When you think of famous people whether it’s King Henry VIII, Mother Theresa, or Justin Bieber, you “instinctively” know them as either the ruthless King of England, the selfless missionary and now Saint, and a young, rather reckless and super talented singer who began his career on YouTube. Each has their own brand. Not all famous people have had social media; however, each used the media of their day to become known. Interestingly, all famous people are presenters of some type – whether it’s acting, creating policy, taking a stand, or performing. The stage is the fulcrum of experts.
When I started out as a public speaking coach, I created a name for myself without intending it. I simply wanted to start teaching and training others to be public speakers. When I look back at what I did to do that, I inadvertently created a name for myself using public speaking. I started doing workshops every 2 weeks and promoting them on Facebook and LinkedIn. I did this for about a year along with having a website and blogging regularly. During that time, I started receiving requests to speak that has continued to this day, although I don’t do workshops nearly as often or blog as often now.
Even with the rampant proliferation of social media, public speaking is still one of the best ways to create a name for yourself and your brand. Why? Because the more you speak, not only are you known more, you also have more opportunity to promote your brand on social media.
First, an expert must have a signature talk.
If you don’t have a signature talk, develop that first. When I started out, it took me about 5 or 6 times of giving my signature talk before I had the content developed to what it is now. I had failures along the way where I felt the content just didn’t deliver. These failures helped me to see what I needed to add and take out. Get out there and start speaking (and possibly stumble a bit) as soon as possible (see Step 3 on promoting).
Second, as an authority, you must establish your presence.
Nothing “speaks” volumes about you than having a website where you can blog about your knowledge. Blogging allows you to share your knowledge and demonstrates your expertise, authority, and thought leadership. Here are 3 ways to re-purpose your blog and get more mileage and exposure out of it:
1. Share a link to it on Facebook (in your group and on your page), Twitter, and LinkedIn (if you have time, share it on more platforms like Google Plus and Pinterest).
2. Create a video of your blog post with Lumen5 (www.lumen5.com) that you can post. The possibilities keep getting created!!
3. Publish your blog post directly on LinkedIn and then share it in groups.
Third, start speaking.
How do you start speaking when no one knows you? The easiest way to begin is to hold your own workshops, webinars, or teleseminars with a few trusted friends for feedback. That’s what I did and it worked. I began with my own workshop with about 10 friends for feedback. They liked it! That gave me the impetus and confidence to start holding regular workshops every two weeks. It was a bit ambitious to do them so often because of the marketing of them. Immediately after I completed a workshop, I had to begin marketing the next one. Although it was tough, I was excited and motivated and became known as an authority, expert, and thought leader on public speaking rather quickly.
Fourth, market your events.
When holding your own workshop or seminar, you’ll need to 1) have a way for people to register so you can capture their contact information; and 2) you’ll need to promote it. You can either have people register from your website or use something like Eventbrite (www.eventbrite.com). If you are doing webinars, there are several platforms that have their own registration functionality.
When you start promoting and holding your events, you are establishing and creating your brand as an authority. The more often you do it, the more you solidify your expertise. It doesn’t matter how many or how little your number of attendees are because the promotion of your events is seen by a lot more people. When you repeatedly promote your events, that repetition is invaluable for creating the perspective of you as an authority, expert, and thought leader.
Continue to learn as much as you can and you will succeed. Expect to make some mistakes, just be sure to learn from them. Remember this to stay inspired and motivated: Commitment is stronger than expectations. Set your goals but instead of being tied to outcomes, stay tied to your commitment. You will experience a much higher level of satisfaction that way.
