An explain article

Interview

explain Marketing Manager

Frank Asmus - Top Executive Coach

Hello dear Frank, first of all, thank you for taking the time for me. What are you up to right now?

I just came from jogging! And now I'm preparing a few things. Because tomorrow I have a lecture in Tenerife.

You get around quite a bit. But you also have two children (7 + 11 years). How is it to be constantly on the move and still not lose the role of a father?

It's not always easy, especially for my wife more than for me (laughs). She masters the balance between being a mother of two and managing my office. And she often does that alone. However, I always try to be home in the evenings. Yesterday my son told me that all his friends think I’m cool. So I would say I'm handling it quite well. :)

How should I imagine a 'normal' working day for you? You're not just a keynote speaker and top executive coach, but also a pitch advisor.

My alarm rings at 6:30 am. After showering and breakfast, I start the day with half an hour of meditation to wake up body and mind. I think about what’s on the agenda today and what’s important. If I have a lecture, I also wake up my voice …

How should I imagine that?

I do classic voice exercises. First stretch backward, then sideways, and then just exhale and stand still. Then you wake up the throat. You can do that, for example, with 'bah-bah-bah.' 'Bah-bah-bah' and then you can go further forward, towards 'la-la-la,' like 'ba-la'. Afterwards, the articulation is moved forward with 'brrrrrrr-brrrrrrr' to get the lips soft. Maybe add a rolling 'r' to it, and then the voice is oiled with 'eeeeeeeewwwwww' 'ooooooowwwww' 'weeeeeeeeewww'.

That's important. Especially if you have three lectures in one day. Many speakers ruin their voices because they don't take care of them. But the voice is a part of the soul, and that's why it should get attention. It reflects the psyche and when you're traveling as a top coach or speaker, you shouldn't be hoarse.

And what does this voice do after it's awake and oiled?

Depending on the day, it gets into a taxi to the airport and then onto a plane. When I'm booked as a coach, I look at the room beforehand and make my preparations. I'm the keynote coach for board members, managers, and entrepreneurs, and that's also the biggest business area. That's why I show up there and meet with a board member. But sometimes also with a pitch team. That can be from a start-up, a real estate team, or a consulting firm – nowadays everyone has to pitch. For example, this week I was with the founders of gruender.de and a day later with the board members of H-Hotels.

Another business area is lectures, i.e., keynotes themselves. I support top executives worldwide. By that, I mean top companies and top brands like Apple, start-ups like Zalando, or large corporations and hidden champions. Always, of course, with board members and managers and respective entrepreneurs.

And where do you meet the CEOs?

Many come to me in Berlin and use the time to show the city to their children. Berlin is splendid! I have many international clients who have replaced their previous American coaches with me, which of course makes me proud.

... that means you also support Berlin tourism on the side? :)

Many of my clients think: 'Man, then I'll take my family with me! Then I'll visit a start-up (that I own) and check out how things are going there and provide on-site support!'

And then we have the advantage that they come to Berlin because it's ensured that no one sees them here. This doesn't matter with young start-up founders, who are also very successful. Although for a few very large, successful start-up companies, they don't like it when it's heard that I worked with them (laughs).

Why? Does that have something to do with the respective personality or society?

Everyone wants to be cool, everyone wants to get on stage, and everyone should say: 'Wow, amazing!'. Some are very transparent about coaching and others are not.

Well, I see it as multifaceted, there are definitely different generations. There are the baby boomers and, of course, Generation Y. There are also mentality differences, as we both know, for Generation Y, feedback is quite normal and people continue to educate themselves. Then, of course, there are also corporations where, especially at middle management level, it hasn't arrived yet. However, at most large corporations where I am active, the boards have already changed significantly. So a Dieter Zetsche is a cool guy, you just have to say that.

He's brutally cool, especially when you consider the pressure he's under. I met him once on a plane, he was sitting in row 17, wearing a pink sweater, jeans, and sneakers. How cool is that? His leadership style is also cool. He asked his people, 'How do you want to work in the future?' Very open, with the following result: less hierarchy and time/location flexibility. Therefore, I would say it's not about the leaders – it's more the level below that is sluggish. Because they, of course, lack certain information, they don't engage daily with strategic things or think about how the world is moving. That's not a criticism. To return, many of these corporate people want to handle transparency. But for political reasons, that often isn't possible. We simply live in times of shitstorms and the like. When someone comes on stage and does a good job, there's always someone who says: 'Man, Frank Asmus prepared him ... it was clear, it's only about the show! He's so expensive ... do you know what he paid for that?'. And that's why certain board members have to be incredibly cautious. Incredible.

It shows once again how important presentations are for and within companies, doesn't it?

With someone like Steve Jobs, for example, the keynote on stage was the center of the corporation's strategic communication. That means during the keynote the website also changed, from there the same messages were carried out to the world up to the display in China. The keynote is the center of strategic communication, and when you look at it that way, it's certainly sensible to invest a lot of work. This allows you to multiply the communication as well.

So the speaker is the face of the strategic communication?

We are human. And when a company has a face, the identification with the company is usually much higher. Especially if the person is cool, has something to say, and is truly the founder, like Steve Jobs or Elon Musk. This means that you must be seen in any company. I have brought several hidden champions and family businesses onto the stage. When you have 70 foreign branches, you often are not seen as an entrepreneur. But if you hold a keynote that is convincing and excites people, possibly even being seen worldwide on video, you have a completely different level of commitment.

I can imagine that a speaker can be compared to an actor. After all, in a movie, you also identify with one role or another as a viewer...

Mhm, absolutely. You could say that. A good keynote is like an authentic play. First: It has strong dramaturgy, clear messages, and means of argumentation. Second: It has instant amplifiers, so that's the ignition, and there is often emotion in it. Third: The actor on stage knows what they are saying. For example, Steve Jobs rehearsed for at least two full days for a keynote. For others, a theater. But as an original theater director, I find that still little. However, he also prepared the plans and presentations for weeks. That means he was very deeply involved. When you develop that, you are constantly connected and rehearsing. But as a director, I see it as a play. That's the biggest secret of the strong Steve Jobs presentations, or some start-ups that do it the same way.

Especially today in the digital world, it is always very strong when someone comes on stage and captivates people. A lot can be achieved. I can say with broad confidence that I have significantly contributed to some business careers.

Imagine a company being taken over by someone whom no one knows yet. If this person now comes on stage and uses it properly, meaning: addresses his strong messages with clarity and emotion, he can truly amaze the people, employees, and shareholders. In the end, this benefits not just the company but also his own career. Working on this communication process pays off many times.

So is communication the tool of a CEO?

Absolutely. For Steve Jobs, that was always clear. On one hand, it's about innovation, the quality of products and services, and on the other hand, it's about communicating the innovation, the quality of products and services. And that is almost equivalent. A leader acts through communication.

Communication through presentations or keynotes?

Steve Jobs never built computers himself, and Dieter Zetsche never made a car. But they have to communicate everything fundamentally. That is their craft. Their craft is communicating. And there is a lot of work beforehand because they must act strategically. You must prioritize, you must say which messages are in the foreground, and all these things. A good keynote as a board always precedes a small strategic retreat. A good presentation is instantly clear to me. Good presentations are always self-clarification.

You have been able to experience a lot – what still surprises Frank Asmus?

I enjoy people, and it always surprises me to see what kind of person you experience one floor below. When all the artifices fall away, and the person becomes authentic.

Frank, thanks to you, I now know that I can still travel in economy class to meet interesting people, should go to Berlin more often, I know that Dieter Zetsche sometimes wears pink, and I know how important the performance on stage is. What else would you like to share with me and the readers?

So I am convinced that public speaking is becoming increasingly important. In times of digitization, where everyone has a smartphone in hand, it becomes even more important because you can be filmed anywhere, and thus it is multiplied. There is absolutely no doubt about it. It becomes more and more a basic competence of leaders. But it's always about the content. The royal discipline is and remains an authentic content speaker. And a content speaker for me is someone who has excellent content and ideally can deliver it excellently. You don’t get that with a motivational trainer. Therefore, the selection of the service provider is enormously important.

Your wish for the future? Besides world peace, of course…? ;)

People must realize that public speaking is becoming increasingly important – and it can be learned!

Why do you work with explain?

Explain is my partner, from the keynote of a board member to a product launch to a keynote for a top speaker or pitch. Moreover, explain understands how slides work from a communication-psychological perspective. From my point of view, slides are not to support the speaker; slides are, for me, the visual amplifier of the speaker and their messages. And they are incredibly nice people!