In this article you’ll discover the concepts Speaker Nation implements in order to achieve true influence.
One of the fastest-growing ”career goals” in the modern world right now might not come as a surprise to you: becoming a social media influencer. Who can blame these people? Who wouldn’t want to get paid hundreds, thousands, even millions of dollars for a single post on their platform (and receive free products at the same time)?
So many people dive into their platform with the intent of being an influencer, yet they seem to forget one key aspect: to influence! If you want to be an influencer, you need to be truly influential. It’s that plain and simple. Then why do we still see people looking for shortcuts like paying to increase their follower count, using tweaked headlines as clickbait, and posting endless content that has little to no value? What they don’t realize is that, while those tactics can get them a lot of attention in a short amount of time, they don’t build influence that lasts.
If you want to be an influencer, you need to be truly influential.
We’ll be honest, it does take time to build momentum and influence with the power of public speaking, but at the end of the day, we promise it’s all worth it. The connections you can build with your followers through powerful and authentic communication are far more impactful than you could ever hope to achieve using the common shortcuts some people opt for.
It’s worth investing your time in creating high-quality influence that sticks, because in the long run that’s exactly what will pay off.
To help you gain momentum and start building influence as fast as possible so you get ahead of the competition in an effective and efficient way, we’ve compiled a list of our 10 best tips to gain momentum as an influencer using the power of public speaking skills.
01
SPEAK OFTEN
Too often we see people who go through our programs all fired up about gaining influence and hyped up about building their careers, only to end up giving a couple of talks a year and/or posting one video each month. It’s just not enough.
One of the keys to gaining influence early in your career is to speak A LOT. Repetition is the key to mastery, and when it comes to your public speaking skills and building your ability to influence, there really is no substitute for actually going out into the world and speaking to the public. That’s what the rest of your career will look like anyways, won’t it?
Repetition is the key to mastery.
One of the mistakes we frequently see people make when trying to get more speaking opportunities is waiting for the ideal speaking engagement to come their way. The reality is that early on in your career, followers and opportunities won’t knock on your door. That’s just not how it works. You have to go out there and seek them out yourself.
Join speaking clubs and mastermind groups, volunteer to give presentations at work, approach community organizations with your talk, go live on social media. Commit to finding opportunities that will give you practice time, because the more practice you get, the better prepared you will be when the big opportunities show up!
02
BE PROLIFIC
Similar to speaking often, it is important for you to be prolific. What does this mean? Well, the more audiences you show up for, and the more time you spend speaking to those audiences and creating connections with them, the more influence you will create. This will better your chances of catching the attention of the people who most resonate with you.
It only takes one right person hearing you say one right thing to unlock incredible opportunities beyond your wildest dreams. You never know who is listening, so you never know which audience might be the audience that changes everything…
By being prolific and creating a range of quality content for a variety of audiences, you’ll be well on your way to growing your audience, building your influence and increasing the number of opportunities that come your way.
03
COLLECT AND PRACTICE STORIES
As an influencer, one of the tasks you are going to have to put a lot of time and effort into is creating content—and lots of it. The good news is, if you have been alive for any significant amount of time, guess what? You’re already full of content. Your life is made up of hundreds of little (and big) stories, and those stories are what make great content!
The trick is to get into the habit of recognizing these stories from your life experiences as content inventory by documenting them and practicing telling them well.
Human beings just love learning, and that’s one of the reasons why audiences love TED Talks. So when your title hints at a lesson they’ll take away from your talk, it’s intriguing and attractive to someone scrolling through a list of what otherwise might be considered blah titles.
Speaker Nation recommends implementing a system for documenting the stories you recognize from your own life. Make note of them and the topics they could relate to, and whenever you have an opportunity to practice telling them, take it. This way you will end up with a well-rehearsed repertoire of content that you can use at any time—and you’ll always know what to say.
On top of everything else, there’s another added benefit to using stories from your own life: it deepens the connection between you and your audience, which will result in naturally improving your influence.
04
Align Yourself With Other Influencers
It’s easy to look at those in your field working on similar projects as competition; like people you have to work against. But if you really want to gain traction fast, you’ll actually want to recognize other influencers as your greatest allies.
Recognize other influencers as your greatest allies.
These allies can help you discover new speaking opportunities. They can introduce you to event organizers, recommend you for podcast interviews, encourage you when you encounter challenges, and so much more. They can really act as mentors to you in many capacities if you become open to it.
The journey to becoming a great speaker can be a lonely one at times. Many people just don’t understand. So having access to a supportive and like-minded community around you to engage with makes it much easier to get through the hurdles and help guide you along the way.
05
Learn From Other Speakers and Influencers
Experience is the best teacher—especially if combined with a coach who can give you external feedback on your performance. However, getting that experience yourself often takes time and can come with a hefty price tag.
On the other hand, learning from other people’s experiences comes at a much lower price while still opening you up to the benefits of learning effectively and efficiently.
As an influencer in the business of leveraging the power of great speaking skills, it is crucial you get in the habit of learning from other great speakers. Watch videos of TED Talks, comedians, and famous speakers, then take note of what you like and what you don’t like and apply it to your own content. Take workshops or training sessions offered by other influencers you admire. Seek knowledge from others who are willing to share their experiences with you; this will accelerate your progress and make you so much better than you could ever possibly be on your own.
06
Create A Signature Message
Eventually you might get to a point in your career where your reputation and the viralocity surrounding your talks are all it takes for opportunities to find you, but the reality is that before you get to that point you will probably have to do quite a bit of marketing.
It can be a challenge to market yourself as an influencer. Maybe people won’t take you seriously, or won’t understand what it is you’re trying to share with the world.
The good news is, it’s much easier to market a signature talk. Once you develop a signature talk that you can deliver consistently, that delivers consistent results for your audience, and that you can market while you develop your reputation to gain influence in the background — that’s the talk you’re going to be known for. That’s the talk that’s going to do the marketing for you. That’s the talk that’s going to change it all.
07
tell people what you are working towards
This is one of the simplest moves you can make to gain traction, yet we so often see it as one of the most overlooked.
When asked about what they do, new speakers will often list out all of their occupations and ways they work with people, but they will omit the fact that they are first and foremost a speaker. What a wasted opportunity! Tell people you’re a speaker/influencer if that’s what you’re striving to be.
Tell people you're a speaker/influencer if that's what you're striving to be.
Professional speaking is a very uncommon career, so mentioning it is a great conversation starter. It immediately makes you intriguing and gets people’s attention. Plus, you would be amazed at how many people are looking for speakers to present at their events, and get excited when you mention that’s what you do.
08
BE PATIENT
Becoming an influencer and building great speaking skills is a marathon, not a sprint. Too often people start on the journey and then give up when they haven’t made it big within the first few months. The reality is, becoming influential takes time, effort and growth. Even the overnight successes that seem to spring out of nowhere usually only come after years of dedicated work.
Becoming influential takes time, effort and growth.
So while you might be feeling impatient and like everyone around you is succeeding except for you, don’t rush the process. Everyone has to start somewhere. Put in the effort to grow as a person and develop your skills over time. Share your talks consistently and frequently so that you can grow your audience, hone your craft and build an untouchable reputation. With patience, dedication and time you could become one of those overnight success stories.
09
Make It About Helping Others
Many people want to become influencers just for the money and fame. And those are exactly the type of people who don’t make it (and even if they do, they don’t last long).
The thing is, there are a lot of opportunities to get famous and make lots of money as an influencer, but they usually come as a result of providing value for your followers. If you really want to make it as an influencer, you need to recognize that it is not all about you, it is about what you can do for other people.
You need to recognize that it is not all about you,
it's about what you can do for other people.
Think about how you can best serve your audience and how your message will improve their lives. Make your platform be about helping others so that you have the drive and motivation to do the work that will get you out of bed each morning and eventually pay off in many different ways.
10
Record Yourself Speaking
In the early part of your career, there are few things that will benefit you as much as recording every talk you ever do will.
Just like professional athletes review their game footage and world-class actors watch their own films, you need to be able to review your performance. To be at the top of your game in any field, seeing what you did well and what you need to improve on can be a huge help for the way you continue shaping your skill set. You can’t do this if you don’t record and review yourself speaking.
And of course, if your whole goal is to prove you’re a good speaker who is worth listening to, you’re going to need videos to post. This showcases your skills in a way that will circulate the Internet forever, which is crucial to growing your career as an influencer.
In Conclusion
The early years of any influencer’s career can be confusing, uneventful and frustrating. However, by following these 10 tips and committing to consistently improving yourself, you will greatly increase your chances of success. Being an influential person is a wonderful and rewarding addition to anyone’s life.
World-class speakers have the distinct ability to create the most powerful form of influence available on Earth today. We call it “The Stage Effect.”
The Stage Effect is the attraction people feel for you when you deliver a great presentation for a big audience. You create that effect every time you step on stage, and learning how to leverage it will open up opportunities in both your personal and professional life.
