I was chatting on the phone with a speaker friend this week and she was asking me about my business. So naturally, we started speaking, about speaking, and eventually got to the part where I say, “It always comes down to relationships.”
(Insert a sigh on my part here.) It gets frustrating talking about something you know is so fundamentally basic and vitally important, but as soon as I start talking about it with some people, they just seem to want to push this topic aside. “Yes, I know all I need to know about this, but how about blah blah blah… and the subject gets changed. So let’s do something different.
- How long would your business survive if you didn’t have relationships?
- How long would your business survive if the only relationships you had were with family and friends?
Okay, rhetorical questions. It wouldn’t. It doesn’t matter what kind of business it is either. If we don’t have relationships, we don’t have a business… and we aren’t making any money.
- If you aren’t out there using your expertise to educate, inform, inspire, encourage, and make it possible for more people to solve their problem, who’s going to help them?
Easy answer. Speakers who’ve embraced the reality that the more relationships they have, the more people they get to help by sharing their brilliance.
- Is your goal as a speaker to get in front of more audiences, or to share your information with more people?
These days, thanks to all the ways our ability to communicate has expanded, there are more audiences and more speaking opportunities than ever. So it’s not like we have to approach trying to find an audience like it’s a competition. Being more focused on sharing our expertise with the right audiences, makes it easier for our audiences to accept us as the real deal… which leads to more relationships… which helps us land more speaking gigs.
- Why do so many speakers shy away from the idea of collaborating?
Seriously. Why? Especially when we can accomplish so much more when we work together. Collaboration is just another type of relationship. When we collaborate with speakers and people we already have a relationship with, our collective expertise and resources (and sorry for using such an old adage but), the whole will be greater than the sum of its parts. And don’t forget, when we collaborate, we’re sharing our expertise with a whole new audience!
- How’s your relationship with yourself as a speaker?
Bet you didn’t see that question coming!😄 But it just might be the most important question of all. Speaking isn’t easy. It takes guts and courage to get in front of a group of people. But it’s just as important to think about how you feel about your expertise, and your goal to share it with others. If your relationship with your own expertise is genuine and authentic, that will reflect through your other relationships too.
Hopefully, all these questions have got you thinking about building relationships from a different perspective. They’re one of the easiest ways to grow your business and expand your reach. Relationships lead to all kinds of opportunities, business ventures, collaborations, new audiences, new friends, and of course, new clients and customers!
Do We Still Need a Signature Talk?
