The Power Of A Message

Joeri Billast 0:00

If your message only works if you can sell, then it's probably not a strong message. Hello everyone and welcome to the Web3 CMO Stories podcast. My name is Joeri Billast and I'm your podcast host. And today is a solo episode. Recording this a few days after I gave a TEDx talk in Lisbon. And I'd love to share some thoughts, some ideas about that. Something I didn't expect about doing a TEDx talk is how brutally it forces you to focus on just one idea. And the more I think about it, the more I realize that this is exactly where most marketers and leaders struggle today. We try to say too much, we try to cover everything, and as a result, nothing really lands. So in this episode, I want to share a few things that I learned from preparing my talk for TEDx Chiado. Not as a recap, but as lessons that I think are directly relevant if you're building a brand, leading a team, or trying to stand out in a very noisy world. Now when I was first invited to do the talk, my instinct was to approach it like a keynote. So I had a structure, I had ideas, I knew roughly what I wanted to say, like I always do. But that X is different. You're not there to give a broad talk. You are there to deliver one clear idea that is worth spreading. And that constraint is harder than it sounds. At one point, about six days before the talk, I actually had to restart my script completely. Not because I didn't have the content, but because I was not enough connected to it on the emotional side. I had one idea, but I was so focused on the fact that you are not able to sell on stage at TEDx that I thought I need to bring a general idea and I cannot mention, for instance, my own book. Here are already some lessons involved. But let's say your first lesson is clarity is not about having more to say, but it is about having the discipline to say less. And as just mentioned, the second thing that stood out is that you are not allowed to sell. You are not allowed to sell because if you sell, then yeah, the video will not be released on the TEDx YouTube channel. And giving a TEDx talk is not only about the audience that is in the room, it's also the views that you can possibly get or the exposure that you can possibly get on YouTube on the TEDx channel. And therefore there are rules to follow. No bidge, no call to action. And at first that feels limiting. But then you realize something deeper. If your message only works if you can sell, then it's probably not a strong message. The best ideas don't need pressure, they resonate on their own. And that's very relevant today. A lot of brands are still trying to push messages, while the port the real opportunity is to create ideas that people want to engage with. Another thing that stood out is how much performance actually matters. Not just what you say, but how you show up. The day before my talk, I was at the venue because I wanted to check the stage. I wanted to feel the vibe, the atmosphere at the place. I wanted to be able to visualize the stage and also to see what kind of clothes I should wear, to check the background and so on on the stage. I also got the opportunity to do a rehearsal, a short rehearsal. But before I was able to take the stage, I was invited to take the stage. Almost all of the talks were in Portuguese. And even if I now start to understand Portuguese, I moved to Portugal one and a half years ago. It takes energy, a lot of energy, because it's not my male language and my brain was translating, and I understand Portuguese if I know the subject, in if I know the context, but it's difficult when I don't know the context and when people talk really fast. And so at the end of the day I was actually quite drained. And then when I went on stage to do a rehearsal of my talk, I didn't have the right energy. But then the day of the talk was completely different. I was more focused, more calm, more intentional, made sure I was hydrated, and that made a big difference. And it reminded me that communication is not just about the content, it's about energy. It's about presence and timing. And that's something I think many leaders underestimate. And another interesting aspect was the preparation itself. For most talks, I usually don't memorize things word for word. I know the structure, I know the ideas, and I speak naturally. But this was different because of the format, the exact timing, it should be less than 15 minutes, the expectations. I had to be more precise. And honestly, this felt for me a bit uncomfortable because I'm not used to that. But then again, that's probably the point. Growth often fits in the things that don't feel natural at first. And if then you know that I decided to change my talk six days before the day of TEDx, you can imagine that there was a bit of tension. Now normally I'm not nervous to speak on stage because I like it. I've already done it a lot, and I'm one of those people that likes it. But yeah, this was a bit different. Let's say that I felt a little bit of pressure for the TEDx talk, which was a bit different than what I used to do during the talk itself. At some point I got slightly distracted by something happening in the audience. Some sounds, some people uh moving. Yeah, very briefly. And I stopped speaking for a moment. And I remember thinking, did people notice this? Afterwards, nobody mentioned it. Nobody noticed it when I asked about it. Actually, I got really good feedback that people loved my talk. And so this is a good reminder that we are often more aware of our own imperfections than anyone else. And one thing I also shared during my TEDx talk is a short story behind my book The Future CMO, how it started, how long it took to write my book. My first book took three years, and the second book came together much faster, partly thanks to AI, and partly because I had more clarity of what I wanted to say. AI made sure that I had the right structure. AI found patterns in all the podcast episodes I had been recording. And even getting the endorsement from Philip Kotler was one of the moments that I realized, okay, now I'm operating at a different level than before. But again, the interesting part is not achievement itself, it's the clarity behind it, because without that clarity, none of the things would have happened. So if I zoom out and take one lesson from this entire experience, it's this if you can't express your idea clearly in 15 minutes, you probably don't fully understand it yet. In a world where AI is accelerating everything, where content is everywhere, where attention is limited, clarity becomes your biggest advantage. The shift from just creating more to creating things that actually resonate. So if you're building a brand, leading a team, or thinking about your own positioning, maybe the question is not what else can I say, but what is one idea I truly stand for? That's it for today. I share more insight soon, especially after my upcoming AI marketing retreat here in Sintra. I also want to thank my sponsor RYO, not only for supporting the podcast, but also for supporting the Sintra Synergies retreat. Talk soon.