February 2, 2024 • 51 mins
Have you ever wondered how public speaking can bolster your career, personal brand, or even your wallet? Join us as we delve into these questions with the award-winning entrepreneur and speaking professional, Bobbie Carlton. Bobbie, with her extensive experience as a public speaker, generously shares her journey, reminding us how starting small paves the path to confidence and expertise. She helps us understand the various forms public speaking can assume, from guest podcast appearances to webinars and panel discussions.
Our discussion with Bobbie puts a spotlight on the true worth of public speaking. We discuss a story about Warren Buffett and how much he valued the skill of public speaking along with ways to turn your fear of public speaking into fuel for success. As Bobbie points out, public speaking isn't just about standing on a stage; it can help you gain recognition, carve out your personal brand, and set you apart from the crowd.
We also explore the opportunities and responsibilities that come with being a public speaker. We discuss the impact of the pandemic on the events industry and share tips on finding speaking engagements. For those aiming to establish authority, Bobby discusses the power of writing a book and how it can lay the groundwork for your independent career. Tune in to discover how to leverage public speaking to unlock new opportunities, boost your personal brand, and revolutionize your career.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome everybody to another episode of the Modern
Independent.
As always, I am your host, janAlmasey, the head of community
here at Indie Collective.
This is your first timelistening.
I'd like to welcome you to theModern Independent.
We have a couple of differenttypes of podcast episodes on
this show.
Today, we're going to be talkingto Bobby Carlton, who is a
(00:21):
speaker inside of our curriculum, and this type of show segment
is called the Seven FigurePlaybook.
All of these individuals thatwe bring on for episodes like
the Seven Figure Playbook areexperts inside of their arena
and will be giving us keyaspects and parts of their story
, pieces of advice, along yourjourney.
(00:41):
Today's specialty is going tobe public speaking.
If you are somebody that hasfelt awkward about public
speaking, or maybe has a passionfor it and is not quite sure
how to do it at scale, this isgoing to be the episode for you.
So Bobby is the founder ofCarlton PR and Marketing,
innovation Knights andInnovation Women, along with a
(01:04):
couple of other businesses,which we'll get to here in a
second.
She is a speaker as well as anaward-winning marketing, pr and
social media professional.
In 2008, she started her owncompany, the first one, carlton
PR and Marketing.
The second company, innovationKnights, is a social
media-powered new productshowcase that has launched more
than 1500 new products.
These companies have received acombined four billion plus in
(01:26):
funding.
Company number three isInnovation Women, an online
visibility bureau forentrepreneurial, technical and
professional women.
In 2020, she purchased twoadditional companies my Speaker
Leads and Lioness Magazine.
She is a mass tech all-star, aBoston Innovation 50 on Fire
recipient twice and is theBoston Business Journal woman to
(01:48):
watch.
She has also had been named aPR news game changer and is one
of our speakers here at IndieCollective.
Bobby, welcome to the ModernIndependent.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
I mean, bobby, we're just talking before we turned on
the mic that public speaking,podcasting, all of these types
of things are things that we'rereally passionate about.
We were kind of chucklingbecause at this point I've
recorded 200, plus probablycreeping close to 300 different
podcast episodes between my ownshows and other shows that I've
(02:24):
guested on.
Because of that nature, bobbyhas spoken at a lot of different
places, different audiences,different levels, size, places
and everything.
I was curious have you alwaysfelt comfortable public speaking
?
Because I know personally, whenI first started out podcasting
it was definitely not like handsclammy, a little bit sweaty
(02:47):
before I got onto the show.
Was that kind of a similarexperience for you, or have you
always known that you were goingto be destined for a stage?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Oh gosh, yeah, God.
No, I usually point to thebroadcast news.
You know he's going to need abigger towel as indicative of my
first time on stage when Istarted Innovation Nights in
2009, it never really kind ofdawned on me that I was going to
(03:15):
be the host and I was going tobe the person on stage, and when
that time came, it hit me likea ton of bricks.
I was a literal hot mess and,of course, a social media
powered event.
Everybody's got their camerasand their video and tons of
(03:36):
evidence of the hot mess, whichmade me look at those pictures
and look at those videos ago.
I will never look like thatever again.
OK, maybe I did a few times, butyeah, I want to be the queen of
the Instagram.
Really awkward speaker photosaccount.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
The queen of the really awkward speaker photos.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
I'm going to, I'm going to start that account
awkward speaker photos and thatwill be my land.
I will rule that land.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
I am.
I feel like what you said rightthere is so funny.
I speak to so many people thatgo, you know, to start their
independent journey, right, andI think at some point there is
that exact inflection point thatyou just pointed out, which is
like, oh, I have to be the oneon stage, or I have to be the
(04:35):
one that's my own advocate, I'mgoing to have to go on podcasts,
or I'm going to have to go onIG live streams and all of these
other things, which is alsosomething that you bring up
inside of your curriculum piece,inside of the Indie cohort,
which I think is super crucialfor people to understand that
(04:55):
public speaking is not just thebig keynote at the conference.
Right, I think, actually, inyour, in your, in your portion
of the course, you use theexample of somebody even asking
a question at the conferencecounts as public speaking.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
It's a great place to start.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Yeah, so, and that's something if you guys, if you're
listening to this right now andyou say, oh well, I'm not a
public speaker, but you've beenon somebody's Instagram live or
you've posted a video of youspeaking on your story or you,
you know, asked a question at aconference, or something of that
(05:36):
nature, you are on the path tobeing a perfect public speaker.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Absolutely, and I usually tell people that we all
tend to think about publicspeaking very narrowly.
It's the one person on stage bythemselves, all alone.
The audience is a cast ofthousands and, oh my goodness,
that does sound intimidating andscary.
But if you think about some ofthe alternative, what we're
(06:04):
doing right now is publicspeaking, podcast, guesting.
If you do webinars, that'spublic speaking.
If you are doing live in personevents and you do a panel
usually those panels they'regreat.
You've got comfy chairs, you'rehaving a conversation.
Sure, there happens to be anaudience spread out in front of
(06:27):
you, but it is not intimidatingat all.
You could be a co-presenter,you could be doing a
demonstration, you could be abreakout speaker, you could be
doing a workshop and be aworkshop leader.
So I think the thing that youmentioned right up front the
asking a question from theaudience people don't think
(06:51):
about that as public speakingbecause they don't realize the
thing that I realized severalyears ago, which is I am talking
to the exact same audience thatthe people on stage just spoke
to.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
I didn't have to be vetted.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
I didn't have to be doing a presentation and I did
not even have to apply.
I just stood up and raised myhand.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Right, right, yeah.
And now, in the process ofasking the question, a lot of
times they ask you to state yourname.
Where are you from?
Here's the question.
So now you are speaking to thatsame audience.
I thought that was a reallyinteresting revelation when you
first brought it up, becausethat's also something.
I was pretty deep into mypodcasting journey by the time I
found Indie Collective, but Ihadn't even thought of that that
(07:43):
way, because, for whateverreason, I think, when you
mentioned that to me, I finallyclicked into like, oh, hosting a
podcast means I'm a publicspeaker, whereas I refuse to
kind of acknowledge myself asthat prior to that point,
because I, inside of my narrowscope of what public speaking is
(08:04):
, was like, oh, I have to be theone person keynote, you know,
and then everything else doesn'tcount.
But now I feel like it's somuch easier to give myself
credit for the little pieces andsteps along the way to maybe
eventually being that keynote.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
I think one of the things that made me realize that
was and just for context, mybackground is in broadcasting.
I have a broadcasting degreeradio and television and worked
in radio early on in my career,and I think it was maybe a year
or two after I startedInnovation Women that I called
(08:43):
into a local radio show, andInnovation Women is a
mission-driven speakers bureau.
We are formed specifically tohelp women and other
underrepresented groups get onstage.
So there was a radio showprobably NPR where they were
(09:04):
talking about pay equity andgender disparities, and I called
into the show and identifiedmyself, talked about Innovation
Women and what we were doing,because Innovation Women isn't
really focused on publicspeaking.
It's focused on all of thethings that come from public
(09:27):
speaking that visibility, thepay equity, the getting funded
for your startup, getting onboards, new jobs, business
success, career advancement andimmediately the response was
people going to my website.
(09:47):
So I was like, oh yeah, that'sright.
You know, when I'm talking toan audience Anywhere, I am
engaging in public speaking.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Yeah, I agreed.
I think that's actually aperfect Segway into you know
what is what is really the valueof public speaking?
Right, we've kind of talkedabout the different places or
like you know what you can openyour mind up to actually being
public speaking, but one of theways that you convey the value
that I find super, superinteresting, because I didn't
(10:20):
realize that this was a storyuntil I attended your class.
But there's a Story I want tosay it's about Warren Warren
Buffett, yeah, and and so what?
What is that story?
So that people can kind ofgather a little bit of his
insights as well on on what thevalue is.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Absolutely, and I usually bring in the Warren
Buffett story when I'm talkingabout the benefits of public
speaking, and one of them iscold hard cash.
And obviously Warren Buffettwas, you know, one of the most
wealthy people in the US, and sohe carries a certain weight
(10:59):
when he is talking aboutanything related to money.
A legend has it that he wasfamously Absolutely sick over
public speaking, like it madehim physically ill.
He took a course from DaleCarnegie on public speaking, and
(11:19):
the rest is history.
Now he's rich.
No, there wasn't thatConnection, but he was talking
to a class at ColumbiaUniversity.
Again, legend has it.
I wasn't there, and he made theman offer.
He said I will invest in youpersonally.
(11:41):
I will give you a hundredthousand dollars to Invest in
your career and I'm going totake a percentage of your future
earnings.
Now I personally like get thismajor league kick out of
imagining a whole bunch of MBAstudents going.
Is this a good deal for Warren?
(12:01):
Is this a good deal for me?
I don't know, and so he wasn'tdone.
He said I will give you ahundred and fifty thousand
dollars for that same percentageof you future earnings If you
take a class on communicationsand public speaking, because you
will be worth more to me.
(12:23):
Dale Carnegie actually uses aquote from him where they say
you can improve your value by50% Just by learning
communication skills.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
I Love that.
I 100% Agree with that, more soespecially with how easy it is
to Find a platform nowadays.
I think it's even if it was anecessary skill, then now I
(12:55):
believe it's even more so of anecessary skill and being able
to we were mentioning some ofthe ones earlier right, like
being able to even just downloadan app, turn on a camera, speak
to the camera and post thatvideo and get thousands of
impressions or, you know, evenhundreds, when you're first
starting out.
(13:15):
I always like to ground peoplewhen they're first starting on
their journey, and I talked tomostly podcasters, but they're.
You know, there's this impostersyndrome when you first start
out, you're like, okay, I'minterviewing people or I'm
speaking, and there's only 25people viewing my video, right,
and I'm looking at these otheraccounts and all these metrics
(13:38):
and they've got hundreds ofthousands of followers and
Thousands here and like theycould do this and yeah, but
that's such a long way away.
And I always try to remindpeople and like, okay, let's,
let's imagine that you have toput in the effort to plan an
event, find a venue, talk.
It's like send out invites topeople, plan what you're going
to speak about, and then 25people showed up in a room To
(14:02):
hear you talk about the thingthat you were planning on
talking about, how would youfeel about having 25 people in
the room?
It's a week to.
It's a win.
It's a huge win and I think,whether it's, you know, the way
that we look at social mediametrics or whatever that looks
like it we're like dissociatingfrom the fact that that's
actually 25 humans.
Bring it back to.
(14:24):
Okay, if those 25 people werein a room and then you get 50,
you get 75.
You know, at this point on ourpodcast here, I think we are
averaging a hundred hundredfifty listeners a week.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
You know, on the show and that's a hundred starts out
with millions of followers andno.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
No, no, no no grow to that.
Right, right, and I think it'syou also.
It's important to allow yourselfto grow into that because
Sometimes, if you like, makethose massive jumps, and this
still happens every now and then.
I remember I was giving a talkearlier this year to a group of
(15:03):
Businesses that had receivedFunding from the Department of
Defense.
It was where the Air ForceVentures Fund.
It was my first time giving aspeech to an audience in the
triple digits, right, so I hadgotten up close to a hundred,
but this was my first audienceof like 300 plus, and so I was
like I don't inside of my headagain.
I hit that next level and I'mlike, oh, there's hundreds of
(15:26):
people in this room now versusdozens, sweaty all over again.
I can't even imagine if I wouldhave went straight from zero,
not having any podcastingexperience, nothing to a
thousand people in the room, andI'm sure that there's people
that have had to make that jump.
But I think, kind of allowingyourself to have those
experiences and ratchet up tothe higher Audience size, it's
(15:48):
also a valuable thing becauseyou just get more and more
comfortable with it as you do it.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Well, you don't want to start with that huge audience
.
You want to start small, wherethe stakes are lower.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Right, agreed, agreed .
So I'm curious to.
We kind of started touching on,like the, the values.
The are the different types ofvalue of public speaking, and
the Warren Buffett story, yes,is very much associated with the
, the cold hard cash portion,but there's a lot of other
benefits to public speaking, Iknow, one of which is just
(16:24):
straight visibility.
But what are some?
What are some of the otherbenefits outside of just cold
hard cash that people can, youknow, be thinking about?
What if they're looking to tryto step into public speaking
more?
Speaker 2 (16:36):
And I'm gonna actually go take you back to
that visibility statement.
Oh yeah, every time you step onstage you're telling a story,
you're getting businessopportunities, you're getting
career opportunities.
You are not just talking to thepeople in the room.
You are talking to anyone thatthey speak to, that they're
(17:01):
potentially connected with andin today's social media world
the connections can potentiallybe huge.
But if you're doing publicspeaking and you're speaking at
a conference, you could bespeaking quote unquote to a much
larger group than you ever willfit in that room Because they
(17:25):
are marketing you.
When they're marketing theconference, you are their
content.
So the event organizers areusing you in their email
marketing and their social mediamarketing.
Even people who never attendthe conference may know your
name, know your area ofexpertise and know the name of
(17:48):
your company, potentially getlinked to you, and they've never
even seen you speak, theyhaven't been in the same room.
So the possibilities areendless just through the
marketing of the events that youcommit to speaking at.
So don't just look at thenumbers in the room.
(18:09):
Look at the broad reach ofeverybody who is connected to
the organization, to the eventand to kind of the community
that this event is part of.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Yeah, I love that too , bringing that into awareness,
that, because it's almostirresistible at this point.
If you, if you, find somethingthat you find interesting, I
find myself almost sharing it,before my brain is even caught
on to the fact that I'm likesharing that clip.
And I'm seeing a lot, you know,just on the marketing side of
(18:44):
the house I'm seeing a lot ofreports and things of that
nature that basically say, oncesomebody discovers who you are,
it used to be they woulddiscover who you are and then
they would go to like a websiteor something to research you and
then they would find something.
A lot of times, if it's apersonal brand at this point, or
(19:04):
if it's an individualassociated with the company,
they're going to social first tosee what types of content or is
being posted about you or whattypes of content you have posted
, and then they're backtrackingto like a website of some sort.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
And I think that's one of the things that is been
going on recently with Twitter.
We used to go to Twitter almostautomatically every time you
went to an event and you knowthere have been some issues
lately with Twitter and nowpeople are like, hmm, you know,
(19:40):
maybe Twitter isn't such a greatthing After all for conferences
and events, so right, inFacebook, Instagram threads, you
know there's all differentkinds of places that people can
get to know you, Right?
Speaker 1 (19:55):
And I love that you just ended that right there with
get to know you right, becausethat's the end goal is to allow
people to really to get to toknow who you are.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
And you know, they're not just business with people,
right they?
Buy from people.
They buy from you, so they needto get to know what you stand
for and your area of expertiseand you know, going back to what
public speaking delivers itdelivers credibility, it
delivers expert status, thoughtleadership, and I think that
(20:31):
you've been vetted.
When you're on stage, theythink you know more than they do
because you are elevated bothphysically and mentally.
You know a lot of the physicalstages.
They literally put you up high.
You know people have to look upto you and looking up to you
means that they think highly ofyou, you know it's interesting
(20:54):
how all of those those wordskind of you know mean looking up
, physically, looking up youknow, like it's just such an
interesting way of thinkingabout how public speaking helps
you stand out from the crowd andusually tell people it's like
(21:14):
you're never going to be seen asa leader sitting in the
audience.
You are seen as a leader whenyou're on stage.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
So if somebody you know, let's say somebody, is
sitting in the audience rightnow and they're listening to the
show and they're they are thatperson says you know, I've been
in the audience, I feel like Ihave a strong understanding of
my niche or the area that I'mpassionate about.
I'd like to start.
Maybe they don't want to speakright away.
(21:45):
They want to start learning howto public speak more their
programs out there or theirplaces that they can go to to
practice public speaking, or howwould somebody start that
journey off early on?
Speaker 2 (22:00):
And you know I usually talk people through a
process that includes creating afoundation for your expertise.
So you know you don't get askedto speak about being an
entrepreneur if you've never hada successful company.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
You know that's just where it goes you need to
demonstrate that expertise.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
You need to write articles, you need to be a guest
on podcasts, you need to betweeting about things or posting
stuff on your social media.
Writing articles, beinginterviewed by journalists like
these are all things that youcan do to create that foundation
of expertise.
Then you need to think aboutwhat it is you want to be known
(22:46):
for.
What is your brand?
I usually talk to people aboutmy own experience.
I was asked to participate in aTEDx several years ago and I
got this phone call on aThursday afternoon from somebody
I knew who was like.
You know, I'm one of theorganizers of this local TEDx
(23:07):
and we'd like to invite you tobe one of our speakers and, of
course, as a speaker.
The TED and TEDx brands arephenomenal.
Like, of course, I'd bethrilled to.
And when is it Tuesday?
Like, oh no, you know.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Like, sorry, You're like this week, Like yeah, like
how many days?
Speaker 2 (23:34):
No, and I'm like you know what?
I have this speakers bureau andwe've got thousands of speakers
.
I'm sure somebody is foolish.
I mean ready to step on stageand do a TEDx?
Okay, background TEDs and TEDxtalks You're usually preparing
(23:55):
for three to six months.
You don't do this in five days.
And I went and I did indeedfind five speakers who were
willing to jump on stage withprecious little preparation
Crazy.
And the organizers, you know,when I went back to them on
(24:17):
Saturday with here are fivenames.
You know I'm done, I fulfilledmy obligation.
You're good, right, and theysaid none of these speakers is
what we need.
We need you.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Oh why?
Speaker 2 (24:31):
You know why me.
And they said well, our themeis innovation.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Yeah, it's all coming together.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
We're in Boston.
I started something calledinnovation nights that you know,
launched practically everystartup around for 11 years.
I started innovation women.
Ah, now I know why you came tome because my name is synonymous
with innovation in this market.
So you know, you want to becomeknown for something you need to
(25:06):
be thinking about.
What is your brand?
Now overlap.
Think about this as a Venndiagram.
You've got one circle.
That is your area of expertiseand your passions.
The other circle is your brand.
What is it you want to be knownfor?
Where you overlapping?
That is an area that you wantto focus on.
(25:29):
But I'm gonna add one morecircle to the mix.
That circle represents youraudience's needs.
If you are a speaker and you areon stage without consideration
of what your audience needs, youare not doing a good job.
You are not acting in serviceto your audience.
(25:52):
What pain can you solve?
What problem can you solve?
What does your audience want totake away?
It's no coincidence that a lotof calls for speakers will
literally ask anyone applying tocall out and break out.
What are the audience takeaways?
(26:14):
They don't want to hear whatyou want to tell them.
They want to hear things thatthey need.
And if you are delivering whatthey need, yay, you are a good
public speaker.
Good job.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
I love that.
I think a little tip foranybody that is listening that
might just be in the podcastspace.
I will relate this back to thepodcast space.
You've heard me do this acouple of different times
throughout this podcast episodealready.
We've been talking about atopic and then I kind of pause
(26:52):
and say if you were an audiencemember that did this, or you are
hearing this and listening tothis, that is one way that you
can make sure that you arekeeping the audience's needs or
what their takeaways are insideof a podcast format.
You can pause and ask yourguest and say, hey, if an
audience member is listeningright now and this is what they
are experiencing, how would youaddress that?
(27:15):
That's a really easy way todraw them in on that piece.
I think it was.
I want to say it was Les Brown,but he's over quoted for a
whole bunch of different things.
But the quote and I'mparaphrasing here, but the quote
was something around never letwhat you want to say get in the
(27:35):
way of what the audience needsto hear, and I think that that
is a very profoundly impactfulkind of in the same lines of
what you were just saying.
It's very impactful when youswitch that headspace and you
start to realize, oh, I'm herein service of this audience.
You know, they found me.
(27:56):
I have this branding or thisexpertise inside of this market.
I was chosen to come up andgive this speech on this stage,
but the real reason why I'm uphere is to have the audience
walk away with somethingvaluable.
I think that that's such agreat way to look at it.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
When you are doing in-person speaking.
I call this the grab thenotebook moment, when you watch
people just suddenly scramble intheir seats to pull out a phone
, a piece of paper, to writesomething down like oh, that's a
(28:35):
moment.
As a speaker, you touched abutton there.
If they're pulling out theirphone to do their email, you've
got another conversation going.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Right Right, that has to be such a cool.
You know you say something andthen you realize, oh, this is
hitting.
You know a bunch of people arewriting this down.
I want to rewind just a secondbefore we move into this next
section, because you saidsomething that I want to make
sure everybody understands,because this was also a term
that I was super unfamiliar withwhen I first took your class.
(29:10):
It was call for speakers.
I had no idea what thatactually meant.
Could you just explain whatthat process is as far as how
organizations put out thosecalls and things of that nature?
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
The call for speakers is just one term for it.
You'll sometimes see call forpresentations, call for
proposals, but the most commonis call for speakers and it is
literally the request from aconference, an event or an
organization for people topresent at their events.
And what they're doing is youare, you're applying.
(29:51):
Maybe it's kind of a digitalaudition because you might be
asked to include a video ofyourself speaking.
But most applications thesecalls for speakers are out there
because people want a broadbase of potential speakers.
(30:13):
They want people they might notknow otherwise to apply.
So we have literally thousandsof these things.
People put them out way inadvance of their event.
We actually collect them oninnovation, women for our
members, and we're addinganywhere between 50 and 100
(30:36):
every week.
There is a vast array, so vastI actually have a name for it.
I call it the speakers paradise, and the speakers paradise
reflects all of these amazingopportunities for people who
want to do public speaking.
Thank you.
So the numbers that I usuallythrow around if you look at
(31:02):
things like Eventbrite 4.6million events sold tickets on
Eventbrite last year.
50,000 individual TEDx calls,300,000 meetups every month,
92,000 professionalorganizations in the US alone,
(31:23):
before the pandemic, there was a$37 billion events industry.
Now, of course, you know, oh,bobby, the pandemic, you know,
changed everything.
Yeah, it opened up even moreopportunities Suddenly.
You know.
I mean event managers only hada few options they could cancel
(31:44):
their events, they couldpostpone them somewhat
indefinitely, it felt like, orthey could go virtual and people
rushed to virtual and they madeit so much more common.
You know, we're now seeing somany fantastic hybrid events.
Organizations that before thepandemic may have had a couple
(32:07):
hundred people coming to theirevents regularly were suddenly
opening up online and you'd havethousands of people from
outside their vicinity.
You know, if you're a localChamber of Commerce and, yeah,
you regularly host in-personevents 40, 50, 60 people and
(32:28):
suddenly you put those samespeakers on a virtual stage and
they're interesting and you'republicizing it.
Well, and maybe your network isbroader than you realize.
You might see larger audienceslive and with the recordings.
So just so many moreopportunities than there ever
(32:51):
were.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
I think that was.
That's such a mind opener,because I know a lot of
individuals that I've talked toover the last two years
especially had this kind offeeling of, oh, all the
opportunities dissipated.
With COVID which you know,covid going into your portion,
it kind of there was a periodwhere a lot of things dipped or
(33:18):
maybe reallocated.
Everybody had to pivot.
I mean that word I like.
It makes me sad that I even hadto say it right there because I
tried to make that for myvocabulary.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
There was panic.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
Yeah, yeah, the panic phase and then the okay, pivot
phase and then the we're justused to chaos phase at this
point.
But I think that is a really,really good point, if you're
listening, that there's, there'sorganizations out there that a
bunch of speakers left.
Speakers are coming into themarket constantly.
It's something that is alwaysavailable.
(33:53):
And another thing that youmentioned that was something
super useful for me is beingable to create Google search
alerts for things like call tospeakers.
So there's this feature insideof Google that Bobby showed me.
I have no idea existed prior tothis course.
I'm seriously I had no idea andI would.
(34:14):
The funny thing is working inmarketing and tech and be like,
oh, I should know that Googlehas a feature like this.
Definitely did not, but you canactually go into.
If you just Google Google,create a Google alert, it'll
take you to an FAQ page and youcan go through and actually set
up and say, hey, if they, ifthere is a call for speakers in
(34:35):
my region, it will automaticallynotify you that something like
that came up and then send youthe links with the people that
had posted that item.
So I have it set up for me whereit says call for presenters,
call for presentations and callfor speakers, and once a month I
go through all of the Googlealerts and see if there's any
(34:58):
events that I'm interested inapplying to.
It's something that was areally, really cool automated
thing that I could set up thatnow has given me the chance to.
I haven't spoken at any of themyet, but I have networked with
conference speakers and eventmanagers and things of that
nature.
They know who I am now and youknow in the future, I'm sure
that, as I continue to build mypersonal brand and they continue
(35:20):
to see me, you know being aforward facing advocate for the
things that I chose to anchor on.
It increases the probabilitybecause you're, you know,
forming those deep relationshipswith people.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Yeah, you become known.
It's one of the things that wedo at innovation women.
We talk to our speakers all thetime about the the beauty of
promotion.
You know, every time you get aspeaking engagement, you should
be promoting it and, by the way,hey, you're helping to promote
the event and maybe put butts inseats, something event managers
(35:56):
love.
So, you know, do that,promoting yourself as a speaker,
help the event managers thatyou're working with and, you
know, become somebody who isknown for a particular topic or
area of expertise.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
I think that that's the, the being able to help out
the event manager is probably areally underrated part of that
process.
So I feel and from somebodythat hosts regular events or
things of that nature I didn'teven think about that.
But the people that I know, ifI send them something, they're
(36:36):
automatically like hey, here'sthis canva design I threw
together.
I'm going to post it Like isthere anybody else that I can
tag?
Like how can I help?
I'm like oh, I love you.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
Well you always want, as a speaker, to not be the
high maintenance speaker.
You know it's like you can be afantastic speaker, but if you're
giving that event manager fitswith demands, with not showing
up on time, running out rightafter you're done, like there's
(37:09):
so many things that you can doto make an event manager's life
hell, don't do it.
Be the speaker they want towork with.
They have many other options.
So you want to be lowmaintenance.
You want to be together.
You want to hit their deadlines.
When you are chosen as aspeaker, it's not you're going
(37:33):
to drop out of sight until theevent.
You're going to have to payattention to deadlines.
Maybe they need your headshot,maybe they need your abstract,
maybe they are choosing you fora keynote and they need to work
with you to make sure that yourpresentation is supporting their
(37:55):
overall theme.
Like a lot of people don't.
Yes, think about the keynote andthe importance of it for
setting the tone for an event.
You are kicking off that eventand, as people file out after
you're done, how are theyfeeling?
(38:16):
What are they set up for?
Are their brains buzzing withideas or are they bored out of
their skulls, like you're theperson that is going to make a
difference at that event.
It is not just I'm first onstage and I get the biggest
audience.
I have a responsibility to thataudience and to that event
(38:38):
manager.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
Yeah, yeah, I love that, and that comes full circle
to what we were talking aboutearlier.
Don't get what you want to sayin the way of what the audience
needs to hear.
However we phrase that earlieron in the episode, I think that
all comes full circle in thatmoment.
It is about service.
At that point, when you're upthere, you are getting the
(39:01):
visibility, you are getting theauthority, you are elevated,
people are looking up to you.
But at the end of the dayyou're especially in that
keynote slot you are responsiblefor really setting the tone and
the energy for that group ofpeople.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
You could also be setting the tone and the
direction for an industry.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
Think about some of these events and, by the way,
there is an event for everyindustry, every topic.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
I get a view of them.
We have literally hundreds atany given day in the innovation
women database.
Sometimes I'm doing a demo andit's like, oh look, let's all go
and speak at the Water ParksAssociation annual event.
That sounds like fun.
Every industry has industryassociations.
(39:53):
They are always looking forspeakers.
They don't need to be, I'mgoing to say, an actual part of
that industry to add value tothat event.
We were doing a conferenceseveral years ago that was an
industrial IOT event Internet ofThings Okay, I'm like you know,
(40:18):
I'm technical kind of but hellobroadcasting degree, and you
know we had, as part of ourlittle schedule of speakers, we
had our own room and we had ourown schedule.
That day, one of our speakerswas incredibly popular, far and
(40:39):
away above any other speaker atthe event, and we had a great
topic salary negotiation.
People are like oh yeah, I wantto see her.
You know, and what did she haveto do with IoT?
Nothing.
But you know there's a salaryor career track going on.
There might be a marketingtrack or an intellectual
(41:02):
property or legal track.
Look for the different tracksthat are associated with your
area of expertise.
It might be that the industryyou come from, the things that
you're doing as a matter ofcourse, maybe they haven't
infiltrated this particularindustry before.
(41:25):
I love that.
Stuff that you're doing could beexotic and special and unusual,
and you're like I do that everyday.
Speaker 1 (41:36):
Yeah, what's with them?
Speaker 2 (41:36):
Wow, you're special.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
Wow, I love that.
I'm not even going to try torephrase that.
I mean, yeah, the things thatyou might find mundane, right,
if you cross over industries andstuff, you could be that
liaison, you could be known asthat person, that crossover
(42:00):
point between those industries.
And this gives back to the areaof expertise you know it's like
what are you known for, what isyour brand?
Speaker 2 (42:13):
What are the things that people bring you in?
Because you're the person thataddresses that.
Let's face it public speaking.
I could speak almost anywhere,any industry.
Public speaking is going to bea topic.
But I will also say that I havedifferentiated myself.
(42:34):
You need to think about that.
Everybody who does publicspeaking could raise their hand
and go well, I can talk aboutpublic speaking.
I'm a public speaker.
So how do I differentiatemyself from them?
Number one I'm very focused ongetting women on stage.
I have a mission.
Number two I don't tend to doas much work on the act of
(43:00):
public speaking.
I tend to do much more work onthe act of public speaking.
I tend to do much more on thebusiness model of public
speaking.
I tend to do more on the act offinding opportunities.
I'm there to get you on stage.
Once you're on stage, you're onyour own.
As far as I'm concerned, that'sactually not true.
(43:22):
I do a lot of training onspeaking as well, but what I'm
talking about is really muchmore focused on the aspects of
public speaking and thediversity and equity and
inclusion of public speaking.
Speaker 1 (43:37):
Right, right, yeah, I definitely think that that is
an important piece to be able tofind that area that you are the
most excited about.
For me recently, in the lastprobably year, it's really been
diving in to neurodivergentpeople, people with ADHD and
(44:00):
others that kind of struggled tofind focus and I ironically
took something that I struggledwith, or thought that I
struggled with, which was focus,but then I invited.
I forget how it exactly pannedout, but I had a friend of mine
that was listening to me talkabout how I structured my day
and she was like that's insane.
Actually, this seems reallyreally like a really really
(44:23):
efficient system.
I was like, oh, I didn't knowif it was like this is survival
for me.
I didn't realize that this waslike something that could be
super useful to people.
So I put together apresentation called Finding
Focus Accomplishing More WhileStressing Less, and she invited
me into her community it's likea community of marketers and
(44:45):
brand strategists and otherthings of that nature and I gave
the presentation thinking thisis just my everyday life, right?
There's no way this could bethat special.
This is like my mundane week byweek.
Here's a screenshot of myGoogle calendar and how I time
box things and I got two offersfrom that one event to come and
speak to other communities forsomething that was super mundane
(45:08):
, and that's something that allspeakers should aspire to.
Speaker 2 (45:13):
When you do a presentation, there should be
somebody in the audience going,ooh, I need that If you're not
getting that.
Number one maybe you're nothitting the presentation out of
the park and you need some work.
Or number two you're notspeaking necessarily to the
right audiences.
So there are two little signalsthat you need to pay attention
(45:37):
to.
If you are not getting eitherreferences or new speaking
engagements from the speakingengagements you do.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
Yeah Well, we're getting close to having to wrap
up our time here and I alwayslike to end well.
First, thanks again for comingand spending time today.
This was.
I know that this episode isgoing to do wonders because we
constantly get questions frompeople around this topic, so I'm
really excited to be able topush this episode out for people
(46:08):
to hear, and I always like toend the episodes with something
that kind of draws us out ofjust like the expertise and
everything and kind of speaks tous as people.
And so it's a question that Ideveloped early on in the
journey of the modernindependent, and it goes
something like this so do youconsider yourself a reader, a
(46:31):
watcher or a listener?
And, depending on which one ofthose three you would pick,
could you recommend a book, apodcast or a YouTube channel
that you just find interesting?
It doesn't have to haveanything to do with public
speaking, it can.
But which one of those three doyou find yourself doing the
most?
And, out of those three, what'ssomething that you find
(46:53):
interesting?
Speaker 2 (46:54):
I'm definitely a reader, always been a reader,
loved to read.
I still have not gotten intomany podcasts Like I will listen
to the radio and listen to NPRand I guess most of the shows on
NPR podcasts as well.
But oh, I'm a reader.
(47:14):
My mom always kids around as alittle kid.
One day I told her that I had adream that I got locked in the
library and she's trying tocomfort me, thinking I was
scared and alone in the dark andI'm like it was awesome.
It was amazing.
Speaker 1 (47:35):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (47:37):
But I think, um, I think one of the things that you
know and I'm going to tie thisback to the stuff that we've
been talking about, publicspeaking and being seen as a
thought leader, being seen as anexpert we do see a lot of
overlap and public speaking withauthorship.
(47:58):
We say 2,500 currently activeinnovation women speakers.
I think we have almost 500books in our bookstore.
And we see a lot of corporationscoming in and they all the grab
a book for everybody.
Remember I talked about theDale Carnegie earlier.
(48:19):
Like that Dale Carnegie book,you know that everybody gets
like it was written in 1930s,like oh my gosh, we're talking
almost 100 years ago at thispoint.
That's crazy.
Let's update what we're givingpeople to read.
(48:39):
You know I just got finishedmyself reading Hold on here.
It is Josh Bernofs new book,build a better business book,
and I think a lot of people theyare writing books, they are
(49:01):
sharing their knowledge becauseit definitely helps your public
speaking career.
You know a really great bookthat becomes the industry
standard for everything thatyou're talking about.
That falls you up to the nextlevel.
I mean, you're literally theperson who wrote the book.
(49:22):
So you know, if you're thinkingabout public speaking, if
you're thinking about how do Ibecome the thought leader, the
expert, the go to authority onmy topic, you might have to be
thinking about a book.
And if it's, not a book it couldbe a podcast series, it could
(49:42):
be a YouTube channel, but youneed to create that foundation
and maybe it's a book.
Speaker 1 (49:53):
So, if you are listening to this and you would
like to get in touch with Bobby,where are some places that
people can find you?
Speaker 2 (50:01):
Oh, I'm very, very Googleable.
Innovation, women, calm kind ofbrings it all together, roger
that.
Speaker 1 (50:10):
So we'll make sure that we link to that in the show
notes for everybody.
So if you're listening to thisand you have been, you know,
listening to a couple ofepisodes of the modern
independent indy collective iskind of catching your eye.
You're looking to start yourindependent career or start your
business, Don't be shy to reachout.
I include my Calimby link and alot of different posts.
(50:30):
You can find our LinkedIn atthe bottom of every show notes.
You can find it on the top ofthe list.
You can find it on the top ofthe list and you can find it on
(50:55):
the top of the list and you canfind it on the top of the list.
Welcome everybody to another episode of the Modern
Independent.
As always, I am your host, janAlmasey, the head of community
here at Indie Collective.
This is your first timelistening.
I'd like to welcome you to theModern Independent.
We have a couple of differenttypes of podcast episodes on
this show.
Today, we're going to be talkingto Bobby Carlton, who is a
(00:21):
speaker inside of our curriculum, and this type of show segment
is called the Seven FigurePlaybook.
All of these individuals thatwe bring on for episodes like
the Seven Figure Playbook areexperts inside of their arena
and will be giving us keyaspects and parts of their story
, pieces of advice, along yourjourney.
(00:41):
Today's specialty is going tobe public speaking.
If you are somebody that hasfelt awkward about public
speaking, or maybe has a passionfor it and is not quite sure
how to do it at scale, this isgoing to be the episode for you.
So Bobby is the founder ofCarlton PR and Marketing,
innovation Knights andInnovation Women, along with a
(01:04):
couple of other businesses,which we'll get to here in a
second.
She is a speaker as well as anaward-winning marketing, pr and
social media professional.
In 2008, she started her owncompany, the first one, carlton
PR and Marketing.
The second company, innovationKnights, is a social
media-powered new productshowcase that has launched more
than 1500 new products.
These companies have received acombined four billion plus in
(01:26):
funding.
Company number three isInnovation Women, an online
visibility bureau forentrepreneurial, technical and
professional women.
In 2020, she purchased twoadditional companies my Speaker
Leads and Lioness Magazine.
She is a mass tech all-star, aBoston Innovation 50 on Fire
recipient twice and is theBoston Business Journal woman to
(01:48):
watch.
She has also had been named aPR news game changer and is one
of our speakers here at IndieCollective.
Bobby, welcome to the ModernIndependent.
Speaker 2 (02:00):
Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1 (02:03):
I mean, bobby, we're just talking before we turned on
the mic that public speaking,podcasting, all of these types
of things are things that we'rereally passionate about.
We were kind of chucklingbecause at this point I've
recorded 200, plus probablycreeping close to 300 different
podcast episodes between my ownshows and other shows that I've
(02:24):
guested on.
Because of that nature, bobbyhas spoken at a lot of different
places, different audiences,different levels, size, places
and everything.
I was curious have you alwaysfelt comfortable public speaking
?
Because I know personally, whenI first started out podcasting
it was definitely not like handsclammy, a little bit sweaty
(02:47):
before I got onto the show.
Was that kind of a similarexperience for you, or have you
always known that you were goingto be destined for a stage?
Speaker 2 (02:54):
Oh gosh, yeah, God.
No, I usually point to thebroadcast news.
You know he's going to need abigger towel as indicative of my
first time on stage when Istarted Innovation Nights in
2009, it never really kind ofdawned on me that I was going to
(03:15):
be the host and I was going tobe the person on stage, and when
that time came, it hit me likea ton of bricks.
I was a literal hot mess and,of course, a social media
powered event.
Everybody's got their camerasand their video and tons of
(03:36):
evidence of the hot mess, whichmade me look at those pictures
and look at those videos ago.
I will never look like thatever again.
OK, maybe I did a few times, butyeah, I want to be the queen of
the Instagram.
Really awkward speaker photosaccount.
Speaker 1 (04:01):
The queen of the really awkward speaker photos.
Speaker 2 (04:04):
I'm going to, I'm going to start that account
awkward speaker photos and thatwill be my land.
I will rule that land.
Speaker 1 (04:14):
I am.
I feel like what you said rightthere is so funny.
I speak to so many people thatgo, you know, to start their
independent journey, right, andI think at some point there is
that exact inflection point thatyou just pointed out, which is
like, oh, I have to be the oneon stage, or I have to be the
(04:35):
one that's my own advocate, I'mgoing to have to go on podcasts,
or I'm going to have to go onIG live streams and all of these
other things, which is alsosomething that you bring up
inside of your curriculum piece,inside of the Indie cohort,
which I think is super crucialfor people to understand that
(04:55):
public speaking is not just thebig keynote at the conference.
Right, I think, actually, inyour, in your, in your portion
of the course, you use theexample of somebody even asking
a question at the conferencecounts as public speaking.
Speaker 2 (05:12):
It's a great place to start.
Speaker 1 (05:16):
Yeah, so, and that's something if you guys, if you're
listening to this right now andyou say, oh well, I'm not a
public speaker, but you've beenon somebody's Instagram live or
you've posted a video of youspeaking on your story or you,
you know, asked a question at aconference, or something of that
(05:36):
nature, you are on the path tobeing a perfect public speaker.
Speaker 2 (05:42):
Absolutely, and I usually tell people that we all
tend to think about publicspeaking very narrowly.
It's the one person on stage bythemselves, all alone.
The audience is a cast ofthousands and, oh my goodness,
that does sound intimidating andscary.
But if you think about some ofthe alternative, what we're
(06:04):
doing right now is publicspeaking, podcast, guesting.
If you do webinars, that'spublic speaking.
If you are doing live in personevents and you do a panel
usually those panels they'regreat.
You've got comfy chairs, you'rehaving a conversation.
Sure, there happens to be anaudience spread out in front of
(06:27):
you, but it is not intimidatingat all.
You could be a co-presenter,you could be doing a
demonstration, you could be abreakout speaker, you could be
doing a workshop and be aworkshop leader.
So I think the thing that youmentioned right up front the
asking a question from theaudience people don't think
(06:51):
about that as public speakingbecause they don't realize the
thing that I realized severalyears ago, which is I am talking
to the exact same audience thatthe people on stage just spoke
to.
Speaker 1 (07:07):
I didn't have to be vetted.
Speaker 2 (07:09):
I didn't have to be doing a presentation and I did
not even have to apply.
I just stood up and raised myhand.
Speaker 1 (07:20):
Right, right, yeah.
And now, in the process ofasking the question, a lot of
times they ask you to state yourname.
Where are you from?
Here's the question.
So now you are speaking to thatsame audience.
I thought that was a reallyinteresting revelation when you
first brought it up, becausethat's also something.
I was pretty deep into mypodcasting journey by the time I
found Indie Collective, but Ihadn't even thought of that that
(07:43):
way, because, for whateverreason, I think, when you
mentioned that to me, I finallyclicked into like, oh, hosting a
podcast means I'm a publicspeaker, whereas I refuse to
kind of acknowledge myself asthat prior to that point,
because I, inside of my narrowscope of what public speaking is
(08:04):
, was like, oh, I have to be theone person keynote, you know,
and then everything else doesn'tcount.
But now I feel like it's somuch easier to give myself
credit for the little pieces andsteps along the way to maybe
eventually being that keynote.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
I think one of the things that made me realize that
was and just for context, mybackground is in broadcasting.
I have a broadcasting degreeradio and television and worked
in radio early on in my career,and I think it was maybe a year
or two after I startedInnovation Women that I called
(08:43):
into a local radio show, andInnovation Women is a
mission-driven speakers bureau.
We are formed specifically tohelp women and other
underrepresented groups get onstage.
So there was a radio showprobably NPR where they were
(09:04):
talking about pay equity andgender disparities, and I called
into the show and identifiedmyself, talked about Innovation
Women and what we were doing,because Innovation Women isn't
really focused on publicspeaking.
It's focused on all of thethings that come from public
(09:27):
speaking that visibility, thepay equity, the getting funded
for your startup, getting onboards, new jobs, business
success, career advancement andimmediately the response was
people going to my website.
(09:47):
So I was like, oh yeah, that'sright.
You know, when I'm talking toan audience Anywhere, I am
engaging in public speaking.
Speaker 1 (09:58):
Yeah, I agreed.
I think that's actually aperfect Segway into you know
what is what is really the valueof public speaking?
Right, we've kind of talkedabout the different places or
like you know what you can openyour mind up to actually being
public speaking, but one of theways that you convey the value
that I find super, superinteresting, because I didn't
(10:20):
realize that this was a storyuntil I attended your class.
But there's a Story I want tosay it's about Warren Warren
Buffett, yeah, and and so what?
What is that story?
So that people can kind ofgather a little bit of his
insights as well on on what thevalue is.
Speaker 2 (10:37):
Absolutely, and I usually bring in the Warren
Buffett story when I'm talkingabout the benefits of public
speaking, and one of them iscold hard cash.
And obviously Warren Buffettwas, you know, one of the most
wealthy people in the US, and sohe carries a certain weight
(10:59):
when he is talking aboutanything related to money.
A legend has it that he wasfamously Absolutely sick over
public speaking, like it madehim physically ill.
He took a course from DaleCarnegie on public speaking, and
(11:19):
the rest is history.
Now he's rich.
No, there wasn't thatConnection, but he was talking
to a class at ColumbiaUniversity.
Again, legend has it.
I wasn't there, and he made theman offer.
He said I will invest in youpersonally.
(11:41):
I will give you a hundredthousand dollars to Invest in
your career and I'm going totake a percentage of your future
earnings.
Now I personally like get thismajor league kick out of
imagining a whole bunch of MBAstudents going.
Is this a good deal for Warren?
(12:01):
Is this a good deal for me?
I don't know, and so he wasn'tdone.
He said I will give you ahundred and fifty thousand
dollars for that same percentageof you future earnings If you
take a class on communicationsand public speaking, because you
will be worth more to me.
(12:23):
Dale Carnegie actually uses aquote from him where they say
you can improve your value by50% Just by learning
communication skills.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
I Love that.
I 100% Agree with that, more soespecially with how easy it is
to Find a platform nowadays.
I think it's even if it was anecessary skill, then now I
(12:55):
believe it's even more so of anecessary skill and being able
to we were mentioning some ofthe ones earlier right, like
being able to even just downloadan app, turn on a camera, speak
to the camera and post thatvideo and get thousands of
impressions or, you know, evenhundreds, when you're first
starting out.
(13:15):
I always like to ground peoplewhen they're first starting on
their journey, and I talked tomostly podcasters, but they're.
You know, there's this impostersyndrome when you first start
out, you're like, okay, I'minterviewing people or I'm
speaking, and there's only 25people viewing my video, right,
and I'm looking at these otheraccounts and all these metrics
(13:38):
and they've got hundreds ofthousands of followers and
Thousands here and like theycould do this and yeah, but
that's such a long way away.
And I always try to remindpeople and like, okay, let's,
let's imagine that you have toput in the effort to plan an
event, find a venue, talk.
It's like send out invites topeople, plan what you're going
to speak about, and then 25people showed up in a room To
(14:02):
hear you talk about the thingthat you were planning on
talking about, how would youfeel about having 25 people in
the room?
It's a week to.
It's a win.
It's a huge win and I think,whether it's, you know, the way
that we look at social mediametrics or whatever that looks
like it we're like dissociatingfrom the fact that that's
actually 25 humans.
Bring it back to.
(14:24):
Okay, if those 25 people werein a room and then you get 50,
you get 75.
You know, at this point on ourpodcast here, I think we are
averaging a hundred hundredfifty listeners a week.
Speaker 2 (14:36):
You know, on the show and that's a hundred starts out
with millions of followers andno.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
No, no, no no grow to that.
Right, right, and I think it'syou also.
It's important to allow yourselfto grow into that because
Sometimes, if you like, makethose massive jumps, and this
still happens every now and then.
I remember I was giving a talkearlier this year to a group of
(15:03):
Businesses that had receivedFunding from the Department of
Defense.
It was where the Air ForceVentures Fund.
It was my first time giving aspeech to an audience in the
triple digits, right, so I hadgotten up close to a hundred,
but this was my first audienceof like 300 plus, and so I was
like I don't inside of my headagain.
I hit that next level and I'mlike, oh, there's hundreds of
(15:26):
people in this room now versusdozens, sweaty all over again.
I can't even imagine if I wouldhave went straight from zero,
not having any podcastingexperience, nothing to a
thousand people in the room, andI'm sure that there's people
that have had to make that jump.
But I think, kind of allowingyourself to have those
experiences and ratchet up tothe higher Audience size, it's
(15:48):
also a valuable thing becauseyou just get more and more
comfortable with it as you do it.
Speaker 2 (15:52):
Well, you don't want to start with that huge audience
.
You want to start small, wherethe stakes are lower.
Speaker 1 (16:00):
Right, agreed, agreed .
So I'm curious to.
We kind of started touching on,like the, the values.
The are the different types ofvalue of public speaking, and
the Warren Buffett story, yes,is very much associated with the
, the cold hard cash portion,but there's a lot of other
benefits to public speaking, Iknow, one of which is just
(16:24):
straight visibility.
But what are some?
What are some of the otherbenefits outside of just cold
hard cash that people can, youknow, be thinking about?
What if they're looking to tryto step into public speaking
more?
Speaker 2 (16:36):
And I'm gonna actually go take you back to
that visibility statement.
Oh yeah, every time you step onstage you're telling a story,
you're getting businessopportunities, you're getting
career opportunities.
You are not just talking to thepeople in the room.
You are talking to anyone thatthey speak to, that they're
(17:01):
potentially connected with andin today's social media world
the connections can potentiallybe huge.
But if you're doing publicspeaking and you're speaking at
a conference, you could bespeaking quote unquote to a much
larger group than you ever willfit in that room Because they
(17:25):
are marketing you.
When they're marketing theconference, you are their
content.
So the event organizers areusing you in their email
marketing and their social mediamarketing.
Even people who never attendthe conference may know your
name, know your area ofexpertise and know the name of
(17:48):
your company, potentially getlinked to you, and they've never
even seen you speak, theyhaven't been in the same room.
So the possibilities areendless just through the
marketing of the events that youcommit to speaking at.
So don't just look at thenumbers in the room.
(18:09):
Look at the broad reach ofeverybody who is connected to
the organization, to the eventand to kind of the community
that this event is part of.
Speaker 1 (18:23):
Yeah, I love that too , bringing that into awareness,
that, because it's almostirresistible at this point.
If you, if you, find somethingthat you find interesting, I
find myself almost sharing it,before my brain is even caught
on to the fact that I'm likesharing that clip.
And I'm seeing a lot, you know,just on the marketing side of
(18:44):
the house I'm seeing a lot ofreports and things of that
nature that basically say, oncesomebody discovers who you are,
it used to be they woulddiscover who you are and then
they would go to like a websiteor something to research you and
then they would find something.
A lot of times, if it's apersonal brand at this point, or
(19:04):
if it's an individualassociated with the company,
they're going to social first tosee what types of content or is
being posted about you or whattypes of content you have posted
, and then they're backtrackingto like a website of some sort.
Speaker 2 (19:19):
And I think that's one of the things that is been
going on recently with Twitter.
We used to go to Twitter almostautomatically every time you
went to an event and you knowthere have been some issues
lately with Twitter and nowpeople are like, hmm, you know,
(19:40):
maybe Twitter isn't such a greatthing After all for conferences
and events, so right, inFacebook, Instagram threads, you
know there's all differentkinds of places that people can
get to know you, Right?
Speaker 1 (19:55):
And I love that you just ended that right there with
get to know you right, becausethat's the end goal is to allow
people to really to get to toknow who you are.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
And you know, they're not just business with people,
right they?
Buy from people.
They buy from you, so they needto get to know what you stand
for and your area of expertiseand you know, going back to what
public speaking delivers itdelivers credibility, it
delivers expert status, thoughtleadership, and I think that
(20:31):
you've been vetted.
When you're on stage, theythink you know more than they do
because you are elevated bothphysically and mentally.
You know a lot of the physicalstages.
They literally put you up high.
You know people have to look upto you and looking up to you
means that they think highly ofyou, you know it's interesting
(20:54):
how all of those those wordskind of you know mean looking up
, physically, looking up youknow, like it's just such an
interesting way of thinkingabout how public speaking helps
you stand out from the crowd andusually tell people it's like
(21:14):
you're never going to be seen asa leader sitting in the
audience.
You are seen as a leader whenyou're on stage.
Speaker 1 (21:22):
So if somebody you know, let's say somebody, is
sitting in the audience rightnow and they're listening to the
show and they're they are thatperson says you know, I've been
in the audience, I feel like Ihave a strong understanding of
my niche or the area that I'mpassionate about.
I'd like to start.
Maybe they don't want to speakright away.
(21:45):
They want to start learning howto public speak more their
programs out there or theirplaces that they can go to to
practice public speaking, or howwould somebody start that
journey off early on?
Speaker 2 (22:00):
And you know I usually talk people through a
process that includes creating afoundation for your expertise.
So you know you don't get askedto speak about being an
entrepreneur if you've never hada successful company.
Speaker 1 (22:15):
You know that's just where it goes you need to
demonstrate that expertise.
Speaker 2 (22:20):
You need to write articles, you need to be a guest
on podcasts, you need to betweeting about things or posting
stuff on your social media.
Writing articles, beinginterviewed by journalists like
these are all things that youcan do to create that foundation
of expertise.
Then you need to think aboutwhat it is you want to be known
(22:46):
for.
What is your brand?
I usually talk to people aboutmy own experience.
I was asked to participate in aTEDx several years ago and I
got this phone call on aThursday afternoon from somebody
I knew who was like.
You know, I'm one of theorganizers of this local TEDx
(23:07):
and we'd like to invite you tobe one of our speakers and, of
course, as a speaker.
The TED and TEDx brands arephenomenal.
Like, of course, I'd bethrilled to.
And when is it Tuesday?
Like, oh no, you know.
Speaker 1 (23:26):
Like, sorry, You're like this week, Like yeah, like
how many days?
Speaker 2 (23:34):
No, and I'm like you know what?
I have this speakers bureau andwe've got thousands of speakers
.
I'm sure somebody is foolish.
I mean ready to step on stageand do a TEDx?
Okay, background TEDs and TEDxtalks You're usually preparing
(23:55):
for three to six months.
You don't do this in five days.
And I went and I did indeedfind five speakers who were
willing to jump on stage withprecious little preparation
Crazy.
And the organizers, you know,when I went back to them on
(24:17):
Saturday with here are fivenames.
You know I'm done, I fulfilledmy obligation.
You're good, right, and theysaid none of these speakers is
what we need.
We need you.
Speaker 1 (24:30):
Oh why?
Speaker 2 (24:31):
You know why me.
And they said well, our themeis innovation.
Speaker 1 (24:41):
Yeah, it's all coming together.
Speaker 2 (24:42):
We're in Boston.
I started something calledinnovation nights that you know,
launched practically everystartup around for 11 years.
I started innovation women.
Ah, now I know why you came tome because my name is synonymous
with innovation in this market.
So you know, you want to becomeknown for something you need to
(25:06):
be thinking about.
What is your brand?
Now overlap.
Think about this as a Venndiagram.
You've got one circle.
That is your area of expertiseand your passions.
The other circle is your brand.
What is it you want to be knownfor?
Where you overlapping?
That is an area that you wantto focus on.
(25:29):
But I'm gonna add one morecircle to the mix.
That circle represents youraudience's needs.
If you are a speaker and you areon stage without consideration
of what your audience needs, youare not doing a good job.
You are not acting in serviceto your audience.
(25:52):
What pain can you solve?
What problem can you solve?
What does your audience want totake away?
It's no coincidence that a lotof calls for speakers will
literally ask anyone applying tocall out and break out.
What are the audience takeaways?
(26:14):
They don't want to hear whatyou want to tell them.
They want to hear things thatthey need.
And if you are delivering whatthey need, yay, you are a good
public speaker.
Good job.
Speaker 1 (26:32):
I love that.
I think a little tip foranybody that is listening that
might just be in the podcastspace.
I will relate this back to thepodcast space.
You've heard me do this acouple of different times
throughout this podcast episodealready.
We've been talking about atopic and then I kind of pause
(26:52):
and say if you were an audiencemember that did this, or you are
hearing this and listening tothis, that is one way that you
can make sure that you arekeeping the audience's needs or
what their takeaways are insideof a podcast format.
You can pause and ask yourguest and say, hey, if an
audience member is listeningright now and this is what they
are experiencing, how would youaddress that?
(27:15):
That's a really easy way todraw them in on that piece.
I think it was.
I want to say it was Les Brown,but he's over quoted for a
whole bunch of different things.
But the quote and I'mparaphrasing here, but the quote
was something around never letwhat you want to say get in the
(27:35):
way of what the audience needsto hear, and I think that that
is a very profoundly impactfulkind of in the same lines of
what you were just saying.
It's very impactful when youswitch that headspace and you
start to realize, oh, I'm herein service of this audience.
You know, they found me.
(27:56):
I have this branding or thisexpertise inside of this market.
I was chosen to come up andgive this speech on this stage,
but the real reason why I'm uphere is to have the audience
walk away with somethingvaluable.
I think that that's such agreat way to look at it.
Speaker 2 (28:12):
When you are doing in-person speaking.
I call this the grab thenotebook moment, when you watch
people just suddenly scramble intheir seats to pull out a phone
, a piece of paper, to writesomething down like oh, that's a
(28:35):
moment.
As a speaker, you touched abutton there.
If they're pulling out theirphone to do their email, you've
got another conversation going.
Speaker 1 (28:47):
Right Right, that has to be such a cool.
You know you say something andthen you realize, oh, this is
hitting.
You know a bunch of people arewriting this down.
I want to rewind just a secondbefore we move into this next
section, because you saidsomething that I want to make
sure everybody understands,because this was also a term
that I was super unfamiliar withwhen I first took your class.
(29:10):
It was call for speakers.
I had no idea what thatactually meant.
Could you just explain whatthat process is as far as how
organizations put out thosecalls and things of that nature?
Absolutely.
Speaker 2 (29:26):
The call for speakers is just one term for it.
You'll sometimes see call forpresentations, call for
proposals, but the most commonis call for speakers and it is
literally the request from aconference, an event or an
organization for people topresent at their events.
And what they're doing is youare, you're applying.
(29:51):
Maybe it's kind of a digitalaudition because you might be
asked to include a video ofyourself speaking.
But most applications thesecalls for speakers are out there
because people want a broadbase of potential speakers.
(30:13):
They want people they might notknow otherwise to apply.
So we have literally thousandsof these things.
People put them out way inadvance of their event.
We actually collect them oninnovation, women for our
members, and we're addinganywhere between 50 and 100
(30:36):
every week.
There is a vast array, so vastI actually have a name for it.
I call it the speakers paradise, and the speakers paradise
reflects all of these amazingopportunities for people who
want to do public speaking.
Thank you.
So the numbers that I usuallythrow around if you look at
(31:02):
things like Eventbrite 4.6million events sold tickets on
Eventbrite last year.
50,000 individual TEDx calls,300,000 meetups every month,
92,000 professionalorganizations in the US alone,
(31:23):
before the pandemic, there was a$37 billion events industry.
Now, of course, you know, oh,bobby, the pandemic, you know,
changed everything.
Yeah, it opened up even moreopportunities Suddenly.
You know.
I mean event managers only hada few options they could cancel
(31:44):
their events, they couldpostpone them somewhat
indefinitely, it felt like, orthey could go virtual and people
rushed to virtual and they madeit so much more common.
You know, we're now seeing somany fantastic hybrid events.
Organizations that before thepandemic may have had a couple
(32:07):
hundred people coming to theirevents regularly were suddenly
opening up online and you'd havethousands of people from
outside their vicinity.
You know, if you're a localChamber of Commerce and, yeah,
you regularly host in-personevents 40, 50, 60 people and
(32:28):
suddenly you put those samespeakers on a virtual stage and
they're interesting and you'republicizing it.
Well, and maybe your network isbroader than you realize.
You might see larger audienceslive and with the recordings.
So just so many moreopportunities than there ever
(32:51):
were.
Speaker 1 (32:53):
I think that was.
That's such a mind opener,because I know a lot of
individuals that I've talked toover the last two years
especially had this kind offeeling of, oh, all the
opportunities dissipated.
With COVID which you know,covid going into your portion,
it kind of there was a periodwhere a lot of things dipped or
(33:18):
maybe reallocated.
Everybody had to pivot.
I mean that word I like.
It makes me sad that I even hadto say it right there because I
tried to make that for myvocabulary.
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (33:30):
There was panic.
Speaker 1 (33:32):
Yeah, yeah, the panic phase and then the okay, pivot
phase and then the we're justused to chaos phase at this
point.
But I think that is a really,really good point, if you're
listening, that there's, there'sorganizations out there that a
bunch of speakers left.
Speakers are coming into themarket constantly.
It's something that is alwaysavailable.
(33:53):
And another thing that youmentioned that was something
super useful for me is beingable to create Google search
alerts for things like call tospeakers.
So there's this feature insideof Google that Bobby showed me.
I have no idea existed prior tothis course.
I'm seriously I had no idea andI would.
(34:14):
The funny thing is working inmarketing and tech and be like,
oh, I should know that Googlehas a feature like this.
Definitely did not, but you canactually go into.
If you just Google Google,create a Google alert, it'll
take you to an FAQ page and youcan go through and actually set
up and say, hey, if they, ifthere is a call for speakers in
(34:35):
my region, it will automaticallynotify you that something like
that came up and then send youthe links with the people that
had posted that item.
So I have it set up for me whereit says call for presenters,
call for presentations and callfor speakers, and once a month I
go through all of the Googlealerts and see if there's any
(34:58):
events that I'm interested inapplying to.
It's something that was areally, really cool automated
thing that I could set up thatnow has given me the chance to.
I haven't spoken at any of themyet, but I have networked with
conference speakers and eventmanagers and things of that
nature.
They know who I am now and youknow in the future, I'm sure
that, as I continue to build mypersonal brand and they continue
(35:20):
to see me, you know being aforward facing advocate for the
things that I chose to anchor on.
It increases the probabilitybecause you're, you know,
forming those deep relationshipswith people.
Speaker 2 (35:32):
Yeah, you become known.
It's one of the things that wedo at innovation women.
We talk to our speakers all thetime about the the beauty of
promotion.
You know, every time you get aspeaking engagement, you should
be promoting it and, by the way,hey, you're helping to promote
the event and maybe put butts inseats, something event managers
(35:56):
love.
So, you know, do that,promoting yourself as a speaker,
help the event managers thatyou're working with and, you
know, become somebody who isknown for a particular topic or
area of expertise.
Speaker 1 (36:14):
I think that that's the, the being able to help out
the event manager is probably areally underrated part of that
process.
So I feel and from somebodythat hosts regular events or
things of that nature I didn'teven think about that.
But the people that I know, ifI send them something, they're
(36:36):
automatically like hey, here'sthis canva design I threw
together.
I'm going to post it Like isthere anybody else that I can
tag?
Like how can I help?
I'm like oh, I love you.
Speaker 2 (36:45):
Well you always want, as a speaker, to not be the
high maintenance speaker.
You know it's like you can be afantastic speaker, but if you're
giving that event manager fitswith demands, with not showing
up on time, running out rightafter you're done, like there's
(37:09):
so many things that you can doto make an event manager's life
hell, don't do it.
Be the speaker they want towork with.
They have many other options.
So you want to be lowmaintenance.
You want to be together.
You want to hit their deadlines.
When you are chosen as aspeaker, it's not you're going
(37:33):
to drop out of sight until theevent.
You're going to have to payattention to deadlines.
Maybe they need your headshot,maybe they need your abstract,
maybe they are choosing you fora keynote and they need to work
with you to make sure that yourpresentation is supporting their
(37:55):
overall theme.
Like a lot of people don't.
Yes, think about the keynote andthe importance of it for
setting the tone for an event.
You are kicking off that eventand, as people file out after
you're done, how are theyfeeling?
(38:16):
What are they set up for?
Are their brains buzzing withideas or are they bored out of
their skulls, like you're theperson that is going to make a
difference at that event.
It is not just I'm first onstage and I get the biggest
audience.
I have a responsibility to thataudience and to that event
(38:38):
manager.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
Yeah, yeah, I love that, and that comes full circle
to what we were talking aboutearlier.
Don't get what you want to sayin the way of what the audience
needs to hear.
However we phrase that earlieron in the episode, I think that
all comes full circle in thatmoment.
It is about service.
At that point, when you're upthere, you are getting the
(39:01):
visibility, you are getting theauthority, you are elevated,
people are looking up to you.
But at the end of the dayyou're especially in that
keynote slot you are responsiblefor really setting the tone and
the energy for that group ofpeople.
Speaker 2 (39:15):
You could also be setting the tone and the
direction for an industry.
Speaker 1 (39:21):
Think about some of these events and, by the way,
there is an event for everyindustry, every topic.
Speaker 2 (39:29):
I get a view of them.
We have literally hundreds atany given day in the innovation
women database.
Sometimes I'm doing a demo andit's like, oh look, let's all go
and speak at the Water ParksAssociation annual event.
That sounds like fun.
Every industry has industryassociations.
(39:53):
They are always looking forspeakers.
They don't need to be, I'mgoing to say, an actual part of
that industry to add value tothat event.
We were doing a conferenceseveral years ago that was an
industrial IOT event Internet ofThings Okay, I'm like you know,
(40:18):
I'm technical kind of but hellobroadcasting degree, and you
know we had, as part of ourlittle schedule of speakers, we
had our own room and we had ourown schedule.
That day, one of our speakerswas incredibly popular, far and
(40:39):
away above any other speaker atthe event, and we had a great
topic salary negotiation.
People are like oh yeah, I wantto see her.
You know, and what did she haveto do with IoT?
Nothing.
But you know there's a salaryor career track going on.
There might be a marketingtrack or an intellectual
(41:02):
property or legal track.
Look for the different tracksthat are associated with your
area of expertise.
It might be that the industryyou come from, the things that
you're doing as a matter ofcourse, maybe they haven't
infiltrated this particularindustry before.
(41:25):
I love that.
Stuff that you're doing could beexotic and special and unusual,
and you're like I do that everyday.
Speaker 1 (41:36):
Yeah, what's with them?
Speaker 2 (41:36):
Wow, you're special.
Speaker 1 (41:40):
Wow, I love that.
I'm not even going to try torephrase that.
I mean, yeah, the things thatyou might find mundane, right,
if you cross over industries andstuff, you could be that
liaison, you could be known asthat person, that crossover
(42:00):
point between those industries.
And this gives back to the areaof expertise you know it's like
what are you known for, what isyour brand?
Speaker 2 (42:13):
What are the things that people bring you in?
Because you're the person thataddresses that.
Let's face it public speaking.
I could speak almost anywhere,any industry.
Public speaking is going to bea topic.
But I will also say that I havedifferentiated myself.
(42:34):
You need to think about that.
Everybody who does publicspeaking could raise their hand
and go well, I can talk aboutpublic speaking.
I'm a public speaker.
So how do I differentiatemyself from them?
Number one I'm very focused ongetting women on stage.
I have a mission.
Number two I don't tend to doas much work on the act of
(43:00):
public speaking.
I tend to do much more work onthe act of public speaking.
I tend to do much more on thebusiness model of public
speaking.
I tend to do more on the act offinding opportunities.
I'm there to get you on stage.
Once you're on stage, you're onyour own.
As far as I'm concerned, that'sactually not true.
(43:22):
I do a lot of training onspeaking as well, but what I'm
talking about is really muchmore focused on the aspects of
public speaking and thediversity and equity and
inclusion of public speaking.
Speaker 1 (43:37):
Right, right, yeah, I definitely think that that is
an important piece to be able tofind that area that you are the
most excited about.
For me recently, in the lastprobably year, it's really been
diving in to neurodivergentpeople, people with ADHD and
(44:00):
others that kind of struggled tofind focus and I ironically
took something that I struggledwith, or thought that I
struggled with, which was focus,but then I invited.
I forget how it exactly pannedout, but I had a friend of mine
that was listening to me talkabout how I structured my day
and she was like that's insane.
Actually, this seems reallyreally like a really really
(44:23):
efficient system.
I was like, oh, I didn't knowif it was like this is survival
for me.
I didn't realize that this waslike something that could be
super useful to people.
So I put together apresentation called Finding
Focus Accomplishing More WhileStressing Less, and she invited
me into her community it's likea community of marketers and
(44:45):
brand strategists and otherthings of that nature and I gave
the presentation thinking thisis just my everyday life, right?
There's no way this could bethat special.
This is like my mundane week byweek.
Here's a screenshot of myGoogle calendar and how I time
box things and I got two offersfrom that one event to come and
speak to other communities forsomething that was super mundane
(45:08):
, and that's something that allspeakers should aspire to.
Speaker 2 (45:13):
When you do a presentation, there should be
somebody in the audience going,ooh, I need that If you're not
getting that.
Number one maybe you're nothitting the presentation out of
the park and you need some work.
Or number two you're notspeaking necessarily to the
right audiences.
So there are two little signalsthat you need to pay attention
(45:37):
to.
If you are not getting eitherreferences or new speaking
engagements from the speakingengagements you do.
Speaker 1 (45:48):
Yeah Well, we're getting close to having to wrap
up our time here and I alwayslike to end well.
First, thanks again for comingand spending time today.
This was.
I know that this episode isgoing to do wonders because we
constantly get questions frompeople around this topic, so I'm
really excited to be able topush this episode out for people
(46:08):
to hear, and I always like toend the episodes with something
that kind of draws us out ofjust like the expertise and
everything and kind of speaks tous as people.
And so it's a question that Ideveloped early on in the
journey of the modernindependent, and it goes
something like this so do youconsider yourself a reader, a
(46:31):
watcher or a listener?
And, depending on which one ofthose three you would pick,
could you recommend a book, apodcast or a YouTube channel
that you just find interesting?
It doesn't have to haveanything to do with public
speaking, it can.
But which one of those three doyou find yourself doing the
most?
And, out of those three, what'ssomething that you find
(46:53):
interesting?
Speaker 2 (46:54):
I'm definitely a reader, always been a reader,
loved to read.
I still have not gotten intomany podcasts Like I will listen
to the radio and listen to NPRand I guess most of the shows on
NPR podcasts as well.
But oh, I'm a reader.
(47:14):
My mom always kids around as alittle kid.
One day I told her that I had adream that I got locked in the
library and she's trying tocomfort me, thinking I was
scared and alone in the dark andI'm like it was awesome.
It was amazing.
Speaker 1 (47:35):
I love that.
Speaker 2 (47:37):
But I think, um, I think one of the things that you
know and I'm going to tie thisback to the stuff that we've
been talking about, publicspeaking and being seen as a
thought leader, being seen as anexpert we do see a lot of
overlap and public speaking withauthorship.
(47:58):
We say 2,500 currently activeinnovation women speakers.
I think we have almost 500books in our bookstore.
And we see a lot of corporationscoming in and they all the grab
a book for everybody.
Remember I talked about theDale Carnegie earlier.
(48:19):
Like that Dale Carnegie book,you know that everybody gets
like it was written in 1930s,like oh my gosh, we're talking
almost 100 years ago at thispoint.
That's crazy.
Let's update what we're givingpeople to read.
(48:39):
You know I just got finishedmyself reading Hold on here.
It is Josh Bernofs new book,build a better business book,
and I think a lot of people theyare writing books, they are
(49:01):
sharing their knowledge becauseit definitely helps your public
speaking career.
You know a really great bookthat becomes the industry
standard for everything thatyou're talking about.
That falls you up to the nextlevel.
I mean, you're literally theperson who wrote the book.
(49:22):
So you know, if you're thinkingabout public speaking, if
you're thinking about how do Ibecome the thought leader, the
expert, the go to authority onmy topic, you might have to be
thinking about a book.
And if it's, not a book it couldbe a podcast series, it could
(49:42):
be a YouTube channel, but youneed to create that foundation
and maybe it's a book.
Speaker 1 (49:53):
So, if you are listening to this and you would
like to get in touch with Bobby,where are some places that
people can find you?
Speaker 2 (50:01):
Oh, I'm very, very Googleable.
Innovation, women, calm kind ofbrings it all together, roger
that.
Speaker 1 (50:10):
So we'll make sure that we link to that in the show
notes for everybody.
So if you're listening to thisand you have been, you know,
listening to a couple ofepisodes of the modern
independent indy collective iskind of catching your eye.
You're looking to start yourindependent career or start your
business, Don't be shy to reachout.
I include my Calimby link and alot of different posts.
(50:30):
You can find our LinkedIn atthe bottom of every show notes.
You can find it on the top ofthe list.
You can find it on the top ofthe list and you can find it on
(50:55):
the top of the list and you canfind it on the top of the list.
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