Public Speaking is another income stream every Empowerpreneur should have. 

If you are not sharing your message through speaking at your own events and others, you should start professionally speaking as this is a very lucrative offer to add to your product library. 

5 Reasons You Should Be Speaking

Here are the top reasons you should add professional speaking to your offers:

1. Get paid to speak (keynote, conferences, etc.)
2. Back of room sales (sell your own products)
3. Host your own paid events (webinars, workshops, seminars and summits)
4. Brand recognition
5. Increase your reach

It's awesome to get paid to speak, but it's even sweeter when you increase your reach by speaking at others events. If you are able to get paid for speaking (with travel included), sell your products at the back of the room, while being in front of people you would otherwise have not had the chance. 

If you are serious about adding speaking, it can open up a whole host of opportunities for you. You can end up in front of audiences across the world not just online but in person too. 

Here Are 4 Things I Wish I Knew Before I Started Professional Speaking

There is a rhythm to your speech. It's not just about imparting information. It's about storytelling, getting your audience engaged as well as getting your audience to say YES. 

There is salesmanship in public speaking. 

1. Use Speaking Opportunities to Grow Your List

The first year.I started speaking it was about getting people to pay to attend the event. I totally neglected back room sales, building a list and nurturing a list. 

I spoke at events for free and hoped for the best. The next year I came prepared to build and grow my list. That helped in increasing subscribers and sales. 

2. Every Time You Speak, Make the Sale

By the third year I now came prepared with a rehearsed call to action to BUY what I was selling. 

3. Increase Engagement During Your Speech

I had to learn the rhythm of public speaking. I had to learn to make it fun and entertaining. 

Once I learned how to make it more entertaining I was able to boost engagement. 

• add storytelling (your story of triumph and your why that's relatable)
• add humor
• show you personality (present you ideas in your unique way and provide new perspectives for your audience)
• tell an anecdote (relatable allowing them to fully engage with the story.)

Engagement is key to a successful speech.

Not only did I need to be entertaining, I also had to make sure my presentation was memorable. I learned to get people talking about the presentation long after it’s finished!

• Make it shareable
• Provide topics/information people want
• Give shareable soundbytes
• Provide value
• Impart useful information
• Use props

I had to learn to use my presentation to establish authority and build credibility. When people know, like and trust you they’re going to want to sign up to whatever it is you’re pushing. It became easy to sell what I was offering and close sales on the spot.

Presentation skills are also good for marketing. 

4. To Get More Speaking Gigs, You Need to Promote Your Speaking

To get speaking gigs you have to let people know that you are available for professional speaking opportunities. Be warned you may start off speaking for free. 

Promote your speaking like you would any other offer. Develop a plan and work the plan. 

Honestly, getting speaking gigs can become another job depending on how much you want to make and how often you want to speak. 

You can hire a VA to help you or make this a 12 Week Hustle project. 

Actively Increase Engagement

Here are three ways that I learned to increase engagement besides asking the audience questions.  

Always Include Q&A to Increase Engagement During Your Public Speaking

Give your audience the chance to ask you questions. I provide at least 10 minutes at the end for the audience to ask questions. 

Throughout the presentation I also ask questions and invite questions as well. This gets your audience to pay attention, and the interaction really makes the speech a lot more enjoyable and memorable.

Quiz Your Audience to Increase Engagement During Your Public Speaking

A quiz is an easy way to keep them engaged throughout the presentation. A quiz doesn't even have to include a prize. Give the audience a sheet to write down answers while asking questions throughout the presentation helps to really keep them present and helps them to better retain the information you’re providing.

Host a Competition to Increase Engagement During Your Public Speaking

Nothing is going to excite your participants more than a healthy competition! People love the opportunity to win something. So, if you really want to liven up your speech, introducing a competition is a great idea.

You could introduce the competition at the beginning of the presentation, then reveal the winner at the end. Of course, you’ll need to come up with a good prize to make the competition worth participating in.

You could even use a competition to draw in more attendees. Before hosting the event, let people know there will be a competition on the day. You might just see a surprising increase in attendees with this method alone.

Practice engagement techniques for professional speaking and become a better speaker.

Use Props When You Can

I was and am the Queen of PowerPoint. I thought that was the only visual aid I needed. However, props, when used correctly, can really help to make your presentation more memorable. They can really help you to get your message across, turning ideas into things people can relate to.

Props as symbols can help your audience retain the information. Using unexpected props can grab and keep hold of your audiences attention and get participants talking about your event long after it’s finished. 

Most importantly, you need to ensure the props you use have a purpose. Don’t just add a prop for the sake of adding one. Make sure it’s relevant and links into the message you’re conveying.  

I used props a few times and it's definitely something I want to use more of as it truly is more memorable. People still talk about the props I used years later.

Always Include A Call To Action

Eventually, I learned to use the call to action properly during my presentations. With this one tactic I seen an increase in ROI in my professional speaking revenue. 

I learned to build my list, get sales, and secure future sales. 

Just like any other marketing tactic you need to know what your objective is and what you want the audience to do at the end of the presentation. 

I wanted three things: 

1. Join my mailing list
2. Buy from me at the event
3. Buy from me again

Growing my mailing list was easy as "Join my mailing list for more information".

Getting them to buy from me included letting them know throughout the presentation what my offer was. Then at the end going in for the ask. It also helps that I tailored my speech to sell the offer. 

Finally, getting them to buy from me again was contingent on either getting them on my list or getting them to buy from me at the event. 

If they only subscribed at the event, I would send an informative email sequence that asked for the sale around the 3rd email. I would also:

• send out new offers
• invite them to events where I was speaking or attending
• send out promotions

If they bought from me at the event the next step would be to send them up my sales funnel - what product or service is the next level or complimentary to what they bought?

You Need to Promote Your Speaking

In addition to creating a signature talk that you will be known for you also want to let people know you are available for speaking. 

1. Create a speaker bio[/thrive_2step]
2. Develop a media kit
3. Add professional speaking information to your about page
4. Add a media page to your website
5. Add to your email signature
6. Outreach to event planners
7. Share speaking photos and videos on social media
8. Be a guest on podcasts
9. Host your own podcast
10. Speak at virtual summits
11. Become a Clubhouse moderator
12. Public Relations and press releases
13. Use HARO (Help a Reporter Out)

Here are 3 Things You Should Be Doing to Grow Your Speaking Business.

Speaking will continue to be one of my 7 streams of income. If you are not speaking professionally yet, get started and add this very lucrative income stream to your business.