How to Use Public Speaking to Grow Your Business

NSA TEAM

Public speaking, whether done in-person or virtually, is one of the best ways to grow your business.

By engaging in more public speaking events, you build trust and credibility with your visibility. And if you’re a skilled orator, you can more quickly establish yourself as a go-to expert in your field. Plus, regular public speaking can exponentially grow your network of connections and generate a consistent flow of new leads for your business.

Hands down, public speaking can help grow your business. In fact, in 2017, Warren Buffett famously put a dollar value on the skill of public speaking when addressing a group of Columbia business students — stating they could improve their value by 50% just by learning public speaking.

Now that we’ve covered the “Why” you should use public speaking to grow your business, the rest of this blog will share the details on “How” you can.

1) What to Talk About

You’ll want to focus on your expertise. What do you know better than anyone else? What are you passionate about?

Since we are focusing on growing your business: what does your business or brand solve? How does it help people? If you already know who your target audience is for your business, then you might already know the answers to these questions and can start from there.

Keep in mind, when sharing your expertise the entire talk should not be a sales pitch. Your audience is there to learn, so you need to make sure you deliver valuable insights they can use. Your business should almost be an afterthought. This is especially important for paid events.

You should briefly mention what you do at the beginning (this can help establish credibility), and again at the end and how to reach you. You can also share a link to a free consult about the very topic you covered or a link to a landing page which might give them even more information and an upsell.

The key is to provide value, and any connection to your products or services should be subtle.

2) How to Become a Thought Leader

Becoming a public speaker goes hand in hand with being a thought leader.

A thought leader is someone who contributes a unique voice and meaningful information about  a specific subject. As a thought leader, you bring increased knowledge and awareness to your target audience.

If you aren’t already creating content about your business niche then you should start. That includes blog content, short video blurbs, posts on social media, and more. Ideally, you could use multiple platforms, but if you don’t have the time or resources, social media is a great place to start.

Try hosting a virtual webinar or workshop where you talk about a certain problem and provide tips or insights on how to solve it. Since you’re trying to grow your business through this, you’ll want to figure out a way to tie your products and services into your talk.

Creating and sharing regular content will help you cultivate your status as a thought leader. And if you put the effort in, you will get more speaking opportunities and your business and brand will flourish.

3) How to Find Speaking Opportunities

Start by attending more local events at places where you might like to speak. This might include local schools, universities, organizations (like the Chamber of Commerce) and clubs (Lions Club and Rotary). Be sure to check out local business publications as they usually list industry events.

At the events you attend, connect with the programming chair or event organizer. Let them know you’re a local business owner and public speaker and if they need anyone to fill in to give you a call (and leave your contact info or followup on social media). The more you are around and the more familiar you become, the more likely you will be asked to speak or your request to do so will be accepted.

And you can always use social media and Google as tools to find virtual events as well as worldwide industry events and more. If you want to know more about finding speaking opportunities, check out this in-depth article focused on just that: 7 Ways to Find & Consistently Get Paid Speaking Gigs.

Creating and sharing regular content will help you cultivate your status as a thought leader. And if you put the effort in, you will get more speaking opportunities and your business and brand will flourish.

4) How To Improve

If you need help improving your public speaking skills, the best thing you can do is check out what other successful speakers are doing and practice.

Practice in front of the mirror, your family, your friends, your pets and/or your plants! Practice will help you become more comfortable and ease into your authentic way of speaking.

To learn from other speakers, you can simply look online at some of the most popular, but you should also consider joining an organization or network specific to speakers. There are plenty of professional speakers out there who provide tips to help others get started.. A lot of them are NSA members, so check out our events and range of membership levels to see if one appeals to you.

 

In Closing...

The more public speaking you participate in and experience, the more your confidence will grow and the more your business will grow.  And who knows? Perhaps you will find out that being a speaker is your passion and calling! Regardless of where your career goes, if you want to grow your business and open up a range of opportunities, public speaking can help to do so.