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!

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!

I’ve been speaking from stage for around 8 years now and within that time I’ve seen some very strange myths about speakers.  

Today, I’m going to dive into them and dismantle them one by one!

Here are four common, and untrue myths.

Myth #1: You have to be educated to become a public speaker.

Although education is a great asset, it is not a requirement to start a speaking career. Although a high educational qualification may appeal to some buyers it all depends on your niche. If your market is highly academic and scholarly, then a good educational background can pull interest from buyers.

On the other hand, most of the market does not demand a highly educated speaker. A lot of speakers do not have college degrees but still earn hefty amounts of money from bookings and selling from stage. In some niches, blue collar speakers with little or no education may possess more mass appeal because the audiences can relate to them. It all depends on the topics and the chosen niche.

Sometimes, to motivate people, a speaker must show that they are human and a lack of higher education may do just that. A speaker can show the audience that even though they are not college educated they have achieved professional and financial success. It is an inspiring premise.

Myth #2: You have to possess the gift of speaking in order to stand up in front of people to speak.

Public speaking is a skill and just like any skill, it can be developed and practiced. There are formulas that anyone can use to create great speeches. All you need is a message and the willingness to deliver that message to your audience. After a few tweaks, revisions, and rehearsals; you can present a knockout speech even without the possessing the “gift of speech”.

Technique and practice are the key factors in improving public speaking skills. If someone dedicates himself or herself enough, anybody can be great.

Myth #3: You have to be different or change who you are to speak.

Many people will often say that a career in public speaking will make you fake, somewhat pretentious and change your personality.

If this is the case, public speaking seems like very hard work but in reality, you do not have to change in order to become a speaker. Great speakers are individuals who stay true to their characters, including their weaknesses and idiosyncrasies. It makes them human.

Myth #4: You have to work hard to be a public speaker.

This can be rather subjective. Yes, it can be hard work if your heart is not into it. Any endeavor without passion is not an easy task. However, if you are really committed to the career and loving it, it won’t matter, will it?

Moreover, once you get the hang of it public speaking will come naturally to you.

I love speaking- and when you love it- it’s easy.  I hope I can share that enthusiasm with you!

What makes a good speech quote?  And should you use quotes in your speech or is that done to death? You’ve probably noticed that people who know how to deliver effective presentation will oftentimes use famous quotes to get their message across.  Why?

Well for one, as Sophocles said:  “A short saying often contains much wisdom.”  So let’s look closely!

Why use quotes in your speech?

There are a few good reasons to use good speech quotes:

1. You increase your credibility by association.  When you use quotes from someone famous or well liked by your audience, you will by association rise in their esteem.  
2. It fills the “I know” factor.  Audience members like to be proven right, rather than wrong.  In fact all people like to be right.  When we see a quote that is familiar to us, or from someone we know we think “I know that” and it makes us feel good inside.  When you’re audience recognize a quote it adds to rapport because people now have another point of similarity and alignment with you.
3. Speech quotes improve recall.  Oftentimes if you teach a point, it may be remembered; but people are much more likely to remember a quote than a basic teaching point. After all as Cesare Pavese  said “We do not remember days; we remember moments.” The same can be said of seminars.  We do not remember points, we remember stories and quotes!

What are good resources for speech quotes?

I usually type the word I want a quote about into google like this “quote: TOPIC” and get great results.   Oftentimes search results will send me to:
www.wisdomquotes.com – easy to browse by topic
www.thinkexist.com
www.brainyquote.com
www.quotesdaddy.com – good search function and looks pretty!

So use lots of quotes.  But remember Horace:
“Whatever advice you give, be brief.”

I believe that one of the best presentation skills you can have is the ability to deliver “effective presentations”. These are the kind of presentation that don’t just inform, but involve, inspire and move people to action.

A core part of moving people to action is that you have to prove and back up your points and arguments.  There are various presentation skills that will support you in this- use testimonials, quotes, stories and so on. But we all know that “STATISTICS DON’T LIE!”

So it’s great to use statistics in your presentations, but this needs to be done with a certain level of skill and aplomb.  Here are some guidelines.

Statistics as a Presentation Skill

1. Do not overwhelm people with all the statistics in one part of your presentation.  There is such a thing as too much data! Try to restrict it to 3 stats at a time, and then some qualitative information, or stories.
2. It’s a good idea to mention the source for data.  We know that the more legitimate your sources are, the more credibility you will have; and therefore the more power your presentation will have.
3. Back up statistics with personal stories or stories of clients that further demonstrate the point your statistics make.  Generalizations are great and can hold power, but people will remember the specifics of stories. 
4. Make any numbers “real life”.  This is one of the best presentation skills you can develop.  For instance you might say “In the year 10,000 B.C., there were only 5 million people sharing 57,268,900 square miles of land- imagine that!  The current population of Sydney spread out over the entire planet!  My how we’ve grown!”

Don’t avoid statistics because you think they may be boring. They can be really influential and quite exciting if used in the right way.  What’s more, when people “see the proof” they are more likely to act! And having people take action is the best presentation skill you can ever learn.