Episode 62 Transcript

Heather 

Welcome to episode 62. Now, let's go back in time just a little. Think back to what you did before you started your business. What was it? Did you always have a business? Did you work in a day job, so to speak? What was it? And whatever that was, has it carried into what you do now?

 

With that question for me, how I would answer that is my previous life was running events. And events have over the years translated from running them into being involved still, mostly from a speaker perspective. So back before I started working in digital marketing, I actually used to run them. And my very first business, when I was still in university studying, international business was called 911 Art in the States. 911 means emergency, right? So my boyfriend at the time and I had this little company and we would do art, fashion and music events all around San Diego. And from there, I started working for Tony Robbins, the inspirational speaker. And while I was running those events, so I was doing the art, fashion, music stuff, nightclubs, all that sort of stuff.

 

Then I was also working for Tony Robbins. Started in IT, but very quickly moved into events, event production for him. And then after that, as I moved over into Australia, I still was working with speakers and started a new thing with one of the speakers called the Billionaire Adventure Club and in that club, we, guess what? It was events. We took speakers and entrepreneurs all over the world to developing countries and

 

There is sort of aspects of, you know, conference element and adventures and all the travel, cool things that you do in those countries. So back then I was responsible for the event from a logistical perspective. And I was also responsible for the speakers. And now what's interesting is I'm now a speaker myself. And I never actually thought I would be one ever, ever. I just always thought I'd run events and do that, do my thing and then eventually kind of got into my business and, um, but never really thought or saw myself as a speaker, which I still don't like, I guess that's not my identity, so to speak, but it is definitely something I do and I do a lot. So recently, well not even recently, gosh, I think I've been speaking now for around 12 years, maybe a little bit more. Uh, so I do what we call, you know, in the speaker world, keynotes, right? Where you're hired, you're given a speaker fee and you show up and you do anywhere from like a 45 minute to a 90 minute session.

 

And you guys would have heard in the recent episodes, me talking about going to Gold Coast and doing the B exponential event. So I was hired speaker for that. And I'm actually speaking tomorrow, as the time of me recording this, when you listen to this, it probably would have happened yesterday, but speaking tomorrow at the Australian Traditional Medicine Society. So there's gonna be a whole bunch of practitioners that are gonna come in. That session for me is an hour.

 

I've done MC work as well. So I was an MC three times recently, one for a large event for the entourage, one they do like around Australia, they train, they have like entrepreneurial training programs to help you scale and grow a business. I was an MC at a local council event, like a government council event. Was also an MC for a cybersecurity event, which was really interesting. So done that.

 

trainer for Metta, AKA Facebook, really only do a few events a year for them. But that's still pretty cool. You know, actually stand up, speak live sometimes for four hours at those events. Teach at the University of Sydney Center for Continuing Education, a little bit different, not as big as audiences as sort of being a keynote, it's more just a classroom setting. And then I'm a mentor as well, where I show up sort of roundtable events. And that's more like a table of 12 to, you know, sometimes up to high 20s, 30 people, still I'm standing up and speaking to them, right? So all of us to say, so it's just been a really interesting, I guess, sort of journey from running these huge events and suddenly I, I come from them now as the perspective of, I know what it's like to put an event together, but also be a speaker. So if you're looking to speak more, or you know, if you're already speaking, maybe some of these tips can help. I just was thinking like, because I'm speaking a lot right now, I was thinking of all the things that I do when I speak and I was thinking, well, you know what? Maybe I'll just share it with you guys. And after all, speaking is such a great leverage point in your business, right? I mean, if you think about it, you're in a room, you're on a stage and you have a whole bunch of people paying attention to you and your message. So it's a huge leverage point. And I thought really great tie into the hustle rebellion and just working smarter whenever you can have access to somebody else's tribe or you're on their platform and you're speaking to their people, it's such a great opportunity. 

 

So you guys ready? Well, I'm going to tell you about the 10 things that I've learned as a speaker. And maybe I come from a slightly different perspective as well with a couple of these, because I also was the organizer of speakers in the past as well. So in no particular order, here are my 10 things that I have put together that I have learned as a speaker.

 

And number one is, this definitely comes from my past organizing events, treat your event team really, really well. So important from, if you think of the event team, you not only have the venue manager, but you have the audio visual team who's there, they mic you up, they manage the screens, they manage your PowerPoint, all your presentations, all the music, all the lighting, all that sort of stuff. There's the catering team.

 

There's a huge amount of people that come together for your event to make it happen. And also of course there's the organizers, right? Of the event, the person that puts the thing together. So to give you an example, tomorrow, yes tomorrow, I am actually going to go and help a friend of mine stepping back into the event manager role. She is organizing a massive hair awards event here in Sydney. So lots of hairdressers and people in the hair space are coming together in the star casino in Sydney and they're doing this huge award ceremony. And there's so much going on that the audio visual team were telling my friend Ellie, look, we've done a lot of big events here over the years. And this is actually one of the most complicated. So I said to Ellie, you know, that we, we need, like the whole thing is tied on this AB team.

 

The audiovisuals are so important to make this thing come off without a hitch, right? You have your each award that goes up, you have like a reel or, you know, a video plane, you have fancy lights happening, you have to fade in and out of the MCs and then the people receiving the award. There's so much happening very, very fast. Think about the Oscars or Logies or something like that, right? It's a lot happening. So with all that said, actually, these guys, I think, did say they did the Logies one year here. It's like an award ceremony in Australia.

 

They were saying, this is probably more complicated than that. So I spoke to LA and said, we need to take care of these, the AB team, you know, we really need to love on them. So what we're going to do is get them, um, like a Dan Murphy's gift card, which is just, you know, it gets, go to get alcohol, um, and thank handwritten, thank you cards. And that's something I learned way back from doing the events with Tony Robbins. So like just the power of a little gift or gift card or handwritten thank you card, people just don't tend to do that anymore. So that's an amazing thing to do. Definitely, you know, just thanking the organizers as well, taking time to thank them. Oftentimes they'll organize a speaker gift, but I really like to thank them from stage because they put in such a huge effort. So your team is everything, right? And we talk, all the people I've interviewed over all these episodes, it keeps coming up over and over and over again. Your team, your team, take care of your team. Your team is everything. 

 

So that goes without saying that even though these group of people may be only working with you for an hour or a day, you want to make sure that they're really, really well supported. Number two, another thing I've learned as a speaker is to definitely be yourself, but amplify it. So when I was working with Tony Robbins and some of these speakers, I can't tell you how many times people would be like, I'm going to be the next Tony Robbins. And I'm like, no, just be you. So

 

Very few people can probably be a Tony Robbins kind of persona on stage. So you just want to be you. If you're funny, be funny. Don't try and be funny if you're not, you know, like, are you quirky? Like what, who are you take who that is, get on stage and amplify it. And because the thing I guess I've learned over the years is that, you know, you're, you're on this huge stage. You have to bring a lot of energy to make people pay attention to you and be interested in what you're having to say. 

 

So you have to get bigger, bigger gestures with your arms, bigger steps across the stage, owning that space. Number three is using metaphors and stories. So metaphors, of course, we all know them. It's like, I know one of the ones that comes up sometimes I've used is your there was a mall, I think it was like a shopping mall in Southern California, and they had a leak and they couldn't work out where the leak was happening and it was hindering the businesses and it started getting pretty bad and they were like what do we do what do we do and they called an emergency plumber and the plumber came in did something that took him five minutes and charged like 1500 dollars and they're like that's a lot of money for a five-minute thing and he's like yeah it took me 25 years to do that five minutes so it's

 

Like that's a metaphor, right? So you're, you're sort of talking about in that case, the power of expertise and knowledge and wisdom. Um, but metaphors work really well storytelling, of course, anytime you can tell stories, which is why I do that on this podcast a lot, whenever I can, um, it's powerful. Like we, we tend to relate with stories and learn through stories. So that's number three. Number four is use silence or slow down to make a point.

 

Vary your voice. Get really excited, really excited and powerful, but then stop and make a point. Changing your voice tonality and the variation is what gets people to lean in and pay attention to important things that you wanna say. That's another one. Next, we have number five, manage the audience's energy. This is so important and sometimes I forget to do this and then I'm like, ooh, that wasn't good. I should have done that better.

 

So if you notice that the audience's energy is dropping, you've got to do something. So sometimes I will literally stop in the middle of what I'm saying and say, guys, up on your feet right now, let's just do a quick little stretch, especially after lunch. If I speak after lunch and everyone comes in, they get the lunch slump, and it's so hard as a speaker to see this by the way. So if you ever come in and you're learning from somebody on stage and you come in after lunch, pay special attention to trying to sit up straight.

 

Because people will literally fall asleep in the audience. So after lunch slump, and I will get people actually stand up. I'll go stand up and they're actually very grateful because half of them, their eyes are starting to close and stuff. Not to say I'm boring, but just because you know, your metabolism and all that stuff that happens. So you gotta manage them, get them on their feet. Sometimes I'll stop teaching and I'll start asking them questions.

 

Or I'll get one of them to weigh in and we'll do like a little case study or a little on the spot coaching. But managing the audience's energy is really important to keep them in there for the long term. Next, number six is get the audience involved as well. So I like to ask lots of questions. Guys, buy a show of hands. And then I put my hand up to show them what I'm looking for. By show of hands, how many of you have done this or this? And then I acknowledge them every step of the way. 

 

That's amazing or wow, that's great that you're here and you've done that thing. So lots of questions, raising their hands. And again, it's part of the managing of their audience, of the audience's energy. You can also do like live coaching with them. So, Hey, does anyone want to share something that they've done? Oh, that's great. Let's, let's like unpack that. Let's have a little chat about that. Does anyone else feel like that? You're constantly getting people engaged in that way. It's important. Number seven is less is more on your slides. Less is more.

 

The more text you have on a slide, the more the audience just stares and reads and stops paying attention to what you're saying. They completely tune out of what you're saying. So you want to use images and tell stories or if you do have a few bullet points, make sure they're trend like you have them one on the slide or you have them animated in one at a time. And then it should be short and then you want to talk to that point. So that's another one you want to get them invested in.

 

what you're doing on the stage rather than just sitting there reading a boring slide deck. That's very important as well. Next we have, let's see, number eight, use stories and examples your audience can relate to. So I said stories before, but what I mean by this is get to know who's in the room. Get to know who's in the room. So if you tend to have a slide deck or a presentation and you're using a certain story or certain metaphor that is your kind of go-to, but suddenly like tomorrow, for example, I'm speaking to practitioners, right? So natural medicine practitioners, like we're talking naturopaths and Cairo and Rolfine is one of them and like a whole range of people, right? And so what I did is I've taken certain stories that I tell and I've completely catered it to them so they can relate.

 

So important to ask, you know, in advance, who's going to be in the room. And that's also why I pull people in the room and say, who's done this or who's done this, and I switch my stories and what I'm teaching to support them. Uh, so that's another thing. Number nine, use music lights and video when you can. Now, if you're speaking in front of 10 people, maybe not so much music for sure. But if you have the ability to, to bring in those elements, like it's great fun. Like it just hypes the audience up and it keeps their energy high and interested as well. And especially if you can find a video that relates to what you're talking about, embed that in your slide deck, play it on the screen. Um, we all like to watch videos. So that's another one. And last point is to do your best to leave people on a high, help them to feel acknowledged, heard, hopeful, not overwhelmed, excited, you know, when they leave what you're saying to them. They remember the experience and the emotions that they felt and not necessarily what they have learned. 

 

Think about the last time you have been to a conference. Think about what you took away from that. Might've been like the cool menu or the amazing people that you met, or maybe it was like something about a speaker, the way they dressed or how you felt around them, right? You tend to not really remember a huge amount of actually what you learned, unfortunately. So try your best to make that happen. I remember I had this woman approach me a couple of years after she heard me speak at an event. That was a big one too. I think there were like 800 people in the room with that one. And I was telling kind of a story of motivation and hope. And she came up to me two years later. She said, you know, I heard you speak two years ago and you inspired me so much that I was about to give up on my business and I kept going as a result of being there. And I don't even remember what I said but it was some sort of story. She said there's a story that you told and it just stuck with me and completely changed everything. So leave people on a high, motivate them, inspire them. I hope that gives you guys just some ideas or some insights on how to craft a presentation that will really, really impress your audience. And even if you've never wanted to be a speaker, you can always learn from using this information in other ways in your business as well. Maybe it's around how you work with your team or your customers. Well that's it for this episode. Thank you so much for tuning in as always and until next time enjoy your week. And I actually mean it you guys, I mean it. Enjoy your week. How are you going to go out there and have more fun? And if you're going through a really hard stressful crazy time how can you just take a moment to hopefully enjoy the growth that's happening in your business. Thanks you guys, talk to you soon. Bye!