Harnessing the Power of Virtual Speaking with Leisa Reid

Welcome to Rabble Radio. I'm your host, cara Steinman, and I'm all about helping women entrepreneurs get connected. We live in a society that benefits from women being disconnected from ourselves and disconnected from each other, often at the expense of our financial, physical and mental health, and that really pisses me off. I believe the key to dismantling those systems of oppression lies smack dab in the collective power of women. I've made it my mission to help remove the obstacles that keep us separate so we can join forces, build more wealth and make a bigger impact together than we ever could alone. These are the conversations that will get us there. Who's coming with me? I'm here with Lisa Reed, hello. So Lisa, tell us a little bit about just kind of your background and what you do, and so everybody can get to know you a little bit better.

Well, I am hailing from Orange County, california. I moved to Orange County about a little over 30 years ago from Fairbanks, alaska. That's where I was raised, and I'm the founder of a company called Get Speaking Gigs Now because I love helping entrepreneurs business owners really learn how to get their message out there. Like, hey, if you find speaking and teaching your expertise really fulfilling, it is a beautiful way to market your business. So I help people with all the strategies on how to do that, and I'm also the incoming CEO of the International Speaker Network. After having my own speaker network for 10 years, I started working with the International Speaker Network for transitioning and merging with another community.

That's pretty cool. How do you anticipate the speaker network looking Is it going to?

be a local thing. Is it more online? It's virtual. We started it. So I started the OC Speakers Network 10 years ago, 2013. It was local to Orange County, california. People would come from all over, drive off from all over the different counties from many years, until you know 2020, march 2020.

Until all the shit went down everywhere.

That's our last in-person meeting and we switched to virtual and I found that really I liked it for various reasons. Of course there's things I missed about being a person, but I don't know if anyone's ever heard, but traffic in Southern California has a reputation and so it really helped a lot of the people who did drive pretty far to come. And then we started having people from out of state. We had people coming from out of the country and I thought, well, it wouldn't really make sense to go back in person now, because we have people from all over the world.

It opens up your network so incredibly more widely. That was a really poorly way to say that. I knew you meant it. It's a real big way to network.

I used to have you know prior to the pandemic, and there's nothing wrong with this. But I used to be like, oh, let's meet for coffee, let's meet for lunch. We're driving to lunch, driving to coffee, and I like coffee, I like lunch. But, oh my gosh, I got so much more done with virtual meetings because I didn't have to plan for that drive time. People could grab time on my calendar and I didn't have to create any cushion for traffic or whatever it's like that. So it's enabled me to be super productive. I've already was productive before, but now I'm like, ah, it's awesome, so I get to hang out at home and I love it.

And you did a presentation for us in Ravel a couple of days ago and I haven't got the recording up, but I will. Everybody be patient. But you mentioned something that I didn't realize. You had this philosophy around. See, we call it like biz besties, but you have what do you call it?

I call it the speaker soulmate system, where it's very parallel to having best friends, because it's like this inner circle A lot of times. I think we're taught this is changing now for any newer, maybe if you're in your 20s and you're a networker now or you're out there but I think we were taught an old school way of like you have to give your cards out to as many people as possible and you know this quantity over quality type of. I feel like it was. I know it wasn't sold that way, but that's how it felt. It was just like you got to go meet as many people as you can and go to as many meetings and blah, blah, blah, like a numbers game to a lot of people. Yeah, you'd hear that like, oh, it's a numbers game, you got it, you know not going to have doors, that kind of thing. And so I mean, that's how I was, I learned how to. It was like, okay, that's how you do it, great. But it felt thick, you know, it felt blah. And when I started actually started through the OC speakers network I met other speakers who had a similar philosophy as me. I really enjoyed what they did, or they provided a ton of value and I became close with many of the people. But there was one particular person who she and I were kind of at the newer part of our speaking and we became what I call now speaker soulmates. It was totally organic, it wasn't like we plant, we're like would you be my speaker soulmate? I didn't even know that, what that was. But we were referral partners, for lack of a better term, right, and we still are. And it's been like 10 years and she's introduced me to hundreds of places to speak and vice versa. But it's just, I always try to tell people it doesn't have to have a ton of people, but those close relationships, like a business bestie, are so valuable If you can find a couple, even just a handful, even three you know this is not talking about a lot of people just find those couple of people that you really want to play in that sandbox with. It can make your life so much easier and you're not like scattered all over the place trying to meet all these new people all the time.

Yeah, I, you know how much I love this because that's very similar to my perspective around networking online and referral partners and being strategic about it. And when we think about this whole like networking and visibility thing, it's really overwhelming. If you're trying to get speaking gigs, I hear a lot of advice around like just apply, just apply everywhere, just, you know, send, and that's almost like cold emailing people, right, I mean it essentially is.

It's what I call a soul sucking activity, like if someone's like I was Googling speaking gigs. I'm like you could Google speaking gigs till you're blue in the face and passed out. I mean, honestly it is. It's so much of a time sack. I'm not saying that no one does it, but I mean if, if you want to go that route, I would highly recommend hiring someone. Or there's even services. They've already done all that work. You don't have to go and do all that work. But even if you have the link to the place, it's all the applications are different, what they're asking for might be different, all the rules are might be different. So it's still kind of in that time suck, soul sucking activity column. I would put that in when I have a cold called or cold emailed for speaking engagements for seven, eight years now, but I still speak. I mean I don't know how many. I've given over 600 talks, so it's not. I mean there's never a shortage, is what I have to say. So but when you align yourself with the right person.

So how did you, how did you and your first speaker, soulmate, meet?

We met at the OC speakers network. It was at the OC speakers. Okay so my was my invention, but you could meet them anywhere. You could meet them in Ravel, you could meet them. You could. I always recommend, like well, think of someone who you might want to play with, you know who, and my three criteria, this is like the perfect trifecta. It doesn't have to fit all these, but this is a good place to start. Someone that speaks at a similar frequency as you. You know, just to make it fairsies, right, like you got to make it a little, even Steven and you say frequency, you mean like a certain level, right, Like yeah, certain levels, certain time.

If you're just getting started, maybe you're not going to be an ideal soulmate for somebody who's already doing Ted talks and things that are like very high profile.

Right, so kind of on that same wavelength, you know, and think of like in it. So goes back to the best friends, right, think of like elementary school, like you usually aren't Doesn't mean you can't be, but like typically your best friends in the same grade as you. Maybe they live down the street from you or you know like we have certain similarities and that's why we're attracted to people. So it doesn't mean it has to be like that, but that's common to be attracted to someone who is along the same.

Yeah, it's called homophily.

There we go, the one we're attracted to similarly.

Yeah, like calls alike.

Exactly, the second thing is you got to know, like and trust them. That's obvious, but it's in a little bit of a different lens. Watch them speak, do they have a recording, do they have a video? Or can you go see them live? Or have you taken one of their workshops or tried out one of their coaching sessions? And for the same, for both like, because you're going to be literally recommending this person, you're putting your name on that person, so you want to make sure not only do you like them, but I mean, are they going to fall through or they're reliable?

Your reputation is important. If you're giving referrals, your reputation has to remain pristine. I mean, and that's definitely you don't want to be recommending somebody who you actually wouldn't want to stand behind.

Exactly. And then the third thing is really this is the best scenario when they speak to a similar audience as you but they're not your competition, because then it just makes it easy flowing, for whatever speaking engagements they give, they could probably refer you and vice versa. So that way you're doubling, tripling exponentially your opportunities. And if you think about it I'm not a mathematician, kara but if you think about it when, if you have three to four speaker soulmates, then you're all working together and you're exponentially increasing your bookings instead of just doing it all by yourself. I will say, even though to me this concept is super simple finding the person is going to take a little bit of effort. Unless you just happen to get lucky and find that person the first call you make.

But networks help with that. You are bringing together a network of people and that will make it easier to find. What kind of events are you going to have available?

Yeah, we have monthly events and it's now like so I've said that OC speakers network but we're moving to International Speaker Network, which is on ispeakernetworkcom, which still isn't even. We're still it's existing, the website's existing, but it's like we're still in transition. So excuse me if it's not transitioned yet, but we meet monthly, typically on the first Tuesday of the month, from one to three Pacific virtual virtual and we do often education networking. We're there to help you get booked. I mean, if you've got, there's going to be people who have a podcast, they might announce this, or speaking opportunities, they might announce that. We also do something called speaker referral circles, so that I'm literally creating a lab for you to say, hey, this is what I speak on and these are great referrals for me. Someone else in your breakout room might be like, oh my gosh, I know X, y and Z, so I'm literally creating a place for you to possibly find your speaker soulmate. Like, I can't do it all for you, but I'm so excited.

Yeah, it sounds like if you show up, you're creating all these opportunities, you're creating the right kind of climate and ingredients for this perfect speaker soulmate pie to be made.

Yeah, there we go.

I like it, or cookies, or whatever you like. I like cookies and pie. I love that and I think we miss a lot. A lot of us kind of miss the idea that we're not. Actually the value is not necessarily even in the people in the room sometimes, but it's the 150 people they know pretty well, yeah, and that just gets. That's where it kind of gets exponential, like, oh, you know who you should meet.

It's also like there's this thing of practice and repetition and getting used to quote unquote, like getting used to saying what you speak about, getting used to saying these are the audiences that I speak from, getting used to asking Because I've I'm telling you, I've gotten. I got a really huge corporate gig because I was at a barbecue, like a neighborhood barbecue, so I was in a networking thing. I didn't have any cards with me, but because I know what I'm and I know what my topic is and people know that that's what I do, because I tell them, and not all the time, but you know they see me on LinkedIn or whatever. You're going to get opportunities, but not if it's a big secret, not if you aren't comfortable talking about it.

Yeah, and it takes a little. You're right, it takes a little bit of practice to get used to saying, especially if you're moving into a space that you're not used to saying that already. It takes a minute for your brain to be like oh yeah, I speak about because, especially if you haven't really done it before, yeah, you feel like maybe fraudulent, or people will say imposter syndrome, or you're still doubting.

So that's why, like when I work with people in the speakers training academy, one of the first things we do we do this pick off thing called get your talk ready to rock session, and we have it to where I'm like I am there with you, I am licking your arms, like let's do this thing, we're going to get this baby born, which I mean your talk. You know like so that you have a title you're excited about. You have it all ready to go. If someone's like, hey, would you like to speak for our group, you're like yes, please, and you have a plan. And I think that's probably one of the biggest holes for most people who are getting started as a speaker. They're like I don't know what to do, I don't know what to talk about, and that can be scary.

And nobody wants to get up there and be like uh, uh.

Yeah, you want to increase your odds of success. Right, like you could, you could create your talk by yourself, but if you've never done it before, you're probably going to make a lot of mistakes. That's, you're going to make mistakes anyway, but let's lessen them.

Yeah, I'm glad you mentioned podcasts too, like podcast swaps or opportunities to speak on podcasts, because that's really great, really low risk way to start getting into speaking and that's kind of where I've. I've, I did, I did a program, I did Carol Cox's thought leader academy in January and I really love the way that she organizes, like her ideas and stuff. But I also was running up against a lot of mindset stuff around speaking and that I found that being willing to speak on podcasts made it a little bit less difficult to make that identity shift.

Right, cause it also. Have you ever heard that commercial Like, how many licks does it take to get to the middle of the titsy pop? Right, if you grew up in the 80s, you know, you know that. Totally. You know that, yeah, yeah, you'll, yeah, like one, two, three. Well it's, you know, we don't actually know how many, but I think of that as creating your own unconscious competence in your messaging, like meaning you don't have to think about it anymore, you just it's in your DNA, it's in your bones, you've got it. Like if, if you were at the grocery store, if you were at it, you know, had a microphone in your hand, if you were on a podcast, if you were, you could be like this is what I speak on and here's it, and you could literally give your talk without any slides or notes or whatever. Right, that's where I want everyone to be. However, it's not instant, like it's not. It takes time for your body and your muscles and your thoughts and all that stuff to to smooth out, and so those podcasts are awesome for that, because you can be like oh, I, actually someone asked me what I did and I told my little story about who am I, what do I do, and you get more comfortable and like why is it important to do this thing that I'm good at, or why is it important to be in this program, or whatever? Whatever it is that you're trying to convey gets way easier the more time you talk about it.

And it's so low risk because we can edit out anything. Yeah, like usually people are pretty cool about that, and if you said I actually didn't mean to say that, can you edit that out, they'd be like yeah, sure, no problem.

Well, also, you're getting I mean on top of that, you're getting exposed to that, whoever that person's community is.

They're putting it out there.

So it's like it's such a win-win being on podcasts Easy, easy win. There's so many to choose from.

What are some other great ways to kind of like dip your toe into the speaking world if you're not ready to like hop up on a TED? I mean, I know I keep saying Ted because that's where my head goes Like big corporate events or, you know, conferences and things.

I think the thing that people sometimes forget is that speaking gets speaking. So if you're out there doing something you're probably going to and you do, let's just say you do a good job. Or the person like, oh, I really like what they said, you're probably going to get thought of for the next thing. Quite often I've had I've been in a talk especially now on Zoom because you people, you know, private message me and stuff like that and they're like oh my gosh, could you come and speak for this other group? Like I'm literally getting speaking leads and referrals while I'm doing it and it works. I've been doing this for 10 years. It works before Zoom and it works during Zoom. So that's one way I think. Sometimes we think like, oh, I've got to be in front of this big thing and with all the people, like sometimes I'll have people say, can I just like I want to talk for like 5,000 people, all CEO millionaires who have tens of money, and I'm like, okay, now hold on a second. Lots of people would be want to talk about it, but are there 5,000 CEOs sitting in the audience? Probably not. So let's just figure out what is it that you're trying to do and who? Where do those people gather Like, is it a certain association, is a certain group, is a certain type of audience? Do you have a certain talent? And when you start to get really clear on your yeses and your noes, then you start. Okay, here's where I can go. It's not as hard as people think that it's like oh well, that's within reach. I can do that. A lot easier way to is to start kind of local now with virtual, I mean you don't have to be virtual. There's so many, so many opportunities. That's a really, really good news. There's so many. There's more than you can even think of. But if you think, okay, let me just, so I don't get overwhelmed with all the opportunities and all the choices like where do I live? Okay, what, what do I know in this city or county or whatever you know this area? Who do I know who? What groups do I maybe know of that? Invite speakers. Like that's the easiest way, like you just insert they already. They need a speaker, you're a speaker. It's peanut butter and jelly situation, like put yourself together.

Yeah, Like if you solve a problem that their audience needs solved right, they're going to want you to share your knowledge. I run into that with Ravel all the time. I always want people to come in and you know that's value add for my community. If I can help them solve more problems then they want to be there.

And you're more valuable. Yeah, the community is more valuable and it gives you content. You don't have to come up with everything on your own, you know.

How do you think we should think about being paid to speak? Is that something that we should be shooting for, or is there enough value in just the visibility part of it that we shouldn't be focused on that so much?

I love that question because there's so much wrapped around that payment and it's because we're in this time of how it used to be and how it is now and then, and there's both and options. One of the things that I'll talk about in I talked about in my book and it's one of the modules in our speakers training academy is monetize your speaking. To me, that formula is different for everyone. It's not, there's not a rule of like you can or you can't do X, y and Z, but you have to consider. It's kind of like when you go to the store and you're picking out a dress as women know, not every dress is going to fit everybody type so you kind of have to go like what am I working with here? Okay, I need a long short. Where are my assets? What am I? I want to show off what looks good on me and sustain with this type of thing. They're like okay, do you have sales experience? What type of sales experience Do you have speaking experience in the past? Do you have a book? Do you not have a book? Are you wanting to sell from stage or you're not wanting to sell for stage? Do you have something to offer? Yes or no. So all of these things go into play when deciding what the strategy is. I have clients who do both. I have clients who prefer one method over the other, meaning like they want to be a paid speaker versus they want to go to you speaking to get clients, which those are. Sometimes those are the same thing, but quite often they're different. And I have I love waving my fee, which some people refer to as free speaking. I love doing that because when I'm in front of the right room, in front of the right people, because I know that's how I'm going to attract the right clients that I really want to work with, and I work best for my model because I work pretty intimately with people. So it depends.

So it's just a personal. It depends on your business model and kind of what your goals are.

It is and it can change. You know it can. It can change and evolve and you can have multiple approaches. One of the things I'll share in my when I'm working with my clients is having a monetization menu. I mean like, so you have different choices depending on different venues, like if you are in a keynote speaker situation and they're asking you how much do you charge to speak. You need to have that information. Don't say nothing. Well, and you also don't want to be in a panic like, oh crap, they asked me how much. I have no idea how I've never gotten paid before. What do I say, you know? So you want to have those things thought out. It's like using your higher consciousness thinking when you're calm, strategic, relaxed, have a thought yeah, and you know what would work for me, based on my that's, based on what's in the marketplace, like where do I want to start? Right, and then you can always move up from there. But you don't want to do it in a panic.

Yeah, definitely. What are some other ways that we can be compensated, because I know that it's not always about dollars. We're talking about visibility versus dollars, because people pay for visibility visibility too.

Right. Yeah, there's different things, there's different times. So many ideas going through my head for this answer yes, you can. Okay, let me back up how I think of each speaking engagement. When I'm considering a yes or no, is I think of leverage A? A? Am I a fit for the audience? If I am a fit for the audience, it's pretty much a yes right, because then I know I could probably attract my ideal clients and such. But let's say you're newer and you don't have any video of you speaking. You don't have any photos of you speaking, you're just still getting out there. So it's like, yeah, you might say yes to something, even if you're not quite sure if it's a perfect fit. But you wanna get the practice, you wanna get the relationship you want to you. Maybe you'll get a client. You wanna maybe set up a, like I'll say, set up a tripod, make sure you get videotaped. It doesn't have to have a professional videographer there, but if they do, that's great. Maybe you'll get a table, depending if it's an in-person event and you're like you could put your stuff out on this cool table, great, that would be another way to get clients. So there's a lot of different ways that I'll recommend. If you have a book, maybe you'll do book sales. Oftentimes it depends with book sales. That's a controversial topic because I think sometimes people think, oh, I have a book now I'm made it, now I'm going to make millions and I'm like. Well, like for me, I don't bring my books to sell at an event. But because I would prefer to talk to someone about my speaker's training academy program than offer a $15 book, right, I'd rather give them the book for free.

to be honest, yeah, I know a lot of people looking at their. There are a lot of people looking at books these days because it's so much easier to publish as a business card that you could hand somebody that has, like, all this authority built into it, because it's not easy to publish a book.

No. And then that's why I said like it's controversial, because I'm not saying don't have a book. I think having a book is great. Where I think people get a little stuck especially entrepreneurs you probably can relate to this we're like wow, what project do I start with? Like what should I do first? Should I do this, should I do that? And sometimes people think, oh, I can't be a speaker because I don't have a book. I'm like, no, no no, no. You do not have to have a book in order to be a speaker. Is it cool if you have a book when you're speaking? Yes, yes, of course it's going to be cool, but it's also cool if you have programs. It's also cool if you have a sales system and a CRM and videos, and, and, and, and, and, and. Yeah. So, just one step at a time. What's the quickest way to cash? And speaking is a great way for you to have a fulfilling way to market your business without having a ton of fancy systems. And then, guess what, you can fund your book right Like what, if you get a couple clients and then, great, that pays for you to write your book.

You know, yeah, and even so, what are some places that people can find speaker soulmates outside of, like if they wanted to join Because you were I'm getting around to this thing that I'm trying to say here. You were more regional, but now you're with the International Speakers Network. You're kind of going all over the place.

Yeah, anyone from around the world can join us, yeah.

So that would be one way. And are there online? Are there other little online locations or like? I guess I'm thinking like of looking at who has spoken for different, what's the word? I'm looking for Summits and things like that and looking for people who are aligned with you and reaching out directly.

Yeah, I think once you're aware like there's no rule on it, right, like once you're aware of the concept and if that is a goal that you have of like I would like to be speaking more you just it's kind of like when you're buying a car. All of a sudden you're like, oh, you see that car all over the road, you know when. You never saw that car before, but all of us now you're focused. So it's the same sort of thing. Like you might look through your Instagram, facebook, friends connections, linkedin connections. You might notice an article by someone. You're like, oh, I didn't know they were a speaker. Well, that sounds kind of cool. And you, you know, maybe have a virtual coffee with that person. It's kind of like dating. To be honest, it really is like dating. Like, all of a sudden you're like, oh, like, if you're in a relationship, you're not necessarily checking out the single people around you, right, but if you're single, you're like, ooh, yeah, same concept, but again, you don't need a lot. You maybe two or three. So you start that note those appointments and saying, hey, I'm looking for a referral partner. You don't have to call it speaker soulmate Looking for a referral partner for speaking engagements, someone that I can refer to and that someone feels comfortable referring to me. Is that something that you're interested in? You know, and then you test them out and I'll tell you, kara, I've had quite a few dates. I'll say with speaker soulmates that we only had one date.

It sounds really, really similar to how I network with people in terms of business referrals, and it's not everybody's a winner, like it's kind of like you said, dating, and maybe you have a few great relationships in your life but not everyone's gonna be great. And I think we shift and grow too, as in our businesses. We change and our speaking probably evolves and we might swap out someone, maybe stop speaking so much and then you have to replace them with somebody else.

Yeah, my original speaker soulmate and I had similar. We used to live in a similar area. Then she moved across the country so we thought, oh, how are we gonna do this, Cause? This is when we were both speaking in person. Well, she was still. It kind of worked out. She was still traveling to go speak a lot, so it worked itself out. And then when the pandemic hit, we both shifted to virtual and then that was a whole other huge, huge surge for both of us that we were not expecting. We weren't predicting the pandemic. Had the pandemic not happened, we probably would have ended up phasing out because she was stopping her traveling as much.

But you know, what are some of the pros and cons of the virtual speaking versus the in-person?

Well, I think if it is like the ad for, like Ross Dress4less, where you're like you could get the designer outfit or the Ross outfit, right, they both have positives. Like because the in-person you get to chat with people, you can walk through the audience as a speaker, you can, maybe you have a table or you have other items that people can grab. They can talk to you after in the bathroom on that you know what I mean. Like all that. Just you know just how networking is and you can get video of you in-person. But virtual is so much more time saving in the sense that, like, if I speak in person I want to get there before everyone else. I want to set up. I don't want to be setting up while people are walking in. That's just personally I don't like that and I don't want to be packing up when people are there. So I try to be kind of first in, first out, last out. And you need to bring it a whole bunch. You know you got to make sure the equipment is there and that's all taken care of handouts, pieces of paper or things like that Virtual gosh. You just literally click on your laptop and you are good to go. But you need to have your links ready. Okay now I love the chat. I love having the chat as a speaker because people can comment, I can engage as we're going If they have a question. Oh no wait, go back to that slide. People aren't really going to yell that out in an in-person. Oh yeah, you know, I think you don't know what people are thinking, and this way you can really get people to engage. It's so fun. You can see everyone's name, you can see their background, you can see, you know like you can kind of shout them out like hey, carol, it looks like you like to read a lot of books. So I thought so cool, I like how they're all organized right. So I can yeah, I can say something versus, like, if you're way in the back and you even have a name tag on, I can't read your name tag, I don't know anything about you. So it gives you a little bit of insight and so I personally love it. People can click right on the link or the QR code or whatever and grab your stuff right then and there versus in-person there's. They can also go in the QR code. They can also click a link. Well, they can't. They would have to, you know QR code or type the link in. Some people still are old school and want to write it out. Some people are really fast on their phones, some people aren't, you know. So it's. You just have to be aware of the different ways in which people can access your whatever it is that you're offering.

Yeah, it seems like that whole the whole virtual thing has opened up so many different opportunities that will allow people to get more visibility and practice and speaking that to just word like, especially if you've got kids like I never would have imagined going. My son's almost 17 now and he drives himself so I could go places and speak or do things now that I can never have done you know five years ago but I could have still spoken virtually places.

Well, there's also a plate like maybe someone doesn't live in a populated area and now, listen, you're like, oh wait, I don't. I could live, you know, in the wilderness, on a lake, somewhere that's isolated, and still be visible, still have. As long as you have internet and a laptop, you're pretty good to go. So it's really a level playing field. Also, what I like about virtual or just all of us being more attuned to Zoom you don't really have an excuse at this point not to have a video. It's like you can literally make a video, click the record button on your Zoom, you know, on your Zoom and record yourself. You could do your talk or whatever, record it. Now it's in front of a live audience, but that's okay. It still gives people an idea of like who you are and your personality.

Yeah, I love that. So I know you've got the International Speaker Network that's coming into its transition. You're transitioning over, so that's happening. But if someone wanted to work with you more one-to-one, what kind of services or programs do you offer to get more help there?

Yeah, it's all on GetSpeakingGigsNowcom, but they can. The most popular program I have is the Speaker's Training Academy. It's a six month container and it's open enrollment. If anyone doesn't know what that means like. If you're ready to start, we'll get you started, as long as there's a spot available. I have limited spots, but it's my favorite thing to do because it's really like helping somebody with all the tools they need to figure out. How am I going to use speaking to grow my business? How am I going to use it to attract my clients? What often have so many questions about all that? Where do I get started? What do I do? How do I do this? How do I do that? How do I make money? How do I get booking? Where do I go? Everything is there for you. It's a combination of one-on-one time, some mastermind time, some curriculum that you get access to. I am super direct. I don't like giving you a whole bunch of crap that you're not going to use. It's like no Hallelujah, yeah, oh, my gosh. I had a coach one time where I had access to her library. It was like 150 videos. I'm like I am not going to watch 150 videos.

Can nobody get time for that.

Yeah, I don't. Even if it cured cancer, I still am not going to watch all the videos, because people who are doctors would be maybe watching them, not me.

I hope the doctors are watching that, but I'm not interested.

I hope they're watching that, yeah, so I'm very like let me give you the exact pieces, because I don't want you spending a ton of time on stuff that you're not meant to be doing. It's like get in there, write the bio, we'll check it and then move on. You can always change it later, but the whole point is to get you ready to get out there speaking so you can do it while you're in the program with me, because then you're going to have more questions after that, your first speaking engagement. You're going to be like, oh my gosh, that's so amazing. Wait, but what do I do? If I do, that is what is going to happen because you've never done it before. And I'm not to say I don't only work with brand new speakers. I work with people who've done it before. But one of the things that I've noticed is that sometimes people say to me well, I've tried speaking, it's not working, I'm going to give up. And I'm like, oh my gosh, that is so sad because, like some things, there's a hole in the boat. You just don't know where the hole is right. Yeah, it's like let's find the hole and fix it.

And, like you just said, you can sit there, for there's a lot of different ways to speak to get visibility for your business. There's a lot of different ways that you can approach that and if you could just cut through that, maybe you're not doing the right, maybe it's not what you. Yeah, there could be so many things.

Yeah, maybe you're talking to the right audience or the wrong audience, maybe the offer wasn't. I mean, there's like a lot of things that could have happened. I think one of the pitfalls people, especially women, will fall into is like oh, I just want to get my name out there. So I said, yes, I will hear that all the time, I want to get my name out there. So I spoke here and I spoke there, but I'm just tired of free speaking and I'm like okay, so, girl, you can make money with quote unquote free speaking. But you didn't. So what happened? Right, like, so it's not the event, Something's wrong, yeah.

And that's not even to say that it's the event was the wrong event, but maybe you didn't ask for the sale or maybe there was an opportunity that you missed for something there, because it's nice to have somebody to help you cut through the crap and say this is the best way for getting a visibility and this is how we should structure it, and we're so close to our own crap sometimes we don't see it.

We are, and sometimes you don't know what you don't know, and that's that's what I'm there for. I have clients sending me you know their speaker sheets and we'd like how do you get all that stuff ready? All I make it so simple, like, let's just make it super, super, super simple so that you can get it done, so that you can get out there. The whole point is that you're out there to affect other people. You've got problems you can help solve, like that's what the goal is not to be spending all this time on these little nitty gritty things, but get them done so that then we can go do the real stuff. Right, yeah, that's really cool. I like that.

I feel like it's helpful when you're kind of purpose driven like that, because then you've got this message that it's not just about making a sale somewhere. There's some kind of message that you're sharing and there's value in just that.

Yes, yes, 100%. I'm like a huge fan of everything I do is meant to help raise the higher consciousness of the planet and I think we all have gifts that we've been given and when we can give those gifts to other people, that serves that, that helps other people, and so one of my gifts is to help you get ready to be ready as a speaker, get your message out there, and then that means you get to go. Then help more people who you know. It's a ripple effect thing.

Yeah, totally. I'm so with you on that. I think we might have talked about this when we first called together, because I felt like I feel like we have all give the. We're also different and we're so good at some things and so bad at other things, and we struggle with things that maybe aren't in our like purpose, path or whatever you want to call it. But if we're doing what we're supposed to be doing, we can impact. We can make a giant impact by deciding who we want to help with that special power or whatever it is. That makes me feel a lot less anxious about all of the things in the world that I can't fix, if I can just help somebody fix the things better with whatever it is I'm doing.

Yeah, and I think I don't know if you run across this with with your clients, but often as women, we tend to take up because we are like a pack mule, right we're. We literally were like just put one more package on top of me, I can make it up to that mountain. Like we have this amazing resilience and strength and sometimes we that that could be to our detriment. Of like I use the metaphor of like a basket store, like, say, you opened a basket shop and you had this basket store and you were like, okay, I'm going to make the baskets and then I'm going to clean the baskets and I'm going to put them on the shelves and I'm going to count how many baskets and I'm going to do my bookkeeping and then make sure I'm going to sweep the store and I'm going to do the register and blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right, all the things at. No, you would not be able to do all those things. You would have to get some help, right. And so we kind of do that with our business. I'm like, stop doing the things you suck at, stop doing the things that you're, you know, only need to. You're only going to do it like publishing your book, like, unless you're planning on publishing a series of 10 plus books, hire someone else to help you get it. Even get it on the thing designing it. I'll yet, you know. Sure you can write it, but that's just solid business advice.

Stop doing the things you suck at. Yeah, thank you. Oh, I love that and it's so, but it's so hard too, because we fall into things. I'm totally guilty of that. Like I fell into marketing because I was good at writing, but I don't think I'm very good at marketing.

Oh, that's probably not true.

No, no, it is, it is, it totally is, and that's okay, because I don't I'm not a marketer anymore but like we fall into things and we, our parents, tell us, I know there's all this conditioning too Sometimes, and sometimes the things we're good at aren't even like they're hard to pin down, because they're more ethereal, maybe they're not so linear or hard to measure, you know. So it's just helpful to have eyes on the outside, 100%. So if somebody, so they can go to anybody who hears this and wants to get some help with their speaking, they could go to getspeakinggigsnowcom. Yep. And is there anywhere else that you would want people to connect with you?

If you're hearing this and you're like, oh my gosh, this is the sign I was looking for, you're welcome to schedule some time with me at getspeakinggigsnowcom. I ask some juicy questions on there. I love to hear your juicy answers and we'll have a juicy conversation Really about your goal. What are you trying to do? Why do you want to do this? What's been getting in the way? And if it makes sense for us to work together, we'll talk about what that looks like.

I love it. Yeah, so getspeakinggigsnowcom, if you want to hook up with Lisa and figure out if this is the right way for you to go, I love it. Thank you so much, lisa.

Oh, so fun talking to you again.

And there you have it Another inspiring conversation with another amazing woman entrepreneur. Before you go, a heartfelt thank you for being part of the Ravel family. Your support means the world and if you like what you heard, please consider giving your fellow entrepreneur a virtual hug by sharing this episode on social or with a friend. See you next time.