How to Add Education to Your Business with Speaking
You’ve been gaining momentum in your business and others are asking for your help. Maybe you’ve gone on one-too-many “let me pick your brain” coffee dates and you realize something has got to give. If these people are benefiting so much from your knowledge (for free), what difference could you make if you packaged your expertise into a cohesive resource?
It sounds like you’re ready to be a business educator, friend.
What is a business educator?
A business educator usually takes the form of a successful entrepreneur who has decided to teach others what worked for them so that their students can duplicate that success within their own businesses.
Why would anyone want to share their success secrets? Because adding education to your business allows you to lighten your workload, diversify your income, help others and bring a new level of purpose to your work.
Is Education the Best Route for All Business Owners?
Not necessarily.
It may not be a good fit for you or your business
Maybe you’ve just started your business and you’re not quite ready to help someone get a result that you’re not confident in getting yourself.
Maybe you’re really good at the work you do and you ARE successful, but you don’t know if you could help someone else achieve the same result.
Maybe you’re not a good teacher and you have no desire to be one.
Maybe you’re diving into education for the wrong reason. . .
You do not have to be an educator to be successful
Before we get into the mechanics of how to use speaking to scale education in your business, can I give you a little permission slip, friend? Becoming an educator is NOT the only way to scale your business. If you do not want to be an educator, that it 100% OK. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.
I know it can feel like everyone around you is adding education to their business. Remember this: you started your business to be in the drivers seat. Don’t give that up now. Also, those educational offers may look great on the outside but you have no idea how much they actually convert.
If you don’t want to become an educator, there are plenty of other ways to scale your business or diversify your offerings, such as:
Physical Products
Affiliate Income
Stock Photography
Printable Resources
Templates
Swipe Copy/Blueprints
DIY Options
Move from 1:1 offers to Group Programs
Increase Your Prices
Build a Team
Create an Agency
If you want to dive deeper into adding education to your business, check out these episodes of The Creative Speaker Podcast
Put Speaking on Your Radar
Whether you’re all-in with a course or two under your belt or you’re still toying with the idea of creating your first product, speaking needs to be on your radar.
When you’re moving into education it’s important to educate your audience that YOU are someone they can learn from. They have grown to know you and your current offerings. If we want your new educational offers to be successful we must take the time to raise awareness about them. This takes time. Don’t you worry… speaking can fast track this process!
Speaking is the fastest way to build your authority.
Loving This Blog? FOLLOW US ON PINTEREST AND PIN IT FOR LATER!
Your Speaking Topics Matter
If we’re going to teach your audience that you are the go-to educator in your area of expertise, we’ve got to make sure you are speaking on the RIGHT topics for your business. Maybe you’ve been speaking for awhile. Now that you’ve added education to the mix we need to revisit your speaking topics and make sure there is a direct correlation between your presentation and your educational offers.
Serving multiple audiences
If your educational offers serve an audience that is different from your past offers, speaking is about to become your best friend. Things can start to get messy if you’ve been working with one group of clients and now plan to educate a different group.
For example: Imagine you’re a successful wedding photographer and have spent the last ten years serving your couples. Now you’re ready to start teaching new wedding photographers how to duplicate your success. If you don’t navigate this new season with a bit of grace (and strategy) you could end up confusing potential new couples who are ready to book you to photograph their wedding!
With the help of speaking you can bypass those headaches and speak directly in front of your ideal audience for your educational offers even if you’re not marketing them on your existing web presence.
Creating Your First Offer
If you’re ready to add education to your business with the help of speaking and you’re not sure exactly what to offer, this section is for you. Let’s break down exactly how to clarify your offer and make it work WITH your speaking engagements.
Step 1: Start with focusing on ONE offer
If you have multiple offers, select ONE that will be your main focus for conversions. It’s difficult to serve your audience from the stage and guide them to an offer if there are three different programs they could potentially join. Select one product or service that you want to scale and guide your audience to that SINGLE offer.
This makes for a better experience for your audience and gives you clear analytics to track your progress.
Step 2: focus on helping PEOPLE
When you’re creating your first product it’s tempting to want to create something that is exciting for you rather than whats most beneficial for your audience. This can often be a pitfall into creating products that don’t sell. Before you invest a ton of time and money into creating your first offer, take a step back and focus on what your audience wants from you.
What are people always asking you for? What do THEY want you to create?
Check your sent email folder. What are you always telling people?
It’s probably the thing that feels way too easy to you because you’re great at it.
If you’re working on creating your first offer, listen to episode 40 of The Creative Speaker Podcast where Stephanie May Wilson shares how she went from product flop to a six-figure business. Listen here: CREATING YOUR FIRST PRODUCT | FROM TIER 1 TO TIER 2
Step 3: Select the right Speaking Topics
If you want to scale your educational offering from the stage you need to make sure you’re actually speaking on the RIGHT topic. It’s pretty hard to move audience members into a course about bookkeeping if you’re giving a presentation on social media.
Your speaking tier (take this quiz to find out what yours is) will determine what you need to focus on.
Tier 1 Speakers: If you are a tier one speaker focused on building credibility as the authority on your subject matter, the most important thing for you to focus on is speaking on the right topic. We want to make sure that we’re positioning ourselves as subject matter experts.
Tier 2 Speakers: If you are a tier two speaker focused on gaining conversions from the stage, the most important thing for you to focus on is speaking in front of the right audience. You can’t convert audience members into course students if they were not a good fit for your course in the first place.
make sure you’re speaking on the RIGHT topics for your business!
Click the image below to grab your free workbook!
Whether you’re just getting started as an educator in your industry or you’re a seasoned pro, speaking is a great way to scale the educational side of your business, fast!
Are you using speaking to increase your educational sales? Not exactly sure how speaking fits in with your current offers? I want to hear it about! Tell me about it in the comments or share it on Instagram and tag me (@JessicaRasdall) so that I can cheer you on as you share your message with the people who need to hear it the most!
