Public Speaking: Its Many Benefits Can Grow Your Business
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Free Download - Can Becoming a “Thoughtleader” Give You an Edge? Attempts to Quantify Its ROI Say YES By Ken Lizotte |
Smart professionals well understand the value of relationship building in developing and keeping new business. What better vehicle to further such cause than an event at which you are a featured speaker? Speaking multiplies the benefits of networking by initiating face-to-face personal connections. By addressing a topic which illustrates something you know about, you’ll be pleasantly surprised at how fruitful public speaking can be. New prospects and clients will come out of the woodwork, or at least the folding chairs!
Public speaking provides value in other ways too, including:
1. Helping you organize and deepen your thoughts and expertise
2. Forcing you to think quickly on your feet, which can economize and refine the way you articulate your value proposition
3. Helping you perceive your own concepts in a new light, especially when asked about a point you made in a fresh way, a perspective you hadn't thought of before. You may even learn something new about your client base when an attendee describes a personal experience or a provocative business dilemma
But I’m Afraid to Speak!
Some people get stuck before they even begin, however, mainly due to the age-old maxim that public speaking is feared (as survey-takers consistently report) even more than death. If that describes you, consider these tips for getting past this fear of speaking to a crowd:
• Practice speaking in a safe setting via public speaking courses at colleges and community adult education centers or through Toastmasters International, an informal speaking practice club found in most regions. In such venues, individuals get together to coach one another on their speaking skills. Also check out the National Speakers Association, which likely sponsors a chapter near you. This professional association can help you fully integrate public speaking into your business development repertoire.
• Recognize speaking opportunities when you see them. Sometimes seemingly mundane situations can be beneficial not only for practicing public speaking but for promoting your brand as well, for example voluntary elevator pitches at networking events. Speak when you can, even if only for 30 seconds!
• Work through the bumps. As you go out and speak, expect to experience ups and downs. There will be times when you wish you had never gotten up on a stage or behind a lectern but if you keep at it, you’ll eventually grow better and better. Plus a newfound confidence will develop for you as well.
What Do Meeting Planners Want?
If you decide to make speaking a component of your marketing, you’ll need to investigate what conference and meeting planners are looking for. Most professional events typically have themes, so reviewing an event’s speaker guidelines and past agendas carefully enables you to know where you might fit in, and how.
For example, many legal or engineering associations prefer to stress topics that are professional-technical in nature, such as seminars on new regulations, changes in laws, new technological developments or accounting procedures. If you can speak to such issues, you may find yourself in great demand as a speaker for such groups.
On the other hand, other event planners seek broader topics, requiring you to adapt to a wider audience. You always want to be sure your knowledge is tailored to whatever a particular audience is seeking.
A Word about PowerPoint
Once at a speaking gig in New Jersey, I did my usual thing, which typically involves talking to and interacting with my audience without the aid of charts, slides or overheads. After I finished, one attendee came up and thanked me profusely “for not using PowerPoint.” She’d gotten so tired of trying to follow keep all the bullet points on slides most speakers insist on including.
The development of PPT overuse coupled with just-plain-bad PPT presentations has given birth to a PowerPoint resistance movement. Tom Kennedy, a speech coach in Boston, actually refers to PPT badness as “Death by PowerPoint.” He recommends that speakers either give up slides altogether or at least put your presentation together first, then choose your slides later. “If it’s not truly a visual aid,” Tom says, “then it becomes your competition!”
So practice speaking without your slides and speak wherever you can, wherever you can. Via practice, you’ll learn to communicate directly and fluidly with your audience, and spontaneously, comfortably and confidently. One day you’ll find yourself actually looking forward to a chance to share your knowledge and ideas with an audience, showing off your “expert’s edge.” When such day comes, public speaking will be in your blood, deepening your career, furthering your ambitions, and accelerating your connections and profits.
Public Speaking Its Many Benefits Can Grow Your Business - To learn more about this author, visit Ken Lizotte's Website.
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