September 17, 2025 • 23 mins
Public speaking is an excellent way to grow your business as an entrepreneur. You just need the right strategies and ways to get started. We discuss some of them in this episode with my guest Lisa Reid.
As the Founder of Get Speaking Gigs Now, Leisa trains entrepreneurs who want to use public speaking as a soul-fulfilling business growth strategy. Clients who work closely with her “Get Their Talk Ready to Rock” and build their speaking skills and confidence through the Speaker's Training Academy.
Leisa has booked and delivered over 600 speaking engagements, and she teaches her clients all of the strategies she uses to get booked, stay booked and monetize their talks.
In this episode, she will share the #1 secret she uses to get speaking gigs along with other golden nuggets of advice!
Why and How Lisa Got Started in Public Speaking
For Lisa, public speaking is near and dear to her heart because she has always wanted to be a teacher. Even as a kid she remembers teaching her friends gymnastics amongst other things. It wasn't so much that she needed to be the center of attention or to have the spotlight on her. It was just that when she knew that she could help other people understand something quicker, easier, better; she had to do it. It was very fulfilling.
Now she’s basically a teacher disguised as a speaker. She knows that because she works with entrepreneurs all the time, there's quite a few of us who have that same type of drive for teaching. When we get the opportunity to teach, we get a natural high, a shot of dopamine. Something amazing happens when you give the gift of teaching to an audience whether it's virtual in person. You know that what you're offering is going to help them solve problems or help make something easier for them. That’s a very fulfilling way to market your business!
Leisa believes that people don't get into business to do the sales and marketing themselves. They are suddenly surprised how big of a part of their responsibility is sales and marketing. She loves teaching speaking because it’s one of the easiest and most fulfilling ways to do effective sales and marketing for them to market their businesses. Many entrepreneurs welcome that opportunity.
Why Speaking Should Be a Big Part of Your Sales and Marketing as an Entrepreneur
Public speaking is especially important if you have something that many people haven't heard of; such as your own philosophy or framework about how to do something. Then there are people who have problems that you can help with, but they don't know it yet. They may need more information than they can get by reading a synopsis of what you do on your website. Speaking always allows you to educate people and it allows you to educate more than one person at a time. With many live and virtual presentations, you can even record them and have evergreen marketing and branding content for future prospects.
That means there are a lot of ways that you can duplicate your efforts while attracting your ideal clients and potential referral partners. That’s a great reason to get speaking coach. When you find someone that you want it’s because you can relate to their story. You like their personality. You like their humor. You like how fast (or slow) they talk. They resonate with you because it seems like they’re genuine. That's the kind of person that you should work with.
The Starting Point of Public Speaking as a Sales and Marketing Tool
In Leisa’s world the starting point of working with her is when you're ready to get your talk “ready to rock”. That means you need to decide what your talk is going to be about, what your title is going to be, what your learning points are, your description of the talk, and what your call to action will be. That's what she means when she says, “Get your talk ready to rock.”
When you say that you're a speaker and update your LinkedIn profile to include “speaker” you’re claiming that title.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Idea Climbing podcast.
Public speaking is an excellent way to grow
your business as an entrepreneur.
You just need the right strategies.
We discussed some of them in this episode
with my guest, Lisa Reed. As the founder
of Get Speaking Gigs Now, Lisa trains entrepreneurs
who want to use public speaking as a
soul fulfilling business growth strategy.
Clients who work closely with her get their
(00:22):
talk ready to rock and build their speaking
skills and confidence through the speakers training academy.
Lisa has booked and delivered over 600 speaking
engagements,
and she teaches her clients all of the
strategies she uses to get booked, stay booked,
and monetize their talks. In this episode, she
will share the number one secret she uses
to get speaking gigs. We dive into topics
(00:42):
such as how to get started in public
speaking by building a strong foundation,
how and when to ask for referrals to
get more speaking gigs,
the rules of etiquette and strategies for working
with meeting planners to get booked more, and
the one thing above all else that you
need to do to grow your business through
public speaking and more golden nuggets of advice.
You're gonna love this show.
(01:10):
Thank you for taking the time to record
an episode of the Idea Climbing podcast, Lisa.
I really appreciate you. Oh, I'm so excited
to be here. Woo woo.
And we're gonna be talking about speaking as
a business growth strategy for entrepreneurs. It's gonna
be unique that it's not about how to
get paid speaking gigs.
It's using speaking as a growth strategy. And
before we get into that, the tips, the
(01:32):
tricks, the strategies,
when it comes to that angle of public
speaking,
why is it so near and dear to
your your heart? How do you get into
it? What's your story in that world?
Oh, so many questions, Mark. I love it.
So for me, why is it near and
dear to my heart?
I
have always wanted to be a teacher, even
when I was a little kid. Like, it
was like, I'll teach gymnastics. I'll teach kindergarten.
(01:54):
I remember having these thoughts as a kid.
And
it wasn't so much that I needed to
be the center of attention or have to
have the spotlight on me. It was just
that when I knew
that I could help
other people
understand something quicker, easier, better, to me that
was very fulfilling.
And so now I'm basically a teacher disguised
(02:15):
as a speaker.
And I know that because I work with
entrepreneurs all the time, I know that there's
quite a few of us who have that
same type of philosophy.
They want to they just get, I don't
know, a kick, a high,
a shot of adrenaline. I don't know what
it is. Something amazing happens when you have
(02:35):
that gift and then you get to
give that gift to the audience, whether it's
virtual, in person,
and you know that what you're you're offering
is gonna help them, help solve problems for
them, help make something easier for them.
That is it's a very fulfilling way to
market your business. And I think a lot
of times people
(02:55):
don't get into business for themselves to do
sales and marketing,
but then are suddenly surprised. Oh my gosh.
I have to do sales and marketing.
For those of us who like to teach,
speaking is, I think, one of the easiest
and most fulfilling ways to use sales and
marketing in your business.
Why is that? Why
I should say why could, not necessarily is,
(03:17):
but why could speaking be a big part
of your sales and marketing as an entrepreneur?
Well, especially if you have something that maybe
people haven't heard of, like, maybe it's a
philosophy, a framework, a system, a process, or
something.
You know that there's people who have problems
that you help with, but they don't, they
may need a little bit more information versus
just clicking on a button and purchasing something
(03:38):
on Amazon.
So it allows you to educate
people. It allows you to educate more than
one at a time so that you can
you can even record it and then have
that be evergreen.
So there's a lot of ways that it
can duplicate you and duplicate your efforts
and also attract the kind of clients that
you really wanna work with. Like, I'm not
(03:59):
the only speaking coach, so you find someone
that you want you're picking up what they're
throwing down. You're like, I like their personality.
I like their humor. I like how fast
she talks. I like you know, she seems
like she's real. Like, that's the kind of
person that I tend to work with.
So with regards to sales and marketing and
using that as a tool,
where do you even begin? Let's just say,
(04:19):
you know, I'm I'm not a public speaker,
but I get it. What you're saying makes
sense. What's the starting point of that?
I think the starting point is
and you'll hear if you if you find
me on any other channels or whatever.
I always say you've got to get your
talk ready to rock. Meaning, you need
to decide what your talk is gonna be,
what your title is gonna be, your learning
(04:40):
points, your description of the talk, what's your
call to action. That's what I mean when
I say get your talk ready to rock.
Because when you say that you're a speaker,
let's say you update your LinkedIn profile and
it's you put speaker on there, like, yes.
I'm gonna claim the title. Or you're at
the grocery store and someone asks what you
do and you say, I'm a speaker. They're
gonna say,
what do you speak about? That is gonna
be the very first question they ask, and
(05:02):
you don't wanna be hiding or hesitant
or like, oh, I'm not quite ready to
share that yet.
So having that talk in your pocket
will give you confidence, it gives you assuredness,
it's like, yes, I'm putting my stake in
the ground, this is what I this is
what I stand for. And if your talk
is ready to rock, you're probably gonna be
(05:23):
madly in love with your talk and you
cannot wait to share it with everyone else.
So that's the kind of energy you wanna
start with. So to me, that's where we
start.
So with getting started, where do you go
to practice?
Oh, well,
it you can go
to lots of different places, but
it's kind of like the gym, Mark. You
know?
(05:44):
You can work out at your house,
and if you're really good at doing that,
go for it. And that's what I do.
I practice my talk at home.
I have the fortitude to do that. I've
been doing that since I was in college.
I remember I had this walk in closet
that I would share with my roommate. Like,
we had a, you know, a we shared
a room, and we had a big walk
in closet. So I would just go in
(06:05):
the walk in closet, sit down, and, like,
practice whatever my talk was gonna be for,
like, my speech for
for school because I actually majored in speech
communication.
And
so practicing out loud on your own is
very easy. It's very affordable. You don't have
to get in a car. You don't have
to involve anybody else. If you have a
(06:26):
dog or a cat, they can listen.
But I have found that most people don't
do that,
and that's where they get scared or maybe
they go out and do it in front
of a live audience and then it didn't
go as well.
There is such a value in actually saying
the words out loud like a dress rehearsal
to nobody,
(06:47):
and I mean three times at least.
Three times at least. And all of a
sudden after the third time, it'll start to
get smoother.
It you'll start to transition easier. You'll add
things. You'll change some things around. It just
it just makes all the difference.
So what are the qualities
what makes a talk ready to rock?
Is it a checklist? What is it?
(07:09):
Well, I'll I shared it really quickly earlier,
but I'll break it down a little bit.
So I like to do things
backwards.
We start at the end first, and we
end at the beginning, if that makes any
sense. So for example,
people usually think of their title first. I
would do that at the end,
but I'll say it in order
(07:30):
of of how I would work it. I
would start with a call to action
or the invitation to the next step, like,
where are you taking the audience? What's that
gonna be?
Then we would fill in the
the the learning points. We're going to talk
about like what are we actually going to
talk about? What is the audience going to
get out of this time with you?
And then we write the description because you
(07:52):
can't really write a description unless you know
what you're going to talk about, and then
we put the title on top of it.
So it's like kinda starting the cake from
the bottom up and then ending with a
little topper.
And the key is
because I I I'll say this now in
our age of AI, I've gotten people who've,
you know, set up a call with me.
We we do the session, the get your
talk ready to rock session, and they
(08:13):
will email me, like, seven pages that chat
GBT wrote for them.
We usually use none of that.
Not because
I you know?
Because what I'm looking for, and this is
not what I've said so far, is that
what is in your soul? What is what
is it that's unique about you, your personality,
(08:34):
what your perspective is on life, your humor,
your knowledge, all that is something that's
magical, if you will. It's like this is
part of you. It's your imprint, your finger
your fingerprint.
And so we wanna have some of that
in there. Otherwise, it will just sound like
every other
talk that's boring
(08:54):
or, oh my gosh, we've heard this before
or, like, what you think everyone wants to
hear. No. I don't want you to write
what you think everyone wants to hear. I
want you to write what you know everyone
needs to hear.
Nice.
So when you're marketing your talk, I I
get it that the talk itself is a
tool for marketing.
But when you're getting started or you're yeah.
(09:16):
Just getting started, is it possible to market
your talk without cold calling?
Yes. Absolutely.
And that's what I
highly recommend you create a system for that.
That's something I call this the speaker soulmate
system,
and I teach that at the International Speaker
Network, which is my organization.
(09:36):
And
we find our speaker soulmates. And, basically, a
speaker soulmate is like a speaker referral partner.
A lot of times we'll hear that strategic
partnership or something like that in business,
power partners. That's another phrase that's around.
But a speaker soulmate is someone who's specifically
(09:56):
also speaking just like you are,
and they fit you. You know, like, you
could have a bunch of friends and you
could have good friends, but then you have
your best friends. Like, your speaker soulmate's like
your your your inner circle best friend. It
doesn't mean that you're I mean, you can
be friendly, of course, with them. It doesn't
mean that they're your real life best friend,
but it's akin to that.
And and I say that because you don't
(10:17):
have to have a ton of them.
A lot of times I think people think
to be successful, it needs to be hard.
I'm like, well, it's actually really easy. Like,
why don't we just make some things fun
and enjoyable and
results driven as well? We can do all
these things at the same time. So a
speaker soulmate to me is somebody who speaks
at a similar frequency as you.
(10:39):
You For example, if you're out there speaking
once a month, maybe they're out there speaking
once a month just as an example.
Like, they're in it. You know? It's not
like they did it shot in the pan
shot in the dark. It was just like
this is a part of their strategy.
Number two, someone they you know, like, and
trust. That might seem obvious, but
the trust factor isn't always immediate. Like it's
(11:00):
okay to build that trust up with someone.
Like I'm gonna refer you someone, let's see
how it goes, you refer me someone, let's
see how it goes,
and we develop like oh cool they showed
up, oh good, I got good feedback, they
they rock the house, you know, they were
amazing, they they did everything they said they
were gonna do. That's really important in building
trust.
And then third is that you wanna ideally
(11:22):
have somebody who speaks to a similar audience
as you but doesn't
speak about the same thing you do because
that makes it easier to refer. If I'm
speaking at an association or conference or
some kind of event
and I know maybe they do something every
month, they're going to need another speaker eventually,
Might not be the very next month, but
(11:42):
in, you know, the next three months, they're
gonna need somebody.
And they're gonna take my referral pretty seriously
because they're like, oh,
she was really good. She must know other
speakers who are also really good.
So that makes it easy for me to
just roll out the red carpet for my
speaker soulmate.
And then same for them. They can do
the same thing for me. So I've used
this methodology
for over ten years, and I haven't cold
(12:03):
called in ten years. And I speak upwards
of 50 times a year. So this is
a really easy way for people to do
that, and that's why we have that activity
embedded in the international speaker network.
Well, once you find your speaker soulmate, you're
out there, you're no longer a novice in
the world of public speaking,
how many is there a number? How many
(12:23):
speeches should you have? Is it just the
one you get really, really good at? Does
it need to be updated? How many should
there be in total as as you're moving
along the path?
You know, great great question. I think when
you're first starting, definitely one.
And I think sometimes it's easy to get
seduced by, like, well, I have to have
three because other speakers have three. And I'm
like, well,
(12:44):
if you have three and you haven't even
done any yet, that's three ones you need
to memorize. That's three you need to write.
That's three PowerPoints. That's three, you know, things
you need to practice.
It can get confusing
as a for a new person.
I'm kind of like this I don't know,
Mark, if this metaphor will work for you
or your audience, but okay. So here's here's
I'm gonna go for it.
(13:06):
I like to create a talk and then
give it until I just
feel inspired to get a new one. Right?
And that could be a year, a couple
years, whatever. And then it can go into
the library of talks. Like, I don't throw
it away. It's still there, but then I
I feel like
I wanna I'm inspired by a new talk.
The metaphor is it's like a purse. Like,
I will I have a bunch of purses,
(13:27):
but usually, I will just use one purse
for, like, a year. I'm in California, so
I can use it light colored or dark
colored all year all year round.
And then I just one day go, you
know, I'm I'm gonna switch this one out
for something else, and then I decide to
switch it out. So
I don't know, Mark, how many purses do
you have and how you incorporate that into
your into your life, but
(13:48):
that's how I see it.
Once you become more seasoned, you probably three
is a nice good number. I think it
can also be tempting to write every single
talk down that you have if you're if
you've been doing this a long time, and
that can be confusing for the meeting planner.
They're like, don't make it hard for them.
Just like, keep it simple, sweetheart. Give them,
like, this is my best talk. This is
(14:08):
my most requested talk. Boom. Put that one
at the top. And I would probably,
you know, any more than four, I wouldn't
I would just keep it to three.
Well, you just mentioned something that's interesting too.
You mentioned meeting planners. Could you speak a
little bit to how to work with them?
Because I know speakers that are easier to
work with can get booked more. Could you
talk a little bit more about etiquette and
(14:30):
tactics for working with the meeting planners?
Gosh. It's just like anything else. Like, how
you show up one way is how you
show up everywhere. And
I
cannot emphasize enough how important it is to
think of it as a collaborative
relationship.
As a relationship,
it's a very small world, people talk,
(14:50):
and
I think it's very
probably one of the mistakes I would see
people make is
an entitlement, like I'm entitled to this or
I got this thing, I got this event,
and not really taking into consideration how much
work it takes to put an event together,
how much you're, it's an honor to be
(15:13):
on that stage. It's a gift. It's a,
you know, it's not to be taken lightly,
and to really honor the event, honor the
host,
honor the guest, obviously.
But what a meeting planner really wants is
an amazing event. They want the audience to
be
happy and inspired or, you know, get whatever
(15:35):
it is that they promised they were getting.
They don't want
afterwards
people to say, oh my gosh. Who brought
that speaker in? That was awful.
Like, I'm never going back to that thing
again because it was so terrible.
So the meeting planner is really in charge
of the safety of the room, right, in
(15:56):
in who they're gonna be putting in front.
And so it's just important to be in
alignment
with them
to get stuff on time,
to get what they give give them what
they asked for
And what you agreed So once you get
up and running, how do you keep momentum
up? Because I I would imagine at least
well, my experience too. At least at first,
(16:17):
it can be really exciting. You get out
there. You have your one to three. Maybe
he's only one or two right now, but
it's what do you do to keep momentum
and keep
consistent with giving speeches and move beyond the
initial burst of adrenaline?
That's such a great question. I have never
had that question, and I think it's really
important, especially when as an entrepreneur, a lot
of times people get really excited about creating
(16:37):
something and then it kinda fizzles out.
So one of the things that I why
how I stayed consistent is literally the international
speaker network because I meet with them every
month. I mean, it's my organization, so I
have to be there. Yeah. Well, I don't
have to be. I guess I could I
could I I get to be there. But
I've had this group for over ten years.
We started in '20 or, yeah, 2013.
(16:59):
It's 2025 now.
And every month, I am around a group
of entrepreneurial
speakers. So I'm always learning.
We're always,
doing some kind of collaborative exercise or like,
oh, who's got a podcast or who's got
a thing that they wanna that they need
a guest for. So there's always this new
fresh
water. Right? Like, it's like if you have
(17:21):
a dog and you're just like which I
have a dog. But if I never change
your water bowl, but just, like, kinda the
water would get stagnant. It would get icky.
You know what I mean? Like
and that's how it can feel
after you you all the excitement's done. So
it's important to get inspired by other people,
to be around people who are in the
same game as you. It's fun. You're like,
(17:41):
oh my gosh I never heard of that.
Oh I just learned something new. That's so
cool. Oh hey, they were over at this
talk. I wonder if I could get in
there next year or next month or whatever.
And it's it keeps you fueled, it keeps
you inspired, keeps you motivated,
it's affordable,
and,
and you can get referrals from that too.
So it's kind of like a win win
win, and that way you can always keep
(18:02):
it going. I think,
sometimes as entrepreneurs, we think we want this
huge, like, fire hydrant of leads, but it
you know, you gotta then manage all that.
So I would prefer like, I love having
a consistent,
nice trickle. Like, just trickle them in. Trickle,
trickle, trickle. Always trickling in. Year after year,
month after month, week after week, day after
(18:22):
day. Always getting trickles of new podcast opportunities,
summit opportunities, virtual speaking,
in person, all those things just trickling in
all the time. I'm always meeting new people.
That's what's so cool about speaking. You're always
meeting new people. Like you, I get to
meet you, and
your network is never stale.
Your leads are never stale. You're always getting
(18:44):
new leads.
So how do you pick
let me rephrase this. Let me ask a
better question. Once you get somewhat established, you
found maybe a group or two, how do
you ask for referrals without being pushy? Because
I know some people feel I feel weird
asking. How do you ask for referrals for
speaking gigs?
Oh, so great question.
(19:05):
So I
I think of that as a relationship. Like,
say if if
you and I were both speaking I can
go back to the speaker soulmate thing. If
I start to
getting to know you and I'm like, oh,
we're speaking over a similar frequency. We're speaking,
you know, to
same audiences but different messaging, I might say,
(19:26):
hey, Mark.
I usually do something called speaker soulmate, and
I might explain it. I go, it sounds
like you and I could be aligned there.
Do you wanna have a separate meeting? And
we talk just about that. And then we
would start to get to know more intimately,
like, what exactly would be an ideal speaking
referral for you
(19:46):
and same vice versa.
And then we would exchange some introductions,
and we just get her done.
And that is an really easy way to
get referrals is that you're willing to give
as well as receive.
So I don't I don't find it awkward
at all. But I I do ask them.
I go, this is something I do. Is
(20:07):
that something you're interested in? And if yes,
then we'll set up a separate meeting to
do that. And we're very, you know, intentional
about that. And how I love the fact
that it's relationship based. How far into a
relation I mean, can you ask for referrals
of somebody you met at a networking event?
Do you wait until you've had a few
calls to get to know each other? Does
it rely on being speaker of soulmates? Where
in the spectrum is it? It's again, without
(20:28):
being pushy, it's okay to ask for referrals.
What do you tell people?
Yeah. I I guess I don't
say directly, like, do you have a speaking
referral for me? And I wouldn't do that
at a networking event.
But what I would do so if I
so, like, let's, like, do a real case
scenario. So say I'm I'm a member of
eWomen Network and I go to the Orange
County meetings in California.
(20:49):
And I meet women, you know, every month
there,
and we get a little bit of time
to network. And someone might say that they're
a speaker
or that they're looking for speaking engagements.
So that would be someone who I like,
oh, I should set up a call with
them and get to know them a little
bit more and see where are we
where are we aligned.
(21:10):
And it wouldn't be just to ask them
for referrals. It would be to see if
we might be referral partners
or to see if I have something that
might be helpful for them. Like, if they're
looking for those types of opportunities, then they
should probably consider joining the international speaker network.
But I'm not gonna recommend that right away.
I I don't know. I don't I wanna
find out if if they're if they're really
(21:32):
a fit for that.
But I don't go up to people and
say, can I have a speaking referral?
That's what I was gonna ask. No.
No. It's you know, we're dealing with humans.
You know? And
I wouldn't
expect someone to refer me without
getting to know me a little bit more.
You know? So usually referrals for me come
(21:52):
from people who've already seen me speak or
people who've already worked with me or people
in the international speaker network. And we have
an affiliate program and things like that, so
people earn money by referring people to the
network.
That is awesome. We have covered a lot
of ground in a short period of time.
We sure have.
If someone's watching or listening, they have a
little checklist in their head. You know, that
(22:12):
sounded good. That sounded good. Oh, I like
that. If you were to say if you're
gonna use
use speaking as a business building strategy,
if you were to tell them at least
do this, at least do this one thing
above all. If nothing else, do this. What
would you tell them to do?
I would say write down three things that
you wish your clients knew
(22:34):
and they are always talking about all the
time.
That is probably the right direction
or content for your talk.
Thank you so much. And if people wanna
find you online, where's the best place or
places to go?
They can find me at getspeakinggigsnow.com.
And we also have a free gift at
(22:55):
getspeakinggigsnow.com/tips.
You can get the five top tips to
get more speaking gigs now.
Thank you very much, Lisa. This has been
great. I appreciate you making the time.
Thank you.
And
scene.
Scene.
Thank you for joining us today. I hope
(23:16):
you enjoyed the episode. I also hope that
you'll subscribe to the Idea Climbing podcast and
rate us on iTunes.
Visit ideaclimbing.com
to learn more about idea climbing and hear
more episodes about mentoring,
marketing, and big ideas.
Welcome to the Idea Climbing podcast.
Public speaking is an excellent way to grow
your business as an entrepreneur.
You just need the right strategies.
We discussed some of them in this episode
with my guest, Lisa Reed. As the founder
of Get Speaking Gigs Now, Lisa trains entrepreneurs
who want to use public speaking as a
soul fulfilling business growth strategy.
Clients who work closely with her get their
(00:22):
talk ready to rock and build their speaking
skills and confidence through the speakers training academy.
Lisa has booked and delivered over 600 speaking
engagements,
and she teaches her clients all of the
strategies she uses to get booked, stay booked,
and monetize their talks. In this episode, she
will share the number one secret she uses
to get speaking gigs. We dive into topics
(00:42):
such as how to get started in public
speaking by building a strong foundation,
how and when to ask for referrals to
get more speaking gigs,
the rules of etiquette and strategies for working
with meeting planners to get booked more, and
the one thing above all else that you
need to do to grow your business through
public speaking and more golden nuggets of advice.
You're gonna love this show.
(01:10):
Thank you for taking the time to record
an episode of the Idea Climbing podcast, Lisa.
I really appreciate you. Oh, I'm so excited
to be here. Woo woo.
And we're gonna be talking about speaking as
a business growth strategy for entrepreneurs. It's gonna
be unique that it's not about how to
get paid speaking gigs.
It's using speaking as a growth strategy. And
before we get into that, the tips, the
(01:32):
tricks, the strategies,
when it comes to that angle of public
speaking,
why is it so near and dear to
your your heart? How do you get into
it? What's your story in that world?
Oh, so many questions, Mark. I love it.
So for me, why is it near and
dear to my heart?
I
have always wanted to be a teacher, even
when I was a little kid. Like, it
was like, I'll teach gymnastics. I'll teach kindergarten.
(01:54):
I remember having these thoughts as a kid.
And
it wasn't so much that I needed to
be the center of attention or have to
have the spotlight on me. It was just
that when I knew
that I could help
other people
understand something quicker, easier, better, to me that
was very fulfilling.
And so now I'm basically a teacher disguised
(02:15):
as a speaker.
And I know that because I work with
entrepreneurs all the time, I know that there's
quite a few of us who have that
same type of philosophy.
They want to they just get, I don't
know, a kick, a high,
a shot of adrenaline. I don't know what
it is. Something amazing happens when you have
(02:35):
that gift and then you get to
give that gift to the audience, whether it's
virtual, in person,
and you know that what you're you're offering
is gonna help them, help solve problems for
them, help make something easier for them.
That is it's a very fulfilling way to
market your business. And I think a lot
of times people
(02:55):
don't get into business for themselves to do
sales and marketing,
but then are suddenly surprised. Oh my gosh.
I have to do sales and marketing.
For those of us who like to teach,
speaking is, I think, one of the easiest
and most fulfilling ways to use sales and
marketing in your business.
Why is that? Why
I should say why could, not necessarily is,
(03:17):
but why could speaking be a big part
of your sales and marketing as an entrepreneur?
Well, especially if you have something that maybe
people haven't heard of, like, maybe it's a
philosophy, a framework, a system, a process, or
something.
You know that there's people who have problems
that you help with, but they don't, they
may need a little bit more information versus
just clicking on a button and purchasing something
(03:38):
on Amazon.
So it allows you to educate
people. It allows you to educate more than
one at a time so that you can
you can even record it and then have
that be evergreen.
So there's a lot of ways that it
can duplicate you and duplicate your efforts
and also attract the kind of clients that
you really wanna work with. Like, I'm not
(03:59):
the only speaking coach, so you find someone
that you want you're picking up what they're
throwing down. You're like, I like their personality.
I like their humor. I like how fast
she talks. I like you know, she seems
like she's real. Like, that's the kind of
person that I tend to work with.
So with regards to sales and marketing and
using that as a tool,
where do you even begin? Let's just say,
(04:19):
you know, I'm I'm not a public speaker,
but I get it. What you're saying makes
sense. What's the starting point of that?
I think the starting point is
and you'll hear if you if you find
me on any other channels or whatever.
I always say you've got to get your
talk ready to rock. Meaning, you need
to decide what your talk is gonna be,
what your title is gonna be, your learning
(04:40):
points, your description of the talk, what's your
call to action. That's what I mean when
I say get your talk ready to rock.
Because when you say that you're a speaker,
let's say you update your LinkedIn profile and
it's you put speaker on there, like, yes.
I'm gonna claim the title. Or you're at
the grocery store and someone asks what you
do and you say, I'm a speaker. They're
gonna say,
what do you speak about? That is gonna
be the very first question they ask, and
(05:02):
you don't wanna be hiding or hesitant
or like, oh, I'm not quite ready to
share that yet.
So having that talk in your pocket
will give you confidence, it gives you assuredness,
it's like, yes, I'm putting my stake in
the ground, this is what I this is
what I stand for. And if your talk
is ready to rock, you're probably gonna be
(05:23):
madly in love with your talk and you
cannot wait to share it with everyone else.
So that's the kind of energy you wanna
start with. So to me, that's where we
start.
So with getting started, where do you go
to practice?
Oh, well,
it you can go
to lots of different places, but
it's kind of like the gym, Mark. You
know?
(05:44):
You can work out at your house,
and if you're really good at doing that,
go for it. And that's what I do.
I practice my talk at home.
I have the fortitude to do that. I've
been doing that since I was in college.
I remember I had this walk in closet
that I would share with my roommate. Like,
we had a, you know, a we shared
a room, and we had a big walk
in closet. So I would just go in
(06:05):
the walk in closet, sit down, and, like,
practice whatever my talk was gonna be for,
like, my speech for
for school because I actually majored in speech
communication.
And
so practicing out loud on your own is
very easy. It's very affordable. You don't have
to get in a car. You don't have
to involve anybody else. If you have a
(06:26):
dog or a cat, they can listen.
But I have found that most people don't
do that,
and that's where they get scared or maybe
they go out and do it in front
of a live audience and then it didn't
go as well.
There is such a value in actually saying
the words out loud like a dress rehearsal
to nobody,
(06:47):
and I mean three times at least.
Three times at least. And all of a
sudden after the third time, it'll start to
get smoother.
It you'll start to transition easier. You'll add
things. You'll change some things around. It just
it just makes all the difference.
So what are the qualities
what makes a talk ready to rock?
Is it a checklist? What is it?
(07:09):
Well, I'll I shared it really quickly earlier,
but I'll break it down a little bit.
So I like to do things
backwards.
We start at the end first, and we
end at the beginning, if that makes any
sense. So for example,
people usually think of their title first. I
would do that at the end,
but I'll say it in order
(07:30):
of of how I would work it. I
would start with a call to action
or the invitation to the next step, like,
where are you taking the audience? What's that
gonna be?
Then we would fill in the
the the learning points. We're going to talk
about like what are we actually going to
talk about? What is the audience going to
get out of this time with you?
And then we write the description because you
(07:52):
can't really write a description unless you know
what you're going to talk about, and then
we put the title on top of it.
So it's like kinda starting the cake from
the bottom up and then ending with a
little topper.
And the key is
because I I I'll say this now in
our age of AI, I've gotten people who've,
you know, set up a call with me.
We we do the session, the get your
talk ready to rock session, and they
(08:13):
will email me, like, seven pages that chat
GBT wrote for them.
We usually use none of that.
Not because
I you know?
Because what I'm looking for, and this is
not what I've said so far, is that
what is in your soul? What is what
is it that's unique about you, your personality,
(08:34):
what your perspective is on life, your humor,
your knowledge, all that is something that's
magical, if you will. It's like this is
part of you. It's your imprint, your finger
your fingerprint.
And so we wanna have some of that
in there. Otherwise, it will just sound like
every other
talk that's boring
(08:54):
or, oh my gosh, we've heard this before
or, like, what you think everyone wants to
hear. No. I don't want you to write
what you think everyone wants to hear. I
want you to write what you know everyone
needs to hear.
Nice.
So when you're marketing your talk, I I
get it that the talk itself is a
tool for marketing.
But when you're getting started or you're yeah.
(09:16):
Just getting started, is it possible to market
your talk without cold calling?
Yes. Absolutely.
And that's what I
highly recommend you create a system for that.
That's something I call this the speaker soulmate
system,
and I teach that at the International Speaker
Network, which is my organization.
(09:36):
And
we find our speaker soulmates. And, basically, a
speaker soulmate is like a speaker referral partner.
A lot of times we'll hear that strategic
partnership or something like that in business,
power partners. That's another phrase that's around.
But a speaker soulmate is someone who's specifically
(09:56):
also speaking just like you are,
and they fit you. You know, like, you
could have a bunch of friends and you
could have good friends, but then you have
your best friends. Like, your speaker soulmate's like
your your your inner circle best friend. It
doesn't mean that you're I mean, you can
be friendly, of course, with them. It doesn't
mean that they're your real life best friend,
but it's akin to that.
And and I say that because you don't
(10:17):
have to have a ton of them.
A lot of times I think people think
to be successful, it needs to be hard.
I'm like, well, it's actually really easy. Like,
why don't we just make some things fun
and enjoyable and
results driven as well? We can do all
these things at the same time. So a
speaker soulmate to me is somebody who speaks
at a similar frequency as you.
(10:39):
You For example, if you're out there speaking
once a month, maybe they're out there speaking
once a month just as an example.
Like, they're in it. You know? It's not
like they did it shot in the pan
shot in the dark. It was just like
this is a part of their strategy.
Number two, someone they you know, like, and
trust. That might seem obvious, but
the trust factor isn't always immediate. Like it's
(11:00):
okay to build that trust up with someone.
Like I'm gonna refer you someone, let's see
how it goes, you refer me someone, let's
see how it goes,
and we develop like oh cool they showed
up, oh good, I got good feedback, they
they rock the house, you know, they were
amazing, they they did everything they said they
were gonna do. That's really important in building
trust.
And then third is that you wanna ideally
(11:22):
have somebody who speaks to a similar audience
as you but doesn't
speak about the same thing you do because
that makes it easier to refer. If I'm
speaking at an association or conference or
some kind of event
and I know maybe they do something every
month, they're going to need another speaker eventually,
Might not be the very next month, but
(11:42):
in, you know, the next three months, they're
gonna need somebody.
And they're gonna take my referral pretty seriously
because they're like, oh,
she was really good. She must know other
speakers who are also really good.
So that makes it easy for me to
just roll out the red carpet for my
speaker soulmate.
And then same for them. They can do
the same thing for me. So I've used
this methodology
for over ten years, and I haven't cold
(12:03):
called in ten years. And I speak upwards
of 50 times a year. So this is
a really easy way for people to do
that, and that's why we have that activity
embedded in the international speaker network.
Well, once you find your speaker soulmate, you're
out there, you're no longer a novice in
the world of public speaking,
how many is there a number? How many
(12:23):
speeches should you have? Is it just the
one you get really, really good at? Does
it need to be updated? How many should
there be in total as as you're moving
along the path?
You know, great great question. I think when
you're first starting, definitely one.
And I think sometimes it's easy to get
seduced by, like, well, I have to have
three because other speakers have three. And I'm
like, well,
(12:44):
if you have three and you haven't even
done any yet, that's three ones you need
to memorize. That's three you need to write.
That's three PowerPoints. That's three, you know, things
you need to practice.
It can get confusing
as a for a new person.
I'm kind of like this I don't know,
Mark, if this metaphor will work for you
or your audience, but okay. So here's here's
I'm gonna go for it.
(13:06):
I like to create a talk and then
give it until I just
feel inspired to get a new one. Right?
And that could be a year, a couple
years, whatever. And then it can go into
the library of talks. Like, I don't throw
it away. It's still there, but then I
I feel like
I wanna I'm inspired by a new talk.
The metaphor is it's like a purse. Like,
I will I have a bunch of purses,
(13:27):
but usually, I will just use one purse
for, like, a year. I'm in California, so
I can use it light colored or dark
colored all year all year round.
And then I just one day go, you
know, I'm I'm gonna switch this one out
for something else, and then I decide to
switch it out. So
I don't know, Mark, how many purses do
you have and how you incorporate that into
your into your life, but
(13:48):
that's how I see it.
Once you become more seasoned, you probably three
is a nice good number. I think it
can also be tempting to write every single
talk down that you have if you're if
you've been doing this a long time, and
that can be confusing for the meeting planner.
They're like, don't make it hard for them.
Just like, keep it simple, sweetheart. Give them,
like, this is my best talk. This is
(14:08):
my most requested talk. Boom. Put that one
at the top. And I would probably,
you know, any more than four, I wouldn't
I would just keep it to three.
Well, you just mentioned something that's interesting too.
You mentioned meeting planners. Could you speak a
little bit to how to work with them?
Because I know speakers that are easier to
work with can get booked more. Could you
talk a little bit more about etiquette and
(14:30):
tactics for working with the meeting planners?
Gosh. It's just like anything else. Like, how
you show up one way is how you
show up everywhere. And
I
cannot emphasize enough how important it is to
think of it as a collaborative
relationship.
As a relationship,
it's a very small world, people talk,
(14:50):
and
I think it's very
probably one of the mistakes I would see
people make is
an entitlement, like I'm entitled to this or
I got this thing, I got this event,
and not really taking into consideration how much
work it takes to put an event together,
how much you're, it's an honor to be
(15:13):
on that stage. It's a gift. It's a,
you know, it's not to be taken lightly,
and to really honor the event, honor the
host,
honor the guest, obviously.
But what a meeting planner really wants is
an amazing event. They want the audience to
be
happy and inspired or, you know, get whatever
(15:35):
it is that they promised they were getting.
They don't want
afterwards
people to say, oh my gosh. Who brought
that speaker in? That was awful.
Like, I'm never going back to that thing
again because it was so terrible.
So the meeting planner is really in charge
of the safety of the room, right, in
(15:56):
in who they're gonna be putting in front.
And so it's just important to be in
alignment
with them
to get stuff on time,
to get what they give give them what
they asked for
And what you agreed So once you get
up and running, how do you keep momentum
up? Because I I would imagine at least
well, my experience too. At least at first,
(16:17):
it can be really exciting. You get out
there. You have your one to three. Maybe
he's only one or two right now, but
it's what do you do to keep momentum
and keep
consistent with giving speeches and move beyond the
initial burst of adrenaline?
That's such a great question. I have never
had that question, and I think it's really
important, especially when as an entrepreneur, a lot
of times people get really excited about creating
(16:37):
something and then it kinda fizzles out.
So one of the things that I why
how I stayed consistent is literally the international
speaker network because I meet with them every
month. I mean, it's my organization, so I
have to be there. Yeah. Well, I don't
have to be. I guess I could I
could I I get to be there. But
I've had this group for over ten years.
We started in '20 or, yeah, 2013.
(16:59):
It's 2025 now.
And every month, I am around a group
of entrepreneurial
speakers. So I'm always learning.
We're always,
doing some kind of collaborative exercise or like,
oh, who's got a podcast or who's got
a thing that they wanna that they need
a guest for. So there's always this new
fresh
water. Right? Like, it's like if you have
(17:21):
a dog and you're just like which I
have a dog. But if I never change
your water bowl, but just, like, kinda the
water would get stagnant. It would get icky.
You know what I mean? Like
and that's how it can feel
after you you all the excitement's done. So
it's important to get inspired by other people,
to be around people who are in the
same game as you. It's fun. You're like,
(17:41):
oh my gosh I never heard of that.
Oh I just learned something new. That's so
cool. Oh hey, they were over at this
talk. I wonder if I could get in
there next year or next month or whatever.
And it's it keeps you fueled, it keeps
you inspired, keeps you motivated,
it's affordable,
and,
and you can get referrals from that too.
So it's kind of like a win win
win, and that way you can always keep
(18:02):
it going. I think,
sometimes as entrepreneurs, we think we want this
huge, like, fire hydrant of leads, but it
you know, you gotta then manage all that.
So I would prefer like, I love having
a consistent,
nice trickle. Like, just trickle them in. Trickle,
trickle, trickle. Always trickling in. Year after year,
month after month, week after week, day after
(18:22):
day. Always getting trickles of new podcast opportunities,
summit opportunities, virtual speaking,
in person, all those things just trickling in
all the time. I'm always meeting new people.
That's what's so cool about speaking. You're always
meeting new people. Like you, I get to
meet you, and
your network is never stale.
Your leads are never stale. You're always getting
(18:44):
new leads.
So how do you pick
let me rephrase this. Let me ask a
better question. Once you get somewhat established, you
found maybe a group or two, how do
you ask for referrals without being pushy? Because
I know some people feel I feel weird
asking. How do you ask for referrals for
speaking gigs?
Oh, so great question.
(19:05):
So I
I think of that as a relationship. Like,
say if if
you and I were both speaking I can
go back to the speaker soulmate thing. If
I start to
getting to know you and I'm like, oh,
we're speaking over a similar frequency. We're speaking,
you know, to
same audiences but different messaging, I might say,
(19:26):
hey, Mark.
I usually do something called speaker soulmate, and
I might explain it. I go, it sounds
like you and I could be aligned there.
Do you wanna have a separate meeting? And
we talk just about that. And then we
would start to get to know more intimately,
like, what exactly would be an ideal speaking
referral for you
(19:46):
and same vice versa.
And then we would exchange some introductions,
and we just get her done.
And that is an really easy way to
get referrals is that you're willing to give
as well as receive.
So I don't I don't find it awkward
at all. But I I do ask them.
I go, this is something I do. Is
(20:07):
that something you're interested in? And if yes,
then we'll set up a separate meeting to
do that. And we're very, you know, intentional
about that. And how I love the fact
that it's relationship based. How far into a
relation I mean, can you ask for referrals
of somebody you met at a networking event?
Do you wait until you've had a few
calls to get to know each other? Does
it rely on being speaker of soulmates? Where
in the spectrum is it? It's again, without
(20:28):
being pushy, it's okay to ask for referrals.
What do you tell people?
Yeah. I I guess I don't
say directly, like, do you have a speaking
referral for me? And I wouldn't do that
at a networking event.
But what I would do so if I
so, like, let's, like, do a real case
scenario. So say I'm I'm a member of
eWomen Network and I go to the Orange
County meetings in California.
(20:49):
And I meet women, you know, every month
there,
and we get a little bit of time
to network. And someone might say that they're
a speaker
or that they're looking for speaking engagements.
So that would be someone who I like,
oh, I should set up a call with
them and get to know them a little
bit more and see where are we
where are we aligned.
(21:10):
And it wouldn't be just to ask them
for referrals. It would be to see if
we might be referral partners
or to see if I have something that
might be helpful for them. Like, if they're
looking for those types of opportunities, then they
should probably consider joining the international speaker network.
But I'm not gonna recommend that right away.
I I don't know. I don't I wanna
find out if if they're if they're really
(21:32):
a fit for that.
But I don't go up to people and
say, can I have a speaking referral?
That's what I was gonna ask. No.
No. It's you know, we're dealing with humans.
You know? And
I wouldn't
expect someone to refer me without
getting to know me a little bit more.
You know? So usually referrals for me come
(21:52):
from people who've already seen me speak or
people who've already worked with me or people
in the international speaker network. And we have
an affiliate program and things like that, so
people earn money by referring people to the
network.
That is awesome. We have covered a lot
of ground in a short period of time.
We sure have.
If someone's watching or listening, they have a
little checklist in their head. You know, that
(22:12):
sounded good. That sounded good. Oh, I like
that. If you were to say if you're
gonna use
use speaking as a business building strategy,
if you were to tell them at least
do this, at least do this one thing
above all. If nothing else, do this. What
would you tell them to do?
I would say write down three things that
you wish your clients knew
(22:34):
and they are always talking about all the
time.
That is probably the right direction
or content for your talk.
Thank you so much. And if people wanna
find you online, where's the best place or
places to go?
They can find me at getspeakinggigsnow.com.
And we also have a free gift at
(22:55):
getspeakinggigsnow.com/tips.
You can get the five top tips to
get more speaking gigs now.
Thank you very much, Lisa. This has been
great. I appreciate you making the time.
Thank you.
And
scene.
Scene.
Thank you for joining us today. I hope
(23:16):
you enjoyed the episode. I also hope that
you'll subscribe to the Idea Climbing podcast and
rate us on iTunes.
Visit ideaclimbing.com
to learn more about idea climbing and hear
more episodes about mentoring,
marketing, and big ideas.
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