191. Three ways speaking boosts your brand
Speaking is selling, so it's a necessary skill if you want to grow your business and/or profile.
In this episode Speaking and Sales expert Janeen Vosper shares three ways speakin can boost your brand.
1. It's another source of income.
2. Provides increased visibility.
3. Gives you global reach.
Janeen and I also discuss the power of showing up when things aren't perfect and not worrying about what others think!
Transcript
Welcome to Episode 191 of That Voice Podcast. On this podcast, as you know, we are always talking about reasons to improve your speaking skills in order to grow your business and your profile. And today I have the wonderful Janeen Vosper on the show to talk about three ways speaking boosts your brand. So Janeen is also a public speaking coach and her expertise is in pitching and sales. She's got more than 20 years experience as a general manager for a very successful multi-million dollar company. So in this episode, Janeen also shares some great reasons to show up even if you're having a bad hair day And if you're worried about what people think of you, she has some direct, tough love advice, which I am totally here for.
Sally:
Janeen Vosper, welcome to That Voice Podcast.
Janeen:
Thank you very much, Sally. I'm so looking forward to our conversation today.
Sally:
Oh, me too. Because we are singing from the same song sheet here, speaking as a way to build and boost your brand. Before we get into it, I'd love to know how did you get into this line of work?
Janeen:
My background particularly started in sales and I was a general manager of sales for a multi-million dollar company. But part of that was I wanted to be able to speak better and I had a side business where I really wanted to be able to inspire people to do what they didn't believe was possible. And to do that needed to gain speaking skills. I do have a story about particularly what was a real catalyst for it, and I was at a dear friend's mother's funeral, and it was a surprise passing and nobody could speak on behalf of this woman because everyone was so traumatized. And it was, it was really lacking that capacity to share about her. And I sat there, I was with my mom and dad sat in the pews, and I just went, you know what? I'm never gonna be mute again. And that was a real moment for me. I have to have a voice and I want other people to have a voice.
Sally:
Oh, Janeen, it's so powerful. You know, I think back from my own life, all of the speaking I've done, you know, for, for TV and on behalf of companies and presentations at work, and the most challenging speaking gig, I suppose you could call it, I had to do was the eulogy. It was for my dad, which was about 10 years ago, almost to the day actually. And it was in that moment when I remember looking out into the congregation and seeing my mom and feeling so much gratitude for all of the years she took me to speech and drama training, because I thought, mom, right here, being able to speak about my dad in a moment like this, this is when the speaking skills really come to the fore. So yeah, I can relate to your story.
Janeen:
I've done that a few times. Now it's delivering eulogies. But one of the hardest for me was I was the MC for my son's wedding. And being MC was fine, but then I spoke on behalf of my husband and ourself about our son. It was totally a different emotional experience. I had to switch from one to the, to the other. It was quite amazing how different the roles were in doing it, and I was so honored to be able to do that.
Sally:
Using our voice is so important for those moments that really matter. And beyond that, they are a huge part of growing our profile, building our business. And today you've got three main ways that speaking can boost our brand. So let's start with number one.
Janeen:
Well, the first one is it gives you another source of stream of income. If you get the opportunity to stand in front of the room as the expert, then people will gravitate towards you rather than trying to speak from one to one, you are speaking to a much larger group. You can either be then selling from stage, even if it is just to raise your profile and your personal brand, it then will bring in revenue in the long run.
Sally:
Yeah. Well, someone once told me that speaking is selling, and I totally agree with that. Speaking is selling. Every time we are speaking, even if we're not doing a direct sell from stage speech, we're always encouraging people into our services and products.
Janeen:
It's interesting, I put up a little quote today and it said, if you're speaking to one person, it's like speaking to an audience anyway. You're selling. People go, Well, oh, I can speak one-on-one to people, but I'm too fearful to stand in front an audience and speak to an audience. And, and this quote just reminded us that every time we're speaking one-on-one, it's an audience and doesn't matter if there's 10. So if you could speak comfortably to 10, doesn't matter that it's a hundred, it's just more faces on you and more opportunity for you to demonstrate that I know what I'm talking about. I'm an expert here and you should come to me.
Sally:
Yeah, absolutely. And this is also the power of speaking online because online can really feel like you're speaking one to no one if you're just in your room, however you are speaking out to so many people.
Janeen:
I did a sales presentation to a group of accountants and the software, whatever we were using, I couldn't see who was on, I couldn't get any comments. I just had to, oh, that's so tough. Deliver this for an hour. As we know, you can't just be monotone when you're delivering something. You know, you've gotta be larger than life just to keep people interested for an hour. And then I didn't, again, I didn't have the opportunity for people to come and say, well done. The organizers did. But then people sought me out on LinkedIn. Great. Loved it.
Sally:
Oh, fantastic.
Janeen:
But you dunno, it's just me and the camera.
Sally:
Oh, Janeen, I have been there myself and you're trying to get, I actually want people to be in the chat, but they just were not doing it. I think it was a situation where they were in like a boardroom and watching me on a screen so they weren't on their own individual computers anyway, so I thought, right. Bring back the speech and drama from when I was a kid. Let's just do the one woman show, and same thing. It's so nice to be able to have that feedback online afterwards.
Janeen:
It is. And another story. You don't know how far those ripples go. Mm. And this is such an important factor. And you've been a guest on We Are Women podcast, which is fabulous. Everyone must find that episode. Great content from Sally.
Sally:
Yep.I'll link to it in the show notes.
Janeen:
Okay. I was traveling last year to Outback Australia and if anyone knows, a little town called, which is about a thousand kilometers from Brisbane heading west, about 350 population in town. I was working at the information center because it was the only place where I could get internet. And as well as working, I was having issues trying to set up Telstra on my husband's phone. And one of the really helpful ladies said at the information center, I'll do that for you while you're doing that. What popped up was that wearewomen@gmail.com. And she said, Oh, I listened to that podcast.
Sally:
No way.
Janeen:
And I've got, I'm Janeen and she's done the whole fan girl completely!
Sally:
Starstruck. Yeah.
Janeen:
And we were talking and both of us ended up in tears. She said, listening to that has changed my life. I had the confidence to leave situations that weren't constructive. I've moved to this amazing town, got this great job, made all these friends, it has turned my life around. So imagine I'm in tears and she's in tears. So you don't know if you are a speaker, whether it's on stage or online, you do not know where those ripples go. Oh
Sally:
Janeen, what a beautiful moment.
Janeen:
If you've got a voice and you can get that information out there, inspiration out there. You dunno how far it's,
Sally:
Yeah. You would hear this from clients as well. Some of the barriers are who wants to listen to me? And no one's listening. People do want to listen to you and someone's always listening.
Janeen:
Most definitely. Yeah. And having the right message to the right person.
Sally:
Oh yes. The right message to the right person. Absolutely. So the first one is use it as another revenue stream speaking. Mm-Hmm. So what's number two?
Janeen:
Number two is that increased visibility. It's not just where you are at that particular time, standing in front of that audience. Often those things are recorded. A lot of people, and you'll find this too, is that when you just said nobody's listening and nobody wants to hear what you say. I find this when people are doing social media and they recording themselves. They go, well, I can't do that. I'm uncomfortable. I've got one client for two years. We're nearly got it there. Nearly got it there.
Sally:
Oh, you'll do it if you're listening. Make today the day, put out the video.
Janeen:
Absolutely. So that provides you a lot more visibility. If you have that confidence and that ability to speak. It really does give you that opportunity to, to be seen a lot more.
Sally:
Absolutely. And it builds up over time. You know, you're similar to myself. We've been in the business for a while. We've got a lot of content that's building up. Podcasting is a good one. And I will often get people who say, Sal, I've been listening to your podcast for a couple of years, or I've been following you on LinkedIn for two years. You know, and it really is the long game. We can fall into this trap of, okay, if we put a video out and no one immediately responds to that, then that means that it wasn't worth it. And that's just completely false, isn't it? Because you are always building to that library. And often people need to hear your message from you several times in several different places and then just reach the point in their life when they're needing it.
Janeen:
And now apparently we need, it used to be about 11 points of contact, but now that number has even increased before people will make a decision.
Sally:
That's wild, isn't it? 11 points.
Janeen:
The average person takes three months to make a decision and 20% of people take 12 months to make a decision.
Sally:
On the surface. I sometimes think, oh, the best clients come out of nowhere, but they never come out of nowhere. They've always come out of those points of contact. Why? Because of my speaking.
Janeen:
The speaking part is that is one form of your branding, but it gives you a lot more authority.
Sally:
Little bit of a diversion from the points here. What is a brand?
Janeen:
Brand is how other people perceive you. You can put out your, the same colors, you know, all of that part of branding and your logo and the styling. But it all comes down to how other people perceive you.
Sally:
Yeah. And that's why speaking is so important, because when people can hear your voice and see your face as well, but especially hear your voice, they can get such a, a more genuine perception of who you are. You can be putting out these beautiful Canva graphics. You can have these lovely photos. You can have these well-written captions. Nothing is going to allow people to perceive you in a more accurate, stronger way than them hearing the sound of your voice.
Janeen:
It's really interesting. Got a video on the, my homepage of my web website. We are all so critical of ourselves, aren't we, Sally? And I remember it was videoed by Male and I'm thinking, why didn't you tell me that that bit of hair was across my forehead the wrong,
Sally:
Oh, my necklace wasn't straight. Come on
Janeen:
But I had somebody contact me and, and booked in a time to chat and they said the video, because it was so natural, is what connected them. And they got to know me through that video, through speaking, exactly what you're saying.
Sally:
Yeah. And understanding that you evolve. You know, I feel like I've been myself online since the beginning. However, I look at videos from a couple of years ago and I, it's not that I don't recognize myself, it just is not the same sort of content I'd be doing now. And that's okay.
Janeen:
Completely agree with that. I looked at some old videos on, on my YouTube channel and I went, Oh, I could fit into that dress a little bit better than I can now. But, it was okay. That's not the same as that's how I would do it.
Sally:
This is a great spot to remind you. It doesn't matter what you say or to who you say it to, if you are not connected to your voice, people can feel it. This is why you need the Magnetic Voice Formula. If you're a Soul Speaker, it's in the portal. If not link is in the show notes.
Sally:
Just one quote that's come to mind with our conversation is, you know, hearing someone's voice is the closest thing to touching them. Oh, I like that. So if we're wanting to have a touch point, we're talking about touch points with our audience. Well the next, you know, apart from going out and just grabbing someone, which, you know, I dunno if that would fly in this day and age. It is them hearing our voice. So it's so powerful for that visibility. Two pieces of content aren't the same as you showed with that video. A beautiful natural connecting video is going to do more work for your brand than 15 lovely Canva graphics. Look, I love Canva. I don't wanna be dissing Canva here. I I use Canva every single day.
Janeen:
Yeah. It's constantly open on my desktop.
Sally:
Amazing. Okay. So we need to speak to get another source of revenue. It's to boost the visibility. And what would you say is the third big reason?
Janeen:
Well, the beauty of it is you have a global reach if you are a speaker. It doesn't matter where you're, we're we're talking on this podcast today. I've had two interviews in the last week, and both of those interviews were on a podcast in Toronto.
Sally:
Oh, amazing!
Janeen:
Which means that audience gets to hear me now as a expert with my podcast, even though it's my guests that I highlight, you know exactly what you are doing. You are building your authority as a speaker. You are, you are adding responses and contact and people don't go, Great. Sally's terrific. I like her! We're in the same locality. But it's someone from, you know, somewhere overseas or you are interviewed by someone from overseas. You are this reach to a much wider audience that you're not going to get by putting up a fancy Canva created ad on social media. The opportunity though, to reach this the world through podcast or yourself, put yourself out there, video, have content, put a YouTube channel up and deliver that, deliver that content. One of my clients is a Naturopath Kinesiologist, and she's got 17,000 followers. Oh, it's bigger than that now actually on YouTube. And she just started doing the worst videos and she'll be the first one to go, That was awful. And she just went and did it. But delivering it, you can reach everyone.
Sally:
Yeah, absolutely. And it can help you stand out as well. Here in Brisbane, I sound pretty much like a Brisbane girl, yet when I'm on podcast in America, then they're like, Oh, I love your accent. You know, and then our voice now, the way we speak can really get more cut through when we're overseas because we have that point of difference.
Janeen:
Most definitely.
Sally:
Oh, so Janeen, the message is clear. Get out there, start speaking if you've got a business, it's just a no-brainer.
Janeen:
We're so caught up in how we think we're perceived, but it's really not to do with us. If you know stuff, share it.
Sally:
I guess though, the question here is, well, if it's all about how other people perceive us, well what will they think? I'm too worried that they'll think something negative, so therefore I won't put anything out. What do you say to clients who come to you with that?
Janeen:
Get over yourself. I know I'm fairly direct, Sally
Sally:
I'm just saying get off Mimi Island.
Janeen:
I have people that won't go to networking events because, you know, they walk in the room and people look at them. Oh, that's okay. It's not about you because everyone else in the room is thinking exactly the same thing. When I talk to people about pitching and how to pitch, I said, try and be the last person in the room that's gotta stand up and deliver their pitch. Sit somewhere so that you think that's going to happen, because everyone is so caught up in what they think they're going to say that nobody hears anybody else until they've said it.
Sally:
Great advice. And Janeen, how can people find you? How can they work with you?
Janeen:
On my website, janeenvosper.com, and you'll have in the course notes, show notes, the spelling and the link to that. You can go on there and book a strategy call. I've been in business senior management for multi-million dollar companies for 30 years. If I can't help you achieve the results you want, I can recommend someone who can, you know, both Sally and I teach people to stand up and have the confidence to speak. I'm not a voice coach. Sally's a voice coach. Please go to janeenvosper.com and book a half hour conversation. No charge. It's a complimentary. We'll figure out how you can, you know, stand out and in your brand, in your business and find me on LinkedIn and, and follow and say hi.
Sally:
Yeah. Let us know what you thought of this episode. Janeen, that's so generous. If you're listening and you're in business, I would definitely go and book that in because Janeen is an absolute wealth of knowledge and experience and connections. Thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing such valuable information about the importance of speaking and experiencing the payoff from doing it.
Janeen:
I thank you, Sally. I always appreciate that opportunity to reach the work as we're doing here now. It's great. Thank you.