Back at the beginning of January I wrote about a whole load of techniques to break the ice with your audience – but I haven’t actually shown you it in action yet. So I thought I’d show you a little sneak preview of breaking the ice IN ACTION at my Presentation Profits Intensive seminar. Remember – there is one coming up in Melbourne 19th-21st March. Click here to find out more:
Presentation Profits Intensive

• The first few moments when you are up on stage are critical to
  how well your audience receives you.
• There can be a lot of pressure on you to make them feel comfortable quickly otherwise they’ll switch off
• You need to Break the Ice and make them connect with each other.
• There are many ways to do this, and a great way is to get people to get up out of their seats and go and greet five people they have never met like long lost friends.
• It’s a lot of fun and it takes the pressure off you, so you can compose yourself ready to be the awesome speaker that you are!

Making the time to develop your voice increases your ability to emotionally move roomfuls of people and in turn increases your conversion rate.  Public speaking is an area with the potential to make a lot of money so it makes sense to invest time on your voice.  Remember….

Your voice becomes your money-making machinery.

Developing your voice also:
Builds your confidence on and off stage
Having a strong and powerful voice builds and carries your confidence to every member in your audience.

There are two sides to this coin:

1. It’s your voice that will give you away if you’re not confident.
2. A confident voice will cause you to feel more confident in your presentation and in yourself generally.

So with a good strong confident voice you’re going to really make that lasting impression we are after.  It is a positive feedback loop.

It enables you to perform and create whilst on stage

A powerful and flexible voice gives you the ability to create the most incredible moods. These are the moments where it is just you and the audience, hanging on your every word, feeling your every nuance.
Your voice enables you to create a full palette of moods:

• Conspiracy: “shhh- don’t tell anyone but…”
• Expectation:  “when all of a sudden, you would not believe it…”
• Pain: “It was the most heart-wrenching decision I had ever had to make…”
• Elation or hysteria:  “I was stunned, rapt, we were wildly celebrating…”
• Seduction: “As I looked at the options, I could tell there was really no choice but to…”

You name it…with your voice, you can create it.

When you become a master of creating mood in your audience, what happens is you become a master of the emotional journey of your audience.

A salesperson who is in control of the emotional journey of the person in front of them can control the action they take on that journey…and there you have it – “sales” in a nutshell.  This is why sales from public speaking is so powerful.  You’re not just converting one person, you’re converting hundreds!

When you can control the emotional journey of your audience you can control the action they take on that journey.

So, next time you stand on stage with the aim of making sales, why don’t you spend some time focusing on creating mood in your audience and then see what happens when you take them on an emotional journey.  You never know what magic might happen to your conversion rate!

• Every seven minutes you need to elicit a state change in your audience
• It can be with a MASSAGE, a HIGH FIVE or a turn to your neighbour to say something complimentary and fun
• In order to know when to do this you can have a reminder on your autocue or just watch your audience’s faces for that glazed look.
• People can only absorb content for so long before they need a shift in state and since you are ‘leading your audience’ it is your job to
  ‘lead their state’ – otherwise they’ll do it themselves!
• Use state changes to keep your audience alert, focussed, and receptive to your content.

Speaking is a key area in almost every business, be it negotiations, promotions and of course, speaking and selling from stage. 
This makes it ALL THE MORE important to know just how powerful your voice can be. 

Your Voice Is Your Money-Making Machinery.

Understanding this will make you a truly exceptional speaker with the power to move roomfuls of people AND make you huge sales from your public speaking.  If you’ve ever watched any great speaker, the people that stand out in your mind well after the story has ended are those who create a mood in the space. They convey emotions so powerfully that it takes you on the journey with them.
Interestingly, sales are about the emotional journey too. A big part of being a speaker and taking people on an emotional journey is the use of your voice.   An even bigger part of being a speaker is to make sales.

How Improving Your Voice Will Make You More Memorable, Captivating and Entertaining As A Speaker

There are many great and profitable speakers out there who have never considered how improving their voice could benefit their sales, so that’s where you already have a leg up on them!

Whilst your voice is not the most important thing that will directly impact your sales from your public speaking on the day, it WILL directly impact how memorable, captivating and entertaining you are as a speaker…so think of those referrals and the long-term goals of your business!

In other words, WHY should you consider becoming a vocal artist?

The benefits of becoming a vocal artist

• If you learn to protect your voice and rehearse effectively you will have a long and profitable career as a speaker
• Great vocal control builds your confidence on and off stage
• Powerful vocal technique gives you flexibility to perform and create whilst on stage

If speaking is a key element of creating your business, be it promotion, sales or communication, your voice becomes your money-making machinery. If your voice is not in shape then essentially you are losing your uniqueness in the marketplace and losing sales from your public speaking.

Remember, your voice is your money-making machinery, so what can you be doing right now to start caring more for your voice?

The venue and environment you select when doing your presentation is as much a vital part of what you do as everything else.

You want to choose somewhere that supports your message and adds to what you want to achieve. For Example: Don’t choose somewhere dark and gloomy if you have a bright and sunny message.

The place you choose to have your presentation will have it’s own story to tell. Make sure you find out what that story is (if it isn’t obvious) and make sure that it is in alignment with what you will be speaking about.

In order to become a speaker that moves hearts and minds and is memorable, you need to use an element to your language that is unforgettable.

Like Shakespeare did in his plays, if you can use verbs in a powerful way in your presentation, you will find it all comes to life.

This is the same trick that copywriters employ – using active verbs in their copy makes it come to life and its the same in your presentation. Using active verbs in your language engages the audience in a more powerful way.

If there’s one thing I love more than public speaking for sales, it’s helping others speak and sell from stage too

Why Do It, Jo?
 
Many sales professionals never consider the opportunity to do workshops, seminars and presentations in front of the public. If you are one of them, then you are missing a golden opportunity.

Public speaking is my number one strategy in capturing sales from my potential clients. Speaking allows me to get in front of prospective clients and to share my passion with them. It allows me to showcase my knowledge and expertise. Many times, I have secured clients, even before I leave the room.

By speaking on a regular basis, this has allowed me to be in front of hundreds of people at any one time.  Let me ask you a question, “What is your time worth hourly? Maybe it’s worth $50 or a $100 or $200-plus an hour. Will you have a better chance accomplishing that one-on-one or in front of a roomful of potential clients and opportunities?

If you have a cause close to your heart, will you have a better chance of accomplishing this cause one-on-one or in a room with 500+ potential followers?

As a sales person, public speaking is the best way to present your products or your services to a wide audience and it’s one of the most lucrative ways to make money.

Showcase Your Knowledge And Shine!

Getting in front of a group of potential clients speaking allows you to showcase your knowledge and it also allows you to showcase your dreams to a far wider audience.

It gives you tremendous visibility and credibility over time. The more you speak, the greater the chances that over time, people will consider how successful you are, and they will look upon you as the authority in your field.   And in turn, the more sales you will make.

So, why not book your first public speaking gig of the year and get out and there and start to sell?  It’s time to showcase your talents to the world and shine!

What’s the biggest fear people have?

You may be surprised, but the number 1 fear is actually a fear of public speaking.

And it’s ok to be afraid of public speaking!  After all, there’s lots of people feeling exactly the same way!  But I want to look at why it’s so important for you to speak from the stage, not just in terms of your career, but in ALL areas of your life!

So, Why Are Some People So Afraid To Get Up In Front Of An Audience?

In a nutshell, people are afraid of being humiliated in front of others.

What if you get up on stage and bomb?

This fear can manifest itself in many ways – butterflies, sweaty palms, shaking, panicky thoughts, your heart beating extra fast.  All the usual pre-stage nerves.

And ALL of these are quite normal reactions! To this day, I still get nervous about going up on stage BUT I see it as a good thing.   It gives me a burst of energy which often results in a more dynamic presentation.   And remember, if you are feeling nervous or if it’s your first time and you’re afraid you’re going to forget stuff, get permission from the audience to feel that way!   Ask permission to be a bit nervous.  Ask permission to refer to your notes.  Do you think your audience is going to think less of you?

No!  They’re going to be even more on your side because you’ve opened up to them.  Ask permission of your audience from the word go and you’ll be working WITH them.

So, what else can you do to overcome the nerves?

Practice!  Practice!  Practice!

Most people don’t want to hear this, but the best way to conquer a fear of speaking from stage is practice, practice, practice.

Facing any fear head on allows us to control it, rather than let it control us.

Interestingly, our over-reactions to our fears are often just our brain trying to protect us from what it thinks is a threatening situation. Feeling faint is a good way to keep us off a stage, saving us from the threat of humiliation.

But, the more we experience the “threatening” situation without the harm (humiliation), the more we’re able to extinguish that fear.

Start Small

The point is to practice speaking in front of others, and feel successful at it.
 Start with a small audience of people who love and support you.  And then start to stretch yourself with each speaking engagement.

Along the way, you’ll probably find out you’re better than you thought you were……AND you might even enjoy it.

Ruling Your Life, Not The Other Way Round

No fear should rule you!

The ability to get up on stage allows you to get your message out to many more people.  It allows you to touch a roomful of strangers and more importantly, move them to follow the cause close to your heart.  It allows you to build your customer base, multiply your sales and it brings you heaps of confidence.

So, why not start practicing this week?  Even if it’s just speaking in front of a group of friends?  Who knows how much confidence you’ll get from simply standing up and shining your light in the world.

One of the most common excuses I hear from my clients when they are stalling on doing the things they know they should do is “I don’t have the time”.

If you have ever said to yourself “I just don’t have the time to get these things done that I know I should be doing” then you should consider outsourcing.

This has allowed us to grow our business by implementing marketing strategies that we alsways knew we should have, make changes to our web sites that we always knew we should have – all these things that are on the “To Do” list but don’t quite get done you can usually outsource.

There are loads of web sites out there where you can post a job and people will bid to help you with that job.

So whether its help with writing copy, getting your book written or getting your newsletters written – there are so many strategies that you can use as a speaker to draw more attention to your business and build a relationship with your list that you don’t necessarily need to do yourself.

Some Outsourcing sites I recommend are:

• www.Rentacoder.com
• www.Elance.com
• www.Odesk.com