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As business owners, it’s important to understand our audience’s pain points, desired outcomes, and journey. We have to factor this knowledge into the workflows and processes that take place behind the scenes if we're going to be able to leverage growth from the stage.

While I can nerd out about business stuff all day, I knew I didn’t want to tackle this topic alone. That’s why I brought my friend and past business manager, Annie McCarty, to talk about all of the systems and workflows that you need to have in place to maximize how you scale your business from speaking.

I promise you Annie knows her stuff — she worked her magic for The Public Speaking Strategist and she set up our systems to give me the freedom and flexibility I didn’t think was possible.

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RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

How to Prep Your Business for Speaking (Video)
Troop 47 Trading Co. (previously Efficiently Annie) on Instagram
How to Scale Your Business with Speaking!
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Out of office? Set up a workflow

Whether you’re away speaking at an event, on maternity leave, or out of office for an extended period of time, make sure that your business is set up to keep on running while you’re gone.

Say you’re speaking at an event. There are three things you have to do before you go OOO, according to Annie.

First, know your conversion strategy. If someone comes up to you after you give your presentation and inquires about your business or offers, are you giving them the proper information? Is your biz set up to receive that new lead and turn them into a customer?

You want your presentation and current workflow to be aligned and intentional. If someone heard you speak about why your membership would benefit them, for example, you’d want your opt-in, offers, website and business set up so that they can become a member easily.

Your workflows will vary based on your product and who you’re speaking to. Keep the customer journey in mind. You might send one person who’s 100% sold on your offer to a specific landing page that’s relevant to your talk. But another person who might need more convincing would benefit from going to your opt-in first.

Once you have this strategy sorted out, you can set up the actual workflow itself so that the process is automatic. No need to manually sign up your interested audience member or walk them step-by-step through the process.

Finally, prep your team for your absence. While the workflow is automatic, you want your team to handle anything and everything without needing your input.

The power of automation

Let’s say things are going really well at this hypothetical conference you’re speaking at. You’re already killin’ it on the first day, getting tons of inquiries and interested clients. But you have two more days to go. How can you make sure you’re not dropping the ball or missing any opportunities?

Automation is key.

And I know what you’re thinking. You avoid automation because you don’t want to sound robotic. You want to be personal. But you can still do that with every piece of content you write! Automating is simply helping you serve more of your people, more efficiently.

You can’t be there 24/7 for each and every client. When your workflows and systems are set up properly, they can take over for you. Let them do their thing!

Give your team the tools they need

Speaking of letting others do their thing by helping you, let’s talk about how you can prepare your team for when you’re speaking at an event or out of office.

Start by identifying any pain points or spots in a process where people want to speak to you (and maybe you alone). Someone may want some 1:1 time with you before investing in one of your higher-end offers, for example.

You’ll need to get creative and remember what your clients and potential customers need for you at these points. Maybe you can provide a scheduling tool so that people can get that 1:1 time they need.

For other situations where people need more information but not necessarily from you personally, start keeping a Google Doc of your most frequently asked questions. Questions that you get after events, questions about specific offers — keep them in a document that your team can access while you’re gone, so they can respond to inquiries without taking up your time.

How to carve out time for yourself

Speaking at events can be draining, y’all. Especially if you’re an introvert like me. It’s important to give yourself time to decompress and recharge after conferences. Or even if you don’t need that much time to recharge, you might want some space in your schedule to connect with people you met or work on a new idea you had at the event.

In either case, we biz owners struggle with carving out time for ourselves. But we can do it, thanks to automation and workflows.

Take your inbox, for example. Set up filters so that you’re seeing the most important messages first. As for project management programs like Trello or Asana, build in time post-conference so that you don’t return to overdue tasks or an overflowing to-do list.

Last but not least, remember that you’re in charge of your schedule. Don’t let your work make the decisions for you! Need that three or four days post-conference to clear your mind? Block it out in your calendar, set up your workflows, and enjoy.

Look at workflows from your clients’ POV

Sometimes biz owners get excited about automation because it can free up their time and unburden some of their workload. And while that’s a big perk and totally understandable, think of it this way instead: use automation and workflows to help your clients. Not you.

Every system and process you automate or workflow you implement should help your clients achieve a goal seamlessly and effortlessly. If a workflow is benefiting you but not your clients, it’s not really doing its job.

In order to leverage speaking for your business, you have to put in some work ahead of time to ensure that your business is set up for success. Workflows and automation will do that for you.

Alright, now you know more about the behind-the-scenes steps you need to take so that your business can grow through speaking. What about the other stuff related to speaking itself?

If you have no idea where or how to begin your speaking journey, or what your next best move is, The Speak to Scale Vault can help.

In the Speak to Scale Vault, you gain access to tons of resources like workbooks, recordings, exercises, and more that will help you reach your audiences and craft your message. You’ll also get a roadmap that will show you a clear way to get from where you are now to go-to speaker and thought leader.

Start scaling your business now. Gain access to the Speak to Scale Vault!