292: The Three S's of your Speaking Biz

If you find yourself saying, well, I speak, but I'm not a speaker, or I'm a facilitator, not a speaker, I do workshops, but I'm not a speaker, well, this episode is for you. Because if you cannot say I am a speaker, you are leaving impact on the table. Hey movers, it's Sally Z with Be Moved. Let's go create some talks that will move this world. We're going to talk with amazing speakers, share tips, tricks, resources, and we are going to be moved so that our audience can be moved. This moved me. What is moving you? Welcome back to This Moved Me. My name is Sally Koering Zimney. I am your speaker coach and I empower big-hearted entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs like you to leverage the power of speaking so that you can grow your impact and authority and finally leave the frustration and time suck of under-recognition behind. In other words, I help you step out front with courage and confidence. Now, today on the show, I am jazzed about this new resource that I have for all of you. So I'm sharing a bit about it here to help you go from, well, I speak, but I'm not really a speaker, to becoming serious about your speaking and leveraging this power. So you can do all the things that I just talked about. We are gonna go from I do some speaking to I leverage speaking to grow. I am a speaker. They're two really different things. What I'm gonna share with you today is this map that will help take you from a small S speaker to a big S speaker. Now before we dive in, I want you to go get that resource right now. Go grab it. It is called the Get Started with Speaking Guidebook, and you can grab it over at bemoved.com/gss. I know some of you are like, I don't need to get started, Sally. I'm already started speaking. I'm on the journey. I've been speaking for a long time. And I know many of you have been speaking for a long time, and yet you aren't really leveraging the power of speaking. You are not using it intentionally. I wouldn't say that you are acting as if you are a capital S Speaker, and that's what I want you to do. So you can think about this as instead of getting started with speaking, it's like getting serious about speaking. And if that is you, I want you to know that you're gonna still find really valuable information in here that's gonna help you take the next step, to the next level in your speaking, so that you are not simply waiting for these moments and kind of doing it or winging it and all of the things that we, we sort of sit in this in-between place instead of really leveraging speaking on behalf of our business or our idea. But I will tell you, oftentimes people come to me and they are speaking, but they want to do more speaking, and they're not sure how to get started. They're like, well, I'm kind of doing it, but I don't know what's next. I don't know how to make sure that what I'm talking about is on point. I'm sure that my content can be better, but I'm just not sure how to approach that. Or I feel like my content's pretty good, but I don't have any idea how to get started in terms of getting on stages. How do I find opportunities? How do I get myself booked? And paid to speak? Now, those are awesome questions, so I'm gonna walk you through the big aspects of the guidebook that are the map to take you from all of those questions to getting booked and paid to speak on the stages that you wanna speak on. Let's do it. So, if you do not yet have the guidebook in front of you, I want you to go grab it. It is at bemoved.com/gss. When you're looking at it, I'm going to give you a little orientation of what you can find in there here. Now, if you don't grab that guidebook or you're just listening, this is going to walk you through all of those big aspects that you need if you're going to really leverage speaking on behalf of your business or your idea. So to get started and really get serious about your speaking, you need to focus on on 3 big areas. I call them the 3 S's. Number 1 is your signature talk. Number 2 is your skills. And number 3 is scaling. So let's start with the signature talk because of course that is the core content that is repeatable, scalable, and profitable so that you're no longer running around recreating each time you have an opportunity. Opportunity or being unknown in your industry. You're not the go-to because you're creating content on the go and you people aren't associating any content or idea with you yet. You don't have that core message that you're giving again and again so that people begin to know you for that message. And instead you're just running around like a crazy person. Now the thing about a signature talk is that if you really do focus a key message on a focus area, one key message that you become known for, well, you can build off that message eventually. So it's not like you need that one message and then that's the end-all be-all. It's just a core message that you wanna be known for that you wanna use multiple times. It's gonna save you time, it's gonna save you a bunch of headaches, and it's going to help you become known in your industry as an expert. People who are feeling strapped for time, the runaround, they're the people who get really panicked right before a talk because you're recreating content in the moment. The signature talk is gonna help you be more time efficient. It's gonna help you be clear in the moment, and it's gonna help you be more effective when you finally get up to speak. Now the second S is all about skill. Now that's because along with your talk being repeatable and scalable and profitable, it also needs to be powerful, aka it needs to work. It needs to not suck. When you are doing speaking right, it works like this: the more you speak, the more you speak, because you have a moment out front and people go Wow, she was really good. That was great. And they think of you around that topic and idea, and they talk about other people with it, or they see you speaking at this conference and now they know that you speak, and so then they think of you for another conference. Honestly, that's how it works. It really naturally builds upon itself if you are skillful in the moment. Now, please note I am not saying that it has to be perfect. In fact, I don't, I don't want it to be perfect. Please avoid perfect. That is not what we're going for. We are not becoming more skillful so that we don't make mistakes. We're becoming skillful so that we can let go and be present in the moment. We can be connected in the moment. We can be intentional with what we are doing, and we can customize more thoughtfully. When we're skilled in the moment, we can do that rather than being up in our head and being freaked out, being nervous and not knowing how to really take our content and leverage it for this particular moment. Instead of— if skillful kind of throws you off, if you keep thinking perfect, think of the word intentional. Okay. Because the truth is winging it and the people who wing it and look like they wing it and are always like, oh my gosh, those people are so good at just like, winging it, the truth is it takes years of practice to be able to do that and lots of repetition. So once you have a signature talk that you are repeating and you are honing and you are becoming more and more skilled at that, well, it's much easier to wing it in the moment. Takes a while to get there, but it's a beautiful thing to be able to do that. So you can't just wing it, my friends, and expect it to be an awesome moment. Now, sometimes that happens and that's magical and great, but most of the time we end up not being as effective and clear and impactful as we want to be when we're winging it. It takes time to get to that place. Now, the awesome sauce news on this skill section is that there are hashtag No special unicorns in speaking. And by that I mean anybody can get better. Anybody can do it. Everybody belongs at the speaking table. It feels like a super elitist activity, but the truth is there's room for everybody, and that's both awesome and really scary for a lot of people. So if you right now are not sure if you can pull off that big conference or that big stage or make 10,000 grand every speaking engagement or whatever, I'm pretty confident you're wrong about that because there are no special unicorns in speaking. Because what is impactful only requires what is already inside you, plus some thoughtful guidance from somebody who knows what they're doing, and practice. Voilà! Now the third S that I have for you today is scaling. All right. Because of course, after you have a signature talk and you are rocking your content and you feel like you are really doing your thing, well, now you want everybody to hear this. You want the world to hear this message. Of course you do. And I want that for you too. All right. Because you know, that's how we also can make a lot of money with our speaking. And that's awesome. Million dollar mission. Now the key here is to make sure that your talk is sitting intentionally inside your business. It is not this throwaway thing that you do sometimes and you kind of hope that something comes out of it, that it benefits your business, right? We just are like crossing our fingers and hoping. That's not how we want to approach this. We want to be, again, intentional with where we put it in our business. Now, for years, I was not intentional with my speaking and I just kind of spoke because somebody asked me to and I was just I was so thrilled to be able to do it, and I wasn't really leveraging those opportunities or being really thoughtful even about who my audience was and who I needed to be talking to to bring them closer into my business so that I could help them with my programs and services, right? I wasn't thinking about how it could be a valuable asset for me in the long term. I was just enjoying the short-term spotlight moment. Which is fine on the whole, but now I'm very intentional about where speaking fits in my business. And I want you to be intentional too. I want you to make sure that speaking sits in your business in one of two places, or maybe a combo, but it's most likely one of two places. And one is that it is a revenue generator in your business. You speak to make money. Okay. And there might be a certain audience for that kind of speaking. And it's okay if it's a small group, cuz they're paying you for it. And that's awesome. Okay. Speaking could also be for you a lead generator. And that's all about visibility. That kind of speaking is very common, especially for us as entrepreneurs. Sometimes we write that off as less valuable than getting paid. But the truth is, if you are leveraging those opportunities and using them to welcome people into your business, and it's a part of a funnel, then that kinds of speaking can lead to plenty of money. It just isn't right in that moment. Now, sometimes it's both of those things. It generates leads and it pays you a lot of money, and that is awesome. I call that impact generation. Now, there is a lot more on this topic in the guidebook, but this gives you a sense of the journey. In this resource, walking you through those big 3 areas, your signature talk, your skills, and your scaling. Because when you are intentionally creating all 3 of those pieces, well, your speaking is gonna take off. You're not gonna just get started, but you're gonna be able to get serious about your speaking and access those stages, that audience, that visibility that will help grow your impact and your authority. Now, for the next few weeks, I'm going to be doing more of a deep dive into a handful of the elements in this guidebook, just to give you a little sneak peek and to make sure that some of those core pieces that are so important and valuable, you are all hearing about, but I want to make sure that you get the full guidebook. Over the next few weeks, I'll be talking about some of those things, and I think it would be helpful for you to have that guidebook in front of you. So head over to bemoved.com/gss for Get Started with Speaking, and you can grab your guidebook there. More to come on all of this in the next few weeks, but for now, let me just say thank you for joining me here on the show, and this moved me. I am So grateful that you are here. It truly means the world to me that you stick with me on this. When you reach out and tell me that you appreciated an episode or something was helpful, man, that feels good because I have been doing this for a long time. And maybe you've noticed, but we are approaching episode number 300. I've gone through a lot of evolution in this show. It's, it's changed a lot. It keeps changing. Now there's like videos and It started off as like with really bad sound and me and my little crappy office. But here's my question for you, and I would love to know, how should we celebrate our 300 episodes? What should we do to celebrate? Because 300 is a huge deal and I'm not sure really how we should celebrate, and I want to hear from you. So if you have any ideas for me, I hope you reach out over on Instagram. You can find me at Sally Koering Zimney underscore Be Moved. Maybe you can send me a message if you're in the Emerging Speaker Society. Come join us there and send me a message. Let me know what we should do, or pop over on my homepage and send me a little note at bmoov.com. I'd love to know, like, what was a memorable moment for you? Who were some of your favorite guests? Maybe what's a question or a moment that has stuck with you, or an aha moment that you've had that you take with you, that you remember and think about when you speak. Oh, I would love to hear that. That would be so, so cool. Okay, but here's the deal. Here's what I would ask of you as we are moving towards 300 episodes is I have had the sweetest, most loyal and loving audience. I love you guys. You're amazing. But I would like more people to join us on this movement and this mission of speakers who are focused not on doing things perfectly, but on moving their audience. That is what we are all about. And so if you know somebody who has a message or a mission or a business that they are passionate about, if they want to step more out front as thought leaders, I hope you will share this show with them. Forward my emails to them. Maybe you want to take a screenshot of the show and send it out on social. Maybe you want to leave a rating, a review over on Apple Podcasts if you haven't yet, because That really helps people find this show as well. And maybe then they'll come join our mission. Join the movement. Woo woo! All right, my friends, I am so, so grateful that you are here. Thank you for your support and your passion and your connection. I am here to cheer you on. Movers, this moved me this week. What is moving you? See you next week.