You Don’t Have to Sound “Salesy” When You Speak

There is a subtle, proven way to sell your program or product at live speaking events that doesn’t sound “salesy.” It’s called “Sprinkling the Seeds.” Right from the start of your talk, sprinkle seeds of interest with your audience throughout your talk. By doing this, you don’t have to switch into a “sales mode” when it comes time to present your next program or product offering at the end of your talk. Let them know you have more to give them than you have time for. Let them know you’re going to do your best to cover as much value as you can during the time you’re speaking. Then let them know at the end of your talk you’ll share with them the additional resources you have.

Practice saying your sprinkling the seeds statements until the words easily flow.

Creating Your Speaker Sheet

If you’re contacting places to speak, you want to create a sheet describing your background and experience as a speaker to give to them. This sheet is called your “Speaker Sheet.” It can be a one or two-sided sheet (my speaker sheet is two-sided). The person making the decision to hire speakers wants someone who will specialize in their particular type of audience. You want your Speaker Sheet to tell the potential client everything they need to know, so they will hire you.

Here’s what to include in your Speaker Sheet:

• Your title across the top of the page
• Your photo with brief bio
• Testimonial under bio
• Contact information to reach you
• Testimonials listed on the right side of the page
• Brief description of your speaking style (2nd page)
• Topics you speak on (2nd page)
• Contact information to reach you (2nd page)
• Partial Client List on the right side of the page (2nd page)

Now you have what you need to create your own Speaker Sheet!

Create a Step-By-Step Plan for Speaking

If you want to be a speaker and you’ve never spoken in front of an audience before, you need to create a step-by-step plan to get you there. Here are some steps to take.

1. Create your signature talk: This is your main talk that represents who you are and you can give over and over again.
2. Be trained: If you’ve never spoken in front of an audience before, you want to be trained to powerfully deliver your message.
3. Your audience: You need to know who your ideal audience is. You want to be speaking to this group. These are the people you want to work with.
4. Places to speak: Find networking groups, organizations, associations, and events where your ideal client attends. Introduce yourself to the person who hires speakers and ask to speak to their group!
5. Speaker Sheet: Create a Speaker Sheet. This sheet describes your background, the topics you speak about, where you’ve spoken, and testimonials.

F-E-A-R Doesn’t Have to Stop You

The only power fear has over you is the power you give it. Remember fear may come up for you when you're doing something you've never done before. The next time you feel yourself pulling back because of fear, notice you're the one giving it power. Then choose to take your power back by taking an action step forward. When you step into what you fear the most, you have broken through to the other side!

There's a great quote by Oprah, "Whatever you fear most has no power — it is YOUR fear that has the power."

Fear of Failing Keeping You from Becoming a Speaker?

Does the thought of failing keep you from pursuing your dream of becoming a speaker? If the answer is “yes,” you’re not alone. When we hear the word “fail,” we connect it to something negative and bad. For many people, the thought of failing brings up strong feelings and emotions. The feelings are so strong, it’s feels safer not to take on new things.

If you’ve read the bios of most successful people, you’ll see they’ve all failed many times over before they achieved success.

Here are 4 key steps to help you move through the fear and be willing to take that risk.

1. Identify the fear: Write out specifically what the fear is, including all the details. To move through the fear; you first have to clarify exactly what the fear is.
2. Emotions and feelings: Write the feelings you’re experiencing as you think about your fear. Do you feel scared, nervous, frustrated, anxious, angry, or hopeless? The clearer you are about the feelings connected to the fear, the easier it will be to move through it.
3. Identify the fear: Ask yourself, “Is this a real or self-imposed fear? A real fear would be if you were about to be pushed out of an airplane. A self-imposed fear is a fear you’re experiencing that hasn’t happened. Once you identify that it’s a self-imposed fear and your life is not endangered, you now know you’re in charge and can take action.
4. Action steps: A powerful way to move through the fear is taking action. Once you take that first step, you’ll feel freedom and confidence because you’re taking charge of your life and the next steps become easier to take.

They say in life you’re either growing or contracting. The only way to grow is to be willing to not let fear stop you. I invite you to be willing to move the fear and become the speaker you’ve always wanted to be!

Fear Stopping You from Becoming a Speaker?

Do you dream about being a speaker? Do you know you have a powerful message you want to share with the world? Is fear stopping you from pursuing your dream?

Fear shows up in different ways. It could be the fear of failure, fear of rejection, or fear of success. The fear can manifest itself in different ways that we’re not always aware of. Some signs of hidden fear are procrastination, distraction, excuses, feeling stuck, feeling overwhelmed, negative beliefs, worried, and anxious.

Whenever we step into something new or take on something we’ve never done before, it’s not uncommon to experience fear. We remember our past failures and pull back to avoid them happening again. I invite you to consider what happened in the past is over and will not happen again. We don’t know what is going to happen in the future. We only have the present moment. Be in the present and create action steps to take. Taking action will help you diminish the feeling of fear.

If you have a dream of becoming a speaker, write down the steps you can take and take action NOW!

Create a Blueprint Plan for Your Event

Once you have created a vision for your event and have made the commitment, now it’s time to create the blueprint plan. A blueprint plan is the #1 key to planning an event that’s successful.

Your blueprint plan includes the following and much more…

• Where the event will be held.
• How many people you want to attend.
• Hours of the event.
• What the attendees will walk away with.
• What bonuses you will offer.
• How you will market it and to whom you will market it to.

There are many parts to creating an event. By creating a blueprint plan, it keeps you organized as you have all the details on paper.

Watch Your Body Language

What gets in the way for many new speakers is nervousness — and there is nothing wrong with that. Almost every speaker has to deal with being nervous; the trick is not to let it get the better of you. Nervousness keeps us alert and energized. But when you’re extremely nervous and you have trouble controlling it, you will tend to spend more time in your head concerned with how you’re doing than being present in the moment and unfortunately, the audience will pick up on that.

Your nervousness can affect your energy, your pace, eye contact, your volume, your gestures, and your self-expression. You’ll appear stiff and disconnected from the audience and they won’t feel confident about you, which in turn, will affect your ability to sell yourself, your products, and services.

Your goal is to connect with the audience right from the moment you go onstage. What attracts people to you instantly is your enthusiasm, energy, and authenticity in speaking. You can learn how to overcome nervousness simply by:

• Preparing and rehearsing your talk over and over again until it’s second nature.
• Visualize seeing yourself delivering an amazing presentation and the audience applauding you as you finish your talk.
• Before you give your talk, walk around and introduce yourself to the people as they arrive to hear you speak.

Mistakes to Avoid When Planning Your Event

Planning your first event can be very exciting and overwhelming at the same time. There are many facets to planning a successful event. You don’t want to rush into it without a clear plan in place.
Here are four mistakes to avoid when planning your event:

1. Not planning far enough in advance. If you’re planning for 25-40 to attend, give yourself about 60 days to plan. For larger events, give yourself 3-4 months to plan.
2. Doing it all yourself. It’s impossible to do it yourself, especially a live event. Write down everything that needs to be done and hire people to do some of the tasks.
3. Ineffective social media. The key to success is to make sure you are marketing and promoting on the right social medial platforms. Don’t promote just to promote.
4. Not creating a sense of urgency in your marketing. It’s not enough to ask people to register. You have to entice them to do so. The best way to do this is to offer discounted registration prices, also known as Early Bird Specials.

Terrified of Speaking?

Studies have shown that one of the top fears people have is speaking to groups. For some people, when it comes to speaking, they'd rather be the one being eulogized than the person giving the eulogy!

Even well-known celebrities have admitted fears of speaking in public. Barbra Streisand stopped singing for 20 years due to her anxiety about performing in front of an audience.

How many times have you watched a speaker and thought, "I can do that!" And then that little inner critic in your head starts making noise and tells you, "Who am I kidding! I'm not a speaker... I can't do this." The more you think these thoughts, the more you believe it's true. The truth is none of us was born a natural speaker.

When the little inner critic starts making noise, what you should be saying to that voice is, "Thanks for sharing!" Don't let your inner critic sway you from staying in action.

There's nothing wrong with being a little nervous before you speak. In fact, a little bit of adrenalin is good because it keeps you alert, focused, and energized as you speak.

Creating a Strong Foundation as a Speaker

If you want to deliver a powerful presentation, it starts with the preparation even before you go to the front of the room to speak. Here are (5) valuable tips for creating a strong foundation as a speaker.

1. Know who’s in your audience before you speak. Call the event or program planner to find out the profile of the people attending.
2. Arrive early before your presentation and walk around introducing yourself to some of the people.
3. If you’re speaking for half an hour to an hour, your talk should cover only 3-4 points.
4. Let the audience know at the beginning what you’ll be presenting and how long.
5. Speak to only one person at a time for about 4-5 seconds. Speak directly to them, not over their heads. This helps reduce nervousness, increases confidence and connection with the audience.

Make The Call to Action

Many speakers end their talk with just, "Thank you for coming." This is a big mistake. Besides giving lots of value in your talk, the most important part is letting the audience know what "the next steps" are. We call those next steps the "call to action." If you’ve delivered value to your audience, they’re interested in what your offerings are. At the end of your talk is a huge opportunity to present other offerings such as a program or product. Be sure you let the audience know what the “call to action” is before your talk ends.

Keep on Time

Let the audience know at the beginning of your presentation how long you’ll be speaking and when the presentation will be ending. This shows that you respect their time and in return you’ll have their full attention. Often times new nervous speakers don't watch the clock, then end up rushing as they finish, trying to wrap up and answer questions. Not only does this look unprofessional but you will lose the respect of people in the audience who have their own schedules to keep. When you don’t end on time, no matter how great your presentation was, it doesn’t matter… you’ve lost their trust. Always remember to keep on time!

Maintain Structure and Flow

If you don’t have an organized flow to your talk, it will be confusing to follow, and you will lose the audience. As you write your talk, ask yourself these questions: What is the objective of my talk? What points do I want to make? What do I want my audience to walk away with?

1. Tell them what you’re going to tell them,
2. Tell them, and
3. Tell them what you just told them.

This translates into an opening, a body, and a closing.

Don’t Overwhelm

No matter how long your presentation is, be sure not to overwhelm your audience with too much information, however valuable. When they feel overwhelmed, they’ll tune out. As you design your 30-60 minute talk, cover no more than (3) or (4) points. At the start of your presentation let the audience know what the agenda is and how long you’ll be speaking. By doing this, you’re respecting the audience’s time and you’ll then have their full attention for the entire presentation.

More Common Speaking Mistakes and Tips on How to Avoid Them

  
In a previous video, I shared the “5 Common Mistakes Speakers Make.” I received such positive feedback that I decided to share four more tips. These tips will be especially helpful if you’re new to speaking or having difficulty harnessing the “jitters” we’ve all experienced. Identifying these mistakes, and how to overcome them, are sure-fire ways to catapult your success as a speaker. I truly hope you find these four tips helpful and they make a difference for you as a speaker!

 Click here to view the video.