712 My first International Speaking gig - How I prepared for it

In a couple of weeks time, I'm going to be running a three day live accelerator for those of you who are keen to hit 10k months this year. So I know we're easing into the Christmas period, but if you have a really quiet period over Christmas and it stresses you out about your income dropping, then it's time to start taking more control of your income. If you're sick of discounting over delivery, wondering where your next client is going to come from, then this accelerator is for you. It's called Predictable 10k Months and it's all about putting in a game plan that will actually work for you and your business. I'm going to guide you through your step by step method to simplify your sales to hit consistent 10k months without a big audience. It's going to happen 12th to 14th November. One powerhouse hour a day and there are three days and you will walk away with a 90 day game plan for you to hit 10k months. If you have been leaving your income up to chance for way too long, then this is absolutely time to start stepping in and owning the space and start charging what you're worth. Come and join me. The link is in the show notes and I cannot wait to support you live. Welcome to the Next Level Life podcast with Christine Corcoran. This podcast is made for the powerhouse business women who are ready to ignite their fullest potential. This is where we will dive deep into the mindset breakthroughs and sprinkle in some pick up a butt motivation so you can scale your business with confidence and clarity. Whether you're craving more income impact or inspiration, this podcast will be your ultimate resource for all things Next Level. Listen in as we have authentic conversations with game changing female entrepreneurs as we reveal the secrets on what it takes to rise and thrive. So go ahead, ignite your inner fire and let's get you taking massive aligned action. Are you ready to elevate? Let's go. So I just got home from Canada, had an incredible trip across to Toronto. I'd never been to Toronto before and so when my beautiful friend Christina asked me to come and speak at the High Vibe Women event, I was like yes, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. For many reasons. 1. Christina is such a beautiful human. I know how much she cares about other people and she loves lifting people up. I met her as part of a mastermind that I've been a part of in America for a few years and she's just amazing. She's such an incredible connector and I just knew that she'd put on an incredible event. So, yes, it was a very much a stretch to get there. It was a lot of time to fly all the way across to Toronto, which is kind of near New York. So if you're not sure really where it is, it's on the east coast of North America and it is quite a distance to get there. So it was a 14 hour flight across to LA, and then I stayed in Palm Springs for a couple of days just to break up the flight, and then went across to Toronto, which was like four hours across to Chicago, and then two hours north to Toronto. And I'm so glad that I made the trek. It was such an incredible experience. I got to meet so many incredible women, and I wanted to share with you, like one. This is my first international speaking gig, which is so incredible. So I thought I would share with you how I landed this and also how I prepared for it, because I really want you to take away from that, this. Take away from this episode that this is absolutely possible for you. Too often people look at others that are doing big things and they go, oh, that's okay for her, because like all of these things, but it's actually the reasons why this came about. Honestly, what I drill it down to is that one, I was willing to invest in myself. I was willing to put myself in rooms that I felt uncomfortable in, that I felt like I didn't belong. I tapped into courage to have conversations that led to incredible opportunities. I also didn't doubt myself and put myself forward for opportunities. So what I mean by that is that I was willing to share insights and I was willing to share what I'm great at. And in the conversations that happen within the Mastermind, it put me on the radar for other people to be like, oh, that's actually perfect for my audience. I'd love you to come on the podcast or I reach out to other people to come on my podcast. Christina was first on my podcast and we did a swap and we further our relationship through that. And we've just stayed connected over the years. So we haven't been a part of the Mastermind for years now. Uh, and then last year when I spent a lot of time in America, I got to spend more time with her because she was part of the event series that I went to. And it was just so nice to spend time with her and add value and. And connect with her and find out what she need. Well, so I want to share with you a couple of things of how this came about and also how I prepared for it to be maximized, because going that far, it's quite a big amount of time out of your business. And even though it looks great on social media, it's still a big investment. Right. So I paid for my own flights and accommodation, and so that is a big investment as well. But I just knew that by saying yes to this, it would open up doors for so many other opportunities. And it already has, which is incredible. I've already gotten requests to be on people's podcasts. I've already gotten guests for my podcast and for big name people because they saw me on this stage. And so it's so incredible to see those opportunities come through. But I feel like I wanted to share with you that this is absolutely something that's doable for you. And the reason why I speak to this is because I feel like what Australians don't do and New Zealanders. I'm not sure whether you guys do this or not, but I feel like it's something that we could absolutely improve in the way that we further network and the way that we further connect and add value. Because we have the tall poppy syndrome here and because we have a smaller population, I feel like there's a lot of scarcity in our country. A lot of scarcity. And I know that that's obviously in relation to the economy and all that type of things, but I also think it's coming from a deeply ingrained convict mentality. We've come from convict backgrounds. Right. So whether your family did or whether it came from war times as well could be a thing. We have a lot of scarcity. And so when it comes to supporting other people and developing relationships and connections, one. One mindset that I feel that really holds us back from truly tapping into incredible opportunities is our lack of willingness to give. And honestly, I am. I'm saying this not from a judgment place. I'm saying this from an absolute evolution and what I have been through. So in the earlier years of my business, I was so focused on cost versus investment, I was stuck in scarcity. Absolutely. I was so worried about, like, if I support other people, what will I get out of it? Like, is there going to be anything for me? And it was coming from a place of scarcity. And so if that is you and you're recognizing, like, hey, yeah, look, I would love to support other people, I'd love to lift other people up and I'd love to give, but I don't have enough time or, but I'm trying to get by myself. That's honestly where it begins, that scarcity of like, oh, but if I go spend time supporting someone else, it's going to take away from what I will receive. If I go and invest in someone else, time wise, money wise, it's going to take away again from what I get. If I lift someone else up or promote someone else or help someone else out, will it take away from me being able to receive clients that maybe those clients, then when invested in someone else, we worry about that. It's all scarcity driven. And so in the last couple of years, I've been really working hard to rewire that mentality. And the more time that I've spent investing in myself, the more time I've spent investing in other people. And I don't mean money wise, I mean time wise, energy wise. Giving of my gifts has honestly expanded my network in so many ways. And this opportunity would not have come about if I didn't allow myself to give. I was willing to have those generous conversations. I was willing to let people on my podcast. I was willing to further say, like, what do you need help with? How can I help you? I was willing to share out their stuff. Like, and I feel like, as well, like, I must say, like, even though as I'm saying this, I could be doing it so much more, so much more. And coming back from this event, I have, like, made this commitment to myself that I'm absolutely prioritizing this every single week. In the last, say, six to 12 months, I've been so busy myself with the event and with my own business that I really feel like I haven't prioritized giving of my gifts and supporting other people the way that I would like to. And I recognize that just from, like spending time in Canada with all these incredible people with, you know, it was probably like 50, 50Americans to Canadians. And I just absolutely love being in rooms that truly, truly, like, honestly, it comes from this beautiful, pure place of them wanting to see other people win and encouraging people and wanting to see people lift them, being lifted up. And I feel like we don't have that here in Australia. We don't truly want to see other people win unless we're going to benefit from it. Like, I know that's really hard to hear because deep down we actually have really big hearts and we do love other people, we do want to give. And sometimes we've got to recognize where our scarcity is holding us back. And so I know this has kind of gone off on a different tangent, but I feel like it's so important that you must recognize that when you do give, it comes back to you tenfold. And we're so focused on the one thing we're so focused of. Like, if I give this one thing, what will I get back? And that's where we're cutting ourselves off at the foot. We need to be willing to give from the goodness of our hearts and not being so stressed about whether we're going to get back, we need to trust that it's going to come back tenfold, because it will. It absolutely will. So I implore you to do what I'm going to do. I'm going to be dedicating, at least minimum, 30 minutes a week to further nurturing and giving of my time and energy to other people. And I know that doesn't seem like a lot, but the thing is, I have found it really hard to prioritize that weekly. In the last six months, I was only really dedicating maybe 30 minutes over the month instead of weekly, whereas I'm now like 30 minutes a week. And there's obviously going to then go into more of that. So it. When you do that, it leads into giving more. But it's so much fun and it's so enjoyable that I honestly feel like it's. It's so worth our time. So I'm going to be dedicating that once a week, and I'm going to share with you on the podcast how that goes. And I just want you to think about how you can do that for yourself. Like, think about, like, who could you reach out to to further support? Who could you share people's stuff? Like, just take a moment to be like, I'm going to lift other people up. I'm going to celebrate. I'm going to champion other people and just. Just. You just never know where it's gonna go. And again, we're not doing it out of needing to get. We're doing it just from the goodness of our heart to just want to celebrate other people and champion other people. So what this looks like practically just to give you an insight, because I think sometimes if I'm going into this, you might be like, but what does that. What do you actually mean, Christine, in that 30 minutes, once a week, I'm going to have a. I have a list of people that I want to further nurture and have a list of people. And this is not leads. Right. I just want to highlight this. And I went through this at the Unstoppable Women event, and I go through this in depth in the next level Mastermind. Because when you think about your next level of where you want to go, right, you want to think about who do you need to surrender yourself with in order for that outcome or result to be absolutely achievable? So I look at writing down a list of people that I would love to be associated with, a list of people that I would love to connect with, list of people that I know would have the answers to the problems. I'm going to experience all of that. Like, write out a list of people, the people that you would, like, love to be friends with, love to be connected with. Write out all of those people. And then once a week, I'm going to sit down, I'm going to go check out what they're doing, because this is not something that just happens with the algorithm unless you actively go and search for their stuff. So I go look at their stuff and look what they're doing. I go listen to one of their podcasts and I share it out on social media. I go DM them and be like, what are you working on? How can I help you? Who do you need connected with? Who do you need to be connected with at the moment? I further just reach out to them via a message for friendship. Like, I'm not asking for anything. I'm finding ways that I can add value, and that's all I'm doing. So it could be a text message, it could be a dm, it could be an email, like, whatever that looks like. It could be a LinkedIn message, whatever that looks like. I'm putting myself on their radar and I'm giving, I'm supporting them, I want to help them in any way, shape or form in order to lift them up. So, and it's the same thing, like, with anything that you're working towards. Like, have a think about, like, who would you want to be your mentor? Who would you want to be connected with? Who do you want to ask to be on your podcast? Who do you want to be asked to be on your stages? Like, all of that, Go build the relationships. Now. Don't go in with an ask. Just don't start with an ask, because that's what everyone does. And then that creates a relationship of transaction rather than relationship. So that's what I'm going to be prioritizing for the remainder of the year and ongoing into 2026, because it is so beneficial for my business and just for the joy of running my business. So let me come back to the speaking gig, okay, so you know where it came about and basically I landed in Toronto and I spent some time checking out Toronto and then the next day I went out to, to Niagara Falls. I put posted a couple of reels on this on Instagram so feel free to check it out there. And Niagara Falls was a bucket list. I've always wanted to see Niagara Falls and so it was so awesome to go spend the day there. And it was just beautiful the day, incredible. Perfect blue skies and sunshine and just, yeah, it blew me away. And just incredible day. And then I had the VIP night on the Friday night which was so beautiful. Got to see Marina Middleton speak and Jen from Becoming Iconic. And they were just, and they were just a beautiful first insight into what the event was going to be like. And Christina had set it up so beautifully and Maria from the social snippet and there was just beautiful welcome. And we got personalized bracelets, like permanent jewelry, like every single VIP got one. And then we got food on the night and drinks and all the things and we did the glam bot and all the things. It was super fun. And then the day of the event was a full day. So we arrived at 8:39 o' clock and we kick started the day and my beautiful friend Jessica Jovanovich. Jessica Jovanovich jumped on stage and she dived into some mindset and some belief shifting in order for people to step into their next level of business. And it was so good. And I was on in the afternoon, so straight after lunch and it was a panel and we were talking all about building community online, stepping into your confidence when it comes to selling online, understanding sales from a different perspective. And rather than fake it till you make it, it's a different take on what that would look like. Right. And so we dived into so many topics. Now Christina is going to post it on her podcast so I'll share out the episode once she posts it live. And it was such a great conversation and I feel like one of the biggest things that I did to make it valuable for everyone because afterwards I had so many people come up and just say how valuable it was and how much they got out of it and how everything that I shared was really reson resonating with them. And I feel like that came from my preparation. So yes, like you always know your topic in depth. Like that's for sure. Like with the more you talk on the topics that you talk on, the more powerful you become because you become, you have the ability to create the really succinct outcomes or metaphors or takeaways that people really Get. But one of the things that I feel like I did really well to support that was prepare ahead of time what I wanted to share. So Christina actually didn't want to share any questions with us prior. Sometimes people will share questions and I feel like actually that doesn't always get the best outcome from the guests. And it depends on the interviewer because sometimes the interviewer needs to be fully prepped on how to navigate that conversation. But Christina basically said, look, I'm not going to share the questions with you. These are the topics that we're going to cover and I will just see where the conversation goes. And I was like, yep, that's cool, no problem. But I did ask her a couple of pre questions to ensure what I was going to be sharing was effective and valuable. So I asked her, tell me more about your audience of who's going to be in the room, what stage of business will they be in? What are their biggest challenges when it comes to sales? Knowing that I would speak more on the sales topic. Secondly, I asked her how she wanted her audience to feel after the event. And so obviously the event is called High Vibe. She's like, I want people to feel empowered, to take action. I want people to feel like they are stepping into their next level and I want them to feel connected. And I'm like, amazing. So that was really great. And she gave me really, really cool insights into the stages of business that we're in. So with that insight, I knew what would be relevant for me to share. And so then I thought about, okay, what's a simple way that I could simplify sales? And I've been working on a different, a different method that I want to teach over the last few months because I feel like one of the things with sales is it becomes very complicated and people overcomplicate it and they get stressed about it and they just don't do it. So I actually created my own four step method, which is my 4C method, and I'm going to share it on a podcast episode and I won't go into it right now in depth, but I shared it on the stage and that really resonated with people. So I wanted to simplify because sales doesn't have to be complicated, but it does have to be clear in order for us to take action. So there's some of the things that you can do. So when you think about speaking on stage, you want to think of what is going to be relevant for them to hear. What stage of business are they in or what do you need to know about the audience in order for you to be able to share the most relevant information. And that's going to really resonate with people. Secondly, I thought about, what stories can I share? Because stories resonate further than information or education. Okay. So I wanted to think about, like, what are the stories that I wanted to share that would be relevant for them to understand the concepts that I'm teaching? So I had a couple of client stories in my mind that I had a story of my own that I wanted to share as well. And then thirdly, you want to think about what is the biggest takeaway that I want them to have that I want them to walk away with. So knowing that she wanted to feel empowered, for me, it was simplifying sales and getting them back to what's most important when it comes to making more sales. And so that's what I then wanted to share. My 4C method. And then lastly, always have a lead magnet in mind, a resource that you could share that would be valuable for people to download so then they can get on your email list. Because ideally, you want to maximize. There was 175 people in the room, so you want to obviously maximize that for the growth of your business, but you don't want it to come across sleazy, salesy, or pitchy. And Christina had said to me ahead of time, it's not a pitch event. We don't pitch at all here. And I'm like, yep, cool, no worries. Of course, I also don't have that with my events. And so I wanted to make sure that it was part of the conversation that I could share in the conversation that would be a resource rather than a sales pitch. Okay. And so I had a couple of resources in my mind of, like, where the conversation might go and what I could share. The reason why I prepared that ahead of time was because if you feel like you aren't clear on what you want to share, sometimes you can be on the stage and you can be umming and arring, or you can be going around in circles trying to get to your point. So preparing ahead of time really just helps you be really succinct in what you want to share, and then you can weave the conversation in directions you want it to go so you can answer a question and then take it a different avenue if you need to in order for you to be able to get a point across or to be able to share a lead magnet. So the other thing as well, which was perfect for me, was that I shared my 4C method and then shared if you find the conversation side really challenging that I have a resource that you can access. And I shared my sales scripts and I also asked them to DM me. So just said if you can't find it, DM me and I'll send it to you. And the which meant they will go find me on social media, hit follow and then send me a dam, which is great. And then secondly, I had a question. So at the end of the session, Christina opened up the floor for questions and one of the questions was around sales and furthering the conversation and conversion. And so then I also had a resource for that so I could share that with that beautiful lady. And then I was able to then obviously share it for the room. So being prepared ahead of time to know what you want to share and what you want to get across and what resource you want to share will absolutely be more effective for any speaking gigs that you have now. We don't want to over prepare. I just want to highlight that because sometimes if you over prepare it, it comes across a little bit more robotic or comes across like you really didn't listen to the question and so you want to be conscious of like staying really present. The beauty of like the fact that I've spoken so much now, I actually wasn't nervous, actually wasn't nervous at all, which was really cool. I made sure that I didn't eat beforehand because I find that if I've eaten beforehand, you don't want to be burping on stage or sometimes when you're processing food, you can't think clearly and you're not as on your on your toes. So I didn't eat beforehand. Even though everyone had lunch. I actually set aside some food and ate afterwards and I just made sure I drank plenty of water because sometimes I get a bit of dry mouth. And so because I talk a lot. So I made sure that I drank a lot of water beforehand. And I was just having conversations with awesome people in the room. And so I wasn't nervous at all, which was so good. And so the more that you can remind yourself that you have value to add and that people will need what you have to to share, the more that you'll stay grounded in your confidence. And so we spoke a lot about as well, confidence and selling online. And she brought up one of the terms that often get thrown around, like fake it till you make it. And I shared that, like I don't subscribe to that. I prefer to share. Act it until you are it. So you wanting to step into this next level of confidence. You've got to practice that confidence in order for you to have that confidence. And so I spoke about that and that how with your sales messaging or with your sales scripts or with your DMs, it's going to feel uncomfortable until you become more confident in it. But you cannot wait for that confidence. You've got to take the action anyway, so you've got to act it until you are it. So that was really awesome to share and that just came off the cuff of, of one of her questions. And so I also trusted Christina. I just knew that she would able to hold the conversation and drive it in the direction that she wanted to go. I just had to trust that. And so, yeah, it was an awesome, awesome session. I had such great positive feedback from it and just met some incredible people and I'm so excited to see where the connections go further from there. So, yeah, now I can call myself an international speaker, which is super exciting and I've got some more planned for next year and I'm also going to further make some connections to see where else I can get some speaking gigs because I just love it. It's one of my zones of genius and I just love doing it and I find that it's super beneficial for my business for sure on so many levels. The other thing, I guess I wanted to share too, I made sure I got some video content because some sometimes it's. I didn't want to wait for the professional stuff to come because it just never know how long it's going to take. Like it's still not back now. So I wanted to make sure I had some content to share straight after so you can like maximize the buzz of the energy of the event. But yeah, so that was my first international speaking gig. So exciting. And I got to share my book with a few people which was so fun and yeah, just made some really beautiful connections. So if you are thinking about expanding your speaking, I would get clear on what you want to share and get clear on your biggest takeaways that you want to have people have in any audience. And I would start building the connections with the people that run events, start building the connections with people that have podcasts, start building connections with people that could get you on those stages because there are plenty of events out there looking for speakers. But you need to be on their radar and a great way to do that is to be be connected first and then when they are asking for speakers, then they've already got a relationship and then you're more likely to be chosen. So go out there, put yourself out there. It's super fun and it's worth doing. All right. Lovely. Have an incredible rest of your week. Remember to register for the predictable 10k months accelerator happening 12th to 14th November. The details are in the show notes. Thank you for listening. And if you found any value out of this episode, make sure you hit the follow button so you get access to the episode episodes as soon as they are live. And make sure you come hang out with me on Instagram. You can find me at Christine Corcoran Underscore Coach have an incredible week.