The Power Of A Signature Talk: Saying Yes & Staying Visible (Even When You’re Swamped!)

In the busy world of entrepreneurship, it’s often challenging to say yes to when opportunities knock. When you’re swamped with work, getting in front of new audiences can take a back seat. It’s all too easy to fall into ‘when/then’ syndrome, promising yourself that you’ll make time later.

But visibility helps consistently keep leads and clients coming in the door of your business-so your economic engine can keep chugging along. And the key to keeping it going? Your signature talk.

It’s the tool every business owner needs so you’re empowered to confidently say yes, without needing to reinvent the wheel every time you take the stage. Tune into this episode to find out how to use a signature talk to keep you in the spotlight, build your brand, and cement your status as the go-to expert in your niche, even in your busiest of times.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

It's the hangover head game that is the worst. It is the worst. Yeah, it doesn't prevent them from putting back out there, but it does exhaust a bit. That second guessing leads to kind of over-complicating things. What happens is sometimes we then try to over-complicate what we're teaching, to sound a little smarter, sound a little fancier. Sometimes we sneak a little bit more into our stories, really trying to prove that we know what we're talking about. You see, it surfaces up in different ways and we don't actually even realize those two things are connected. But it is a big challenge, a big problem, I see. So the thing is, is one just getting yourselves out there on stages more consistently? That's just step one. Step two is managing the how you're showing up and how the head game might actually be sabotaging how you show up.

Speaker 1: 0:57

This is the podcast for the entrepreneur who wants to make a big impact, who doesn't shy away from hard work but also wants to enjoy life along the way. Hi, I'm Heather Sager, former executive-turned-entrepreneur, and I've spent the last 20 years working with premium brands on sales, marketing and communication, and I've learned that when you become a magnet with your message, you only need a hint of hustle to achieve your goals. Get ready to be inspired and ignited each week with tangible strategies on sales, speaking, marketing and so much more. This is the Hint of Hustle podcast. Let's go, and now let's get started. Well, hey friend, welcome back to another episode of the Hint of Hustle podcast. I am recording again from a podcast studio in downtown Bend. My house is swarmed with children my kids, my scissors in town with her three kids, so they are all entertaining each other and I snug away for a few hours, booked this recording space, and I am cranking some stuff out today, preparing for our upcoming launch and also preparing for getting ahead on podcast episodes, because I only have a few months left until the bomb drops, and that bomb is this baby that I'm carrying. So I'm really having to work ahead, which, if you've listened to this show previously, I have an entire episode talking about why I don't batch content and I also, on that episode, stood behind. Different seasons bring different reasons for choices in your business and I'm in a season where I have to get some batching done.

Speaker 1: 2:59

But this episode today, what I really want to talk with you about is navigating a problem that I see a lot of business owners have when they get going with speaking when they decide to start really getting more visible in their business and they're going yeah, I want to do all the things, heather, I've heard you say. All right, I want to talk on different stages. Okay, I'm going to start pitching myself. I'm going to start getting out there on podcasts. I'm going to start. I'm going to raise my hand to be a guest inside someone's group or hey, I'm going to pitch this upcoming conference. I think that would be great and that makes me super excited, because having the courage to start putting yourself out there is huge. And even if you're like, well, I wasn't really scared of it anyways, I just didn't have time for it, that's cool too. I think making the time to put yourself out there is also courageous, because I think a lot of times in business owners we can get really stuck in the excuse of oh, there's so many things that have to get done, there's so many things that have to get done. Those other things are like a nice to have that one day. I'll get to that one day, like when I have more time in the winter, then I'll focus on pitching. Or once I get through this program launch, then I'll start actively pitching myself and putting myself out there. And if you ever find yourself doing that, when, then I call it the wind-men syndrome, where you start future planning things out, but not in the effective planning way, more in the excuse for not doing it now kind of way, it's the delayed implementation. What happens? Do we get so busy with all of the? It's like we've put our businesses on the train tracks and the train is moving and it's like you can't get off because you're just trying to keep up with what you've created. But the challenge is, what you've created isn't producing the results you're after. But do I stop the train? Do I slow down the train? How the hell do I jump off the train and do some repairs? Well, the train is still moving.

Speaker 1: 5:13

Case in point if you're like me and you have a podcast great example. If you have a podcast, you're committed to showing up every single week and with that commitment you're committed to plan your episodes. You have to record those episodes. You or someone has to edit those episodes, add in the music, edit out the blowing up the nose, whatever else you edit out of your show. I use that example because I just had to do that a bit ago you have to then load it up into your podcast system. We use Buzzsprout on our show. You then have to write up a little description. You need to title the show oh my goodness. Then we have to tell people about it. So we have to post about it. We send it to our email list.

Speaker 1: 5:58

There's all these things, and what I find oftentimes with business owners is they start out real strong doing those things and then it becomes oh my gosh, the train is moving so fast. How do I stream on this down a little bit, start cutting corners a bit, and then we start adding more things to our plate. And I bring all this up because something like I know I need to get myself out there more. We don't have time for it when we already have all these commitments, for all of this. It's not even necessarily busy work, but the business we've built requires a lot of time and attention. Now, side note, if you were around the show in the spring, I talked a lot about how systems are so critical. But even still, what I find when I really get to the heart of it with most business owners and we talk about okay, so why are you not actively getting yourself out there right now, and or if you are getting yourself out there right now, why do you think you're not getting the results you're after?

Speaker 1: 6:59

And a couple of things typically come up. Number one there are some inner hesitancies Now, whether that's self-doubt, whether that's a is my shit good enough yet? Or a, my program is quite not ready for me to explode with visibility. So I want to get that already first, which is total bullshit. Y'all Total and complete. You like cart for the horse, like get out there, start refining your message. I'll make your program better. But so that's one area. And, by the way, if you do struggle with some of those internal head games we all do, by the way, we all do, even side side, here we go, even people that you would never think struggle with that. Oh, they do, oh they do. And the thing is, is for them, it feels and this is probably you, if you listen to this, if you're already out there, if you're already speaking, if you're already showing up on your voice. It's not like that nagging and posture syndrome or self-critic is like preventing you from taking action. You've gotten used to taking action, even with that voice.

Speaker 1: 8:15

The hard part is, is the second guessing you do of yourself right before you take the stage or what I find is right after. That is the worst. And it's hard to say that because I don't know if you're like me, I have a high when I get off stage, like it is a little late at like I'm a high, I'm like, yes, I'm so damn good. And then the hangover sits in. It's a stage hangover. It sits in where you start thinking and running the play by play back through your head and then you start questioning like I thought it was good, but was it actually good? Was it actually affected? Points that even make fricked, did that even make sense?

Speaker 1: 8:56

And the hard part is is when those that inner loop is happening. It gets really judgy, hyper critical, and it often comes from a place of we don't know how to critique ourselves when it comes to communication skills, public speaking skills of any kind, and it's because our experience with critiquing is watching other people and judging, or back in speech class and high school counting ums or like that kind of thing, right, so we don't know how to critique. So since we don't know how to effectively critique ourselves, we like, we like go for the jugular in those thoughts. I don't know if it's you like. I definitely have had that experience and that's what I find a lot of times with my clients who are already out there speaking, is that it's the, it's the hangover head game. That is the worst. It is the worst. Yeah, it doesn't prevent them from putting back out there, but it does exhaust a bit.

Speaker 1: 9:54

That that second guessing leads to kind of overcomplicating things. What happens is sometimes we then try to over complicate what we're teaching, to sound a little smarter, send a little fancier. Sometimes we sneak a little bit more into our stories, really trying to prove that we know what we're talking about. You see, it surfaces up in different ways and we don't actually even realize those two things are connected. But it is a big challenge, a big problem, I see. So the thing is, is one just getting yourselves out there on stage is more consistently? That's just step one. Step two is managing the how you're showing up and how the head game might actually be sabotaging how you show up. Now all this to say you're like All right, heather, you're kind of pegging me right here. I like fit into both those categories, or you really got me with that one thing that you said there about the hangover. I hear you, I I struggled with this for years and I just thought it was part of putting yourself out there.

Speaker 1: 10:59

I just thought it was part of living that life where you were going to be on stages or you were going to do public speaking or giving presentations. And then I realized something that changed the game for me and it wasn't intentional, but it's. Once I realized it, I was like, oh, oh, oh, okay. So here it is. So you know I've shared this before. My like. I've been speaking on stages for 20 years, but professionally speaking, like business style keynote talks, presentations, really effectively helping audiences take action is for the last 15 years.

Speaker 1: 11:46

But for 10 of those I worked in corporate. I was the head of a training department and my job was to lead the trainings for our clients. Now, the cool part about that company was we had what was what was called members. So if we were to translate that over to the online space, think about like a membership. But the membership was more of a like a management firm or consulting. So the case in point, these weren't like potential people coming to our training sessions, these were our clients and they would come to trainings over and, over and over again and they would bring their teams. That's a may or may not be an important detail to the story. We'll circle back to that.

Speaker 1: 12:29

Anyways, what I found is there were a certain certain number of talks that I would build and then deliver. We had a couple specific events that we would do like three times a year, and so the first year that I was the head of the department delivering the keynote on stage, the first few times I gave the talks. They were really good, they were very story driven. I talked about this before I stood on stage in front of these doctors and I shared my story of hearing loss and I really connected to their hearts and helped them reconnect to their why, and that was really powerful. And then I connected that to the teaching and it was good. And that first time I did that, it felt really good. The high was really good. I got that speaker's high Many of us have experienced and I did that a couple times.

Speaker 1: 13:18

And what was interesting is, as I got more familiar with the audience, more familiar with the topic, I started changing the talk a bit and started making a talk yes, still story based, but I added some more meat in it. And what happened when I started delivering a quote unquote new talk. That's when the head game came back in. That's when, after the talks, people were giving me all this praise. I mean people would cry with me sharing my story. People would then tell me at the next event that oh my gosh, heather, I shared your story with one of my patients. I like my hearing loss story specifically and I've never told the entire story here on the podcast, but of course it's the one that I told was very specific to the audiology industry, but it really made a huge impact and so I led with the story and then had the teaching second. But once I started really making it more of a keynote talk that we've story and teaching in, because it was setting up this whole conference, once I kind of packaged things up and built the talk the night before, the week before and delivered it, that head game would get really strong. And here's what I noticed Every time I had to deliver a seemingly new presentation.

Speaker 1: 14:33

So whether that was to one of those events or I would often get shoulder tapped to fly to another city and be part of a presentation team that would be delivering talks to manufacturers. So for example and it was to me at the time. They were looking to sell that organization to our management firm, to a hearing aid manufacturer. So I was being shoulder tapped to come present what my team and I did to these different manufacturers. I'd fly to New York, flew to Denmark, flew to Minneapolis, like all of the place, giving these presentations around how we do training in organization, to get these doctors listening to us. And here's what was interesting. So I had different kinds of presentations. Right, we would give presentations to prospective members, presentations to current clients, presentations to potential buyers of the company, and then, within the client presentations, I had one around like patient experience, I had another one around leadership, around team dynamic. I had all these different topics. Okay, circling back, why this is relevant. How's this? Come back to the head game hangover I mentioned.

Speaker 1: 15:37

The interesting thing that I found over time is the first time I did a talk, it typically came down to the wire. It typically does. I built it the night before and the first time I gave it I was like, well, I had that high. I had that high, that was so fun, that was so great, and when I got on the plane or back to the hotel room, I would do that. Oh, but was it what? Like? Ooh, I should have spent a little bit more time, I, and then that little inner game, and I got good at fighting that inner game, but it would always come up.

Speaker 1: 16:08

But what was interesting is, once I had the first round of the talk, I never had to build it again. I could then refine it and so, instead of building the talk the night before, I was able to think about like, oh, how did they react? How did it go? I refined it a bit and this is what led me to the iterative process, the draft process, if you will, of creating talks. Now this is really the thing that helped me fight my inner game, that inner like what a coulda shoulda type of thing. But it was the nailing, the right talk topic. That was the game changer. Let me say that again. So the iterative process, it's something that I call the shitty rough draft process, the SRD process.

Speaker 1: 17:05

I teach inside my programs I've talked about it before on the show which is like we just have to get that shitty rough draft down, that first version done, and then start refining it. That is the process. You have to be willing to be messy to get to the part where we can be magnetic. That is what I teach. That is the process. But oftentimes people hear that of okay, heather, I hear you, I just got to get the draft done. Okay, I have a talk, now I'm just going to refine it. You see, I realized when I was telling people this I was doing them a disservice because people would hear me go oh, I got to embrace the crappy, rough draft process. I just got to, like, keep going, I just got to keep, just testing it. What was happening is people would just be testing it.

Speaker 1: 17:47

But remember earlier how I said that most business owners don't know how to critique themselves. They've never taken an official public speaking class. Or if they have, it was like here's how to use hand gestures, or here's how to use umps, or let's talk about your vocal tone, which those things I like? Laugh and mock about it. They're all important, but they lack the teaching and the awareness of when it comes to speaking.

Speaker 1: 18:12

When you're using speaking as a marketing tool, as a business owner, when you're making your voice and you're teaching become an asset for your business to connect with potential clients, you have a responsibility to ensure the substance of that talk hits the mark. So process number one for dealing with that hangover effect with your head name is embracing that iterative process. You're not going to get it right out of the gate and it will be a process. But the second part of it is you really have to ensure that you're nailing your message in order for it to do its job. Now, what do I mean by job? Like talked about this before.

Speaker 1: 18:54

I'll link to the episode where I talk about the different objectives that can be in play when it comes to speaking, or if you're listening to this live, you should just come over and join me in my free audio series, that becoming the known authority. I walk you through this exactly and I talked to you about how to make what I'm talking about today happen. But what you'll have to understand is when you're just teaching to share knowledge, you can talk about whatever the hell you want, but when you're teaching to create a true impact which means you are able to monetize that and reap the rewards of your time on stage, and your audience also reaps the reward of hearing you and experiencing you on stage they're not only inspired, they're ignited to take action, to see the world differently, to do something differently, to take action to help them get where they want to go. You see, when you want to make an impact, you have a responsibility to be more intentional and less flighty and less emotional and what's on the flavor of the week when it comes to your message. Now, it's probably going to be no surprise to you that I think the best way to do that is by having a signature talk. Now, I believe that every single expert must have a signature talk. Every expert must have a signature talk.

Speaker 1: 20:21

And if you're creating an information business right, whether you are selling courses or a membership coaching services, maybe you're doing consulting or you're doing one-on-one services there is a thing that you do and you do it really damn well. There's a reason why you do it. There's a reason why your audience needs you to do it, the reason why they need you and their help being able to package that up in a talk, aka in a message that magnetizes your perfect fit client. Can you just think about it for a second? How much time would you save instead of chasing and trying to find clients and trying to like reinvent the wheel or come up with what am I going to talk about, or when a speaking opportunity comes your way, or you do say, hey, I'm really busy right now, but I should get out there a little bit more. If you had a go-to topic or a couple topics to grab from, don't you think you would kind of be like I can't use the excuse if I'm too busy?

Speaker 1: 21:25

If you knew what you were talking about, if you could just show up for a podcast interview and deliver your genius with confidence, knowing that these are the talking points you need to hit to serve your audience like knock their socks off and know that it'll get you results in your business by driving your authority up, driving your leads up and then ultimately driving your sales up, wouldn't that be worth? Like pausing for a hot second on writing your show notes or your newsletter or whatever it is that's on your cleaning out your drop box or whatever it is that's on your have to get it done list? This week your signature talk is it's not just about it's going to be a bold statement, it's not just about speaking, it's not just about being confident on stage. And what you're talking about your signature talk is a time saver, my friend, because how much time do you spend in your head spending over and over going like what should I post this week? What should I talk about this week? I want a pitch, but what topics should I do? I don't know if these are active things that you're thinking about, but they're delayed tactics for why you're not out there in a bigger way.

Speaker 1: 22:31

Instead, we're trying to figure out like oh, how do I become more effective at reels? How do I? Oh wait, do we have hashtags? Is that a thing? Oh, no, we're using keywords, but do I put them in the caption? Do I put them in the post? Wait? Okay, hold on, I need to start Facebook. Groups. Are back y'all? I need to start a Facebook group, or? Oh wait, I'm hearing private podcasts or a thing. Let me do one of those. Heather did one, I should do one, too.

Speaker 1: 22:56

We keep chasing and frogger hopping, thinking that we're going to find a strategy that's going to put us in front of our ideal person. But here's the thing. I'm old school in this way. I like tactics that are like new and sexy and fun to try, but I stick with classic strategies that I know work. I know, above all, when you're an expert, when you show up and talk about your expertise in a super effective way. That means people where they are. That converts and it converts very well.

Speaker 1: 23:32

Now the thing is, is what I have noticed so recently, modeling out I'm making some changes to my frameworks in my business and just how I teach things. I've really learned so much these last five, six years and how I'm talking about what I do right now is I help business owners message, market and monetize their expertise. Those are my lanes. The message piece is the okay, what are we talking about? How do we structure that message? How do we really get it right so it has the results you're looking for for you and your business? That second piece around market how do we market it? How do we get you on more stages? How do we package it up so that you're seen as that expert? How do we make sure that you look legit online, have like that speaker page, that bio, all those pieces? How do we really build up your stage and get on other people's and then monetize? How do we connect all these efforts into actual profitability for your business? So how does it connect to your programs? How do you sell from the stage? How do you sell yourself as a speaker? How do you book consulting gigs on the back end. How do you effectively sell on the back end into your programs, all these things? Those are my three lanes and it's gotten really clear for me over the last six months.

Speaker 1: 24:47

But what I noticed is people who do what I do, who teach speaking, or business coaches who teach visibility. They typically play in one of those three lanes where they talk about, like build the I just knocked over my microphone. They tell you like okay, build the talk little checklist thing here. And where they really focus and like let's market it, let's market it, let's get you out there, let's make money. I'm going to teach you how to sell from the stage. I'm going to teach you how to like make all this stuff as a whatever speaker, and that's all well and great. And what happens is your soul like, here's the tried and true formulas and the strategies and then this to get out there. But you're still left with that same damn problem, which is but am I talking about the right thing and how do I do it? A way that stays an integrity, where I feel good about it, where I like, I feel like I'm bringing my true heart, my true self. I'm not trying to hide between our behind NLP tactics or psychology phrasing to manipulate people or that you're trying to like fit into a script because you think you have to.

Speaker 1: 25:59

I find that the people who teach the business side of speaking really lack on the effective how to craft a presentation that gets you results and makes your audience feel so delighted and just so thrilled that they were able to hear you, both from an inspiration perspective, but also from an impact, because it lives on with them and they take it with them and do something with it Right. On the other end, I see other speaker coaches. This is not to throw anyone down. I just want to help you understand that there is a nuance between these things. On the other end, I see a lot of speaker coaches who have been speakers and they got their star as news anchors or have reporters or actors or actresses and they just love the artistry and the entertainment of being on stage and that's super cool, right? That's not my background. I was a performer and I was little. I used to sing a lot, but I don't have the stage whatever. I mean, I've learned it over the last 20 years. Oh hell, I've learned it between my experience at Miss America, between speaking on stages, delivering presentations and corporate. We've talked about this before.

Speaker 1: 27:02

Because of my hearing loss, I read body language and I'm very expressive with my own. That is by design. I have stared in the mirror at myself for hours at a time. No, not because I'm vain, but because I'm curious what my face does when I'm speak. I have stood in front of a mirror and I've watched my hand gestures for kids, you know. Three years straight I took every single phone call streaming through earbuds or my hearing aids when I had them, and I took them standing up in my office at my old job and I walked around the room to practice walking, listening, walking talking, practice hand gestures while speaking, hand gestures while listening. I was on a mission to say how do I make my hands look less long and awkward and gangly and how do I make them feel more graceful and intentional when I speak? So, yes, the stage artistry and experience I have definitely mastered and I understand where people get stuck and I teach that too.

Speaker 1: 27:58

But a lot of times, people who teach speaking skills and public speaking, they're really missing the acumen around. But how do we drive results for the business, your business Like? How do we get results for you and your business and not just create a really powerful experience for the audience. I believe you can have both, but here's where these two things collide the iterative process that I mentioned before around speaking. Where most people want to do is they want to focus their time on the marketing and the monetization of the. Okay, how do I get my expertise out there? How do I package it up? How do I get more people looking at it? How do I do this? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 28:39

But the message having that really good message AKA I believe that's through a signature talk that becomes the magnet that people are drawn to you, speaking opportunities come to you. That when you're marketing and monetizing all that's amplified by a really good magnet AKA an effective talk, an effective message. So what I have really gotten clear of is where my sweet spot is and this is what I'm going to encourage you to embody for yourself is I embrace the iterative process, getting your message nailed. It's one of the things we do inside the signature talk accelerator. Signature talk accelerator is all about like that stage one of getting your message nailed. It's how do we actually take your expertise, package it up in a specific structure that meets your audience where they are, gets all the right talking points to help them, like hit the head nods of yeah, okay, this is what's going on, this is what I want. This is the person to learn from and drives them into the next action.

Speaker 1: 29:42

Well, that could be working with you. It could be a homework assignment you give them whatever the action is right, but sometimes we're not speaking to like sell something right. Sometimes we're being paid to speak, so there's a deliverable that we're giving, which is the talk, and we want them to be successful with that talk, so with the message. What I want you to think about is we want to get your signature talk to the point where you have a version that is done. That isn't just like I slammed it together and now I'm going to test it, but it's intentional, it's well designed. You have the draft, you've developed the slides, your key talking points. You know your stories. It's not going to be perfect, but we can get you to kind of stage one delivery we call it your talk run through, where you deliver it in front of a live audience so you can get all the weird transitions, all the like, everything out, so that you can objectively look at it and say am I hitting all the pieces and how do you actually evaluate that and say how am I measuring the effectiveness of it? Once we have that message, that first kind of pass at that magnet of a message, then we can focus on marketing it, monetizing it and then refining that message over time.

Speaker 1: 31:00

That is the process of how you truly become a thought leader, how you truly become that like go to person in your field as you have to be known for something, which means you have to like boom, put the flag on the ground and say, all right, my signature talk topic and the way that I structure it. That is how you start saying, all right, this is my thing, and other people start recognizing you as known for that thing. That's where this comes about. Okay, let me get back to my notes here, because I went on a little side tangent there which was really beautiful and hopefully enjoyed it. Now what I hear a lot from business owners is going I don't really have one signature thing. You might be thinking this too of like, just nail it down to one thing is really freaking me out. So if the term signature talk, if that isn't one intimidating to you or you feel like it's too constricting. Why don't we swap the term signature with damn good? So, instead of a signature talk, I want you to think about this, I want you to create a damn good talk. That's the switch. So, the same way that we create a signature talk, the processes that we follow.

Speaker 1: 32:21

Long before I had a business and I had to be known for this one thing that I do now I was delivering presentations that they mentioned before to prospects, sales presentations to potential buyers, to different audience groups. So I was working with office managers versus business owners, versus front office staff versus back office staff. I was teaching leadership or customer experience, or patient retention, like all these different topics, right, but every time I delivered a talk, it had to be effective. There was a structure that I developed and that I started using to build all of my talks, to get results from those talks. The word signature, full disclosure. I didn't start using that word until I got into this space of public speaking, coaching, working with business owners and realizing all right, we got to be known for this one thing we got to build your main talk. That's what I called it at the time your main talk. We're going to build that first, because that's what you're leading with from a branding perspective. But then you have other supporting talks.

Speaker 1: 33:23

I actually think business owners are not going to just be one talk wonders. You should have a little ecosystem of a couple talks in your business that you can pull from them. Otherwise, I mean you're going to be constrained. Right when you are constrained, where you have an opportunity, where you want to speak, like in someone's mastermind or something else, and the signature talk topic might not quite be the one you want to do. Maybe you want to do something a little bit different, but if you're just recreating it on the fly, well, are you going to build a damn good talk? I mean, it might be entertaining, but is it going to be effective? So what we want to do is use the same process, aka the damn good talk building process, to ensure that you feel confident building a talk in a structure that serves the business and it serves the socks off your audience.

Speaker 1: 34:05

So if you're struggling with the idea of signature, don't worry. If you're like, I don't really know what my core thing is, I do a lot of different things in my business. I'm not going to fight that battle with you today to tell you pick one thing I'm going to say pick the first. Let's pick the first topic we want to really nail down and work on what I even might be like. But what is that? I would just logically think what is the primary program, primary offer, primary service, primary thing that you want to do for money in your business and your signature talk should align with that. If it doesn't, my friend, what the hell are we doing here? I say that with all the love in the world, but if they are not aligned, how can you expect to build a profitable and thriving expert business? Boom, okay, so we're going to forget the term signature. Don't put that pressure on yourself. If that's just feels like too much or you're not at that point yet, just swap it out with damn good talk.

Speaker 1: 35:09

Okay, I also want to mention that I passively said this before, but it probably piqued your interest how a signature talk or a damn good talk truly saves you time. Okay, let me ask you an honest question. Hopefully they're all honest, but how many times in your business have you found yourself recreating the same things over and over and over again, where you've come across something that you created years ago or months ago and you're like, oh damn, that was really good. Maybe it was an email, maybe it was a, I don't know, maybe it was a post, maybe it was a live you did inside your group, but all too often we create content in our business and then we keep recreating content in our business. I see people do this a lot when it comes to selling their launches. They'll recreate, recreate, recreate. It's like reinventing the wheel. That's the term right. So the thing is, I want you to consider a damn good talk or a signature talk, as I'm going to recommend. I want you to think about that, as, let's say okay, so Taylor Swift, super big deal right now, right, okay, this might really get me in the muck.

Speaker 1: 36:24

I am not a huge Taylor Swift fan. Oh my gosh. I said it, not that I don't like Taylor. I respect the hell of Taylor. I think she's incredible performing artist. I think she's incredible Anyone.

Speaker 1: 36:36

I went off on a tangent years ago about Justin Bieber. Like I was never a Bieber fan. I never had the fever, but oh my gosh, when I realized that he would write his own songs and plays them with instruments, like when I saw that, I saw a YouTube video and then I actually went down this rabbit hole with Bieber and like, oh my gosh, it takes talent to create music. Right now I'm in this whole Charlie Puth rabbit hole. If you want follow him on TikTok, oh my gosh, you have to follow Charlie Puth on TikTok. He'll take like a sound, like a ding, and then I'll be like that's F sharp, and then he'll put like a whole beat with it with like spoons, and then create this whole jam and then boom, doing his marketing on the radio the next week, right. So, anyways, I have like mad, mad respect, anyways, any of these artists.

Speaker 1: 37:18

We'll use Taylor's example Taylor Swift's recent era tour I don't know what it was called, I just know. I know a lot of people posting about on social media and we're like obsessed. I think I just missed an older than Taylor, so I think I just missed the window of being obsessed with her. I mean, outside of Tim McGrawth, like that was the song, that was cool. Anyways, you're either going to be like I totally feel you, heather, I don't get it either, or you're going to be like what is wrong with you? You just don't appreciate it, old lady. Either way, I want you to imagine right going to a Taylor Swift concert or insert like a different concert For me. You're probably going to think it really weird.

Speaker 1: 37:59

My favorite band ever is the Frey. I know like talk about early 2000s, mid to like 2010, ish, like really big deal. I love the Frey. Anyways, imagine your favorite recording artist whether it's Taylor, the Frey, sarah Bareilles, I don't know who, a biggie, I have no idea. That was a throwback reverence.

Speaker 1: 38:19

When you go to their concert, there are certain songs you expect them to play, right, like if Journey or Journey's cover band. Now, if they were on and they didn't play, don't stop believing. You'd be like WTF, like it's just something, something's missing there. So what's interesting is I just learned on this tangent recording artists right, they're artists, they want to express themselves. Every album has their like one expressive song that's like super, they love and they really like, they're really precious with it, but it didn't get picked up at the radio. It's not like doesn't hit the recipe of like a top performing song. It just it's not going to work, right. So, while they can love it, at the end of the day there's actually a formula. I know here we go A formula when it comes to music around what's going to make a hit song? What's going to make a top 10 song? What's going to make a money making song? Let me go further on the rabbit hole and in the book is it good to great or great by choice? It's one of those two.

Speaker 1: 39:27

It's by Jim Collins. He was a keynote speaker at one of my conferences years ago. I remember bringing him in. It was super cool. We used his book Great by Choice Blue Cover. It's amazing.

Speaker 1: 39:36

Anyway, he talks about inside that book something called the Hedgehog Effect and he talks about how what's really important for businesses to stick around by through the test of time is they have to master three things. He's got a Venn diagram and the circle is the Hedgehog Effect and it's like the one. What's their one X factor? And in the book they use the example. Or I can't remember if he used this example or I used this example in my teachings later after that conference. So either way, this is a mind meld. Jim Collins, the three circles are what you're deeply passionate about. This is him, what you can be the best stat in the world and what drives your economic engine. So those are the three things that have to go there, what you're deeply passionate about, what your can be the best stat in the world and what drives your economic engine? Okay, why does this matter? Coming back to the musical artist, and then we're going to cut back to you the example that I used to use. Again, I don't know if this came from the book, or I mind melded with Jim first name basis.

Speaker 1: 40:41

Think about a struggling artist. Right, let's imagine Taylor Swift just wanted to write songs from her heart. She was deeply passionate about it and she could be the best one in the world. But if she didn't have a way to drive her economic engine, aka songs that are recording studio would be like hell, yeah, we want to buy that and then we want to like because it'll get hits on the radio. These companies don't make money for just like heartfelt songs, right? This is where you have, like, your struggling, starving artist playing music on the set of the role, bro, because they just want to do what they're passionate about. It doesn't matter how good they are If they don't have a way to monetize it and make money. What are we doing here Now with Taylor? So, knowing that economic engine, this is for any recording artist.

Speaker 1: 41:31

Who's that dude? There was another person that I could think of. They had the show on TV. It was like last year, the year before, where they had songwriters come on. It was kind of like the voice, but it was for songwriters. They have songwriters come on and pitch their songs and, ah man, who's that guy's name? Oh, it's you ever have to happen like? You know the name of it? You're probably don't know what I'm talking about, or maybe you do anyways. He's like a magician at hearing a song, I mean like that, at this beat, at this hook, at this piece here he starts putting in these magic ingredients that turns a song from good and do a hit song. He knows what it takes to drive top hit songs. That's that name's gonna come to me as soon as I'm done recording.

Speaker 1: 42:17

Anyways, coming back to it is if you really want to be effective at Not only just talking about things, having that thing make you money, you have to be really clear around what's driving your economic engine, which is what do you make money from, but also what sells. What do people expect, what do people want, what do people pay for? So, coming back to this example, your signature talk or your damn good talk, another way to look at it is this talk is filled with your greatest hits. These are the messages, or the chords, if you want to call it, if you're a musician, that you have to hit in order for your like stuff to stick. People expect these and they may not expect it because they're not gonna know what your content is right, but these are the drivers that really make your talk and your message work, and the more that we get that first draft draft done Right where we we have kind of the okay, this is what's going here, but then we test it out, we start marketing, monetizing and refining it to really ensure that your best job is like your greatest of all time, best of.

Speaker 1: 43:28

But where does that come back to? Saving you time? Well, my friend, if you know what messages are your greatest hits, what phrases, what mistakes, what, what like internal battles, your person's having, what objections, what, yeah, but these are all things we kind of do in time, that that talk structure I've talked about before. But when you know those, can you imagine how much easier it would be for you to be like, oh, I gotta sit down and create my reels this week. Or hey, I need to do a podcast episode, let's go back here. Oh, it's relation to a launch. Ooh, let's come back to these greatest hits. I Need to write a newsletter, take one little piece. Like you can pull pieces of your greatest hits, aka of your talk, and use them over and over and over again. So for anyone thinking like, alright, I mean you're listening to the show, I know you're interested in speaking and using your voice more. But in case there was an off chance where you were sitting, in that syndrome of when I get x done, then Heather, then I will do this thing you're talking about, then I will start speaking, then I will start pitching myself to be a more podcast, for more stages, or create my own stage.

Speaker 1: 44:39

Might it be possible that you have it a little ass backwards, that waiting for your shit to get tight, waiting for your other pieces to fall in line, for you to get processed, for whatever it is that you're working on right now. Don't you think that those things might come easier and a little smoother if you knew, without a doubt and with high degree of confidence, what your greatest hits were, what to talk about, who your person was, what they need to hear at what time? Don't you think that would alleviate some of those pinched pains that you have right now in your business. Now I'm not gonna sugarcoat this shit right. I'm not gonna tell you this signature talk is gonna be the end all be all magic bullet, because it's not. It's gonna take work, it's gonna be messy and it's really gonna require you sticking with it. It's part of the reason why I designed my incubator to help people create their talk was just in a three-day format Because we had to push through the mud and get it out. But you can. You can build it. You can. You can do this if you want support. You know I'm gonna be here to support you.

Speaker 1: 45:47

Doors are opening very, very soon or they're open right now, when you're listening to this for my signature talk accelerator, where I'm gonna walk you through the exact process To create that magnetic message. There are nine steps and I'm gonna take you through the first five, which are the most critical, and then give you training for the second four To get to that point where you can deliver that talk. Run through so you feel super confident with your First draft, even though it won't be a draft of your talk. Then you can start refining point from it, really focusing on what are your greatest hits of all time. But if you want to make that happen with me, be sure to check out. We'll put the link in the show notes to either join the wait list or it'll take you straight to the information about it.

Speaker 1: 46:27

If you're listening to this episode in the month of September let's see between September 7th and 20th and you want to learn a little bit more around what I'm talking about today, maybe you're new to my world and you're like this sounds great, but I'd like me to understand a little bit more before I like fully ask, commit to the signature talk thing, run over and join what's left in time of my limited four-part audio series. It's called becoming the known authority. We will link that in the show notes, but I walk you through exactly what it takes to Message, market, monetize your expertise, really what it takes to become that known person, and I give you some super tricks around the Talk structure that might be very helpful to you. I don't know why I said it in that voice. It will be. It will be very helpful for you.

Speaker 1: 47:16

People are loving this series. They're really like it's just gonna make a huge difference for you. So I want you to embrace that either way, whether or not you create a talk with me or you just start refining your own message. I'm supporting you either way. I'm on a mission to help more business owners confidently share their ideas with the world, but I want to do it in a way where you don't have that head game looming over. I don't want you ever questioning yourself whether or not you're worthy to share your message, or whether or not you're qualified enough to Share your message, or whether or not you're good enough to share your message. You are. You are friend and I'm a firm believer in Timing of things.

Speaker 1: 47:52

If you're listening to show today, you needed to hear this message, even if it was just like a kick in the butt to say, all right, I'm done with those. When, then? Excuses, I'm gonna start Showing up in a bigger way. I'm gonna start really being thoughtful and intentional of what I share and where I share it. If you want to do that through a signature talk, I hope today's episode helped you start thinking about that in a good way, help you get excited about a damn good talk. Here's a couple ways you can take a little bit further. We will put in the in the notes of this episode Any other episodes or resources that we have in my brand that'll help you with just that today, including how to get on the wait list and or join the signature talk accelerator.

Speaker 1: 48:32

It is my core program to help business owners create a damn good talk that leads to sales and authority boosting in their business. If you want to learn how to do that, we can do it together in three days. The last live round of the accelerator will be happening October. Enrollment happens in September. You got to be signed up. I won't be teaching it live again for quite some time, friend, because baby Sager is nearing Nearing arrival in the world and I'm gonna be taking some time off from live launching and live program support. So this will be your last chance to work with me for quite a while. So if you've been on the fence wondering, this would be the time to jump in. Otherwise, if you're listening to this later and you're like damn, I missed it, head to wherever you're listening to this. Go to the show notes, little description there. Find the link, because there will be some Resources for how we can continue to support you.

Speaker 1: 49:21

For now, I want you to keep moving. I want you to pay attention, because next week's episode is gonna be super good. I have a guest coming in. I'm gonna hold off to surprise you with what that is, but the topic that everyone loves me to geek out on inside their programs, it's one of the topics that I have, as it's not my signature talk, but it's one of those talks in my talk ecosystem and is all around Storytelling, and next week I am bringing in a guest to have a conversation around Storytelling and specific ways to help you become a more effective storyteller in your business. We'll also talk about why that's super critical, but we'll wait for that for next week, so I'll see you in that episode.

Speaker 1: 50:08

Thanks for listening to another episode of the hint of hustle podcast. If you're in the season of hustle, consider this the permission slip. You didn't need to take a beat. Go on a walk, stretch, call a friend, go, reheat that coffee for the fourth time and actually drink it. Because those big dreams you're chasing, they require the best version of you and if those goals include Expanding your audience, establishing your industry credibility and selling your premium price programs, the best way to tackle this is through Speaking. Your voice is your best brand asset and will teach you how to use it as a marketing tool. Head on over to the speakercocom forward slash start and I'll see you there.