Public Speaking ROCKS!
It just does.
If you’ve been following our blog, or attended any of our live events, then you already know the deal: public speaking is the FASTEST way to grow your business and make a bigger difference.
It sets you up for BIG success.
When you have an audience right there in front of you… magic happens. It’s a delicious moment in time… where you feel the audience and you come together in connection.
They’re hungry to hear your message… hungry to taste the words you have to share… and they’re hungry for change.
For the newer Speaker this is an exciting dynamic that promises impact, clients and revenue.
For the experienced Speaker it goes far beyond that – it’s a sacred calling that requires discipline, focus and and the willingness “tighten up” the energy leaks in business and in life.
Speaking is KING (or as Shannon says QUEEN! 😉 It grants you the ability to position yourself as a Thought Leader, and the skill to share your passions while getting paid extremely well, is there anything greater?
And there IS a difference between being a good public Speaker, and a being a GREAT one.
Rocking your talk is only one ingredient to running a thriving speaking business and in this article, we want to offer you three simple steps that position you and your business to have a greater impact on your audience and the world… lifting you into the league of the public speaking greats that not only motivate the masses… but makes a fortune while doing it.
President Obama – a phenomenal Speaker, brings out his personality and has fun with his audience in this mic-drop moment.
Step 1: Interview a Few Clients?
The speed of life today is unmatched by any other time in history.
We travel further and experience more in a single day than our ancestors of a generation ago could imagine in a whole lifetime.
You’re constantly on the go… technology and information is at your fingertips at any given moment.
Life is busy… AND a busy life is actively looking for solutions to their problems and challenges.
That’s where YOU come in.
As an Entrepreneur, you are a PROBLEM solver.
So what are the specific and urgent problems YOUR ideal clients have and need support with?
Now is the ideal time to interview a handful of your best clients.
What a great opportunity to gain insight into your clients’ life and the challenges they seek to resolve!
And therefore, pay you for your services… to get their problem solved, once and for all.
The nature of business is changing.
With this fast & busy life we all lead, today, people are hungry for connection and authenticity… more than ever before.
Clients want more connection, engagement and access.
You need to understand the struggles and specific problems of your clients, then weave this into your signature talk to build deep bridges of connection, understanding and possibility.
When Tony Robbins enters a room, the vibe is electrifying.
But it’s not just Tony’s larger-than-life persona that attracts the crowds and keeps them spellbound.
It’s his ability to connect with them in an individual, personal way.
His reasoning is simple: “The more you understand what somebody wants, needs and fears, the more you can figure out how to add value,” Tony says.
You can emulate this within your own speeches by doing some simple market research interviews in advance.
Get to know your ideal clients — ask them what they hate, what they love, what they desire and what they’re hungry for.
What’s keeping them up at night, what are they stressed out about, what’s their dream solution they would pay almost anything for?
Most of all, discover what is missing in their lives, and then effectively communicate how that is affecting their overall quality of life… better than they ever could, and you will have tremendous power and a “big impact” on the audience as they feel seen, heard and understood by you… usually within seconds of speaking your first word.
This is all about getting more clarity from your ideal clients and using that information to tighten up your business and create more value.
Just think of all the ways one can add this valuable client driven, market research and language into your business.
This can be added to your programs and offerings, how you talk about what you do, positioning yourself in the marketplace and even with potential collaboration partners.
Essentially, you want to weave this market research language into your entire marketing platform.
Once you start gathering this information from your ideal clients, it’s not uncommon to discover an unmet need that you can fill (hint: it’s often different than you think it’s going to be!)
You’ll start seeing possibilities of new offerings, how you can solve a specific problem or fulfill their desires, new ways of marketing your services, etc.
When you offer more VALUE, you can charge more for your services and your ideal clients will happily pay it to solve their urgent problem.
Step 2: Slash Expenses and Tighten Up Finances
The intention of any business is to be profitable.
Yet so many people have “money shit” that keeps them from being in their power.
Consistent revenue is the oxygen of any business and every successful Entrepreneur eventually comes to the conclusion that they must get a financial education and develop a strong inner-game when it comes to money.
As you do, you also develop your financial IQ, you’re ability to make decisions that move the financial health of your business forward.
Start now, buy slashing expenses and tightening up your finances (meaning the systems and reports you use).
When done correctly and with a system – public speaking will make it rain! In other words, public speaking can make you money and a lot of it…
FAST! It’s still the #1 paid profession and one of the easiest and most effective ways to market your services.
Once you start earning money through your public speaking biz, would you know how to handle the revenue?
Do you have a plan for what is to become of your money?
Once you realize how profitable your passion can be, and once the big bucks start rolling in, you are going to need…
- FIRST – a Money Team to help you manage your business finances.You want to build this team right away… as soon as your business can afford these fixed costs.This consists of a Bookkeeper, CPA and Personal Assistant.The Bookkeeper so you’re not spending time inputting costs or organizing receipts.The Bookkeeper’s job is to keep your accounting software accurate and up to date so that you can have accurate P&L reports and balance sheets.The CPA is to minimize your tax burden and ensure you’re legally compliant with your tax returns.And finally, the Personal Assistant to delegate your life so you can focus on income producing activities.The Personal Assistant is critical to your money team as they free you from spending valuable time on non revenue generating activities.
Once you’re business is kickin’, you don’t have time to stand in line at DMV… or to drop off the dry cleaning.
Use that time to get another high paying Speaking Gig or Joint Venture conversation.
The amount of freedom you gain when someone other than you is doing your shopping, house cleaning & laundry will completely change your lifestyle.
It’s time to delegate your life.
This is living and thinking like an Entrepreneur who expects to be successful with their public speaking… and it rocks!
- SECOND – a Wealth Team to help you minimize taxes and maximize wealth.This consists of a Business/Tax Attorney, CPA, Financial Planner, Wealth Coach, and Bookkeeper or Finance Manager.The Business/Tax Attorney is a preventative cost that can save you 100s of 1000s of dollars and real heartache.They ensure that your agreements & contracts are legal as well as help you avoid business dealings that might not be legit.The Financial Planner helps you make decisions on where and how to invest your money.Make sure you get a Financial Planner who has extensive experience working with Entrepreneurs.Most Financial Planners are trained to serve employees… and the nuances for an Entrepreneur are extensive.When you set up your finances and entity structure correctly, you will be eligible for far more legal tax deductions.
This is the gift the government gives Entrepreneurs to help them build and grow their business, hire more staff and create more value in the marketplace.
A Wealth Coach will provide you with the support and expertise on how to think profitably.
They usually will have additional (sometimes better) investment options over a Financial Planner.
They’re also removed from your business and can challenge you when you sabotage your wealth building efforts.
But you need to start building that team now; not waiting for the energy of money to take over before you know how to handle it!
And one of the best ways to attract money is to keep the energy around it light and playful.
Here’s a short video on how wealthy people laugh with Jim Carrey.
What’s Your Monthly Nut? The first thing you want to do is formulate how much money you need right now to live.
The second thing you want to do is formulate how much money your business needs each month.
Get clear and precise on the total revenue you need to generate each month, then you can create a revenue plan for the business and for your life.
If you need $4K a month to cover your personal bills and expenses & you need another $2500 a month to cover your business expenses… then you need to create a revenue plan that meets or exceeds $6500 in the next 30 days.
And remember – you need to do that EVERY 30 days.
This is why we LOVE public speaking!
Instead of spending the next 30 days trying to get an online funnel to produce… you could get one small speaking gig in your own backyard with 30 people in the audience.
From that single talk you can expect 50% of the room (15) to say yes to your offer of a free gift (enrollment conversation or strategy session).
In these phone conversations you offer your hot juicy program priced at a minimum of $2000.
Out of these 15 people, 5 of them say yes to your program.
That’s $10,000 from a single speaking gig – that’s all the revenue you needed for the entire month.
Here’s a video example of how you can use public speaking in your own backyard to generate a flood of leads all at once and how those leads can turn into high paying clients.
The important thing is that you have full support for your money goals as well as systems that you follow each month to achieve them.
This creates consistency.
In her book, “The Soul of Money,” author & thought leader Lynne Twist tells us how important it is to approach your finances with a “sense of mission and purpose”. 
If you know you have trouble with holding onto money, find others who can keep you accountable.
Use someone who can help you tally up your current financial situation and then slash expenses so you’re not wasting precious funds.
Money is an energy that is attracted to the high vibration of possibilities.
By taking the time now to slash expenses and tighten up your finances… you are declaring to the Universe, “I AM READY!”
Every time you give your finances serious “attention” and do so with focused “intention” you’re doing the inner-game work that evolves your financial consciousness.
You’re setting yourself up for success.
No doubt about it: the money will come once you’re set up for success.
LEARN to handle finances and cash flow like a financial pro… and do so NOW, and before you realize it, you’ll be winning the money game!
Step 3: Get More Gigs & Tighten Up Your Speech (Signature Talk)
One of the best ways to ensure your next quarter is highly profitable is to commit to scheduling speaking gigs.
A couple hours a week of focused and consistent outreach and follow up to promoters is key.
We timeblock our calendar 2hrs each week so that we can have consistent speaking gigs.
Speaking gigs is the lifeblood of our business and is such an effective (and fun!) way to attract a flood of highly qualified prospects… every single time.
As you get into the rhythm of consistently scheduling speaking gigs… they begin to accumulate on your calendar.
We just had a fantastic speaking gig in Hawaii!
With 42 people in the audience we “Rocked Our Talk” and had a flurry of people (35 of them) take our offer for a strategy session.
We just returned and the speaking gig has already generated $11K and we’ve only had a couple of those conversations so far… more to come!
So being proactive and consistent in booking your speaking gigs each and every week is crucial to sustained revenue.
We’ve had that speaking gig booked for almost 9 months now and it was such a joy to travel to Waikiki for the event & then we headed over to Maui for an extended weekend… while writing off almost the entire trip!
This is why Speaking Rocks! Tighten Up Your Speech The more effectively you can communicate your audience’s struggles and life circumstances, the more they see you as the Expert & Authority who solves them.
Through motivational speaking, you become the world changer you were destined to become, you’re making a bigger difference and truly a part of the “Ripple Effect” to change the world.
In a truly remarkable Signature Talk, the Speaker has paid exquisite attention to the emotional arch of their speech.
All talks have a structure… but it is the amateur Speaker who leaves the emotional arch unattended.
By placing attention on the emotional arch of your speech, you’re providing value to your audience.
Within your talk, you want to elicit a series of emotional states at different points throughout the presentation.
What do you want your audience to feel… and when in your speech do you want them to feel it?
How do you do this?
Here’s a list of the things you can tighten up so that the emotional arch of your Signature Talk has more cache and a greater impact.
- Stories – What stories will you tell? Where in your speech will you tell them? How long or short will they be? What emotion is tied to that story?
- Jokes – What jokes will you tell? Where in your speech will you tell them? How is this setting up audience engagement?
- Opening – How will you capture the audience’s attention from the very first word you speak?
- Personal Story – Do you need more vulnerability or credibility? Both are critical to capturing the trust of your audience. Credibility = respect so they TRUST you as the Expert. Vulnerability = heart so they FEEL how much you care.
- Turning Point Story – What was the event or moment in time that you learned the very lesson you are teaching your audience? How can you keep this brief and concise?
- Content Modules – Depending on how much time you have… you’ll be sharing 1 to 3 content themes. These are the meat of your signature talk and are the very topics of challenge that your audience is looking for solutions
- Quotes – How can you amplify your point with a powerful quote? What other Experts do your people follow, respect and like? (ex: our Tribe loves Marianne Williamson so we often use quotes from her)
- Irresistible Offer – Be sure to offer Strategy Sessions from the stage at the end of your talk. Are you super clear how to communicate the value and benefits of your Strategy Session or Enrollment Conversation? What could make it cleaner, less confusion and more compelling?
- Closing – How do you say goodbye to your audience so that they continue to think about you and your message? What can you do to increase the feeling of connection you have with the audience?
The above checklist is a great way to tighten up your Signature Talk so that it impacts more people and attracts more clients.
Plus, each time you work on or practice your speech, something inside of you wakes up and gets excited.
You start to visualize being on stage… seeing the crowd get inspired.
You see their smiles and hear their laughter… you get fired up.
Boost Business with Public Speaking Public Speaking ROCKS – especially for Experts & Entrepreneurs.
We’ve broken down how a few simple steps can help you boost business with public speaking.
By interviewing a few clients, you get clear on the problems they are looking to solve and therefore you now have an opportunity to provide them more value.
Slashing expenses and tightening up your finances dramatically positions you for success as you clean up your “money shit” and clear the path for authentic selling.
And then by getting more speaking gigs and tightening up your Signature Talk, you’re in essence streamlining the language of influence so your communication is precise, relevant & inspiring to your audience.
These 3 tips will help you boost business – quickly and dramatically.
Please leave a comment or ask a question in the comments below – we love connecting with you there.
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