172: Behind-the-Scenes: Lessons Learned in 2021
As I look back over the last year, I can think of so many important lessons that I learned or was reminded of when it comes to speaking. Even after nearly a decade of speaking behind me, I’m still in awe of how some lessons continue to surprise me.
In today’s episode, I’m sharing ten very important lessons that I learned in 2021 that I think you should consider as we head into the new year!
If you loved this episode and it motivated you to work on more polished presentations, I’d love for you to leave a review on iTunes and tell me about your biggest takeaway. Take a screenshot of you listening on your device, post it to your Instagram Stories, and tag me @jessicarasdall.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
10 Lessons I Learned About Speaking in 2021
While there are so many foundational lessons I’ve learned over the last decade of speaking, the industry has changed so much and there is always something new to learn. Here are the ten most important lessons I learned in 2021:
People don't need more content.
Stage presence matters.
Conversion strategies are shifting - that URL probably won't cut it.
ex: Interactive Assets: QR Codes, Swag Bags, EtcOrganizers are asking for engaging and memorable speakers, not the most popular. Reminder: Stage presence matters & organizers are asking for it.
The unexpected platforms/marketing outlets yielded the most bookings. ex: Linkedin
Deliver less and deliver it better by focusing on what you’re really good at!
People actually want to hear about your offers. Stop being so humble.
Making your speaking strategy part of your business strategy sets you up for consistent growth.
Get your offers (and your onboarding) in order. It's difficult to scale from the stage if you're not set up to do so.
You don't have to do this alone. Surround yourself with people who ask you hard questions and cheer you on (mastermind & academy community this year)
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Read the Transcript from this Episode
Transcript for Episode 172:
This year has been a wild ride with speaking and owning a business. And today I want to share with you at 10. Behind the Scenes the lessons that I learned from speaking in 2021 Welcome back to speak to scale podcast where we're helping small business owners just like you grow and scale their companies by speaking on stages, podcasts, webinars and more. I'm your host, Jessica Razzle and this, this, my friends, is the final episode of 2021. Episode 172.
Can you believe it? All I'm a little sad to be rounding out this year's episodes, I'm so excited for all the progress we've made this year, the work that you've put in that you keep showing up here. And I'm really excited for what episodes we have coming for you in just a few weeks next year. But this is our final episode of this of this year. So we're gonna take a break over the next few weeks, we won't be putting any episodes out over the holidays. But don't worry, you've got 172 episodes to catch up on if you get a little bored. In today's episode, I want to share with you 10 behind the scenes things that I've learned this year through speaking and owning a business and watching what's worked for our clients, what hasn't worked for our clients, the shift in what organizers are asking for the feedback I've been getting in everything in between, in no particular order. Let's dive right in. First and foremost, number one lesson I have learned very clearly is our audience. They don't need more content. They are not looking for extra steps. They're not looking for more, you know, we keep hearing that term resume fatigue, and I don't think it's just Xoom fatigue, I think it's consumption fatigue, people are tired of buying courses and buying programs and doing more and consuming more. And they're not looking for that. Yes, they want value in our presentations. But that doesn't mean more content. So if you're looking to uplevel your presentation next year, spend more time thinking about what does your audience need from you? What kind of transformation can you provide?
What kind of Aha, how can you open their mind open their heart help truly leave them better than they found them, it may not actually be content that they need from you. The second point here, stage presence matters. Whether it is virtual or in person, it just, we got to step it up friends, we we got to step up. I'm so grateful that we had my friend Mike canino on the show talking about being captivating on camera. And he actually came into the speaking strategy Academy and delivered a bonus lesson for us about stage presence and where it comes from, and how to use our voice and our breath and our movement to really captivate our audience whether it's virtually or in person. so grateful for him, Academy members know how good it was. But for all of us, like, we have to remember that a part of presentations, part of speaking is truly entertaining and connecting and thinking more than just what do people think about what I'm saying? and more of like, how do they feel about how I'm interacting with them? Right, this is a two way street. And from
going to my very first in person event in a long time this year. Man, it really just stood out to me that I think a lot of us have gotten comfortable with sitting in our desk chairs and looking into our webcams. And we're going to be speaking in person, especially, we've got to step up our stage presence. So if you're working to present in person next year, I want you to spend some time maybe even over the holidays, working on practicing delivering your presentation, get up out of your chair, how are you going to take up space? How are you going to connect with your audience? How are you going to use your voice in your movement to make that deeper connection? I'm sure that well I hope that when you listen to the podcast here, even just now when you you can't see me, all you're doing is hearing my voice. But I hope that you feel a connection. I hope that the way that I articulate these words to you, allows you to feel what I'm feeling that you know, I care about you that I want the best for you that I want you to succeed. There's a way for us to elevate our content, whether it's in person, it's on a podcast, it's on a stage, it's on a summit, it's a zoom conversation. But remember, your stage presence matters, especially when number one is that people don't need more content, right? Number three, conversion strategies are starting to shift whether it's online or in person I've been seeing this a lot. giving someone a URL probably isn't going to cut it, or it's not going to cut it as well as you had liked.
People are shifting in the way that we engage with brands and the way that we do business, the way we opt into things, I want you to start thinking about your experiences. What is it that get you to click into something? What is it that get you to go look up something like what is that? Making it really seamless for your audience? One thing I have seen performing really well? Are QR codes, like hands down, for sure. It's working beautifully interactive presentations. working beautifully. Digital swag bags instead of flyers and coupons working beautifully. I want you to spend some time looking at your conversion strategy within your presentation and asking, Is this up to date? Does this really meet my audience where they are, it might be time to revisit it. Number four lesson learned this year. This is more on the side of now that I have a lot of organizers reaching out to me for requests for speakers and for recommendations for our students. organizers are now asking for the most engaging and memorable speakers not the most popular or notable speakers. So if you've ever felt like well, I couldn't get started with speaking, nobody's gonna want to have me speak because I'm not well known. Perfect timing for you. Because the last four organizers that I have spoken with, one had nothing to do with the big names and wanted everything to do with somebody who was going to energize their audience, make them feel seen and be highly engaging. What did I say in the beginning, people don't need more content, stage presence matters, and organizers are asking for it.
Lesson number five, and this is for me personally, in business, I've been finding that the most unexpected platforms, and marketing outlets have been yielding the most bookings for me. So I think a lot of times we can just automatically say, oh, Instagram is my best social platform. Because that's where I like to hang out. That's where I like to consume. That's where I like to chat with people. But is it yielding, booked speaking opportunities, I can tell you that the last few big opportunities I've had came from LinkedIn. Just gonna put that out there for you spend some time looking at your marketing strategy, the platforms you're showing up on? Do a little bit of assessment, look at the data now that we're wrapping up the year. Where are the bookings coming from? And where are they not? Maybe you have that platform that's being neglected that's actually making you money. Put time where it matters. Lesson number six, deliver less, and deliver it better. Listen, friend, you don't need another presentation. Okay? I know it probably feels like Gosh, but just I've been delivering this talk for years, I'm always talking about the same thing.
I get it. Okay, I've been speaking for 15 years. And for over a decade, I delivered one presentation. It's I get it, it feels like we're being repetitive. But most of the time, every time we grab that microphone, every time we step onto a stage, the majority of our audience is meeting us for the very first time and we are blowing their mind with our content. When you deliver less and deliver it better. You get really good at delivering your presentation, you know it in and out. And it gives you the space to personalize it on the fly. Speak to what's relevant in the moment, and maybe even pull in key points from other speakers at the event. Rather than thinking about adding another presentation to your plate. Spend some time making your existing presentation. Even better. Lesson number seven people actually want to hear about your offers. So stop being so humble. This one is for myself okay? This is like Note to self Jess, people want to hear about your offers stop.
I just delivered a virtual presentation the other night. And I'm it was it went really really good. It was awesome. I'm delivering a talk that I deliver all the time. So I was able to just make it really engaging and exciting. And there were so many things in the chat like, Well, how do we work with you tell us about your programs and it just kind of like made me stop for a second and be like, really? Like I was I was trying not to be salesy. Like I got paid to give this talk. But at the same time I was like wow, that's right, like friendly reminder for myself that when we do great work when we deliver great presentations and people connect with us like they want more, they want to take the next step. And even if they're not ready to take the next step right now, they want to know what that is. So for you, friend, but mostly for me, friendly reminder and lesson learn, people want to hear about our offers, they want to know what it's like to work with us. So keep sharing about the incredible work you're doing. Lesson number eight, I also cannot believe I just told you that that's okay, we're going to keep going. I'm just gonna, you know, lesson number eight, making your speaking strategy part of your business strategy sets you up for consistent growth. Obviously, I'm going to talk about this but like this has been so true and watching our students and watching my clients and really for myself, if you look at like the last six months of business, maybe even more, I have been really head down. Actually, probably most of the year. You know, in with last year dealing with some health stuff, I've been head down, working on a lot of internal stuff, systems and processes and refining our offers. And just making them the best they can be along with hiring a lot of new team members dealing with that that's like a whole nother beast in itself. I haven't been focused on a lot of marketing activities haven't been launching things actively.
We haven't done any launching, we're not running ads, like none of that. But I have not stopped speaking you know, I show up here for you every single week. But in addition to that, every single month, I've had at least one speaking opportunity, whether that's a summit, an in person event, a virtual event, a podcast opportunity. And because I'm consistently making my speaking strategy, my business strategy, we always have new eyes on our business, new followers, new subscribers, and new clients customers leads all of that. And in an upcoming episode in just a few weeks in January, I'm going to share a whole episode around how you can make speaking part of your marketing strategy. But big lesson for me is that as long as you make that a consistent part of your business, you will see consistent growth. Alright, lesson number nine, this one has just been just magic. Make sure you have if you truly want to like scale from the stage, make I can't say this enough. Get your offers and your onboarding in order. Okay, you hear me here, make sure you know how people can work with you and how they get started. Because when you're speaking consistently in front of 10s, hundreds 1000s of people and you're doing a good job and they want to work with you. How on earth are you going to help them get
started if you don't have a process set up for that. So this has truly been incredible to deliver presentations and have clear ways for leads to come in for them to inquire to get all of that onboarding, streamlined, all of that lead generation going, it makes it so much easier to show up consistently and do it with confidence. Because you know, there's a way to bring those audience members back into your business. So if you've gotten a little bit of extra downtime over the holidays, crank on that friend, get those offers straight, and you're onboarding in order. And finally, lesson number 10. You don't have to do this alone, right speaking, maybe a solo act on stage, but it doesn't have to be lonely. Surround yourself with people who ask you hard questions and cheer you on people who are going to push you because there are days when we don't feel like doing this work, right? We don't want to show up. We don't want to show our face. We don't want to create more content. We don't want to send this scary pitch. And being a part of incredible mastermind having the speaking strategy Academy community in my corner. Like there's no reason we have to do this alone.
And it has been so helpful for me this last year to know that I have business friends that I have clients that I have peers that I have a community that keeps me on track. Because when we get quiet, and we get lonely, we get really focused on ourselves and speaking it's not about us at all right? We need other people in our corner to help us see impact we're making when we can't see it ourselves. Who can help us take that next step when we're getting stuck and queued remind us of why we got started at this at the first place. So truly community has been just so transformational for me this last year and has helped me with some of my biggest breakthroughs. My biggest aha is and if you are looking for a community to link arms with and support you On your speaking journey, you know, we've got you here, in the speaking strategy Academy is always here. Whenever you're ready to get started, we're gonna pair you up with the tools, the resources, the templates, the community and the coaching. To make this work for your business, all you got to do is head to our show notes or go to the speaking strategy academy.com and apply today, I will be in touch. And we'll get you started very quickly.
So, I know that was a lot 10 things, but I could probably come up with so many more. But these are the things that stood out to me the most this year, when I looked over the events that I spoke at the events, my client spoke at the wins, the losses, the inquiries, the organizers, things are shifting, and not in a huge way. But people want more, they want more connection. They want more performance, they want less content, we can do less and do it better and make a bigger impact. I can't say thank you enough for joining me today and all of this year. It means the world to me every time you tune in, you share about it, you DM me about it, you let me know how much you liked the episode. Thank you. Thank you so much friend. Enjoy the holidays. And I will see you back here in January for brand new episodes of the speak to scale podcast. Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode of The speak to scale podcast. It would mean the world to us if you could just take a second and head on over to iTunes and leave us a review. Your support of this show allows us to continue creating this content for you each and every week. And we appreciate your reviews and you sharing about the show more than you know. As always, I will be over here cheering you on friend. I'll see you next week for another episode of The speak to scale podcast.
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