The First Rule of Giving Great Little Talks

Get Help Focusing Your Topic

Here's the first rule of giving great little talks
to fill your practice with the right clients.

Pick the right topic.

More specifically, your talk must solve a specific
problem for a specific group of people.

You don't have to solve the problem in the talk,
but you must provide insight, valuable information
and a new perspective about the problem.

And even more specifically, it can not be a
generic topic.

Why? Let me explain:

When you go generic, or try to cover it all in
your talks (I've done it!), here's what happens:

- not many people show up to your talks because
the title just doesn't relate to people's real
life and the real problems they want to solve

- the people who do show up, find your information
"nice and helpful" but it lands in the "would be
nice" category of expenses. It just feels
optional. Your work, your services must never land
in the "optional to solve" category if you want
regular paying clients.

- the people who do show up are there for
"edu-tainment". They love to learn (and tell you
how much they know! I call these the "co-teachers"
in the room, and you gotta know how to handle
them) but no one hires you because, they're just
there for an interesting talk.

- you find yourself going anywhere/everywhere that has a
group of people to speak too (which in one way, is
fantastic of you!) but it tends to make you doubt
your ability to create clients in this way because
you think it's you or your modality that's not
working. It's not, it your topic and chosen
audience.

- As a result of this you usually try harder, to
do more talks, or give up on talks and try something
else (repeating the same pattern) but that's not
the answer.

Doing more isn't usually the answer.

Focusing is the answer.

So how do you pick the right topic?

Don't change your strategy of speaking to create
clients, just tweak your approach. (Which is a
golden rule of marketing: change your strategy
slowly, tweak your approach swiftly).

The short answer: One way to go about this is just
pick one of your top 3-5 best ideas and test it.
Get out there and start giving talks. See what
resonates. It takes a bit longer this way but it's
better than staying in your head.

If you stay in your head, your business is dead.

The long answer: Take your big topic (say Life
coaching, or writing, or health, or psychology,
etc), and chunk down that topic into specific
problems your ideal clients talk with you about.

Imagine your big topic like a delicious pie.

You want one of your talks to be a serving of one
slice of that pie.

For example, a family member of mine is starting
an essential oil business.

Instead of trying to be all things to all people,
I would suggest she pick a group of people that
she knows really well to speak to.

She's well connected in her community with other
local moms, so let's just say she went for that
group.

She's also passionate about family health and staying
out of the doctor's office with natural solutions.

Some problems moms like her might face (and she
would know better than me) are:

- family sleep issues that are affecting school
work, nighttime peace and mom's ability to
function well and not yell at her kids

- preventing cold and flus with essential oils
that make kids miss school and make mom's life
miserable

- how to use essential oils to help your kids feel
more confident at school

That's way better than "learn more about oils 101."

Now, if I were starting an essential oil business,
I might focus on women with a business and family
life (the people I know best, almost inside and
out) and perhaps choose one of these this topic
that I know comes up for my ideal clients:

- Courage for Coaches: how essential oils can help
you (and your clients!) bust through a crisis of
confidence (which is something that regularly
happens to me, my clients and their own clients)

Are these topics perfectly catchy and clever
sounding?

No, they don't need to be. They just need to
relate to a specific group of people's real life
problems or big juicy desires.

It's better than another generic topic that most
people won't want to attend or if they do, won't
do anything with the information like book a
session with you.

I hope this helps you begin to think differently
about giving talks, whether or not you're ready to
do so.

Here's where you can learn more and join us if you
like: https://www.greatlittletalks.com

If you're not ready for talks yet, but you do need
to refocus your practice and choose a focused
message that helps you stand out and create
more clients, get in touch here.

Happy Autumn!

Karin