How speaking can grow your audience and boost your business

In today’s episode of the podcast I talk all about speaking and the impact it can have on your business. I tell you how I got into speaking and how it has changed me and my business. KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST Start small – this allows you to work out your style and how you like to present. It also helps you to get comfortable with it!The more you do – the better you get!Speaking can put you in front of HUGE audiences which in turn gets your business out there, build your email list and increases your know, like and trust – you are seen as an expert!Speaking allows you to share your story and can inspire others.Speaking also gives you the opportunity to meet and connect with new people.Becoming a confident speaker also helps for online or in person training, interviews, podcasts and working with other businesses.Many speaking gigs are unpaid – especially conferences.The speaking world is not as diverse as it could be.Smaller talks are good for getting business, bugger talks are good for growing your audience.Know your subject and be able to talk about your subject for 20 minutes without notes.Start with practical talks – 5 ways to etc…We are all human – you may mess up, you may not know an answer.Don’t worry about your ‘ums’ and ‘ahs’.Scared? Write down all the possible things that could go wrong and then write down what you would do about it if it did. This helps to get over the fear.Speaking is not for everyone. It is not about how much knowledge you have – it is about how you put it across.You need to engage the audience so they take in what you say. THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…Don’t try and be anyone else, they are already taken. You need to be authentically you.HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN’T MISS How I got into speaking 03:03The impact of speaking on my business 08:15The truths about speaking 11:49How to get started with speaking 12:20 Transcript Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. How are things? So I'm recording this on a weekend. I don't normally work. That's absolute rubbish. I was about to say, I don't normally work weekends.  I do. I often work on a weekend, but I don't normally do something like this on a weekend, but I have had a slightly unusual weekend and the fact that I've been completely on my own, which is very unusual in a house that's normally quite busy, but my husband is away with work in Seattle. And my lovely daughter was meant to be here with me this weekend for her birthday and her dad's got COVID and I couldn't risk getting it before my in-person event.  So she's had to stay with him, which is a real gutter, but unfortunately is part of the world we are in today. So, as I just mentioned, I'm recording this the week before I have three events, two online. Well, it's kind of the same one online, but next level get an extra day. So next level get a day of SOAR my online event.  And then everyone gets the next SOAR day. And then I do my VIP business retreat, which I am so excited about. And it wasn't until I find out that my ex-husband has got COVID that I thought, Oh wow. Now I can't get COVID because if I can't run this event, well, it would spell disaster in many, many ways.  Financially, emotionally, cause I've been so excited about it. Uh, so I'm heading away in my home on my own. I'm doing a of work on a weekend as there's no one here. So weirdly considering I've got all these events next week and the week before recording this, I did another in-person event, but it wasn't mine. It was someone else's.  I'm going to talk about speaking, now the reason I'm going to talk about speaking is because it has done so much for me and my business. And you might be sat there thinking maybe, maybe not, you know, I might or might not want to do it, but I just thought let's have a chat about it. Let me tell you and share my story about how I got into it and what it's done for me and that sort of thing.  So I've all the phobias, you know, that speaking is considered the highest. Seriously. People are very, very fearful of it. In fact, people fear death and end of life less, which is crazy. So why is it that I decided that I wanted to become a speaker and how has that changed me and my business. You obviously know, or you might know by now that I never actually intended on being a business owner at all.  I was employed and I was very good at what I did. I did marketing, I did it all my life, and I decided that when my life changed a bit and I ended up becoming a single parent that I joke that I have nearly midlife crisis very early. And basically decided I was going to give it my job, but I was going to get another job.  And I was very good at what I did, who would want to employ me anyway, long story short, uh, cause you've probably heard this before. No job was coming because I realized that I was on quite good money for where I lived. And I had to think again, because I'd already was in my notice and I decided to set up my own business thinking, well, I've just bought in X amount of money for this business I've worked for. Surely I can do that for myself. Not thinking about all the other things that you have to do as a business owner, just thinking, I'm sure I can do that. So I started my business and like, you know, when you, when you start your business, you have this thought in your head. Or I guess if you'd asked me, I would have thought this, that as, you know, being a business owner, you get to manage your own time.  You're your own boss. Obviously I have a daughter, so, you know, I could manage it around here. I could do the school run and it would just be lovely, obviously, because, you know, I was my own boss. But it doesn't quite work out like that. Does it? You, you go into it thinking that's the case. And then suddenly you end up like finding.  You work more hours than you've ever worked before. You're juggling more things. Your brain is more distracted. So I probably was a worst parent than I was previously. And also I started building the business, doing an agency. I was an agency. We did stuff for clients and I started putting myself out there as an expert in order to get people for the agency. So I would pitch myself to anyone that would have me. Now, like I said, some people don't want to do this and they might not think, but to even think about doing this, but for me in the early days, it was really, it was really a case of just getting clients.  Because if you're the person stood at a network breakfast doing a talk on social media or marketing or whatever it is that you're an expert at, then who are they going to come to when they need an expert, they'll come to you. And also it's the fact that you've basically, I was going to say, get to pitch yourself for like an hour.  You don't really get to pitch yourself, but you are pitching yourself by talking and showing that you know what you're talking about. So, like I said, I started small. I remember speaking to some mums and a play barn, about four of them, I did the tiniest, smallest events you've ever seen. And it was, you know, and it was good because I was getting clients and people coming to me.  But also the reason you start small is because you can work at what your style is. You can work out how you like to present, and then also start to get comfortable. I've I know people that want to speak and they want to go straight for the big stuff. Well, if I'd gone straight to the big stuff, I would've been absolutely horrendous, like all the mistakes and all the probably terrible ways I was when I just got started, I would have done a big stages.  Not only what I've done it in front of more people, but out of room of chances, so start small. And like I said, it really worked. I was getting noticed and I was getting business. And then I found the online world, like I said, the whole point of me speaking initially was purely for getting clients. And I started watching the likes of Marie Smith, Amy Poterfield.  I really liked it. I really liked the fact that they got to sit in their office and they got to speak to people from around the world. I remember being on one of my first webinars and Marie shout my name out, it couldn't be more excited. And although I'd built myself out as knowing what I was talking about, I wanted to take it further.  And I wanted to see whether there was any chance that I could have a bit of the online thing that they had had. So I decided to step out of my comfort zone and decided to put myself on bigger audiences and bigger stages and decided to start to really take the speaking thing seriously, becoming a speaker rather than just someone who spoke at events.  And the more I did the better I got, like, I got more confident. I was more willing to put myself out there. I was willing to ask for, to go on bigger stages. So it was like every time someone went 'Yes Please' or 'Yes, happy for you to talk.' They then encouraged me to try again and try and go somewhere else and don't get me wrong.  I got nos. And I remember one of the first