How Public Speaking Can Catapult Your Career | HuffPost

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Many studies reveal that people's top fear is public speaking. Their second is death. Although I find that shocking, it's also unfortunate. Like it or not, if you're trying to build a name for yourself (or for your business), you'll benefit from sharing your insights and expertise in a public forum

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President, Broad Reach Communications

President, Broad Reach Communications

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Many studies reveal that people's top fear is public speaking. Their second is death.

Although I find that shocking, it's also unfortunate. Like it or not, if you're trying to build a name for yourself (or for your business), you'll benefit from sharing your insights and expertise in a public forum. It can help position you as an expert with your target audiences, especially if you speak in an articulate and polished way.

Some people have found a different way to do this. They speak to audiences, but from behind their computers by hosting online conferences, videos, or podcasts. This is also a good way to build awareness, but it doesn't establish rapport or build strong relationships.

Instead, you need to get out there and both inspire and engage audiences with a persuasive presentation that informs, inspires, entertains and hopefully educates. Some of the direct benefits of public speaking, if done right, include:

• It can help you sell your services and/or products

• It can help you showcase your expertise on a particular topic or in a particular field

• It can help you build connections and increase your network of potential clients and partners

A few weeks back I attended a fantastic event in Toronto called The Art of Small Business. Sponsored by Visa and KPMG Enterprise, this event showcased a wide range of expert speakers who have honed their public speaking skills including Brett Wilson (entrepreneur, philanthropist and former star of CBC TV's the Dragons' Den), Mitch Joel (author and CEO of Twist Image), and Michael Gerber (small business guru and author of the bestseller E-Myth Revisited).

But what if you haven't written a book or been on Dragons' Den? What if no one is knocking on your door to speak at their next event? Here are a few tips to start positioning yourself as a thought leader and expert:

1. Create a short list of your areas of expertise: Identify the topics you know best and focus on those you can speak on with authority. Find a niche that will help you differentiate from others.

2. Start attending events: Do your homework by attending events that you'd like to speak at. Pay attention to the people who speak. Notice what they say and how they deliver their content. Take note of the event format and topics. Start thinking about how you can fit onto the agenda next time around and then develop a solid pitch that will get on the radar of event organizers.

3. Engage with influencers and event organizers on social media: Use social media to connect with influencers and event organizers who are responsible for finding guest speakers. If you can get in front of them before an event and demonstrate the value you would provide as a speaker, there's a greater chance you'll be asked to speak.

4.Start blogging: Start up a blog, share your posts on social media channels, and send them to your network. Pitch your posts to online publications and ask them to link back to your original post if they publish them. All of this will also help improve your site's SEO.

5.Showcase your expertise online: To make the most of your speaking engagements, share as much content as you feel comfortable on your website, YouTube, SlideShare, or Vimeo.

After all this hard work, and once you've delivered your first few speaking opportunities, the hardest part will be behind you. And with any luck, any fears you had of public speaking will be gone. But if you still need guidance or coaching, think about working with a PR firm that will position you as an expert and help you polish your presentation skills along the way.

Are you using public speaking as a marketing tool?

The Best Commencement Quotes Of 2013

Deepak Chopra, Author, Physician(01 of21)

At Hartwick College in New York:"Know your true self. Your true self is not your self-image that is dependent on the labels you and others have given yourself. Your true self is the innermost core of your being that is beyond all labels, definitions and limitations. All the wisdom traditions tell us that the human spirit is a field of infinite possibilities, a field of infinite creativity, love, compassion, joy and profound equanimity. Know you can only give to the world that which you possess in that innermost core of your being. Remember that you will create peace only when you are peaceful and create a loving world only when you have learned to love." (credit:Getty Images)

David Brooks, Columnist(02 of21)

At Sewanee: The University of the South:"Commencement speakers are always telling you to find your passion. This is the biggest load of crap old people have ever foisted on the young. No, you will not find your passion. Your passion will find you. Relax and wait for it. … Don't think about what you want from life, think about what life wants from you. If you're observant, some large problem will plop itself in front of you. It will define your mission and your calling. Your passion won't come from inside, it will come from outside." (credit:Courtesy of Sewanee: The University of the South)

Anders Holm, Comedian, "Workaholics"(03 of21)

At the University of Wisconsin-Madison:"To get what you want out of life, all you can really do is find out who you are, and do that.""Practice being curious, want to know things, ask questions.""Consider what people think of you, but don't be afraid of what people think of you." (credit:Getty Images)

Joss Whedon, TV & Film Writer/Producer(04 of21)

At Wesleyan University:"You have, which is a rare thing, that ability and the responsibility to listen to the dissent in yourself, to at least give it the floor, because it is the key not only to consciousness but to real growth. To accept duality is to earn identity. And identity is something that you are constantly earning. ... Peace comes from the acceptance of the part of you that can never be at peace. It will always be in conflict. If you accept that, everything gets a lot better." (credit:Getty Images)

Dick Costolo, Twitter CEO(05 of21)

At the University of Michigan:"Not only can you not plan the impact you're going to have, you often won't recognize it when you're having it." (credit:AP)

Stephen Colbert, Host, "The Colbert Report"(06 of21)

At the University of Virginia:"You may learn sooner than most generations the hard lesson that you must always make the path for yourself. There is no secret society out there that will tap you on your shoulder one night and show you the way. Because the true secret is your life will not be defined by the society that we have left you. ... I believe we have given you a gift, a particular form of independence. Because you do not owe the previous generation anything. Thanks to us, you owe it to the Chinese." (credit:Getty Images)

Katie Couric, TV Journalist(07 of21)

At Randolph Macon College in Virginia:"The losses I've experienced have taught me something else: We are all terminal. You have to appreciate the gifts that every day of your life will bring: Your family. Your friends. A beautiful sky at sunset. A perfect ear of corn in August. The first snowfall of the year. A baby's tiny hand. Be grateful for the time you have and savor the joy that comes your way.Look for those in-between moments … not big events, but the little ones when you're laughing with a friend, taking a walk, helping an elderly neighbor with her groceries." (credit:AP)

Bill McKibben, Author, Environmental Activist(08 of21)

At Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Fla.:"This is not an end, commencement. It's an opening. Your minds have been brought alive, and hopefully your hearts have been brought alive as well by the education for the last many years. Do not let those hearts and those minds go back to sleep." (credit:AP)

Newark Mayor Cory Booker(09 of21)

In the main address during Class Day for Yale seniors at Yale University in New Haven, Conn.:"Real courage is holding on to a still voice in your head that says, 'I must keep going.' It's that voice that says nothing is a failure if it is not final. That voice that says to you, 'Get out of bed. Keep going. I will not quit.'" (credit:AP)

Neil deGrasse Tyson, Astrophysicist(10 of21)

At Rice University:"Your diploma is not a ticket to show off what you know. It's permission to admit to yourself how much you still have yet to learn." (credit:Getty Images)

Jon Lovett, Television Writer(11 of21)

At Pitzer College in Claremont, Calif.:"You are smart, talented, educated, conscientious, untainted by the mistakes and conventional wisdom of the past. But you are also very annoying. Because there is a lot that you don't know that you don't know. Your parents are nodding. You've been annoying them for years. Why do you think they paid for college? So that you might finally, at long last, annoy someone else. And now your professors are nodding." (credit:Getty Images)

Ed Helms(12 of21)

Ed Helms at Knox College in Illinois:

And so I was scared again. Really scared, because I'd made some big life changes to accommodate this path. But I had learned to dig a little deeper so I turned to my fear and I said, "Alright, start talking, what's going on here?" And my fear said, "Last night on stage, you tanked. And it was humiliating. So naturally I'm here to nag you and tell you not to get back on that stage." And that led me to another more deliberate question "What will happen if I do get back up there?" And fear squirmed a little, because fear despises truth, but he ﬁnally cracked and said, "Well, you're still here, right? And even if you tank again ...you'll still be here again. And here's a little silver lining that you wouldn't know if you hadn't bothered to talk to me about this. That crowd reaction, albeit brutal, is really useful data. When they laughed it was nice, but when they didn't it was even more valuable. Why did that one joke work two nights ago and bomb tonight?"

(credit:YouTube: KnoxCollege)

Arianna Huffington(13 of21)

At Smith College in Massachusetts:"Don't buy society's definition of success. Because it's not working for anyone. It's not working for women, it's not working for men, it's not working for polar bears, it's not working for the cicadas that are apparently about to emerge and swarm us. It's only truly working for those who make pharmaceuticals for stress, diabetes, heart disease, sleeplessness and high blood pressure." (credit:Getty Images)

Eric Idle, Actor, Comedian(14 of21)

At Whitman College in Washington state:"Life took over 4 billion years to evolve into you, and you've about 70 more years to enjoy it. ... Don't just pursue happiness, catch it. And maybe [they'll] even have a cure for it." (credit:Getty Images)

Melinda Gates, Philanthropist(15 of21)

At Duke University in North Carolina:"Of course, all the hype about how connected you are has contributed to a counter-narrative -- that, in fact, your generation is increasingly disconnected from the things that matter. The arguments go something like this: Instead of spending time with friends, you spend it alone, collecting friend requests. Rather than savoring your food, you take pictures of it and post them on Facebook. I want to encourage you to reject the cynics who say technology is flattening your experience of the world. Please don't let anyone make you believe you are somehow shallow because you like to update your status on a regular basis." (credit:Getty Images)

Vice-President Joe Biden(16 of21)

At the University of Pennsylvania:"Don't listen to the cynics. They were wrong about my generation and they were wrong about yours." (credit:AP)

President Bill Clinton(17 of21)

At Howard University in Washington, D.C.:"This whole thing comes down in the end to whether we think the future will be better if we face it with open hands or closed fists. You can't live in a world that is interdependent where the walls come down and borders look more like nets. You can't keep every bad thing out anywhere unless most people believe that what we have in common is more important than our interesting differences." (credit:Getty Images)

James Sprung, Graduate of Cooper Union(18 of21)

James Sprung, the senior class speaker, at Cooper Union in New York City:"Hope. Hope is everything. A fresh way to approach a dull or dangerous thing. To do a dull thing with hope will never be preferable to doing a dangerous thing with hope. To do a dangerous thing with hope is what I call art. Hope is a way of doing. A way of being done." (credit:Livestream: Cooper Union)

Jonathan Safran Foer, Author(19 of21)

At Middlebury College in Vermont: "Each step forward in technological communication has made things more convenient. But each step has also made it easier, just a little bit easier, to avoid the emotional work of being present. To write 'LOL' rather than to actually laugh out loud; to send a crying emoji rather than actually crying; to convey information rather than humanity. It's never been easier to say nothing. The problem with accepting, or preferring, diminished substitutes, we too become diminished substitutes. ... This is the work of being human. It can be messy and painful and almost impossibly difficult, but it is not what we give; it is what we get in exchange for having to die. And it is beautiful." (credit:Vimeo: Middlebury College)

Oprah Winfrey(20 of21)

At Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass.:"It doesn't matter how far you might rise, at some point you're bound to stumble. And when you do, there is something I want you to remember: No such thing as failure. Failure is just life trying to move us into another direction." (credit:AP)

President Barack Obama(21 of21)

At Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga.:"So yes, go get that law degree. But if you do, ask yourself if the only option is to defend the rich and powerful, or if you can also find time to defend the powerless. Sure, go get your MBA or start that business; we need black businesses out there. But ask yourself what broader purpose your business might serve, in putting people to work or transforming a neighborhood. The most successful CEOs I know didn't start out intent on making money -- rather, they had a vision of how their product or service would change things, and the money followed." (credit:AP)

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