Public Speaking Secrets to Position Yourself as an Expert | Ep 408

Hey, I want to give a huge shout out to Laurianne Marbito

because working with her has completely changed

how I approach speaking.

I'm not a stranger to public speaking at all.

I've done plenty of it,

but I've never worked with a speaking coach before.

And let me tell you the difference

between going it alone and working with Laurianne

night and day.

She helped me develop my signature speech

and not only did it highlight my expertise

and authority really well,

but it converted 60% of my audience onto my email list.

60% and did I mention things to her

I landed my first paid speaking gig.

Laurianne's signature speech framework

made it so easy to put together a talk

that opened with a bang,

kept my audience engaged and most importantly,

made it effortless for them to take the next step with me.

She is an absolute pleasure to work with.

Super smart, really strategic,

and honestly just so much fun to be around.

So if you're on the fence about working with her, do it.

You'll wonder why you waited so long.

Thank you, Laurianne.

Hey, have you ever hosted a workshop

spoken at a networking event or delivered a webinar

that you thought was pretty good?

As a matter of fact, you're pretty proud of yourself

except didn't lead to any new clients

and you're wondering what happened

that you shared great information.

Why didn't anybody sign up to work with you?

Well, here's the truth that nobody is gonna tell you.

Speaking isn't just about delivering information.

It's about building trust, sparking curiosity

and positioning yourself as the expert

that your audience has been looking for.

Because remember, your audience,

anybody who says yes to being in the room with you

is a potential client.

Today I want to pull back the curtain so to speak

on how to turn every top that you give

into more opportunities,

whether that's clients or being asked to speak

in other places,

whether you're speaking in a room full of people,

you're on a virtual stage

or introducing yourself at a networking event.

The strategy that I'm gonna share with you today

are you're gonna help you make sure

that your message doesn't just land,

but it hits people's hearts and it turns into leads.

So stick with me because this one is about to change

the way that you think about speaking

and speaking for your business.

I'm Laurie Amirabito, your host

and you are listening to Be in Demand.

This is the podcast, all about public speaking

because speaking is the fastest way to grow your business.

Okay, so today I got three tips for you

and in no particular order, number one is

the power positioning yourself as an expert

and that's what being the speaker does for you

because all eyes are on you

and whenever you are speaking, your audience

raise their hand to say yes to being with you.

They said yes because they're interested in your topic.

They say yes because they've heard you speak before.

They said yes because they anticipate having this pain

or maybe they currently have the pain that you solve.

So everybody who's in your audience

has already raised their hand and said yes,

they are spending time with you

or they even bought a ticket

or they didn't buy a ticket so to speak

but they're part of a mastermind that you were speaking in.

They're part of an association

that they had to pay their membership for.

So time and money is being exchanged and let's face it.

We can make more money but we can't make more time.

So you are the expert that these people are coming to here.

So when you show up to speak,

your goal isn't to be the most entertaining

or the smartest person in the room is to build trust

and establish yourself as the go-to expert in your field.

Now, there are lots of speaking coaches out there.

I will admit that but guess what?

I have a very unique experience.

First of all, I'm a reform painfully shy girl

who couldn't even make eye contact with people

and taught my nervous system new tricks.

So that's part of my uniqueness

but also that I come from the professional speaking world.

So I'm not somebody who thinks speaking

is good for your business.

This is actually how I grew my business.

When I left corporate, I just kinda said yes

to a speaking afternoon before I was even ready.

And I showed up and I served and then people came up to me

and were like, so do you have website?

Do you work with clients?

And I thought it was a fluke except it happened again.

And I wasn't even a good speaker back then.

I just looked back on like so many mistakes

but that's the thing.

I shared that with my audience.

So think about your uniqueness

because sure there are other experts in your industry

but I want you to show up as you are the person

who is the answer to that audience.

You're the person that they have been looking for.

So when you are crafting your speech,

I want you to start with this question.

What problem is my ideal client losing sleep over right now?

What is the problem that this audience is having?

That's something that you should be asking

whoever is hiring you to come in and speak.

What is the problem that they are experiencing

that I can help with my speech to teach them?

And then I want you to frame yourself as the expert.

Like here are the tips.

Here's what you need to do.

To overcome this pain or problem, you teach them

what they need to do, how exactly they do it?

Well, that's where they would hire you

because you can't possibly teach everything

in a 45, 60 minute presentation.

And that's a line that I actually use in my speeches.

I can't possibly teach you in 60 minutes

everything that I have learned and experienced

by being a professional speaker for the past 25 years.

And that's when I invite them

to whatever my call to action is.

I drop these little subconscious seeds in my speech

so that I am mentioning, don't worry,

there's something that I'm gonna have for you at the end.

So they are anticipating it.

But the other way that you position yourself

as the expert is an authority section.

And your authority section should not be like

you're reading off some very boring resume.

No.

No, it shouldn't be very conversational

but still give the audience like this is why.

I'm here, this is why you should listen.

This is where my experience comes in handy

for the problem that you're experiencing.

So that's tip number one is we want to position you

as the expert.

Hey, I just wanna pause a show here for a moment.

There are moments in your life and in your career

when how you speak changes everything that happens next.

That might be on a stage.

It might be in a meeting room where you know you need to speak up.

It might even be a sales conversation,

a podcast interview or a room full of people

who need to see you as the leader that you already are.

Speaking is not just a professional skill,

it's a leadership skill.

It's how you share ideas, you build trust,

and you open doors that don't open any other way.

I help people speak with confidence, clarity and purpose

so that they can create the opportunities,

the visibility and the impact that they want.

And if you're ready for that,

I wanna invite you to book a speaker success call with me

at speakinstandout.com, forward slash speaker-success

that link will be down below.

During that call together we will pinpoint exactly

where your communication is costing you.

Whether that's opportunities, visibility,

or the promotion that you should already have,

and we will map out what you need to do next.

That link is down in the show notes

or you can go directly to speakinstandout.com,

forward slash speaker-success and grab

a spot on my calendar.

So back to the show.

And I also want you to have the mindset

of why you were there that you are the expert in the room,

that you are here to serve this audience,

which leads me into tip number two,

which is speak to serve, not to sell,

and you will still attract clients.

When you come from a place of serving,

instead of what can I get out of this,

it's a whole different feel.

And your audience is going to feel that

in their hearts, in their minds, in their souls,

like they're just going to feel that you are serving them

and not trying to sell to them.

We don't want them to feel like they're going to use car lot,

with the use car salesman.

We've all been there done that,

because the best talks never feel like a pitch.

As a matter of fact, this is the reason why

so many association meeting planners

are going to say, no pitching, you can't pitch your products

because they've had a bad experience

where somebody came in and gave an infomercial.

And then they heard about it afterwards,

especially if they bought a ticket to the conference

and wasn't expecting that,

especially if they paid membership dues.

And it's like, I spent time to come here

to this particular session,

and it was just an infomercial.

They're going to be very disappointed.

And so you don't want to do that

because then you won't have people rating about you,

remembering you, or referring you.

So I want you to speak to serve,

and this is where you are giving really good value,

helping that audience walk away with something tangible.

Every time I've spoken, I have always, always wanted my audience

to walk away with one or two gold nuggets

that they could implement right away, nothing complicated.

And the funny thing is, is this is exactly

what will make people want to work with you.

Simplicity, and you are giving value

because then they're going to wonder

like if this was free, what's it like to work with them?

What would I learn?

So again, when you have your little call to action,

whether it's a download of PDF,

it's to book a call with you,

people are going to be raising their hands.

Another way to speak to serve,

and give really great value is to tell personal stories

about how you have helped certain clients.

And I would choose stories

that your audience is experiencing,

like they can relate to that story.

So one of the stories that I tell is about

Kim who was afraid of speaking,

but hired me anyways,

even though her friends thought she was nuts,

but she didn't want to let this fear of speaking

continue to follow her around.

But when I talk about Kim,

I say she was an entrepreneur who left her corporate job.

She was a busy mom with twins,

and she also had a service-based business.

She was a home organizer.

So that story alone, like people start checking the boxes,

I've got kids, I was in corporate.

So those are those relatable stories.

So start to think about the stories

that are going to help your audience overcome objections.

And this is something that I talk about

inside in demand signature speech.

We find the right stories to be placing in your speech.

As a matter of fact, I was speaking

and a gentleman did book a call with me.

He's one of the fellow speakers of that particular event,

and he said, I don't know what you did,

but I want to know how you did that

because I don't have the money right now,

and I'm on a call with you.

And I want to work with you,

and he did find a way to work with me in joint

and demand signature speech.

Those are the sort of stories

that we want to inject in our presentation.

And the third tip I want to give you

is to craft a message that sticks.

And this is your repeatable phrase,

or what I call your onstage catch phrase.

It's something that you say over and over and over again,

and people start to get it.

In other words, what you're doing is

you're teaching your audience like,

this is like my one liner.

For me, you've heard me say this,

speak as a fastest way to grow your business.

If I happen to be talking about building your email list,

speak as a fastest way to grow your email list,

like it's very interchangeable,

but I've had other clients, they come up with theirs.

One woman was a nutritionist,

so her repeatable catch phrase was,

nutrition starts before the meal.

And maybe that made you stop and think,

and it wasn't just my pause, by the way.

But it made you stop and think,

nutrition happens before the meal.

And it really does, it's about like,

how do we teach kids about food

so that when they're sitting down at a meal,

what do they think about the spinach?

What do they think about the ice cream?

What do they think about their different snacks?

So we want your repeatable phrase to be something

that you repeat again and again and again

throughout your signature speech.

In other words, this is part of my in demand methodology

is that when you are giving a point,

you're acting like a lawyer

and you have to defend that point.

And at the end of it, you can be using your repeatable phrase.

So for me, at the end of each point,

I'm going to be saying,

speak as a fastest way to grow your business,

or I might say, because speak as a fastest way

to grow your business.

By the end of my presentation,

by the end of my signature speech,

my audience is repeating it with me.

That's when you know you've done a really good job,

but you say it again and again and again.

And if you're been following me on social media,

you'll see me say this again and again,

because speak as a fastest way to grow your business.

It's something that I believe it.

I will die on this hill

because that's how strong of a belief I have

that speaking is the fastest way to grow your business.

So repeatable phrase is something

that you should be thinking about

if you don't already have one,

write mine out and you'll see the different components of it.

Speaking as the vehicle on how I help people get from point

data point B, being invisible to visible, speaking,

is the fastest.

So there's some sort of an adjective

and then it's what is the desired result.

So that's the formula essentially for a repeatable phrase.

It doesn't always have to follow that formula

like Belinda said I shared earlier,

which is nutrition starts before the meal,

but nutrition is for vehicle to help clients go from point A to point B.

It just doesn't have the big giant adjective.

So hopefully that helps you start thinking about your repeatable phrase,

your catchphrase that you can use again and again and again.

Speaking does not have to be intimidating or complicated.

It's about showing up and sharing what you know

and serving the people who need to hear your message.

And guess what, you're already capable of that.

You just need the tools to structure

and deliver an amazing presentation.

And I want you to be proud of the speech that you craft,

proud to deliver it.

Confident knowing that it is a three C's that leads to the three R's.

So I want you to be confident that it is compelling, captivating,

and most importantly converting so that you leave your audience with the three R's

because I want them to be raving about you, remembering you

and most importantly, referring you,

referring you to other speaking opportunities,

referring you to friends who have the problem that you saw.

And if you're ready to take this to the next level,

I'd love to help you craft your own client attracting signature speech

because the doors to my in demand signature speech program are open.

And this is where we go deep into everything that we've talked about today

plus a whole lot more.

But either way, your audience is waiting for you.

So get out there and speak.

So until next week, I want you to be in demand.