124. How to be the face - and VOICE - of your business

Oh god, do I have to? Is that your reaction when asked to go live on socials, guest on a podcast or speak at an event?

And the answer is no. You absolutely don’t have to. But you sure as sugar should want to.

Using your VOICE is one of the best ways to grow your business – and it’s largely FREE. Who doesn’t love the ROI on that?!

When you own the voice of your business then you have wider reach, create more genuine connections and amplify your impact.

So in this episode I share my three top tips to shake the fears and speak up for your business!

Transcript

Hello and welcome to Episode 124 of That Voice Podcast, How to be the face and voice of your business. Now, if someone asked you to go live on Instagram, to be a guest on a podcast, or maybe speak at an event, what's your initial reaction? Oh, God do I have to do I have to? And the answer is no you absolutely do not have to.

You're an adult! You don't have to do anything you don't want to do. When it comes to these sorts of speaking opportunities, though, you sure sugar should want to do them. Using your voice is one of the best ways to grow your business, whether it be service based or product based. It's also one of the best ways to grow your profile.

So even if you don't have a business, this is a fantastic way to grow your personal brand and it's largely free! Using your voice is largely free and who does not love the ROI on that? Return on investment. It is a good one. Now, I'm not a social media expert. There's plenty of better podcasts about social media.

However, I have got a fair bit of experience and I can say with complete confidence that when I went from 45 followers on TikTok to 10,000 in seven days, the difference was showing my face and using my voice. On video, the one that went viral was the first one where I spoke to camera.

Sure. I love the lip syncing, I love the dancing. I love the transitions and the pointing. I do all that. However, it's been my two camera face and voice videos, which have helped me grow to more than 350,000. On Instagram, I posted a photo the other day and in 24 hours, I think it had about five likes or something like that. Like in the first two hours, there was none.

And this is because the algorithm clearly is not showing photos as much anymore. It is all about video. If you scroll through your feed, I definitely have noticed on mine, it is just all video. So if you've been hiding behind still images, it's literally not gonna get shown to anyone anymore, or it certainly appears that way at the moment.

And then speaking at events, there's been so many events that I've spoken at, where the organizer has said they've invited somebody else. Not, not that I was second choice, although actually at a couple of events, I was the second choice and the person who they asked first said no, because they were didn't want to, were too afraid or too nervous or whatever the reasons were.

And so much of the work that's coming to my business has been from people who've seen me speak live at events. And that's been something I've been invited to turned up to spoken at. Didn't have to do any of the promotion or anything. And there reached all these people just from talking. There's no doubt about it, when you own the voice of your business, you have wider reach, you create more genuine connections and you can really amplify your impact. People want to see your face and hear your voice to create that know, like trust factor. That's how they get to know you get to like you get to trust you. And so in today's episode, I wanted to share three top tips to shake the fears and speak up for your business.

Okay. Number one is say yes. I say to my clients say yes now, and then panic and call me later. Or, you know, no need to panic. Say yes to that podcast, invitation that request to speak on a panel that offer to go live on social with another business owner. Say yes, you know, first are always unfamiliar and you can get that icky, uncomfortable feeling yet.

The more you do it, the more your audience grows. And then before you know it, you won't just be saying yes to these speaking opportunities. You're gonna be seeking them out. So that's number one, say yes. Number two is learn to love your voice. Learn to love your voice. Look, I get it. Hearing your voice played back can be cringy. With new clients, when I play their voice back, it's like their metaphorically as trying to escape out my door. But if you don't feel like your voice sounds good, how can you expect your audience to be drawn? Your voice is as unique as your fingerprint! So own your vocal unis. You know, it's like a pet. If you treat it with affection and kindness, it will love you back.

If you neglect your voice, then it's going to abandon you, not be there for you when you need it the most, and you know, it can actually bite you in the butt. And if anyone's been in a situation where they've lost their breath and this weird high pictures come out, all this weird crackly sound and they've been like, Oh my God, what's happened to my voice?

Then this is what we're talking about. And two great ways to learn, to love your voice. Apart from the affirmation saying, I love my voice is to record yourself often. Record yourself on audio and video, and this will help you form a bond with your voice. Anyone who's got a podcast will understand this who makes a lot of content online, will understand this.

The more you hear it, you create that familiar relationship. And if there are things you really don't like about the speech quality or the tone or any of that, then come and do a voice course and we can work on those things! Because the main thing is for you to love your voice. If you don't believe your voice has influence, how can you expect it to have influence?

Now, the second thing you can do to learn to love your voice is to do a daily voice warm-up. Warming up your voice is going to help your voice sound really attractive and keep it healthy for many years to come. Uh, this is not an episode about a voice warmup, although I should do another one of those. Simple humming is a really great place to start.

Just a breath in and…Hmmmmm. And I hope my microphone picked that humming up, sometimes it thinks it's background noise and cuts it out. All I'm doing is humming on the exhale, really great voice, warm up.

Okay, so to speak up for your business, you have to say yes. Two, learn to love your voice. And number three, practice speaking your story.

So when you hear an amazing business story, chances are, it is not the first time that the founder has shared the story. Stories need to be crafted, practiced and refined by speaking out loud in order to have that maximum impact.

Create a story journal. I highly recommend this, create a story journal where you jot down key moments in your life, in your business journey and the corresponding lesson or point of the story. And you'll find that one story will often have a lot of lessons or a lot of points, which is great because it means it's a very versatile story you can bring out.

The way to think about these stories are uh, your biggest challenge, your biggest mistake. What was the turning point? When did you decide to set up this part of the business? Any key turning points, make fantastic stories and these specific stories are more useful than that overarching chronology of, well, first I did this, then I did that, then I did this and we tend to try to explain our life story. And I've been guilty of that when I've been guessing on podcasts. I need to take my own medicine when it comes to this one, is to share the specific story and having a story journal will help you do this. And then you talk these stories aloud, any chance you have, you know, in the shower, chat the story away.

If you're out having brunch or having a coffee with a friend, share the story with them. The more that you practice it, the better it will be when it's crunch time on a panel or a podcast, you've got that compelling story to share. And it's not the first time you are finding the words for it.

So there you have it. My three top tips to shake the fears and speak up for your business are: to say yes to speaking opportunities. Two, learn to love your voice. Record yourself. Often do a daily voice warmup. Number three, practice speaking your story.

Now if you'd like help with anything mentioned in this episode, and you're inspired to amplify your impact through the power of your voice, then I have got something just for you. My new program, Speak Up for Your Business. It's a potent 16-week container to make your profile pop and your business boom. I'm very auditory. So I love those kind of phrases profile, pop and business boom. It's application only, the numbers are limited. The spots are already filling.

I'll put the link in the show notes. So if you have a business, this is definitely want a checkout. If you don't have a business yet, want to be a confident face and voice for your company, this will also be fantastic. There's a couple of people in the course also who are currently with an employer, but are looking to start their own business as well.

If you're not sure, just jump in, join the wait list, put an application in and we will chat about it. That's Speak Up for Your Business. And this is why I developed this program because. It breaks my heart meeting amazing business owners that have incredible products and services that are changing the world, raising the vibration of the planet, raising consciousness yet nobody knows about them because they're the best kept secret.

We don't wanna be the best kept secret! We wanna get it out there. And the way that we can get it out there and cut through all the noise is to show our face and use our voice. So I'd really encourage you to apply for Speak Up for Your Business. All of those details are in the show notes, and I will be back on the podcast waves next week.