If you been following The $100 MBA Show podcast and this blog closely, you might have noticed that I’ve been heavily investing in public speaking as of late. I’ve taken an immersion program, I’ve taken voice lessons and I’ve made it a goal to get on stage more this year. In the past few months, I have spoken at Mario Brown’s event, Michael Port’s Heroic Public Speaking Live, I keynoted at a local Inbound Marketing Hubspot event here in San Diego and Nicole and I will be speaking this Saturday at Podcast San Diego. We’ve been busy.

And it’s still March. I will be speaking at many other major events this year like WistiaFest, FinCon and Podcasters’ Paradise Cruise.

You might be asking? “Why all this public speaking? Public Speaking is a lot of work.”

Public speaking IS a lot of work. I usually spend 15-20 hours creating and rehearsing my public performance prior to the event. Then, there is the travel that is usually involved. Then, there is the time off you have to spend away from your business, because you can never get as much done when traveling. You also expend an incredible amount of energy for your speech, as well as meeting and speaking to people at the event. Sometimes I will need a day to recover when I get back home. More time spent.

All this begs the question, is public speaking really worth it?

Yes. It is. And in this post, I’m going to show you why. Even if you are not getting paid to speak right now, speaking at events is a solid investment in yourself and your business. Here are my top 3 reasons why you should be getting on stage more often.

1. Communication is the mother of all skills.

Every time I prepare and rehearse for a public speech, I am improving my skills as a communicator. The better I know my material, what I can offer the world, as well as my ability to deliver it, the better off I will be as an entrepreneur. You can be offering people the formula to eternal happiness, but if you can’t communicate it in a way they can comprehend it and put it into action, it’s worthless.

Public speaking is the ultimate test of how well you can communicate and engage with your audience. And it’s always a good idea to give yourself challenges that push you and make you stretch.

2. Instant authority. 

When you are on stage, you are instantly recognized as an authority. Even if you are speaking to a crowd of 100 people, you are on stage and they are not. That doesn’t make you any better of a person than they are, but you are someone they understand as a person to pay attention to. Even if you are speaking for 20 minutes, for that moment, you are the teacher and they are the student. We inherently look up to our teachers and percieve that person with a level of respect.

If you want to influence others and have more people learn more about your work, get on stage. If you really want to have an impact, nail your performance on stage and everyone in that room will tell their friends and colleagues about you and your work.

3. Speaking at events is networking on steroids. 

Going to any event or conference is an opportunity to meet interesting people and expand your professional network- and we all know how important that is. Business is a contact sport. The more contacts you make, the better your chances of success. But going to an event as a speaker, takes your networking game to the next level.

You’ll have no problem meeting people. Attendees will come to you, knowing you are a speaker and you’ll have no problem making new friends. You not only have access to attendees but you also can now easily approach speakers- speakers you may even look up to and want to get to know. Now you have a context in which to do so. The bottom line is, you’ll have more people wanting to get to know you and checking out your work as a speaker than an attendee. You are going to conferences anyway, you might as well speak there as well.

Final advice

Don’t take public speaking lightly. I don’t even like calling it public speaking, I prefer to call it public performances, as Michael Port has taught me. Being on stage is a privilege and an opportunity.  I hinted at this earlier; go into every performance with the intention to CRUSH IT. You want every person in the room to be floored at how impactful and well delivered your performance was. Aim to be so good, they just have to tell others about you. Be the buzz of the event with your performance and you’ll never regret doing a public speech.

To learn more about being better at public speaking and how to get on stage, check out these episodes of The $100 MBA Show:

MBA45 Guest Teacher: Michael Port- Heroic Public Speaking

MBA163 Guest Teacher: Amy Mead- Heroic Public Speaking Part 2

MBA177 Guest Teacher: Grant Baldwin- How to Get Paid as a Public Speaker

Bonus Info

I mentioned earlier that I will be speaking at a few events later this year. Here is some info and deals you don’t want to miss.

Podcasters’ Paradise Cruise: This is going to be a HUGE amount of fun. Cruising with all these amazing speakers and attendees for 7 days! This all inclusive event is like nothing else. Plus I love cruises. Sign up before this Friday and save $250. Just mention The $100 MBA in your application and the discount will be applied to your ticket. Nicole and I will see you on board!

FinCon 2015: The speakers I’ll be sharing the stage with at FinCon this year are people you’re going to want to meet. Plus FinCon’s founder Philip Taylor (aka PT Money) is a great entrepreneur and all-around great guy you should get to know. You can grab a majorly discounted super early bird ticket before the end of March. Be there and enjoy the great talks and company.

WistiaFest: If you love doing video with your business or have been dying to get started, you need to be at WistiaFest. The team at Wistia are beyond awesome. Today is the last day to take advantage of their early bird ticket, so get on it and we will see you there 🙂 Oh! And next Monday, Chris Lavigne from Wistia is giving one of the best guest lessons ever on The $100 MBA Show– How to shoot video with equipment you already have. Tune in!