Do you struggle with service business speaking? Joe Williams has the public speaking secrets that will help you stand out.
Why would you want to engage in public speaking for a service business?
What’s in it for you?
It’s simple. When you’re trusted to talk about your industry, you create instant authority. People can see that you have something valuable to say, which is why you got booked.
That means they’re going to trust you when they become your customers.
Of course, most service business owners aren’t natural public speakers.
And that’s where Joe Williams comes in. He’s worked with Tony Robbins for over two decades as one of his head trainers. Joe’s spoken on Tony’s behalf and he’s one of the top public speakers in the game.
He also runs Creative Performance Group. In that role, he focuses on helping business owners from all industries get their messages out to the world.
That means he’s the perfect person to help with service business speaking.
Maybe you’re planning on getting up and talking to a crowd. Or, maybe you just want some service business communication tips to help you when you’re talking to customers and employees.
Either way, the nuggets of wisdom that Joe shared during his appearance on the CEO Warrior Podcast will help.
Service Business Speaking Tip #1 – Speaking is a Learned Skill
How would you feel if I told you that you’re going up on stage tomorrow to talk to a group of people?
Terror is the first thing that springs to mind.
You’re not a natural public speaker. None of us are. And because of that, you’ll think that there’s no way that you can do it.
Expand that thought process and it’s easy to see why so few service business owners leverage public speaking. They assume they can’t ever do it because they can’t do it right now.
Joe says that’s the wrong approach.
He says that he wasn’t born with a golden microphone in his hand. In fact, public speaking wasn’t something that came easy to him at all.
And this is a guy who’s spoken for Tony Robbins!
His voice would shake, he had no idea how to create presentations, and he’d turn bright red when he spoke.
But he got better. And the reason is that public speaking is a learned skill. It’s like swimming or riding a bike. You’re going to have to suck at it for a while before you figure out what works and what doesn’t.
Of course, there are people who have the gift of the gab and have a natural confidence that gives them the advantage. However, that doesn’t mean you can’t do it too. You just need to overcome your fear and climb outside of your comfort zone.
Speaking of fear…
Service Business Speaking Tip #2 – Preparation Overcomes Fear
Maybe the thought of speaking as a service business owner is enough to stop you in your tracks.
The more you think about it, the more the fear grows. As Joe says, it’s not an uncommon thing. Speaking used to terrify him and he’s now one of the best at it.
Learning how to overcome that fear is the real key to public speaking. After all, it’s not like you need to learn how to talk. Instead, you need to learn how to get rid of the barriers that stop you from talking in the public setting.
Joe points out that people who struggle with fear of speaking all seem to have one thing in common.
They don’t prepare beforehand.
They’re just not putting the work in.
According to Joe, preparation will overcome fear every time. In fact, preparation takes up at least 80% of the work that you do for a public speaking gig.
It’s most of the battle.
Here’s what happens when you prepare well.
You feel confident about the idea of public speaking for a service business. You know exactly what you’re going to cover and which areas of your expertise that you need to tap into.
Better yet, you get to learn about the crowd. Who’s going to be there? What’s your ideal demographic? How do you structure your speaking so that those people get the right message?
These are all questions that proper preparation helps you to answer. And again, your confidence builds as you learn more about the people you’ll speak to.
Maybe you can figure out what that group of people needs. If you can offer it, you have a key thread to come back to for the entire speech.
Focus on serving the people who have given you their time and attention. That will take your mind away from the fear that could cloud your speech.
Service Business Speaking Tip #3 – Focus on Emotion
I asked Joe for the best piece of advice he could give to anyone who’s speaking as a service business owner.
He said that, as clichéd as it sounds, you need to figure out a way to stand out from the pack. And when it comes to speaking, that means using emotion to make your words as powerful as possible.
Your passion has to drive everything that you do in your business.
That’s what David learned when he came to CEO Warrior:
David heard about CEO Warrior’s seminars and events from other people.
But nothing could have prepared him for the passion that he felt during the seminar. He finally felt what it was like to be around people who loved what they do. That energy and emotion swept him up.
And he learned that passion is one of his key drivers. He says that it’s crucial to the everyday running of his business. He learned more with CEO Warrior because he connected on an emotional level.
Your goal is to connect with somebody on such a level that you inspire them to do something different with their lives.
As service business coaches, the CEO Warrior team try to inspire you to create the business you always wanted. As a service business owner, you may need to inspire employees and customers.
Emotion is the key in all cases.
Service Business Speaking Tip #4 – Don’t Rely on PowerPoint
Do you know what isn’t inspiring?
Somebody who stands on stage and just reads words that they’ve put into a PowerPoint presentation.
Why would you bother going to watch someone speak if that’s what they’re going to do? You could just read the PowerPoint and get exactly the same information.
Joe points to this as just one of the many crutches that speakers lean on.
He says that PowerPoints and visual aids are there to serve you and the presentation. They’re not there for you to serve them.
For a lot of people, preparation ends once they’ve got the slides ready. When they stand in front of an audience or a boardroom, they just provide a soundtrack to their visual aids.
This isn’t effective public speaking.
Think of both your mind and body as instruments for affecting change in people’s lives. You have to use them to the best of your ability to create a presentation that actually moves people.
And that brings me to Joe’s most important point…
Service Business Speaking Tip #5 – Be the Best Version of Yourself
You’ve got to be yourself when you’re speaking.
You can’t be anybody else. And if you try, you’re just going to sound inauthentic and untrustworthy.
But Joe says that being yourself isn’t enough when you’re speaking in public.
You’ve got to be yourself on your absolute best day. He works with people to help them figure out their unique style. They may have influences from other people. Joe himself points out that Tony Robbins influenced parts of his speaking style.
However, they also have something that’s completely their own.
The trick is to find out what that is and emphasize it. Know what makes you special and bring the best out of that one thing every time you speak.
This isn’t always going to be easy.
There’ll be times when you don’t feel like speaking or you don’t feel like you have it in you.
When that happens, try to recall what it feels like when you’re firing on all cylinders. We’ve all had days where it feels like everything’s going well and we’re unstoppable.
Use that feeling to fuel yourself so you can show the best you to the people that you speak to.
Become a Master Communicator
Most of these service business communication tips cover speaking in public. That may be at events, seminars, or even in the boardroom.
But you can also use them to help when you’re communicating with your people. Prepare for what you need to say as much as possible. Use emotion to help people to connect to the points that you’re making.
And present the best possible version of yourself at all times.
Here’s another secret.
This only scratches the surface of what Joe and I covered during the podcast. You can hear the full thing here.
And if you have a service business, I just have one question for you…
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