by Leisa Reid

The following is an excerpt from the book: Get Speaking Gigs Now.

Typically, there are 5 PITFALLS you can fall into when your talk isn’t ready to rock.

PITFALL #1 → You will push opportunities away subconsciously.

EXAMPLE: Someone says they would be interested in having you speak to their group. You say you’ll email them to follow-up, but you forget to follow-up and the lead goes cold.

PITFALL #2 → You will give excuses to turn down speaking opportunities. You tell people you’re still working on your talk, but it’s not ready yet. You are too busy with (FILL IN THE BLANK), but you are going to finish it really soon.

PITFALL #3 → You’ll just WING it. This is probably the WORST thing you can do. Winging it can be worse than not speaking at all. Why? Imagine if you drove a car for the first time by winging it. You would never do that, right? When you wing it, the audience can feel it. They are wondering where you are taking them. They can sense your anxiety and lack of confidence. It’s painful for everyone.

PITFALL #4 → You will miss out on client opportunities (and $$$$). The longer you wait to get your talk ready to rock, the more opportunities you miss to utilize the “ONE-TO-MANY” approach and impact a lot of people all at once.

PITFALL #5 → Most importantly, you will NOT be making the impact that you were meant to make. Speaking can scale your business quickly and effectively. It’s SO exciting, so let’s make sure you get on the fast track and start making an impact.