Behind The Spotlight Podcast: Laurie-Ann Murabito

Good morning and welcome to another episode of Behind the Spotlight. Today you're coming— I'm coming to you straight from a very, very dreary New Jersey, so we have lots of lights going on so that we can see each other. But one of the things I think about seeing each other— when I say seeing each other, I think about speaking. And our guest today, Laurie-Anne Murabito, is a speaking coach, speaking strategist, and helps reform you. You, those that are watching that don't feel like you can go on stage or too shy or nervous or any other things that you come up with to block you from getting on that stage. Because if you know me at all, you know that I love being on stage and I love to be able to impact audiences on a large scale. And that's by being on stage. And that's one of the ways that I met Laurieann, um, and that I want her to come on the show to talk to you, and we can talk about how she is an accidental professional speaker, which is probably one of my favorite stories. I love when we come into this accidentally. Hey, Lorianne!

Hello, hello, good morning.

Good morning. How are you?

Fabulous.

Fabulous. I love fabulous.

That's something that a client of mine, she always said, literally had a t-shirt made and sent it to me. That was her big word, was fabulous. Everything was fabulous.

Well, that's a good word, especially when you're thinking about how you wanna feel on stage.

Yes.

Yes. So I'd love to learn more about, like, 'cause you said you were a reformed painfully shy gal who accidentally became a professional speaker. Like, that's gonna be a great story.

It is a funny story, one that most people don't believe because they see me getting on camera, walking on stages. I have a podcast. Like, it all just kind of looks easy right now, but I will tell you that I have done the reps and said yes before I thought I was ready. So what that means is I really was a terribly shy girl. I was always looking down at the floor. I considered myself to be an expert on tile floors and sneakers. And one day, me and some other women, this is after I left my corporate job thinking miraculously, you know, like that things would just work out without visibility. You know, spoiler alert, it doesn't work that way. And so women just network differently. So me and about 4 other women were arranging and planning a networking event that was education plus networking. And they all like, doing all the due diligence and then they went, "Laurie-Anne, you do the speaking." And my head did this and inside I was like, "What are you doing? You're not a speaker." But self-integrity is one of my highest values and so because I said I would do it, I showed up and I did the thing. And I stepped into what I call the college professor. Which means all I did was I got up there and I started dishing out information. Like, it wasn't— I had no idea what I was doing that first time. I just dished out information, like what happens in school. And at the end, people came up to me and said, um, is there a— do you work with clients? And I was like, did you, like, not see the train wreck that just happened?

No.

So I, you know, I actually got positive reinforcement pretty quick, and just realize like, wow, like, what do I wish I had done that time? How can I use that information for the next time that I speak? I know that's what it was. It's about doing the reps. Everybody starts with their first Instagram Live, their first podcast episode, their first time walking on stage. I'm—

my early videos, I sound like a news reporter.

That's so funny.

I don't know what you're doing, but do something else, 'cause that's not working.

So I'm just gonna comment on that. I actually leave my very first Facebook Live, it's still up on my business page, and I tell people, go watch that. That's a professional speaker, a woman who's, you know, got paid very well, walked on stages, and then came into the online world and was just like, I'm talking to that camera? Like, is there anybody there? You know, and it's like, so just like you said, like that news, like I call it, I was very flat. It was like, you can't even sense my personality. And now, like, it's very different. Again, I did my very first Facebook Live. It's about doing the reps.

Right, I recently actually was on a stage, a live stage in Florida, and my mic didn't work. My tech didn't work. The camera that was supposed to be recording me got stolen. And because I've done— I literally stood in the middle of this huge— I think there were like 300 people in the room. I literally stood in the middle of the room and I was like screaming because I don't have a very loud voice. Welcome! I'm so excited you're here! Who's from Jersey? Like, I just— and just started making the crowd laugh until they were like, here's the mic.

Thank you.

I didn't put my heels on. If you see the video, I'm wearing sneakers. I don't have a jacket on because I was so anxious about what was happening that I'm wearing a tank top and a skirt and sneakers.

You're talking about Podfest because I was in the back. I was taking pictures of you.

Oh, I didn't know you were.

Yeah. Yeah, I sent you pictures because I was like, hey, I know this girl. I'm going to send her some pictures because you always want those pictures. I take pictures like I want pictures to be taken, like with the crowd. And all that stuff. And that's a good, it's such a good point that for everybody to know that like speaking is improv. There is an element of improv because you just never know. I warn all of my clients, you know, if you get up there and nothing's gone wrong, just be prepared for something to go wrong. I mean, I will admit that that was a lot to go wrong, but you handled it like a pro.

Well, thank God I've done acting classes my entire life. I've been speaking since I was 16. And when I come across entrepreneurs that are like, no, that's not a piece of my strategy. And I'm always like, that's like, if you look at my social yesterday, somebody just, they messaged me yesterday. They were like, we have lots of, we have media right now, but we're not interested in working on it or paying attention to it. It's like something about leveraging it. I was like, but you have media and you don't want to do it. It's like you have a voice and you don't want to get on stage. So I know that you work with experts, huge companies like Johnson Johnson, American Cancer Society. What are your thoughts? What are the benefits of using speaking and stages for coaches and service professionals, the people watching?

It's huge because speaking builds trust instantly. I mean, like, you can write social media posts all day long and I'm reading it, but I'm not like— you can't always get a sense sense. Like maybe over time I'm going to build trust. However, when you're speaking in front of people, they can just feel your personality. They can see how passionate you are. I mean, you just feel drawn to them. I mean, it's such a great way for you to be, you know, sharing your expertise. You know, I always say like you want to just like share in your, in your presentation, you know, like what are like some baby steps that people can be like, wow, like I want to say yes to whatever she's offering. You know, whether that's a PDF to sign up for, whether it's a call, but it's always like the very next best step after your presentation. It just, it builds your audience. You are the— here's one of my favorite reasons for loving speaking. You're the expert in the front of the room. All eyeballs are on you. Nobody's scrolling social media, okay, and going from post to post. Eyes are on you. And everybody that's in that room has the problem that you solve. What I mean by that is they raised their hand and said yes to being in the room with you. They said yes to buying a ticket. They said yes to having that membership. They said yes to spending, you know, like, I'm going into this room and not another breakout session. So all of those people that are in your audience are potential leads for you, whether today or in the very near future, because you just never know when somebody's going to have the problem that you actually solve.

100%. I had a table full of people after the talk. I got to sit down with about 15 people. And some of them have become clients. Some of them were at my last class. You know, they'll eventually come into my world and work with me because they got to see me. And then they got to speak to me, which I think is that rough. It's like people avoid being on stage. You know, maybe they're comfortable like this. But being in the room, right, being with the people and feeling that energy and feeling like what they're doing You know, how can we help those people that are just like, they wanna avoid public speaking, they don't wanna be out there, but they know that what you and I are saying is the truth to their success?

You're speaking every day. Whether you speak to one person or you speak to, like right now, I am just speaking to you.

Right.

We just happen to, like, we're letting this conversation be available for everybody who's watching either one of our feeds. Right. That's all. Like, so it's like a bunch of people who are just kind of like, hmm, they're like eavesdropping, so to speak. So you're doing it anyways. Just go do the reps. Go get started. You're going to fall in love with it. So here's, here's the thing that people always say. I'm reaching for sticky notes. People always say, but I forget what I'm going to talk about. See these things? These are sticky notes. And these are your best friend. Write down the 3 things that you want to talk about. That's it. 3 easy steps. You want to go use your phone? You want to use your tablet or something? Everybody's like, but I look at myself. Look in the camera. When you look in the camera, you are looking into the eyes of everybody who's watching that video, whether it's live or for the replay. So stick this on your camera in front of your face if you don't want to get yourself not to look at yourself.

Okay. Yeah. And keep it air while we're speaking.

So yeah, well, I, you know, like, you and I have a mutual friend, Marisa.

Yes.

I mean, she's hilarious live, but she's just herself. I mean, sometimes she'll be like, is there something in my teeth? She's just being herself. Just be yourself. You know, that's one of the things that I talk about, and I've done a podcast episode on this, is decide what kind of a speaker you want to be. Okay. And so like for me, it's, you know, I'm gonna say like a little more than the word like authentic and trustworthy. I want to be rather laid-back, informative, and approachable. So those are my 3 words, or you can have 3 short phrases. And I used to do this with the leaders that I used to coach. You decide on your speaking brand. So that instead of letting somebody else decide for you, now every story that I tell, every point that I'm sharing always goes through the lens of those three words. Yeah. So I'm looking through it through that, like in all of my clients, you know, like that's what I get them to do. It's one of the first things that we do. What kind of a speaker do you want to be? You want to be funny? Well, okay. So all of your stories are going to be funny. They don't have, you know, we don't want people sobbing in the audience because that wouldn't be in alignment alignment with your brand. Well, so just be that. Go ahead.

It's about like connecting that to your personal brand, like really, you know, because I feel sometimes like when we like we give advice or we say that like I have to come up with something else, it's like no, it's an extension of your personal brand and how you want to be seen. And it's really connected to the media because being on stage to me is media, right? It's visibility, getting out there. It's how do you want people to feel when they hear your name? Right? I want people to be like, yeah, I want to go listen to Beth speak. I want to go listen to Laurieann speak. Because the feeling that they get after they see us is what we want, right? Yeah. Like, I'm saying bold familiarity. Like, I'm going to make you be bold, and I'm going to make you do things. But you're going to feel familiar. There's a piece of it that's familiar because I'm supporting you.

Yeah.

You know, that's what I— and that's what I hope you got. I'm so excited that you were in the room because it was such a disaster. But it worked out. It worked out for me.

I did. You did. You had a standing room of people. There was people, everybody, every chair was, was taken, and then there were people that were standing along the edges. So kudos to you, girl.

Yeah, no, it was good. You know, I, I really appreciate, I really appreciate it because I have honestly haven't got a lot of feedback on that. So, Lori, and that really means a lot to me. But what I'm always looking for are opportunities. What kind of opportunities are out there for coaches, consultants, service providers? Because I think that I have been working really hard in my, with my team to leverage that appearance without having the video. So, yes.

So I'm going to share a stat with you that most people are like, you're kidding. There are on average 7,500 meetings and conferences that are happening today in the US. And there will be another 7,500 tomorrow and the day after and the day after. That number globally for anybody who's watching outside, of the US is 20,000. 20,000 events happen every single day. Now, a speaking opportunity I think needs to be redefined. Now, that number comes— that stat comes from Meeting Professional International. So those are events like at hotels, conferences, meetings. You and I doing this, this doesn't count as part of that 20,000. The podcast that I do every week, that doesn't even count as part of the 20,000. So there are so many opportunities for you to get out there and get in front of your ideal clients more so than you realize. All of those meeting planners are like, who is gonna speak next week or next month? Like, where are we gonna find the next person?

Oh, we have a, what a great thing to think about. I'm thinking genuine, interesting, and relatable.

Awesome. Ooh, I love the word relatable.

Yes.

I love that. So here's why I love the word relatable because some people think, "Oh, but I haven't climbed Mount Everest. I haven't been on a hijacked plane," you know, to have like this great story. But you're a mom of like twins. You know, you had a full-time job while trying to get your college degree. Guess what? There are people in the audience who are going to be like, "Oh my God, she's just like me," or "I'm just like her." That's relatable, like our everyday lives. Are so relatable to people.

And I hear that from clients all the time. They're like, well, I don't want to lean into that because everybody's like that. I'm like, that's the point. The point is for them to see themselves in you or to see you on stage like, wow, I can't believe Laurien gets to do that. You know, that's something inspiring because when I speak to my clients, it's about empowering, educating, empowering, inspiring, and advising them to go do things, to be something, to be bigger than themselves. Because the profession that we've picked and most of our clients have picked is not an easy one. And it's really about getting yourself to do the next level, to do the next thing, to do the next video for the next funnel, whatever it is. But I think speaking is one of those things that people don't know how to start doing or where to even start looking. And I know you have a download called Directory of Places to Speak. I've seen it. The first step, you tell us about it.

Yeah. So the directory of places to speak is just for people who, like, I don't even know where to look for these 7,500 that are here in the US. You know, there are 225,000 professional training associations that are here in the US. You know, when you go to the circus or the fair and there's people who blow up the balloons and they make little animals out of them. Yeah, there's an association for that too. Okay. So there's an association literally for everything. So the directory breaks it down into 6 different industries and then it's actually like, there's a list that I've come up with and I recently updated it for 2024. So there's a little bit extra. There's like over 6, probably close to 60 different associations that routinely book speakers, whether that's weekly or monthly for their events. And don't forget, all these people have conferences also. So, so you want to, like, you want to make sure that you find the right places. And what I mean by find the right places is their ideal client, your ideal clients are in the audience. The people who would be interested in hearing you speak are in their audience, are their members. And that I believe in my, my sort of take on pitching is to open the door to having the conversation. A lot of these, like, we're not talking about professional trade groups. Like, if you go to the main headquarters, those are people who are salaried. Most of the different chapters that are throughout the United States, these are all volunteers. So we want to open the conversation and just ask them basically, what does it feel like? I see that you have a meeting every single month. What is your process for booking speakers? One of my very well-received speeches is, and then you share with them. But it's a very short email. Again, we're just opening the door to the conversation.

So everybody watch this again and take notes of what LoriAnn just said, 'cause she literally wrote your email for you.

Yes.

But I know a question, because people that don't know the industry, they're like, oh, well, am I gonna get paid? That's their next question. I'm sure you hear that a lot. Paid speaker. Tell us the difference because I think there's a lot of misnomer there.

Well, a lot of organizations just don't have the budget for that, but guess what? Your ideal clients are in the audience. Do you want to get paid on the front end or do you want to get paid on the back end? Because getting paid on the back end is so much more lucrative. I have spoken numerous times for no fee. I don't use the word free. I don't speak for free. I speak for no fee. Huge difference because there's always an exchange of value. I have spoken for no fee, spoken in front of my ideal clients, had somebody in the audience that I had a beautiful conversation with. I'm just sharing one story about how speaking is the gift that keeps on giving. I mailed him a copy of one of my books. He then, 6 months later, was like, I loved your book. I bought a copy for everybody. Made me an Amazon bestseller. Seller, by the way. 6 months later, he sent— he picked up the phone and called me and said, Lorianne, I do a leadership retreat for my head people. What's it going to take to bring you to Oregon? And then the year after that, he was like, I'm on the committee for the Oregon State Recycling Conference. What's it going to take to bring you to Oregon again?

Wow.

So like, it just snowballs. Yeah, it, it snowballs and you just never know. So not every association is going to pay their speakers. That's something that you're going to figure out with your smaller chapters, but get started.

Just to get started, people like, well, how would I pay now? It's like, it's not now. It's after you do the reps. It's after you got credibility. Hey, have you seen Lori Ann's new book? Because we have Rethink Leadership, Rethink Your Leadership, and the podcast. You know, Lori Ann, what can you tell us a little bit more about you? Like, we know what you do now, but, and leadership obviously is your passion, but tell us a little bit more about you.

Well, today, like, you know, a number of years ago, I actually left speaking in the leadership industry and came into the online world, and it was just by mistake again. By mistake. Somebody sent me a message and she had worked with me. She was in an audience where her and I were, she was in the audience of a place that I was speaking and she actually won a free coaching call with me. So she sends me a text that says, Lorianne, do you write speeches for people? And I was like, I just like, I write my own. But because I knew who she was, I was like, hey, let's meet for coffee. Let's see if I can help her. 5 years into her side hustle, which is gonna become her retirement hustle. She's 3 years away from retiring from her government job. You will stand on your head for 3 years. So she had successfully been losing money for 5 years. Husband said, you can't keep doing this when you retire. So that's why she turned to me and I was like, oh, I can teach you how to write a compelling, captivating, and converting presentation. I can teach you how to get booked. And teach you how to leverage it into more. I had so much fun helping her. She was a stylist, so she was teaching people how to dress their personality. Right after her very first presentation, she walked away with 3 full-paying clients. Wow. In a tiny audience, like a tiny audience. And I was like, that's a home run because that changed the course of her business, right, and her retirement. By the way, so that's what made me come into the online world, because I was like, there are so many women coaches, consultants, and service providers that have no idea the power of speaking. You know, Warren Buffett is known for saying, learn public speaking skills and you will increase your value by 50%. I think as coach, consultant, and service provider, if you learn public speaking skills, you will increase your bottom line by 89%.

Most of my business is speaking. You know, I always say I speak for a living. And just on a side note, so my son is a sophomore at Rutgers. He's always been a speaker, right? He's like, even in elementary school, he was in speaker— like, they did speeches and stuff. He's like— he just did a presentation on a project he didn't have to do anything on, because they're like, whoever wants to speak doesn't have to do the work. And he was like, I'll do both. Like, I was like, you need to do some work too, honey. Like, it's still school. But no, but he was like, they were so terrified of getting up in front of a room. Oh wait, I also saw a video recently of a college room. I don't know what the class was, but it was either write like a huge, huge paper or do a 15-minute anything— 15-second, sorry, second anything in front of the audience. One girl was a dancer, did a 15-second dance. Everybody else is doing the paper. Wow. Because they wouldn't— oh. Which I was like— and you know, it translates to today. Most people, when I'm in a room full of people, if I say, who wants to speak? It's a very low amount of people who actually raise their hand. They're like, well, I kind of want to. But I know that with people working with you and your clients coming in to be able to help them do a speech, really understand the pieces of it that are— because I love how you're forward-facing, meaning revenue-facing. Let's get some, let's get some clients afterwards. Let's sell the book in the back of the room. It's not all about getting paid in front because I feel like those days are over for a majority of people, including myself, who spoke getting paid before 2020.

Yes, and you have to like sort of, you know, like no meeting planner is going to hire you and pay you to speak when they have no evidence of what your abilities are. But speaking about that, that 15-second versus writing the paper, that's a beautiful example of how effective efficient speaking is. You know, we're talking about like you get up in front of an ideal audience for 30 to 45 minutes versus the hours it takes to write social media posts, you know, record your podcast. Like there's just, it's so efficient, just so efficient. But again, speaking needs to blend with your, with your, with your business model and also your personality. I work with a lot of people who are petrified of speaking. They are scared. They're just like, they just like, I'm getting over this fear. And ta-da, they turn into speakers.

Well, they need somebody like you, Lorianne, to help them with the speaking and someone like me to help them get it out into the world. Yeah, people wanted to come work with you. Wait, yes, people wanted to come work with you, right? There's the book, there's the podcast they can listen to. There's the download, but what else do you have going on for people who are like, okay, I'm ready, I need to learn how to speak, have somebody really help me?

Yeah, I would definitely say go listen to my podcast, which is called Be in Demand. I do have a couple of books from my leadership days, and I have some sweet surprises that are coming up in the next couple of months. We're talking about 2 days together writing your signature speech, a speech that will be compelling, captivating, and most importantly, converting. So make sure you are listening to the podcast and you'll hear all about that, or at least following me here on Instagram.

Okay, so let's all follow because I'm up for that, Loriann. Definitely put me on the waitlist. Everybody else, all Loriann's information will be in the, in the caption. Go to her, like, follow, subscribe, do all the stuff because Loriann's the real deal. And if you want to add speaking to your business, this is the way to get it done. Loriann, thank you so much for being with me today. Thank you so much for being in that room and giving me some feedback, because it's been— it's felt really weird since then, to be completely honest. But I really appreciate it, and I appreciate you. Thank you.

You did a fabulous job. Thank you for having me. This was a great conversation.

Yeah, no, I appreciate it. We'll do it again. Thanks everyone for watching. Once again, come back to my account 3 times a week for the most amazing interviews, the most amazing women. And let me know what you learned in the comments, um, if you're brave. Do a video and DM us. I'll share it too. Thank you so much. Bye, Lauri, and talk to you soon. Bye.