Make Marketing Suck Less

What are Your Speaking Goals for 2015?

As 2015 planning ratchets up into high gear, I hear the battle cry of “I want to be speaking more” echoing through my small spot in this world.

As I planned my 2015 in the haze of a post-turkey fest, speaking more was on my goals list too.

But for me I needed to go deeper on this goal and discover the why and how of how I was going to make this happen.

Procrastination and speaking go together like gravy on mashed potatoes. Unless you've got a presentation coming up, there's no need to work on public speaking.

Given the choice to work on moving your speaking goals forward or clean the toilet – the toilet wins because it's more urgent.

If speaking more in 2015 is on your list (and if you’ve read this far I’m guessing it is), then you too need to figure out the why and how of your speaking plan.

Why should you be speaking more in 2015?

Now, if the first thought that jumped into your head was “more clients” or “more cash” or “build my email list” then let’s take a moment to reframe your why.

Speaking is not about you. It’s about the audience. As a speaker your biggest responsibility is to your audience.

My speaking why is that I believe communication changes the world. My business is here to serve and the more people I help get their message out (and the more people their message helps), the more change happens.

And the reason you want to speak more is because you have a message that benefits your audience.

Answer this question:

As a result of hearing you speak, how will your audience change?

If you transform the audience or make their lives better in a meaningful way, then more clients, more cash, and a bigger email list happens.

Now you know your why, you’ve got to…

Make your public speaking goals specific and motivating

Saying you want to speak more is like going to a travel agent and saying “book me a trip to Europe.” You need to be way more specific otherwise you’ll end up in not-so beautiful Warsaw (I’m Polish! I can pick on my homeland).

Try answering these questions to mould your speaking goals:

• Who do you want to speak too?
• How’s your signature talk?
• Where do you want to speak?
• How many times do you want to speak next year?

It’s helpful to think about last year, how many speaking gigs did you do? What were your wins?

If you spoke 0 times last year, don’t have a speech, and don’t know who you want to speak to, then setting a goal of 30 paid gigs generating $300,000 in revenue is a huge stretch.

Make your goals challenging but not demotivating.

How are you going to make it happen?

Santa’s sleigh is not stopping by your house offering up speaking gigs (It’s got nothing to do with how naughty or nice you’ve been…I’m sure you’re totally naughty nice though).

You’re not going to get clear on your message or write that TED Talk that you haven’t been asked to give yet, unless you make speaking a priority.

When you have specific goal, it’s about closing the gap between where you are right now and where you want to go.

What’s your next step to make your speaking goals happen?

Is it creating your message? Identifying your audience? Upgrading your speaker marketing? Researching the conferences you’d be a perfect fit for? Or making asks that scare the crap out of you?

Take that next step and plan your actions for the next 3-months. Then in March re-evaluate what’s working and what’s not working.

This time next year, you’ll pop the champagne and celebrate your the accomplishment of your big speaking goals.

Want to make it easier to reach your speaking goals? Join me in The Speaking Collective where you'll get accountability, coaching, and support from people just like you who are making their speaking dreams a reality.