Own the Stage: The 3-Step Formula to Professional Speaking Mastery with AmondaRose Igoe

Hello everyone, and welcome to this week's episode of The Marketing, Media & Money podcast. And I am so excited that you are here with us today, because you're going to love who we are bringing on the show, because we're going to talk about everyone's favorite topics, but also probably one of the topics that brings you the most anxiety, because today we're going to be talking about speaking, right? And specifically, we're going to be talking about speaking, and we're going to be giving you some tidbits about if you want to transition from being a public speaker to a professional speaker and everything in between. So what if you could step onto any stage, virtual or in person, and speak with such confidence and clarity that your audience hangs on to your every word, and your presentations not only captivated listeners, but also open doors to opportunities that you never thought were possible. And the secret to achieving all this wasn't about being perfect, but about following a simple, proven strategy that works every time. Now I know I asked you a lot in there about what you would like to have today we're going to deliver because our guest today is Amanda rose Igoe, and she is a public speaking strategist and an author dedicated to helping individuals master the art of impactful communication, and with her expertise, featured on major platforms like CBS, NBC and Fox News, she's worked with a diverse range of professionals, including TEDx speakers, Emmy Award winners and best selling authors as the author herself of pain free public speaking and share your story, she combines actionable advice with a heartfelt approach helping clients in over 20 countries amplify their influence and achieve their goals through the power of speaking So Amanda rose, thank you so much for being here with me today.

Ah, thank you, Patty, it's my honor. I'm so excited.

I am really excited too, you know, I've known you for several years now, and I'm really excited that we were able to both be able to put this time together. Because I think that now more than ever, really, people are using speaking, but I think also people really are struggling with presentations and that confidence and clarity that we talked about. So before we dive in, let's kind of step back for a second right and what pivotal moment in your career made you realize the transformative power of public speaking, not just for you, but for others. And how can my listeners identify those opportunities in their own lives? Because, you know, we don't wake up one day and just say, oh, you know what? I think I'm going to be a public speaker, right? You know, there's always like some path that gets us there, but it is really about the opportunities in our own lives and recognizing them. So what would you say that was for you?

Well, for me, I was a social worker who wanted to change, so I took a job with a nonprofit, and they didn't tell me that I literally have to stand in front of hundreds of people and speak. I had no speaking experience. I had not taken a debate class in high school or college. I was a horrible communicator. As an arms were common in my communication. I had nervous laughter. So even when I spoke, I literally giggled after everything I said, which is like an eraser. And through the process, at the same time that I was in that position and saying, Okay, I'm gonna figure this out, I was also doing personal development at the same time for the first time in my life. And you can't stand the status quo when you're doing personal development. So two things were happening. One, I was really learning the art of speaking, because there's an art to it. You know, being a good communicator, actually an extraordinary communicator, isn't just reading a bunch of PowerPoint slides. You have to engage an audience. I was learning all those things. But also, too, I had this soul calling when I started doing personal development to be a speaker. So after five years in that position, I listened to that calling, and I started going out and speaking. But I hadn't really tapped into actually teaching people how to speak until I was doing a workshop, and then I got this, I'm very in tune with my intuition, and my intuition said, You need to teach them public speaking. They'll never clearly communicate their ideas unless they know how to do it. And so that. And that was within a few months of leaving my job, all of that happened, and I can never look back, because I think that we all have gifts and talents, and whether it's, you know, it's usually combined with something that a message that we want to share, that we want they'll help us have an impact. But also, what's that talent, that way, that makes you unique as a speaker, that allows you to really light up the room, and tapping into both of those things? Yeah.

I think that makes a lot of sense. I think that for me, I didn't want to become a speaker. And people say, really Patty, but I really didn't, and I sort of accidentally became a speaker. That's another story for another time. But with that said, once I did become a speaker, a lot of times, people don't know this about me, but I literally got sick for 18 months every single time before I got on stage like violently ill every single time. And it wasn't until I hired a speaking coach and I said, you know, I don't understand why this keeps happening. But I said I was going to do it, and I am going to continue to do it, but like, Will I ever be able to do it without being sick, and literally, she said two things that changed my life. One, she said, Patty, it's not even about you, like it's not even about you, it's about them. So once I actually realized that that took a lot of pressure and stress from me. And then the other thing I realized is that I was trying to be like Patricia Fripp or somebody, right? I thought, oh my gosh, I don't want to wear a soap opera dress. I don't want to make, you know, three points, take a powerful pause like that. Wasn't like who I really am, and I really struggled with it. And she said, No, Patty, it isn't about changing you to get in front of people. It's about getting in front of people who want to hear it the way you speak it, and I have to tell you that changed everything for me, and that was like 14 years ago, but I have to tell you, I stopped getting sick literally the next week, and it changed everything. And so I think that public speaking anxiety, it actually affects even seasoned professionals. So what would you say is like a mindset shift or maybe a exercise that you swear by to ease that fear and enhance that confidence?

First, allowing to reiterate too, is that I felt the same way, and here I had no speaking experience, hardly uncomfortable in social situations, so I really had to work on the mindset part of it as well. And when I started focusing on the audience and not in myself, right, took the pressure off me and really put the focus on them, it become much, much easier for me to stand in front of a room and totally understand where you've been and the thing that I've loved to share. And this happened to me when I was doing a yoga teacher training. Now I wasn't wanting to be a yoga teacher because I was a speaker and a speaker coach trainer, but I wanted to help my own practice. And they use a term called Mula Bandha, which is the same thing as a kegel, which is that lower lock. And so here's the interesting thing, if you do a kegel, and I'll explain what it is in a moment. For those that might not know, you cannot have a negative thought at the same time, which is insane. It's insane because I used it on myself. I'm like, Oh my gosh. So imagine anybody that's listening that might be, you know, oh my gosh. Speaking, fear is overwhelming. It keeps me from doing what I'm here to do. Think about that thought that you have now. I want you to imagine that you're going to urinate and they'll do that lower lock. And when you do that lower lock, try to have a negative thought you can't. So anytime you're going to stand in front of an audience, anytime you're presenting, you feel out of your zone, anytime you're having a difficult communication, and you're not clearly communicating at the level that you know you can do that lower lock and it stops it in its tracks.

Now I have to tell you, monda rose, I don't know what I thought you were going to say, but that was not it. Like, I mean, I could have, I could have sat here and guessed, like, 100 different things, and that would never have been it. But I have to tell you, I think it's kind of interesting. And you're probably right. You really can't think of a negative thing. I don't even want to know where you got that, that learned that exercise from, but I have to tell you, I think it's very unique. And I don't know about my audience, but aren't we all gonna try it?

I started with myself, because here I am a speaker ocean trainer, and I have to teach a yoga class in front of my classmates, and I'm nervous as all have, and I didn't know this for, you know, 1012, years of owning my business before I discovered that, and I used it on myself, and I've taught hundreds of my clients the same technique, and it works for every single one of them.

Well, there you go. So I know that you have this three step speaker success formula, right? And you actually ever promised that it'll double or triple results? So I'm not going to ask you to go into the whole thing, really, but could you break down at least one step in detail that the listeners can apply to their next presentation right away? Like, what's something that you could share that like, this is like, the value nugget that they can implement right now.

Okay, so one of my favorite things to talk about is avoid the data jump so many, especially women. It's not always true with men, is that we want to some men, but we want to give so much value our audience that it leaves our audience's head spinning. We try to cram as much information into. That presentation, and then when we do that, what happens to the audience is they check out. They become overwhelmed. They won't have a speaker come back because they already felt overwhelmed in that presentation. They won't hire the speaker for coaching, consulting services, because they overwhelm the door and presentation. And it comes from our desire to serve. Obviously, it comes from our desire, though, to also feel like we're going to give them so much information that we're going to love them. They're going to love us. But the challenge is that the audience can't process all that information, so it's a balancing act between giving information that provides tons of value but not overwhelming them. And if somebody is a coach or consultant when they're speaking, what they want to do is provide value, but leave enough out. So they're going to want more. They're going to want to hire you for additional services. So somebody says, well, Mondo rose, I have all this content to share. I don't want to leave nowhere to begin. The best thing you can do is ask yourself, when you look at that content, do they need to know this? Do they need to know this right now? Or is it something they can learn from you when they work with you privately? Or is this something they can learn if you're speaking to a corporation? Is this something they can learn in the next training level that you're going to provide so if you ask that question, it'll help you get rid of the information that they don't need to know right now, and you'll avoid the data dump.

I think that's really important, because I think I was guilty of that when I first became a speaker. I remember I probably been speaking like a month, like, so it was really early on in my career, and they had said that, you know, oh, we're going to have Q and A at the end. And I couldn't figure out why nobody ever had a question, like zero questions, like there was no questions during the Q and A and I was thinking, oh my gosh, I could have gave them even more information if I didn't know that nobody was going to ask me a question. And so I finally went back to my coach, and I was like, You know what happens? And when I'm speaking like nobody ever asked me any questions. You think I'm not giving them good enough information? She's like, No, you're probably giving them too much information that they're thinking to myself, Oh, my goodness, you've already told us so much, right? You know that I have to process that I don't have any questions to ask you because I'm already overwhelmed. And then she gave me, like, this framework and formula that kind of works for that, and it literally changed everything as well. And so you're right. I think it is easy in the desire to serve, like what you said, that I think it's really important to know that. I think a lot of times they want to know what the next step is. And in this case, selling is service, right? Because what a disservice we would be doing to somebody if we literally gave them all this value and then we didn't tell them what the next step was going to be, right? So I think that's a mind shift in itself. What you say absolutely,

Absolutely, because if we don't serve them afterwards, how are they going to really, really implement everything that they learned, and also go to the next level it can't. And if we don't give them an opportunity to do that, we're basically slamming the door on them and say, hey, that's it. I'm going to leave you right here. And if you implement great, if you jump,

Oh, well, what can you I know? And when you think about it, though, because a lot of times, you know you're talking to them for an hour, like, you know what I mean? I mean we're not the experts that we are, and can teach you everything in an hour that you can just go out and figure it out for yourself. Because it certainly took us many, many years so to gain the expertise that we have, right? So that's why we just have to give it to you in the steps that you need to be able to process it for whatever it is that they want to do. So I think that is important.

And one hand, just one little time to think, we're not training them to be us, that sort of thing. We're not trying so they don't need to know everything that you know and everything that you could teach I know.

And I think that is really important, because I think sometimes people think that people really do that. So what would you say? Like, I know that some of the places where people get stuck is really in storytelling, right? You know, I've seen and heard people that are amazing storytellers, like, you're just hanging on, and it's like, so good. But then I've also seen people where they kind of leave you hanging, or they get you in the mucky muck, and they kind of don't bring you out, because, you know, you kind of have to bring them out of the mucky muck if you're going to do that. But what role would you say storytelling plays really in captivating the audience? And can you share a practical tip? Well, you know something about how to weave a powerful story into a presentation?

Absolutely. So storytelling is immensely important to any presentation, because it creates pictures for people in their mind what something look like. And there's different types of stories. There's a personal story, which I call your send standout signature story, that's his personal story about yourself, and I'm going to go a little bit more about that. So. Then there's stories that you could use for seating. So if you want people to know that you have clients, so you can do a client story or case study, those are great stories. And then there's fictitious stories, stories that you make up to provide for an example for an audience, you're all powerful when it comes to your standout signature story. I like to use very simple and easy, live formulas. And so you want to remember this. It's three B's, it's breakdown, breakthrough, and then business message. So you start with the breakdown. Here's the breakdown part, here's what happened that went wrong in your life. Then it leads to the breakthrough, what happened? What blessings did you discover from that, and then, how did that lead to the work that you do today? Your Business message, what trips a lot of people up, and I'm sure you've seen this Patty, is they try to cram too much of their life into a story. It's really about a significant point in your life where the breakdown happened. It's not your entire life story, because that could take, I don't know, days to share that story or hours to tell that story. So is there something that really happened in your life kind of led you to where you are today? Was it a car accident? Was it a loss of a job? Was it a difficult childhood? What led you to where you are today? A breakdown, breakthrough. So where did, what was the turning around point, what changed, what shifted for you, and then tied it into your business message.

And I think that is really important too, because, you know, we want people to relate to us as speakers, right? You know, whatever it is that we're talking about, and I have heard some speakers where, man, I am hanging on to every word. I'm like, Oh my gosh, I so resonate with them, like they are my hero, like I am right there with them. But then they keep on talking, and pretty soon I don't resonate with it anymore, like they told so much of the story that now I was there, and now I'm not there anymore, right? You know. So I really think there's an art to storytelling and really making sure that you want them to resonate and kind of be the hero of the story, and you're their guide, so to speak, right? That you don't just kind of, you know, vomit on them in your story, so that then what they walk away with is thinking to themselves, you know, oh my gosh. They went through all of that, and they're, you know, they're going well now for them and stuff that's really, really great. Or do you actually want them to walk out of there saying, oh my goodness, I so resonate with that. And if they can do that for them, oh my gosh, could they do that for me? Right? Two totally different outcomes in the way that you tell that story,

absolutely, and I think it's so important that you have to be able to find a breakthrough. So here's an example. I'll be speaking at a woman's conference, and the first speaker came up, and she had just broken up with her significant other, so she made her story her entire presentation about their breakup, literally crying on stage, how she thought that this would never happen. And this she was shocked about it. And then she broke out her guitar and and played a song that she wrote for the two of them. Wow, she did. Had not found the breakthrough she used as an opportunity to bomb, sorry to use this word but vomit on the audience her traumatic experience. And you have to be able to find the point where you can find the good in that situation, and because otherwise it just tanks the audience's energy. We're like, I was in the audience, and I'm I'm sitting after somebody else, and we're just sinking in our seats because it was really difficult to sit there for 45 minutes about

Then to go back to the matter is that probably everybody in the story has had a breakup, right, you know, but what they don't want to hear about is the breakup they want to hear about. Well, what was the breakthrough? Like you said, like, how did you get to the other side, and what great thing happened to you now? Like, maybe you had this, you know, breakup, and then you did this, this and this, to get through it, and now you're with the love of your life. And, you know, whatever the case may be, or, or, from a business point of view, not doing that made it so now you could do this, and now you're able to help all these people, or whatever the case may be, but you're right. We can relate to it. But then what's the breakthrough? And that is an important part. So I think, I think that is good. So from your experience, and you have a lot of experience through this. What would you say is a subtle but critical mistake, even experienced speakers often overlook, and how can addressing it elevate their presentations?

So a very subtle mistake that lots of speakers make is and it's really common, and they don't know they're doing it, is what we do with this body of ours and people, lots of speak returners, don't talk about it because it's not as sexy and unique as getting booked to speak and signature talks and all that good stuff, but your audience. Says, mind is watching everything that we do. So our communication not is not only the words we say. It's what we do with our body language as well. So what happens is, on the subconscious level, the audience is registering these micro movement that we do. So it could be subtle as closing our tips of our fingers, and so we close the tips of our fingers. It's giving a subconscious message the audience, oh, I'm a little guarded. I'm a little the speaker's a little guarded. And lots of times people put their hands together and things like that. They're so they're closing off the audience every time they do anything that is bringing their body in. And so in the audience is registering that as, oh, I can't trust them. We would notice it thinking about when somebody stands behind a podium, right? So that is blocking the entire audience from seeing you fully, so they can't trust you at that level. But it's those micro movements that really trip people up. So even when somebody points a finger at an audience that says to the audience, oh, I'm in trouble. Remember when we were kids and our parents pointed fingers at us for doing stuff, so they have to really pay attention to those small movements when it watch your videos to see what you're doing, because your body language is just as important. I used to be a head bobber. So Patty, what would you think some if you saw somebody bobbing her head, what would you think that meant to you?

Wouldn't be pleasant for me, for sure, just watching them, I'd be thinking like they're waiting for validation from a yes. Like, do you need us to validate you? Because you don't really feel strong in your points that you're making, right?

Yeah. So see, so even just having that conversation, you can see how something subtle can have the audience think something very different than one would expect.

Well,let's kind of flip that. So what is something like, you know, when you were saying how closing in, what is something that they could do that's also subtle, that kind of opens it up, and is a very positive Micro Q,

So to speak, yes. And this is going to also be sound different than what I said, what I said before, but this is, this is a very subtle move. It's a power pose, which is making a hand, making your your putting your hands into a steeple. So that's putting the fingers together, your thumbs together, and but you only do it for a moment. So w hen you want to make a powerful point about something, do the power pose? Do the steeple, then release your hands. Don't keep it that way. And only do when it's something that's super important to the audience.

It's kind of like a cue to say, I'm saying something really important. Pay attention. Uh huh. I love that. So when there's like entrepreneurs who I don't want to say they're feeling invisible in their industry, but they just really don't feel like they're standing out, they're not exactly sure how to do it, and they're thinking about speaking, what would be a one specific way that they could use speaking to stand out and attract clients who value their expertise.

That's a really great point and a really great question. You If just imagine somebody goes to a networking meeting every single month or every single week, and they're there and they're seen every single time. Now imagine a speaker comes in this they were booked to come in and speak to that group and imagine that the the person that goes to the meeting every month does exactly the same thing as the speaker. Who are they going to respect more? Who are they going to think is or qualify the speaker? Every time you stand in front of a room, the audience is the audience sees you as an expert, somebody that they should listen to, because you were brought in to present. So it helps you, kind of, it helps you stand out. And then when you're speaking, everyone's listening to you and listen to your information, they're going to be drawn into with going, oh my gosh, it could help me with this. Oh, I'm going to hire them, versus the person that goes to the meeting every single week or month, which

I think also makes sense too, because you kind of get third party validation there too, because the person that they respect and trust that they're there every single week or month, like you said, when they bring in somebody to do it, they're actually endorsing them, because they had them come in. So that actually does it too. So let's kind of switch over a little bit to presentations, right? So, you know, you're right. We don't want to read slides. I that is cringe off,

Yeah? Let me talk about that for a moment. A little bit more. Yeah, probably, I know it makes me Twitch too. Okay, so people were, oh, I have my PowerPoint slides. Great. Well, obviously, if technology doesn't work, where slides are out. But here's the thing that is most important to consider with slides. Every time you click on a slide, where does your attention go? And where does the audience's attention go? It goes to the slide you've now disconnected. Did from them, so now they don't see they're not paying attention to you, they're reading the slides. So it really you're breaking that connection. So you really always want to maintain the connection with the audience. Some of you might say, what I have to show a graph. Okay, great, but keep it minimal. If you maybe you're an image consultant, you want to show before and after. Keep those minimal but the most of the time where the audience is focusing on you versus the slides, and we too get enough reading slides and all that stuff. But I think that speaks volumes.

I think it does too. And a lot of times where people don't realize, and I don't know why is if you're reading it's like, they're probably reading it faster than you like, I know sometimes when somebody does it, I've already done read it, right? I've read it already. I've already thinking about it, and they're still halfway down the slide, and I'm like, oh my goodness, right? And so I think that is important. But how can speakers design their presentations to not only deliver value, right, but also to naturally lead to more opportunities without feeling salesy. Okay,

I don't, and I think most people who are wanting to speak, they really come from a place of wanting to impact the audience, and even knowing that no matter if somebody, no matter what happens, that they've made a difference in the audience's lives, whether people do it or not. And the thing that many people when it comes to converting the audience into clients, is they don't focus on the closing. They'll write all their contact think about all their key points, do all of that and leave the closing to the end. I didn't have time to plan my closing. I talk to clients all the time. I'll be fine, and the next thing they know is they get to the end of their presentation, they get time. The time up is single or or they're told that your time is over, and now they're closing. Sounds like this. Well, thank you, everybody. If you want to learn more about how you can work with me, come and see me. And that's their closing. And so you really have to focus on, how can you get the audience to kind of move over to realizing that they need you? And the thing I know that you know this Patty, is that if you are wanting to create clients from the presentation that is throughout your entire talk, it's not just your closing, it's from everything you're doing, it's from your introduction, about your services. It's from your audience, experientials. Every part of it comes into play for successful closing, but you have to make sure that you give it the time and energy that it needs, and it can't feel it needs to feel like an invitation, as you mentioned, for not to feel salesy. It means feel like an invitation rather than I'm going to vomit my services. I said that word again. I'm so I'm sorry. Justin going to just feel all my information on why you should work with me and run to the back of the room. People don't want that kind of opportunities anymore. They want to be invited.

I think it's more personal, right? And people like it so much better, and I think it really does make sense. So let's switch a little bit over to virtual right? Virtual presentations. What's the biggest challenge that speakers face in maintaining engagement during virtual presentations? And what's one technique you've seen that works brilliantly to overcome it?

Okay, so virtual. You know, as we know, when the pandemic hit, lots of speakers were speaking virtually. There was more opportunities. And people, some people have relied on the slides and and not really focusing on the interact with the audience, because they need that engagement, otherwise they're going to check out. And so yes, using the chat and saying yeah, type yes into the chat, or what is your biggest takeaway? All those things are important because it does keep the audience involved. But one of the things that I love is actually having a plant in your chat thread. So what does that mean? It's somebody in there who's going to say, Oh, that was great. I love that. So what happens is, by having one person start to engage, people start to also engage, so they're kind of following that lead from that person. And it's, it is kind of like a little subtle way, you know, just having a supporter there to kind of praise your presentation, keep the the chat going, where you don't have to focus as much on it, where they're doing the activity for you. It can be an assistant. It could be a team member from the that's part of the corporation that's presenting. It could be anybody that you want who can kind of keep that thread going.

You know, I have some people that I have worked with, you know, obviously, and a lot of times when they're doing, like a workshop or whatever, they'll come to me and they say, Hey, Patty, how would you like to come back and do a refresher and stuff and and that's how I think them, per se, right? You know, I'm coming back, I like having the refresher. And also, if you're a speaker, I actually love going the same. Second or third time, because the first time I was there for the value and the information. The second time I like to go to a watch, how they do it, like, watch, how they do the clothes, how do they interact? How do they transition? You know, you learn a lot. Like, how do they do the offer? Like, sometimes it's like, what's the funnel and how do they market it? So I love all those things. And the third time you really get to kind of hone in, but I do love being, I mean, you called it a plant, but I do love being able to come back, because I know their content, right? I have been there before, and so I always love to serve them. You know, that was a great opportunity to let me come back, and I will always serve them in the chat by, you know, do saying engaging things besides, you know, yes or no, and saying, you know, Oh yes, I work with them. That was something they really helped me with. I love the way, you know, those type of things that I think it's a way that we serve and support the people that we care about. We've hired them before, or, you know, for whatever reason, maybe it was a free webinar or something that you did, but you know their content enough, in a way, to support them. I think that's actually really a great way to serve and support your power partners, your colleagues in the speaking business as well. So I always love to be able to do that whenever I can.

And then it's beautiful opportunity. You're as you're obviously we give and then we always receive back. And so it's a wonderful opportunity to one, because they're going to remember you every single time you do that. So when there's a speaker spot or something happening, you're more likely to say, oh, this person supported me. This person is here, this person. I've seen them again, out of sight, out of mind. So be be in those places that you want to be seen

Absolutely. And they're always so thankful when you do it too, that they'll usually shout you out. Like they always say to me, it's like, oh my gosh, Patty. Thank you so much. For those of you don't know, Patty's a marketing genius, like whatever, right? You know. So they kind of do those little subtle shout outs for you too. So it's just kind of one of those things about giving back, right? You know. So I know. Alanna Rosa, you work a lot with top speakers, right? So in your work with top speakers, what habits set them apart, and which of those habits can anyone implement today? Like for those that are listening, what are some habits that they can implement today to start improving their speaking skills?

I love that question as well as the other questions you asked me. So most people think, Oh, if I just put speaker on my website, or I announce some speaker on LinkedIn, or I tell a few of my friends, opportunities you're just gonna roll in, because I'm just amazing, and I have such great content, and everyone loves me when I speak. It's not the way it works. You have to be super proactive about those speak engagements 20 years ago, yes, if you were trying to promote yourself as speaker of lots, it's much easier. It was much easier. Today, there's millions and millions of people who want exactly the same gigs that you want. So the one thing you want to remember is your contacts are your number one most important. So you want to reach out to people that you know and see if they know somebody who's looking for a speaker, or if they have an idea of a contact, because you already have a relationship with them. And the second part is you need to go out and find speak engagements and apply over and over and over again. Now, if you're smart about it, which I know the listeners are, is you want to keep your speaker one sheet, your bio, your your talk description, all that stuff super handy, because when you go and apply, literally cut and paste, that's all you're doing, is taking the same information and repeating it over and over again.

I love that I actually have a Trello board. And everyone on my Trello board I have, here's all the things, here's my topic, the description, the takeaways, they're going to get, the downloadable freebie, I'm going to give what it actually leads to, like all of those things. And people have said to me all the time, oh Patty, when we ask you for stuff, like, you give it to us right now, because it's so easy, it's actually easy for me, because then I don't have to go find it too. But I think early on I would be like, Oh, where did I put that? You know? So there's kind of just those things that just little things, but actually they remember when they're hiring someone, how well you communicated, how fast did you get them the information they needed? Those are all the things that help you to really stand out from, you know, other speakers and are going to help you get the gig when maybe somebody else talks the same thing that you do in the same topics, right? You know, whatever. But why did they hire you versus somebody else? These are some of the little habits you know, that you can have that will make you stand out.

Yeah, you don't want them to feel like they're herding cats. And this happens all the time. I'm going to say from person who did a summit where I actually got to interview Jack Canfield, which was really cool. And I'm going to say 25% of the speakers we had to herd cats contact them. Uh, repeatedly over the information that we needed and the steps they were supposed to take. You don't want to be that person. You want to be the person who's ready to provide the information and gets it done and gives them everything they need. Because you know why that door can be opened up for another opportunity, because you were so great to work with?

No, I think that's so true. So say there's someone who feels like they've kind of mastered per se public speaking, and now they want to transition into a professional speaking career, right? What would be an advanced strategy they can implement to position themselves as an in demand expert and expand on those opportunities.

So what can they so what can they so they want to go from public speaker to professional speaker, so you really have to up level all of the information that you're sharing. So for example, I did a call for speakers for my sheet powered speaking event, and I got tons of applications, lots of applications, but when I review the applications, the information is not at the level that it needs to be. So for example, a speaker one sheet shouldn't look like a Word document or something that was thrown together. It needs to look like a beautiful graphic document that isn't overcrowded with information that highlights your topic, highlights your testimonial, highlights you. And you need to provide that kind of, that really higher level. You just can't put I'm gonna see crappy videos and submit them. So if you have a video that's not up to it, then go find a room, put some friends in it, put a professional have a professional videographer, take some great clips of it, submit stuff that's at a higher level than you're currently doing, which is so important

Now, I think it's important, very, very important,

Because otherwise it would just be seen as the person that's just trying to get into speaking, and you have to act as if and show up as you are, as you want to be. And then you just keep getting better and better at what you submit.

Yes, and I'm gonna kind of say something that's probably a little controversial right now, but I think that after the pandemic and with so many people having to pivot to virtual a lot of times, people that were speaking say at networking meetings or, you know, small little groups, all of a sudden now are saying that they're speakers and, well, just because you can speak in front of five people or 10 people at a networking meeting does not make you a professional speaker. I'm just gonna say,

Yeah, you're spot on because, and I'm not, I'm not here to I'm not trying to judge like honey. I'm judging because I am looking at the applications, but the things that I was, was set, was sent as video submissions are just not at the level that it needs to be. And so to go out and get get in front of a bigger room, get quality video and really showcase their best work, because there's too little, too many speakers that have that stuff already.

And I think it's really an opportunity too that, because now we have so many more speakers, so many more speakers, right? I think that when you do those things like you, like you said you, they don't have to herd cats. You do have good video, right? Your speaker sheet looks great, right? You have the description down pat with what the value they're going to bring, right? You know, when you've done those things, when you're going through those I know when I'm screening for my events, right? You know I'm looking at those things, and it's pretty easy to be able to tell who is a, I don't want to say a lesser speaker, but who's an emerging speaker, right? Who's an emerging speaker, and who's a professional speaker, and depending upon what type of event, you know, if I'm going to do this little workshop, and I know somebody has a lot of information about that, okay, that's one thing to have them come and do it. But what would be the way that, when you're thinking about it, somebody who has all of the things they've done the work, that's the person who is literally going to get booked, right? You know, they're the ones that are going to get the gig, absolutely for sure, right?

Yeah, and 100 percent.

So looking forward, right? We just said that. Now let's kind of look forward and kind of looking at sort of like kind of trends. But you worked with speakers at all levels, right? What would your advice be for staying innovative and relevant in the speaking world as it's evolving moving forward?

Okay? So two things come to my mind is, don't be so focused on what AI tells you to say. It still has to come from your heart, your message, because it will never sound like you if it's just written by it. Now the other side of it is the technology out there is insane. I went to National Speakers Association in four. Lynch conference when they're in Orlando, and this the keynote speaker literally had things flying through the air in front of her, not behind her, on a screen literally pointing over here and there's a neighbor. It was wild. So pay attention to those kind of really interesting things that are happening and ask yourself, how could I do things, something that's innovative, that hasn't been seen before, because I've never seen that before. I mean literally, in front of her. And they literally, and they had her change her clothes, literally her, I'm saying literally that few times I apologize. And so they had her clothes here, dressed, then she went, went to the back, and then they had her talking in a different outfit, which was pre recorded. And you couldn't really tell it was pre recorded. It was insane. It was insane. What was happening

That is innovative, right? And we have so many things that are happening.

So

If you had to narrow down, I mean, you've given us so much great content. But if you had to narrow it down to what your number one marketing media money strategy would be, what would that be?

Speaking? But speaking is a number one. Is my number one marketing tool. It's incredible for create, for creating more money, more income, more exposure for your business, all of it. But the thing that you have to do is you need a very clear intention about what you want to create. Because many people say, oh, I want to be a speaker. I want to speak more. Well, how often do you want to speak? Where do you want to speak? What size of the audience is that you want to speak to? Who is your most lucrative audience? Who are those people that are going to invest more in having you speak and invest more in your coaching consulting services? You have to really get that dialed in so that you know where you're supposed to be speaking, who you're supposed to be speaking to, and then who is that lucrative audience?

I think that's really important. And you came there and gift. I love people who come with gifts. And I think that for everything that we've been talking about, from professional speaker to public speakers to, you know, emerging speakers, right, that you have a speaker personality quiz. Tell us a little bit about that.

Thank you for asking. So the speaker personality quiz lets you know what type of speaker you are, and so you all bring different energy, different vibe, different type of information when we speak and how we present it. And so that our personality is important. But how then do we know what type of personality you are? What are our strengths and what are our weaknesses? And weaknesses meaning that where are we not connecting with those other type of personalities in the audience, because not everyone is just like us, and so there's those personalities that audience that we need to make sure that we connect with as well. So bring out your strengths by knowing which ones they are, and really highlight those, but also add to that by being able to connect with the entire audience.

Now that's a real tip there. So that was a value nugget. So I hope we really got that. You're all going to take advantage of that, and whether you're watching or listening, if you just look below, we will have a button right there for you to just click on to be able to get that quiz. But I know that once you do that and you're listening here, you're going to want to connect with Amanda rose. So Amanda rose, how can people connect you to what's the very best way for them to connect?

So to go to my website, which is Amanda rose.com, A, M, O, N, D, A, R, O, S, E, it's it. When you type it in, if you type it in, it might sound like it is Amanda, but it's a m, O, and you can reach um, any the only troll so I'm not is Tiktok. So you can reach me on Facebook, Instagram, X as well.

Oh, that's really, really great. Thank you so much. Amanda rose for really being here with me. I have to tell you, this was a lot of value that we packed in this 45 minutes. But I have to tell you, like, I even learned a tip or two myself, and I've been a speaker for 14 years, so I think it is really important to stay ahead of the game. And I know that you have a lot of things that you're going on, you're working on some projects. I just think I read on social media about bringing back your event even. So I think that is that is really powerful, too. So you're going to want to check in with her about that as well, but reach out and connect to her. So no matter where you are in the speaking world right now, whether you're thinking about it, whether you're kind of got your toe in the water, but could use a little bit of help moving forward, or whether you pretty much master public speaking and you want to become a professional speaker. She is an expert in this space, so I would suggest that you reach out to her. She's always got some great content going on, and she's really easy to get a hold of. And I have to tell you, she's everywhere on social media. So however you'd like to get your content, she makes it really easy to do that. So thank you so much for being here with me. I really. Enjoyed our time together, and I appreciate you so much.

Me too. Thank you, Patty.

And to my audience, thank you so much for being here again with us. I love that you're here week after week, and I appreciate you so much. And if you enjoyed this episode, and I'm sure you did, we would really like it. If you'd like it, share it, review it on your favorite listening platform, and if you haven't checked out our sister publication, the marketing media Money Magazine, please grab your copy at m3 digital mag.com thank you so much for being here. Have a phenomenal week. We'll see you next week.