The 4 Most Surprising Skills I’ve Learned Growing My Speaking Career

Over the past few years, I’ve been pushing myself to build my brand by speaking at marketing conferences. It hasn’t been easy, but, understandably, the more speaking I do, the better I get at it (though I still wouldn’t say I’m a great speaker).

Interestingly, though, that’s not the only thing that’s come out of committing to speaking. Investing in it has helped me in four other key areas that continue to have a tangible impact on the way I run and grow my businesses.

Skill #1: How to Communicate My Thoughts on the Fly

Okay, so this one is a little obvious, but by doing more speaking engagements, I’ve gotten a lot better at communicating my thoughts on the fly. Because I’ve made and given so many presentations, I can more easily frame my thoughts into something people can actually understand.

Now, whether I’m speaking to the 10 people on my team or to the 5,000 people sitting in a conference auditorium, I’m better at taking ideas, grouping them together and delivering them in a way that’s coherent, concise and, ultimately, actionable. That’s an advantage not just on stage, but in any other aspect of entrepreneurship that requires me to think on my feet.

Skill #2: How to Pace Myself

On a related note, speaking has helped me get better at pacing something in order to move it forward. I’ve seen the biggest changes here in terms of my meeting skills. Now, instead of guessing at how much meeting time I’ll need to cover everything I need to, I’m able to watch the clock and do what I need to do to stay on track.

It definitely helps that I’ve gotten better at being able to take the random thoughts in my head, organize them and make them understandable. But if you ask my teams, staying on schedule – and not getting stuck forever in meeting hell – is a pretty big benefit too.

Skill #3: Confidence in My Ability to Improve My Weakest Areas

This one has been huge for me. I’m in my thirties now. Speaking has helped me to learn that, even as I get older, I can still build new skill sets – that I’m not just stuck in my ways.

Communication has always been one of my weakest skills. But since I’ve been able to take that worst part of my capabilities and turn it into something moderate to good, I know I can take other areas of weakness and learn how to make them better as well.

The end result has been more confidence to improve in other areas where I’ve struggled, which I know will continue to be a valuable perspective as I get older.

Skill #4: A Greater Comfort Level With Fear

I’ve always been big on adrenaline sports. I skydive. I race cars. But no matter how often I speak in front of groups, I’m still scared shitless.

I’m not sure what makes speaking so different, but by constantly facing my fears, I’ve become a little more numb to it. Speaking is still scary, but I’m more okay with being scared. I’ve learned to operate despite being scared; to be able to think faster in these moments so that I can do what I need to do without becoming paralyzed with fear.

How to Build Your Own Speaking Skills

Want to take advantage of these and other benefits yourself? Plenty has been written about how to land speaking gigs, but I wanted to give you a few tips about how to improve your speaking skills – based on my experiences – before you start looking into different opportunities.

Go Do It

This is an obvious one, but it’s still a sticking point for plenty of people. Everyone says that they want to try new things – whether speaking or doing anything else – but they don’t always know how to get started. If you want to invest in speaking, here’s what you need to do:

• Figure out your entry point. In speaking, this usually means starting local. Maybe you could present to a local professional organization or Chamber of Commerce. Coworking spaces often host speakers as well. Find the easiest place to get started, and make it happen.
• Expect to suck the first time. If you’re anything like me, you might even suck after ten times too. Don’t expect to be perfect. Do the best you can when you’re first starting out, then figure out what you need to do to get better.
• Practice, practice, practice. You only gain skill through practice and repetition. That’s how you build a solid foundation for future success.

Practice Organizing Your Thoughts

As I mentioned above, this is a big one for speaking. When you give a presentation, people need to be able to understand what you’re telling them – and they need to be able to take action based on what you’ve shared.

That’s harder than it sounds to actually do, especially if you’re presenting on something you’re an expert in. Most people choose a topic, but then they also feel they have to give a bunch of backstory so that attendees will understand what they’re saying. But the more individual topics they add in, the more confusing the presentation becomes.

In my experience, presentations are most effective when you stick to a single, central theme. Examples around that theme can provide color to your talk, but remember that you don’t have to share every bit of your knowledge for guests to walk away with something useful. To get better at this, watch TED talks. See how every presenter focuses in on one idea, and use this same approach in your own presentations.

Get Educated

There’s so much you can learn online, but that’s only going to take you so far when it comes to speaking. You can’t just think through what you’ll say. You have to actually practice it – and you really have to practice it in front of people to understand how adrenaline will affect you in live situations.

Toastmasters is a great program for practicing both speaking and organizing your thoughts. There are chapters all over, so find the one that’s nearest to you, and start attending.

Find a Coach

That said, if you can’t get to Toastmasters – or if you’d be more comfortable with personal instruction – find someone who can coach you individually.

There are speaking coaches all over the internet – find them on LinkedIn, Clarity.fm, Upwork or even Google (search for “freelance speaking coach”). You might be able to find someone in your local area, but you can also work remotely with a coach by sending them videos of your past presentations or practice sessions for their review.

One other tip: if possible, look for coaches who specialize in the kind of speaking you want to do. Speaking to 5,000+ people from a conference stage is very different than giving a TEDx talk to a smaller, more intimate group of people. The better your coach understands your objectives, the more tailored their feedback can be.

Don’t Forget About Humor

Learning to keep people’s attention is a very, very big part of speaking. And although I’d consider myself a funny guy when I’m in a small group of people, I’m not necessarily that funny in larger groups.

To get more comfortable in uncomfortable situations, I attended a few local improv classes and comedy classes. I’m still not necessarily that funny on stage, but now I’m at least more comfortable bombing if a joke I try to make doesn’t go over well.

3 More Tips on Starting a Speaking Career

Since my perspective is limited to my experiences, I rounded up a couple of other suggestions that may be helpful if you’re trying to build your brand through speaking.

Make Sure Your Content Passes the 3L Value Test

Speaker Christopher Penn has a great test to put your presentation through when you’re getting it ready. In a post on his website, he writes:

“If I didn’t do one of these three things – laugh, learn or love – when I was creating the content, then it doesn’t pass the value test.”

Does what you have make you laugh? Will your audience learn something new, or do you have something new you’ll share with them that they’ve never heard before? Do you really love what you’re about to present? If you can’t say yes to at least one of these questions, keep working on your speech until you can.

Have Something Original to Say

This tip comes from Blake Evans, shared in a post on Quora:

“The most important thing to remember about public speaking: it’s not about you. It’s about the audience. If you have a message and style that entertains and educates its listeners, then you’re onto something.”

I don’t know about you, but I’ve sat through plenty of awful conference presentations that rehashed the same info I’ve heard hundreds of times before from different sources. Don’t leave your audience wondering why you felt the need to get up and share what you’re saying. Prove why you’re there by having something original to say.

Know Your Way

Finally, know that speaking because you want to be on stage, or because you want to make money as a speaker, isn’t enough. Speaking, quite frankly, is hard work. It’s tempting to look at the huge speaker fees commanded by top speakers and think about how great it’d be to make that much money for an hour’s presentation.

But what you aren’t seeing are the hours of work that are happening behind the scenes. Top speakers command those fees because they’ve built businesses or developed messages worth sharing. They’ve honed their presentation skills and fine-tuned their speeches. By the time they actually travel to events, they may have invested hundreds of hours of work – just to deliver the sixty minutes they actually spend on stage.

You don’t get through that kind of investment without a solid “why” working behind you. As renowned speaker Brian Tracy explains, “The reason why successful people are successful in speaking is because they have a burning message that they want to share, that people can really benefit from.” Without something similarly compelling, it’s going to be a lot harder to push your speaking career forward.

Growing Your Own Speaking Career

Whether or not you wind up keynoting top conferences or speaking from the main TED stage, I hope I’ve convinced you that there are plenty of other benefits that come out of studying speaking or even growing your own speaking career – from the organizational benefits it confers to the sense of confidence and fearlessness it creates.

What other benefits have you seen from investing in your speaking skills? Leave me a note sharing your experiences in the comments below:

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