TheSpeakerspractice

The 7 ways you can promote your business by Speaking

Published on April 18, 2022 by Adrienne McLean

Intentionally using speaking skills is a powerful approach to connect with prospects and clients to build your business. By turning up in a number of ways and speaking about your niche, talking about issues, challenges and ways to make improvements displays you as an expert in your field.

Being a strong communicator brings confidence to your audience to know that you “know your stuff”. Through stories, you can detail your experiences that give you the depth of knowledge to make differences and improvements in the area you are focusing on.

What are the 7 ways you can use “Speaking” to build your business.

Delivering Presentations
Being a skilled presenter is a skill that constantly needs attention to build a strong connection with your audience, be authentic and deliver relevant information to your audience.
There is so much that goes into delivering a presentation. The information, the way you make the presentation interesting and the way you deliver your topic. Information, body language, voice, your attire, how you are presenting, your props, slides, all impact on your presentation.
Video
As well as all the parts that go to delivering a presentation, video and speaking to camera has its own skill set.
This form has 3 parts to create a video, the planing, presentation to video and the post production. There are concepts that the presenter needs to learn , such as, how to present to camera, how to give the audience the feeling you are speaking to them and you, as the speaker, needs to get used to seeing you on video.You can build digital content that can really support your business.
Podcast
Similar to video there is time spent on pre and post production , as well, as the time spent on the actual event. You can display yourself as an expert by doing podcasting. By talking on your topic specialty or by interviewing specialists in their field elevates you as a specialist in your field.
It also can build your own intellectual property and content to support your business.
Online training
From your skills learnt with creating video and podcasts, you can build online training programs. These can be paid or complimentary programs that display your expertise online.
These online training programs can be used in digital marketing campaigns to raise awareness, display your topic knowledge and bring income your way.
Sales conversations
The most important speaking skill you can develop is your ability to have sales conversations. It is not only the ability to actually sell a product or service. It is also the ability to get over rejection, as well as , the skills to take on the sale to deliver. When having sales conversations, you have to be able to see through objections and keep to the process. The sales process can take time and the saying “never say never” needs to be your mantra.
Networking
Attending networking functions and building the network of professionals who may use your service is vital. Friendly, approachable ways of connecting is an important skill. It is all about how comfortable you are with speaking one on one with people who you may not know. Introducing yourself and talking about what you do and how you help your clients is an important skill. It is more challenging than first thought.
Pitching
This is the skill that is an extension of delivering presentations. Pitching is where you are delivering to people of influence, decision makers. It maybe to a company who is finding out more about your business who may be able to help them. It maybe a pitch to Venture Capitalists and Investors who are interested in your business and are looking at investing in your idea. Confidence in delivery, highly knowledgeable across the sector, business and niche are starting points for a successful pitch.

In summary:

If you are a Service Professional or a Business Owner who is looking to grow and build your business, by building your skills in the 7 ways to promote your business by speaking can help you grow your business. Using speaking skills can display you as an expert in your field and display you as the “Go-To” person in your niche.

The Speakers Practice can help you , as a Service Professional and Business Owner, with delivering confident presentations in all the 7 ways you can promote yourself by speaking.

Adrienne McLean, Founder of The Speakers Practice, is a BookYourselfSolid® Certified Coach, SpeakersTrainingCamp® Internationally Accredited Instructor and the Principle of The Speakers Practice. Offering marketing discovery audits, online training programs, Public Speaking for Professionals, Effective On-Camera Presenting workshop and much more.

Email on adrienne@thespeakerspractice.com.au or ring on 0414 367 960

Positioning Yourself as an Expert using Content Marketing

Published on July 3, 2019 by Adrienne McLean

When you are speaking or writing about your topic of interest, you are displaying your expertise in that niche. The more you do this, the more you display your skills, understanding and knowledge in that area, helping to build trust and credibility. By continually creating content to promote on social media platforms, where your target market will see, you become the category authority and, over time, the “go to” person in your niche.

Building a body of content in a niche helps grow your Intellectual Property which can be used in a number of ways – even monetised. But before you get started, preparatory foundational steps are required to ensure the content you create addresses your target audience’s problems, ensuring it’s valuable and answers market questions.

Being clear on these five points is the preparatory work required, before you get started on your content creation:

Determine your niche
Look at content already created for gaps
Determine your ideal client and target market
Determine the problem you’re addressing and the solutions you offer
Create a list of content topics

Speaking

Presentations & Signature Speeches

Speaking helps to convey your message to large groups of people and efficiently spread the word. However, delivering presentations is a craft – a learnt skill that requires connecting with the audience through the use of stories, examples, statistics and any other device that connects your audience with the topic.

Preparing a signature presentation can be something you can develop and hone. Then promoting your expertise to event planners can help get you in front of the right audiences at the right time. Not only that, talking one to many is a fabulous way to connect and grow your audience and your network of influence.

Video

Using video to promote your business topic is a great way to talk one-on-one, but many times. Developing the skills to prepare great video is invaluable, helping you speak with impact in front of the camera with a script that truly connects with the audience. Naturally, the more comfortable you are in front of a camera, the more you will be able to get your message across in a meaningful way.

However, there are skills to learn and develop – planning, the presentation skills to camera and then the post-production work, including editing the video with your branding. Your video can also be transcribed and repurposed for blogging and eBook/Book creation.

Webinars

Webinars offer a multi-faceted approach, but require some planning/up front considerations, including:

the webinar topic
the webinar platform and how it will run. (Are you running it with a business partner or alone?)
where people will log in?
pre-webinar promotions to get people to sign up
post-webinar promotions (uploading on to YouTube and Vimeo for circulation)
contact detail collection
Webinars can also be used as online training programs or broken up into smaller promotions.

Writing & Blogging
Writing about your expertise is a wonderful way to create your own Intellectual Property and to explore areas of expertise that may even surprise you. The blog creation process helps convey your expertise, with each blog article being able to be amalgamated to form longer articles and eBooks – even chapters of a book.

Audio
Doing interviews with experts in other areas can help highlight your own expertise and, as with video, your audio can be transcribed and repurposed for blogging and eBook/Book creation.

Radio

Speaking on radio not only displays you as an expert, the Mp3 recording can be uploaded to create a podcast.

Podcasting

Finding a suitable podcast platform is useful to share your interviews with the world. Mixcloud and Anchor are my favourites. It’s easy to upload the Mp3 recording and then the platform will make it easier to share.

Opportunities with Content
By creating video content, you can also prepare an Mp3 recording for audio use and have this transcribed using an app called Otto. From the edited transcript you can then go on to prepare a blog article or eBook. Then, you can create an online training program using the video or audio, prepare some slides, pdf questionnaires and so on.

The repurposing opportunities are enormous, so take the time to consider how you can fully utilise your information assets, remembering that everything you create helps position you as the expert in your field.

Seven Tips for Creating Content
Ensure your content adds value to your ideal clients and prospects
Create content on topics that resonate – aim to inform
Upskill as necessary to create good content – blog writing or production of video and audio content
Create a Content Calendar
Amalgamate your content to create eBooks and Books
Develop your own IP by creating online programs
Build a community to help promote and share your content
Summary
Before you proceed, consider the purpose behind what you are creating. Perhaps you’re doing fortnightly blogs, which can be read aloud to create audio files, then slide decks and supportive video can be created. Use your imagination and see what amazing content you can produce.

Most of all, have fun and enjoy the process!

Adrienne McLean of The Speakers Practice helps professionals with Marketing & Communications. This was written by Adrienne McLean and first published for the Spin the Sourcebottle, Source bottle – https://www.sourcebottle.com/blog/POSITIONING-YOURSELF-AS-AN-EXPERT-USING-CONTENT-MARKETING

Technology to make Marketing Easier with guest Ana Melikian

Published on April 22, 2019 by Adrienne McLean

Ana Melikian, the Founder of Tech Tips For Coaches and loves to help business owners achieve their BIG goals! Ana has a Phd in Psychology and is passionate about helping purpose driven, creative entrepreneurs with online marketing and understands the importance of working on mindsets in order to succeed.

Ana is an Elite Level BookYourselfSolid certified coach and co-founded the More Clients More Fun, where they developed leading-edge LinkedIn strategies for business development to land high-value clients. In 2018, Ana launched Tech Tips For Coaches, a very affordable members

hip site designed to help coaches, consultants, trainers, and speakers to navigate the online world and market their services online with ease and joy!

The topic of our interview today is “Technology to make Marketing Easier ! ”.

The questions Ana discusses are:

There are so many online marketing tools – where do businesses start?
Which is your favourite CRM and Email Management system and why?
What are some of the things to watch out for when choosing online platforms?
What are some other business tools that are essential for a business today?
What is a Business strategy that you recommend?

Adrienne McLean DTM , The Speakers Practice – helping clients with business development. Adrienne empowers Business owners to implement a powerful business building system to get more clients & communication skills to connect with impact.

You can contact Adrienne on adrienne@thespeakerspractice.com.au or ring on 0414 367 960.

The Power of Practice!

Published on January 24, 2019 by Adrienne McLean

It’s through Practice, that people who give presentations can work on their presentation to give maximum impact to their audience. It’s one thing to talk about what you want to speak about, its another thing completely, whether your audience understands the points you are delivering.

Even the most experienced presenters practice their speeches, fine tune their messages, understand the timings of their presentations so their audience really gets the most out of attending and ultimately wants to hear more and wants to do business with the presenter.

So , what is the Process of Practicing a Presentation?

PREPARE – this is where you gather your information, write your presentation, look at your objectives for giving the speech and what your message is. Use stories that are yours , this will help you to remember what goes next. This is where most of your time is spent. The SpeakersTrainingCamp® has a wonderful structure that can really help you to look at every aspect of a presentation.

REHEARSE – you have your presentation ready, now to get your delivery smooth and confident, you need to rehearse a number of times so that you really feel that you know it inside out. Then you can present your speech not relying on notes, you can have them there ,however, it really helps your presentation if you are not glued to your notes and you are looking at your audience.

AUDIENCE – you are delivering your presentation to inform, inspire and guide your audience. You can make a difference with your presentation – whether it’s an important presentation to an executive committee , a work group or its a social presentation. Your presentation is for your audience.

CONNECTION – Practicing your presentation will give you the opportunity to maximise your connection with your audience. The more confident your presentation, the more you know your message, the more authentic you are, the more eye contact you have with your audience, the more you know about your audience – the better your connection with your audience and the more you will be successfully able to get your message across.

TIMING – Always ,and I mean , Always respect the timing of your presentation. Know your presentation, and by going through this process you do now, Know how long it takes and suite the timing to what is expected. You may be given 20mins, then , have your presentation going for 20minutes. This point is really important. Speakers that think they can go on for hours instead of minutes loose their audience’s respect as well as credibility. By practicing, you can fine tune the timing and increase your confidence.

IMPROVE – Professional speakers practice and improve their presentations so that they can confidently present their speech and achieve maximum impact. Don’t wing it, practice and Improve then you will get maximum impact from your presentation.

CONSOLIDATE – Now you have Prepared, REhearsed , thought about your Audience, built a Connection wtih your audience, worked at the Timing, Improved – all these tasks have Consolidated your presentation so that you can really achieve what you would like from your presentation – and that is Impress them!

EXCEL – when you follow this process , you will Excel and do your best. Ok, there’s always areas to work on ,however, by continuing along this path of Continuous Improvement and Practice of your Presentations , you will Excel! this is the Power of Practice.

Consider joining The Speakers Practice – Speakers Forum. Attendees are like-minded Business People who are wanting to promote their businesses by speaking to networking groups, associations ,etc. We discuss presentation skills , present current speeches and get audience feedback on delivery, objectives , on how we understood the message, and so on.

Enjoy your Presentations, Practice your Presentations and appreciate the Power of Practice!!

Video is a powerful way of connecting ……

Published on December 17, 2018 by Adrienne McLean

Video is an incredibly powerful way of connecting with your clients.

You, as a business owner, can connect one-on-one with your clients and prospective clients in a way that was unheard of 15 years ago. Today, it is so easy to use a phone or tablet to create a video, the quality is reasonably good and connections can be made one to many easily and regularly.

For more professional video, access is available and quality video is more affordable than ever. You can create your own commercial with high quality displaying you as the expert in your field to everyone that clicks on your website or Youtube channel.

So what sorts of video could you create to speak to your prospects?

Here’s a list but there’s over 50 different types of video – see – 51 ways you can use video

Short, sharp phone video for use on Facebook
Branded professional video for websites
How to video for Youtube and websites
Video for Online Training programs
Video via Webinars

Each profession will suite various sorts of video. Its a matter of thinking about how can video be best utilised in my business to help my clients.

Once you have thought through the use of video within your business, then its the creation of the video that is to be considered.

Video creation involves –

Planning – the script, the message, the location, how the video is to be created, who is to be involved , is it a person speaking or animated video?
Production – the creation of the video – who is going to do this and how
Post Production – preparing the digital recording into a professional MP4 recording.

There’s plenty to think about when preparing a video.

The important consideration is the connection with you and your clients and prospects.

Video can help your business by:
a.displaying you as the expert in your field
b. keep a personal connection with your audience
c. use various, interesting video to keep your audience engaged and following your topics
d. giving your audience valuable information using video in an easy to watch format
e. you, as the business owner, only need to say this once on the video and then it can be seen multiple times by viewers so for you it is actually time consuming not having to say the same thing again and again.

Consider the ways video can help you. Perhaps, give us a call to discuss opportunities where you can utilise video to help you.

Check out the Effective On-Camera Presenting program Video is a powerful marketing tool and that marketing using video is becoming an important way of connecting with your prospects & clients. To use video, are you looking to understand ✔︎ How to effectively present to camera ✔︎ What you need to be aware of when using video ✔︎ What are the best approaches to create successful video? ✔︎ Get nervous in front of a video camera ✔︎ Wanting to create successful video? ✔︎ What tools you need to do this

Adrienne McLean DTM – SpeakersTrainingCamp International Instructor and the Founder of The Speakers Practice – Adrienne specialises at The Speakers Practice helping clients to confidently deliver presentations for maximum impact. Adrienne has been training presenting to camera programs since 2012 and has been coached by Lou Bortone – US Video Marketing Expert.

You can contact Adrienne on adrienne@thespeakerspractice.com.au or ring on 0414 367 960.

How to build a community on LinkedIn globally -Business Success Strategies interview with Anna McAfee

Published on December 12, 2018 by Adrienne McLean

Building on-line communities is important now. Connecting with people is vital for building trust and connections. Anna McAfee, Co-Founder of LinkedIn Local really discusses the importance of this and how the LinkedIn Local community has grown internationally.

There are some gems of information in this interview. The special part is Anna’s advice on her most recommended business success strategy. Anna has some really valuable advice.

Here’s the full interview – takes just on 30 mins. Enjoy!

Adrienne McLean helps professionals to get more clients, move forward and build confidence to get the sales flowing in with developing presentation skills, building confidence to speak to camera and work on business development ie marketing & sales. Ring Adrienne McLean on 0414 367 960 or email on adrienne@thespeakerspractice.com.au for more details.

The Speakers Practice & Adrienne McLean.com October newsletter, 2018

Published on October 13, 2018 by Adrienne McLean

In our work, we are serving Service Professionals who are looking for:
✔︎ More clients,
✔︎ Improved marketing and sales,
✔︎ Improved communication skills, as well as,
✔︎ Techniques to raise awareness of their business.

We also help the business development, marketing and sales managers who are also looking to build their skills.


What are important skills needed in the workplace for growth - both personally and in business?

Marketing Skills and Business Development system 
Public Speaking, Presentation Skills and Communication Skills 
Effective Speaking to Camera and creating Video 
Professional Services Marketing Conference 

Here are our programs that are coming up -

The Professional Services Marketing Conference 2018 was a day of learning, connecting and being motivated to get to the next level. Check out this Professional Services Marketing Conference overview video (https://youtu.be/voFTnJy1m4E)



If you missed attending and would like to see the presentations online or attended and want to see the presentations again - enjoy the
Online -  Professional Services Marketing Conference 2018 (http://professional-services-marketing-conference.thinkific.com/courses/professional-services-marketing-conference-2018) - there are 6 hours of presentations full of really valuable information to help you with marketing, digital marketing, sales and mindset.





The BookYourselfSolid Masterclass Intensive - 8 sessions live, online - going step by step through the business development system BookYourselfSolid - check here more details  






Marketing Discovery Audit
By doing an annual marketing audit, you will find out:
✔︎ Are your marketing systems working for you
✔︎ Are there processes that need implementing for growth
✔︎ Are your strategies & tactics being followed
By doing the Marketing Discovery Audit , this will give you insights for marketing activities to help you get off to a great start for the new year.





Check out the Effective On-Camera Presenting program 
Video is a powerful marketing tool and that marketing using video is becoming an important way of connecting with your prospects & clients.
To use video, are you looking to understand
✔︎ How to effectively present to camera
✔︎ What you need to be aware of when using video
✔︎ What are the best approaches to create successful video?
✔︎ Get nervous in front of a video camera
✔︎ Wanting to create successful video?
✔︎ What tools you need to do this

The Speakers Practice is taking bookings for the next upcoming Effective On-Camera Presenting for Professionals" 



Hornsby Business Information Forum - a networking event to meet, ask those niggling marketing & business development questions, share & be inspired - 4th Thursday, Thyme Square cate - 8.30am to 10am, Free to attend. Business Professionals meet and discuss the topic of the day - - topic is the 6 steps to grow a business - book in Next Forum -  25th October, 2018 

For more details or to ask any questions, ring 0414 367 960.
See: www.thespeakerspractice.com.au and www.adriennemclean.com

The Speakers Practice – Presentation Skills workshop for Professionals

Published on December 11, 2017 by Adrienne McLean

What would you get out of The Speakers Practice – Presentation Skills Workshop for Professionals ?

A fabulous day was spent with Professionals who were keen to work on their presentation skills. The SpeakersTrainingCamp formula is followed – taking rather nervous attendees through a process of developing their presentation skills and building confidence to speak in front of a group.

What did they like most about the workshop?

Helped me to speak naturally and from the heart
very relaxed , comfortable atmosphere bringing out people’s openness
Good to get feedback from everyone in the group
Having a solid structure for a presentation
Gaining confidence via constructive feedback
Practical tips
Safe and supportive people and feedback to get better
Opportunity to practise
Indepth knowledge
Good facility

What were the most important things they learnt?

How to structure a presentation
being natural when delivering a presentation – speaking from the heart
being in control of the situation
Good valuable tips
The GRABM concept
Importance of body language
Controlling nerves and the exercises to help with nervousness
Importance of posture and breathing
Feeling more confident to deliver a message

A testimonial to summarise the day –

“Adrienne opened doors for me that have been closed for a long time. Her course has initiated a process that I can confidently build on helping me personally and with my work in architecture.”

Rob Geoghegar, Architect

The Speakers Practice – Presentation Skills workshop for Professionals will be available quarterly – check in with The Speakers Practice for the next workshop.

Branding strategies – Gunnar Habitz – Business Success Strategies.

Published on October 25, 2017 by Adrienne McLean

Branding is the way the prospects and clients see your business. Your branding is the face of the business. In this video & podcast, Gunnar Habitz details the important parts that go together to make a brand successful.

Gunnar Habitz has twenty years ICT experience in sales, marketing and consulting roles with a technical flavour covering various computing solutions sold to commercial and consumer segments. Originally from Switzerland with solid experience in the European market, Gunnar moved to Sydney in 2016 and completed a leadership program at the Australian Institute of Management and now offers his skills in the areas software, services and solutions.

Some of the questions Gunnar answers here on the topic of Branding strategies for growth are :

When looking at branding a business or a product, what are the essential steps?
Why does changing a brand help with sales growth?
What are your recommendations to a business who are looking for massive change?
What are the signs of a successful brand?
What is a strategy that has really helped you grow your business?

Here are some links that Gunnar recommends for checking out –

1) www.habitz.ch (my own website)
2) www.cloudrecover.com.au (my employee who changed the branding strategy totally in 2015)
3) www.livinglines.com.au (brand development expert Susan Jones)
4) www.intrix.com.au (reseller Intrix who transitioned to a managed service provider)
5) www.cowanprospecting.com (Matt Cowan Prospecting, I mentioned that I found him only due to his LinkedIn article)

The Business Success Strategies is a 30 minute interview with successful business people who have been able to achieve amazing results with growing a business.

Business Success Strategies is an always have something to offer event sponsored by The Speakers Practice and ADrienneMcLean.com. The Speakers Practice offers programs to help SME professionals to market their business by speaking. AdrienneMcLean.com helps SME professionals to market themselves using the international marketing system BookYourselfSolid – a marketing system designed for service professionals to get you more clients.

Adrienne McLean helps business professionals with marketing and business development along with promoting their business. You can contact Adrienne McLean on adrienne@thespeakerspractice.com.au or ring on 0414 367 960.

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Video is the Business Tool for Today for Real Estate Agents

Published on April 2, 2017 by Adrienne McLean

Real Estate Agents need to build a strong bond with their clients to help them sell or purchase a property. Being in a position of helping out with large purchases or sales is a big responsibility.

But how do people who are wanting to buy or sell a property choose an agent?

Real Estate agents are using the benefits of websites to promote properties. Clients like this approach as they can view the properties. So the Agent Profiles are a very big credibility builder and the personalisation to really connect with potential clients the better.

By adding a video to your Agent profile, this allows you to:

Introduce yourself
Share some details that connect you to your audience
Display knowledge of the area and community
Talk about market updates

You can build a strong reputation by building a presence on Youtube. This also assists with your Google Ranking.

Posting semi-regular video on Youtube
Posting worthwhile content
personalised video with your personality shining through
Using content ideas from your day-to-day Real Estate activities

For your agent profile, it is worth going through the process of creating a personalised, professional video that represents your brand. You can be proud to display on your agent profile. Then, more casual smart phone video can be taken and displayed on Youtube – these could be of your current properties, etc.

What do you need to be aware of when preparing a video –

Connect with the people viewing your video
Your scripting needs to be structured and fast paced.
Catch the viewers attention straight away.
Your whole presentation needs to be engaging
Allow your personality to shine through.
Understanding the video process is essential
Also understanding the marketing of your video will help with the success of building a following.

Learning about the ways to prepare and use video is really important in todays digital world. Have fun and enjoy – it is the way to connect with your potential clients!

For more details on The Speakers Practice – Video Program for Real Estate Agents – see – Presentation and Video Program for Real Estate Agents.