How to Use Speaking to Grow Your Business with Laurie Ann Murabito | Speaking Coach

Now I know you may have a bit of fear around speaking.

One of the things that Laurie Ann and I are doing in this interview is redefining what speaking is and what stages are so you can tuck your stage fright away for the rest of this post, ok?

Prefer to listen?
Tune into the podcast episode here.

Laurie Ann is the host of the Be In Demand podcast, where she takes listeners through all of the ins and outs of using speaking to build your business.

Vickie Dickson: What makes you passionate about speaking as far as it pertains to business? Because you approach speaking differently than most speaking coaches, right?

Laurie Ann Murabito: I think it comes from my 20-plus years as a professional speaker stepping on stages. That’s how I made a living.

But I want to take people back a little bit further, because I’m sure there are some people listening and thinking, “Yeah, well, that’s great for you if you’re an extrovert. It’s easy for you to speak in front of people.” But I am a reformed painfully shy girl who couldn’t even make eye contact with people. I dared myself to look up at people a little bit longer, a little bit longer, and that’s how I basically taught my nervous system to feel safe.

I started speaking professionally when I accidentally said yes to a speaking opportunity.

When it came around, people pointed at me and said, “You do the speaking.” And my head went up and down, and inside my body, I was like, “What are you doing? You don’t speak in front of people!” But self-integrity is one of my highest values, and because I said that I was going to do this, I did it.

Of course, it wasn’t very good.
It certainly was not the in-demand methodology that I have today.

I just kind of got up there and stepped into what I call the college professor mode and lectured the audience for about 15 minutes. It came to a screeching halt when I said, “If you’d like to learn more or have any personal questions that you’d like to ask me, I’ll be in the back of the room.” I just wanted to get away from all these eyes on me.

Afterwards, people came up to me and said, “You didn’t mention your website or if you work with people.” Inside, I was thinking, “Did you not see the train wreck that just happened?”

But they thought it was GOOD.

And honestly I thought that was a fluke! A one hit wonder.

But I tried speaking again, and again, people came up to me. And I was like, “This is pretty interesting.” I had left my corporate job with no business plan, and here I was now attracting clients via speaking. So, to answer your question in a very long-winded way, speaking is just such a lovely way to build that know, like, and trust with an audience that has already raised their hand to say they’re interested in your topic. They have the pain that they believe you can solve, and that’s why they’re sitting in the audience.

Vickie Dickson: What I find interesting about the way you teach speaking is that a lot of people think they need to speak for money, whereas you use speaking to grow your business. How would you suggest someone get started with that? Other than hiring you, of course.

Laurie Ann Murabito: It’s fantastic to get paid on the front end, but you can make so much more money by getting paid on the back end. That is, attracting leads, sales calls, selling products—there are unlimited possibilities on the back end of a speaking gig. One of the clients I worked with hopped off the stage to 27 new opportunities. 27!!!

That just doesn’t happen with anything else you do in your business.

How do you get started?

If you’ve never spoken before, I’ll ask you this one question:
Do you have “speaker” in your bio?

Most likely, if you’re listening to this podcast right now, you’re shaking your head, “No, I don’t,” because you don’t consider yourself to be a speaker. I want you to step into it and claim that title. If you want to start speaking, add it to your bios on all your social media. That way, when someone comes to your social media and reads your bio, they’ll see you’re a speaker and will dive a little deeper.

I always tell people who are beginning to start with their warm audience, their warm market. Reach out to all the people you know who might be in a position to hire a speaker. Think about people who run a Facebook group, a podcast, or a private community. Start with people you know. Also, the groups you’re a paying member of, if they bring in speakers, offer your services.

How to get booked as a speaker to grow your business

Here’s how I want you to do this. I teach what I call the ‘open door to the conversation’. Just inquire, “Hey, I noticed that we have monthly speakers that come into our association, our Facebook group, our mastermind. I was wondering, what’s the process for finding and booking speakers?”

Now, you’re getting information from someone else instead of trying to throw yourself at them.

I’d do a little bit of homework, maybe find out what the event is, discover that they have this yearly event, and say, “Hey, congratulations on this being the third time you’re doing this event. What I speak about is XYZ. If you think this would be interesting to your audience and this event, reach out to me.” I’m just ‘opening the door’ to having the conversation.
Vickie Dickson: I love this for a few reasons.

One, because we all get those blanket emails, those proposals that come in where the person has no clue what we’re doing. I still get them for Health on Purpose, and I haven’t had that brand for a few years now.

There’s no connection; they have no idea what I do, and I have no idea what they do.
They just want to show up on my stage, and it’s gross.

The other reason I love the way you’re talking about it is that you’ve set up every single Human Design type to be able to do this.

If you’re a Human Design Projector and you’re listening, you basically have that inviting energy about you, and you’re asking the person to invite you in.

If you’re a Human Design Manifestor, you can consider that an initiation.

If you’re a Human Design Generator type, you have basically given the person something to respond to, and you’re responding to something in their world.

And if you’re a Human Design Reflector, you’re just a magical unicorn.
You’re showing up and offering to be the barometer for that community.

It can work for any Human Design type, and Laurie Ann, you probably didn’t even know you were doing that—that’s how magical you are!

Laurie Ann Murabito: I didn’t! I love the way you just summarized that because I only know enough about Human Design to make myself a little bit dangerous.

Vickie Dickson: But you don’t have to know all of human design, right?
You just have to know your own to use it well.

That’s something I’m always banging on about in the Human Design space—we can fall into the pattern of thinking, “I have to wait for this because of my Human Design,” or “I have to do it this way because of my Human Design.” There’s a way to use every single opportunity that exists and make it match your Human Design in some way.

I promise.

Most of our listeners here are Human Design practitioners. What would you say, knowing that, about using speaking to grow their business?
Laurie Ann Murabito: Speaking is a great way to grow your business, build trust with people, be positioned as the expert, and build your network.

How lovely is it to speak to an audience of any size and have half of them sign up for your email list? These are people very interested in what you speak about because they just saw you speak, learned from you, and want to continue that relationship with you. These are the types of people you want on your email list. It builds your personal brand, and you can sell things in the back of the room and nurture people.

Vickie Dickson: Speaking is the fastest way to grow your business. We should also touch on the fact that speaking is so much more than just stages and Zoom rooms.
Laurie Ann Murabito: Thank you, thank you! It’s so much more. What we’re doing here is a podcast, so I’m coming onto your podcast, and you’re putting me in front of OPA, Other People’s Audiences. I have a podcast, so that’s my stage.

Speaking in masterminds, doing a sales presentation, talking at a networking event—these are all forms of speaking. It doesn’t have to be holding a microphone on a stage with a podium. There are so many different forms of speaking.

I tell people to find a platform, a stage that meshes with their personality and lifestyle. If you’re a busy mom, you might think, “I can’t predict when I’ll have childcare or when the babies will be sleeping, so I can’t even say yes to a speaking opportunity.” I have a client who lives on a boat and doesn’t have good WiFi, so she can participate in summits where she pre-records something and sends it in. Otherwise, she has to wait until she’s docked and find a co-working space. But she has a podcast—that’s her stage.

Think about a live stream, maybe Instagram Stories, Instagram Lives. Start thinking about all the different ways you can share your message, your passion, your thought leadership with audiences. Meeting planners and organizers will see you, check you out, and watch some of those lives because that’s very different from a speaker reel.

Vickie Dickson: Yes! Speaking is something we all have to do in our businesses. We have to work through that fear of standing up and being counted. It’s part of what builds your authority, even if you’re just showing up on your Instagram stories, Facebook Live, or in a group you manage. We need more of that in the Human Design space.

We don’t need more faceless reels and hiding behind them.

There’s something magical that happens in your energy and the energy of people hearing you when you’re actually in conversation or speaking. It makes a difference.

Laurie Ann Murabito: Absolutely. To give everyone a hint so they feel comfortable on camera, look into the camera. Don’t look at the video of yourself—look into the camera.

The best compliment I ever got when I first came into the online world and was speaking virtually was when someone said, “You have the most amazing eye contact.” I was so touched because I was looking into the camera. You’re looking right into other people’s eyes.

If you’re doing a live stream and can’t help but look at yourself, put a sticky note over your face. Write your notes on there about what you’re going to talk about, keep it short and concise, and just look at the camera. You’ll come across as confident and feel so much better as you’re delivering your message.

Vickie Dickson: Yes, and if you’re not embarrassed by the first few times you speak, then you’ve done something wrong. Back in my direct sales days, it was always, “When are you ready to teach your first class?” Well, after you’ve taught your first class. When are you ready to start your podcast? After you’ve really bombed the first few. If you don’t look back on your first few podcast episodes with embarrassment, maybe you didn’t give it your all.

You always have to start before you’re ready.

Laurie Anne Murabito: Speaking is a skill—it’s just a muscle you have to do the reps with.
The only way you’re going to get good at it is to keep doing it.

Vickie Dickson: One more tip: put a picture of someone you love speaking with, maybe your ideal client, near your camera. Always look at that person as you’re speaking. If it’s someone you’d love to work with or have loved working with in the past, it makes it easy to speak the message for your business that you need to speak.

Ok so let’s say you’ve inspired someone to start speaking and they want to go straight to a networking meeting or speaking on stage. You’ve mentioned a lot of different places to speak, but where would they find places?

Laurie Ann Murabito: When it comes to organized meetings and conferences, there are 20,000 events happening today globally. In the US, that number is 7,500 on average. This doesn’t include speaking on podcasts, masterminds, or other smaller events.

7,500 is based on hotel rooms being rented, according to Meeting Planners International. Events are literally everywhere—you just have to get started.

Do your first one and then ask the host, “Who else do you know that would benefit from what I just shared with your audience?” Could you introduce me to two people? One event can turn into two more, then four more, and so on. It will snowball very quickly.

With over 20,000 events happening globally, they’re in your backyard. Start with your warm market, people you know, and then reach out to a cold market once you get some speaking assets, testimonials, and videos.
Another great place to search for different events is Eventbrite. It’s such a wealth of information because the host’s name is right there, so you can reach out to them and have that open door policy.

I also have a great directory of places to speak. It’s a curated list of over 60 different organizations divided into six different industries. These are associations and groups that regularly bring in speakers for every single meeting, so it’s a great place to start.

Vickie Dickson: Thank you for sharing that resource with us.

If you’re still reading this, I invite you to consider that Human Design goes with everything. It would be a mistake to only look in the Human Design space for opportunities. You can look at Human Design and health, parenting, relationships, business—everything goes with Human Design!

How can you bring Human Design to different events and make it a refreshing take for meeting planners or summit hosts? They’re always looking for something trending to add value for their audience.

Join the Bodygraph Chart Facebook Community to continue the conversation…..