How To Become A Public Speaker

Ready to take the stage but not sure how to get started with public speaking opportunities?

In this episode of Not Nice, Clever, we are sharing our personal stories of how we started in public speaking, from small living room events to bigger stages as well as easy, actionable tips —whether you are looking to host events, speak on panels, or lead workshops. 

We are also giving you the scoop on how to share your thought leadership, network with event organizers, and build a reputation as a go-to speaker.  

If you're feeling nervous, don’t worry—baby steps will get you there. Tune in to learn how to put yourself out there, land your first speaking gig, and use it to grow your business.

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• Candice Carcioppolo
• Kat Torre

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Transcript

Hi, I'm Kat, marketer turned brand storyteller. And I'm Candice, educator turned entrepreneur. And you're listening to Not Nice, Clever. As CEOs and leaders, it's your job to always have the answers. But sometimes you need a little help. Leverage, if you will. We get it. This is the place for you. So wherever you're listening, 530 AM club at the gym, on your way to your next meeting or putting out today's fire, let's get into it.

In today's mini episode of Not Nice Clever, we are talking about speaking to sell, AKA how to start to get into the public speaking arena. We're going to share a couple easy tips that you can implement immediately upon watching or listening to this podcast that can help start to get your name in the game as far as garnering public speaking opportunities, whether that's in the form of hosting events, being on a panel, doing a workshop, a webinar.

It's a lot easier than you probably think it is. Everybody starts somewhere. Candice started in the living room of her apartment in Vegas doing women's networking events. I started very similarly doing local speaking engagements, you know, local businesses. So we're giving you guys the lowdown on today's mini episode. Candice, where do the introverts in our clever crew begin with public speaking and if they might be freaking out right now.

So the first thing I wanna say is remember that when we talk about public speaking, we don't mean that you have to be in an auditorium with a thousand people. Public speaking can be a small event, 10 people. Like Kat said, I started in my living room. So there was probably less than 10 people in the beginning. And I want you to just be okay with baby stepping your way onto bigger stages and bigger opportunities.

But here's some small things that you can do right now to help you get those opportunities. The first one is sharing thought leadership on platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook. Really all the platforms work. But if you're looking for people who are event organizers and hosts, LinkedIn and Facebook might be the perfect place to make those specific connections. So what is thought leadership, Kat? Why don't you break that down for people?

Yeah, this is such a buzzwordy term now, but essentially it really just means you've got an opinion, you have a perspective on something, right? You have a thought on a trend or an event or a strategy and you are documenting it on paper or with a typewriter. Wow, did not mean to age myself there just in a moment. And you're sharing it publicly, right? You are leading by example and sharing your thoughts and your perspective online.

You have a point of view, so to speak. So it's not this like big, crazy nebulous thing. That's really all it is at the end of the day. it. And I try to remind myself of this often that doesn't have to be this like crazy idea. Mel Robbins got famous for her five, four, three, two, one method. You know what that is, Kat? No, you've told me, but I forgot. deleted that for you. basically like one of the things she's known for.

is for, I think she was really struggling getting out of bed. so she made this rule for herself that she would just count down and when she got to one, she would get out of bed.

So five, four, three, two, get out of bed. That's it. That's the whole strategy, okay? She wrote it in a book and she's now famous and that's part of the reason. And so whatever it is that you want to share, like the three tips to do something or your own perspective or thoughts on someone else's strategies even.

can be thought leadership and you don't have to go so deep and it doesn't have to be like something no one's ever heard of before. Yeah. That's it. That's it. 54321. Just do it. That's her strategy. It's crazy. And it worked. Good for her. We love that. We love Mel. Okay. Next. Network and offer your time, right, in exchange, you know, for...

exposure to new audiences, new groups by finding somebody within your industry who regularly hosts events. for example, know, for Candice and I, right, she'd look in and around San Diego, I would look in and around Washington, DC, soon to be Philly, surprise, I'm moving guys, not sure when this episode is going to air, but we'll find out. You heard it first here, clever crew.

And we would find somebody who regularly hosts marketing meetups or, you know, branding seminars, right? Maybe it'd be at a local university or a local, you know, business owners organization, whatever it might be. And we would go to them and we would say, Hey, I'm an expert in XYZ. I would love to be able to contribute and provide value with my experience and my insights and my strategies for free at your next event, you know, as a part of this panel.

And it's easy just making that. And honestly, Candice, have you ever been turned down when you have offered your services for free in this way? For free? No. Like that was like somewhere to put me, Like whether it's like, our panel's full, but how about you do this? Or how about next month? Whatever. Yes. Done. No, people are not turning you down. But here's also, here's another reason why though. They're not turning me down because if they're looking on my Instagram or they're looking on my LinkedIn, like I also have

a running track record or like Roy Vaden likes to say like the digitization of my reputation, my personal brand is showing in all the different things that I'm doing. And they see me with reputable people within the industry that I'm trying to be in front of. So then there's that transferable trust. So if you aren't showing up anywhere and you don't have that track record of success, that's easy for them to see. It's going to be a little bit more challenging for them to be able to say yes to you because

they might not have that trust. So that's why we want you to develop your thought leadership so that the ask is much easier and people will easily say yes to you. I wanted to talk about how you find people who host events. This might be a little bit old school, but you can go on Eventbrite or Facebook events and you can see what events.

are hosted like those monthly events. That's kind of what I'm talking about, right? If you're in real estate, there's agents and lenders who host monthly events. You want to go to those, go to that series and hopefully you connect with people. Then you send a thank you note and say, my gosh, thank you so much for having me. This was awesome. Guess what? You're the only person that sends a thank you note. So now you stand out immediately. And then you're like, hey, if you ever need someone and you let them know what it is that you do and that you're an expert in,

I would love to be able to support, I would love to be on a panel, would love to, know, whatever it is that you do. And you're more likely going to make that connection because you've already been to that event, so you're not like a stranger. You've already thanked them and you're letting them know what you can do in the future. Winning trifecta right there. And to take it one step further, so we talked about sharing thought leadership.

digitally, because it doesn't matter that you actually have those thoughts and expertise in your head if nobody else can verify it. I know, that's so annoying, but you actually have to put it out there. You got to put it out there because they can't read your mind, all right? Your spouse can't read your mind and neither can these prospective event organizers that you want to be a part of their event, right? And then you're networking and you find those folks on Eventbrite or Facebook events. The next best step is to create a one-pager, basically your media kit, which is very simple. It shares the highlights.

of your story. talks about, you know, any recognition or testimonials you might have received, right? Creating that feeling of trust. And then it keeps your area of expertise and speaking down to three main topics. I think the number one mistake that people make when they're creating these media kits is that they try to overcompensate by saying, I can speak on 20 different things. Then the organizer is like, yes, you're a jack of all trades, but a master of none.

Start with three, the more specific they are, the better. Yeah. Being more specific is not going to lose you business, it's going to create business for you. So get very specific. love that note, Kat. And also know that if there's something else that they're interested in, they'll typically ask you. They kind of see a theme, they look at your three and they see a theme, like, ooh, what about this? They'll ask you. And oftentimes they'll realize, that's adjacent tigs.

So what I already just need to adapt and yeah, exactly. So I would absolutely be super specific on those topics. And then the next thing, how you get more, how you amplify is by sharing photos and videos from the events that you do get booked for. So if you're on a panel, you want to have someone in the audience taking pictures of you. You want to, you can even hire a professional photographer and videographer.

I do that for every event that I'm in. I have a videographer and or photographer at the event so that I can share because typically at that event, I will book my next events. And then after the event, I'll use the footage to convince other people that they should have me too. It's like this positive.

spiral, right? You want people to know you as being available and an expert in something to be hired and sought out for these events. need to show them that you are already doing it. is a form of manifesting and like, also marketing, but like Candice said, like you don't have to hire a professional photographer, videographer. The first event that I spoke at, had my friend in the audience recording on her iPhone and I used that and chopped it up into like this mini little sizzle that made it look so much cooler.

that it actually was, it still was super cool. But that was like my first, you know, sizzle or whatever piece of content from me doing a breakout session. Yep. There you go. And you don't have, yeah, you don't have to hire a whole team to help you with this right now. That comes with time in my living room. I don't even think I thought of taking pictures that came later, right?

So start small, be okay with baby stepping, but also know that this isn't hard and it's not rocket science. It's literally just asking and being prepared. Take the legwork out of it for the event host, make it really clear on what you talk about, make it really clear on who should trust you and why based on your content, and you'll get booked to speak. And once you get booked to speak,

you'll begin to see how that is leading to more sales in your business. With that being said, I do want to give a shout out to Barbara Bran. Barbara left us a glowing review on Apple and she said, golden nuggets of knowledge. That's what she named her review. It says, these ladies know their stuff. They both have amazing backgrounds and their different experiences help shape the stories that they tell.

It's like listening to the same story from two perspectives, but both are extremely relatable. love it. That was my first time I read that and I'm like, thank you, Barbara. Awesome. Yeah, Barbara. Thank you so much. I appreciate it. We appreciate that so much and we love our clever crew. Thank you for listening. If you have not yet left a five-star review, what are you doing with your life? Leave a five-star review and we will see you in the next episode.

Thanks for joining us on Not Nice, Clever. Remember to follow Not Nice, Clever wherever you listen to audio. And if you haven't already, drop that five star review. Share your takeaways. Tell us your story. We love to hear it. Signing off, you're not so nice, but so clever besties that mean business. See you soon.