge people to do is is go as high as you can in in the context of whatever's being done. Right, right. Um, if it's a quick little thing, maybe a text message is fine, right? The more important it is, the more you want to elevate it through that that hierarchy, through that pyramid. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:05

I mean, and I love like this, even though we're not in person, but you know, one of the things that I love about all of the tools for um video conferencing, you know, whether you're using Zoom or Teams or name the platform, whatever, you get to see the person and you can see their facial expressions. And it's that is so important. It is a and it's a it's almost it's not the same, but it's close to being like we're not breathing the same air, we're not in the room.

SPEAKER_01 13:41

Like, you know, there's one thing that I I often joke about when we we did a lot of virtual engagement training, especially during the pandemic, because that was when we realized this isn't quite the same, right? Like people can be multitasking, um, you know, they could be shopping on Amazon, watching YouTube while they're in a meeting, you know, maybe they're not the one talking, but they could be one of the many listening, right? And they could be doing all these things. Uh, there was a time uh for the people only listening, I have these orange lights in behind me that have to do with our brand and everything. And uh one time I was it was during the pandemic where there weren't any events for us to do. So we were doing a lot more virtual work, and I was having a call with uh a big tech company, and they uh said to me afterwards, they after they hired hired us, they said, We I have to admit that I was actually uh multitasking on three screens when you were presenting to our team of event planners, and I really wasn't paying attention. And then she said, You leaned in and talked to the camera and you kind of divulged something, and I found myself leaning in. And she goes, And the lights and everything you just you you you packaged it in a way that made me want to pay attention, and we knew that you were the right person for the job in that case. So it it's it's just like you know, these little things, right, that we do, and sometimes you it's nice that that was shared with me. You know, it's that pat on the back, and that's a big part about engagement too, is you know, we need that feedback to know that how we are being is working for what we need in the moment, right? It and yep, and in virtual, sometimes we don't get that, we don't get the feedback, right? Because we can't re see all the faces possibly at once, right? And just be able to kind of know how am I doing here, right?

SPEAKER_00 15:34

Right. But it's so true, like you can see whether and find out how well or how much a person is engaged, uh, you know, virtually, even what you just said, like how much, you know, are they looking at the screen? You know, are they where where is their eye looking or you know, forward, backward, you know, it's like sometimes they have the screen of you not near the camera, though.

SPEAKER_01 16:04

So that they're doing this thing where they're like, you know, you don't know if they're actually reading an email or they're looking at you, right? So here's here's a little hack that I have, and I don't know if you've noticed this, but I I have very good camera eye contact. And that's because I actually have a teleprompter that puts my Zoom screen up onto it. So I am, Jacqueline, I am just staring you right in the face, and that's also where my camera is.

SPEAKER_00 16:31

Oh, that's awesome.

SPEAKER_01 16:32

Yeah, so it's like, and and so these are these, like we're talking on about the virtual platform right now, but this is like how do we give, you know, make that feeling of connection happen virtually.

unknown 16:43

Right.

SPEAKER_01 16:44

Right? Like the eye contact is one of those things that's easy to do in person, harder to do virtually. And that's partly why it's not quite the same, right? That's one of the reasons.

SPEAKER_00 16:55

Yeah, no, that's so true. It's so true. I, you know, I love this conversation. I'm um my kids make fun of me because I am one of those people that will walk into the grocery store and I will talk to anybody and everybody. I don't care. I just I and what and and as you're talking about lessons and teaching, and you know, um what I have what it that has done though is that my kids are not afraid to use this to the for the right way, not to text. Like my kids will pick up the phone and actually use the phone for what a phone was initially made for, which is actually to talk to somebody else, you know, shoestrings, right? Um, or walk up to somebody or have a conversation with them and as your the title says, engage, you know. So modeling that and being able to share that, you know, and they again they used to always make fun of me. We we'd walk out of the grocery store and they're like, Did you have to talk to the lady at the deli counter? And I'm like, Yeah, I did. Yeah, you know, because it's because you never know if you can maybe help somebody make their day, put a smile on them. Just it's you just don't know. And or you don't know if that person standing next to you is gonna be the next person that's gonna buy your biggest whatever, or who who knows? It's a you just have to make that and you have to engage with people.

SPEAKER_01 18:25

It's funny you talk about the grocery store because in in in the book, I actually talk about one of the kind of challenges is to you know go make a cashier laugh or smile, right? Like just like it's a little game within the game. You're just buying groceries, but you're like, hey, and and it's one of these like low stakes kind of like challenges that you know, what what can we do to just kind of um you know? I think one of the other things I talk about in the book is I I come from a very small town, like 500 people. And so uh, you know, I don't know, everybody would be nice. My dad was my dad was a teacher, everyone knew my dad, you know, you know you grow up, everyone knows who you are. I was the only magician from Wawanissa, Manitoba. Um, and so you know, I I went to university in a town of at the time there was about 50,000, it was a city, 50,000 people, but I lived in residence, so I knew everybody in these buildings and and everything, right? Like so it was just very friendly, very, you know, and then I moved to Winnipeg, which, you know, is 600,000 people at the time, it's bigger now, but it's just now it's getting to be a bigger city, right? And I lived in an apartment building, and I went from you know, university residence to an apartment building. And here I'm trying to make friends with all these people in this city, and they're just like, you're weird, dude, right? Like, and it and I actually the city rubbed off on me until the point where I kind of stopped trying to, right? And it was kind of like, and I was like, oh, what happened there, right? And and so we kind of I think sometimes it's we don't want to, you know, get get wrapped up into things and be overly friendly to people, right? You know, just uh for safety's sake and and that sort of thing. But we have to be careful of what we surround ourselves with and how we train ourselves to not do that, right? Like there are there are times that this is a very useful skill, right? Right. And in business, especially, um, you know, in sales and customer-facing interactions, critical.

SPEAKER_00 20:25

Yeah. You know, I love I love this whole conversation for also. I'm just thinking about there's a we um in Reno, there where I am, I'm I'm from the East Coast originally, but in Reno, where we are now, uh, we have a the chamber puts on an event, uh business expo for all the local businesses. And it's it's a great great event. But I'm always amazed by the people when you are walking up and down their booth table, you know, they're not really actual booths, are doing this.

SPEAKER_01 21:04

Yeah.

unknown 21:07

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 21:07

Right?

SPEAKER_00 21:08

And you're like, and you're thinking to yourself, I'm thinking to myself, get off your tushy.

SPEAKER_01 21:15

You paid money to have this stand, this booth, and you're sitting there head down, shut down, looking at your phone, while what potentially would be, you know, whale of a of a prospect of a client, possibly walked right on by and you never even gave them a chance to, you know, stop. And and I mean that's that is, you know, at trade shows, we do trade show trainings to inspire people to connect and to re and to play that game within the game, you know, like hey, how how many people can I stop here? Like, what you know, what's working, what's not? You know, sometimes you find different things. Um, one of them I thought was really funny was there was a uh a woman uh named Chelsea who worked for this company called Shop Monkey. She was walking the aisles and she had this, you know, the sock monkeys that are made from the yeah. So it was a giant sock monkey. So it was probably, you know, with its legs, not that it could stand on its own, but because it's so plush and soft or whatever. But it was probably four feet high, you know. And she had it up on her shoulders, like she was giving it not a piggyback, but you know, like oh, up on your shoulders. And people would see her and she would take the arm of the shop monkey and go, fist bump. And it's just like such a stupid thing to like fist bump this sock monkey. And then, but that was the that was the first point of contact was she's just smiling out there in the aisle. People walk by, giving her a little bit of like, what's going on here? She goes, fist bump. And then they go, What's up with the sock monkey? It's like, oh, we give you one of these if you sign up, you know, sign to be a client. And they're like, Well, what's the what do you guys do? Like that, all you want people to do is stop and say, What do you do? Right. So that was just one of those great examples of finding something that works and and you know, and putting in that extra effort. Now, here's the thing sometimes people are not the owners or they're just sent there to go ban the booth, right? Walk the booth, and they're just putting in their time, right? So, um, you know, for the people who were really motivated to get value, you know, ways to engage. I we say the gains are in the engagement, you know. So that's yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:28

Yeah. Um, okay, so how can our guests and listeners, because I could talk to you all day about this, how can our listeners connect with you and engage with you and learn more about what you're doing and and take advantage of what you're doing?

SPEAKER_01 23:42

For sure. Uh so LinkedIn's probably best uh social for me, and it's Anders A N D E R S and Boulanger B-O-U-L-A-N-G-E-R. There's a lot of spelling. Um, it looks like Boolanger. Um, and then uh if you go to the our website for the book is engage-first.com. Okay. And on that uh page, you're able to get uh a PDF uh download of four ways to engage. So how to be more engaging. And then also if you buy the book, you can also go back to that page, and there's actually a free, actually normally$179. We're putting it up there for free for a for a limited time. Uh if uh a presentation training. So it's an on-demand presentation training if you get the book. So it's like a real deal. Um, so yeah, so that's kind of um best ways to reach out and best ways to dig in and learn to engage first.

SPEAKER_00 24:35

Okay, so listeners, do me a favor, connect with Anders and on LinkedIn, do me a favor. Um, I will put a link to the book also in the show notes so you can actually go and get it. Um, so you'll have it. Um, it'll be a link um right there. Um, but get the book and then do me the other favor and please, please, please share this episode with your friends and your colleagues and other people that you know that are in a professional space or not, but people that you know, because this is so important. We need to engage so that we can actually be ultra unstoppable successful. I'm Jacqueline Stomager, your host. Thank you so much, and thank you for being an amazing guest.

SPEAKER_01 25:27

Thanks for having me.