Get Started Public Speaking-NEW

>> Is public speaking something you're interested in adding to your career? In this lecture, we'll cover the steps to take when launching your speaking career. First, let's talk about how public speaking is a great way to build your business and bring in new clients. As you become a more experienced speaker, you can reach out to organizations that will pay to have you come in and speak. You can also use public speaking as a way to solicit new clients. For example, if you're given a free lecture in your town, you can include information at the end of your presentation about your business and health coaching services and invite your audience members to a Health History. How cool is that? Now that we know why public speaking is so awesome, let's talk about some ways that you can get speaking gigs. There are two ways that you can book a talk. One, pitch your talk. This means approaching pre-existing groups, companies and organizations to speak to their audience or members. Examples of groups you might approach are schools and universities, parent-teacher organizations, local clubs such as boys and girls clubs or rotary club, and companies. The great thing about pitching groups like these is that your audience is already in place and you don't have to market the talk. Also, as you grow your public speaking career, you can even get paid to speak to these groups. Number two is to book your own talk. The other option for public speaking is booking your own talk. This is the more do-it-yourself version as you will have to book the venue and promote your talks so you have a full audience. The upside to booking your own talk is that you can speak about whatever you want, structure the talk however you want, and not be limited in what you can say. For example, at the end of your lecture, you can promote Health Histories or one of your programs, whereas if you were to book to speak for a specific group, there might be limitations that prohibit you from speaking about your business. If you do choose to book your own event, make sure to leave enough time to promote your talk before the actual event. You can promote your talk using a variety of methods. You can post flyers around town, go to networking events and tell your colleagues about your talk, create a Facebook or Eventbrite event and invite people in the area to your talk. The key to successfully filling up your event is to get the word out to as many people as possible and give them a compelling reason for showing up. This could be the title of your talk or it could be something that you're offering only to people who show up such as a raffle or giveaway. Both of these methods for booking a talk are useful and you might find yourself doing both as you build your public speaking career. Now let's talk about how to create your speech. When you're speech writing, it's important to keep few things in mind. Number one is the length of time. How much time do you have to present your speech? Sometimes you'll have only 10-15 minutes to speak, or as other times, you'll have upwards of an hour to talk. If you're short on time, you want to focus your speech on the most crucial speaking points. If you have more time, feel free to add in more anecdotes and engage in activities such as paired shares. Number two is to keep it simple. As an Integrative Nutrition Health Coach, we're sure you have a lot of knowledge and wisdom to share with your audience. It can be very compelling to want to offer all the information you have to your audience. However, more often than not, this will overwhelm the audience, leaving many of them without the major takeaways. The best thing you can do when writing your speech is focus on your key points. What do you really want the audience to learn and take away from your talk? If you can impart one, maybe two pieces of wisdom, what would that be? In the Craft your Signature Speech handout, we walk you through all the steps of crafting a great signature speech, including picking your key points. Number three, reiterate your main points. It may seem redundant to say the same thing over and over again, even if you word it differently, however, this is how people best learn. You want to make sure that you're repeating your key points, so that your audience understands that these are the main points that they should be focusing on. This will help your audience to better retain the information you're giving them. Number four is to leave enough time for frequently referring to your Health History and for sharing client's success stories. If you're speaking in an environment where it's okay to promote yourself and your services, make sure to include a couple references to your Health History or your programs in your talk. If you're not allowed to promote yourself, sprinkle some client success stories into your talk, so that your audience understands that you're not just sharing information with them, but that you can also help them achieve the same results that your clients have. Some ways you can incorporate this might be, "And you could be like my client Sally, or how many of you would like that in your own life?" These statements and questions make it clear to your audience that you can help them with their health issues. Now that we've talked about tips to create your speech, let's talk about delivering your speech because this is equally as important. When it comes time to deliver your speech, you want to implement the following steps for optimal results. Number one, show up early. This will give you some time to prepare for your talk, scope out the place, and also give you a chance to meet your audience, which can help if you experience nerves before public speaking. Number two, prepare the space. Before your talk, set up a signup sheet for your mailing list. You can also create a piece of paper to put on the seats that contains information about your programs, and where participants can find more information on working with you. These are both great tools for increasing the likelihood that members of your audience will sign up to work with you. Number three, follow up with your audience. After your talk, you want to follow up with your audience. This could be by emailing everyone who put their name and email on the signup sheet to thank them for attending or to send them a little gift such as a note from your talk or a relevant handout. To recap, we talked about ways to get started with public speaking, including the options for booking a speaking gig. Then we talked about tips for creating your speech. And finally, we talked about what to do before, during, and after your talk. In the next video, we'll be sharing tips for boosting your confidence around public speaking. Check it out, and we'll see you in the next video.