Sarah Fejfar 0:00
Being a facilitator is a unique balancing act, you have two jobs. One is to encourage engagement, get people participating in the process, and then controlling the room, controlling the process that you're, you're moving people through throughout the event. And those can kind of be at war with each other a little bit. And so I'm going to give you five ways today, to amp up your facilitation skills and get you ready for your next event and your new job as a facilitator.
Sarah Fejfar 0:40
How are entrepreneurs like us daring bravely to build a stage? Ditch the sweat pants, and step up to the mic? How do we create our own transformative events? So we can get our message out into the world in a bigger way? It's not only profitable, but it's actually something we can be proud of. That's the question. And the answers are inside this podcast. My name is Sarah Fejfar. Welcome to greenroom Central.
Sarah Fejfar 1:09
So when you signed up to host your own event, you signed up to be a facilitator. You may not have known that at the outset. But that's what happened. And so you now have the job of being a facilitator. And what does that even mean? So we're going to talk about that today. Because being a facilitator is a unique balancing act, you have two jobs. One is to encourage engagement, get people participating in the process, and then controlling the room, controlling the process that you're, you're moving people through throughout the event. And those can kind of be at war with each other a little bit. And so I'm going to give you five ways today, to amp up your facilitation skills and get you ready for your next event and your new job as a facilitator. So don't freak out. Because these are easy. It's more just of a process of awareness of knowing that this is now your job. And this is something that you need to be aware of and do. But I don't think any of these things are necessarily rocket science. Okay? So feel good about your ability to figure things out in this facilitation space. Okay. Let's dive in.
Sarah Fejfar 2:42
First thing, I want you to know that people mirror, what does that mean? So to the extent that you can level up your energy, I want you to do so because people model the energy that you you bring into the space. And so I want you to get to the place personally, where you want the rest of your guests. And it's really going to vary by the type of event you're hosting. But if you're hosting a very calm, chill, yoga retreat, then that is the energy I want you to bring into the space. Your guests probably came in thinking about a million things on their to do list, with their mind swirling from the pace at which they run their lives. And now you got to bring them down into a place where they can be calm, get centered, almost meditative, right. But if you're doing more of a personal development conference, then your job would be to get into a very high energy state, where you get people excited about the prospect of learning new things and meeting new people and becoming a better version of themselves. Do you see where I'm going with this? It's all about emulating the energy that we want our guests to bring into the room. Just remember people mere Your job is to lead in a way energetically you want them to show up. Okay, you can do this. Yes, I thought so.
Sarah Fejfar 4:30
Alright, second one, I want you to frame it up. I want you to be so clear throughout every part of your content, dissemination of sharing what they're going to learn, and then at the end, what they learned and be constantly tracking them along the way of where you're at where you're going. But most importantly, sharing at the outset here Here's what we're going to learn today, five things that are going to do this or whatever. And then the end, recapping, okay, here's what you learned. That's so important. So that people are really clear, and tracking with you. Okay, you can do this visually, in your PowerPoint deck, you can do this audibly talking people through, okay, we just went through the first two steps in this process, we've got three more to go. It's really important. People love to know what's going on, and what's coming up next. So that was a second one, frame it up.
Sarah Fejfar 5:38
The third thing that you can do to level up your facilitation skills is to give commands, people do what we tell them to do. And so on an event setting. If you want them to retain a specific point that you're about to say, or that you just said, and tell them to write it down, say things like hey, I'm, I hope that you've got your journal in your pen, like out and ready to take notes. Because what I'm about to say is something that is so important, and I want to make sure that you've got it. So be writing this down. Or you can be saying, Did you write that down, you could do saying star this one in your journal. This one is important. Gotta tell people what to do. Another example of that is if you want them to cheer louder, tell them to do that. If you want them to clap or yell, tell them if you want them to jump up and down. hoot and holler, tell them to do it. People do what you tell them to do. Another example of that is, if you want them to hear a very specific point, tell them to listen carefully. Lower your voice a little bit, get slow and calm. That even that change, audibly will help real people back in who got distracted by shiny objects. Excellent. We can do all this right?
Sarah Fejfar 7:07
Next point we're on number four, get people talking. People love to feel heard, right? I say it all the time. People love to feel seen, heard and celebrated. Well, when you get people talking during your event, they feel heard. If the group is intimate, I want you to call on people by name. However, the group is large, you're going to probably need to break them into small groups, perhaps just groups of people that they're sitting around, invite them to have an excess, a short amount of time to share or ask questions and offer solutions to each other. That'll do if you're in a situation where the room is just too large to be calling on people individually. And you just know it will get derailed the process that you're you're moving them through now goes back to what we talked about the beginning here about how facilitation really is a balancing act between getting people to participate and engage, and then also controlling the room, which is your job. Both of them are your jobs. And so sometimes when you're taking questions in a large group, it just doesn't feel quite right. And so your answer to that is let's introduce small groups, small group breakouts get everyone talking. Everyone feeling heard, instead of people feeling a jilted if you will, when you can only take two or three questions, and there's hundreds or 1000s in the audience. Okay, awesome. That was get people talking. Now, the last one.
Sarah Fejfar 9:00
Number five. I want to talk about setting parameters. People love boundaries. As much as they say they don't people do. They love to know how to fit in what's expected. And so, for example, if you were breaking people into those small groups that we were just talking about, be very clear. It's a huge facilitation tip right here. Be very clear. In announcing who goes first, who is the timekeeper? How much time they have and what they're supposed to do. It's so important. And you can do that by simply saying, hey, the person that traveled the farthest to get to this event goes first. The person with the shortest hair keeps time And you can use those questions, if you want to get creative to kind of tease out fun pieces of information that feel safe to share, like, who traveled the farthest? Or who went to the grocery store most recently. That just helps you know, who has the most pets? You can Google it, there are tons of questions like that, that you can use as very quick icebreakers that also allow you to set those boundaries have groups kind of self select those those boundaries of who goes first, who keeps time.
Sarah Fejfar 10:45
So that's it five ways to up your facilitation game. And I bet you're thinking now that it all sounds so simple. And that it's just a matter of kind of adding it to your day of checklists to remember those key things. And once you get doing them a few times, it'll become like, second, second nature, I promise you, it will get easier. And I also promise you that the more that you can work on your facilitation skills, the more transformative your event will be for your guests, the more comfortable they'll feel in your presence, because they know that you've got the room under control that and they'll know that they'll just feel good about the level of energy and engagement in the space. So don't overlook facilitation. It's a key piece to running your own events. But also don't let it overwhelm you. Because you'll be getting real time feedback as you go throughout the event of Oh, wait. Don't think we've got enough engagement here, I need to do something, you'll feel the cue, or hey, I feel like things are a little out of control. There's too many side conversations, I need to reel this back in. You'll sense it in the moment, you absolutely well. And these tips will be tools in your toolbox that you can start using throughout your event. To help with that engagement to help with that control of the room. You've got this 100% and so excited for you.
Sarah Fejfar 12:44
Thank you for listening to the greenroom sexual podcast. If you love this episode, then please take a screenshot with your phone and head over to Instagram and be sure to tag at Sarah Fejfar. And let me know why you liked it. And what you'd like to hear or you'd like to hear from in the future. That'll help me know what to create for you. And then head over to green room central.com where you can join linchpin nation, a free community, for entrepreneurs just like you amazing business owners from across the globe who share a passion for hosting transformative, profitable events, become part of the community that inspires and cheers you on over at greenroom central.com.
Sarah Fejfar 13:26
Also, I've been hearing a lot of business owners say people are tired of virtual events. And that's just not true. Which is why I created a brand new five day challenge called the virtual event lab. I want to show you how to make your next virtual event profitable, engaging and most importantly, how to make it happen. And the best part is this five day challenge is absolutely free to register right now simply visit greenroom central.com And we can get started today.
Sarah Fejfar 13:55
Now on average, I spend about an hour a day reading every month of every year. If you love learning on the go as much as I do go to greenroom central.com to get a free audiobook and a free 30 day trial of Audible, my audiobook platform of choice and a sponsor of Bremen Central. Right now I'm wrapping up playing bigger by Tara more perhaps give that one a try.
Sarah Fejfar 14:20
I appreciate your commitment to leveling up and learning the mindset and strategy of live events. Keep going, keep learning. And if you want more, head over to greenroom central.com For show notes and all the links from today's episode.
