Do you own your own business or aspire to? Do you like to fill your day with all types of awesome?

Then please join us at the GrowSmartBiz Conference in DC next week [hint: a great, resourceful day awaits].

Both the conference hosts, Washington Business Journal and Network Solutions, seem to have hit the day’s agenda out of the park with only the benefit of small business owners in mind.

C’mon out and join us!
There will even be a chance to meet the Social Media Swami and Grow Smart Business champ Shashi Bellamkonda.

Multiple keynote presenters plus a stunning array of speakers will engage over a full spectrum of small business insight — from marketing and innovation to an entrepreneur bootcamp to social technology and even how small business relates to government and nonprofit sectors.

Major leaders, movers, shakers in entrepreneurship and social media will speak and share insight …including the likes of Marie Johns, Deputy Administrator of the US Small Business Administration and Rieva Lesonsky, CEO and founder of GrowBiz Media and Ramon Ray, editor of SmallBizTechnology.com — and so many more…like social media maestros Jason Falls and Rohit Bhargava, with CRM guru Brent Leary too.

Wait, there’s more, more!

Some of the top strategic leaders and business owners who help nonprofits will be on hand too: Care2’s Jocelyn Harmon, RADCampaign’s Allyson Kapin, DigitalSistas’ Shireen Mitchell, and Katya Andresen of Network for Good.

Whew!

But wait, there’s even more brilliance planned for the day with the Women Grow Business team too:

…like the fantastic Women Grow Business editor Shonali Burke plus bloggers and SEO experts Tinu Abayomi-Paul plus Deborah Ager; leadership pioneer Kathy Korman Frey; award-winning business owner Marissa Levin and human resources extraordinaire Patricia Frame.

I look forward to speaking as well on public speaking 2.0 that day.

To register!
…there’s likely a ticket waiting for you right here.

Photo Be Awesome by Eskimo_joe, Creative Commons

This recently was first published as a guest post to Sisarina’s Start a Biz series.

A client and business owner recently made a comment (and I admired her honesty).

She said:

“I don’t like live audiences. I want to use social media to find prospects.”
Our discussion at hand concerned her engagement strategy i.e. the relevant, public conversations and stories that could help carve out trusted, profitable relationships. We were approaching this conversation from two angles for her company: public speaking and social media.

Realizing the online-offline connection
Even though her customer base (current and prospective) heavily engaged offline as well as online, she wanted to prioritize an online approach – and exclude public speech planning since live audiences “dismantled her confidence.”

At this point, the WomenWhoTech Telesummit came to mind – a great event on 9/15th (for disclosure, I’m on the advisory board). I mentioned the summit to her for potential motivation – since many of the speakers work online, relate to my client’s industry, yet also benefit from relating a lot to public speech audiences.

Out of concern, I then said:

“In today’s environment, an audience always exists. And potential customers could be ready for your offering whether they’re online or offline or both. So does any potential customer deserve your confidence, or just those you find online through social media?”

We just looked at eachother for a few seconds.
Her vulnerable feelings about public speech warranted respect. I anxiously wondered silently if my reply was too harsh or insensitive. Certainly fear and that I’m-going-to-vomit anxiety are hard to manage when speaking in public! But it was her complete evasion of potential audiences in this forum – and thus potential customers – that inspired my concern.

It seems reasonable to say we’ve arrived at a ‘public speech 2.0′ reality
-where the engagement arena for our services and brands go beyond any single online or offline dynamic. The client eventually broke the silence and we began brainstorming how a public speech plan could fit into her overall engagement strategy.

These questions have shaped public speech strategy for my own business; and my client used them in her own development and commitment to ‘public speech 2.0′:

• What passion propelled you to start your business?
• What 3 stories, based on your experience, best express your business value (and passion for it)? What conversations are most valuable to your customers? (both those in online and offline communities)?
• How can these core stories be developed through conversational speechcraft?
• When engaging in a relaxed, one-on-one discussion – what are your conversational strengths? How do you cultivate trust in this type of informal setting? Are you a strong listener? Do you give and receive attention well? Do you maintain steady eye contact or ask targeted questions?
• In what ways can you develop and transfer your conversational strengths to stage-delivery dynamics?

What do you think about ‘public speech 2.0′?

What has helped you prepare to authentically, intentionally engage in public, whether that be through social media or a public speech onstage?

Photo by Geoff Livingston, Creative Commons

A small business owner and I recently discussed the growing relationship economy. And a favorite topic of ours came up: social media and the progress her team was making on that front.

She was thrilled at how her staff engaged through their Facebook fan page and a Youtube video series to engage prospect relationships and drive sales.

She then admitted something that really caught my attention.
Her savvy team was so skilled at engaging through social media. So she felt comfortable with them presenting as panelists for a small industry event.

…which didn’t turn out as she first hoped.

To her surprise, the team lacked confidence and basic skill in this public speech scenario.

She realized she had assumed their comfort and savvy in communicating online would automatically translate to offline environments.

Some ideas to audit and shape your team’s public speaking skill:

1. Assess team skill before game time.
Create chances with your team to discuss, audit, and practice public speaking skill, like in assessment and goal setting situations.

Discuss which scenarios where they’ve publicly presented – like what type of audiences, with or without co-presenters, or in vs outside your industry. Learn what topics and stories related to your business most draw out their interest. Build off that subject matter and collaborate on a plan to finesse their speaking ability.

2. Make the marketing value of public speaking a team mindset.
Are there small business events/conferences (great calendar of entrepreneurial events at Small Biz Trends), podcamps, or local meetups (in case you’re in the DC region) that would be ideal places for your business to be seen? …and be conversational forums for your team to present?

Fast Company blogger and presentation guru Ruth Sherman recently made a great point: always be ready to speak. That’s not to say folks on your staff should be ready for a 60 minute keynote at the drop of a hat.

It means that for business to succeed, the mindset ‘always be marketing’ rules the day. And the team’s ability to represent well even at the most relaxed speaking environment makes an impact.

3. Develop quick key messages for a range of speaking opportunities.
To bolster team readiness, it’s worth it to craft a mini, ongoing archive of key messages that reflect your business values, service, and industry relevance. These can be on-hand for future fleshing out for speeches or even networking events.

It’s the relationship economy.

Is your team ready to help build those relationships through authentic and skilled public speech ability?

Image Ready to Fly by Marcel Germain, Creative Commons