Finding Your Voice; Delivering Your Message

Article by Jackie Lapin

Human beings by nature are driven to help others. Were it not for the pressures of daily live, most people would choose to be in service to others.

One way that is apparent is the growing number of people who are either writing books and/or speaking to change lives. You’ve probably heard the adage that public speaking is the number one greatest fear of
individuals. But that fear can be easily overcome if you reframe the conversation in your mind. The audience is not sitting there in judgement, criticizing how you look, or how you are presenting….they are yearning for what
information you can offer that will ease their pain or make their lives better. If you remember you on that stage to help them—to be in service to the audience—your fear will disappear.

Speaking to change lives can naturally grow your business….and who wouldn’t prefer to live life passionately embracing a mission—than going to a JOB!

So how do you get started? There are three ways—test out your presentation locally when you can tweak and hone what works and what doesn’t, join Toastmasters locally to start improving your skills, or sign up to be coached by a professional speaker trainer, someone who can also help you construct a compelling presentation.

Speaking at a TEDx is a glamorous venture, and can help you get booked elsewhere, but its just a showcase. To attract people into your professional orbit, you’ll need a product, program, offer or book that they can purchase or in which they can enroll, once they hear you on stage. But to get booked, you will need to convince that speaker booker—the gatekeeper at that venue, organization or association that you have relevant information for that specific audience. Bookers are looking for people that solve issues that their community are struggling to overcome…whether those are motivational, emotional, tactical, physical,
financial, or knowledge-based. So you need to demonstrate what it is that you do that can help, heal, advance or inspire that audience. 

A great way to do that is to create a “Speaker One-Sheet”—a one or two page, nicely designed presentation that explains precisely the above. Why YOU? And include some nice 3 to 5 minute video of you presenting, along with the One Sheet and your equest to be brought aboard as a speaker. 

In the early stages, don’t expect to be paid to speak. Take whatever stages are aligned with your audience and your mission. Some may only let you make a free offer, but do so in a why you can capture the audience’s emails, so you can reconnect with them one-on-one later. A great way to do that today is via text offer from the stage, providing a valuable and desirable free piece of content. Graduate to making an offer from the stage, where you are actually inviting people to continue along with you for a fee so they can get more of what you’ve already given them in the presentation. It’s an invitation—NOT a sales pitch. Your next stage will be to step up to professional meetings, associations and events! 

So where would you easily find speaking engagements without doing all the mind-numbing research yourself? There’s a new service called Speakertunity Cities that does the research for you. The company offers Regional Speaker Lead Directories for markets all across the US and Canada. More markets are coming on board each month, with a plan to have 60 completed by the end of 2020. In the interim, they are taking requests for markets yet to be completed. The SpeakerTunity Cities directories provide hundreds—and oftentimes thousands--of direct contact leads for meetings, venues and associations. It’s the fastest way to get on stages to change your life and those you serve!