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Why Dress Up To Speak Authentically?

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

If you’d rather listen, here’s the audio version. Just turn up your speakers and click the PLAY arrow to hear it, or click the DOWNLOAD link below the bar to save it.

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You may think that what you say to your listeners is what counts when you’re speaking. But that’s only part of the story. Nonverbal communication accounts for a whopping 93% of the message you convey. And your appearance plays a big part in that.

So you need to look good for your listeners. Your clothing, hair, makeup (or not), and accessories influence your audience in ways that might surprise you. This isn’t just old school “Dress for Success” stuff. This is real and it affects your financial bottom line in your business.

I know – in these times, people want the truth. There’s a big emphasis on authenticity, on being real, and being “one of the people.” In an attempt to be down-to-earth, some business people make no attempt to dress up when they speak. If this is you, you’re missing the boat. And quite possibly losing business!

Research shows that people assign higher credibility and higher trustworthiness to people they consider to be appropriately dressed. When you’re dressed better, you are nonverbally elevating your leadership status and authority level for your listener. In plain English, they think you know what you’re doing and that you must have something worth buying!

Where This Counts

Your appearance is marketing for you wherever you speak about your business. It’s not just restricted to formal presentations. You want to look good in these settings, too:

networking events
client interactions
meetings with colleagues
videos (even your 1-minute Flip Cam shots!)
classes and events you attend

More Benefits For You

Taking real care with your appearance has some other benefits, too. Here are four more reasons to look your best when you’re speaking in your business:

It raises your confidence level. When you look your best you feel more sure of yourself.
It helps you relax and eliminates a potential source of anxiety – feeling self-conscious about your appearance.
It improves your body language (another part of nonverbal communication). When you’re more relaxed and confident you move differently. And your listener notices. Your posture is more open and engaging. You appear more certain about your topic or product.
It builds rapport with your audience. On a subconscious level they feel more respected because you’ve taken the time and care to want to make a good impression.

Bonus Tip

Believe it or not, dressing up for work on the phone makes a big difference in how you come across –because it affects your confidence and your posture in positive ways. So get out of your sweats and get cute for your next teleseminar!

Come back and tell us how this made a difference for you. And if I can help you with building your speaking confidence, contact me and we’ll discuss options for moving you forward.

Posted in Blog, confidence, making connection, presentations, speaking as marketing | No Comments »

When Speaking Trumps Copywriting

Tuesday, February 2nd, 2010

If you’d rather listen, here’s the audio version. Just turn up your speakers and click the PLAY arrow to hear it, or click the DOWNLOAD link below the bar to save it.

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When I suggest that speaking is necessary to your business success, one argument I hear is this: “I don’t need to speak. People can read all about what I do on my website or brochure.“

Why You Need More Than Good Copy

Right now, people are super-selective about who they do business with. For one thing, they have more choices than ever before. And through the internet, they have easy access to a gazillion options for just about anything.

And in our current economy, folks are guarding their resources more closely. They’re not taking as many risks with their spending. They want to be sure before they do business with you. They want to feel confident that you’re the right one.

So it’s the know, like and trust factor, right? People want to feel that trusting bond with you to feel secure about their investment in you. You can establish that so much more quickly with speaking than you can with writing.

Scientifically Speaking…

When people hear you talk, they feel more familiar with you. Did you know the brain responds to the human voice in one-fifth of a second? Just hearing your voice connects your client or customer to you much faster than any copy they can read.

Learning research shows that people retain twice as much from listening as from reading. After two weeks, they remember 10% of what they read and 20% of what they heard. The best result is combining the two. They retain 50% of what they hear AND read.

For YOUR Business

Applying that research to what you do translates into combining speaking with written material:

speaking engagements with handouts
live networking with brochures to hand people
delivering online audio products with transcripts
using audio and video on your website, along with your web copy.

Your clients and prospective customers click with you more as a person when you speak – not just a business entity. If you add the visual of video or a live appearance, there’s an even deeper dimension of starting a relationship with them.

They’re much more likely to connect with you at the heart when they hear your voice, than they are when they’re reading copy. If you are using different venues of speaking in your business, you have a much better chance of really connecting with people, and creating a business relationship.

When you’re ready to add speaking to your business tools, contact me to help you quickly eliminate your fears about it. It really can be a painless, fun experience!

Posted in Blog, making connection, speaking as marketing | 2 Comments »

Effective Speaking – How To Be Bold Without Being Aggressive

Friday, January 8th, 2010

Turn up your speakers and click on the PLAY arrow to hear the audio article. (If you don’t see the audio play arrow, click here to listen.

Your clients, your prospective customers, your students – whoever your audience is — they want to hear your confidence. They want to get a solid feeling from you.

They’re looking for you to provide an answer for them. Whatever you’re offering, they need to hear your certainty – in your words and your tone. And they need to see it in your body language. You need to be bold.

What Speaking Boldness Is

Webster defines boldness as showing courage, begin distinct and clear, being conspicuous and confident. How does this apply to speaking? When you’re talking, to be bold you need to:

be honest and direct. Here’s where the courage comes in. Just tell the truth. That’s what people want to hear.
be clear – take a stand and state it clearly. Forget about trying to please everyone or trying appeal to everybody. Doing that makes your message vague, too general, and even confusing. So be clear.
be direct – Again, take a stand and just say it! Leave out the disclaimers and the minimizers and the maybe’s.
be sure – Communicate your certainty with a strong voice and by showing your own enthusiasm about what you offer.

What Speaking Boldness Is Not

Boldness is not aggression. Being bold is being assertive, not aggressive. That’s a whole different thing. With my clients I see a lot of confusion here – especially for spirit-centered businesswomen. Because of that confusion, they avoid being bold in talking and in presenting.

Being bold is not about being pushy or hype-y. It’s not about having a hostile edge in order to appear powerful.

Why Speakers Get Aggressive

When you’re anxious about speaking, being a bold speaker can seem almost impossible. So many people use some form of anger to power through their fear. It’s that anger that turns it away from boldness and into aggression.

They may get mad at themselves and scold themselves enough to just MAKE themselves speak. Or they motivate themselves with a warrior-mode message to find the strength to overcome the fear – like a football team in the locker room.

When you rev up those engines and all that adrenaline, you come across as aggressive – in your facial expression and in your words. And people run in the other direction, don’t they? No wonder you’re avoiding this.

What’s The Solution?

Follow these three steps:

Honestly assess your own speaking style and get some outside feedback. Are you bold, aggressive, or (yikes!) forgettable as a speaker?
Keep those boldness qualities we talked about in mind when you’re crafting and delivering your talk.
Eliminate your fears of speaking so they don’t get in your way of being bold.

What are your thoughts about boldness? Let’s make this a two-way conversation! Leave a comment here on the blog.

And if I can help you quickly release those speaking fears, contact me and we’ll get you on your way to boldness.

Posted in Blog, confidence, speaking as marketing | No Comments »

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