How To Overcome Your Fear Of Speaking To Get Clients

Giving talks is absolutely one of the fastest and best ways to attract new clients – but also one of the scariest!

You might be hesitant to use speaking as a strategy to get clients because it makes you nervous.

This is totally understandable – public speaking comes up again and again in surveys as one of the top fears people have.

But there is good news! Public speaking is a skill that can be learned and mastered by anyone. You don’t have to be a born natural speaker – you can become one!

I say this from personal experience.

Speaking isn’t something that came easily to me when I was starting out a health coach, but it’s a skill I’ve been able to improve over time. Now it’s a core part of my marketing strategy.

As a health coach, speaking is a surefire way to fill your programs, grow your audience and your list, and attract more of your ideal clients to you.

If you know you want to get into speaking but you’re feeling resistance and fear, this post is for you.

How To Get Past Fear And Resistance Of Speaking

Shift Your Mindset

When you think about giving talks, you may get butterflies and feel your heart start to race. While this may appear to be fear, we have the same physiological reactions when we’re excited.

So, is it fear or excitement? The truth is that it’s probably both.

If you focus on feeling excited (and resist the thoughts of feeling nervous) you’ll have a much more positive experience. Keep telling yourself how excited you are, and you’ll shift your experience.

Also, if you’re thinking about giving talks as something you have to do, your brain will automatically resist it. Try shifting your mindset from ‘have to’ to ‘get to’. Like, “I ‘get to’ help my audience.”

‘Have to’ comes from a place of resistance and fear, while ‘get to’ shifts your mind to a place of gratitude and opportunity. When you open up your mind to all the positive possibilities that can come from giving a talk, your fear will start to be overshadowed by excitement.

Try saying “I get to speak to this group of people about their health today”. Speaking about your passion for health and wellness is exciting!

Think about the real benefits this could have in your life… like more clients, more income, and (finally) a way out of always wondering where your next client will come from.

Think About Who You’re Helping

When making those mindset shifts, it helps to focus on the people you’re serving. You became a health coach to help people live a better, healthier, happier life, and giving talks is a means of spreading that message.

This is an opportunity to share your expertise with the people who need it, while also creating new possibilities for growth in your business.

Plus, keeping your core audience in mind will help you to create a talk that is tailored to them and delivers exactly the kind of information they need most.

Know that sometimes you have to take a leap

Think about the last time you tried something new – whether it was an exotic food or a new fitness class. Were you nervous before you tried it? Probably. Was it as bad as you expected? Maybe it was – or maybe you loved it! Either way, you tried it and you survived.

Public speaking may be scary, but it might be the perfect leap for you to take to reach a new audience and a new level of success.

If you want your business to grow, it’s important to get out of your comfort zone from time to time and try something new.

As Tony Robbins says, “If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.”

Start Small

You don’t have to start your journey into speaking by giving a talk to thousands of people at a wellness conference. You can start small!

Practice In The Mirror
Get used to hearing yourself talk and seeing your facial expressions. When you mess up, just keep going! You’ll start to learn the flow of your presentation and you’ll get better and better.

You can also do this into your webcam or your phone if you want to watch it later. If the added element of the camera makes you nervous, stick to the mirror!

Practice With Friends
Before giving my first live talk, I vividly remember practicing giving my talk to one of my health coach friends. I did a complete run-through of the talk 3 times to get comfortable with the flow and content of the talk.

Ask your partner, your family, or a group of close friends if you can practice giving your talk to them. The people who support your business dreams will be happy to help!

Presenting in front of real people is very different than practicing with a camera or in the mirror. This extra practice will help you nail down your talk and really get in the flow.

Join Local Groups
Once you’re ready to get your brilliant talk heard outside of your home, get some extra practice by finding some groups to present to.

Toastmasters is a great way to get practice and improve your public speaking skills. There are chapters all over the world which meet weekly and focus on giving members the skills and encouragement needed to excel at public speaking.

You can also find groups on meetup.com. These groups tend to be small and less intimidating.

There are a few approaches here.
1. Find a meetup group for health coaches or women entrepreneurs that focuses on helping one another with their businesses. Think of this as a mastermind or ‘business bestie’ approach to keep getting practice.

2. Find a group of your ideal clients and approach the organizer to ask if you can give your talk at their next meetup.

Have Fun!

It can be way too easy to think of the worst case scenario when trying something scary like this. But really, what’s the worst that could happen? You might mess up and be embarrassed, but no one will remember that the next day.

Have fun with your talks. Open up with a joke or a personal story to break the ice and lighten the mood. Once you’re a few seconds in to your talk, you’ll forget how nervous you were!

Don’t forget to be yourself. Inject some of your personality into your talks so you feel like you up there.

And know that you’ll get better and better at this every single time. The Brene Brown’s and Liz Gilbert’s of the world had to start somewhere, too.

“Each time we face a fear, we gain strength, courage, and confidence in the doing.” ~Unknown

You never know. You might discover a hidden talent for public speaking – and get a slew of clients while you’re at it!

Now I’d love to hear from you!
What fears do you have about giving talks? If you’ve given talks, what has helped you get past your fears?