I Was Scared Of Public Speaking… Then I Got 8.6 Million Views!

as an online business owner one of the key things that we have to do is build up our visibility and Authority so that people discover us they want to connect with us they feel like we are somebody that could really help them they have that trust in us that we know what we're talking about one of the most amazing ways to do this is through public speaking which I know sounds maybe terrifying but it's so blooming powerful for us to actually do so I want to take you behind the scenes of my journey with public speaking from getting laughed at because I was so bad to doing a tedx talk that has had eight and a half million views and I want to share the impact of that with you and how you can do these same things and I want to share with you the impact that it's had for me and my business [Music] there's been quite a few videos where I have talked about like different things you can do to kind of increase your profile and your Authority and so in this episode I really want to dive into speaking now speaking is something I actually started doing right at the beginning of building a business so I know I've talked about this previously and I'll leave a link to it below networking so early on in my business I began networking like a crazy person connecting with people having conversations with people also I reached out to like universities because universities often have like entrepreneur programs so I reached out to different organizations where there was like a Synergy which is such a powerful thing for all of us to do and for all of us to think outside the box and think creatively around like okay this is what I'm doing what other organizations do this where there's a connection where maybe I could reach out and connect with them and support them or build relationship with them in some way one of the first speaking opportunities I ever received was to go back to my university that I went to the University of Birmingham it was linked to the university but I think it was actually a school in Birmingham two classrooms of 15 year olds I thought I was fine I'm just going into a school giving a little talk just sharing my story so I didn't really prepare anything because I thought how hard can it be to stand and share your story so I got there and the guy before me was speaking he had all his notes and I was like oh my God that was really good and then I realized it was me and I was starting to get really nervous and I remember going up to the front of the classroom talking thinking oh my God I don't even know what I'm saying and all of a sudden I felt like my story disappeared from my brain and my mouth went so dry I could barely even move my tongue and I remember at one point stopping fumbling for a bottle of water drinking the Water by which point the kids at the back of the class started laughing at me I wanted the ground to swallow me I was like oh my gosh this is so awful and it made me realize never again I am never doing a talk ever again without being prepared for what I'm saying but for the next talk I prepared myself and so I would go and do these little talks in front of small audiences and I'd started to perfect sharing my story but then sharing like nuggets along the way that would be really valuable literally every time I was asked to speak I would say yes I would do it for free they would never even cover my expenses but I was like going all over the country speaking at all these different events to like get myself out there to build credibility because when you are the person stood on the stage that audience is listening to you and we all have a psychological connection between someone stood on a stage and US sat there watching all of a sudden we perceived that person to be in a position of authority to be stood on that stage talking to us there must be some reason why that person's been invited to stand on that stage and talk to us so it raises your profile and it creates credibility and then people start hearing about you and start getting to know you and it's really powerful even if you haven't even started your business yet getting into speaking and just sharing your story is such a powerful thing to do you do not need to wait till you have a really successful business you do not need some super unique story where something drastic happened in your life to be able to go and stand on a stage and talk you just need to think through your life and things that are interesting and just start to weave together a story or some things where you can stand on stage and add value the more you practice the better you will get at doing it I had practiced doing these little talks which is great for exposure and credibility and also for my confidence it helped me feel like I was building momentum I was moving this in a really great direction for me I decided that I really wanted to do a tedx talk I thought like it would be the next level so I put it on my vision board and as it happened because I'd been networking and connecting and trying to like build my profile when it came to Manchester which is where I live probably like a couple of months after I put it on my vision board I got an email saying we're doing tedx Manchester and we would love you to speak and I was like what this is crazy so one put it on a vision board but two even if someone doesn't actually reach out to you to ask there are so many tedx events now figure out who in your local area would do that stuff and reach out to people you can always submit yourself to be a tedx speaker so just look at the opportunities there are for you to do that so when I spoke at tedx in Manchester there was about 800 or a thousand people in the room it was the biggest audience I had ever spoken to I was Bloody petrified I had realized in doing talks that my mouth goes incredibly dry when I talk and I had discovered through practicing my speech once in the car while eating gummy bears that if I had a gummy bear in my mouth my mouth wouldn't get dry so I remember putting a gummy bear in my mouth thinking I hope I do not choke on this during this talk and I went on the stage that practice over the years really helped me to cope which was just so amazing give yourself permission to just be you and know that you're going to mess up sometimes it might feel really uncomfortable but we're just human and everyone else is too and most people in the audience are going to be cheering you on and they want to see you do well public speaking is such a powerful way to create that credibility exposure and increase your profile so many people have now discovered me from my tedx talk so many people have discovered me through talking events they see me and then they tell their friends about me and the way they perceive me is in a different light because they saw me as a speaker on a stage and we can all do this you don't need qualifications you don't need to have a successful business when I did talks at the beginning I wasn't making a single penny