While being an expert in your field is obviously a huge feather in your cap, it can count for nothing if you’re not effectively getting your message out there to the people who matter. And one of the best ways to do that is by speaking.
Dylis: Hi there this is Dylis Guyan and welcome to the Inspired Selling Podcast, the place where business owners who sell to bigger businesses or want to, discover how to attract, convert and retain more of their ideal clients. And as always, I’ve got a magnificent guest for you today who’s going to be talking to us about how to use speaking as part of your marketing strategy. And our speaker today is Kelly Tyler. So just before we get started, let me tell you a little bit about Kelly. Now she is an expert positioning specialist. Now how fantastic is that? That means she will help you position yourself as the expert.
Kelly: Yeah I’m not a Yoga instructor.
Dylis: No, and Kelly has a background in psychology, publishing and marketing and is passionate about supporting others to reach their full potential and to spread their message. And her career path has been really brilliant. It’s included everything from educational psychology, nutrition, and a business advisor to publishing as a speaker/agent and a marketing director. And both her network and expertise have been developed through her role as marketing director in a variety of companies and she continues to grow her passion through positioning, marketing and supporting authors and speakers with a publishing company Conch Press, her speaker agency Stellar Speakers, and as a marketing consultant at Speaker Insight. Now don’t I just bring you the best. Kelly welcome.
Kelly: Sounds like I’m a Jack of all trades doesn’t it really?
Dylis: You’re marvellous. I couldn’t have had anyone better to interview with regards to speaking. Now what you didn’t mention is that you’ve got a Facebook group called the Connection Hub. I have to tell you people this is…well, I’m not even going to say one of the best. It’s the best Facebook group that I’ve ever been part of. The value that you get from there is just amazing. As I mentioned, Kelly and her partner in that group Helena really look after us book authors and coaches and speaking is a big part of that of course and how to, how to make that part of your marketing activity. So before we get into that, Kelly, just share us your backgrounds so that we’ve got context of who you are and how you’ve got to where you are today.
Kelly: Well there’s not much more to say after that introduction is there really. I think the key bit, and knowing your audience, because, my avatar, which is probably the only jargon word I’ll say on this podcast today, and that just means my ideal client, the people that I love to work with and the people that I love to serve, are speakers, authors and coaches. So I know that your, your avatar normally the B2B customers, right? So there might be some crossover, you might have some coaches and you might have some speakers in there.
But I think the activities that these people that I work with monetise, and can help market themselves can be transferable to your audience; the activities that they do. And my passion really is to help anyone who’s got a message out there, especially thought leaders and change agents, help them maximise their reach, help position themselves to be known as the go to person or known as how your company can stand out against all the competitors and then help automate a streamline business so that you can actually reach a bigger capacity. You don’t end up burnt out, overwhelmed and you know with your techniques Dylis of them learning your sales techniques, they’re going to convert, convert, convert so I’d love for them to understand how their business foundations can help bring those customers in and maybe utilize some of their products so that they’ve got more capacity.
So that’s my, my, you know, knowing and understanding how the mind works way, way back in the days of being a psychologist. So then representing authors and knowing what they need to do to get their book out there more to then going actually, speakers are the people that have got the bigger message. So that’s when I set this speaker agency up and then going, yeah but these speakers have got their message but they don’t have any solid marketing foundations. So that’s where my final company, Speaker Insight, is the consultancy for that. So it does all sound a bit jumbled, but there is a core theme of working with leaders along the way.
Dylis: There absolutely is and you’ve really hit on a key point there Kelly, in terms of these authors and speakers and coaches and so on, haven’t got that marketing foundation to be able to get their message out. And I see this so many, many times that people, they’ve got massive expertise in what they do, but they haven’t got the expertise to bring in clients on a consistent basis and it’s such a tragic situation when you’ve got all of that skill, all of that knowledge, and the passion, but you just can’t get your message out in a big way.
Kelly: It breaks my heart. You can see the potential in somebody and then such an impact and just a small sphere of people that you go, the marketing is the thing that’s going to amplify that, that’s going to get you seen by more people. And I think that’s what they say, isn’t it? Isn’t it that daddy long legs is one of the most poisonous insects out there, but it’s got no fangs to actually inject anyone with a poison. It’s the same thing, right? These people are full of potential, but they’re not actually reaching out. They may actually get quite despondent and stuff. Is it the fact that I’m not that good and they get imposter syndrome, and then they go I’m going to retract from doing more. So it’s a bit of a vicious circle. But marketing is the key thing.
Dylis: Yeah and I talk about these people being the best kept secret and that they need to expose themselves metaphorically speaking.
Kelly: Yeah you don’t want that type of media attention.
Dylis: No of course metaphorically speaking was the key. Yeah, so when we talk about speaking as a part of our overall marketing strategy, just expand on that Kelly, what do we mean?
Kelly: Okay so there are two types of speaking as you would class it. The first type which is what most people associate with other the professional speakers out there. So they would be the people that I would manage where their sole job is to speak for a living. So they’d be doing keynotes around the world getting paid to up to 10k a keynote because they’re the go to expert, but that also professionally trained in speaking. So they get paid those fees because they’re really bloody good at what they do, right. So most of your audience aren’t going to be in that category. That’s what most people think speaking is. So they discount the act or the activity that it’s not for them. What we’ve seen probably more over the last five years is that you can take control and be a speaker without charging that fee or even having that professional training because what’s happening is this, the entrepreneur movement that’s out there is that there’s lots of stages appearing where you can actually be on other people’s stages to be more of a representative for your company or your product rather than actually be really, you know great at speaking and being inspirational.
So what you can do is you can use speaking on stages to be more of a marketing position because I know a lot of your people are going to be people in sales roles. So one of the key things they are going to say is get me in front of somebody and my conversion ratio goes high, right. I don’t like all this online email, nurture, blah, blah, blah. I could convert better when I’ve got someone in front of me. My question to you is, well lets get hundreds of people in front of you because your conversion ratio is going to stay really high because you’ve got that ability to interact, your negotiation skills, your charisma, they’re going to feel that, and they’re going to really engage and then you’re going to convert. But you’re going to have a hundred people in your audience.
Dylis: Yes, yes.
Kelly: This is when you can use the stages to your advantage because if you’re in sales or you’ve got that role, you’ve got the gift of the Gab. People love to listen to you and your conversion ratio would be so high when you’re in person. So I want people to think, well, hang on a minute, I can do this without being professionally trained. I’m not saying you’ll be a complete amateur, but people can use speaking on stages as lead generation, they can sell something. So there might be the fact that you might be an author, you might be selling books or products at the back of the room, but it’s mainly the fact that you can have that direct experience. People can feel you and get to know you on a mass scale in a short space of time.
So don’t feel…that’s my main point. Don’t feel that you have to be a professional speaker to start speaking. We are talking about things like this, right? You have to step up your game. Speaking could be podcasts, webinars, Facebook lives, LinkedIn lives, speaking doesn’t always have to be on metaphorical stages. But we need to think about well what’s the messages that you can get out there? What’s the things that you’re going to be known to as the go-to person? What’s the real insight in your industry that you can give to other…your peers or your insight into the whole industry as a whole to then be known by expos to be introduced to represent your company.
Dylis: Yeah. You know, I’ve got a great example of that in terms of one of my clients as my son-in-law actually. And he was a solicitor, he still is a solicitor actually, and deals in consumer credit, dry as sticks. But actually for someone in that industry, he’s got a fabulous personality. Anyway…
Kelly: It’s rare right.
Dylis: Yeah but he was selling to other businesses, which many of my audience is they’re not necessarily sales people employed but business owners who are selling to other businesses. Anyway, so one of the partners said to Ian, “We’d like you to be the business development manager as well as a specialist in consumer credit. Well, honestly, he nearly wet his pants and I’m saying that kindly, right. But he came to me and he said, “Oh gosh Dylis.” He said, “You know, I’m good at what I do.” And he is, he’s got like a brain like a planet and he’s got a photographic memory and he’s brilliant at what he does. He said, “I’m great at that,” but he said, “I’m not brilliant at business development and bringing in clients.”
I said “Well look come every week.” So he used to come every Thursday after work and I used to work with him to take him through the process of how to bring in clients. So we looked at, first of all, of course, his ideal client and then where to find them. One of the places was conferences because he was selling to financial industries; the work that he was doing in consumer credit was high end with these financial companies. He didn’t have the first clue how to, how to put a speaking program together, you know. So we did all of that and then he used to come and practice and he practiced with my husband. So he started speaking. So his strategy was speaking, LinkedIn, LinkedIn groups, putting in white papers and so on but speaking was this thing because he was speaking to dozens of people, ideal clients at these conferences.
So he started getting business, now they had said originally, if you do this, we’ll give you a bonus and if you do this we’ll give you a car as well. Well he actually ended up bringing in so much business, they made him an equity partner. He’s not even 40.
Kelly: Wow and he wouldn’t have done that if he hadn’t married into the most amazing family in the world would he!
Dylis: Exactly! But I’m just kind of reemphasising what you said in terms of getting out there and being seen in front of many, as you said, whether it’s podcasts, whether it’s webinar, whether it’s LinkedIn live, Facebook live or a real stage, and that catapulted him. He is now one of the top six sought after consumer credit experts.
Kelly: I love that and I think, you know, it doesn’t always have to be those massive stages. So say for example I work with quite a lot of CEO forums so when you’re talking about B2B, what you might want, is say for example, there’s normally about 8-15 CEOs in a room and you’re actually doing more of a three hour workshop on what you’re doing. Now that gives you exposure to the decision makers in other companies and actually those CEO forums you probably only get paid about £700-1,000 per gig. But what happens is, is the resulting business that happens afterwards because you basically showcase what you can do for them in the room and they’ve gone, “Yeah, that’s great. I’m going to take you back to my SLT. We’ve got a 90 day program its 40 grands worth of work, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Come in afterwards.”
So again, it’s not always loads of people, even though that might be your reason to get massive exposure, but it can also be that, let me…how do I get in front of my ideal clients so they can get to know me, get to experience what I do, and also build those relationships that are sometimes quite hard to open those doors.
Dylis: Yeah because it’s easy when you’re speaking to have a call to action at the end for people to find out more. It’s just so natural. It’s such a natural flow, isn’t it?
Kelly: And that’s really the exchange of your time. So when you’re a paid speaker, yes you get paid to be on stage, but there’s no way you can ever do any lead Gen because you’ve just been paid 10k for that keynote, right. If you start putting anything up “And join my blah, blah, blah.” the organisation will be like, you’ve been paid for this. So when you’re actually on expo stages or conferences where maybe you’ve not been paid but you want the exposure the exchange of your time is that. It’s to offer something, it’s to build that relationship it’s to sell a product, whatever it might be so that you are getting…I don’t want people just to be going around and spending all their time speaking for free and not getting anything back for it. That’s a trap that a lot of people go down because it’s a little bit like PR when people get a bit like, “Oh here you go, on this stage, on this stage. I’m like, yeah but what’s the point? You can’t sell. You can’t promote, you can’t do anything, you’re just on people’s stages, which is not a good place…a good way to spend your time.
Dylis: Yeah, and I’ve done loads of free speaking gigs and got loads of clients from that. It’s about the strategy, isn’t it?
Kelly: Always about the strategy Dylis.
Dylis: It’s good if you’ve got a strategy, but that this doesn’t just become another tactic.
Kelly: Yes.
Dylis: That you’ve strategically organised it in such a way that it does lead to business. And this isn’t about being self-satisfied either. It’s about spreading your expertise to help others to achieve what they want to achieve.
Kelly: Yup, it’s a win, win, win, which is what we always go for, right.
Dylis: Yes. Yeah. Absolutely.
Kelly: We don’t want it to be a tactic, we don’t want it to be another thing that you’ve got on your to do list because you feel you have to. I know you’re similar to me Dylis on measuring everything. Look at your conversions. It might be that your great at converting one to one but actually on stage your conversion’s low, so then don’t do it, right. It might be that you get more from podcasts or whatever. You have to have a way of tracking what’s working in your business. Then if you do have a high conversion, then set yourself targets. Go, I want to speak on one stage a month. And then you’d know that a certain amount of your clients and prospects are going to come from that and you know your conversion ratios, right. So it’s always a strategy.
Dylis: Always absolutely. Yet you and I know that there are so many who haven’t got a strategy and they’re just jumping from one….
Kelly: They’re being overwhelmed.
Dylis: Yeah and then they’re frustrated and then all of those things that you were talking about before in terms of you know the self-sabotage and am I good enough and you go down that spiral. So before you start and give us the top tips, give us some of the benefits of speaking and why people should consider that as part of their strategy.
Kelly: Let’s think about it. A lot of the time I say to people to do the marketing as like the free gigs as such on shared stages. If that they do have an inkling that maybe one day they want to become the expert and they want to start charging and become a professional speaker if you want that, we need footage, right. I’m a speaker agent, so I managed professional speakers. If you applied, I’d want to see a show reel, I want to see you on at least three different stages of different size audiences. I want to know your key messages. I want to know your results.
So that all gets highlighted in a two to three minutes show reel but obviously before that. You need to have recorded footage to put that show reel together. So that might be something you want do or it could be, you know, positioning you as the expert showing you on stage on your website, on your about page. Again, you want the recorded footage to pull out those key messages so that people can actually get a shot. Because being onstage, I sort of associate it like this; being onstage is a bit like walking around with a clipboard. You’re seen as a really important person, right? Because the person has got the clipboard, right? But actually being on a stage already helps position you as okay, that person’s earned the right to get on that stage, whatever they’ve done. So therefore they have already got some sort of credibility that gives me the right to say they’ve got something that I should listen to.
Just that whole perception of being on a stage gives you a sense of authority, however you’re going to use that. So it’s not going to be harmful at all. Just choose the stages that you’re on because I’m sure you talk about brand and values and reputation. You want to be associated with the people that you know, your clients know, like and trust. So for example, you know you want to be seen on industry stages that are in the financial sector for example, like you were saying, therefore they can see the brand, they can say, “Oh my God, they’ve been endorsed by you know, St James’s Place Wealth Management. They’re really good places I already trust them.”
All these things are subconscious that are going on when people see footage of you on stage or you actually on that stage. The other thing is that whole, you’re doing it to promote your business to masses and to gain leads of your ideal clients. So those people that you’ve had in the audience, you’ve captivated them, right. Now, I’m not saying that they’re instantly going to sign up to your product. I think this is a bit of a side-line, but I think a lot of your, your audience might do trade shows. So there might be people that actually buy booths at expos. I’m just going to divert around here because this is something, there’s a bit of my, I get on my soapbox.
So people say to me, okay I spent four grand on a one by one stand at this expo. I’m going to sell this. And I just go first of all that’s the biggest mistake. The reason to have a stand at expos is Lead Gen. The reason to speak at these conferences and expos is Lead Gen. It is not to sell your product. So if you’re working out conversions, I need to sell five of these in order to get my stand price back. You’ve already, you know, that’s not going to happen. You’ve got to be really enticing to the audience, this is whether you’re onstage or in a booth, capture their attention to knowing what their pain points are or their desires. So your language your call out language, the title of your keynote, the messages around your booth are going to hit that person cause they, they’re normally going…you’ve got people that go just to the free pens and then you go for the people cause they’re actually looking for services.
You’re going to hit them with that, what’s going on in their subliminal messages at the moment. Then you’re going to engage with them because the way that you talk to them at the booth or the way that you talk to them on stage, is going to demonstrate your expertise, your experience, your qualification, the results you get, the recipe, how you work differently. All those things need to be demonstrated in the conversation or the keynote. Adding value, giving them tips so that they go, “Oh my God, this person really knows their stuff.” And then you go the next stage, which is not a sale because they’re still not going to be ready after a half an hour keynote or a 10 minute chat at a booth to spend thousands of pounds with you.
So you need to go, I want your information, or I want to continue this conversation after this keynote or in this booth, so what can I give you that you’re going to feel okay to give me your first name and your email address for. Normally it’s something like a quiz, an assessment, a report, a white paper all those things that you were saying before that gave your son in law credibility. You go “Do you want to read this further? Do you want to find out what’s running in your business? Do you want to blah, blah, blah. Give it here, there’s my email address in exchange for that.” And then your job is then to nurture them via email, via your communities, via all the things…
Dylis: Or a phone call Kelly, via a phone call.
Kelly: What is this thing, I thought it was just there to take pictures with, right? It’s revolutionary, right? Pick up the phone. So they’re the things that you want to get that information, you want to get that phone number, you want to get that, you’ve made them have that exploration call and say, and then you then know what your conversion ratios after you’ve sent them this amount of emails, follow up calls, blah, blah, blah. That’s where the conversion happens. It’s like those virtual cups of coffee that happen after the event.
So your job is actually to just really wow people to go that person. You know…the reason what you want to do on stage for speaking is emotionally connect with your audience. And you were just saying there about the fact that he was a data analyst and he could go onstage and talk numbers, but actually I want him to do that with character, with personality, with stories, right? You are the perfect example of how somebody can bring, I’m not saying sales is dull, but you bring it to life with your stories. You are the storyteller in the sales field. So people just sit there. I’ve seen them, they go “Oh Dylis Give us another story.” They’re getting the information, right? They understand it is contextualising it’s bringing it to their life. It’s not just dry. These your top 10 sales strategies. That’s what you can do with any, any information as a speaker is bring yourself into it.
You are representative of your company even if you’re not the CEO, you are your company. You’ve got the reason why you set it up, you’ve got the reason why you’re in this role, you’ve got the company’s vision and purpose. Bring that into it as well as the information of what you’re trying to say. That’s when, especially at…believe me, I’ve been to lots of industry conferences and they’re quite dry. If somebody comes up on stage with a bit of energy and a bit of personality they’re already standing out, they’re already memorable. They already got people coming up to them afterwards going “I love that how can we hear more?” So it’s your way of reaching those people and so that’s probably what I would say would be the main key benefits for people.
Dylis: Yeah, exactly. Just another thing that works really well for me and yes I am a storyteller and I can’t help myself. Even when I’m working with a group of people and I go have I got time to share this story and they go, “Please do. Please do.” Because a part of what I talked about, in fact at the end of my keynote, I talk about that one of the challenges or the biggest mistakes I see is that people are involved in random tactics and they don’t have a strategy so I tell stories around that and so on, so forth. So I have…my call to action is if you would like to have a free business strategy call with me, please…and actually I put a little…it’s only an A4. I mean it’s as crude as you like really just saying if you liked this strategy session, name, email and telephone number and then we have a 30 minute strategy call just looking at where their strategy is and where their challenges are and then a position that I can help them. There’s no pushy…
Kelly: There’s no sale highlighted that they’ve got a problem, and then all your doing is going now you know you haven’t got a strategy and you’re running around like a headless chicken doing tactics come talk to me, I’ll help you define your strategy, you’ll get something from that call to give you some foundations. Then if you want to continue working with me, then great. If you want to go and do it yourself, then great as well. But you’re solving the problem. It’s not a hard sale.
Dylis: Yeah, and do you know what, many times I talk about selling and people go, “Oh, I don’t want to be seen to be selling. Well, first of all, we’re all selling all of the time but good selling is not about pushy, sleazy horrible tactics it’s about being customer focused and really genuinely caring about that prospective client and helping them to go from where they are now to where they want to be. Whether it’s solving problems, whether it’s achieving an objective, whatever it is. When your customer focused and when you are really immersed truly, and I mean truly not in the back of your mind, “Oh, I hope I get them to sign up. No, this is about how can I help them to achieve their objectives, solve their problems and so on. And the sales will come.
Kelly: Of course.
Dylis: You have to ask, you know, you have to close, are you happy to go ahead?
Kelly: It only feels hard when there’s a mismatch. If you’re trying to sell a bunch of flowers to a car mechanic unless he’s messed up in his marriage that day or something then generally they’re not things that you’re going to match right? So that’s when it feels like hard work you have to know your avatar what they want, where they hang out, you know, all those things that they need and know that your service and your product is a real nice marry for them.
Dylis: And also I think it’s worth remembering that not everybody’s ready to buy right now. So you know, even if you’ve got that marrying up of person and product or service, if it’s not the right time…if you launch into talking about yourself, your company or your product or service, it’s just a big turn off. And people go, ah, no, it’s not this hard sell.
Kelly: Everyone says that, they say it’s all the, you know, sex on the first date or marriage on the first date kind of arrangement. Everyone uses that analogy. That’s why I say it’s really important for people not always make the sale at the expo get the stamp just the lead is just asking am I the right match. Let’s go for coffee? Let’s have some more chats.
Dylis: Yeah, exactly. So let’s have a look…give us your three top tips then Kelly, for being a really great speaker, not necessarily a professional speaker, but as a person who wants to use it as part of their marketing strategy to generate connections and leads that can lead to them making a purchase.
Kelly: So I think we’ve sort of touched on the first one.
Dylis: Yeah we have.
Kelly: It’s always going to be my thing, it’s know your Avatar, know your ideal client because when you know that you can be focused on stage on your audience rather than you. It’s the same as those conversations we were just having about is that genuine care. Also when you know your audience like the back of your hand, I always get this feedback when I do speakings “Have you got surveillance cameras in my house because I had that conversation with my husband last night.” Or “I was googling that on my internet. How’d you know what I’m thinking?”
That’s the level of detail that you want to definitely open up your speaking gigs with because you’re using their language, you’re in their world. You’re saying, I know this is what’s happening in your business at the moment. I’ve seen it with teams. You’ve got this, this and this and these are your problems and they’re like that’s exactly what we’re at at the moment. Then you’ve got their attention because they’re like, yeah, he gets me, he understands me, he knows me or she knows me and I want to hear more from that person. They’ve earned the right.
Then the next thing is then bring yourself into the equation. People buy from people that they know, like, and trust. So don’t just be up there on stage talking about benefits and the features of your service or product. They want to know about the why. They want to know about your passion. They want to feel your passion. They want to feel that you care, right? So bring those stories in even if you’re not a natural story teller, there are nice little snippets that you can just do that are just a little bit of light touches, a little bit of people that they remember you by those little bits that you said; anecdotes.
And then you then go into the…well now I’ve highlighted the why. The problem that you’ve got. This is a little bit to add value. So give them a teach, actually give them as some sort of direct experience of what they’re going to get from working with you or how your company works. And then as we said before, make sure that you’ve got that call to action. So don’t make it a waste of time. Make sure you’re always doing speaking gigs and your getting something from it as well as them. The thing that I would also say is making sure that you position yourself. So you’re going to do this right from a sales perspective. It’s knowing what, what stands you out from your competition, what’s your USP, and also don’t, and this is where people then…when they start to speak or train, and I see people trying to do cookie cutter approaches and learning techniques and stagecraft where it’s good to have but if that’s all you’re basing your delivery style on, you’re going to look like everybody else.
So, you know, I’m really Geeky, so there is no way that I’m going to go on stage and attempt to be some Tony Robbins of the world and become this extrovert giant, bellowing voice. It’s not my style. If I’m on stage the way that I’d normally open up to people and go, look, my natural skill is I’m a teacher, not a speaker. My style is teaching delivery. Make sure you have your pens and papers out because you’re going to take notes. I’m not the one that’s going to wow you with inspirational stories but you’re going to get inspired from what you can do from my talk.
So tell people who you are, what your style is, really be…I mean, we know you as that story teller so as soon as you’re on stage, we know…If anyone knows Dylis they know, “Oh, here we go. I’m going to be in for some good stories here with some great value. So that’s what people start to get to know you by. And then when you’re actually, then I would highly recommend you search for conferences and expos that have your avatar that are going to help position you. So in the connection hub, we give away like 200 stages that you can speak at like a directory, right? And you can start going through that going, yeah, that would be a great expo and whatever. And then you phone those people, but be prepared for the questions because you aren’t going to be the professional speakers that some of these might be speaking at.
So what’s the angle that you can come in and go, look, most people here, they’re going to be charging. I’ll do this for free and I’ve got this groundwork experience that a professional speaker might not have. I’ve been this role in this business for blah, blah, blah. It’s been six generations in my family or whatever it might be and I’m going to come at it at this angle and give your people in the industry some real insights into the company rather than just the topic itself.
So think about how you’re going to position yourself differently and still have the assets, right? Still have a nicely written bio, still have some professional photos of yourself. If you’ve got any video evidence and show reels they’re still important because an expo/conference isn’t going to want to take a risk on you. They’re not going to have the time to go and watch you speak. So they’re probably still going to want to see some footage of you to go, okay, he’s delivered to more than five people in a room or you know, he can project his voice far enough that actually he’s going to be engaging, and his style is quite good, but you’re still going to have to have evidence.
And you want to have those accessible things, that they’ve got a nice photo of you to put in the brochure, they’ve got a bio to put on the website. These are all things to have really readily available assets and they’re transferable. You put them on your website, you put that in your coaching brochure you put it wherever it is because it’s not just for speaking. But I think it’s really important that you practice. You practice and know your own style, right?
You know what it is, it’s your core messages you want to get across, how you feel comfortable delivering them. And then you just do some small stages. Do some, you know, at the office in front of the board meeting just to get the feel for it and get some feedback. Do it with your friends. Then progress up to, a, you know, maybe a BNI group in the local area and practice it there and then go up to the conferences and the expos. But start really wearing this new pair of shoes, this new identity of you as a speaker because it’s really going to amplify your business in your marketing side of things and reach loads of people.
Dylis: Yeah. Fantastic. Kelly this has just been so insightful. You’re mesmerising. I would just like to kind of reaffirm what you said there about making sure that you are who you are and that you’re not pretending to be anyone else. And I know you gave me that label of the sales storyteller and actually I’ve used that since you said it and I thought actually that’s rather a nice label to have. And not only do I tell the stories to help put context around what I’m talking about, I do some teacher as well, so it’s rich, there’s a richness to…
Kelly: The people that learn from you…when you learn to tell a story, your audience is captivated. I mean, that’s one of the best skills that any public speaker can have. But also when someone’s in a sales role, or even having to sell their own company, telling a story takes the pressure off it. You’re not blowing your own trumpet. In places like…when I worked in Asia, you can’t have business conversations out there when you go out networking, you have to tell what you’re trying to explain in an analogy and story. So that’s the way they do business out there. It’s an important skill that you deliver, but you also teach or your tribe too. So, I think it’s great.
Dylis: Also, I think when you’re telling stories, it’s very natural because it’s your story. No one else can tell your story in the way that you tell it. So it’s natural. It could be a story about another client and an experience, you know, where they were in the beginning and then where they ended up after working with you and you turn that into a story.
Kelly: It’s great.
Dylis: It is. Oh my God I just love it. So Kelly, I’ve already mentioned The Connection Hub on Facebook, which everybody should join, it’s phenomenal. Then if you want to go further than that, so I’m not even going to ask Kelly to promote herself, I’m going to promote her. She has got change maker central, which is a membership site, phenomenal. I can’t speak highly enough honesty, you and Helena are doing such a fantastic job in terms of educating, supporting, creating a community. It’s just amazing. So I’m going to say those again, Connection Hub on Facebook and from there I guess they would get in touch with you to want to join your…
Kelly: Yeah, come into the Connection Hub first. Come and check us out. We often promote the change in the membership site in there. It’s just a place where we love to give away as much as free as possible…so that…and also it’s not just about us, it’s about our members. People like you are chipping in and giving advice. You know, if anyone has a sales question, I always tag Dylis in it. It’s that place for you to show up as an expert in your field in your business, bring what you can help. That the hub…people there are speakers and also coaches but we have certainly supporting services of website designers and videographers and all the people that you need to do this work. So if you work or you are in that field, then it’s a great place to add value and hangout.
Dylis: It absolutely is, it’s brilliant. Is there any other ways people can get in touch with you or shall we just…yes go on then?
Kelly: Well, I’m available on LinkedIn so that’s probably the best place. I don’t normally accept friend requests on Facebook for people that I don’t know especially now that I’m near my 5000 limit as well. So I’m trying to keep that just for friends and family. And then also people that do want to potentially step up to the public speaking, the professional speaking. And you’ve got my speaker agency, which is Stellar Speakers, so that has its own Facebook page as well. And on there you can see what our speakers are doing and it might be a good way for you to look at some of their bios, some of their show reels to give you an idea of actually, well how can I be writing my bio? What are the professional photos that I need to have to start getting those early stage speaking as well as maybe one day turn into a professional speaker.
So you can always look at the page, myself and my admins run, those three groups, the Change Maker, the Connection Hub, and Stellar Speakers, and then if you want to directly PM me then hit me up on LinkedIn.
Dylis: Perfect. Kelly thank you so much. It’s been brilliant.
Kelly: Love you lots.
Dylis: Love you more.
Kelly: Have a good one.
Dylis: See you soon bye.
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