The Secret
Prompter Story
One evening, almost 20 years ago, my wife, Vanessa, and I were in a hotel room in San Antonio, Texas. We just finished a long day at a trade show booth.
Vanessa was in tears, saying “I can’t do this anymore!” I felt awful and didn’t know what to do.
That evening was the breaking point of our business.
A company had flown us there for an important industry conference. They hired us to deliver sales presentations that mixed magic tricks with a sales pitch crafted to trigger their prospects’ hot button issues.
The magic added entertainment value to the message, and we used it to emphasize important points.
On one hand, the day was a great success. Our magic attracted huge crowds to their booth and people were raving about it. Our sales message was spot-on; heads were nodding in agreement during the presentations.
On the other hand, it was a dismal failure.
Vanessa and I both knew we were in trouble. Our unique selling position, the thing that made us valuable in the marketplace, was the fact that we didn’t just perform magic. It was the combination of magic as entertainment and a finely-honed sales message aimed at the company’s target market.
But, half of our unique selling position was missing. That’s why Vanessa was so upset. As usual, I was struggling to remember my lines about the company and do my ‘secret magic moves’ at the same time.
No matter how much I memorized and rehearsed, I kept forgetting what I was supposed to say.
In desperation, I resorted to writing my lines on my magic props. One of my tricks was showing a newspaper, tearing it up, then restoring it. But, when I went to tear the newspaper, my hand covered the words, and I couldn’t read what I was supposed to say.
That day in San Antonio, I delivered 5 or 6 presentations, limping through all of them. Thankfully, my magic was strong enough to draw people to the booth and the company collected sales leads.
However, the audience didn’t hear most of the carefully crafted sales pitch, because I couldn’t remember the words.
How did our grand plan for success end up as a train wreck?
In 1999, Vanessa and I launched our business with excitement and high hopes. Her background was marketing and, even though I had earned several college degrees in electronics, my strongest talent was performing magic and illusions.
So, we combined our skills and came up with the idea to help companies that exhibit at trade shows and conferences. We used jaw-dropping magic to attract people and keep them engaged while we delivered a customized sales pitch aimed at their target market.
The audience and our clients loved it. Everything was going great, except for one huge problem…me not remembering my lines.
It looked like the end of our business.
Things came to a head that night at the hotel in San Antonio. My mind was filled with visions of me failing miserably and both of us having to get jobs. Vanessa and I prayed for an answer, and I credit divine intervention for what happened next.
The last day of the trade show, our answer arrived. A lady walked up to me and struck up a conversation. She told me about a device she heard of recently. She said actors sometimes use it to remember their lines. She didn’t know much else.
Back home in Nashville, I starting trying to locate the device.
After an extensive search, I found an actor in Hollywood, California who had a micro-cassette recorder that played audio recordings to a secret hearing device hidden in your ear. He sold it to me for over $2,000.
That was a huge amount of money to us, but we made the investment. It worked and I used it for a couple of years. But, it was a long way from perfect.
With my background in electronics, I knew there had to be a better way. I set about developing it, and after months of trial and error, I came up with an improved, easy to use digital system. As technology evolved, I continue to update my system, so it stays on the cutting edge.
The Secret Prompter saved our own business and enabled us to help other businesses generate revenue and create jobs.
Over the years, we had the privilege of working with some of America’s leading companies, and exceptionally nice folks who remain dear friends.
None of them ever knew about the Secret Prompter that was enabling me to deliver their sales message, word for word.
All those years, we kept my device buried underground,’ until now.
We’re revealing our most closely-held secret. Why? To help other business owners and entrepreneurs, like us, who need to communicate information and persuade an audience.
Are you scheduled to speak, either in-person, on live TV or pre-recorded video? If so, and you don’t have a lot of time to memorize, my Secret Prompter can help.
There’s no memorizing and no forgetting. You can focus on connecting with your audience and delivering your message with confidence.
“Confidence breeds success.”
-Beryl Markham, English Aviator