Grow Your Business by Learning How to Speak Confidently About It With Felicia Slattery

Our promise today is we are going to talk about, "What you should
talk about."  You know so much stuff in your head, and you
know so many things in your business. We want you, at a moment's
notice, to be able to have a conversation with anyone who connects
to your audience that you can benefit from, that you can build your
list from, that you could make money from, very quickly and very
easily.  That's what I have to talk about. Benefits of Being
Able to Speak Confidently About Your Business Obviously,
there's the tangible number of leads that you can get and the
amount of cash that you can make.  That's obvious. 
To me, the biggest benefit is the confidence and the calm
that comes with knowing that you know your stuff, and you're going
to know the answer.  You're going to know what to
say. We hear all the time that public speaking is the #1 fear of a
lot of people.  We don't dig deep to find out why, and
the biggest reason is that people aren't sure what they are going
to say or how they're going to say it.  So, when you
already know, in your head, what you're going to say and how you're
going to say it, you just have this confidence that is about
you.  So, someone is in a pinch. A meeting planner is in a
pinch, and you are at a meeting, and they're like, "Oh, we thought
someone was going to be here, and they're not here.  What do
we do?  Daniel, can you talk?"  You can be like, "Sure I
can," and you're ready and good to go. To be clear, I wrote a book
called Kill the Elevator Speech: Stop Selling, Start
Connecting.  So, what I don't want you to do is I
don't want you to memorize an answer to, "What do you
do?"  We need to know who we are, what the kind of
work we do is, and the kind of people that we help, and what the
results are. That's kind of an easy no-brainer.  That's
another kind of conversation that, I'm meeting you for the first
time, we're shaking hands and saying hello. Really, what we're
looking at is an opportunity for you to connect with a group of
people, whether that is, a podcast situation, a video situation, a
media situation, on stage, whatever that case may be. "Hey, I'm
going to put you in front of some people.  Let's talk." 
What are you going to say?  How are you going to say it? 
Where are we going to go? That's where we are going with this, and
to me, what we're looking at is knowing, on a head level and
actually at a heart level, what are you about?  What are your
steps?  What are the pieces, or the parts, or the
things that you can really offer, which #1 for you, make you stand
out, and be different, and be unique, be interesting?  Number
2, what's going to benefit the audience?  So, those
are the big overlying principles that we're looking at.  Those
are the kinds of things that are going to make you look good,
benefit you, and also provide value. Sharing Two Sides of Your
Business There are two sides to what we want to share.  The
first side is the personal side, the "who you are" stuff. 
That's how people connect with others.  The kind of
businesses that we're building are personality-based businesses,
for the most part.  We're authors, we're speakers,
we're coaches, we're consultants, we're experts in some shape or
form.  We're sharing ourselves and the information that we
share.  S o, people want both of those.  They want to
know, "Okay, so who is this person?"  The second side is the
information that we sell.  That product, that service,
whatever "that" is. Those are the two pieces, and
that's what I want you to be thinking about as we're going through
this process.  So, personal bits and professional
bits.  Have these, both pieces, ready to go, and be able to
share those kinds of things. So, that's where we're going to
start.  Let's talk about the person first. That may sound like
a weird place to start, but it's actually not because, again, this
is what's going to make you stand out.  Why?  Well, are
there other people in the world teaching what you're
teaching?  Here's the actual answer, "I hope so because if
there's not, there's probably not any money to be made in your
area."  I'm just saying.  Go into a market where it's
proven. Now, what's going to make you stand out from everyone
else?  Is there a right way to do what you talk about?
Probably.  Well then, there's other people teaching the same
kind of steps and the same kind of methods.  It's not
necessarily the professional content that's going to make you stand
out.  For example, I teach people about speaking, and
there's a right way to start a speech and a really bad way to start
a speech.  You know, there's a handful of ways.  So,
anybody that teaches this stuff knows the handful of ways. 
There's a right way to end a speech.  How am I going to stand
out from somebody else?  I'm going to stand out over
here with who I am and what I'm about.  And, that's going to
be the same for you. People are going to be attracted to
you, and your message, and YOU.  Your person. 
You're the reason why people will buy that professional
content, because of YOU.  So, let's talk about your
personal self and think about a couple of different things.  I
like to put it in the context of storytelling. Think about some of
those stories, in your life, that you can, what I call, make a turn
toward.  Something that happened in your life where people go,
"Oh my gosh!  Really, that happened?  That's
interesting," or "That's cool," or "That's scary," or
whatever.  Then, they connect to that, and you go, "So, now
that I've told this story, here's why it matters to you."
Professional Story A great example is, back in 2008, I had been
running my own business from home, and things were okay.  I
had to learn to use the Internet in 2006 because I wanted to be
home with my babies, who were 1 and 3 at the time.  So, I was
doing okay and making a little bit of money, doing some coaching
and that kind of thing, and then I went to my first internet
marketing event.  I was sitting in the audience, and again,
this was my first event so nobody knew who I was, and I didn't
really know any of these people. I wasn't really in the internet
marketing world at the time, and I was sitting and taking all kinds
of notes, and it was great.  And then, there came a portion of
the event when there were a couple of speakers, both talking about
Google.  One was talking about Google Adsense, and one was
talking about Google AdWords, which are kind of two sides of the
same coin. But, they were having some technical difficulties, like
the video wasn't working or the audio wasn't working, and they
wanted to record the session.  They said, "We're going to
figure this out.  While we do that, we'll bring up the
speakers," so all of the speakers were now standing on the
stage.  Not just these two, but a bunch of people.  All
of the speakers for the whole event are standing there, and they're
saying, "Hey, we'll take your questions." I was like, "Ooh, this is
really cool."  I was ready to take notes and everything. 
People are raising hands and asking questions.  Somebody
raised their hand, and she said, "How can I be more credible on the
Internet?"  And, I had been speaking because, again, that's
what I do.  I had been delivering a speech called "Credibility
and Cash Flow" for the last year and a half.  I thought, "It's
going to be really interesting to hear what these really smart
speakers are going to have to say about it at this event."  As
they spoke, I was like, "None of them really have the
answer."  Why?  Because credibility and cash flow wasn't
their thing.  So, they could answer it okay, but that was
something that I knew. It was informal, and they were still
struggling with the tech stuff, and it was a small enough room,
maybe with a couple of hundred people.  So, I felt kind of
comfortable, like half sheepishly raising my hand. Nobody knows me
at this point.  I said, "I could speak to that," and they
said, "Oh great!  Come on up," and then somebody handed me a
microphone.  "Well, hello!  Felicia has a
microphone!  Look out!"  And, I gave about 2-3 minutes of
my 30-minute signature speech, "Credibility and Cash Flow". People
are taking notes, and everybody is on the edge of their seats like,
"Wow!  This is really good stuff."  And, at the end of
that, I looked down the line, and maybe you remember the cartoons
when we were growing up, when we were kids, and there would be one
head over another over another in a doorway; that's kind of what I
saw when I looked down the line.  I had one microphone, and
all of the speakers, I was standing up next to them at that point,
and one of the other speakers, New York Times bestselling author,
he goes, "And, who are you again?"  I was like, "I'm Felicia
Slattery." So, what did I just do?  A couple
of things.  Number 1, I shared with you a story about who I am
and what I'm about.  At this point, you have no question in
your mind that I'm not afraid to get on a stage, right?  So,
now  you know a little bit about me, but I also shared (it's
kind of a share within a share) that I had content ready.  I
had been delivering this speech, at that point, for over a year,
which for me is forever.  That's just a long time to be
talking about the same thing.  By the way, 10 years later, I'm
still talking about the same thing because people want to know. I
know this stuff inside and out, so when someone raised their hand
and said, "Well, hey, I need to know this."  I knew I could
provide value.  From that, my entire business changed. 
From just being willing to raise my hand and go, "Hey, I can speak
to that," within three weeks I was on the #1 internet marketing
podcast in the country at the time.  I was invited to be on
stages all across the country.  I was invited to do guest blog
posts, which was a huge thing at the time.  It was like,
suddenly all of this changed.  My list grew exponentially, I
started making all kinds of money, I had people wanting to be my
affiliate, and I was like, "What's an affiliate program?"  I
didn't even know.  "I'll get one of those, I guess." It was so
fun. What I'm asking you to do is think about, "What kind of story
can you tell?"  Now, I want you to break your stories
into two pieces.  That, for me, that was a
professional story I just told.  You want an example of you,
showing who you are as a work person, like I just shared.  The
other story that I want you to have in mind, that you're going to
share with people, is a personal story.  Again, it can be
anything, but you want it to be something that you can then, kind
of doing what I'm doing here.  Unpack a little bit for the
audience and say, "Why did we just tell that story?  What's
that about?"  And, I'll demonstrate because sometimes that's a
little bit easier. Personal Story It was just about four years ago
that I was diagnosed with non-smoking related lung cancer. 
I'm here.  I'm doing great.  Yay!  And totally
healthy and fantastic, and I'd like to talk about how I experienced
a miracle during that time.  What happened was, I was
diagnosed with a particular kind of lung cancer.  There are
three kinds, if you don't know about this.  I know way more
than I ever wanted to know.  There's large cell, small cell,
and then this weird third kind that no one has ever heard of. 
I was diagnosed with small cell non-smoking related lung cancer
from a biopsy.  They had tissue, and because I had been doing
what I do...I speak and do podcasts, and webinars, and all kinds of
stuff all of the time, I had built up a sizable list and following
between social media and my lists. So, the night before my surgery,
I sent out an email and I said, "If you're the praying kind, please
pray.  If you're the visualizing kind, please visualize. 
If you're the energy kind, I need all of the good vibes I can
get.  Whatever... please send it.  I'll take it. 
I'm having this surgery tomorrow, and I'm scared."  The next
day I had surgery, and when I got out of the surgery, my doctor
said, "I know we had seen what we saw.  It was the small
cell.  But when we were in there, and we got a bigger piece...
We got the rest of everything out, it was this weird third kind..."
This weird third kind is called mucoepidermoid, a weird medical
name, and Harvard University, over 20 years, had only had 12 cases
of this.  Of the 12 documented cases, it never spread, it
never came back, and nobody ever died.  And, that's the
miracle that I experienced in my life. It was a scary time.  I
mean, I couldn't speak.  Ha ha... That's a whole other
story.  I couldn't speak for three months. They had to remove
a big chunk of my lung.  My brain was looking for that chunk
of my lung and saying, "Oh, we don't see it. Ah, you can't
breathe."  So, my breath would stop because my brain didn't
think that I could breath.  There were three months when I was
like, "If I can't speak... [gasp]... what am I going to do for a...
[gasp]... living?  Do I need to find a new... [gasp]... line
of work?"  They're like, "It'll be fine."  Darn it, if it
wasn't cardio exercise that got me back.  My husband was like,
"I told you so."  He's a personal trainer. So, anyway... What
was that?  That was a personal story.  Now, I'm
going to tie that personal story back into work.  How
did I get to experience that miracle?  Well, I experienced
that miracle, number 1, because of my faith.  That's my
personal piece, but also because I had built up this community of
people who were listening to what I had to say, who were reading my
emails, who were reading my social media posts, and they liked
me.  Remember, we talked about this at the beginning. 
You've got your personal, and you've got your professional.
If all I was about all of the time was doing public
speaking and that was it, and didn't connect with people, I don't
know what the outcome would have been.  But, what I
do know is that I received email replies from literally around the
world, and in multiple languages and in broken English [saying],
"I'm praying for you, and I hope you're okay."  And, it was
amazing.  That was because I had taken that time. You know,
you hear about building your list. Well, I think of my list
as individual human being people, and that's how I like to talk to
them, and that's how I treat them.  That's, then, how
they treated me, and they helped me have a miracle. Now, there's my
story.  That was a personal story.  I had cancer; that's
a personal story.  I related it to work, and I'm going to
relate it to you.  If you're not building your list,
and building your tribe, and sharing who you are, you're making a
huge mistake in your business.  Why?  Because
there are business reasons to do that, and there are going to be
personal reasons, that you don't even know of, later.  You
don't even know. I have multiple stories I could go on about, but
like, all kinds of reasons why you want to be sharing who you are
with your people.  So, a personal story and a professional
story that rolls off of your tongue, the way that I just shared
those stories with you.  It's clear that I've told them
before.  I want you to practice your stories, your personal
stories, your professional stories, so that you can connect with
people also. Using Stories to Build Your Business 
What you want to do is think of a way, "How can I tie this
personal stuff into this work stuff?"  So, for me, I
tie my personal stuff into my work stuff by saying, "Okay so, how
did I connect with people?  How did I build my list?  How
did that miracle happen in my life?  Well, it was through
speaking.  It was through connecting with people from the
stage.  I'm going to show you how.  Here are some ways
that you can connect with people from the stage," and then I would
share some content about connecting from the stage.
 You tie your personal in with your professional, and
then share some steps about exactly how to do that. When
you're thinking about, "What are the kinds of steps that I should
share," these should be things that you're going to know off the
top of your head because you say them all the time.  Maybe,
think about the most frequently asked questions that you get in
your business.  When you say, "I am a..." or "I do this," or
"I have a book called that," or "I have a training that does this,"
and they want to know stuff.  What are those three,
maybe four, and no more than five, most frequently asked questions
that you get, that you can then speak to right away? I'm
telling you now, from years of experience doing interviews like
this, and podcasts, and being on stage, and even media
interviews.  There's not a question that somebody's going to
come up with when they are first meeting you, first introducing
you, that you're going to be stumped by, if you've thought through
these 3-5 frequently asked questions.  Because, everyone wants
to know the same thing, so they're going to ask you that. 
Know your answers.  It's pretty simple. When
I share that story about being able to jump up on stage with that
group of people, and actually the miracle story because what I talk
about spoke to a lot of audiences and that's how I did it... One of
the things that people say all of the time is, "Oh my gosh! 
I'm so scared to speak.  I don't think I could ever do that."
How does someone get past being scared to speak?  Ding! 
There's my question.  How does someone get past being scared
to speak?  I know the answer to that, and so, I [say], "You
know, there's three things that you can do..."  Practice and
visualize, those are the two biggest things.  The third is
"expect it".  Know you're going to be nervous and deal with
it. Then, I have steps.  "Well, how do you do that?"  How
do you visualize, and what does that look like?  How do you
practice, and what does that look like?  If I have 30 seconds,
I'm going to say, "Visualize, practice, and expect that it's coming
and deal with it."  If I have three hours, I'm going to spend
an hour on each one of those.  See?  Easy. So, if you
break things into numbers that you know... three things... two
things... the #1 secret of... five things... Don't go above
five because it starts to get hard to remember. 
Unless they are very specific steps that you could totally do in
your sleep, anything above five, that's okay.  But, otherwise
you'll be like, "I don't remember the sixth one.  What was it
again?"  That does the opposite; you don't want that. So, no
more than five.  Three is an easy number.  And then,
sometimes it helps to have the #1 secret, or the #1 tip, or
whatever, like that because people will ask you. 
Here's another one that you'll get asked a lot. 
What's your favorite quotation?  If you don't have a
favorite quotation already, then think of one that you like and
have that in your head, whatever it happens to be.  I love
lots of quotations, so I will use a different quotation for
different reasons, depending on what they happen to be. Sometimes
you get asked that question at weird, random times.  For me, I
didn't even expect that it was coming... Back when Twitter was a
brand new thing, I would do like 50 quotations a day, just tweeting
out stuff. Motivational stuff, because it was fun and I loved it,
and it was copy and paste, so I mean, how hard was that? 
That's how you build your following is, you give people
what they were interested in, and my people were interested in
that. So, I would have like 15 come to mind, and all of
them try to get out of my mouth at the same time.  It didn't
work; so now I've got a couple that I fall back on, depending on
what the circumstances are.  Think about that for yourself as
well.  That's like a little bonus tip.  What could be a
famous quotation that you could share? Call to Action You
know, I think the final step is that you've got to tell people what
you want them to do next.  You've got to have a call
to action.  Now they know you, now they know your stuff, so
now what?  What do you want them to do?  Do you want them
to go to a website?  Do you want them to read a blog
post?  Maybe you've got a re-targeting campaign set up? 
So, anyone that hit your blog post, that you've got out there for
free, you're going to be re-targeting them for the next 180
days.  Hallelujah!  Thank you Facebook!  They don't
even have to opt in.  You're just going to follow them
around.  Not that I know anything about that... Or, maybe you
do want them to opt into something. Maybe you want them to go buy
your book, or maybe you want them to download your free Kindle
book.  Maybe you want them to subscribe to your podcast. 
Maybe you want them to subscribe to your YouTube channel. Whatever
you're working on at the moment. By the way, your call to
action can change depending on what you're working on at the
moment.  It doesn't matter what your call to action
is, it just has to be something.  You just want them to go
somewhere because if they liked you, and they thought your stuff
was good, now give them more.  What's next? Give people their
marching orders.  That's another thing.  In the business
world, people want a leader.  They want to follow a leader
because they don't have the time to figure out a lot of this good
stuff themselves.  They are busy doing what they're
doing.  If they identify you as an authentic leader, someone
that's genuine and somebody that they trust, such as when you do
make a call to action, when you do have them do something, or ask
that they do something, not all of them are going to do it.
However, there's going to be a percentage of those people
who resonate with you and your story that will actually take the
action.  Those are the cream of the crop
people.  Those are the people who you really want to be doing
business with anyway. Why are those the people who you want to be
doing business with anyway?  It's because, 1), they made a
decision, and 2) they took an action.  So, they didn't just
decide, "This is good stuff, I'm going to have to go get that
later."  They did it right now.  You know this, if you've
worked with anybody.  The greatest joy they get is when they
come to us and say, "What should I do," and then they go do it and
get their results.  They're like, "Hallelujah!"  Then,
they go off and do their thing.  We want those people
who have made that commitment and taken that action, however small
it may be.  It doesn't necessarily have to have
purchased a product.  Just going to like the Real Fast Results
podcast would be an action they could take. Connecting with Felicia
If you like the idea of trying to figure out what you want to say
and having it ready to go, and you liked the story about how I was
just able to jump up on stage, that would mean that you'd want to
have a signature speech ready to go.  So, go to
SignatureSpeechSecrets.com, and  you can opt-in there and get
something for free.  Learn about how to do the signature
speech, and if you think the beginning stuff sounds great, I have a
whole training that you can sign up for after that.  If you
think the beginning sounds good enough and you can run with that,
awesome!  I have plenty of other stuff coming your way that
will help you.  It starts with having your signature speech
ready to go at a moment's notice, knowing what you're going to say,
knowing how you're going to say it, and feeling that
confidence.  That's SignatureSpeechSecrets.com. Resources
Felicia's Book: Kill the Elevator Speech: Stop
Selling, Start Connecting Real Fast Results
Community If you are diggin’ on this stuff and really love
what we’re doing here at Real Fast Results, would you please do me
a favor? Head on over to iTunes, and make sure that you subscribe
to this show, download it, and rate & review it. That would be
an awesome thing. Of course, we also want to know your results.
Please share those results with us at
http://www.realfastresults.com/results. As always, go make results
happen!