Speaking is one of the fastest ways to go from “someone I’ve never heard of” to “someone I trust.” In twenty minutes, a room full of people gets to hear how you think, see how you handle questions, and decide whether they like you. That’s hard to replicate with any amount of social media.
It’s also terrifying for a lot of people. The good news is that you don’t need to start with a keynote, and you don’t need to be a natural performer. You need something useful to say and a few low-stakes places to practice saying it.
Why speaking works
- You’re seen by a room of people at once, often people you couldn’t reach any other way.
- You’re heard properly. A talk gives you time to explain an idea fully, not in a 200-character caption.
- You’re remembered, because people remember speakers far longer than they remember attendees.
- It creates content: recordings, clips, quotes, a blog post version of the talk.
- It opens doors: one talk often leads to another, plus conversations with the people who came up afterward.
Start small
Nobody’s first talk needs to be on a big stage. Good starting points:
- A short segment at a local business group or chamber event
- A guest spot on a podcast (great practice, no audience staring at you)
- A lunch-and-learn for a client’s team
- A webinar or live session for your own audience
- A panel, where the pressure is spread across several people
Pick one topic you can talk about all day
Your first talk should be about something you know cold and have opinions about. The best topics are specific and useful: a mistake you see clients make constantly, a process you’ve refined, a common piece of advice that you think is wrong. “Three things I’d fix before spending another dollar on marketing” beats “The power of marketing.”
Make it about the audience
A good talk leaves people with something they can use. Structure helps:
- The problem, in terms the audience recognizes
- Why the usual approach doesn’t work
- What to do instead, with real examples
- One or two things they can do this week
Keep slides simple, or skip them. Tell stories from your actual work. And don’t turn the last five minutes into a sales pitch. A single line about how to reach you is plenty. If the talk was good, people will come find you.
Handling the nerves
Almost everyone gets nervous, including experienced speakers. A few things help:
- Practice out loud, several times, ideally in front of someone.
- Know your opening and closing lines cold. The middle can be looser.
- Arrive early so the room feels familiar.
- Remember that the audience wants you to do well. They’re not waiting for you to fail.
Turn one talk into many
Once you have a talk that works, reuse it. Pitch it to other groups, record it, turn it into a blog post, break it into social posts. Most speakers give variations of the same few talks for years.
Practice somewhere friendly
Explaining your ideas to a small, supportive group is a great warm-up for a bigger stage. WEN Round Tables are a low-pressure place to practice talking about your work. And if you’d like to share your expertise with the WEN audience, apply to be featured.
Related reading: How to Build Visibility Without Feeling Salesy.
