4 Things to Do NOW to Prepare for Pitching in 2021

What actions can you be taking right now to build momentum for pitching events in 2020? Today I'm sharing with you four specific actions to intentionally lay the tracks for visibility next year. We’re talking about your business, your message and your relationships. So if you want to pitch and land big stages next year (like podcasts interview, virtual summits and guest lectures) this one’s for you.

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Transcript

Heather Sager  0:00 
What I want you thinking about is think about the way that you want to do business. If you're asking yourself the question around, who should I quote-unquote be online friends with and what can I get from them? You're not building the kind of business that is going to have longevity and have high integrity, to be quite honest.

I think oftentimes, we need to gut check ourselves and go, am I asking these questions around what I can get from this? Or am I asking these because of what I can give in the kind of business and community that I want to build?

I want you to get intentional on your list when you start thinking about the kinds of stages and who's the host of them. Think about who are the people that you genuinely would love to have a business friendship with. Who do you jive with? Who do you respect? Who runs a business in a way that you aspire to.

Think about these kinds of questions, and then I want you to actively engage in a giving relationship. Love on their content, notice it, send them notes around why things are resonating with you. Share their things with other people without asking for anything in return. Be a good person. Be a cheerleader for them.

Over time, those relationships will start blooming but you can't go from it from an expectation that if I get strategic now and do all these things for them one day, it's gonna pay off. It just doesn't work that way. If we're building relationships from this, what can I give so that I can take, it's just not a fun way to do business so that's what I'll say about that.

But here's what I would say, this is a really great season. People are going to be thinking of thankfulness. They're going to be thinking about 2021. There's a lot of introspection and quality thinking that happens in the fourth quarter.

This would be a great time to get on people's radar and just be a light in their inbox and share with them how their content has resonated with you. You never know where it's gonna go.

But at minimum, you can start building this reputation as someone who gives, someone who serves, someone who goes out of their way to make others feel heard, and appreciated and valued with their content. Are you following me what I'm saying here?

I think building genuine relationships means that you have to see yourself in a different way, and I challenge you to do that. I will say, I know I said that like you don't want to have a payoff of this, you can't go in with that.

But I will say when you have this mindset, you will be so surprised around how karma comes back to you in the most beautiful way. I think that what you give, you will get back. It might not be from that person but something will come back and create beautiful opportunities in your life.

Well, hey friend, welcome to another episode of The Heather Sager show. I'm Heather and I believe that people don't connect with marketing, they connect with other people. So if you want others to see you as a go to authority, you've got to start showing up using your voice and sharing your message with intention. So consider this show right here, your new playground to become an influential speaker so that you can actually start making strides towards that dream on your vision board. Let's go.

Well, Hey, friend, welcome back to another episode of The Heather Sager show. It's your speaking coach Heather. Oh goodness! I am so excited about today's conversation because we are getting out in front of your 2021 goals.

If you're anything like me, you're probably done with this year, then you have a hard time thinking about what's to come next year, especially if your goals are related to speaking. We don't quite know what's coming up with the live event landscape and quite frankly, we really shouldn't be putting all of our goals in those baskets. That basket, I don't know whatever you want to say for next year.

However, we should be thinking about ways to bring more visibility to our business and our brand. If you're a listener of the show, you are most likely an entrepreneur, probably with a personal brand or an agency brand and you have a desire to connect with the right people in your business. I am pretty confident that you most likely have some digital courses or an online program or maybe you're a coach and you're looking to book more clients.

You most likely do a pretty dang good job of loving up on your people. Connecting with them on social media, maybe in your email list. You have going on, but you know you can impact more people.

I see a lot of questions in Facebook groups all the time for people going, how can we get more people engaged on social? How can we grow our email list? How do we get more people on our freebie? There's a lot of, Oh gosh, how do I say this without sounding like a total jerk wad? A lot of like, how do I go like get me, me me, me, me, me, me, bigger? That sounds like a terrible way to say it but it's all very much like, how do I grow? How do I get more people? How do I find more people in my audience?

I kind of challenge that a bit and start thinking about how do we make a bigger impact? How do we serve more people? How do we get our message out there to impact the lives of others for the better and start flipping the script on instead of take, take, take, take, getting email names, selling our programs, all those things which, right, we're in business, of course, we want to grow.

But when we lead with that, what kind of vibes is that putting out in the world for these potential customers? I mean, how many times are you getting these, just these pitches in your DMs that just leave a bad taste in your mouth? That's not who you are. That's not how you operate.

When it comes to pitching strategies and putting ourselves out there and attracting more quality people into our world, we have to be thinking differently. Today's conversation is about how do we market from an ethical perspective, from an align perspective where it feels good where we become more of a magnet to attract people who need our products and services, but are also are hungry for information and learning and growth?

So how do we put ourselves out there to speak on stages? How do we put ourselves out there to be called upon to get on podcasts? How do we become the next big name on a virtual summit? If we're focused on service, how do we grow and evolve while still being aligned to that value. Is that if that makes sense, you know?

I'm just so sick of the marketing messages around like sell, sell, sell, like push your stuff below strategic and maybe I'm just a little burned out by that but I hear it a lot from my clients and students is that they don't want to be pushy, they want to attract.

In today's conversation, we're going to talk about how you do both with integrity. I don't mean by I'm going to be pushy. I'm going to teach you how to seek opportunities by being genuine and authentic and growing in a way that feels good for you and your business because we're talking about your PR strategy, specifically about pitching to be a speaker on podcasts, on stages, on virtual summits, in guest lectures.

Just a few weeks ago, you know, I did a whole topic around different ways that you could be featured as a guest speaker. If you missed that one, go back and listen to that. There's a ton of information in that episode along with some prior episodes I've done around pitching so I'll link to those in the show notes.

But today, I want you to thinking about we're in the season right now, where a lot of people are working on their business instead of in their business. The holidays are coming up. People are taking more time off. The the vibe has slowed a bit and so it's a little less foot on the gas pedal trying to like zoom, zoom, zoom and find all these PR opportunities.

Most businesses are going kind of quiet, if you will, to plan for 2021. What does this mean for you? It means if you want to get your name out there in 2021, you cannot be waiting to set the goal and intention  January 1st, to then say, Okay, now is the year now is the year I'm going to show up and serve, now is the year that I'm going to get on that podcast, now as the year I'm going to do all these things.

If you wait to start thinking and planning for this until January 1st, Friend, you're missing a big opportunity. What I want you thinking about right now heading into the holiday season, headed into a season where so many people let up, I want you to lean in.

I don't mean lean in by working a bunch more. I just want you to be intentional with how you spend the next six to eight weeks and start laying the tracks for opportunities in 2021. Start laying the tracks now because there are really intentional things that you can do with your business, your message, your relationships, to make pitching and landing big stages in 2021 so much easier.

I want to make that easy for you today. I want you to become a magnet so that the people who resonate with your message and your content, they will stick to you. When you do a speaking opportunity, they're like oh my god, I love her, I want more of her and they follow you back to your platforms and into your business. I want that for you and I'm sure he would want that for yourself too so that's what we're going to talk about.

Today I'm sharing with you four specific things that you can be doing, we're getting tactical, grab your notebook, grab that coffee cup, grab the pen, get all ready to go, because we're gonna give you some little gems today to hold on to but I want you to start laying the tracks now. Four things you can be doing now to maximize your opportunities to get more visible next year.

And Hey, friend, before we dive in, if getting more visible next year, meaning having your name out there, having people see you as the go-to authority in the industry, it means like you got to do some homework. We're going to talk about that in this episode today.

But if that is something that you're thinking about going, I don't even know where to get started, or I don't have the time for this, now would be the time for you to start thinking about that.

If that's you, you want to get your name out there. You want to be seen as the authority you want to be more articulate and compelling and inspiring when you share your message on any kind of stage. You need to check out my upcoming masterclass.

The time of this episode, it airs, that masterclass will be happening live like the next day. It's happening on November 19th. I'm only teaching it live one time now, between now and the end of the year. I want you to jump in to at least understand what the opportunity looks like for you in getting your message out there in a big way in your business so come check it out. It's about how to grow your authority by speaking on stages, live stages and right now really those virtual ones without needing some big giant following online. You can book those stages without a big audience.

I want you to check it out. There's a link to snag your seat in the show notes. If you're listening to this after it goes live, still check out that page because I might have a little something, something for you so go check it out. I'm excited to see you there for those who you can join live now. But let's go ahead and dive in to the goodies around how to get you set up for 2021.

All right, now we're thinking about how to get your name out there and how to think about positioning yourself to become the go-to next year. How do you become the authority so that way, when you send a pitch and when when other people are thinking about Hmm, who do I want to have on my show? Or who do I want to have on my stage, they think of you so here are the four things we're going to do.

Number one, create your wish list, specifically your stage wish list with intention. Now I bet if you're anything like me and my business, you listen to podcasts on the regular and I'm sure you have a little running tally in your head of the dream podcast you'd like to be on. We all know it.

There's that list whether it's Amy Porterfield show, Jenna Kutcher's Gold Digger, the School of Greatness with Lewis Howes. Man, there's that go-to list that you're like, Oh, I want to be on that.

Now, when I talk about creating your stage wish list with intention, I mean, you got to get clear here. I love a good dream. I love like shooting for the stars. But also friend, if your wish list only includes shows like that, you're not really setting yourself up for great success for making it happen. Because what it probably feels like for you right now is those things feel far away. They feel like a long shot, and you feel like there's so much you have to do to get to the point of being able to make those stages happen.

Let me let me give you two little tips here. Number one, I want you to actively brainstorm and research the different kinds of stages you can be on. Now the easiest ones to get started with our podcasts. Those are a great way to get started because you can go to iTunes right now or your podcast app and scroll down in the marketing section, or the business section, or the parenting section or whatever niche you're in. You can scroll down and actually look at all of the podcasts in that category, and might I recommend just skimming right through the top 100 and looking at those like ranked 100 to 200. Those are great shows to put on your list. 

I'll tell you a little bit more about that here in a second but what I want you to do is being active in your wish list. Don't just randomly see something online and be like, Yeah, that'd be a cool one to be on, or have just your go-to shows that you want to be a guest on. Don't make it a passive dreaming thing. I want you to have an active session to make a list of the kinds of shows that one, excite you, but two, share your ideal audience, the people that you actually want to connect with and serve with your message.

I want you to get intentional and book a session for yourself. Set the clock one hour, 30 minutes. I don't really care you pick your time, but sit down and come up with a list. Let me give you a little second tip here.

When you do that, make sure that you're choosing different kinds of shows or events that are in different categories. I don't mean by industry or topic categories. I mean about like, oh, how do I say this? Like status levels?

Alright, I always use a basketball analogy for this, which is very ironic, because never in my life have I ever played basketball but let's go with this. Basketball analogy, you know, when they shoot the ball, there's like the super easy like layups, like that's a pretty no brainer. If you are good at basketball, you can know how to make a layup. That's like an easy one.

Then there's like, oh, whatever the two pointer shots, you know, relatively easy, most the time they make those, but they're a little bit more of a stretch, like more like a three pointer, it takes a little bit more work. But then you have like your long shot, where the clock is ticking, and oh my god, you're on the other end of the court, and the clock is going and you're like, duh, alley-oop. I think that's a phrase you see in basketball, I don't know.

But you like, they do this in high school, my high school has a basketball team. They would like chuck the ball all the way across the court and be like, holy crap, I hope I make it.

By the way, one time in a championship game when I was in high school, they totally made it on that shot, which was like crazy down. I digress here. But what I want you thinking about is when you have this big list, I want you to ask yourself the question is your whole list full of those like giant cross the court, that was hard to say, shots, right? Or are you created a multi faceted list of layups? Once that you know the host, you know their content, you have an established relationship and to be fairly easy, you just have to ask to get on the show?

Do you have some three pointers, where you're gonna need to put together a pitch, you're gonna need to do some research, it's gonna feel a little uncomfortable, and you don't know if you're gonna get a yes or no, but you need to have those on your list, so you're stretching, but you're not stretching to the point of exhaustion where you're just like closing your eyes and hoping with no shot now, if you're going to make it. I mean, there's a chance you will.

But I want you to ask yourself, when you're building your dream stage wish list, are you setting yourself up for success? Because, friend, if you just have those big dreamer ones, which I still want you to have, overtime, it can feel a little daunting and overwhelming and quite frankly, a little Oh, it deflating. If that's what's on your list, it feels like it's never going to happen.

I want you to spread it out. Get more intentional with your wish list by making sure you have a variety of different kinds of shots you can take and be excited about them. That's what creating your stage wish list is about.

Like I said, I think podcast is a great place to start because you can find them. But also the more you start asking around, you'll find that other people host guests on their Facebook shows or you'll go find out what virtual events are coming up next year so just start thinking about that. But number one, create your wish list with intention. And with intention, I mean, variety. Set yourself up for success. That is my big tip number one.

Number two, with this offseason time now, as you're getting more intentional is set yourself up for next year, I want you to focus on building genuine, quality relationships. Yep, you know this. We talk about being a relationship-based business. Be human. Be genuine. Don't be schmucky. Don't be sending cold pitches in people's inboxes that are super generic.

What we want to start doing is saying ha, as we look in our industry, when we look at our industry and kind of like even a little bit outside of our industry, broaden things up a bit, look ahead to the peers that you admire, that you share values, if there's things about their business and how they do, you look up to them, right or that you associate yourself with them and say, Oh man, I really love how they do business. I really love how they treat their community. I really love their show in their content.

I want you thinking about, who do you want to be in relationship with? I think about this all the time. When I think about the kinds of shows I want to be a guest on, the kind of stages I want to speak on. Sometimes. I'm just gonna say this. Sometimes they're transactional, where it's like, oh, okay, I know like I can do X number of speaking gigs this year.

And I know I cannot have deep rich relationships with all of the people who host those stages. I know I can treat every single person I come across with a high degree of respect and love for their audience. I will always have like exemplary experiences, exceptional experiences, on every stage I speak on, but I can't make every single host or business owner my BFF, right? They're not necessarily a long term relationship.

I think about that in advance. Who do I really want to have great relationships with? Who do I consider my peers or one day I would love to be considered their peer? I start thinking about that and then I start building genuine relationships online.

By let's say, let me give you an example here. Tyler J. McCall is someone that I have followed for years. I heard about him on Amy Porterfield's podcast. I don't know, two years ago when he was talking about Instagram stories. I think that was the episode. I still remember the exact place on the path by my house where we take walks with my then newborn baby.

I remember the exact place we were while I was listening to his episode. I'm like, oh, man, I just love his demeanor, super calm, chill vibe. I love his story. There's so many things I loved about him so I started following him.

I remember I sent him a direct message. Super nervous. Sound so funny, right? But I was super nervous. I sent him a direct message because this is right when I was starting my business and I was still in my corporate job. I had an Instagram account, but I'm like, Oh, I think I need to have a different account. Should I actually keep my personal account which has a few hundred followers, or should I open up a new business account?

And I'm like racking my brain like, I don't know so I'm like, why don't I just ask Tyler? I sent him a DM and he replied. I'm like, Whoa, cool. I complimented on his interview. I loved it. He answered that question. We just banter back and forth and that started what I'll say is a great friendship.

Now, I'm going to say that because it wasn't until about a year and a half later that Tyler actually knew who I was. But for that span of time, never did I ever become a client of Tyler's. I didn't even buy a program for him until I signed up through his affiliate program for someone else, and then eventually bought his product that took like, I think, 15 months for me to actually spend money with him but I was always engaging with his content.

It was always liking the stuff he shared, comment on it when I think of something. I would slide into his DMs and say something. All of this, not because I'm like, I want to be on Tyler's show. First of all, Tyler didn't even have a podcast or a consistent blogging platform or anything he was doing. For all I knew, he didn't even have events.

He was just a person that I really admired and thought, hmm, he's the kind of person I'd like to learn from and be around. Fast forward, just recently, I was interviewed on Tyler's podcast and he reached out to me and asked me to coach him on an upcoming speaking event for his event, which I think at the time, this airs, that live event is happening today, by the way, but not only did that relationship pay off in the most wonderful way. I have incredible learnings from him in the courses that I purchased but also he became a client of mine, and I was a guest on his podcast now.

I tell you that not to brag and like drop that I will be on The Online Business Show coming up in January of 2021 which I think is super cool. But I'm telling you that because that relationship started with intention a long time ago.

You might be going like, Oh my gosh, are you crazy lady? That took you that long? It didn't take me any long. Let me just clarify. What I want you thinking about is think about the way that you want to do business. If you're asking yourself the question around, who should I quote-unquote be online friends with and what can I get from them? You're not building the kind of business that is going to have longevity and have high integrity to be quite honest.

I think oftentimes, we need to gut check ourselves and go, am I asking these questions around what I can get from this? Or am I asking these because of what I can give, and the kind of business and community that I want to build. So with this tip number two, build genuine quality relationships, I want to have a heavy asterisk with this.

I want you to get intentional on your list when you start thinking about the kinds of stages and who's the host of them. Think about who are the people that you genuinely would love to have a business friendship with? Who do you jive with? Who do you respect? Who runs a business in a way that you aspire to? Think about these kinds of questions.

And then I want you to actively engage in a giving relationship. Loving their content, notice it, send them notes around why things are resonating with you, share their things with other people without asking for anything in return. Be a good person. Be a cheerleader for them, and over time those relationships will start blooming but you can't go from it from an expectation that if I get strategic now and do all these things for them one day, it's gonna pay off. It just doesn't work that way.

If we're building relationships from this, what can I give so that I can take, it's just not a fun way to do business so that's what I'll say about that. But here's what I would say. This is a really great season, people are going to be thinking of thankfulness. They're going to be thinking about 2021. There's a Lot of introspection and quality thinking that happens in the fourth quarter.

This would be a great time to get on people's radar and just be a light in their inbox and share with them how their content has resonate with you. You never know where it's going to go. But at minimum, you can start building this reputation of someone who gives, someone who serves, someone who goes out of their way to make others feel heard and appreciated and valued with our content. Are you following me what I'm saying here?

I think building genuine relationships means that you have to see yourself in a different way and I challenge you to do that. And I will say, I know I said that, like, you don't want to have a pay off of this. You can't go in with that.

But I will say when you have this mindset, you will be so surprised around how karma comes back to you in the most beautiful way. I think that what you give, you will get back. It might not be from that person, but something will come back and create beautiful opportunities in your life.

Okay, so we've talked about number one, building your wish list with intention. Number two, building genuine business relationships, and giving and coming from a spirit of honoring and acknowledging the work others are doing that you admire, and how that it does have longevity in that. I see that very carefully because I don't want to contradict myself, but you follow what I'm saying here, right?

Okay, we've gone there now. Now three, number three tip, I want you to think about preparing your home base. Okay, what do I mean by that. Prepare your home base. Let's say we're getting ready, right?

We're getting ready in the quote-unquote offseason to be ready for the like PR blitz or whatever pitching things that you're going to do next year to get your name out there in the biggest way possible.

I want you to start thinking about now in the quote-unquote, slow season. I'm doing a lot of quote-unquote today. Did you notice that? I digress. In this offseason while it's maybe a little slow, I want you thinking about how could you clean up your home base, meaning make sure that when people visit your website, or your landing page or your social media, make sure that they're sticky.

Meaning somebody hears you talking about something on a podcast or somebody shares your content, If they go look at your profile right now, do they want to stay? Is it filled with? I talked about this with my couple of my business peers a lot? Is it filled with my kids on my whole feed and like randomness? Or is it clear that I am a speaking coach for online entrepreneurs with juicy tips and strategies to help you level up?

For me it's a mix, but it has to lean more on the second piece that I said because strangers, random strangers aren't gonna follow me because my kids are cute. Random strangers aren't gonna follow you because your kids are cute. Your kids are cute. I love them.

And I think that if you share your family in social media, which I do if you share aspects of your life, which I do, I think it's good. You want to make sure that it is peppered in with the actual thing that you want to be known for.

So when people come to your feed, when people come to your website, is it at a place where people are like, Oh, I want this thing. I want to work with her or him. You have to ask the question is your home base, either your core landing page that you might send people to your Facebook page or Instagram page wherever people might find you after seeing you on a quote-unquote stage. There I go again. I don't know why I feel I need a quote that because I think, let me just clarify.

I think a lot of people get caught up on the idea of stage being this physical live event thing. I want you really honoring this idea that a stage is simply a platform to share your message.

I'm on a stage right now on my podcast. Your Instagram Stories are a stage. Your Facebook is a stage, virtual summit, any place where you were sharing a message, you are on stage, baby, so I want you to get real clear with that.

But if somebody sees you speaking on any kind of stage, and they're like, Whoa, search on Instagram, Heather Sager, oh not Heather Sager go to the Heather Sager. Oh, okay, I see. Oh, she's a speaking coach for online entrepreneurs. Oh, she helps people clarify their message, nail their message on life stages and video so that they can grow their authority. Oh, yeah. Okay, that jives with me. I get that. Follow. They might check a couple of your posts or your stories.

But just think about that. Is your home base, wherever your home base is, whether it's a landing page, a web page, a social media page, is it sticky? Is it going to magnetize like attract like a magnet, the people that you want to serve?

This would be an incredible time for you to be asking those questions to make sure that your home base is sticky. Because if you start putting your name out there, and you do not have your home base taken care of. It's like, Oh, it's like, it's like you have a boat with holes in it. The water is just like seeping right through, maybe that's a terrible analogy because I want to do something different here. But you know what I'm saying like Swiss cheese, opportunities are falling through, the people you want to serve are falling through because you don't have that stickiness set up at your home base. Okay, I think you can take that and run with it as you will so that's number three.

Number four. All right, this one is the most important trend. We're in this offseason, right? We're in this time where maybe it's a little slow, but more methodical. We are laying the tracks to get ready for coming out in a big way in 2021. I want to make sure that you have your messaging down. Number four, get your messaging down.

Okay, I think this idea of messaging is a very overused thing that we talked about in the online space. I think it's kind of like one of those words that nobody can define or everybody can define and it all has a different definition.

So let's talk about what do I mean by messaging because this is a big point that a lot of people who come in my program, Speak up to level up, this is like one of their number one desires. I want to nail my messaging. I want to show up on a stage and know that like what I'm saying makes sense to others and speak actually the right thing. I'm not just randomly talking and delivering the right thing that communicates what I want it to communicate so that people know what to do next. That's the right messaging.

When I talk about messaging, we're talking about how you talk about your business, how you talk about your core content, how you talk about your audience, and their beliefs and their wants and desire, how you convey that content to another audience. That's your messaging.

Now, I think the best way to get your messaging down isn't Oh, my God, I'm gonna get trouble for saying this. It isn't to have the perfect webpage or the perfect copy because while I think it's important, and as I mentioned before, you got to have your copy down, especially on those like sticky pages we talked about.

But at the end of the day, you are the ambassador for your brand, your ability to articulate what you do, who you do it for, why it matters, what your processes are, though, like, if you can't talk about those things, you can't sell those things.

I think a lot of people get tripped up because they think that it's the copy that's going to convert and friend, you are what's going to convert on your Facebook Lives, on your podcast interviews, on your webinar, on your videos.

You been able to infuse passion, and conviction and excitement for what you do. That's what people buy. I am a big believer that for you to really get your messaging down is yes, you probably should have some things written down but also you have to think about how you communicate these things and I think you should do that through a signature talk. That's what I teach inside my program, Speak Up to Level Up.

How do you get your core talking parts down where it's like an accordion, right, where you have all the pieces together. And like an accordion like, you know, the musical instrument, where you stretch it out, you can see everything, right. But sometimes you only have five minutes to convey what you need to convey.

Do you have the confidence to squish that accordion down and go, Oh, I know what my five minutes signature tak is but I also know how to pull it apart and slide into a 60 minute keynote spot. Whoops, squeeze it back down, I know how to truncate out the little pieces, extract them so when I'm interviewed on a podcast, I know how to pull the right elements that will resonate with my audience and serve like a frickin magnet. So they're like, Oh, that's what I want. She's the kind of person I want to learn from.

I think a lot of times when we think about our content, it can be a little overwhelming because there's so many different things we can talk about. You're most likely an expert and have experienced with a lot of different things. Most likely a lot of things unrelated to what you do in your business, or with what you do in your business maybe there's a perimeter around a ton of different things that sort of kind of relate to what you do and you're passionate about them too.

And I'm sure sometimes you find a lot of challenge of going, ah, which topic do I pick to pitch for a podcast? Or this person asked me to talk about this random topic over here, which I love but it doesn't necessarily connect with what I sell.

How do you handle that? How do you navigate that? Do you say yes? Or do you say yes and pivot them back to your other topic? Do you know how to do that? Do you have a competence to even know what your core messaging points are?

What I find is a lot of business owners are confused with their own content because while they know how to teach the processes of the how-to, they don't know how to speak to get people excited about the how-to.

I think this for you is a really great season for you to start asking yourself the question, what should I be talking about? What are the most important elements that should be consistent things that I bring up in interviews or on stages or that I should be talking about on my platforms like social media and in my lives or podcasts, if you have one of those? Like what are the messages that you need to be communicating consistently, so that your ideal audience goes, Oh, I get it, and you're the person they can learn from.

 You have to be repetitive. You have to be clear, you have to be compelling. This is the time to start practicing these things because, friend, you don't want to, like this is the worst thing. What happens? You know that random alley-oop shot ball across the court example I gave you earlier, right? Sometimes, like when I was in high school, I remember this. We were at a tournament. I was like that whatever state championship for basketball.

It was like quintessential movie moment, right? The High School cheer team. I think I was on the cheer team, by the way, just my side note. Just for my senior year because of I had injured ankle and I couldn't play soccer and so I decided to have a cheerleader randomly but anyways, that's where I got into basketball for this hot minute.

Anyways, a tournament happening, right? It's like a long shot where like neck to neck the neck, and all the sudden we were like, down at the other end of the court, the clock was ticking and like on the buzzer, they launched the ball, they, we are team. Watch the ball across it, and I kid you not this frickin thing swished like a movie, like a frickin movie moment and our team won. And it was like, Wow, oh my god so it happens.

Let me bring this back to you. Let's say friend, today, you have the opportunity. Somebody knows that dream podcast that you want to be on. That like holy crap, your big moment of that would be the mecca of it, right?

Let's say all the sudden you meet someone in a breakout of a live event you go to and that person happens to be BFFs with the show producer for that podcast, and oh, my gosh, you have an in. You get to be on that show. And for a moment you freak out when you're super excited, the buzzer went off, it's like a swish. You're so excited.

And then you realize that this is your moment to amplify your message to millions of people. Are you ready? Are you ready right now? Would you be proud of the message that you would bring to the table?

And I know that's kind of a weird question to be asking you right now and some of you are probably going to go, oh yeah, I'm ready. I want you to think about this. It's like an M&M moment. You only get one shot. It's not true. You get more than one shot. You're gonna have tons of opportunity to get your message out there.

But what I like to focus on is going one day, one day, which I'm hoping is real soon, I'm going to book my dream podcast, right? I'm not going to share with you what that is but it is on my radar and over there on my wall. But I want to have the confidence that I am ready for that moment and not me ready meaning like, Oh, my business is ready, and I'm ready to sell people. I don't care about that.

I care about the fact that when I have that moment, and I have that level of a megaphone in front of my mouth, I want to make sure that I have a message that is going to serve. It is going to be the right message, for the right moment, for the people who listen to that show.  I want to respect and honor that stage which means if I'm being real with myself, I have work to do.

Yes, me a person who teaches people how to speak for a living, I still have work to do. I have messaging to nail. I need to get better at my delivery skills. There is so much more that I know I can do which means I am focused on those layup shots, and those three pointer shots and even maybe some points, some midcourt shots. I'm working on getting better and better and better so that I can respect the level of that stage and that audience, when I get there. I am not in a rush, and I don't want you to be either.

 I hope that you are enjoying the journey a bit. And I hope that you're using this time right now to play with your messaging, to play with your talk, with your topics, with your voice, with your delivery skills.

I hope that you see there's this incredible opportunity for you to practice and get better. The level you're at right now, it will only get better from here if you keep practicing. It will only get better. Those stages will come and sure, you can go swinging for them right now and I don't want to hold you back for those who are like, yeah, I want to do it. Do it baby. But I want you to do it with the confidence of knowing that your message is going to nail.

Spend some time right now, spend some quiet time thinking about your wish list. Get intentional with it. Spend some time right now building genuine relationships because you never know what will come from them.

I want you to get clear about making sure that your home base, your platforms, they're sticky, that they actually connect with people and draw them in and convert them into your community.

And I want you to think about, do you have your messaging nailed? Do you have that signature talk? Do you have that accordion that you can pull from with confidence knowing that not only can you articulate and teach the how-to, you can connect with the what and the why and and speak to the audience in the way that they will get it so that they will come down the path to understand what the next actions are.

That's the level of competence I want you to have and all that is possible for you as you think ahead to what's coming in 2020. You don't need live events for this. There's so many virtual stages you can be on this right now. Whatever that vision for yourself on your dream board, if it's getting your name out there in a bigger way, making a bigger impact, this is your moment to step into that.

Let's round out 2020, the year of all of the randomness, and crap, and surprises, and whatever else gave on your plate this year. What if we ended this year with this incredible introspection, and focus and enthusiasm knowing for the impact we're going to make next. That's what I want for your friend and I hope that you take some of these strategies, sit with them, and start making them your own within these next few weeks and few months because there's huge things coming your way next year. You just got to be ready for them.

Now, if getting ready for some of these things, and some of the things I talked about today around getting that signature talk nailed, getting yourself out there, the different levels I talked about with setting your wish list with intention, these are all things that I teach inside my program, Speak Up to Level Up.

And if you want to learn more about that program, more about elevating yourself as a intentional speaker and influential speaker, and getting your message out in a big way making an impact. Make sure you come check out my masterclass which again is happening live tomorrow. If you missed the live, there'll be another opportunity. You just have to just hit that web page and I'll handle it for you, but how to position yourself as an authority and speak on virtual stages, even if you don't have a large following right now.

It is completely doable and possible for you.  I hope to be with you along that journey. All right, friends, your coach is wrapping it up today. Thank you so much for joining the show and if you loved this show, take a screenshot and be sure to share it with your business besties on Instagram. Be sure to tag me and tell me what you loved most. I'm over there @theheathersager and I will see you again on the next episode.

Hey, friends, thanks so much for listening to today's episode. If you liked what you had to hear, and you're looking to make a bigger splash with your brand online, then you've got to check out my brand new free video training. You can get it over at heathersager.com/minitraining where I'm going to teach you the three speaking strategies that every online business owner needs for this virtual world here in 2020. Hint: You don't have to be some big pro speaker to make speaking work for your business. Go grab it now. Heathersager.com/minitraining and I'll see you on the next episode.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai