Get out that note pad and your favorite gel pen, because today’s episode is filled with GOLD. This 5-Step mini-training will help you grow your authority and your audience by speaking on stages.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
Even if your nerves seem overwhelming or you’re worried you’ll suck at first, remember that those BIG goals you’re chasing won’t happen until you put yourself out there. I’m giving you the roadmap to make it happen.
Are you ready?
If speaking on stages in 2020 is a goal for you – you won’t want to miss this episode or the (BONUS!) cheat sheet designed to help you jump straight into action.
EPISODE SHOW NOTES👇
➡️ https://heathersager.com/episode21/
🔗 Grab the latest FREE resources: https://heathersager.com/start
🔗 Browse all episode shownotes: https://heathersager.com/blog
👋 CONNECT WITH HEATHER:
Work with Heather: https://www.heathersager.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theheathersager/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/HeatherSager
If you’re loving this episode, please take a moment to rate & review the show. This helps me get this message to more people so they too can ditch the hustle 24/7 life.
Get out that note pad and your favorite gel pen, because today’s episode is filled with GOLD. This 5-Step mini-training will help you grow your authority and your audience by speaking on stages.
Here’s what we’ll cover:
Even if your nerves seem overwhelming or you’re worried you’ll suck at first, remember that those BIG goals you’re chasing won’t happen until you put yourself out there. I’m giving you the roadmap to make it happen.
Are you ready?
If speaking on stages in 2020 is a goal for you – you won’t want to miss this episode or the (BONUS!) cheat sheet designed to help you jump straight into action.
EPISODE SHOW NOTES👇
➡️ https://heathersager.com/episode21/
🔗 Grab the latest FREE resources: https://heathersager.com/start
🔗 Browse all episode shownotes: https://heathersager.com/blog
👋 CONNECT WITH HEATHER:
Work with Heather: https://www.heathersager.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/theheathersager/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/HeatherSager
If you’re loving this episode, please take a moment to rate & review the show. This helps me get this message to more people so they too can ditch the hustle 24/7 life.
You're listening to Finding Your It Factor Episode 21. Well, get out that notepad and your favorite jelly roller pen because today's episode is filled with gold. We're doing a five step mini training. Yup. I heard from you that you love the episodes that are filled with actionable tips and strategies. So, today I did a little something extra for my It Factor loyalists. I created you a cheat sheet to go along with this episode so that you can jump straight into action. Whether you download it now or you come back to it later because you might be in the car driving and taking the kids to school or on a walk, or if you're a little bold in the winter, maybe you're on a run. But if speaking on stages in 2020 is a goal for you, head on over to heathersager.com/5steps. That's the number five, five steps and buckle up because we're gonna dive into the five steps to speaking on stages to grow your authority and your audience in 2020. Here we go.
Speaker 2:Have you ever wondered how some people just seem to have a way with words, they have this spark that lights you up when you're near them. They have the It factor and while most people think it's something that only a few are born with, I believe that you can find it so it can become your super power to grow your business. It's about you bringing your brand to life by becoming a magnetic communicator in person and on camera, showing up with confidence, authenticity, and inspiration. So, are you ready to become magnetic? I thought so. I'm Heather Sager and I'd like to welcome you to Finding Your It Factor. Hello friend, welcome back. I hope you had[inaudible]
Speaker 1:an incredible week or well into the new year, new year, new marketing plan. Bad. I've been thinking about you. I bet you're chasing some super big dreams with getting your name out there. That was a little rumbly in how I said that, but I know you've got some big stuff up your sleeve this year and I do too. You know, if you listened to last week's episode, let me give you a quick update. I am out of my funk. I have woken up everyday for the last seven days using the Miracle Morning routine. I've been up at 4:30 and actually the crazy part on this last Friday I was up at 4 o'clock in the morning with an alarm, just shut out of bed. No joke. I am a crazy person, but I am back on fire about this year. So if you're in a spot where you're still just feeling a little uninspired about this year, give yourself some time. Clear out those projects, clear the clutter out of your head. Go back and listen to last week's episode to help you move through that funk and light the fire under your tushie to start thinking about 2020. So let me tell you what I did this last week. I geeked out on home office supplies. I got one of those giant five foot wall calendars and got those little color coded little sticker dots and I started planning out my launches and my speaking events and my conferences and my production times and vacations. Dream it right. Oh and conferences I'm attending, which I'm really excited about getting out and attending even more conferences in 2020. So side note, would love to hear where you're going to be at in 2020 because I would love to meet you in person. So if we're not connected yet on Instagram, come on over and connect. I'm@theheathersager, so come on over there so we can keep in touch around where we're traveling and hopefully connect in person this year and thinking about 2020 I said some really big scary goals this week from revenue targets to the event audiences that I want to serve by getting on stages and sharing my message. I'm targeting some of them for 2020 and others I know are going to take some time. And guys, my list is terrifying. Terrifying. In fact, it's, I'm, I'm going to tell you out loud a couple of the stages that I'm targeting to get on. And it's so scary to say it out loud, but I want to be an example to you around getting uncomfortable and saying these things out loud. So I'm going to tell you, here's some of the stages that I want to be on and I have no idea how I'm going to make them a reality and maybe you can help with that. I'd love to be able to serve Amy Porterfield's audience on stage at entrepreneur experience. I want to get out in front at the Kajabi summit. I would love to speak at rise business and serve those business owners and convert kits, craft and commerce. Those are just a few on my list. Pretty long list. But I feel that these are audiences with entrepreneurs who would benefit from someone helping coach them through the fear of public speaking and more importantly, helping them understand how you actually use speaking as a strategy, not just a thing to do because somebody tells you so. So those are just some of the big scary goals that I have. I'm beyond this year, but that's not to mention the podcast I have got my eye on too and it's crazy town. I, I can't help but I'm a dreamer. I reach out f or the things that are just out of reach, but I have crazy long arms, so that's convenient. I just, I believe in being uncomfortable and just leaning into that discomfort and trying things out even when you're scared. That's what I want to do for you is I want to be the example for you around being bold enough to declare those crazy goals that you have in your head that you haven't yet said out loud. Say them out loud. Even if it's just to yourself. I want to encourage you to be more bold in 2020 and declare some of those big crazy things that you think are, they're not crazy. They're totally possible, but you just have to say, Hey, these are the things that I want to do to grow my business and grow myself. If you're a new listener to the show, welcome, you came at an incredible time. I mean freaking perfect timing for our episode today, but first let me give a shout out to my It Factor. loyalists, you already know about how I feel about the importance of getting yourself out there to be seen to grow your audience. It is such an effective but I acknowledged sometimes scary strategy, but for your marketing. But here's the thing. Not every entrepreneur is willing to lean into that discomfort and step into the spotlight. That's where your different, your willing to push past your fear because you see the bigger picture. As you think about your marketing plans for 2020 so getting on podcast, showing your face on video, speaking on stages. This includes the virtual ones like webinars, Facebook lives, virtual or digital summits. Because remember when I talk about stages, I mean platforms where you're presenting to an audience regardless of the level of formality, and I want to challenge you if you're hesitant because you're like, Oh, I'm not quite there yet in my business. It's never too early to start speaking on stages. It's never too early to speak on stages. In fact, when I talk to many of my private clients, they wish they would have done it sooner. And if you've never done it before, you might be scared that you'll suck. Here's the thing, suck now because you probably will. You're going to be uncomfortable. Your message is not going to be quite yet as clear as you'd like it. You're never going to be ready. So wouldn't you rather suck it up now and start getting better so that you can get a little closer to your goals, that big goal, that big one you have for you and your business, it isn't going to come a reality. It isn't going to become a reality if you continue to hide behind your laptop. I'm giving you some tough love right now because if you've got those goals, you've got to chase them. They're not going to come to you. You've got to chase them, and you do that by putting yourself out there. Why not let 2020 be the year that you go all fricking in on your goal. And if that includes growing your authority and your audience, which I bet it does, this episode today is for you. Now, if you're still on the fence about whether or not speaking is for you now, you know, I'll argue that it is because you talk to people every single day. So don't get all weird because we slap a label on it as a quote unquote talk or we put a stage under your feet. You talk all the time, so you may as well hone that craft a little bit more so you can be more effective in other area of your businesses. But I'm going to give you this if you're still not quite ready to make the decision or you're still thinking about, Oh, I don't know if the time is right. I want you to head on back to episode number five where we cover why speaking should be part of your marketing strategy. And you can learn a little bit more about how it fits into the marketing of your business. But if you're still with me and I trust that you're at least open to speaking on stages in 2020 even if you get stagefright, even if you get all sweaty just thinking about it, let me help you with that a bit. If you're anything like me, sometimes taking that leap into a big scary thing, it helps to have a better understanding at what the heck you're jumping into. So I am a big fan of roadmaps, so, and I've heard from my audience, so, so are you. My students in my programs, they love checklists and roadmaps, so I figured why not create a roadmap for you so that you can step into speaking on stages with more confidence by understanding what it looks like. I'm sharing with you my roadmap for showing up on stages in 2020 now before we dive into this, I would love to give a shout out to my listener of the week. Now this review comes from NShooty. I'm not sure if that's your actual name or a nickname, but either way I like it. Title of this review is Heather rocks. You can see why I picked this one. She says, I'm a new listener, but a big fan. As someone who listens to a lot of business podcasts, I have to say that the content value and production quality is on point. Shout out to my editor, Max. Thanks for making me sound good every single week. Back to end shooting, she says it is my 2020 goal to be a better speaker on camera and in person. I am so excited to have stumbled across Heather. Oh my gosh, me too. Also, I kept referring to NShooty as a she, he, they, whoever you are NShooty, I am so grateful for you listening to the show. You came at the perfect time. Not Only just in general for where you're at in your business, which I'm assuming this feels right to you, but of course for the topic of today's episode. Now you're listening, I love to hear from you too. If you enjoy today's episode, especially these meaty tangible roadmap steps that I'm going to give you, God that sounded clunky, we're going to go with it. I want you to hit pause. I see. This is the other thing is if you also love my candidness and the fact that my editor and I, we don't edit all that crap out, we don't. I want to leave the authenticity in because I want you to hear what it looks like to show up in perfectly. Guys, this is what it looks like to show up for your audience are not always going to get perfect and sometimes you're going to fumble and say weird words, but if you like that style, you like my teaching, I want you to hit pause and take a screenshot of this episode on whatever device you're listening to it on and post it to your Instagram stories and tag me. You already know I'm@theheathersager and if you love these step-by-step pieces, could you take it one step further? Hit that subscribe button on the show. I'm going to start doing some bonus episodes in 2020 so if you hit that subscribe, you'll be the first to get access on those. And Oh my goodness, could I ask you, could you leave a review if you like the content on the show? Part of my big scary goals for 2020 include getting this podcast in the ears of more listeners and those three simple acts. Share it on Instagram with your followers, subscribe to the show and post a review. Those are life in the podcasting world. So if you enjoy the content that I create for you each and every week, we're 21 episodes in. Guys, I'm super excited about that and I hope you're loving it too. And if you are, if you could show any support in that capacity to share it, subscribe and review, I would be forever grateful and I'm just, I just am. I'm so appreciative of you and I love showing up just to review every single week. All right. Are you ready to dive into the five steps to speaking on stages to grow your audience and your authority? Remember, go grab that cheat sheet for today's episode so that you can follow along or go back and grab it once you're back to your laptop. Head on over to heathersager. com/5stages. Before we dive into the five tactical steps, let's set this stage, pun totally intended. I want you to take a moment in reflection and get really clear about why speaking on stages is important to you in 2020 not just because I said so. Although#sagersays is starting to catch on a little bit. I'm just saying. Remember we talk about back in episode number six, the business of speaking, the three strategies to monetize speaking on stages. So if you're a little unclear around what your goals are related to speaking, are you looking to grow your audience? Do you want to be positioned as an authority in your niche? Do you actually want to monetize your stage time? So do you want to get paid to speak? Do you want to sell from the stage? What are your goals? Now, you have to have a clear reason. Let me say this. You might be listening and going, Oh my God, I'm not even at the point of thinking about that yet. Because you might be at the phase where you're starting from scratch. You might be early in your business or definitely new to the idea of speaking, and this is the scariest thing you've ever thought about. So your goal might be to lose your speaking virginity this year and not puke on the first row. That's a great goal. Embrace it. Don't be ashamed or afraid of that. You have to start where you are. You might be in the phase where you feel okay speaking in front of groups, but you don't know where to begin to find the right kinds of events to speak at, and that in itself is overwhelming so it stops you in your tracks. That's okay. Get clear that your goal is to find the right stages or at least start getting comfortable getting closer to the right stages. I just want you to take a moment and just reflect around why. Why are you wanting to get yourself on stages? Because here's the thing. Let me give you an example. Well first, let me ask you. Let's say tomorrow you get three inquiries to guest speak at events this year, like landing right in your inbox. They're like, Hey, would you come speak at our event? Let's say one's to be featured in a masterclass for a membership site as a guest expert. The next one is to be on a panel at a conference in another state. Let's say another one of those requests is you being a keynote speaker on a big stage. I mean that sounds pretty good, right? If those inquiries are coming into your inbox, hell yeah. The question is, do you say yes? It feels super great to be in demand. It does. Let me give you an example of this. About six months ago, I was contacted by a local chapter in another state of a very popular, like very popular association. They were referred to me by someone in their local chapter who had come across my YouTube channel online, got on my email list and and they wanted to hire me to speak at their chapter meeting. I have to tell you, I was on cloud nine when I got this email. Cloud nine. I've got screenshot of the email. I sent it to my sisters. I showed my girls in my Mastermind. I showed my husband. I was so elated. Somebody was seeking me out. They found me on fricking YouTube. The reason why this was so excited, I just started doing videos on YouTube. So that was fun for me. Okay, so here's what happened. I jumped on the phone with them to discuss it, and I have this reality check where I had to push my ego aside a bit where the part of me that really loves it, when people tell me nice things about myself and make me feel important, maybe that goes back to why I want you to leave a review for me. I still do that. It feels great, but it also helps other people. But I had to ask myself this. Am I excited and saying yes to this opportunity to serve my ego or serve my audience, and in this question in the context, my audience is both my current audience and the future were I want to serve, AKA my ideal customer. Here's the thing. That event wasn't even close to the audience I serve or want to serve. I serve primarily entrepreneurs, primarily entrepreneurs with online businesses, and it was for corporate employees, which by the way, I'm a former corporate employee and I love corporate employees. I love driven leaders in corporate organizations. In fact, many of my paid speaking gigs on sales consultant and sales consulting clients and speaking gigs at corporate events, I do those and therefore a fee. I'm a paid speaker in that capacity, but this specific organization couldn't afford my fee, so if I wanted to do it, I had to think about what was going to be the benefit. Here's the thing, I know my goals related to speaking. I'm either driving revenue into my business directly as a paid speaker. I get paid a fee to speak or I'm driving leads onto my email list as potential buyers for my programs. Therefore, if there isn't money in the fee, the audience has to be my ICA or by saying yes to that opportunity I'm saying no to actually getting in front of my ideal audience and serving the people I designed my content to serve. So even if you don't have a clear pathway from a potential stage that you might one day speak on to making money, I don't want you to get caught up in that. So come back to me here. If you're like, Oh my gosh, this is a little over my head. You might not even be at the point where you're thinking about converting on stage or thinking about monetizing what you're doing. You're just trying to get into the habit of it to, get comfortable putting yourself out there. That is perfect. Wherever you are on it, I want you to embrace it. Don't berate yourself or feel caught up that you're not as far as long as you think you need to be. You're like eyes on your own paper. That's what Rachel Hollis is all the all the time, right? Don't compare yourself to someone else on their journey. You need to focus on where you are. Don't get caught up in other people speaking pathways focused on where you are, but I do want you to get clear thinking about what are you going for right now. Are you going for getting more comfortable? Are you getting going for getting more comfortable pitching? Whatever that looks like for you. I want you to have that reference point so you can start being more intentional with the time you do spend on speaking or pitching or building your content. This all comes back to being purposeful with your speaking because that's what's going to set you apart. That's what, that's what's going to really make you shine as a speaker for your audience is that you have the discipline to only say yes to the people who get you excited because if you're excited about the opportunity, they're sure as heck going to be a lot more interested. Alright, let me get off my soap box around purpose, but I really want to make sure that you understand clearly that it doesn't matter what tactics or steps I teach you or any other speaking coach can speak you, speak to you on or coach you on. If you're not set in the right direction for why this is important to you, the rest of it doesn't matter. At that point, you're just serving your ego or serve in a different area that isn't serving your business goals. And I mean, I know, I know you don't want to waste your time. I know that. I know you want to be more intentional with your time and so I hope you take a moment. If you have to pause the episode, if you have to come back to this piece, take a moment and really think about what are your goals this year related to speaking. It might not be the big ass stage, but it might just be getting yourself out there. All right, let's dive into those five steps to speaking on stages so you can see the roadmap. See that picture in front of you and start building your confidence that you can do this. You can absolutely do this and here's the fun part. If you also have a goal, getting yourself on podcasts this year, these five steps work for that too. Actually, these are literally the five steps that I use for booking stages and booking podcasts so you can rinse and repeat and use those too. Step number one, clarify your ideal audience AKA your customer. Yeah, I know step number one is more of that reflection work, more of that clarity work. Can you go on and Heather, I just want to jump to pitching and finding the right stages. Let me be clear with you, friend. Don't put the cart before the fricking horse. You have to make sure that if you're going to do something like speaking, you want to make sure that your, one, designing your content later when we get to that piece, you're designing your content for the right audience and number two, you're getting yourself in front of the right audiences and you can't do either of those things until you know who you're speaking to. So this is a mistake that a lot of people make. They focus first on trying to find the speaking opportunities and then they build the content. I've been guilty of it. You've probably been guilty of it too. Maybe it was in your life right now as an entrepreneur. Maybe it was in your corporate life when you were asked to speak in a meeting or at a conference on a topic. Usually what happens is the trigger is you've been asked to speak. The reaction is you build a talk. That might work in the corporate world or that might work if you want to run on someone else's agenda. But guys, you're using speaking as a strategy, so you have to make sure that you start by being clear around who you want to serve so you can find those people and serve them. It starts by clarifying your audience. Now there's a ton of resources online to help you do this in the worksheet, that cheat sheet that you can download. I have a couple questions that you can work through. I won't go, I want- I don't want to go in too much depth on this cause I don't want to overwhelm you, but if you're not clear around who you serve, you're going to struggle being focused with speaking. So start here. Step number two, choose a topic that resonates with what they want. They be in your audience. Want meaning? What are they asking for? This is a big topic. The topic of choosing your topic, how meta. This is something that I get asked all the time. Oh my gosh, all the time and I get asked this so much and there's so many little tidbits under here. I'm actually doing a full episode on this topic next week. Next week's all about this, so come back to me in episode 22 same time, same place next week and we're going to dive into that, but I want to, I want to give you a little bit of an appetizer now and thinking about this. A few things that you can be thinking about when it comes to your topic are asking yourself your questions around what is your audience asking for? What are they searching for online? What are some of the trendy things that other people aren't yet talking about? So let me give you an example about this. Back when TikTok hit the scene, a lot of people in marketing, we're still talking about Instagram stories or Instagram TV as the new thing. Well, I bet the people that were first to market quote unquote talking about how to use TikTok as a marketing strategy. Side note disclaimer, I don't know, TikTok at all. I don't have the app nor will I be using it. Granted, knock on wood in my marketing strategy, but I'm just being theoretical right now in mark social marketing. It was like a few years ago when Periscope came out. That was like a new trendy app that came out. The people that were talking about it/the early adopters that were using it, they were trendsetters. That would be example of picking a topic that's a little sexier to draw people in. Now you only want to pick that if you were a person, one who has great knowledge on that topic. And number two, it fits into your business. So you're a marketing strategist or you specialize in social media or media in general. So it has to be relevant on there. But one strategy for picking your topic could be find a sexy shiny object cause remember the topic is what draws people in. Engaging content is what drives them into action. Very important point to remember is your topic is, is that thing that's going to capture the attention and get people engaged. But the topic itself, I mean that's only one piece of it. You have to actually design the content. So thinking about your topic, let's make this actionable for you today. I want you and this is in the paired cheat sheet to go with it. Remember, go out, head on over. The link is down here in the episode notes. There's some starters that will help you with this and you can come back from more on this next week, but I want you to start getting your mind going. I want you to write down 10 topics that come to mind for you around what you love talking on. Then, I want you to write down 10 topics that your ideal customer is asking for. Are they the same? Are they different? How do they connect? And here's the fun part. Can you connect the column from what your ideal customer wants to, what you love talking about? Because I think there's a really beautiful Venn like Venn diagram in this. If you're a visual person where there's a blend between what your customer really wants and what you offer/love talking about, you can bridge those two things together into an amazing signature talk that gets them excited but also creates a clear pathway for them wanting to work with you further and whatever capacity that looks like for you. Maybe you do coaching, maybe you, uh, you do one on one work or you're a service provider. Maybe you do digital courses or you have a membership. Maybe you just want more referrals for speaking opportunities. Your pathway to extending the relationship with the people in the audience. It can look very different between you and the next entrepreneur. But the beautiful thing is you get to pick what that pathway looks like. But coming backwards is what you want to make sure you do is pick a topic that invites them in, invites them in. It's the one window where they crawl into the house. You don't have to show them everything about yourself and about your business. You just need to get them in the house. So don't put so much pressure on yourself to have the topic be this flag ship around what your business is. It's just the start of a beautiful relationship. So take the pressure off yourself of trying to find the perfect topic that's going to describe your business to a T. Your talk is not your business. Your talk is just the first date. Let's get them to go on a second one and the more dates you have, I.E., on your email list or through webinars or whatever else, the more they're going to get to know you and your programs. But don't put that pressure upfront on the first date. So, tune in next week for more on that piece. Let's move on to step three. Step three, create actionable content without overwhelm. So let's recap. We're clear around who our audience is. We've picked a topic that we want to talk about and now we're designing our talk. Now you might be going, but wait, I haven't booked a stage yet. Remember, you want to get clear who you're serving and design your talk before you start pitching stages. Because if you do this first, this is what sets the stage, Oh, there's that pun again, for getting on the right stages. So no cart before the horse. We're still back in creating our talk. So step three was create actionable content without overwhelm. The mistake that so many entrepreneurs make when it comes to speaking as they place too much emphasis on teaching and not enough on the talk being an actual marketing effort. So remember, just like in marketing and the best product or services don't speak for themselves. The ones that sell are the ones that have a clear, compelling message and articulate the value of why someone needs it. So even though your audience might be enthusiastic about your topic, don't jump straight to the teaching and try to pack so much into it. What you want to do is create actionable content without overwhelm, which means you don't have to teach them so much. And in fact, if you try to teach them, they're going to become so overwhelmed that they won't do anything. So instead what I want you to think about is buffer your content by really creating a compelling why at the start. You spend part of your talk setting up that why and then you pack a punch with actionable content and you'll create less overwhelmed. Step number four, pitching. Okay, now that we're clear on who we're talking to, we've chosen a topic that resonates with our audience and we've created a actionable but not overwhelming talk. Now it's time for the pitch. So in thinking about pitching, part of this is one, identifying where to pitch, what stages, who's the person who runs the stage, who makes the decision, and then, Oh my goodness, how do you actually deliver a pitch that stands out in a noisy world? Because this topic is so important. Friend, I'm going to do an episode dedicated to this too. So buckle up, you're getting the gist here today. I'm skimming the surface on these and we're going to go deeper in these over the next few weeks on the podcast. But the pitching piece, let me tell you this. You have to remember the pitch isn't about you. You are just the conduit for the message. You need to focus. So let's, let's actually pair this off into two things. First, let's focus on identifying the right stages. You have to one, think about where is that ideal audience you defined? Where are they at? What live events are they attending? And one thing that I like to think about is get creative. Could you be a guest contributor as a masterclass in someone else's course? I do this with some of my, with my peers that I'm in a mastermind with. I'm like, Hey, can I be a guest bonus in your class? They're like, hell yeah. And I get in front of my ideal audience. You might try to be a guest contributor in somebody else's membership. You might offer your own workshops. You might have a few events, maybe masterminds that you know people who run them are in them. Could you offer yourself as a guest speaker at one of those events? There's a lot of different ways you can look at this. Find where your ideal customer is and start small. Can you get yourself 30 minutes in front of a group locally? Could you, are you going to a conference that's already happening? Could you sneak 30 minutes onto the schedule and offer tremendous value to your audience. Getting started? You just want to get in front of these audiences. Sometimes it's just speaking up and sessions that get your name out there and then you start talking to people and then somebody knows someone. It all comes back to you want to make sure you're finding events that have your ideal audience at them. You don't have to chase the big stages. Start small. So what would it look like for you? Go to your cheat sheet and start thinking about could you brainstorm some of the kinds of events you could pitch. Number one is getting your target list. Now let's go to part two. How do you actually execute the pitch? This is what we're going to dive into uh, in a future episode, but remember the pitch is all about leading with value. It's not about you, it's about two specific stakeholders. Number one, the person who's hosting the event, and number two, the audience. That's the lens of your message. Everything you crafted, your pitch needs to be for them. You saying how much you would love to speak at their event. Of course you'd love to speak at their event. So what every other person in the in the industry. Why are you the right person for them? So focus on the value you bring to the person who's responsible for that audience. So let's say it's a, an entrepreneur who hosts a live, uh, personal development workshop every year and you're a life coach and you really want to teach a breakout at that event and you have complementing businesses. You want to talk about why your topic is going to be valuable to that event organizer, not how it's going to be relevant to your audience, but to them and more important and you think about the vehicle for that is you want to make them look like the hero for their audience. This is the secret, okay? If you're familiar with the StoryBrand, so I love Don Miller, the StoryBrand. I took his course a years ago. I incorporated it into my marketing at my old company. I use it in my business. Here's what I want you to think about when it comes to story brand. He talks about as a business owner, when you're a marketer, you're not the hero. You're the guide. Your customer is your hero. This is how I want you to view pitching. When it comes to pitching, your audience is not your hero. You are not the hero. The person you're pitching to is the hero.[inaudible]. I'm in a mic drop on that one and here's why. Everyone at the end of the day has an ego and you want to stroke that ego when you pitch because if somebody has worked their tail off to build their audience, they deserve for you to give them some fricking kudos around how great they've done building their audience. But more importantly, you want them to look like the hero in front of their audience. So talking about how you're going to serve their audience for them, with them, that's a powerful thing. So we'll dive into that more again a little bit later. But I want you to think about pitching doesn't have to be a scary thing. It's not about you, it's about the audience and the person organizing the event. That's the secret. And if you change the pressure from, Oh my God, I gotta look perfect and I gotta be credible and all those things, we'll get to that. But if you change the focus around how can I serve those two groups, that event organizer and the audience, the ultimate audience, how can I serve them unlike any other person? How much value could I bring to them? Then writing the actual pitch becomes much easier. That's step four. Step five. Well you get the yes or you go back a little bit and talk about some details on topics, but once you secure that speaking event, you prepped for it, you worked your tail off, you rehearse and you deliver it with confidence. Now, the struggle that I think a lot of people have is they have really great intentions for wanting to practice and rehearse and they spend all this time working on their outlines and the PowerPoint slides with the keynote slides. You are now building slides in Canva and getting everything ready that they get it all and they finessed over all of it and then they don't leave themselves any time to rehearse, so they show up and for the first time say these words out loud in front of an audience. I don't recommend that. I also don't recommend writing down your entire script and practicing that so many times that when you get in front of an audience, you sound like you're reciting a script. I want you to think about that as two separate sides of a spectrum. You've got to find the balance that works for you in the middle. So when it comes to preparing and delivering your talk with confidence, part of that is acknowledging your style. Some people love more structured with their scripts. Some people love having a little bit more freedom to speak off the cuff. You have to figure out what works right for you. But preparation is non negotiable because it's one thing to just show up and be charismatic and entertaining and deliver some great value. But it's another one to do that and get results from your talk and those results could be you being asked to come back, people buzzing and talking about your session, people following you on Instagram. Maybe it's people opting into a freebie that you shared. Maybe there's the more tangible business results, but any talk, you want that talk to connect back to the reason for why you were speaking in the first place and when you're off the cuff or you're so nervous and scripted, you're not going to resonate with your audience as well as you could. So preparing and delivering your talk needs to be a step in your process that you allow time for. Do not let this one be an afterthought. Do not let the clock run out on you, especially if you're sitting here now going, Oh, I'm not even there yet. Mentally, that's okay. You can tuck this nugget in your, in your, in your pocket for later. But I want you to think about when you do put yourself out there to start pitching and you think about dates, give yourself some time to practice and prepare. You will feel so much more confident going in when you've done your, you've done your homework, you know the audience, you know the program, you know your content. You know how to show up on stage with a good message. When you're prepared, you're able to deliver in a way that's present with your audience. You don't want to be all up in your head worried about whether or not you have the content right. You want to be able to have fun. Yeah, that's possible on stage. It's totally possible to have fun. The high that you get when your audience is laughing and they're conducting with you and they're raising their hand and they're answering your questions and, and when you get off stage and they line up to talk to you.I mean you feel, I mean, you feel like a rock star. It's an incredible moment. when you get that. You get that kind of engagement and you can, you absolutely can and that engagement can actually lead to growth in your business. I want to help you with that. So let's recap those five steps. Let me, let me go through those one more time here so you can take notes. Again, go to heathersager. com/5steps for the worksheet to go with it. Some of those more tactical questions. Let me recap those and then I'll also tell you where we're going next because I want to take you a step further on each of these. So recapping. Step one, was clarifying your ideal audience, AKA your future potential customer. Step two, choose a topic that resonates with what they want. Step three, create actionable content without overwhelm. Step four, you've got to pitch like a fricking unicorn. Pitched through the right stages and pitch in the right way. Step five, deliver with confidence and swagger. That's the goal here. And here's the thing. You can make this as simple or as complex as you choose to make it. What I wanted to do today is give you a framework that if you look at the roadmap for how to walk off a stage with confidence in 2020, it's these five things. It's these five things, and I know within each there are steps, there are scary moments, I get it, but if you take it one step at a time, you will find success. And the thing that I want to leave you with is a lot of people wait to start taking action on their talk because they use the excuse of they don't know where to speak. Don't start with finding stages. Start with finding clarity and getting a damn good topic and a good talk together and then it becomes much easier to find the right stages. So stay tuned on our next few episodes because we're going to dive into this. We're talking about choosing a topic that resonates with what they want. I'm going to give you some tips around how you can find those topics where you can be looking online, how you can validate it, so that's episode 22. Episode 23 we're going to come back to pitching, so pitching like a fricking unicorn, which means how do you stand out in a sea of pitches, especially in this online world. So we're going to dive into that in episode 23 and then I have a couple extra little goodies come in your way in the next few weeks. It's going to be one heck of a hot January and February when it comes to content. So buckle up. If you haven't done so already, be sure to describe, subscribe, describe and describe your experience in the review. That would be great. But subscribe, so you get access to the bonus episodes when they release. And lastly, be sure to go get your accompanying cheat sheet for the episode today. I might also have one coming for you next week too. So head on over to heathersager. com/5stages. I hope you enjoyed the content we cover today and if you did, please, please give me a shout on an Instagram shoot me a DM. I would love to hear how this resonated with you. And I can't wait to connect with you again to start talking about choosing a topic that resonates with your audience in 2020 I'll see you next week,
Speaker 2:friend.[inaudible]. Guys, thanks so much for listening to Finding Your It Factor and Hey, if you have a talk coming up, you have to check out my free resource. It's called Nail Your Next Talk. 10 must ask questions before taking the stage so you can show up as an authority and turn that talk into future business. These are the questions that I use myself to prepare for my life talks, and they're going to help you ask the right questions of the person who booked you for the event, so the meeting planner or the client, and it's going to help you serve your audience to the best way possible. It's going to help you anticipate potential tech or 80 snags. Turn the Q&A time into a strategic place for content and make this speaking opportunity, a lead generator for your business. So go get it now. What are you waiting for? It's over at heathersager. com/10questions[inaudible].