You are leaving money on the table if public speaking is not a key element in your branding strategy. Public speaking is a “must-have” capability for every business owner. It is time to come out of the shadows and into the spotlight for your business to achieve your dreams, goals, and legacy.

Engaging in public speaking can transform your brand into an authority and create opportunities that might otherwise remain untapped. Public speaking helps you reach a targeted audience more quickly by showcasing your experience and value proposition to people who need your services or products. It’s time to harness this power and elevate your business to new heights by sharing your message with the world.

Conduct Research

If you’re new to public speaking, it’s vitally important to do your research. Create a reference file including top leaders in your field, publications, events, videos and presentations. Review this information to identify your differentiating factors and the unique ways you’re going to serve your audience. This is the opportunity for you to bring a fresh, compelling, and helpful talk to your prospective clients that they have never heard before!

Identify Targets

The most effective approach to grow your business with public speaking requires revisiting your customer profile. You can do this by proceeding with the following steps:

• Take an inventory of where your client gathers—locally, regionally, nationally, and internationally. Where do they get their information? What are their reliable sources for education? Conduct online research to find appropriate industry organizations that appear on Eventbrite and social media, talk with people you meet, and ask members of professional associations. This inventory includes both in-person and virtual events.
• Attend events hosted by these key organizations to get a feel for the audience dynamic.  Who’s in the room? What are their needs? Do your capabilities match up with their pain points? Learn about their members and mission while you network with attendees to determine the talk topic that will resonate and be most useful to them
• Focus on the audience targets where you can be the most helpful with your expertise and make an impact. The more you know about the community you’re trying to reach, the better prepared you will be when you submit a speaker proposal.    

Submit Call for Speakers

Speaking engagements are often obtained by submitting a proposal outlining your topic, learning objectives, bio, and past speaking experience. The steps to submit a proposal include:

• Craft a compelling title that speaks to solving the pain point you identified in your research. You want to capture the ‘aha’ with a hook title and result statement. For example, “Tax Planning and Tax Filings for the Business Owner” transforms into “Maximize Your Business Savings: How Expert Accountants Can Cut Your Tax Bill and Boost Your Financial Health.” See the difference? The second title is more action-oriented and speaks to the desired result or benefit
• Include a topic description or summary with your unique perspective for a specific audience pain point, challenge, opportunity, and the associated benefit. Each topic typically includes 3-5 learning objectives for attendees.  
• Write a compelling bio showcasing your experience, credentials, previous speaking engagements, testimonials, awards, publications, and applicable degrees. Write in the third person and have a long (500 words) and short (200 words) version.

Make sure to review the submission guidelines, criteria, and deadlines, adhering to the word limit. Always keep a draft of the submission so you can revise it and use for other opportunities.

Effective Presentations with a Robust Call to Action

A great talk has an element to motivate the audience to contact you to learn more. Converting your talk to grow your business can be accomplished in these steps:

• Focus on the challenge, pain point, or struggles of your customer and the solution or benefit you provide. This is woven into your talk through talking points and relevant stories.
• Share your solutions for your audience. What can people do or experience after your talk that they could not do before your talk? BAM. this is it! This is the reason they came to hear your talk!
• Incorporate storytelling to show the transformation! This is the “wow factor” you want to leave with your audience.
• Use polling technology to ask the audience the following questions for them to process and think ahead to their next step:
  • What are you going to do now after this talk?
  • When are you going to implement this? Add an exact date. When people write a date, action happens!
• End with an inspiring quote, inspiring closing commentary, or an appropriate song. This emotional and motivational connection with your talk is key.

These strategies for public speaking are proven techniques to grow your business. Be patient with yourself and apply feedback that you learn along the way. Elevating your brand takes time but once you start hearing “yes” you’ll build momentum and more opportunities will come your way.