Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:00:00]:

Public speaking is one of the biggest fears that people have, but not when you incorporate the two P's, and that's what we're going to be talking about today. So if you have been wanting to leverage speaking opportunities into your marketing, but you haven't, for whatever reason, fear, time, ability, et cetera, keep looking. Are you a coach, consultant, or service provider who's frustrated with the growth of your business? You're in the right place. I'm your host, Laurie Ann Murobito, and you're listening to Be In Demand, where I talk about how to leverage speaking opportunities to grow your business, get positioned as the expert, and monetize your expertise. Let's get out of this. Thank you so much for joining me. And I realized according to my downloads, there are a lot more people who are listening to this podcast. So thank you very much.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:00:48]:

Thank you to the people who have reached out who DM me and send me messages, and especially thank you to the people who have jumped on calls with me. So I just want to say thank you so much because I don't take it lightly that you are listening to this podcast when you have a choice to listen to so many other others. And thank you to all the people who are also leaving reviews, because that is what helps to share this podcast with other people. The more reviews we have, the more people I am able to reach so deeply appreciate that. So let's just talk about why you might be afraid of putting yourself out there in the holiday spirit of Halloween. You know, it's spooky. It's scary to put yourself out there. It's spooky.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:01:35]:

Or scary to hire a coach. It's spooky to hire a speaker. That is a message that I would send to a meeting planner just to have a little fun with the holiday. But maybe you're afraid to put yourself out there. Maybe you had a bad experience once upon a time. Maybe you're afraid of what people might think or what people might say. You know, regarding the bad experience, I I know that I shared with you on a previous episode how there was this time where I was spontaneously told to get up there and speak and I couldn't stop giggling. I couldn't stop laughing.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:02:09]:

And I used the excuse that I had just heard a really funny joke. I'm really not sure if the audience bought that, but it was how I was able to step off the stage. So that moment still sticks with me. But that is because one of the P's wasn't present. Another reason why you might not be Putting yourself out there is that you just don't feel that your story is good enough. It's not interesting to tell. Maybe you feel that speaking might be a waste of your time. Is it going to produce the results for your business? Are you going to attract clients? Are you going to get sales calls? Are you going to get referred to other places to speak? Because you've heard me say that speaking easily snowballs.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:02:55]:

It easily snowballs when you do it right. And that's part of the in demand signature speech methodology is that we inject things in there so that people know that there are other speeches that they could hire you for, that there are workshops or programs or courses that you offer, et cetera. So I always want my clients and my students to always get spin off business every time they speak. So this is a very interesting week. It's Halloween, but it's also harvest season. And so I think these two really go really well together because Halloween spookiness. So here comes the fear of putting yourself out there, the fear of public speaking, the fear of is my story good enough? But it's also a harvest season where we are reaping the rewards of our work. And that is exactly what speaking does for you.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:03:52]:

You will reap the rewards of the two P's, which I'm going to talk a little bit more about. But it's also just putting yourself out there. And that's not one of the P's by the way, but being able to reap the rewards of putting yourself out there. Thinking about the past few years and how we went from an in person world to a virtual world. And now we're a little mix and mix. And I don't mean just about conferences and meetings, I mean networking events. Their attendance has gone down and they've seen that and now attendance is starting to get back up there. But there's still people who aren't putting themselves out there.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:04:34]:

They're not making the effort to go to those in person networking events, in person conferences. Because we developed these habits from a few years ago to stay at home and be on the computer. And that's not doing anything for your business. There is something about in person events. I just came back from a retreat in Peru and spent quality time with seven other humans who I have to say, we formed such a bond. And if you were watching my stories over on Instagram, you probably saw some of the stories, you know, the ups and the downs, not just the mountains, but I also got altitude sickness. So speaking is harvesting. But just like any crop you have to prepare the soil.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:05:23]:

You have to plant the seeds. It needs water and sunshine. You have to tend to the weeds so that you will have this abundant crop at the end. And that does take a little bit of work. It takes a little bit of skill to put yourself out there to craft a speech that people want to listen to, crafting a speech that you're going to use again and again and again. Or maybe you need to build your own stage so that you can harvest from that stage. And what I mean by that, if you happen to be new here, like this podcast, this is my own stage. IG Stories.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:06:00]:

That's my own stage. If I go live on Instagram or Facebook or LinkedIn, that's me building and being on my own stage. So keep in mind, speaking needs to be redefined. And you can build your own stage that you speak from. And it doesn't always have to be in the form of a meeting or a conference. You can start your own stage. As a matter of fact, I tell all my clients, pick a stage, start speaking from that stage so that you get picked up by meeting planners and mastermind hosts to come and speak in their groups, their meetings, their events. You know, just as a side note, I had a sales call with a woman, and I do this a lot with anybody that I get on a sales call with is I will look at their website because I want to see what is your presence.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:06:47]:

Because again, a website is a stage because you could have links or videos of you speaking either on your own stage or on other people's stages. And I will always look at it real time because I want to give them feedback real time. Not I did look at your website and here's what I noticed. But I want to look at it with fresh eyes right then and there to let them know, here's my opinion, here's what I see when I look at your website, your homepage. Do you have a speaker page? What is the impression that I get? Do you look like a speaker? Do you look like a coach? Or do you look like something else? Do you look like a speaker? Do you look like a paid speaker? Now, looking like a paid speaker is very different than looking like a free speaker. Enough about that. So going back to the spookiness of putting yourself out there, remember when you first learned to drive a car? It's so mental. Okay, two hands on the wheel, looking right, looking left.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:07:56]:

Okay, right foot is on the gas. Oh, okay, now I have to break a little bit. Like you are mentally going through everything and now you're changing the radio station or you're listening to a podcast. Hopefully this podcast. You are looking at the screen on your car, or maybe you've got your phone attached to the windshield for your gps. Maybe you are having a conversation with the person who is sitting next to you or who's on the phone. Like, our subconscious starts to kick in, because a subconscious job is to do things on repeat. And once you learn how to drive, you have taught your nervous system, you have taught your subconscious, and now when you're driving, it is so much easier.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:08:41]:

You're not even putting that much thought into it. You're thinking about the errands that you are going on. You're thinking about the meeting that you're going to have later that morning. So speaking is exactly the same thing. You just need to teach your nervous system a new trick. I think back to my very first speaking opportunity, which I've shared here, where there was no beginning, there was no ending. I just turned into the college professor lecturing to the audience. I remember my very first live stream, and it's still up on my business Facebook page.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:09:12]:

I encourage people to go and look at it. Hello. That was from a professional speaker. I'd had years of speaking. However, it was my first time coming onto Facebook Live and speaking from there. And if you haven't seen it, it's like, very flat. There's, like, no personality in Laurian whatsoever. Is she real or is she a robot? My very first podcast episode.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:09:35]:

I remember the first time I recorded a podcast episode. Again, go back to the very first episode of this podcast and you'll hear how different things are compared to this episode. I'm over 250 episodes into this podcast, so I've done lots of reps, and that's what I want you to do. You just have to start with the first step. You can't expect yourself to be perfect the very first time unless you start to implement these two P's. So what's going to help you do a better job? Well, it's kind of like the warmup before you start working out the warmup, the stretches before you start lifting. You know, it's the two P's, and those two P's are preparation and practice. Preparation.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:10:24]:

We want to make sure that you speak within your allotted time. Whether that's 30, 45, 60 minutes, maybe it's only 10 minutes. Do not go over. I can't emphasize that enough. Do not go over your allotted time to speak. It is disrespectful to the meeting planner or whoever booked you or asked you to come in. And it's also disrespectful to the audience. No one will ever criticize you for ending a few minutes early.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:10:51]:

As a matter of fact, I would always when I was first starting to speak, and I still do this today, my goal is to end two minutes early. If they've asked me to speak for 60 minutes, I'm speaking for 58. I allow a little bit of a cushion, extra Q and A, just in case something that I say is extra funny and the audience really laughs. A little bit longer than I anticipated. Aim for ending a few minutes early. And that comes with practicing your presentation. You know, a speech is so much more than just a beginning, a middle and an end. As a matter of fact, inside the In Demand signature speech methodology, there are seven blocks, not three.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:11:33]:

Not a beginning, middle and end. No, there are seven blocks to the In Demand signature speech. It is designed to take your audience on an experience, grabbing their attention, answering the question that your audience is thinking, why should I listen to you? That's the part where they lean back a little bit and that's when you have to answer that question. And then the next one is like, you are giving really good value. There's a call to action and then there's also a beautiful close. This is where you kind of like wrap the present up in that beautiful bow. But the call to action is very important also. And your call to action needs to be in alignment with the value that you are giving.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:12:16]:

And it's also got to tie into your goal for speaking and your goal for the audience. Everybody who hires you or books you to speak, they want the audience to be moving in the right direction, taking that next step. And that's what your call to action is. Your call to action is designed to give the audience homework to get them to take that next step. Whether that next step is with you, whether next step is with the organization, whatever the reason is that you are being asked to speak. And just a little shameless plug. If you want to learn more about the In Demand signature Speech Start Anytime program, it is down below. So I will let you take a peek at that.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:12:58]:

But this is a the digital program where you can do this at your pace, your time. And there is an option to also get some live coaching with that. So preparation and practicing will help you become so that when you show up, you already know what you're going to be talking about. You already know what those three key points are that you're going to be sharing with the audience. And that will help you show up as a more calm, peaceful, not anxious speaker. Sure, we might still get a little butterflies before we start speaking. Those are normal. That just means that you're a human being and you're normal.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:13:40]:

But knowing exactly what you're going to be talking about, knowing exactly how long your speech is, knowing the key stories that you're going to be telling in your presentation and what the lesson is, that's going to make you a calm speaker and you're going to deliver a beautiful presentation. When you are prepared in regards to giving people really good value, there is no reason, absolutely no reason, to tell the audience everything you know about your area of expertise, your topic. Could you imagine how long this podcast episode would be if I shared with you 20 years of experience? It would be outrageously long. We're talking like Joe Rogan 10x. It would be like hours and hours and you would be overwhelmed and you would never finish the episode. Hence the reason why it is broken down into these cute little episodes each and every week. And what happens when you teach too much? You overwhelm the audience. And when I see new speakers do this, I know that there's a self confidence issue because they are trying to teach everything that they know, because they're trying to prove that they know their topic.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:14:53]:

So please do not feel that you ever have to teach everything that you know. They can always have you come back for another presentation. As a matter of fact, these days I have two very distinct presentations that I offer. Different masterminds, different groups, and it depends on what's the speaking ability in the audience. Are they total beginners because I have a speech just for them, or are they a little bit more on the advanced or they've got some experience and they're just not seeing the spin off business? I got a different presentation for that as well. So it depends on the audience and that's something that you'll get that information when you have your pre event meeting with whomever is booking you. So that's your preparation and then you want to practice. Write out your stories, say your stories, say your closing.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:15:50]:

You don't have to memorize every single word unless that's something that you enjoy doing. Matter of fact, a lot of times my clients come to me and usually during the sales process they're like, are you going to make me memorize every word of a presentation? I'm like, no, not unless you want to. Some of my clients do write out their speeches, but I've got Other clients where they memorize the right sections, which is your opening and also your closing and the stuff that's in between there, you can have bullets. You can know what story you're going to tell. You can know what the lesson is for that story. But practice, practice, practice so that you know exactly how long your presentation is going to be. You know, if you can elaborate on a little bit of a story or take a little bit more time for Q and A, you'll know that because you have practiced your presentation. So Those are the two Ps, the preparation and the practice.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:16:49]:

And I can tell you that with working with so many clients and a lot of my very new green speakers who just want to overcome that fear of speaking. They want to start speaking because they know that it's really good for their business. The more prepared they were, they weren't nervous. Because I'll always ask them, were you nervous? And unanimously, everybody has said no. And I always ask why. He said, because they were so prepared to give their presentation. And a lot of the things that I share with people, like it's, you know, sometimes improv needs to come in here. And I talked a lot about that last week as well, is improv.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:17:30]:

And also just expecting that some sort of hiccup or glitch is going to happen. And when you expect or are looking out for that little glitch, it doesn't surprise you. You're just like, I just have to go with the flow here. No big deal. I got this. And you do got this. If speaking of something that you want to incorporate into your marketing plan, I want to encourage you to book a call with me. I have a couple of slots left that are open for people.

Laurie-Ann Murabito [00:17:59]:

I only work with a small number of people, one on one. And I would love to talk to you about your business, about your goals, and how you can make a bigger impact by using speaking, building your own stage, and using other people's stages. Opa, other people's audiences. So that link to book that call will be down below, but it is speakandstandout.com discovery. So till next week, be in demand.