Finding your way into Public Speaking August 24, 2010

Promote your business through public speaking

Public speaking is one of those topics that start palms sweating and hearts beating faster in fear. Why is it that so many of us are terrified to speak in public?  Our knees shake, our voices tremble, our thoughts jumbled, and  we stumble over our words.

But there is hope and its all about practice.  If you can get past the fear you can open yourself up to expert status, increased credibility, and free publicity.

One of the greatest obstacles to public speaking is confidence.  If you can build your confidence, speaking in public becomes a breeze.  Here are a couple of tips to get you started.

1. Create an elevator speech.

If you can talk to others about yourself or your  business you are on your way to becoming and expert public speaker.  Take some time and create an elevator speech. Whats an elevator speech you ask?  Well it is a spiel that grabs immediate attention from the person you are talking to.  If you do it right, instead of saying, for example, “I am a life coach”, you could say something along the lines that “I work with people who are passionate and dedicated to making positive change in their life, to be their best and reach their goals though focus and creative action”. Once you have your speech ready, start using it.  The better you get at giving your elevator speech, the less intimidating a longer speech seems.

2. Start Giving Talks

If you are looking to break into the public speaking market, start close to home.  Locate smaller organisations in your local area, such as clubs, Lions or Rotary groups, and non-profit organisations.  You may not get a pay cheque for these gigs but you will build you confidence, and get free publicity.  Local organisations are always looking for speakers.  Use the yellow pages to do a comprehensive search on various groups you could talk to in your local area.

3. Spread the word.

The easiest way to gather more public speaking opportunities is to tell your friends, family, and colleagues that you are available.  Tell them to be on the lookout for opportunities and ask them to spread the word on their social networks as well.

Just start out small to begin with and remember, your audience really does want you to succeed, so relax.

Speak your passion – Promote you and your business July 11, 2010

Promote your business through Public Speaking

Do you want to be known as the local expert in your industry?  Speaking engagements are the fastest and easiest way to gain expert status.  There are so many organizations looking for people to speak at meetings and conferences that with a little investigating you should be able to fill your calendar.

Once you have booked the speaking engagement, you want to make sure that you aren’t going to bore your listeners to sleep.  Talk about what you know; your business, of course.  Now, don’t simply tell the people about what you do and why you are the best.  You want to relate it to them; find a way to help them.  If you are a personal trainer, you can tell your audience about the best ways to increase fitness levels and overall health.  If you are a spray tan technician, you can share the secrets to that perfect summer tan without the dangers UV exposure.  When looking for speaking engagements make sure that the group can benefit from your specific area of expertise.

If public speaking is note your forte, maybe its time to head to your nearest Toast Masters Group (or similar) and develop your presentation skills and confidence in a supportive, friendly environment. It will ultimately benefit you in both your personal and business dealings.