As a heart-centered entrepreneur, whether you are launching a new business, or trying to make the quantum leap you know you are capable of, you have an incredibly powerful tool at your disposal that costs you nothing and is uniquely yours: your voice.
By using your experience, your expertise, and your voice to speak to groups, either large or small, you can build a solid foundation and kick-start your growth—and you can begin virtually from the comfort of your own home.
WHY SPEAK?
The combination of your experience, knowledge, and perspective is unique to you and the world is clamoring for people who can speak authentically to those experiences.
Boost your visibility
By speaking you make yourself more visible to the world in a way that is more personal, accessible, and impactful than any writing or social media following you can create.
Propel growth
By speaking you can turn audience members into customers and into referrals for other speaking engagements where you can turn more audience members into more customers and more referrals. Oh, Imagine the growth!
Make Your Offer
What separates a conversation about your passion from an opportunity to sell your services to an engaged, interested audience is your offer. Your presentation should be a gateway to your offer. When people hear your message and the passion you have for what you are offering right from your mouth, you can make your offer irresistible.
MAKE A GREAT SPEECH
How can you ensure that you’ve put together a great speech that is going to not only get people in the door but have them leaving excited by your message?
Implement my Five-Step Formula SPEAK.
S – Speak. You must learn to speak in a clear and concise way to convey the unique value that only you provide.
P – Position yourself as an expert. You know more about your subject matter than anyone in the room. Own that!
E– Expect Resistance—from the outside as well as the inside. When you’re moving forward, you are going to experience resistance. Resist the urge to stop or slow down. Lean into the resistance!
A – Authority. No one grants you the authority to be who you are! No one knocked on my door and said, “Hey, Lisa, here’s the crown. You’re the Queen of Sales Conversion.” That is who I am. I crowned myself!
K – Knowing. Your intuition is strong and accurate. You already know. Stop second-guessing yourself. You know what to do at any given moment.
OVERCOMING YOUR FEAR
Public speaking is not a unique talent. It is a skill that you can learn, and master with practice. So, any fears or trepidations you have about speaking, whether virtually or in person, are not to be concerned about—you already have everything you need to overcome them.
Confidence in Controlling Your Environment
Speaking can take place in your living room with five people, on a conference call, as part of a group meeting, or online through a webinar. Starting in one of these “smaller” environments, whichever one makes you feel the most at ease, is a great first step to overcoming your fear.
Imagination Not Required
Overcoming your fear of public speaking is not about convincing yourself of an alternate reality. You don’t need to picture the audience in their underwear or visualize yourself on stage as the confident speaker you one day will be.
Becoming a confident speaker is all about your message, and your message is already in you. It is your truth. But you convey so much more than your words when you are speaking. Using body language that projects comfort and confidence to your audience, you can start to feel that confidence grow in you.
Prepare, Prepare, Prepare
Overcoming your fear and wanting to be a great public speaker isn’t enough. It’s really all about the preparation. But how do you prepare?
First, know your audience and craft your message to them. Speak in a way that is comfortable and natural for you. If your message is clear and it resonates with them, you will feel that as you speak and it will make you more confident and comfortable.
Second, anticipate resistance and prepare to meet it. Find the most likely objections to your message and know how you are going to answer those objections.
Third, focus on how great your talk is, not how long your talk is. Everyone in your audience would prefer an excellent 45-minutes to a mediocre 90-minutes. It’s not about the length, it’s about the quality. Every time.
In addition – and I can’t emphasize this enough – practice. Practice in front of a mirror, or on video, or with a colleague who can give you feedback. This can be really helpful in identifying all the ways you are communicating when you speak; your tone of voice, body language, facial expressions, hand gestures, ums, uhs, crutch words, or jargon.
And finally, know your space. By arriving early and getting comfortable in the room you remove an unknown, which will make you feel much more at ease. Take some time in the room before the crowd arrives to just be in the space, to breathe in the space. This will help to prepare your body and mind since you’ve already prepared your presentation.
Be Yourself and Be Ready for Things to Go Wrong
Remember that what you are offering when you speak is yourself. You are giving your audience the gift of your experience and perspective. They want the real you!
Bring your authentic self and let your personality shine through.
But also accept if you speak long enough something will go wrong. It’s ok. It happens to all of us. Take some time in your preparation to think through how you’ll respond if something doesn’t go as planned.
Don’t take it personally. The laptop going out isn’t the will of the universe directed at your presentation. Keep cool. Breathe. You know what you’re going say and you know it’s worth hearing.
Find the humor in the situation. Your audience is going to feel bad for you when something goes wrong. If you can relax into it, find the humor and keep it light, they will feed off your positive energy and you’ll all ride the storm out.
Stick to your plan. You’ve prepared for this presentation. You know your stuff. You know it will work the way you’ve planned it. Do what you had already planned to do and you’ll be just fine.
P.S.
In my new book, Meant For More (available now at your favorite book retailer), we outline the Meant for More Formula, designed to help you upgrade your mindset, discover your Unique Value, craft your Irresistible Offer and take action towards creating your Meant For More Life. Step one of the formula is “Reframe the Game and Make Peace with Sales.” There it is! Mindset as the first step.