In this episode of the One Small Change podcast, host Yvonne McCoy is joined by Leisa Reid, the founder of Get Speaking Gigs Now and CEO of the International Speaker Network. Leisa shares insights into the power of public speaking as a strategic tool for entrepreneurs. She discusses how speaking can effortlessly attract clients, expand visibility, and create meaningful connections. Drawing from her expertise, Leisa offers practical tips for both creating your own stage and finding opportunities on others' stages to amplify your message and reach the right audience.

CHAPTERS

00:00 Attracting Clients Authentically

03:33 Importance of Speaking with Impact

07:41 Balancing Routine and Spontaneity

11:30 Strategic Speaker Engagement Planning

15:14 Balancing Roles: Entrepreneur's Self-Management

17:00 Identifying Your Speaking Opportunity

19:25 Speaking: Educate and Highlight Opportunities

22:44 Authenticity Over Memorization in Speaking

25:55 Podcast Engagement and Growth

QUOTE:

"Do what makes your heart sing." - Leisa Reid

LINKS:

5 Top Tips to Get More Speaking Gigs Now

https://yvonnebmccoy--getspeakinggigsnow.thrivecart.com/5-top-tips/

Welcome to another edition of the One Small Change. And I

am thrilled as always that you're taking time out of your life to, you

know, embark on this journey of exploration and transformation

with us. And I'm your host, Yvonne McCoy, and I bring almost thirty years of

entrepreneurial experience and a passion for discovering growth

through the power of seemingly small change. And

one of the things that I think is so important is that as

entrepreneurs, we need a community as we go through this,

this this journey. And this week, we are

talking to the amazing Lisa Ray, who's gonna share

her story of a smaller unexpected change

that made a huge change and

transformed the way she does her business. So, Lisa, thank

you for joining me. Yeah. It's exciting to be here, Yvonne.

So tell us about yourself and what you do and

what change happened that that made you better at what you do.

Oh, so many changes. How long is the show? No. I'm just kidding.

No. It's true. It's true. Which one do I pick? I guess

we're gonna find out. But, my name is Lisa Reed, and I am

the founder of Get Speaking Gigs Now and the CEO of the

International Speaker Network. So you may

have concluded at this point that I do work with speakers, and I'm

surrounded by speakers a lot. But the speakers that I

like to support are entrepreneurial speakers because they

are using speaking as a way to generate

clients, to grow their business, to get visibility, to

make an impact, to make money. So those are all the kinds of

conversations I like to have with with my clients and help them figure out

how they could get booked for the rest of their

career so they don't have to keep reinventing the wheel.

So that's amazing because as in any any business,

particularly entrepreneurial, getting people into the funnel or

getting them you know, once we get them, we're good with them. It's the

getting them that's the issue. It is. Especially when you have, like, this

great talent, this great expertise, this great service that you know is

gonna make a huge difference for people, and you're like, where's my people?

Where are they? And I have found that a lot of heart centered,

purpose driven entrepreneurs don't love the

chase, the hunt, you know, the the cold calling, all

those kind of icky feeling type of

marketing sales approaches. But what feels really

nice is being able to give to the audience, give some expertise,

and then the people kinda magically come you know, when we all have it set

up correctly, the people then come to us and they go, please help

me or I wanna know more. Can you are you my person? And

it just makes the conversation easier. You're talking to the right

people. You're not trying to fit a round peg, square hole, vice you know what

I'm talking about? Square peg, round hole Mhmm. Into something. And I think it just

feels nicer. Oh, it absolutely does. I think, you know, most

of us have stories about where somebody tried to sell us something.

And so when we, you know, come into entrepreneurship

and suddenly now we're trying to sell, it's like, I

don't wanna do that. I don't wanna do that. And so you and I have

the same philosophy. My, you know, my philosophy is you don't have to be

fixed. You just have to be found. So that when you stand out

to your people, they're like, they're you're

the one. You're the one I need. Right? Your solution

becomes, you know, like, essential to them. And,

you know, and that a lot of that has to do with the way that

you message and the way that you stand out to them. So

so tell us more about, you know, one of my

my passions is getting people to speak, not

be afraid to speak and say who they are and what they do. So speaking,

I think, is probably one of the best

leveraging multipliers if you you know, without getting too

in the weeds. But, you know, instead of talking to everybody one on one,

you can talk to a lot of people, have a huge impact. And

there's a really good chance that somebody in that group is gonna be be

your person. Absolutely. There's so many

benefits to speaking. And for those of us like you, you and I,

who who really enjoy it, it's probably the

funnest way to do sales and marketing. Yeah.

And and why not? Like, let's stop the soul sucking activities.

If and and I will also say disclaimer. Like, if you

would rather get a root canal than be a public speaker, well, then don't

do it. Don't do it. Right? You gotta find what works for you. But there's

a lot of us out there who are like, oh, man. I would love that.

I could see myself up there. I could you know, I have a lot to

say. I have a lot to give. This would be really helpful. Then listen to

that part of yourself because, absolutely, like, I was just talking to someone. She goes,

oh, I'm doing networking. I'm like, listen. I do networking too, but guess how I

do networking? I'm the speaker at the event, and therefore, I get to meet

everyone, but I also am the highlight of the show and

get to share some stuff and make all these great new contacts and

and potentially new clients instead of just being a networker.

Right? Huge difference, and it's available to all of us.

Absolutely. Absolutely. I think the other thing too

is probably one of the things that got me going is somebody said you

can have your own stage. You don't have to wait for anybody

to invite you. And so, you know, I

think that it's really important that

you do something on a regular basis. And regular is whatever feels

comfortable for you. I mean, if you could do something seven five days a week,

good for you. I can't. But I

do lot. Yeah. But I do have certain things every month where I show

up. And so people get to see you whether that's whether

that is you do your own workshop. Actually, you

know, this is your interview. I should be saying to you

I should be saying to you, what are different ways people

can show up regularly? Yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, I love it.

You're starting us off. We've got you know, we're we both are adding expertise to

this, and I absolutely love having something the

same. There's something sexy about consistency. Right? And I think

consistency is very underrated. But when you're trying to build a

community or build some cadence or build something in your business that's

gonna bring in clients or bring in revenue or bring in, like, leads,

There's nothing sexier than consistency. So I have a

group called the International Speaker Network. It actually started back in

02/2013. The first Tuesday of the month

from one to three Pacific, we meet. And we met in a

room for and up until COVID, we met in person, and then

we then we moved it online. And this has been going over ten years.

Same day of the month. First Tuesday of the month. Same

time. One to 3% PM Pacific. And I've had

people who've been coming for years coming to that event.

So I show up there every month, and I know where I'm

gonna be. I I will be there. There's only

one meeting in those twelve years now that I've ever

missed and and had someone step in for me. That's it. I've been there every

single time. And it's super cool because I'm always meeting new people.

I'm having new clients potentially come in through

that through that organization, and they're also my clients in the organization. So

it's it's a win win win, and I have fun. It's like having Christmas every

single month. Well, you know, I think one one of the things

is I had someone who was, a

holistic healer. And I said, you know, you should find

something that you like to do that you can do on a monthly basis.

Do you know? And and we talked about stuff. And she goes, you are just

too linear for me. I have to I have to get up and feel

it. And I said, I understand that need, and you

should save that for your clients. But if you

wake up every morning and change decide, this is what I'm gonna do today, it's

like having a mobile store that you move every morning and sell something different

in. Yeah. It's your how are your how are your people gonna

find you unless they're psychic at exactly the same moment

you walk? I mean Well, and also yeah. It's like,

having putting a stake in the ground as well, like a commitment. And that's

why if it were easy, everyone would do it. So for you and I can

sound like super easy, but then someone else might go, oh, like, what that's too

much of a commitment. I don't know what what but

knowing that that you're gonna be there is good because say

someone can't go, you know, in January. You're like, no problem. We also meet on

February at this time. And, again, I'm it

doesn't need it doesn't mean you need to build a community. It doesn't mean you

need to have a a a membership like I do, international speaker

network, but it can come in different forms. Like, you do a

webinar or a master class or a online course

or some it can be you going live.

It could be I send a video out every whatever

month or week or whatever you want. I know one of my friends, she does

a daily live interview daily,

and she is just unstoppable. That is like you I'm with you. That's

a little too much for me. Mine's once a month.

Well, it's funny. It's funny because I just did a post that said, you

know, consistency is it is the key. It may not sound

sexy. So me here, you say it is page.

Yeah. I have to, like, I have to rethink that. But, you know, one of

the things that I say to my clients is have office hours. Mhmm.

I mean, you just show you know, but you do it regularly.

And the first three times, I guarantee you, nobody will come.

And so it's a chance for you to really focus on your business and

say, what did I do to get people here? What should I try next

time? Whatever. And and slowly but surely, people will come.

And it's something that if you're networking, it's something that you can put in the

chat. Say, I have open office hours if you wanna chat. You

always have something that you can give a value, as

as you're growing. And that doesn't mean, you know, you, you know, you make the

commitment for six months. If it's not getting traction, if you're not enjoying

it, shift it to something else. But you have to

be you have to have some kind of visibility where you're showing up.

So you're talking so we that has to

do with, you know, building your own stage. Let's talk about getting on other people's

stages because that's Yeah. I was gonna say because the other so there's there's

oh, I always mention, like, with speaking, it's like

having a deck of cards. What game are we playing? Right? And so having your

own events is one strategy. And and then there's we kinda

mentioned different strategies. Like, is it a live? Is it a in person? Is it

a virtual event? Is it a webinar? Like, those all would have different strategies,

but that's a filling the room strategy. Right? Now

what if someone else filled the room for you and you showed up?

That I love that strategy. It is

not that much work. Right? Now it it doesn't take a lot for me to

fill my room now because I've I've had that consistency for so long. But

I love coming into a room that's already filled for me, and that's where you

would speak on other people's stages. And in that sense,

now the different strategies for that is, okay, who

who is deciding who's the speaker for that? So you wanna figure

out what rooms do you need to be in, what audiences can

benefit from your message, Who would be in charge of that? How do you

start to figure that game out? What what's ideal for you in person? Do you

wanna travel? Do you wanna do virtual? Like, what's your time zone? What's

your lifestyle? What's your business goals? All these things come into play when you're making

these decisions. Because the good news is there's tons of speaking engagements, but the

also, the bad news is there's tons of speaking engagement. So you know how to

figure out, like, you don't need to be at every single one, but which

ones would really move the needle for you and starting to ascertain what that is.

And that's something I work on with my clients in the speakers training. That is

such an important thing that I think,

especially entrepreneurs, we're like we we we tend to come

as we're building our business, we tend to come from scarcity. So it's like, I

will take every opportunity that's Yeah. We don't need to do that. And it

it will burn you out. Right? And the thing that I just said to

somebody is your success does not come gradually and

linearly. It's like you're pushing, you're pushing, and finally you break

through. And so it's right? And so it is

really hard to in the beginning to kinda limit yourself,

if that makes any sense. And so, you know, with my clients, they'll say, well,

what time should I have it? You know, if I'm gonna do something and go,

what time are you willing to show up for, like, the next year?

Yeah. Well, you know, if you're not willing to show up at 06:00 in the

morning, then don't do it at 06:00 in the morning. What

time does your clients have? Are they people who have full time

jobs? So it needs to be in an evening. What's, you know,

what's the latest you're willing to go? And it really is about you.

And the fact that you're making these decisions based on you

will help you attract the people that are right for you.

Absolutely. Yeah. And that agrees with, same with

time zones. Like, I'm in Pacific time

zone, so I'm good with all of North America

and South America too. Like, pretty much we we can kinda work in there.

And, but when we start getting and I can do Australia really easily

because, you know, my morning is there or however it works. Your

your evening. Afternoon is their morning, so that kinda works out.

But then some, it's just it's really tricky. And I'm like, well, I

wouldn't really wanna be on a call at two in the morning, so

I'm not gonna go after time zones in which that would be the case for

my clients. So it doesn't mean that they can't do it. I'm

not eliminating the possibility, but sometimes we think I've gotta go

global. I'm like, well, do you? I don't you like, there's millions and

millions and billions of people in the world. There There's enough for you.

There's enough for you. And and the thing that I've done for people is say,

you know, I gotta be really honest. It's the middle of the night for you.

You're not gonna wanna do this for, you know, three months or six

months. I'm not gonna wanna do this other time zone.

But if you get a group of people together

and we can agree on a time, then it's worth it's worth it. It'll be

you know, a group rate is gonna be cheaper for you, and it'll be more

worth my while. So there are ways to work around

that, you know, to do it. But, initially, you want to do

what fits into your life. I mean, I just went in I just went into

my podcast schedule and go, okay. I'm not doing podcasts

on Thursday morning because I have a late Wednesday night. And I

had never done that before. It's like, you know, I'm

not functioning on Thursday morning. So, yeah, it it

it is better for you to set some boundaries for yourself. I

think another point that I was thinking earlier when we were chatting

is when we go out as entrepreneurs, we are

the boss and all the employees. So the question

to ask is, am I being a really good boss, and I'm a am I

being a really good employee? So if you're like, oh, I just I'm gonna

work when I feel like it. Like, would you hire someone who's like, oh, I'm

just gonna do whatever what I want. Like, no. But

as as in terms of being a good boss, it's like, oh, I've got this

person who's really free flowing and really, like, adaptable,

and they don't they don't love structure. So how do we work with that? So

you kinda have to be like your own boss and your own employee and

not work twenty four seven. Right? Like, you would no employee

employer, excuse me, your boss is not gonna make you work twenty four seven. So

you also have to give yourself that grace and go, I'm

blocking like, I block my schedule off on certain days of the week consistently.

That way no one else can get on my calendar unless I choose to have

them on there. That's a gate that's a, a way to keep

myself sane. Otherwise, the whole thing would be filled all the time, and I don't

want that. And and and you should not forget about

your family either. Right. Your life.

Well, I I have the unusual situation of my husband is retired

and had, you know, endless time, and my business

is picking up. And so Yeah. You're on And he's

like, when are you retiring? And I said, that'll probably be a never.

Yeah. So I have to I have to, you know, come up with a

time, you know, thing that works for both of us. Right?

Alright. I wanna go back again be you know, to other places to

speak and why we should do it, before we run out of time because

we're having a good time. Okay. So places to speak. If

you are first, you wanna really figure out your speaking avatar.

What that means in my world is are you are we

talking in person? Are we talking virtual? Like, are we talking

conferences, associations, chambers, local groups? Like

so we wanna start to you really wanna start to identify what

where are your people? Like, where are they hanging out, and what kinds

of maybe industry are they in? Like, is it medical, insurance,

real estate, entrepreneurs, Christian?

Like, I don't like, there's all these different pockets

that you can tap into, so we wanna kinda figure that part out. And that'll

help you identify and narrow down where to start

looking. Because any of those, even if you just said, oh, I I speak to

the medical professionals. Okay. Well, who? Like, let's even get it more narrowed

down. Is it nurses, doctors,

pharmaceuticals, medical insurance, health care

workers. It looks like it's it there's those all of those that I just

listed are huge. So the more you can narrow it

down, that gives you a place to start looking, then you can expand from

there. Absolutely.

And I think that's where your message I call it an introduction

and not a pitch. That's where your message and and what you're saying is

so important. Because if you just say, I talked to metal you know, the medical

industry, then that's like you know? Too wide. People

go, oh, I don't I'm not a doctor. I don't know that. But you're like

if you said like, one of my clients speaks to social workers

in the education space or k through 12 educators. So,

oh, okay. Now I'm that's different than saying education.

Like, oh, k through 12. Okay. Who do I know who's on the PTA? Who

do I know who's a principal? Who do I know who's on the board? Who

do I know who's a teacher? You can start then then all of a

sudden ideas start coming. You're like, oh, I know this person, my neighbor, my cousin,

my you know? And that's how that she can start to get more

introductions that way, being more specific. So

before we run out of time, there are two things I

wanna make sure that we cover. One is,

I guess, why speaking is if if if

you love to do it, why speaking is available to everybody, kind

of, why it is a good strategy. Yeah. And then the other

thing is I'm gonna talk about your free gift. Oh, okay. Yeah. Why is

speaking a good strategy? It gives you an opportunity

to be spot lit spotlight? Spotlighted?

Be found. Bam. Yeah. And and it

allows you to educate the audience on some opportunities and

how you can best help them without being salesy or anything like that. But

just a lot of times, we have we have,

businesses or things that just need a little bit of explanation in the sense that

someone has a problem and you're, like, telling them,

oh, there's this problem and

there's a solution, but you might not even have realized that you had that problem.

You might not even realize that there's a solution. And so that's what I mean

by educating. Because if you know your client inside and out,

you know what their issues are. You know that you've helped some people with

those solutions, and that is so powerful because that's who who the people are

gonna hire you, the people who have problems, and they need them solved

yesterday. That's your people. Absolutely.

Educate them sometimes. Yeah. And I I said to I said to

somebody, my favorite phrase that if you say

this to me, it gets me every time, and it's it's not your fault.

Do you know? It's like the world you were brought up in is

not the same world that it is now. And so whatever they taught you

then may not be applicable now. So that's not your

fault. Right? And as soon as you say that, it's like, okay. I can

listen. You know? Yeah. And you're like, okay. And same same with speaking. It's

like you probably had most people probably had

maybe one class in their education about speaking,

and then it was, like, never talked about again. And everyone suffered through their introductory

speech or their persuasion speech or whatever they had to do and then never did

it again. And but we communicate all the

time. As entrepreneurs, we are always talking about

our expertise or our stuff or, you know, our services that we offer, and we're

helping people all the time. So what if you could help more people? That's

really what it's about. Right. And do that 30,000 foot view,

giving people nuggets of your information. My my first speech

was for, acceptance into the National Junior Honor

Society. Oh. And and the English and drama teacher worked

with us for three months,

to get it right. And my mother said to me,

take a deep breath when you get on stage. And I also hate to be

the person who comes afterwards. Right? Because I don't like to see

other people make mistakes. And in the presentation,

I was I was the last person. So I was like,

right? So I got up there. I didn't take a deep breath, and I absolutely

blanked out. Oh. I did not remember my speech at

all. And I came off the you know, I

obviously said something. I came off the speech the stage crying,

and my I was like, I forgot my speech.

Apparently, the highlight of my life is is punctuated by crying.

And and my teacher said, it was wonderful.

Nobody knew that you didn't give your speech. And

after that, I never wrote a speech. I always do bullet points.

Yeah. It I think, again, we get taught that we have to in school

that you have to memorize everything. And I can tell when

someone's talk is memorized, there's a certain cadence

that sounds too perfect, and we really want it to be real

and authentic. And there are times, of course, that someone would use a teleprompter

or have a very like, I just watched the Oscars. They are on

a very strict time schedule, and they are not there to charm the audience. They

gotta get the nominees stated and

open up the winner and say and get off the stage.

There's times when that's really appropriate. But when we're talking about our

expertise, you wanna relate to the audience, you wanna be

relatable to what's going on in the room, not just ignore the

elephant in the room. If something happens, you wanna address that and

connect with people, and that means, like, you're being real.

And yeah. So if you have your structure and you're like, oh, I've got, you

know, my bullet points. Here's what I'm gonna talk about, and you're organized. I do

believe that's very important, not just winging it, but to

be organized and, thoughtful and strategic, intentional

about what you're speak what you're speaking about, but not memorized.

Well, I think, you know, one of the things that I say with my podcast

is this is live. So you may see mistakes. You may you know, the dog

may bark. There may be things that happen, but, you know, it's because we're

live. So tell us about the free gift. Yes.

It is five top tips to get more speaking gigs now

because we've been talking about speaking, and you're like, wait a second. I wanna do

that. I wanna figure out how I can get booked. So that's, a free gift

for everybody, and the link is

getspeakinggigsnow.com/tips.

And I'll say that one more time just in case you're like, wait. I didn't

find a pen.

Getspeakinggigsnow.com/tips.

And it will also be in the show notes Yes. So that you can you

can get that as well. So I can't

believe that our time is up.

So the the the the secret question is when was the last

time you did something new for the first time? Oh my gosh. Well, I don't

know when the last time was, but I can think of a big one recently.

I did my first stand up comedy routine a couple

months ago. That was a big one. I thought I would never in a million

years do that. It was not on my radar, and I got an

invitation to, a comedian offered to help

me create it. And I took the challenge and did it even though I was

terrified. That is fantastic. That is

fantastic. That sounds like it excuse me. That sounds like it

could be either, you know, you walk away with it and you go,

this has been fantastic, or I'll never do this again in my life. That's kind

of an all or nothing. It was super fun. I I I told her I

probably would never do it again, but after I did it,

I did have a new change of heart. I'm like, okay. This is something

I do wanna pursue. Meaning, I'd like I'm gonna

take a class on how to do more writing for comedy and so that I

can have more material. And also, it, you know, it never hurts to put some

comedy in, you know, or some sense some humor Yes. When

you are talking. Okay. So

we definitely, need to wind this up, and I'm sorry to

say that that's true. So the commercial part is,

if you're listening to this, make sure that you subscribe and share

and engage with the podcast on social media. This is

actually my way of giving back

to the community because I know that there's so many people out there who who

could who have made great changes and wanna make an impact.

And I know that you can use this information to,

you know, to boost and support you as you're growing through your business,

and it it's another source of connection. So I hope you're gonna join

me for the one small change again and, you know, keep embarking on

this chain this journey where you have small changes and

increase your momentum. And if you haven't listened to the first

episode, you should do that. That's where I'm talking about why I'm doing this. And

so that'll give you an idea. And, you know, when you go to the

page, there'll be lots of people you can pick from that can help you to

solve some of the problems that you've got, connect you with other people, and

hopefully connect you with their community as well. So,

Lisa, what are your last words of wisdom or your last thoughts for

people? I would say do what makes your heart sing.

I love that. I love that. And so I you

know, this has been wonderful. Thank you for joining me. And for those

of you that are out there, remember that change is simple, but it's not always

easy. And it requires that you have courage, resilience, and a willingness to

step out of your comfort zone, which is why it's not easy.

So, hopefully, this podcast will help you do some of those things and

make a small change that'll make a huge difference in your life and your business.

And as you go down this journey, I hope that your your vision will grow

bolder and you will have more innovative possibilities.

And until the next time, stay curious. Thank you,

Lisa.