MBA2380 How To Start Speaking on Stages

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Hey O welcome to the 100 MBA Show. Powerful business lessons to help you become a better entrepreneur. I'm your host, your coach, your teacher Omar Zenholm. I'm also the co founder of Webinar Ninja, an independent software company I started back in 2014. In today's lesson you will learn how to start speaking on stages. I'm not going to spend too much time talking about all the benefits and all the reasons why you should speak on stages. This episode is for those who understand the benefits, want to get out there, want to build a brand, but just don't know how to get started. I'm going to share with you how I got started, how I started getting on stages, what works, what doesn't, how to put your best foot forward, how to make sure you don't waste your opportunities, that you get on stages so that you make sure that you get reinvited to that event, to that conference so people recommend you. You get word of mouth, you become the buzz, you become one of those speakers people want to have at their event. This is going to take a bit of effort, a bit of time, a bit of an investment on your part, but it's an investment worth making because it's going to pay off in the long run. Being a great speaker on stages and getting on those two combined have an incredible impact on your business, on your brand and everything you do. So let's get into it. Let's get down to business. If you've never spoken on any stages, any conference, any meetup before, it's kind of hard to get started because no one knows who you are. You've never done it before. You have no proof you've done it before. So it's kind of hard to prove that you're worth being on stage. So let's make sure we can get the ball rolling and get you on your first few gigs, your first few stage appearances. The first thing I want to mention is that you have to have some level of speaking skills, of public speaking expertise. Why? Because if you're given the opportunity to speak on stage and then you bomb, it's not going to be good for you. It's going to be hard for you to get reinvited or get asked to be on stage again. Word will get around. I don't want to scare you, but I want to prepare you so that you actually have some level of expertise. You don't have to be, you know, the best speaker, the best performer on stage, but you have to have some level of professionalism when you're on stage.

You're not winging it.

So I'm going to give you a couple of gifts, a couple of ideas for you to implement. And these small little things will actually put you ahead of a lot of people that just, you know, say, oh, I can talk about my topic. Of course you know your topic, but do you know how to deliver it? That's really what speaking is all about, the delivery. So the first thing I want to share with you is a book called Steal the Show. It's by Michael Port. Michael Port is my speaking coach, good friend. He runs Heroic Public speaking with his partner, Amy Port. And this is an incredible book, Steal the Show. And it's not only about public speaking on stages, it's also about how to speak publicly, period. Like in conversations, in an interview, how to speak with authority and confidence. So this is an easy way for you to kind of get into this world and learn the fundamentals. A great crash course in public speaking and how to form your speech and how to deliver your speech. And all that is actually a course by Michael Port that he did for CreativeLive. You go to CreativeLive and search Michael Port, you'll see a course called Heroic Public Speaking. It's probably the most valuable course in terms of what you get for the price that I've seen ever, period. It's just an incredible course. How do I know? Well, I was actually a part of this course. I was there live when they shot the course. And you'll see me stumbling upon my speech when I was getting started. But this course is fantastic, Fantastic. It's under $100. It's well worth it because it's going to help you structure your speech, show you all the different ways you can deliver your speech, give you the confidence to be able to do it and prepare for your speech. You'll absolutely love this course. So those two will actually give you enough for you to be better than most people their first time on stage. So this way you're prepared and you have the confidence that you'll be able to deliver at some level. Listen, you're not going to be at your best on stage the first time. It's your first time. You're going to only get better. You're only going to get better from that point on. So you just got to get the reps in. But I like the idea of preparing yourself and having some edge, some preparation so that you are ready to deliver your speech and be able to deliver and show up at your best. And I say your best, but best as possible for the first time. Okay? So the book and the course will really help you out. Next, you want to just choose one topic to speak about in the beginning. One speech, really just one set, like a comedian has a set that they do over and over. You're going to do the same thing with your speech, and in the course they talk about this. So find your thing, your area of expertise, and just focus in on that. When I started on stages, I focused on the concept of idea validation in any business. That was my speech. I just delivered that speech. Of course, that speech changed, or I changed my topic. Later on as I grew my experience and found other things I wanted to speak about. But in the beginning, I just wanted to nail one idea. And that was my idea. That's what I spoke about. All right, now you have one topic to deliver. You have a speech that you're working on. You're ready to kind of get on stage and deliver and show people what you got. How do you actually get on the stages? How do you actually get invited to these conferences? How do you become a speaker at an event? This is where the work comes in. Most conferences are looking for speakers, okay? They're looking for people that actually know what they're doing. So you don't have any experience. You don't have anything to show them actually to say that I can speak. So one of the things I recommend is doing something micro, something small. Do a lunch and learn. Do a 20 minute talk at the local coworking space you're doing. These places are looking for great content everywhere. Run a webinar, even doesn't even have to be in person. But the point here is that you want to have a recording of something that shows that you know how to deliver content. And that way you can send that to somebody when they're evaluating if they want to have you on stage or not. So I recommend even just getting something in person, grab a tripod, even just grab your iPhone, get somebody to shoot it for you, don't even need the tripod. And just shoot your 20 minute speech, your 20 minute talk, your 20 minute workshop. And that way you have some evidence that you're not an absolute disaster. You'll implement the things that you learned from the course in the book and you'll have something to show that, hey, I can do this. 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Alright, now they have a mini reel or one piece of evidence that you could speak in public. Now it's time to reach out to these conference organizers. You gotta find your industry. So for example, there's many industries that I'm a part of, whether it's entrepreneurship, startup industry, podcasting, and there's conferences around all these topics. There's several conferences throughout the year. I want to find all these conferences and I want to be on their mailing list and I want to know their email. So I'm going to spend half a day searching for all the conferences in my area, in my country, in my region that I'm willing to travel to and say, hey, you have a conference in six months. I'd love to apply to speak. This is a numbers game. You're going to do this over and over, maybe 20, 30 times and maybe one or two will say yes. Now what do you do with all the nos? You don't just ignore them, you reply to them and say, hey, no worries whatsoever, I'd like to stay in touch. If there's anything I can do to help your conference, let me know. Also, if somebody just bails, backs out, cancels on you last minute, I'm ready to step in. That's actually how I got one of my first speaking gigs. Somebody canceled and the conference organizer scrambling, but because I was in their inbox and told them, hey, I'm ready to help if you need anything if anybody cancels, I'm there. They emailed me and said, hey, are you ready? Will you be willing to come out? And I had to travel about 14 hours driving because I couldn't afford a plane ticket back then to get to that speech. So this actually works okay, because these conference organizers, they just want a well oiled machine. They're willing to just fill in the gap with a newbie because they're really limited on time and they can't get high caliber speakers with short notice. This is your moment to shine. And this happens all the time. And by the way, the bigger the conference, the more likely this will happen. There are conferences that have like 200 speakers. You better bet there's going to be a few of them that are going to get sick, that they're gonna have an emergency, they're gonna bail out, they're gonna have like a mental health day. They're like, I can't take this today. You know, find somebody else. So by not just saying, I'll just ignore everybody that said no to me or never reply to me and just saying, hey, I'm here for you if anybody bails, you can find opportunities left and right. In fact, I know somebody who just got an opportunity for a conference recently because there was an opening, somebody canceled and they were able to come in and give a speech. In the beginning, your whole goal is just to get on stages, to get reps and so you can add it to your speaker reel, sort of a montage of all your speeches, and this becomes your calling card. You know, you can create a speaker reel, a montage of all your speeches, and then when somebody asks you to speak or you ask to speak, you can give them this speaker reel and be like, hey, I'm a pro, I got a speaker reel. Because speakers have speaker reels. If you want to check out my speaker reel to get an understanding of what I'm talking about, just go to omarzenhome.com, you'll see it on the homepage. Now your job is every time you get on stage, you do even better than last time. Try to double the performance, meaning twice as good. This is what I try to do. And this is all about preparation, making sure you know how to deliver your stuff like a pro. You're confident, you're firm, you're having fun, you're laughing, you're smiling, you're connecting with the audience. And you're gonna get that as you learn, as you get better. Now, after you've been on a few stages and now you are starting to become a speaker. It's time to invest. It's time to invest in yourself and get some proper public speaking training. And this is what I did. I got trained by Michael Port. I've took many online courses and many in person courses on public speaking. I'm always looking out for opportunities for me to learn how to brush up on my speaking as well. Because you're only as good as your last act, as your last speech. So you want to make sure that every time you get on stage, it's even better than the last. And people remember you as this like incredible public speaker. My goal is, when I go to a conference, is that I want to be the one that everybody remembers. I'm the best speaker on stage for the whole conference. Why? Because there's a lot of people in that crowd that run conferences, that run meetups, that run events, that run corporate events in their office. And they're going to be like, we got to get that speaker at our business, we got to get that speaker at our event. And it's like this personal challenge I have with myself to get better and better. One way you can kickstart your speaking career is to run your own events and be a speaker in your event. It could be a one day event, it could be a one day workshop, it could be one of those lunch and learns like I talked about at a co working space. But build an event around your business, your brand and get your speaking chops. Record it, make it part of your reel and analyze it, make sure that you're getting better and better. One of the things I like to do is I like to email the organizer of the event that I just spoke at and ask them, hey, do you have any feedback from the crowd? How can I help make your event successful next year? If you're good and you've delivered the goods, they're gonna wanna have you back next year the next time they run the event. And if you're top of mind because you emailed them right after the event, when the dust has settled, then they're gonna remember you and then they'll make a note, they'll say, okay, let's have Omar back next year. Because guess what, they are trying to sell tickets, okay? They're trying to fill seats and, and if people from last year went to the event and liked your event and they see you on, you know, the speakers that are going to be speaking next year, they'll be like, oh, I'm going to buy a ticket because Omar was great. So if you're helping the organizer sell tickets. You better believe they're going to want to have you on stage. They're going to want to promote you and have you on that page for the event. Well, there you have it, guys. I hope that helps. I hope you get started and follow my advice. Follow the instructions I provided today so you can get started getting on stages. Listen, it's one of the best ways, in my opinion, to improve as a communicator, to improve as a speaker, as a salesperson, even because you're selling an idea on stage. And for me, it's fun. There's an element of performance and art when you're on stage that you have to deliver a great performance where you connect with the audience and make them feel something. I love it. It's great. Thank you so much for listening to the $100 NBA show. If you love what you hear, hit, follow, hit. Subscribe on your favorite podcast app. Whether you're listening on Spotify right now or or Apple Podcast or overcast or whatever it might be, just go ahead and follow us so that you get our next episode automatically and you get access to over 2,300 episodes in our back catalog. Before I go, I want to leave you with this. I was terrible as a public speaker when I first started. I was absolutely horrendous. But you got to start somewhere. You can't beat yourself up. You got to get yourself up again and go at it and improve your speech and get better on stage and, you know, work out the nerves. And it only happens with repetition, repetition, repetition. So don't get upset if you don't get on the big stages at the beginning. It's actually a blessing in disguise because that way you don't have to embarrass yourself too much. You're in the breakout room. The smaller stages, the smaller events, great. You work through your material, you get better on stage, you get more confident, and then by the time you're ready, you'll be invited to those bigger stages and be ready to deliver with a bang. Thanks so much for listening and I'll check you in Wednesday's episode. I'll see you then. Take care.

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