Latest / The Inspired Speaker Network / How Can Speaking Grow Your Business Faster? | S1E004

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How Can Speaking Grow Your Business Faster? | S1E004 · The Inspired Speaker Network

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  Danielle Benzon: If you're tired of hiding your brilliance behind
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  stage fright scripts or playing it safe, then you are in the
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  perfect place. This is the inspired speaker podcast, and
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  I'm your host, Danielle Benson, professional rebel voice coach,
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  and your guide to speaking with confidence, charisma and zero BS
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  around here, we don't chase perfection. We choose
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  connection. So grab a hot beverage, warm up those vocal
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  cords and get ready to fall wildly in love with the sound of
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  your voice. Let's get inspired. Welcome. I think by now you
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  figured out that I am really biased towards speaking as a
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  marketing practice, because I really care about connecting
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  with humans. I think it's it's more real, it's more authentic,
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  and people get a better sense of who you are. But from a purely
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  business perspective, speaking makes a lot of sense as well.
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  Now I am a creative business was not my first choice when I was
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  thinking about what I was going to do with my life. It just kind
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  of worked out that way, because it was the only way I could do
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  what I wanted to do in the world. But I've learned a lot
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  since then, and as a creative business owner, I've learned a
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  lot about which rules to break and which rules to keep. Most of
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  the rules can be broken, but there are lots of best practices
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  as well and some things that are just true. And one of the things
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  that is just true is that speaking is extremely efficient
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  when we do it well. As far as marketing and conversion, you
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  know, finding leads, converting leads, selling from stage. As
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  far as leveraging our business goes, speaking is one of the
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  best ways to do it, if you do it well, there are a lot of people
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  who spend a lot of money and a lot of energy speaking and not
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  getting the results that they want. That's due to a number of
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  things. Usually it's because they're kind of mismatched
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  somehow, and their audience is feeling it, or they're just, you
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  know, they've got something small they need to tweak. So
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  typically, the reason this works so well is because, as a
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  speaker, you're getting me, you're getting the person you're
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  doing business with. You're getting me on a personal level.
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  So we're getting to build the know, like and trust extremely
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  quickly. You're You're it's kind of like us having a one on one
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  conversation, but I can do it with multiple people at the same
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  time. I can connect on a real, authentic level with multiple
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  people, and I can embody my values in a way that a brand
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  logo or an article just may not it's also harder to skip if
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  you're actually engaged, you're going to engage. You know you're
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  either engaged or not speaking. So there's a lot of reasons why
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  people turn to speaking when they're growing their business,
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  when they're starting their business, and also when they're
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  leveraging, when they're elevating, when they're taking
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  that extra step up to reach more people, to build group programs,
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  instead of working one on one, to reach a larger international
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  audience, speaking is the way to do it. Now I'm using speaking,
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  definitely in the broad sense, not necessarily on a stage,
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  although it absolutely could be. It also might be a YouTube
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  channel or a podcast, anything where you are being real in
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  front of your people. Because if people can see what's on the
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  tin, if they get a really good sense of exactly what it's like
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  to work with you, they can make a better informed decision about
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  whether or not you're a good fit. It just makes total logical
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  sense. Also, the pipeline can be very clean. You know, you can go
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  and speak at someone else's event, and then you can offer
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  either like a call or a lead magnet, and then you have a
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  sales call with that person, and then they might become a client.
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  It could be three or four steps. You could, even, once you get
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  better at speaking, sell from stage and it's just one step.
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  Literally you speak, they buy like it's it's a much cleaner,
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  shorter pipeline than many others out there, especially
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  when it comes to content marketing, especially when it
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  comes to reaching cold leads or expanding your market into
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  places where you haven't before speaking becomes so useful in
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  those situations. The thing is, we don't want to rush into it.
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  We don't want to run before we can walk, and we don't want to
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  waste a lot of money and time and not get results. So one of
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  the things that I offer, one of the things I really love to do,
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  is help speakers get a sense of the entire speaking industry,
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  what's out there, what's optional, what's not optional,
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  what they're like, what their what their paths could be, and
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  then help them make those decisions, because it's not my
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  business, it's your business, and you're the one who knows
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  your clientele best, so together, I can kind of orient
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  you. To show you the map, and you can kind of plot your path
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  on it. For example, when you're at the beginning of your
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  speaking journey, you don't want to be investing you don't want
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  to be investing money. You don't want to be investing too much
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  time. Now we've already spoken about not writing a script, so
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  I'm not going to go back to that my little soapbox. I'm not going
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  to go back to that little soapbox, and we have already
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  talked about nerves, but there is just general practicality
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  that comes with experience. So before you really know your
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  style, before you've tested your product, before you've done all
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  that market research, you're essentially like a baby speaker,
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  and you want to be speaking. You want to be, you know, getting
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  out there and building your experience, if you want to be
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  getting feedback, but you don't want to be investing too much.
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  You don't want it to be an expensive process, because
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  you're still learning. So at this point, we're doing
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  interviews. We're doing podcasts like a guest on the podcast,
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  where someone else can hold you and keep you safe, so you're not
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  all by yourself. You're maybe doing five minute talks at
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  networking events, lots of networking, lots of testing,
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  lots of you know, free trials. And can I test this out on you?
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  Buddy practice is one of the best things. Like, if you have a
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  friend who's doing something similar to you, and you can test
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  out your pitches on one another, your offers. That is amazing.
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  That works so well. So that's where we start. And when you're
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  starting, you're not necessarily selling you're giving things
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  away for free. You're doing your lead magnet. You're having
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  discovery calls. Maybe they turn into sales calls, hey, wouldn't
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  that be nice? But that's not necessarily what you're focusing
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  on. And then once you get better and you get more confident, once
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  the kind of, oh, I can do this and not die, kind of kicks in,
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  then we start to look at how we can turn this into a proper
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  business model. So this is when you know you speak and you
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  invite people on a call with you, or you invite people to
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  come to your workshop for free, or you have a beautiful
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  downloadable and get them on your mailing list, depending on
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  how long your sales cycle is, everyone is different. Ideally,
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  we want to cut it down. We don't want to spend too much time. You
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  want to have different options. So if people want to work with
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  you straight away, you want that option to be available. But for
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  all of the people who don't say yes straight away, but they're
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  still interested, you gotta give them a chance to lurk a little
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  bit, to stalk you a little so that they can get to know you a
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  bit better. So ideally you want those kind of like a fast action
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  option and something that's more gentle, something where they can
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  get to know you a little bit better. So that's where we want
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  to start. Now there are a lot of speaking opportunities out
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  there. There's lots of summits, and more and more summits than I
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  think there are speakers to fill them. To be honest, there's so
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  much going on. There isn't a lack of speaking opportunity. So
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  you need to be careful about where you're spending your
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  energy. Are you doing something that is effective, that is
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  useful for you in this moment? Is your ideal audience there? If
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  you are taking speaking gigs that aren't in front of your
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  ideal audience, you'd better be doing that because you are so
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  terrified. You just want to, you know, survive and not die as
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  soon as you're out of that I can speak and not die stage, you
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  should be choosing your stages more carefully. You should be
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  thinking, who's there? Who can I interact with? How can I get
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  something back from this, even if it's not clients? Can it be
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  data? Can it be market research? What can I get from this, even
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  if it's just a recording for your sizzle reel, looking at
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  ways to get something back in your investment, you're showing
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  up, you're putting a lot of energy into it. You're giving of
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  your heart and soul. You definitely want to be getting a
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  return. You definitely want to be getting a return now,
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  eventually, you're going to be perhaps doing paid keynotes or
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  running your own podcast or YouTube channel or your own
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  summits, or you're speaking on other people's stages and
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  selling high ticket offers from other people's stages or your
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  own stage. These are all absolutely possible. I would not
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  start there. I would not begin at the advanced level, just
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  because this is a difficult industry already. There's lots
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  of moving pieces, and if you're not feeling authentic, if you're
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  not super plugged in, everyone is going to feel that little
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  mismatch, and you're not going to get the results that you
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  want. Because this honestly, is the main reason why people, I
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  mean, other than not being in front of their target market,
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  like if you're in front of your target market and you have a
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  good offer, the main reason people don't get results is
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  because their body voice instrument is not in alignment
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  with what they're saying. So something's not feeling quite
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  right, and that can really sabotage it, can undermine your
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  message. So let's look at something that you can do.
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  I'm going to give you an exercise, something that you can
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  do if you're feeling. Yeah, you know, we talked about those
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  nerves. If you're feeling those nerves and you're you're feeling
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  insecure, you're feeling, Why does anybody, why would anyone
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  want to work with me? And I know this is important, but, you
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  know, there's always a but, you know, if you're feeling that,
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  and you're not totally plugged into this is an amazing deal,
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  and they would be silly to say no, if that's not how you're
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  feeling. Here's a little trick. Typically, fear creates tension.
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  So when we're scared, we tend to, like tense up, especially in
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  the throat, especially in the shoulders, and we can get kind
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  of and disconnected from our voices. And if we start into an
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  offer like this, in this kind of apologetic state. We're not
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  going to make any sales. It doesn't matter how good your
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  offer is, you're probably not going to make any sales. So what
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  you want to do ideally have a bit of a break before you make
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  an offer, and when you do, make sure that you're relaxed and
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  you're feeling good and comfortable. So if you have a
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  couple of seconds to go off camera, if you're feeling that
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  tension come in, that tension that is the enemy of self
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  expression, it is the enemy of connection. We want to get rid
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  of that tension, so we're going to do a wobble. And I know it's
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  silly, but it works. Okay. Do wobble for me.
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  And that wobble. It's got to be your whole body, not just that
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  performative wobble. No, no, no, no. We want the whole body to
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  wobble so your pelvis, your body, your knees, your shoulders
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  and your belly and your jaw. It's not dignified. That's okay.
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  No one's gonna watch you do it. I mean, you're all watching me
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  do it, but that's okay. And the reason the wobble is so
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  effective, it's, it's portable. You can take it anywhere. I have
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  a long vocal warm up that I do for myself, but it's not
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  something you can do, like in a bathroom or, you know, quickly
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  while you turn your camera off. It's the whole thing. This is
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  just like a reset. It's like a nervous system, body, breath,
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  blood reset. And it works really well because it wobbles the
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  tension out of you. And tension is the enemy, relaxation,
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  energy. Those are the things that you want. So we can wobble
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  the tension out, then we can be loose enough. And if we can
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  ground ourselves, we can be loose enough to let that passion
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  and that energy and that joy kick in. Because if you come at
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  your offer from a place of even if you've never sold it before,
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  you know, I've never sold this, but it's awesome, and I'm so
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  excited about it, if you come from that angle, you will make
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  sales. People will be so excited about your enthusiasm. And I'm
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  not saying fake it, never fake it, but tap into that part of
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  you that is doing is the reason that you're doing what you're
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  doing. Tap into that deep truth that the reason that you got
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  into this in the first place, and wobble that in now a quick
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  check test to do when you're wobbling, if you wobble and your
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  voice sounds like that, if you can have a controlled voice
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  while you're wobbling, if your voice sounds pretty good and put
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  together, you're doing it wrong. Hate to tell you, but the whole
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  point of the wobble is to recalibrate, bring everything
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  back together, because we've disconnected from the tension,
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  so we need to bring it all back together. So the wobble should
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  affect your voice. I shouldn't be able to talk very clearly
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  while I'm doing the wobble, and that is a fantastic check for
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  you to go. Okay, am I connected? Am I physically in my body? Am I
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  here? Am I ready to go? Am I feeling embodying my passion? Am
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  I connected and ready to connect with my audience? And if you
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  are, that is when speaking can become so freaking easy as a
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  business owner, is the easiest way to make sales, not because
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  you're not because you're cheating anybody, not because
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  you're lying, not because you're faking something or skipping a
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  step, but because it's an efficient way to really show who
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  you are, to embody your values, to connect with your audience
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  without all the garbage in between, we've got a clear
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  connection. And that is what they want. They want to know if
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  they can trust you. They want to know if you're going to deliver
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  what you have to deliver. So there's lots out there. There
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  are so many, so many resources out there for you to start
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  speaking. If you're just, if you're just, if you're just
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  starting out and you're nervous and you're just getting going,
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  there's lots of options. But if you're at the point where you're
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  ready to either start thinking about making sales, or if you
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  have tried to, but it's not really working, I invite you to
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  jump on a call with me. We're going to do a success. This
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  mapping session, a speaking success mapping session, and
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  it's complimentary. I will not kind of goad you into anything.
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  There are no strings attached. It's not a singles call. If you
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  decide you want to work with me, of course you are welcome to,
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  but that's not the point of the call. The call is a gift to you
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  to help you orient yourself within the speaking industry, to
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  figure out what your weaknesses are, what your strengths are,
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  and maybe what it is that you're doing that isn't serving you or
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  what you need to do next to get to where you want to be. So if
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  you're interested in that, there's a link, just click on
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  that and book a speaking success mapping session. It's hard to
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  say speaking success mapping session book that with me, and I
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  would be overjoyed to help you orient yourself, find your
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  place, where you are, where you've been, where you're going,
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  where you are right now, and what you're working on, and help
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  you get to that next step. Because sometimes we can get a
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  little stuck. We can get, you know, stuck in that valley, and
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  we can't see where we're supposed to go, and we don't
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  know which road to take. So from someone who has the map, let me
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  help you orient yourself and figure it out. Because everyone
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  is different. Every business is different. There's no one way.
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  There's no silver bullet, but speaking is efficient. It's an
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  efficient way to build your business. So if that's something
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  that you're interested in, please hit me up. I would be
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  absolutely overjoyed to help you out with that. Until then, I'll
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  see you next time you.