Dietmar Dahmen rocks. There is no one who shoots information and emotions into the brain so skilfully like Dietmar Dahmen. He is the king of transformation, a stage rock star, motivator, innovator and change lover.His stage performance burns itself into the minds of the audience, he knows how to convey knowledge with show interludes. We interviewed Dietmar Dahmen to find out why he does this in his own special way.<\/p>\n
Premium Speakers:<\/strong> Mr. Dahmen, you are truly a rock star on stage, and understand like no other, how to combine information and emotion to move your audience. With the abundance of already fascinating knowledge that you convey, why do you find emotion so important?<\/p>\n Dietmar Dahmen:<\/strong> Knowledge leads to conclusions: \u201c one should do this and don\u2019t do that\u201d. This fills the audience with great intentions, with one problem: they might never act upon them.<\/em><\/p>\n That\u2019s where emotions come in! Emotions leads to action. Emotions are the spark that lights the audiences\u2019 fire and transforms intention to bold action. The BAMM moments that I build into my talks, inspire the audience to ACT. It helps to kill overthinking, or \u201cANALYSIS PARALYSIS\u201d, as I call it.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n PS:<\/strong> Fascinating. You are on stage all over the world. Do you see differences between the countries?<\/p>\n DD:<\/strong> Definitely. Generally speaking, Europeans are often world-champions in KNOWLEDGE ACCUMULATION. But when it comes to action and implementation, the US and China are ahead of us. They are world-champions of jumping into ACTION. Europeans need to move past over-thinking ideas and see pleasure in the implementation of new tools, ideas and methods.<\/em><\/p>\n There are, of course, unique cultural differences between individual countries and companies as well. I adapt every keynote as precisely as possible to these differences.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n PS:<\/strong> Sounds good. Can you tell us more on how do you go about doing this?<\/p>\n DD: The trick is in perfect mix of macro and micro messaging. I forge the big emotions through emotionally very strong, often \u201carchaic symbols\u201d that transport my knowledge points not only into the minds, but also into the hearts of the audience.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n PS:<\/strong> The flamethrower, the chainsaw, and the shark that you ride?<\/p>\n DD:<\/strong> Exactly. There are also more modest props that transport powerful imagery: a skull, a megaphone or a few red roses I might give out to the audience. What is IMPORTANT here, is that the IMAGE is SIMPLE. And often the simplest of images are archaic ones, like the skull, the shark, or even the verbal expressions I use, such as \u201cBamm! Bamm! Bamm!\u201d<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n PS:<\/strong> And what about the micro messaging?<\/p>\n DD: The micro level is all about the emotional details. The imagery is more intimate. At a factory opening in Mexico, I once drank a whole (theater) bottle of local tequila, just to explain the benefits of the blockchain.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n PS:<\/strong> Sounds memorable.<\/p>\n DD:<\/strong> Yes, the audience was emotionally pumped up by the fourth glass. Everyone knew the drink for ages, and could personally relate. Their hearts opened, and through this door I was able to push the \u201chard information\u201d on the blockchain into their hearts – with EMOTION and INDIVIDUAL RELEVANCE. Otherwise, not everyone listens to such challenging topics.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n PS:<\/strong> \u201cIndividual relevance\u201d sounds like a great approach. But how do you manage that with an extremely heterogeneous audience, – for example, with global, virtual keynotes. Everyone is so different there.<\/p>\n DD:<\/strong> It is always about finding the COMMON GROUND. Commonalities create an emotional openness to a message. Virtual keynotes are a great way to establish the common ground, because everyone is sitting in front of a computer, everyone is \u201cdigitally isolated\u201d.<\/em> For a global customer in London, we sent a sealed envelope with \u201csuperhero masks\u201d to each of the participants in advance. At one point during my keynote, everyone around the world was cued to open their envelope simultaneously. At that moment, the mask put a smile on everyone\u2019s face and opened their hearts at the same time. This UNIFYED everyone- I, too, put on a superhero mask, and was then able to transport the knowledge-content (in this case, a new business strategy) with the emotion of feeling heroic. This would have been possible offline, as well, but came across especially strong at the virtual event.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n PS:<\/strong> So, you use the emotion to make the knowledge more lasting to the audience, and because it is also more engaging, they are more willing to implement it.<\/p>\n DD:<\/strong> Precisely. \u201cKnowing\u201d and \u201cacting\u201d are two completely different things because the \u201cknowledge part\u201d of our brain is actually quite superficial, and does not go particularly deep. New knowledge is constantly being added, often changing or replacing the old knowledge. We all have to be knowledge-agile in order to constantly learn new things.<\/em><\/p>\n
\nHere, you need to create CONNECTING emotions to bring the decentralized audience together.<\/em><\/p>\n