00:00

Welcome to Make More Money Without Selling Your Soul. The podcast for bold entrepreneurs ready to simplify scale and reclaim their time. I’m Polly Lavarello, Evergreen scaling strategist and cushy business pioneer. Join me and my occasional guests as we explore the themes of wealth, selling and well-being, because building a business that works for you changes everything. Let’s dive in.

00:37

Welcome to the show. Today’s episode is an absolute masterclass for anyone who’s ready to get visible and be taken seriously as an authority in their space. I’m joined by the amazing Lori Ann Lori Ann Morabito, a reformed painfully shy girl turned professional speaker, Best Selling Author and visibility coach to powerhouse consultants and coaches. If you’ve been hiding behind your podcast Mike, waiting for the perfect speaking invitation to magically appear, consider this your wake up call and maybe mine too. Lori Ann breaks down the exact speaking strategy that builds your authority, grows your mailing list and actually lands you paying clients without needing a book deal, a TED talk or years of experience under your belt, we’re talking micro yeses, the 3c of a high converting talk, how to avoid overwhelming your audience, and why your biggest opportunities might come from being someone’s last minute speaker swap. If visibility has been on your vision board but not in your calendar, this episode is going to get you moving. Let’s get started. Shall we welcome Lori Anne to the show. I am so excited to be having the first conversation ever on the show about public speaking. But for anyone who hasn’t met the fabulous Lori Ann, please introduce yourself. Oh, first off, Polly, thank you so much, and I’m so glad that you’re having this conversation with your audience and supporting your people. I am, believe it or not, a reform painfully shy girl who accidentally said yes to a speaking opportunity that led me down the road and then I accidentally became a professional speaker. And when I say painfully shy, I mean, like I couldn’t look at people, but I said, Yes, I showed up, I served. And for some reason, even though I didn’t mention how I worked with people or what my website was, people came up to me and said, Do you work with clients? Can we hire you? So I just feel like I accidentally stumbled on the speaking to showcase your business. But I did go down the route of the professional speaker, and today, because of some events, like most entrepreneurs, I now help coaches, consultants, course creators leverage speaking opportunities as their best form to showcase their expertise, amazing. And when you say, leverage, what does that look like?

03:08

Wow, there’s so many opportunities. I believe that speaking needs to be redefined, and stages needs to be redefined as well. And why not leverage those opportunities, meaning those different stages and those different speaking opportunities, they bring in a certain type of person, like somebody has already said a micro yes to let me watch this IG live. Let me go watch this LinkedIn show. Let me attend this conference. And I’m choosing to be in this room versus all the other rooms that are available to me. I So that’s that’s already a micro, yes, that somebody is interested in you and your topic.

03:51

I love that. I love the concept of a micro, yes, I’ve never heard that before, and I’m particularly invested in this conversation, because public speaking is never something I have done, and I massively resonate with your story of being the shy person like I’ve often said, I feel like it will only ever happen for me if I get the right invitation, and then I will just have to get my act together.

04:18

You’re breaking my heart. So tell me, what am I missing out on by hiding away behind, behind this podcast Mike, not getting on a stage, waiting for somebody to magically know, you know what? Polly wants to be a speaker here. So I’m lots of tongue in cheek there, but no, it’s true. I know you can be real with me, but there’s but I see this. This is very common. I see a lot of people who say, I will wait to get invited, and then they don’t have speaker in their bio. They don’t have a speaker page like there’s no information if somebody hears about what you do. Well, let me go to her website. Check her out. It’s like, oh, she doesn’t look like a speaker. Let me move on to somebody else. Yes. Now that’s one scenario. The second scenario is, let’s just hypothetically say that somebody does reach out to you to say, hey, Polly, would you be interested in speaking at my event, my in person event, my virtual event. And then you might, like, your stomach starts to turn, you get knots, and you’re just like, I’m not ready. I don’t have a speech that’s even ready. I don’t even know where to begin. So what I tell people is, you need to get ready to be ready, because you never know. And this has happened to me a number of times where somebody has contacted me and said, Loriann, our speaker, couldn’t make it. I know that you’re attending the meeting. Would you actually slip in and be the speaker? Or sometimes, there’s a lot of reasons why speakers don’t make it to events, emergencies, whether you know health reasons, they’re ill and you have short notice, and this is your time to literally put your red cape on and save the day, because you will earn so many Kudo points with your meeting planner, your conference organizer.

06:09

This makes so much sense to me, and I, you know, fully admit that in any other thing that we desire in business, I would never be like, wait for it to rise. We’ve got to, like, take the aligned action, right? And so yeah, I hear you, and I also think about the first few podcasts I ever went on, and how I was a terrible guest. I had no origin story. I had no true purpose. I just was answering questions as they came up, and they were pretty rambly responses. So one of the things that crosses my mind when I think about preparation for speaking on a stage is that those are super transferable skills, right? Oh yes, yes. One of the things that I teach in my program in demand signature speech is your authority section. And I’m happy to go over the structure of a really good speech for coaches and consultants, your authority section you can use everywhere. How I introduce myself. That’s basically how I introduce myself on stage. If we’ve never met, I’m a reform, painfully shy girl, and that’s how I start like it’s very conversational, and I use it and I use it in live networking events, because people are like you, you’re professional speak and you’re shy. It’s always hard to believe, but it’s one of those fun facts that kind of makes it startles people. It’s like a pattern interrupt, yeah, and it makes people immediately relate to you as well, which I think is really nice, like it’s there’s a vulnerability and a superpower. Being incredibly honest about that, and I guess you’re also probably immediately speaking to the pain point that a lot of us probably hold inside, which is, you know, that sense of shyness that we have, particularly when we think about a stage and owning our story and what you referenced earlier, as well about overwhelm as to what one would even share, that is definitely Something that comes to my mind all the time. I think the imposter syndrome can, like, leap in, like, but everyone else is already talking about the kind of thing I’d be talking about. So what would make my approach different? What do you say to the person who’s kind of spinning around in their mind, wasting a lot of energy overthinking what it is that they’d bring to the stage. 

You have so much information to bring to the stage, and that can be a good thing and also a bad thing. And the reason why it’s a bad thing is because you don’t want to overwhelm your audience. Yeah, guilty as charged. And I remember specifically the event where I shared, and this is when I was speaking in leadership. I shared tons of information. A gentleman came up to me and said, Wow, that was great. So much information. I’ve nowhere, no idea where to start. And then he pivoted and walked away. Oh, and I went, Oh, my goodness. I’m so blessed that he said that to me. I overwhelmed the audience, and then I changed things. I was like, I need to simplify what I’m sharing with people. Just give them, like, a sample, an appetizer to what else there could be. Yeah. People say another yes at the end, like, Oh my God, I want to learn more. I want to like, listen to like in your situation. I want to listen to her podcast, build that relationship. I want to download her lead magnet that she’s offering. I want to follow her on social media. These are all lots of little yeses that end up, as you know, building really great relationships with your audience, which means they become clients.

09:36

Yeah. I mean, I just feel like it’s a great reminder of what a skill that is to do this stuff correctly, like to kind of get on the stage in the first place to be invited to have your do you say origins? Is it? No, it wasn’t. It was the story said authority. They called an authority section, authority section. So nailing that. But also what you shared about kind of not going into information overload. Which, as you probably know, I’m in the funnel world. And I help people with webinars, and I often use a story that I similarly used to want to tell people everything in a webinar, because I thought, well, the more value you have, the more you know, the more you’ll a trust that I know what I’m doing. And B, you know, feel empowered to go out there, but similarly, I would have people reflect back to me, Wow, Polly, you’re so clever. I can see why you’re nailing this. Because you really know what you’re doing. I’m actually feeling like I need to listen to this again to truly absorb what it was that you’re saying. Are there any other kind of common pitfalls that people fall into when it comes to delivering their talks or speeches.

10:44

Yes, let’s just talk about like that over delivering. A lot of times, what I see in the people that I work with, and when I’m just like observing other speakers, because a lot of times, like I love being in the audience and I see giving too much information is usually, I want to prove that I deserve to be up here. I deserve to be the speaker. So if I can share with you tons that I’m the smart, I’m super smart about this topic, but at the same time, like that just overwhelms people. So what I tell my clients and inside the way that we structure speeches is imagine like everything that you would want to tell an audience, this particular audience, where you’re speaking, but I tell you, you can only, like you can’t take that suitcase of information. You can’t even take a carry on. I’m going to make you put everything in a backpack. Okay, you have three tips that you can teach an audience in a one hour presentation. Wow, yes. Now here’s the fun part, because I know people are saying, Okay, three tips, but my framework is five steps, brilliant, because that means you have to leave two of them out and what you won’t do. Curiosity kills the cat. Satisfaction brings them back. They’re just like, but there’s two more. Where are they? Get them in the lead magnet. You can get them if you listen to this podcast episode like you’re just bringing people along.

12:09

Yes, yeah, because it is the experience that somebody has when they’re listening to somebody talk, and the feeling they have. And I often think if you can make someone feel like they can do the thing that you’re talking about, like that’s the best feeling you can give someone. But yeah, I do also realize that it is a bit of a, I don’t say art form, because if it was an art form, you wouldn’t be successful. It’s so successful what you’re doing, you know, it’s not impossible to achieve, but I really love what you reflected there about on the one hand, what’s present in my mind is thinking about the strategy someone needs to have to write a good talk. But what you’re sharing as well about how the mindset can influence how we choose to do things. And I love what you shared about the backpack and the three points that kind of restrain you from being tempted to honor that part of you that wants to over deliver.

13:04

And that is exactly why I do that. And I always have clients who are like crafting speeches or students, and it’s like, that’s the hardest part. It’s the hardest part to nail it down to. You can only have three. That’s it. But let me share with your audience, like how to craft a speech. Now this is not an inspirational opening keynote, or this is how to showcase your business. You start with an opening because these days, you know, everyone’s got a phone in their pocket, in their purse, in their bag, and it will like little bit of vibrate. So we want to make sure that we give the audience a reason to ignore that. I want your audience to lean into you with some sort of startling story, startling statistic, something that just that shakes them up again, a pattern interrupt. What happens next with your audience is that they actually start to lean back, cross their arms and they’re thinking, but why should I listen to you? And that’s where your authority section comes in. This positions you as the expert and gives the audience a reason why they need to listen to you till the end. Yeah, and it’s not some boring LinkedIn bio. We want to make sure that it’s very conversational, but still, like, you know, like, I know what I’m talking about, because I got, like, 25 years of experience, yeah, and your intro was so super snackable as well. I really like that. I like how concise it was. 

I feel like that brings its own energy of authority, because you’re not kind of having to bulldoze us with words to really emphasize why you’re the queen of what you’re about to talk about, like, so notice what I didn’t do. You know, there’s a lot of people out there who say speaking is a beginning, a middle and an end, and let me tell you what I’m going to tell you, then I tell you, and then I tell you what I told you. So like, none of that, I just don’t believe. Even that, like, don’t tell your audience what you’re going to teach them. Just move on and teach them because they said yes to being in the room for a reason. Yes. So number one, you want to be outstanding on the stage. That’s how you literally will have the 3c lead to the three R’s. We can talk about that in a moment. So then, after your authority section is your value section. This is like the meat of your sandwich. This is where the three tips come in. And then you have to have supporting data for each of those tips. So I tell my tell my clients and students. This is where you become a lawyer. You’re going to defend your tips. And we have a beautiful close to action. And we’re also throughout the speech, we are seeding little sales tips in there. And what I mean by that is I want people to be like, Oh, Polly has a group program. Oh, she works with people one on one. Oh, she has a podcast. Like, I want them to know little bits and pieces of you that you are more than just this speech. I always want people to have spin off business when they are finished speaking. So then we have our call to action, and then we wrap it up with a beautiful bow and call it a day. I love that I love that I’m curious to know what role does storytelling have in a talk? Because when you mentioned data, I was like, does data include stories? Like, I want more detail.

16:30

It can be data. It can be a story. Here’s why I love stories. Stories say things that you don’t need to actually say. So I had this beautiful story about this client that I worked with, one on one, Kim. Kim was deathly afraid of speaking, so much so that she quit her corporate job because they were she was rising up in the ranks, and she was gonna have to start speaking at meetings, and she was just so afraid. She was like, I’m gonna go start my own home organizing business. Then things are bad if she was gonna do that. No offense any home organizing business.

17:04

She becomes a home organizer. Tells her friends, I’ve hired a speech coach. They were like, why you’re afraid of speaking. But during the course of our work, she not only got booked to speak, she actually got hired to write a book. Got on TV five times during the time that we were working. Let’s just say she overcame her fear of speaking, and this was a busy mom with twins that were under the age of five, so Wow, I love to tell this story because it answers a lot of the objections that people have fear of speaking, and she gave her first speech, and after her first speech, I said, So Kim, were you were you scared? Were you nervous? She said, No. My next question as her lovely speech coach was, why not? And she said, Because you prepared me so well, I felt like I had five years of experience under my belt.

17:59

That’s it, isn’t it?  And she had a very unique situation for that first, that first gig. And so it answers that, like the the entrepreneur, can I do this? I’m busy. I have twins. I’m afraid of speaking, and then she gets on because of speaking, is how she got the book deal and also got on TV. So there’s such a beautiful domino effect. And what I love to say is speaking is the gift that keeps on giving.

18:29

I love this. And you know what? Actually, that reminded me of a sneaky little objection I’ve been using to starting thinking about talking, speaking. I never know what to call it. See, that’s how afraid of I am of it. But one of the, one of the things I use as my excuse at the moment is, should I start doing that before I have a book? Will I even get on a stage if I don’t have a book, and will I not, will I be able to squeeze everything out that talk without a book? So I found it really interesting that you just said one of your clients got the book deal because of the talk

19:02

Yes, and when she got on TV, she started talking about her pending book. So you don’t need the book to start speaking, because you can start speaking and talk about the pending book and get people to sign up and to be on your wait list. Now, will a book later on. Help you get on more stages. Absolutely, I’ve written two books myself. I’m going to be writing another book on this particular industry that I’m talking about now that’ll be coming out in the fall, but it separates you from the other speakers, and it’s such a lovely thing to send to a meeting planner and then they see your book. But you don’t need to wait to start speaking. It’s just a way to leverage the book later on to get more stages.

19:51

Yeah, so much of this makes sense to me because I talk about in every other area of business, first pancake energy, and that we can so often hold off because we want the. A final outcome to be perfect. But actually, the sooner we just get ourselves in the arena, this is where my analogy falls back, the sooner we start sharpening our tools. I don’t think that’s what they do in the arena, but anyway, the sooner we start fighting lines, the better we get at it.

20:16

And just start now like you don’t have to be in business for 510, years to start speaking, you literally can start right now. I don’t care if you started your business two weeks ago, you already know so much more than the people who are hiring you. Yeah, get out there and share your information.

20:36

Yeah. I mean, this makes so much sense to me, because we all know on the most important elements to growing a business is visibility. You know, we can’t continue to grow a business unless we’re getting visible. And what do we do when we’re getting visible? We tend to be talking. And so if we don’t have confidence in how we communicate, or conviction, which I feel like the kind of working on being able to deliver information with conviction and confidence that in itself is magnetic. So for anyone who’s listening and still kind of like, oh, do I don’t I, what are the final three things you’d say to them that might pull them over the edge into prioritizing this as an activity to do now?

21:14

Okay, so first off, I want you to pick a stage, because remember, speaking needs to be redefined. Stages needs to be redefined. And I talked a lot about this in Episode 306 on my podcast, be in demand, and that is 30 plus stages for you to consider. I want you to find a stage that blends with your personality and also just your business model. Like, for example, you might have little ones, and you can only do some sort of a live when they’re when they’re taking a nap, so that could be a little unpredictable. So why not do like IG stories, IG lives, you know, something that doesn’t have to be scheduled. You can be getting your message out there again. I would listen to that episode and just find your stage, build your own stage to get invited, and also to be able to pitch yourself with evidence that you’ve been doing some speaking, you know, to other places. So that’s one thing you want to be really good, you know, meeting planners, talk, people talk. You just want people raving about you. So I say you want the 3c that will lead to the 3r those are you want your speech, your presentation, to be compelling, captivating and, most importantly, converting, so that you have your audience raving about you, remembering you and referring you. Love those Okay, so again, like, it’s the gift that keeps on giving. You know, once I was a fill in speaker, I had met a gentleman at a conference that I was attending with my husband. It was mostly for him, but I was like, while I’m here, I’m gonna find some place to speak. He had already, was already booked for his up and coming event that was in two months. The next question that I asked him, when do you start planning for next year? He said, November. I’ll reach out to you in late October. He called me two weeks later and said, one of my speakers had to drop out. Okay, my topic and my whole speech fits so perfectly into this person’s title and their description. I had a lovely conversation with one of the CEOs who was up there in the front, and this was for a scrap metal industry meeting. So this gentleman that I was talking to was the CEO of a recycling firm, and I sent him a copy of my book. Here’s another reason to write that book. Polly, and six months later, he sent me a message saying, I loved your book so much. I bought a copy for everyone in my company. Amazing. Six months later, he sent me another message saying, lorianne, once a year, I do this leadership retreat for all the leaders in my company. What’s it going to take to bring you to Oregon? And I, you know, and then we talked, and I went out there, and then six months later, he’s again, reached out to me and said, Lori Ann, I’m head of the state of Oregon’s recycling conference. What’s it going to take to bring you out here again? 

So I’m sharing this story because, again, it’s like speaking is the gift that keeps on giving. There were so many beautiful opportunities, and that all came from one the conversation that I dared to have with that gentleman, but also his event, I wasn’t paid, and I just want people to understand that when you are showcasing your business and your expertise, you can earn so much more on the back end, and that was just with one person who was there in the audience. So have that. 3c presentation, so you get the 3r put find a stage and just make it habit to get out there and let people know. Like on my podcast, I also share about using the warm market method to having these open the door to the conversations you know, the people that you already know, and like Polly, now you know me, so I so we can have this conversation about where I can help you get on stages, you know, like your friends who already know love and trust you. They know people, yes, yes. Oh, I love this. I love this. And I’m thinking about all the brand authority that must come alongside, you know, being seen on a stage. I know I’ve got a client who’s having that happening soon. And I was like, Ryan, make sure you’ve got all the B roll, all the professional photography, like all of it, because in my mind, I’m like, where a lot of us are working, predominantly online, it just makes it more real. There’s a different energy to it, which feels really exciting. And funnily enough, I was gonna ask you, like, what is the biggest and best opportunity that’s come alongside speaking for you? But that sounds like a bit of a humdinger in itself. Is there anything else you’d add?

26:10

Oh, God. There’s so many things that have just happened, and sometimes I actually am not able to keep connecting the dots. I can imagine. Yeah, a lot of times people will say, you know, well, they actually, here’s another one, is have the email list, and I know that that’s something that you are a big fan of also, but having the email list, because I cannot tell you how many times I have gotten booked because somebody who was on my email list, obviously, they saw me speak. They’re on my email list, and now they’re on a committee to putting on a conference. So it makes it so much easier. Yeah, somebody reaches out to me says, somebody on our committees, on your email list, I’ve seen you speak, we’d like to hire you. Like, there’s I like, I’m not interviewing. It’s just like I’m getting hired. Yeah, it’s just about working out the fine details. So have that email list that constantly reminds people, oh, by the way, I’m also an available speaker, yeah. Oh, I’ve loved this conversation so much, I can’t imagine anyone listening to this, myself included, who’s not going to go on to prioritize this. If anyone is listening and thinking about, how can they learn more about all your good stuff? I know you’ve got an amazing podcast. The second second I started listening to that, I didn’t stop, but please let my listeners know more about it, because it’s, it’s probably one of my favorite business podcasts.

27:34

Thank you so much. That really, that warms my heart. The name of my podcast is be in demand. It’s be in demand for a reason. I just want to share with people why it’s that name, and it’s because I want people to not say, you know, we need a speaker on launching. I want people to say, We got to get Polly to speak here, so that you want people to call you out by name. So that’s why it’s called, be in demand. And I talk about lots of things, everything from behind the scenes to speaking tips to how do you have these conversations with meeting planners? So you can find that and you can also follow me on all your favorite social just go to speak and standout.com and you will find social links and also a link to my podcast.

28:22

Love that you’ve absolutely nailed it between be in demand and speak and stand out. I mean, does what it says on the tin? Amazing. Thank you so much for your time today. Loriann, it’s been such a joy talking with you. Oh, thank you so much, Polly, wasn’t that a powerful conversation? I don’t know about you, but I’m rethinking everything about visibility. After talking with lorianne, from redefining what a stage really is to crafting a signature speech that converts she’s made it clear speaking isn’t just for the polished and published, it’s for anyone ready to lead. So if you’re feeling inspired to get on more stages, pitch yourself confidently, or finally, stop waiting for permission. Make sure you check out Lori Ann’s podcast, be in demand, and visit her website. Speak and standout.com to dive deeper into her world. And hey, if this episode gave you clarity, courage or a kick in the pants, do me a favor. Share it with a business bestie who needs to hear it too. Until next time, speak up. Stand out and as always, stay cushy. I’ll be in your ears next week.