Make Marketing Suck Less

Speaking for Impact Begins with YOU!

For the past two episodes of the podcast, we've been talking about building something much bigger than a speaking business.

Something with much more impact.

Something that has the potential to change lives or even society or culture.

And I've been calling you to step into something huge, something that you are at the epicenter of.

You're the catalyst, you're the change maker, and you're that speaker making it happen. And while all that might be intriguing to you, it also might be freaking you out.

I want to address this because I know for myself when I decided to start talking about speaking in the context of creating something bigger, like a movement, I became freakishly excited about the possibilities of what I was creating, and also completely terrified.

And if you're thinking about this you might be saying, “Yeah, that's me. I know that there's this change I want to create, I am devoted to helping people and I want them to be devoted to spreading my message and that completely freaks me out,” If that’s you then we should meet that resistance head-on.

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Mindset Shift Ahead: You are a Leader!

In order to meet that resistance, the first thing I want to do is give you a huge mindset shift alert.

If you are a speaker and you are calling yourself a speaker and you have proclaimed it, guess what? You are already a leader.

Now I had a problem with the term “leader” for ages.

I have worked with so many speakers who do some form of leadership training. But over and over we would come up with the issue that many of their audience don’t consider themselves to be leaders.

I don't always see myself as a leader, although I do now more than I did before.

I saw myself more as a humble servant helping you to make more money with speaking by creating an epic audience experience. And I thought of leaders as people that were CEOs, like Jeff Bezos or Bill Gates. By those two examples, you can probably tell I live in Seattle.

Or I think of a leader as someone like Brené Brown who's leading a huge cultural discussion around shame and vulnerability.

I didn't think of a leader as someone like me. And I bet you might not think of a leader as someone like you.

Speakers as Leaders

But you and I, we're leaders because we are speakers. And speaking is powerful.

You are in a position to create something new for your audience.

When you're on the stage or even a virtual stage, you are ascribed influence and power.

You're leading.

So you need to accept that mindset shift. If you're a speaker then you're a leader.

Once you accept that you're a step closer to making a bigger impact with your speaking.

[Tweet “Speaking is power.”]

Dealing with The Imposters

The second thing to understand and know is that if you are accepting this leadership role of speaker you're also going to meet with resistance from the imposter complex.

Last year I did an interview with my coach and friend Tanya Geisler around the 12 lies of the imposter complex that stop us from speaking and spreading our message and giving visibility to our body of work.

The imposter complex shows up with questions like, “Who am I to be speaking on this?”

Or, “Who am I to be starting this movement?”

Or, “Ugh, I just don't know enough, I need to study more. I need another degree before I can start.”

Or it might be telling you, “What if they all find out I'm a fraud and I really don't know what I'm talking about?”

Or, “All the success that I've had so far is because of good luck. It's not because of my intelligence or my experience or my expertise or who I am. It's because I got lucky and people like me.”

Tanya always says that the good news about the imposter complex is that it means you're a high achiever. You set high goals, you want to accomplish big things.

But the bad news is that if we let it stop us from stepping into our “starring role” as Tanya would say, then we prevent ourselves from getting our message out into the world, spreading, and causing the change that we want to see.

If this is you, if you feel like you are a little imposter complex, I definitely encourage you to check out Tanya Geisler’s website. Her work around the imposter complex is amazing, and she's someone I'm working with on my own imposter complex.

Let me give you an example of how  I deal with the imposter complex when I am meeting it head-on.

As I was outlining the content for the first three months of the year to talk about movement makers and speaking, I started hearing this voice in my head.

That voice was asking questions like, “Who am I to be talking about movements? Clearly, I don't know enough about this. Sure, I took a social movements class in grad school, but I should really study up before I hit record and put any of this out there.”

And then as I do, since I am a natural born researcher, I started reading.

And one of the terrific resources I found is Jonathan Fields. He's a great resource for starting a revolution with your business.

And what I realized from reading that and reading some other things on social movements is that I was already using some of these principles in the work that I've been doing, in the podcasts that I've been publishing the past few years.

I've already been talking about this, I just haven't been framing it that way.

And I had to remember that I am enough in this instance.

And then I went back to my why I'm awesome list, which was one of the most popular episodes of The Rebel Speaker Podcast in 2017 where you write down all of your accomplishments and keep a list of the testimonials and the result that you've gotten for your audiences and for your clients, to remind yourself that yes, you can create that movement.

And that's how I started taking action now instead of three or four months from now when I felt more ready, because I'm ready enough, and you're ready enough.

A Counterintuitive Tool to Step into Your Speaking Role

The final tool I'm going to give you is going to sound counter-intuitive.

I want you to think about all the reasons you don't want to be a speaker who starts a movement.

One of the most helpful tools that I've used to muster the gumption to take on this leadership role is from Carolyn Elliott, she is the creator of the course INFLUENCE.

One of the things Carolyn teaches is about shadow integration, and really getting to know the dark side of ourselves. And she created this exercise called the deepest fear inventory, which I love and I do on a regular basis.

To do this inventory  you take out a piece of paper and you write a letter to the universe, to God, to Jesus, to Buddha, or yourself, and basically say, “Dear universe, I deeply hate and resent your goal.”

So let's say, “Dear universe, I deeply hate and resent being a sought-after speaker who everyone is talking about and who is booked out with speaking gigs because I have a deep fear.”                

And then you just write.

When I first did this I found out I have a deep fear of being visible.

I have a deep fear of other people wanting my time.

And I wrote out all of these fears, and then at the end of the letter, you just ask for the universe or whoever to remove those fears.

Another option is to read it out loud to someone you trust, and then rip it up into a thousand pieces.

Then you repeat this every day.

And after a while, you will start seeing your fears as hilarious, and you will also start seeing that there are some things you can do about your fears.

For me, my fear around time and everybody wanting a piece of my time and not having time for myself or time for my husband or my kittens or for travel is I realized I could take control of my schedule.

I could start seeing my clients every other week and then having weeks where I just create or have time to get away for a retreat or a vacation.

There was something I could do about that fear and then it wasn't a fear anymore.

It dissolved.

And it's really helped me bring to the surface all of those subconscious things that might be blocking me. So highly recommend trying the deepest fear inventory, because once you confront those fears you'll be free, and you can start stepping into that role of speaker, leader, and movement maker.

And of course, I'm here to help you create that movement.

That is what my business is all about. I'm here to help you be that speaker who crowds are devoted to and talk about and spread your message.

To find out more how I can help you with that go to DrMichelleMazur.com/speak and apply for your free chat and we can see how we can work together.

The bottom line of this episode is get out of your own way.

Realize that if you're a speaker you're already a leader.

Dance with your imposter complex and confront those fears and you're on your way to speaking for impact.