Public speaking is a touchy subject for many but read on.

Position yourself – aka your brand – in the right way and you can build your business. One of the best ways to do this is to take-on speaking engagements and believe it or not it doesn’t need to be that painful.

You don’t even need to stand up there alone; try sitting on a panel as an expert. You’re fed the questions prior to the event and you’re up their with others so it’s not so daunting.

Here’s some reasons to start public speaking:

  1. Get in front of many people in one go.
  2. Create new relationships (i.e. sales leads)
  3. Build yourself as a though leader
  4. It feels good (when it goes right)

It’s all about growing your personal brand and here’s 3 ways you can become great at public speaking.

 

1. Find the right place to speak:

How to Land Your First Speaking Engagement –

Here’s the 4 steps you need to take in order to land that first speaking engagement.

 

14 Tips for Booking Speaking Engagements – BrandingOnTheNet.com

14 Tips for Booking Speaking Engagements by Kristie Rimmele Sometimes finding good leads for speaking gigs can feel a bit like hunting for a tropical spa with umbrella drinks in the desert. It’s easy to get discouraged. But yet when you see superstars that are booked solid, you know that it can be done.

 

2. Build your speaking skills & overcome fear

Killer Presentation Skills – YouTube Video

PublicSpeakingSkills.com shows you a few of the simple behaviors you need become both comfortable and effective at public speaking. Join the 1.4 million people who have taken this skills course for free.

 

How to Rock an Audience: from stage fright to stage presence – Slideshare (slide show)

How to rock an audience: from stage fright to stage presence by Tara Hunt

 

How to Become a Speaker & Not Flunk – Huffington Post

Public speaking is not easy, believed me! I flunked out of my public speaking class in college, not because I couldn’t write a good speech, but because I fainted before I ever got a chance to deliver it. Since then I have developed my skills and have found that there are a lot of ways to gain experience as a speaker.

 

Public Speaking For Normal People – LifeHacker

And the key to speaking normally in public is to squash your anxiety thirty seconds beforehand. Here are a few tricks that I know. Give them a shot. (Tip: scroll halfway down the article for the juicy stuff).

 

 

3. Make sure that people see you in right way

Reinventing Your Personal Brand – Harvard Business Review

People use career changes to reinvent themselves all the time, but it’s important to manage one’s brand in such transitions. Doing so can spell the difference between a bungled change and a successful one. There are five key steps in any personal rebranding: 1. Define your destination and acquire the necessary skills.

 

Four Steps to Create Your Personal Brand – Spinsucks

The discussion around personal branding seems to be one that happens a lot. It used to be we’d get jobs, we’d grow our careers, maybe we’d work for two or three companies, then we’d retire. Now we have to worry about our personal brands, just in case we decide to get a new job or start a business or, heck, change careers.

 

 

The Worst Ever Way To Rehearse A Speech – The Office (video)