Creating Customized Comedy For Your Clients With Heather Rogers

by Elizabeth | May 14, 2020 | Podcasts

Many people, performers especially, can easily attest to the simple fact that comedy is hard – even more so if what you’re doing is customized comedy. On top of your usual schtick, customized comedy also involves a lot of research and improvisation to make your audience a truly integral part of the experience. Elizabeth Bachman is joined by Heather Rogers, who is known as a Corporate Magician. Heather shares her secrets to preparing strong customized comedy with Elizabeth. Is customized comedy a skill you’re looking to add to your repertoire? Heather can help you there!

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Creating Customized Comedy For Your Clients With Heather Rogers

In this episode, we are going to be talking about customizing comedy for your clients with the amazing and brilliant Heather Rogers. I’m glad I got her and managed to snag her because she’s in-demand. Before we start, I’d like to invite you to go to our speaker quiz, which is www.SpeakForResultsQuiz.com. You can pull out your phone or open a new tab or whatever. It takes about three minutes. That’s where you can see where your presenting skills are great or maybe you could use a little support because we’re going to be talking about customizing comedy for your clients when you are the presenter. That works whether you are presenting in a meeting, at a conference or when you are standing on stage promoting your company.

Let me tell you a little e bit more about Heather Rogers. She has delivered programs for the award-winning cybersecurity organization Acalvio. She’s at RSA, Oracle OpenWorld, and the UC System Statewide Cyber Security Summit. She’s also customized programs for high tech companies such as Genentech, Applied Materials, Synopsis, Google, and the world’s largest platform for trading Bitcoin, BitMEX, and other things. She’s a speaker, trainer, facilitator, and mind-magician, which means that she’s created programs for over 4,000 public and private events.

As a consultant, Heather combines Epigenetics with cutting edge technologies to help people optimize the body and brain for peak performance. That works for entrepreneurs and whether you’re an employee or you’re self-employed, we all need to aim for peak performance. She’s also presented at TEDx and venues ranging from Barack Obama’s Inaugural Ball in Washington DC to Caesars Palace in Las Vegas. She’s been teaching magic and powerful presentation skills since 1993. She’d done that for the City of Oakland. She’s also been a trainer, speaker, and a magician for 27 years. Here’s another cool thing. In January 2016, she performed for Hillary Clinton in San Francisco. Also in 2016, she was the recipient of the Thriving Women in Business Award presented by Power Dynamics. In 2019, she was the first place winner in the Oakland Magic Circle’s Stage Magic Competition, which is the most prestigious and the oldest magic organization this side of the Mississippi route. Heather Rogers, I am happy to have you here.

Thank you, Elizabeth. I’m glad to be here.

Before we begin, the question I ask all my guests is, if you could interview somebody who’s maybe not easily accessible, who would be your dream interview, what would you ask them and who would be listening?

I’m going to take a different tack on this and say that I would interview myself 30 years in the future. I do have an ongoing dialogue with her. Our brain is the only laboratory that we have to work with and I would love to learn what my brain learned about itself. More importantly, how successful I was in deconditioning patterns that came from being socialized in this culture and on this earth at this time. I will specifically be fascinated with the data because we are getting ever more sophisticated. Information technology is using biometric devices. Data has been gathered at an astronomical rate and that’s a wealth of information we’re made. It’s amazing how wealthy we are but the wealthiest device we have is the three copies that meet between our ears. Some might say it even exists at a time because time is a construct of the mind. It’s an interesting conversation. I’d be asking that of the mind and be listening carefully for its answers.

In my future self, 30 years from now, I’m going to be over 90. I wonder if I will still have the brains to answer.

We’re living longer. In my coaching sessions, I take people on that journey and they meet their future self and I go through the subconscious mind.

That means that I’m going to be around 30 years from now. How did you get started with magic?

Our brain is the only laboratory we need to work with. Click To Tweet

I started relatively late in my late twenties. I would do magic lectures. I ran away with the circus before I started in magic, the San Francisco’s Pickle Family Circus. It was a one-ring no animal circus. A hip scene and I saw the level of discipline that was powerful. I absorbed that. I became a freelance theater tech at San Francisco for a few years. I became a DIY gal. I got my Makita in the closet and that contributed to my prop creation. We’re going to talk a lot about the use of prop and the body as a prop. You talk about that a lot as the resonance chamber instrument of the body. I did that and after I was a theater tech, I took the plunge into magic and now speaking as an intuitive business coach and life strategist.

How do you take magic to corporate audiences and where people are saying, “I don’t know. Intuitive coach and life strategist, that’s not business-like?” How did you convert the skills of being an entertainer into business? I’m asking because this is what I did was I took my entertaining skills. How did you have the nerve to make the shift?

I love that about you, Elizabeth. Coming from opera, there’s such an elaborate history there of the costumes and it’s amazing. Knowing that you came from that is interesting that now you’re bringing those sensibilities to the board room. For me, I failed fast. I did a lot of shows and I do a lot of shows. I wasn’t afraid to do them and I do them all that I can. I study in Vegas. I’ve been studying for many years in Las Vegas. I’m always studying. We talk about magic 24/7. Speaking 24/7, every moment is a speaking and service opportunity. When I understood that I have programs turning the workplace into miracle zone and people in cubicles and in corporate situations are dying for humanity, feeling, surprise, and trickster. There’s a strong need for that.

We talk about intuitive business coaching, you’d be surprised how many women are like, “Do you do palm?” They want to source their power and they are looking for a way to do it. Another thing we’re going to talk about a core thing is that this episode is about customizing comedy magic. You need to know your audience and I know you talk about that with your clients too. You need to know them well and you need to speak to them in their language. When they speak to you, you need to reflect back on their language. It’s a combination of that. In terms of courage, you’ve got to jump out of the airplane. We know Caterina Rando, a coach, at times she says, “Build the airplane while you’re flying.” You have to go for it. That’s my answer to the courage piece.

This is interesting because it’s also about branding and positioning that one of the big things I talk about with speakers all the time is, what makes you different? Why should we listen to you? If you can do magic tricks, it gets you in the door and then you can do something transformational. People say, “I thought I was going to see her do card tricks and I wound up knowing something about myself.”

It is in terms of bringing business coaching into the branding conversation. The people who say, “I hate branding.” I used to say, “I hate sales,” until I understood that sales is about service. It’s about meeting where they are, loving them up in that way and giving them what they need and want because people buy what they want. I understand that branding is about your authentic power. When I work with my clients, this is one of my quirky superpowers is I can look deep into them and I can see. I’m sometimes bowled over by the magnificence. My job was to remind them of their magnificence. We spend a lot of time on core values, authenticity, and purpose. I have a 32-page eBook called the Life Plan Toolkit that dives deep into values. I know my values by heart. You asked me, I could rattle them off all eight of them. I know them because I do all these memory affirmations at the gym. We start with that and then we dig deep into the possibility.

Customized Comedy: You need to be able to get to know your audience well and speak to them in their language.

The Life Plan Toolkit is diagnostic. When I offer my four-week virtual program, we go through that and it’s one of the ways that people codify and they dig deep into their identity, refine, and define their superpowers and magic gifts. I want to go deep with them because the media and society often don’t give room for that. We need space for that and what I do is I recreate and taking their mission to fruition goal campaign. In our programs, we set those solid goals and we help them produce them.

Your mission in life, which then helps you decide where you’re going to go and how to do it. I know that was one of the things I had to deal with when I was changing from opera to business presentation. I thought, “My mission used to be creating great scenic experiences and teaching singers how to act and so forth. It’s all about communication.” If I redefine my mission outside the opera business and say, “It’s all about communication and using the skills that I learned for 30 years in professional show business.” I love that idea of what your mission is and then how that applies to where you are and what you’re doing. It gives you a reason to get up and go out the door every morning.

Let’s talk a little bit about the Six Steps to Creating Customized Comedy for Your Clients. I always envy the people who are funny and I know that they practice. I often have clients who say, “I don’t know how to be funny.” I work with a lot of people who are technical and service, scholarly types. My feeling about comedy is that the people we see as adults who are automatically funny, probably started practicing as children and it may have been a survival trait. Comedy is something that can be learned and it has to be authentic. How do you approach it?

I’m going to share six steps that have a lot of tools in them. I’ll start by saying reading what you’re saying, “People are rewarded in public for what they practice in private.” I think about a lot because I spent a lot of hours in the morning time running my level of skills. I’ll also say that agility and creativity are highly rewarded in the society. We are in the area geographically of innovation. I’m blessed to be in this area because I take magic and linguistics and I innovate them for my clients. They happen to savor that because they are innovation junkies as well. I want to say that first. I’ll also say that along with being authentic and true to yourself, humor is the fastest and most powerful way to own the room.

If you’re funny, people remember you.

I’m going to state the obvious, but it’s not always obvious for everyone and that is what you do for people is important, Elizabeth, because you only have a certain amount of influence at a networking event saying, “I haven’t met you yet.” When you’re in front of the room, you have influence, persuasion, focus and power. That’s why what you’re doing for people, helping them align with their power is powerful. Here we are and I’m going to talk about the six steps. We’ll do it as a case study for an organization called BitMEX. They are the world’s largest Bitcoin trading platform. I have six steps and feel free to write them down.

The first one is researching the topic and the organization. Some people use research to put off writing but I do both at the same time. I sleuth them deeply. It doesn’t have to be arduous. If I’m doing an event for a bunch of attorneys, I might go to start out looking for law jokes, attorney jokes. Eventually, I might find myself deep into something into a stranger’s Facebook profile when I’m on stage. They’re amazed that I know their sister’s daughter, Natalie plays the piano. How do I know? Their cousin Jeremy has a tattoo on his shoulder because I saw him running in a marathon with his tank on. You can go deep. We’re curating information as researchers. We’re not taking in boring. We’re interacting with it.

I start with research as the first step because it’s often the genesis of the joke. What it does is it helps you take in the deeper context of what’s going on. For example, people into Bitcoin, many of them believe that this peer-to-peer currency exchange is going to put the power back into people’s hands. I opened the show with this and I had them from then on. This is the narrative that I said, “You are together overthrowing imperialism using nothing more than an expensive imaginary coin. If you could do that, you could do anything. You probably could turn water into wine. Give yourselves a round of applause.” They love that because then they understood that I understood them. The first step is going swimming and research. You’re mining for gold. There’s great stuff here and it’s going to help you build your presentation.

Two is called Finding the Funny. This is when you go into your crazy self using irreverence combined with tact. I went in with the goal to rib them mercilessly and push it because I’m coming from love. When I do come from love, I know they feel it. I come from empowerment. There’s never diminishing. You tell your speakers, we never diminish the goals and people feel that. You connect with your muse when you’re Finding the Funny. You could be reckless in the writing process. I love the joke. It was a New York Times joke. This guy writing in the muse is with the heart floating above him. The muse is saying, “More sleaze.”

Some people use research to put off the actual writing. Click To Tweet

You get into the zone. Many ideas come when I’m exercising in Pilates or when I’m eating a quiet meal. In Finding the Funny, you’re workshopping. I endlessly record my scripts and I listen and then it’s going into my subconscious. I hear pauses. I’m listening for other words I could use. It’s such a tool and it helps you craft. You’re sculpting everything you say. Abracadabra is an ancient Aramaic and it means, “As I speak, I create.” We cast spells with our language for good or bad. We must be careful about what we say in our own minds.

On the platform, syntax, pacing, accent, and minimalism, we know brevity is the soul of wit. When you can get a joke all the way down to those five words, you’re good. Here’s a minor example that also relates and that people are intimidated by being funny, “I can’t be funny.” When I was watching prime time television and I saw many mediocre comedians, I leaped for joy thinking, “I could be that bad too.” I want this idea that if you try, they will appreciate it much. We never diminish, but there’s nothing more exhilarating when we crack ourselves up writing a joke. My business partner and I are writing a whole theme series on wellness and it’s absurd.

We’re greenscreen levitating around the city. I’m giving her a tarot reading and we caddie in the show and I’m like, “I’m seeing you’re a self-centered person and you also have a lot of money issues.” She says, “Yeah, I owe you money.” “You should pay them back.” We’re in the writing process and it’s lovely. I’m going to give an example of this. I pushed it. Ponzi scheme is not a good thing, some people call Bitcoin a Ponzi scheme. I’ve pushed it with them. I said, “You are doing great, but there was one grave missing. You don’t have a mascot until now. Her name is Ponzi, everybody. She does tricks. I will hypnotize her. Look deep into my eyes. She will now do the blockchain dance.” “That’s the sound of the men working on the blockchain.” We went on and then laughed and it was quite silly. That was an example of using custom comedy and then Ponzi and they did like that pushing.

Those of you who are reading, she was using a prop and I hope you’re going to talk to us about how you could use props in your presentations. Even if it’s talking about the budget, you can still use props, something boring like the budget or whatever.

I hadn’t planned to say it, but I’ll say it. Buster Keaton was brilliant. He was the most amazing physical comedian. In his later days, he was drinking and he wasn’t getting the respect but Lucille Ball loved and he mentored Lucille Ball. The main note that Lucille Ball got from Buster Keaton was, “Respect your props.” Look at how successful she was and look at how well she used props. That’s a side note. I will talk about that. Step three is turning your material into their material. I know a composer who every month drives down all the way to Los Angeles to study with his composer teacher. He comes back every time with one mantra. Anyone want to guess what an accomplished teacher might tell you again and again?

Trust your material.

You are the only person, Elizabeth, who has got that right. He says, “Use your material,” not just trust. What you want to do is to honor what you have and have a written inventory of what you’ve got. I have a list of all my effects. I have lists of my ideas. When you bring your inventory and you pair that with the organization, the culture, and the theme, you’re going to have a winning formula or at least a big leg up. There are two ways to approach the material. One is to study the organization like an actor. What do they do when they get up in the morning? What are they likely to be talking about the water cooler? How do they dress? People pitch now for multibillion-dollar things in jeans with holes in them and if you dress up too much, you’re not in. It’s interesting to be like an actor and you as an actor would know that.

The second one is to use your instinct, that shared human experience. Many people are afraid to be made a fool of, so I make a fool of myself in the way that I would. I say, “I’m in on this Bitcoin thing. I don’t know with you. I am now the proud owner of 0.000003 pieces of Bitcoin.” I’m going to have to do this next thing with an image. I’ll tell you why. I said, “I want to be mining. I made my own Bitcoin mining machine.” I’m showing you what a real one looks like. This is the one I had. It’s a Bitcoin machine. Mine is hacky. They still fell in love with it. Sam Reed, who is the Cofounder and Chief Technology Officer, said, “Can we have it?” I said, “It’s got a prize piece of Tupperware in it. You can have it.” It went on top of an important shelf in their brand-new office because I happen to throw together a quirky prop. It’s now part of their culture and their folklore, which is interesting. When you add, extra things happen. What I did was pretend I’m holding the real prop. People are always saying that, “These things use up a lot of power. They don’t use that much power. Let me plug it in here.” That was a fun surprise. Props, these are things you can get at a magic shop. What we’re talking about is turning your material into their material and that’s a good example. Step four is rehearsing using memory tools.

People ask me all the time, “How do I remember my script?” I use notes and I have certain pieces that I have practiced so much that I know them. I always make sure that I memorize my opening and my ending because the opening is where I’m going to be the most nervous and the ending is if I’m going to ask for the sale, then that’s also when I’m going to be nervous. I want to make sure that it flows and then practice, rehearse.

Customized Comedy: The research is the first step in the genesis of a joke by helping you take in the deeper context of what’s going on.

I record it on my phone. Often, I listen. That’s the biggest one I do. That gets me going. I record lots of research material, not just a script. I record dialogue to get me in there in the zone of it. Also, mnemonics. One thing that has allowed me to memorize a lot is the five-point grid like a dice. At the gym in the morning, I have 65 affirmations that I do with my Pilates. If I knew I was doing 25 sit-ups, I couldn’t. If I’m going through all my life tools and all my business practices, I don’t know. In any case, that five-point grid is priceless to me. Also, the memory palace. When I come into my home, I have 25 stations. This is 10, 11, that’s 12, 13. You attach numbers, you anchor them to places and then you can put stripped items or anything you connect and it’s well-known, well-used by many memory experts. It’s amazing how far you can memorize things and I want to talk about using your body.

My business partner and I were doing a new retro game show. We were in the beehive parodies in the ’60s and I couldn’t memorize a script. Since it was campy, it was fine for me to do choreography with about every other word. It was silly and I was using my body and those words were anchored in the movement and they made sense. That saved me a lot. Use your body and we already mentioned that the body is a resonant instrument. You are being played. The speech is the song and it’s being played through you. That’s why you teach people about articulation. You tell people where the tongue has to be, where the nose should be. It’s so much you bring to them in that.

It’s a physical act and you have to train your lips and tongue to say something like international opera director, presentation skills trainer. That one took me a while. I had to practice it.

It’s the tip of the tongue. Here’s an example of I needed to memorize a lot about their trading platform. It’s called Textnet. After I blew up the thing with a book, I said, “I went online so I could start trading Bitcoin. I went on your trading platform and my cell phone kept blinking as if it was broken. The last time, I dumped it in water. I thought, “Is it broken? Can I get a handkerchief straight through it? What’s going on with this phone?” I realized, “No, it’s your normal trading fluctuation. Insane. I realized you’re using fake money to represent a pretend coin and then my brain exploded.” That’s when Sam the cofounder laughed that he got it. He’s like, “Yeah.” I had to memorize another piece.

On the third quadrant I remembered, I said, “Yeah, and I can’t keep texting Sam Reed every day asking him what to do. He types back in Python. I sense this guy is more of a coder than an investor.” He shouted back, “You are right.” I got to the other points on. I’m using the grid as it works. We’re moving to step five. That is placing cheat sheets strategically. Not that I would do that for this, not at all. As magicians age, they become mentalists because they’re sick of lugging elephants around and they get on with their briefcase and they look back. They still need props. There is something to minimalism, but many speakers don’t touch a prop or it’s funny in there. What you want to do is you want to integrate the props where it’s incidental and related. It’s not about the prop. The prop is with the story. I encourage speakers to use more props and not the big toothbrush, but a handkerchief that happens to stand up by itself. That’s interesting and you move on. There’s so much available.

You can still do this online because she’s been using a whole bunch of props that she’s been doing magic tricks for us. It still works online as well as live. I didn’t know about that.

I have used the label maker to put notes on bottle caps, but often there’s a note right on the glass and I could get that. In memorizing, you need to have run and rehearsed enough so you know the key difficult word where you’ll be. You need to know your script well enough when you know that key. For some reason, a regular trading fluctuation, I knew it was going to elude me so I wrote it down. The point is that you need to be enough in your script to know what the right notes to add.

It’s another thing. You can use it even for something and simple as reminding yourself to slow down or breathe. That’s one of the tips that I give out is how do you breathe? How do you slow down? You can put a little symbol in your PowerPoint that reminds you like the tildes, that little thing that you put above an N in Spanish. It looks like the wind to me. Sometimes I will put little decorative tildes down there, which remind me to breathe and things like that or ways to remember to smile. It’s not just if you’re doing magic.

I want to give you an example. In magic, sometimes we hide things in plain sight, “I take it upon myself to publish your first book, Crypto Cuisine for Coders Who Cook. I know there must at least be three of you out there. These recipes are amazing. You can enjoy the extra spicy derivatives of your favorite dishes. Under the BitMEX brand, we have Mac and Cheese MEX, Trail MEX, and Tex MEX. The Tex MEX recipes are hot, they are spitfire hot. I’m telling you, they are hot so get yours now. We know that things are uncertain and unstable with Bitcoin with 80% of them already mine. You’re going to need a proxy Bitcoin. I am going to offer, instead of having clever trick coin, why don’t you have Heather’s trick coin.” I’m going to the four-card roulette and I say, “You can get these in the lobby for $5 Canadian. You didn’t have to mine them.” That’s an example. I want to go back a piece and say, “I didn’t have to memorize this and I had in the book all that copy, Tex MEX. You don’t have to work hard.”

It's not about the prop; the prop goes with the story you're telling. Click To Tweet

That’s your cheat sheet.

You cannot hide things in plain sight, which is quite funny. If you have a volunteer, slap on their back your notes and have fun with them. That’s number five, placing cheat notes strategically. Six, the last step is, taking the leap and having a great time. The secret to being truly entertaining is having a great time out there because joy and exuberance will be felt and it will be contagious. Often in sales conversations, people say, “You’re enthusiastic. I’m in.” I’m like, “I love it so much.” That’s one piece. Also, if you are terrified, if you’d rather be in a dentist’s chair and then speaking, Elizabeth can teach you things to do. Understand if you’re in away state, they’re going to be in away state.

What do you mean an away state?

It would be valuable because we want to give a lot of tools. David Rock talks about the mind in the workplace and he has a SCARF acronym. There are five domains that either create a toward or an away state with people. This is good for team leaders. SCARF, Status, Certainty, Autonomy, Relatedness, and Fairness. If you deprive someone of status, certainty, autonomy, relatedness, and fairness, they’re giving an away state. It’s a nice thing to know. They’ll be an away state because you could look down at the things that it’s not fair that they’re there to see some are great and they’re getting someone that’s going to put them on to clarify.

This is leaning in and out into a conversation. People who are leaning in and then engaged and excited. The people who are leaning back, saying, “Tell me about it. Prove it to me,” that thing.

I will say that there are also things you can do in terms of phrases before you enter the stage. I got to interview Ramsey Lewis at one point when I was in college. He came to speak to our singing class and I said, “What do you say when you go on stage?” He stood, be leaning back, he smiles and he says, “I always say, ‘It’s great to be here.’” Some people when they walk on the platform may say, “You’ve got this.” When I walk into a close-up magic gig or a stage if I may, we might need to beat me but I say, “I kick magic ass.” I go in there and I’m like, “I’m doing it.” There’s this one thing and you can do it not when you walk on stage, but you can do it at any point. I have a difficult move with a crystal ball where at one point I have to balance it on my forehead and it’s difficult. Lights are blaring at me. Seeing it might be hard. I always say when I do it, “This is what I do.”

She’s balancing the crystal ball on her forehead and she’s standing on one foot.

It’s like, “This is what I do and I have to.” Frankly, there’s a moment when I’ve done the splits with it on my forehead and I lay on the floor with this on my forehead and it’s difficult. I scream at the top of my lungs silently, “Neck.” This is a heavy crystal ball on my neck. I scream neck and it never fails because I have to bring all my focus to my neck. Internal dialogue, abracadabra, is magic when you need it on the platform or in a one-to-one sales conversation. I want to talk one more piece here about your quirky nature paired with comedy. When we do that, they will not only love you, they will remember you.

We’re talking about creating influence as leaders, but also we’re talking about creating community. Here we are at an interesting time in a community with each other. People need to remember that we’re all connected. This reminds us of that. I’d like to do this one to bring it together. This bit is a light bulb here. They say that there’s a lot you can do with a group mind. It’s a light bulb in a bag. What we’re going to do is see if we can shatter the light bulb. We’re going to focus the power. If you would focus the power into me, into my energy field, and we’ll count from 5 to 1, there may be some heat created. Please count aloud. I need you to make this experiment work. Are you ready? Here we go. We’re going to build up some heat and we’re going to count 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. That shattered. We shattered the light bulb together. It shows the power of the heat. You’ve got to have fun with stuff. That’s my brand. We have fun. One of my coaching situations, we have a great time and I know you do too, Elizabeth.

Customized Comedy: Ecstatic experience is when every sense is involved and we can viscerally engage all the senses and all of the parts of the mind.

Heather Rogers, this is amazing. I’m happy to have you in it. I’ve got one key specific question and then we’ll go to questions. For BitMEX, the Bitcoin, you gave them a show, you entertained them. How did you make that a teaching moment or a service moment? How did you serve them while entertaining them?

That’s easy because that’s how I got the gig for Hillary Clinton. I was being interviewed because they had a lot of people to talk to and I said without apology. I said it as if I was stating a fact. I said, “I’m a magician because I endeavor to send love into people’s hearts with every syllable I speak.” I was doing it to him at that time and he paused and he said, “We’re in alignment with that. I hope you can pass the vetting process.” I’m here to love you. I’m here to love scrub the planet and that’s my non-negotiable mission. That’s the first thing. I brought an energetic frequency of life. I am on it. I’m going to get you. I’m going to love you good. That’s the first way I serve them. That’s a powerful way. Let us never diminish that.

Secondly, I served them by knowing them well, they were fully met. I knew their core purpose around conquering imperialism. I knew their quirks. I was able to name the coding they use. In fact, I was talking to, I did close up beforehand and I was saying, “There are these others, the most complex coding is this and they weren’t using that.” I didn’t put it in the show. That’s the other way that I serve them is by knowing them well. I always say that there are three things that real love does. It knows what it’s doing. It meets them where they are. It gives them what they need. That’s what love does and that’s what I did for them.

I want to phrase it in a slightly different way. My brand is Strategic Speaking For Results and this is going to be the show of Speakers Who Get Results. When you’re making a presentation, what results do you want to get? You start from that and work backward. What result did you want to get from this presentation, this show?

I wanted to create an ecstatic experience.

An ecstatic experience like a religious speaking in tongues thing?

It’s nothing like that but if you want to go for it and it feels good. Ecstatic experience is when every sense is involved and we can viscerally engage all the senses, all of the parts of the mind, the subconscious, the lizard brain, bringing it to the wizard brain when we can encompass them at a cellular level. Because the cells are listening, science knows that. Science has documented that the gut-brain is far more sophisticated than the brain-brain. I want to get their gut in the show.

Heather, do you have a gift for us, for our readers?

I have a gift for you. I have a mini magic course and if you just email me at Heather@HeatherMagic.com and I will send you a link to four video tutorials. They’re not long but they’re lovely. You’ll learn how it’s going to affect where you have an invisible point, you throw in the air, and there’s a coin there. It’s gorgeous. It’s sleight of hands. That’s fun. There are practice sessions in the videos. You will learn it with me. That’s the thing people don’t learn because they don’t practice and this is an opportunity. You’re all going to receive it. If you would like, email me and you’ll receive a mini magic course link.

Heather Rogers, it has been such a delight to have you here on this show. I love what you said about sales is service. That’s a good thing to finish this with is sales is service. You have served us wonderfully. You can learn more about Heather at Heather@HeatherMagic.com, you can send her an email. You can look her up on HeatherMagic.com. To remind you, if you want to know how your presentation skills are great and where you might need a little assistance, you could take our three-minute assessment at www.SpeakForResultsQuiz.com. I’ll see you at the next one.

Important Links

About Heather Rogers

Heather Rogers has delivered programs for the award-winning Cyber Security organization Acalvio, at RSA, at Oracle Open World and At UC system’s state-wide Cyber Security Summit.
She has customized programs for high tech companies such as Genentech, Applied Materials, Synopsis, JSR, Google, the leading research firm MarketsAndMarkets and the worlds largest platform for trading Bitcoin, Bitmax.

• As a Speaker, Trainer, Facilitator and Mind-Magician, she has created programs for over 4,000 public and private events. As a Consultant, Heather combines Epigenetics with cutting edge technologies to help people optimize the body/brain for peak performance. Heather has also presented at TEDx and at venues ranging from Barack Obama’s Inaugural Ball in Washington D.C. to Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
Starting out in 1993; teaching Magic and “Powerful Presence” Presentation skills for the City of Oakland, Heather Rogers has been a Trainer, Speaker and Magician for 27 years.

In January of 2016 Heather performed for Hillary Clinton in San Francisco.
In 2016 she was the recipient of the Thriving Women in Business Award, presented by Power Dynamics.
In 2019 she was the first-place winner in the Oakland Magic Circle’s Stage Magic Competition (the most prestigious and oldest magic organizations this side of the Mississippi.)