How to Unlock Solo Success Through Public Speaking

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Have you ever felt the fear of standing in front of a crowd, heart racing, palms sweating, wondering if you're about to say the wrong thing? As solopreneurs, public speaking can seem intimidating, but it's a game changer for connecting with clients, building your brand, and growing your business.

We invited Blair Bryant Nichols on the show to not only discuss how to engage your audience, but also how to approach the business side of public speaking. 

And you may be asking why Blair? Well, Blair is the owner of BBN Creative Management for diverse and mission-driven talent. He's an expert in strategic speaking platforms and guides speakers and business leaders through the nuances of public speaking. 

We discussed things like: 

• How to identify your core message and communicate it effectively
• Common challenges people face when preparing for public speaking and how to overcome them
• Key components of a well-structured speech or presentation
• Advice to help speakers build confidence on stage
• How to find the right speaking engagements for your business
• How to figure out what to charge. 

We discuss all of this plus so much more, so be sure to tune in!

Like the show? We'd love it if you'd leave a 5-star review!

Connect with Blair Bryant Nichols

• Visit markjkohler.com

Favorite Quote About Success:

"There's no such thing as luck. It's when preparation meets opportunity."

Being a solopreneur is awesome but it’s not easy. It's hard to get noticed. Most business advice is for bigger companies, and you're all alone...until now. LifeStarr's SoloSuite Intro gives you free education, community, and tools to build a thriving one-person business. 

So, if you are lacking direction, having a hard time generating leads, or are having trouble keeping up with everything you have to do, or even just lonely running a company of one, click here to check out SoloSuite Intro!

About Blair Bryant Nichols

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Transcript

Carly Ries: 00:00

Have you ever felt the fear of standing in front of a crowd, heart racing, palms sweating, wondering if you're about to say the wrong thing? As solpreneurs, public speaking can seem intimidating, but it's a game changer for connecting with clients, building your brand, and growing your business.

Carly Ries: 00:17

We invited Blair Bryant Nichols on the show to not only discuss how to engage your audience, but also how to approach the business side of public speaking. And you may be asking why Blair? Well, Blair is the owner of BBN Creative Management for diverse and mission driven talent. He's an expert in strategic speaking platforms and guides speakers and business leaders through the nuances of public speaking. So he's your guy for today.

Carly Ries: 00:41

We discussed things like how to identify your core message and communicate it effectively, common challenges people face when preparing for public speaking and how to overcome them, key components of a well structured speech or presentation, advice to help speakers build confidence on stage, how to find the right speaking engagements for your business, and that the question we all have, how to figure out what to charge. We discuss all of this plus so much more, so be sure to tune in. You're listening to The Aspiring Solopreneur, the podcast for those just taking the bold step or even just thinking about taking that step into the world of solo entrepreneurship. My name is Carly Ries, and my co host Joe Rando and I are your guides navigating this crazy but awesome journey as a company of 1. We take pride in being part of LifeStarr, a digital hub dedicated to all aspects of solopreneurship that has empowered and educated countless solopreneurs looking to build a business that resonates with their life's ambitions.

Carly Ries: 01:40

We help people work to live, not live to work. And if you're looking for a get rich quick scheme, this is not the show for you. So if you're eager to gain valuable insights from industry experts on running a business the right way the first time around, or want to learn from the missteps of solopreneurs who paved the way before you, then stick around. We've got your back because flying solo in business doesn't mean you're alone.

Carly Ries: 02:04

Okay. So, Blair, you are going to be filled with so many words of wisdom on this episode. But before that, I'm gonna turn this into the Carly Show because I have a personal story of how public speaking impacted my career. And so I just wanna show, like, it can come in unexpected ways. I actually used to do stand up comedy when I was in my early twenties.

Carly Ries: 02:24

And then I interviewed for a job, and they didn't care about any of my experience, you know, like, all the experience I had at 23 years old. But they didn't care about that. They hired me because I did stand up comedy, which showed I could get up in front of people and present. And the job that I was interviewing for was client facing. I'd have to give presentations.

Carly Ries: 02:45

And it was for that reason that I was hired and that kicked off my career to marketing. So I tell people all the time public speaking is so big for solopreneurs, but you, my friend, are the expert. So thank you so much for coming on the show. I cannot wait to dive in today.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 03:02

Well, thank you so much for having me. That's incredible. I love that. Yes. Comedy, improv, speaking, all these things are so helpful in so many different ways for your career.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 03:12

And I know they're also so terrifying for so many people. So I'm excited to help, shed some light on how you can really use these effectively and get over some of those fears or doubts that people may have.

Carly Ries: 03:24

Well, let's dive into one of those fears, to start. So we'll get into the fear of public speaking in a second because, obviously, that is a big one. But I think another barrier that people have, that prevents them from entering this space is they don't think they're special. they're like, oh, well, I'm a consultant. Oh, well, I'm in marketing.

Carly Ries: 03:45

Yada yada yada. And so they're like, why would I what do I have to say that other people don't? Can you kind of address how people can identify that core message and communicate it effectively in a public speaking space?

Blair Bryant Nichols: 03:58

Yeah. Well, I mean, it kind of thinks that I think it begins with what made you become a solopreneur in the first place? What made you either step away from a 9 to 5 or corporate job? What made you wanna go out on your own, as a solopreneur? Whether you're coaching or consulting or freelancing, whatever you're doing, I think you're defining yourself as a subject matter expert.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 04:18

I mean, if you're building a successful business as a solopreneur, you must be able to attract some clients that rely on your particular area of expertise. So it's the same thing for speaking. What is the thing that you have to offer that isn't what everyone else already knows? Figuring out how your special is about your background, your expertise, and kind of like that positioning of who you are and what you bring to the table. And that's always what I talk about first when I'm coaching or when I'm just talking about this in general is figuring out, like, what makes you unique.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 04:54

Sometimes that's helpful to get from other people's perspectives, you know, from your customers and clients. Like, why did they hire you? Why did you stand out? from either family and friends that might have a good perspective on kind of what makes you special and unique and what people remember when they hear about your life story. It's not always just your accomplishments and your resume, but it's about the story that you're going to tell about yourself. So what interesting stories

Blair Bryant Nichols: 05:26

do you really wanna tell to connect to people that then also gives you permission to then teach them something?

Blair Bryant Nichols: 05:32

So I know a lot of solopreneurs even if they're, you know, out on their own they might still have some sort of imposter syndrome. And that just means that you think that everyone else knows what you know and that's not the case. A lot of other solopreneurs are experts in what they're experts in. A lot of businesses need someone with your area of expertise. So zeroing in on that thing, that problem that you uniquely solve, that topic that you are really presenting to the world is just should come back to what are you doing in your business. I'm a big proponent that speaking should have a value and an upsell or not just like as a sales pitch, but as an opportunity. It's not just the getting on that stage that's the end of the game. It's that's the beginning of getting in front of all of these possible clients or customers, etcetera, and then converting that into more business. So figuring out what to speak about should be about how do you really wanna introduce yourself and your area of expertise that gets people to wanna work with you. So if you start to kind of reverse engineer what it is, really, what I'm talking about is a business development tool, a marketing tool, a sales tool, and something that's different than, you know, other ways to get your message out there, you can start to think about distilling it down to maybe that central idea that you really wanna present, that you really know is what makes your work special, and that hopefully is how you would want people to first be introduced to you to wanna then learn more about that.

Joe Rando: 07:08

One of the things you're talking about here really is the curse of knowledge. Right? I know all this stuff, so I assume everybody else knows it. And it's never, never the case. Right?

Joe Rando: 07:17

I mean, you know, it's we always feel like people know what we know and then I watch people get shocked when I don't understand something that they think is, you know, probably learned in nursery school or something.

Carly Ries: 07:29

I have a few friends that are doctors and I told them I was a fractional CMO. And they're like, how did you pull that off? And I was like, because I do marketing. And they're like, oh, well, in our field, that's chief medical officer. And I was like, oh, well, then I'm a con artist because I have zero credentials to be that kind of CMO.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 07:48

Well, both of you point out, like, just even in those remarks point out, like, what a lot of people struggle with is that first of all, they talk to a lot of people that are in their field, that speak the same language, that are sharing the same sort of ideas. So they don't feel that unique or special because the conferences you go to, the events that you go to, the people that you spend your time conversing with as a professional are on your same page or on your same level. So you're not really differentiated in where you're at. And then your point, Carly, you wanna talk to people who don't know your acronyms, but you have to speak their language and you have to understand that audience in order to not cause that confusion.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 08:31

So then now you can talk about the value of marketing and why they should, you know, have an interest in that as well in their medical practice and, you know, etcetera. You wanna unpack all those things for them. We always say, like, if you're the yoga instructor, you don't wanna go to the yoga conference. You wanna go to the stressed out people's conference. So then that's where you, you know, have to start really thinking about how to speak your customer's language, your audience's language.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 08:56

How do you make sure you're connecting your ideas in a way that they're going to be able to understand? And you're not just using jargon and your own acronyms and everything else that they're not aware of. So I love that just kind of, like, made me instantly think about that next phase of, like, who should you be speaking to? Well, it's the people that need what you have to offer. And oftentimes, yeah, you're not gonna stand out if everyone around you at this event or at this speaking opportunity is talking about the same thing that you're talking about.

Joe Rando: 09:30

And then I have a question. So talking about you know, the yoga instructor or whatever and then and I love the idea of a stressed out people's Conference, by the way. I think I wanna sign up. But, seriously, is it true that to be a speaker and to speak at these conferences that make sense for you, that    

Joe Rando: 09:55

You don't have to be the industry leader. You can just be good. But if you take the trouble to position yourself, you know, put your offering together and get out there and and get it in front of people, that that's enough. I mean, is that correct?

Blair Bryant Nichols: 10:06

Yeah. I mean, I think a lot of people think that speaking is, like, you have to wait to be chosen or you have to be paid a certain amount that makes all of a sudden you qualified as a speaker. It's not about that. There are so many different speaking opportunities, conferences, different associations that host their own events, even, of course, virtual events. There's not just, you know, an unlimited number of virtual events and different ways to get in front of your audience.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 10:35

But it's all about you figuring out who you wanna reach and how to reach them. And doing so might mean you're gonna fill out an application and you might stand out just by your content and what you have to offer if that's really what they're looking for, they're not as concerned about how many followers you have or if you've written a best selling book or not. There's a lot of ways that you can begin as a speaker by having subject matter expertise and looking into events that have a different model where they don't have a big budget for speakers, but you could even be a sponsor. A lot of people don't even realize that the biggest investment you might wanna make as a business owner is sponsoring an event where there's a 100 of your potential clients so that you sell 2 of them and you're higher ticket items or you're consulting and you've already doubled your investment or obviously the economics have to work for you. But that's a model that exists.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 11:30

And in exchange for that sponsorship, you're supporting the event and you get to get up on stage, hopefully. If you negotiate well, don't get your logo on a lanyard or on a step and repeat. Get an email contact list. Get as much stage time as you can get in front of those people so you can show off your expertise. And instead of having to work the room at an event and shake as many hands as possible and hand out cards, now you've gotten in front of all of them in a much more effective and elevated way so that the follow-up with every one of those people is that much easier as well.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 12:04

So there's a lot of different ways to get in as a speaker. And it's just that you do have to have something valuable to offer in content. And so it's not gonna just be a sales pitch, but you can partner with these different events if you're zeroed in on looking for places that really are just about that ideal audience for you and your business.

Carly Ries: 12:26

And I wanna get back in a second to the actual speech itself and helping people on stage. But while we're on the business topic, I have 2 points. Are there efficient ways to find conferences? I mean, you can get on Google and search for hours, I'm sure. But is there like an events.com or something that you could type in your target audience or anything or or is it just a matter of searching?

Blair Bryant Nichols: 12:51

Yeah. I mean, there's all sorts of associations and all sorts of different, you know, I'm sure services that can, you know, either sell you lists or help you like narrow lists. And now there's so many AI services that help you with contact lists and in reaching out and finding those things. So I wouldn't say that there's not resources like that available. But this is where I think it's really important if you understand really that core audience and you can niche down to a limited like, say you're a solopreneur, but you came out of something in healthcare.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 13:23

So you're gonna focus on healthcare associations. And you're gonna start locally, and then maybe at your state level, and then the regional level. So I do think there's something to kind of, like, the old fashioned, like, 0ing in and then just searching. And then each one of these associations or events has a website and contact info. And, you know, it's a numbers game.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 13:45

It's a sales process as you're getting started with with this kind of activity, you know, especially if you haven't gotten a lot of, you know, experience just yet. But you work start with your your network. You know? Start with the people that already know you. Start with your friends.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 14:00

You know? You're gonna do it pro bono just to get some video and get some experience and get some logos, so you have now some more bona fides as you're pitching yourself to other events. So start where you're most known. I think a lot of what is a mistake solopreneurs and speakers when they're getting started make is that, you know, my message is for everyone. I can speak to any audience.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 14:23

And that's great. Maybe that's true. And maybe your service is for everyone, but you're not known in every industry. You gotta lean in to where you have a strength. If you're already worked within a specific vertical or whatever, start there.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 14:39

You have expertise to know that they know you, that you speak their language because you can point to that. And then as that grows, you can spread to other areas. So if you start small and work you know, in your niche, then it's a little more manageable to look for these events and these different opportunities too. So you're not just searching every conference under the sun and assuming they're all created equal.

Joe Rando: 15:05

Such good advice. I love that.

Carly Ries: 15:08

And, Blair, let's say somebody's like, okay. You said pro bono with friends, and that's cute and all, but I wanna get paid eventually for this. How do people because I know speakers that get paid 5 digits for one speaking engagement or more and then some that have a few hundred. How do they figure out how to price their speaking once they get to that level?

Blair Bryant Nichols: 15:30

Sure. And, you know, and I did say pro bono in the sense that maybe they're not gonna write you a check. But every speaking opportunity, there should be some ROI in it for you. And you should be able to negotiate something upfront. Say, oh, yeah.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 15:42

I'm totally fine to do it for free. But would you mind if I share my link to my next workshop with everyone in the audience? Like, can I send out an email? Can I offer my free gift? And that's lead collect. there's always something you can negotiate when it comes to speaking. You can negotiate a lot of different things, like I said, if you're a sponsor. But even if you're bartering, you might say, well, my usual fee is $2,500. But in exchange for that, if you'd be willing to send out an email and do x, y, z, if that's going to get you, again, one customer and it's worth more than that, then don't think of it as a pro bono opportunity. Just think of it as a different business development activity.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 16:28

And you'll see what the ROI on that is. If you're chasing $5, $10,000 speaking engagements, you got to build up quite a few of those to really make a living that most solopreneurs are seeking to do to replace their corporate income. So don't be you know, blinded by only getting paid that you're not realizing how you're building a business at the same time. That will allow you to get to a point where you can say, you know, it's not worth it for me unless you're paying me 10 k because I could go to this other event over here, and I know I'm gonna convert customers and make more money doing that. So that you're gonna start looking at paid engagements differently.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 17:08

You know? And you're gonna and I think this is where I think a lot of people get stuck. They just see speaking as getting paid and going out and and doing it. And then they forget that it's a volatile business. It's difficult to really build, a super successful business built on speaking alone.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 17:24

If you don't have products and services built around it, it's hard to sustain, and it's going to be lumpy. And then there might be another pandemic where then all your in person speaking revenue goes out the window. So I I really want people to think strategically about speaking. And paid is one area, but that's the area where you have the least leverage to get the other things that help with the ROI. They're not gonna want you to sell.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 17:51

They're not gonna want you to lead collect necessarily. You know? it's going to be a little bit more delicate how you negotiate what really might make that event valuable for you. So down the road, I think you can establish a fee, but then you can also use it as, like, a parody to say, hey. What else could we do instead if your budget's more limited?

Blair Bryant Nichols: 18:10

And, you know, you can increase it as you go.

Joe Rando: 18:14

I have a question on that. Dale Bertrand, is the CEO of Fire and Spark. It's a content marketing agency in Boston. He speaks at inbound, the HubSpot conference every year. And he put a post on LinkedIn right after inbound because it ended last week.

Joe Rando: 18:29

And he said he did an analysis and he looked at how many leads he collected, like, from the speaking and people coming up to him afterwards, and it was pretty minimal. But he looked at how many leads he collected from the conferences where he spoke overall, and it was, he it was substantial. And he felt that it was, I think what he was saying was that just the exposure of being a speaker and, you know, a lot of people didn't come running up to him after he spoke, but found him, you know, in the audience and everything. And I mean, that's a way of getting an ROI if you have a business like he does that doesn't even involve a negotiation with the event coordinator.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 19:07

Absolutely. Unlike in some degree, you know, he might have been a sponsor, you know, of that to get that opportunity, or he might have been chosen, by them as a vendor or however what their relationship is. The point is the people that go to inbound are his ideal customer. And he found a way to get in front of them. And also then, that made it that much easier for them to be interested in his business and company and working with them and figuring out, you know, what they could offer.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 19:35

So it's a great example. And now it's really easy to embed something in your presentation that I have clients who convert 80 to 90% of their audience. They get 80 to 90% of their audience to sign up for their email list. You know? Like, that alone is an asset, is a value that keeps building and growing for them.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 19:57

a lot of people looked at speaking engagements. I know for a long time, it's just like, oh, you gotta make sure you connect with the leadership. Of course, you wanna make sure you do a great job and and you're connect with the decision makers and that you can continue to get booked or maybe do ongoing work with them. But, nowadays, especially if you're a solopreneur, that audience, everyone in that audience is a potential client. Whether they're able to afford what you've got to offer as a one on one coach or consultant or if you have a digital course.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 20:25

And maybe they can only afford a few $100. But great. Build that passive revenue. Build that turn that audience into something. Build your list.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 20:33

That list alone, like we said, is valuable. You can be an affiliate. You can be a partner. Just emailing out other people's stuff if you've got an email list. So there's so many ways to turn speaking into revenue for your company.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 20:44

You just have to figure out what's the right audience for you and then getting those mechanisms in place.

Carly Ries: 20:52

Such great advice. Well and I wanna circle back really quick to address one of the biggest elephants in the room that we can on this topic. Blair, I wanna public speak. I wanna get these lists. I am terrified of getting on stage.

Carly Ries: 21:09

How do you advise your clients who have that, number 1, number 2 fear that most people have or many people have.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 21:17

Yeah. And, I feel like that's what I grew up hearing that. Right? Like, this number one fear is public death or public death. Public speak is over death.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 21:26

Well, fair enough. That's what it feels like, I think, for people. But they'd rather die than speak publicly. But I think, hopefully, as we got more comfortable with cameras in our homes and meetings, we've all had to get a little bit more comfortable with speaking more directly. And I think that, in general, it comes back to what we talked about earlier with imposter syndrome and not really knowing what value you have to bring or how you should stand out or differentiate yourself.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 21:54

If you can shift your mindset into 1, and this is what I tell people, even if they're a little bit nervous or jittery before going out on stage, that you're there to give a gift. You're there to give knowledge and share value. And if you have a mindset that your intention is to help the people that you're going to be speaking to and that you really want to communicate and connect with them, then I think it helps shift how you feel about doing it in general. You might still get a little bit nervous, but I know you're gonna feel, like, incredibly energized and adrenaline afterwards. And the the incredibly energized and adrenaline afterwards.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 22:30

And the the payoff of, you know, the people that do come up afterwards, whether it is a few out of a 100 or not, I think is what makes it worth it for most people who go through either the hard process of writing a book or the hard process of launching a company. You're doing it for a reason. Hopefully, you've got a mission and purpose behind your business, and now speaking can just be an extension of that. And if you start small, start at your church, start at your school, your kids' school, start where you feel comfortable with that audience, but you can still make an impact. And then you can just realize how that feeling and that experience can scale into other areas and just be you know, cognizant and humble about the fact that you're there to give a gift and they're there to receive. You're not there to perform. You're not being critiqued. Most of the time, you're in such a friendly environment. They're out of work.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 23:20

They're going to a conference. They're there to learn and have fun and connect, and you just get to be a part of that. So, you know, it's all about mindset.

Carly Ries: 23:29

So let's say people are like, okay. Touche, Blair. I'll get on the stage. You've convinced me it's worth the fear. When you look at your clients or just speakers in general, and you see the ones that are the most effective in connecting with their audience and and have the most engaging presentations, what are those common things that people can take from this episode that they could imply when they are crafting their own speech?

Blair Bryant Nichols: 23:54

Yeah. Well, and I'm so glad you asked because I do think there is kind of an important structure that some speakers do fail to to that some speakers miss, and that's about storytelling. Really, it's about beginning and ending with a story. We don't need you to come in and, again, recite your resume or credentialize yourself. We don't need you to come in and launch right into your topic.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 24:16

That's what separates kind of like a presenter at an academic conference or to your company, say, where you're just presenting on a topic and you come in and you just launch right into your slides. If you wanna connect with an audience and really good keynote speakers know how to do this, you just start with a story. Bring them right in. You know? Suck them in.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 24:36

And then you can move into sharing knowledge. And then, you can kind of sandwich it with, you know, the value that you're going to present on and and share your idea. And then around that 3 quarters mark, that's where I really suggest you embed that. Okay. Here's the free resource.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 24:53

Here's the thing that you get. Like, everyone go ahead, whip out your phones for one second. Do this thing. Download. Great.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 25:00

And now bring them back to a story. So it doesn't feel like you just ended with a pitch. It doesn't feel like, okay. Great. They just wanted me to get to do this thing.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 25:08

But now you still get a chance to end with an emotional close to really kind of sink in the feeling that they had. And that's what makes you memorable as a speaker. That's what makes people want to, you know, engage with you beyond that keynote and everything. So I think if you spend time just even writing down a bunch of different stories, because maybe different ones are gonna be better for different audiences, you're gonna feel more comfortable the more that you practice them. But your beginning and your beginning and end are always the most important part.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 25:38

You're going to think that the middle is the most important part because that's all the value you're bringing. But that, remember, it's a keynote speech. You're not sharing everything you know in 45 minutes, in 60 minutes. There's no way you can do that. Basically, you've got a TED Talk in the middle of 2 great stories.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 25:55

And so you're just presenting a big idea, your main idea, so that people understand something new that they wanna take action and work with you again, follow-up, they wanna go deeper, whatever it is. Remember, you can't do and you're not doing a course in 60 minutes. You're doing a keynote. So tell a story, connect with them that is relevant to what you're talking about, and end with a story that then is gonna leave them with that. And that's the best way to kinda put it together.

Carly Ries: 26:26

so for first timers or people that are just starting, where do you stand with note cards? Like, do you think do you advise that people bring them up as a safety net as long as they don't read from them? Or are you, like, practice, practice, practice, get that confidence up, and leave the note cards on the table?

Blair Bryant Nichols: 26:42

Yeah. I would say, if you're not someone that's presenting new talks all the time, you really shouldn't have note cards. Again, if it's on an academic conference or you're not someone that's using teleprompter, that's just not something that's really done more in the keynote space. Now a lot of people have confidence monitors. These are monitors that are down at the foot of the stage that might show your slide that's up on the screen, and they might show the next slide.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 27:10

You could have notes on those, so sometimes more high-tech events. But I wouldn't assume that you're going to be able to rely on those. So I think, most of all, it's about having the structure in place and having these stories that you already have practice and you feel really good about telling so that you don't feel overly rehearsed. You don't wanna be so scripted that you can't be flexible, that you can't kind of adapt to the energy that you might not like. You know?

Blair Bryant Nichols: 27:39

So I think the art of speaking is more of feeling comfortable enough with the material that you wouldn't need notes.

Carly Ries: 27:47

So we were talking about, like, solopreneurs. we have so many different people with different backgrounds. are there any industries or any roles that you don't think public speaking would work for, or is this truly something that anybody could tackle for their business?

Blair Bryant Nichols: 28:04

Yeah. And I'm also so glad you asked this question too, because it does make me think that there are so many different types of speaking. Like you said earlier about having stand up experience, I think this is the type of experience that can help you in any type of business, especially in the area of storytelling. But I think it's, again, about finding your right stage slash platform and right audience that is right for your business. So I could see if someone was in the plumbing business.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 28:31

I know a super successful plumber who got huge because he posted videos on YouTube. His videos were to help you figure out how to do things yourself, but obviously resulted in a lot of people calling him and his company to come and help them with their bigger plumbing problems. So for him, going out and speaking to a company or at an event might not really make that much sense. But YouTube was an incredible platform for reaching the people that were his ideal customers. So I think if you're, like, in ecommerce, you're pushing people to products.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 29:01

I think storytelling, you know, in more in-depth even than they do on QVC and all that might be an effective tool. But you're probably not gonna be looking for the corporate kinda gigs. I think the people that are mostly doing corporate and this type of speaking, obviously, it aligns a lot with coaches and consultants and people who are doing thought leadership or doing coaching or ongoing workshops, stuff like that. But I think, as we talked about today, there are so many different types of businesses that are services or otherwise that you really can benefit from getting out there in front of who is your ideal client. And it's just about figuring out where they are and and the types of, places that they gather and how you can be part of those events and opportunities.

Carly Ries: 29:45

I feel like I could talk about this topic forever. I'm so envious that this is your job that you get to coach people in this space so much because it's just so fun, and it can help so many people. So I I in wrapping this up today, which I I have to, not because I want to, but because we literally could go for hours. You help people find success in their speaking careers. So we have to know what is your favorite quote about success?

Blair Bryant Nichols: 30:11

My favorite quote about success, at least how I define success, and it's on my website, is be yourself. Everyone else is already taken. from Oscar Wilde. So I think that comparison is the thief of joy. I think we can all look at other people, super successful speakers, super successful entrepreneurs, and always be envious or jealous of what they have. But you've got something special.

Blair Bryant Nichols: 30:36

You've got a unique story. No one else can tell your story. No one else can speak from your experience. And that's going to resonate with people that are looking for what you have to to give to them. So I think it's important to figure out, you know, what makes you unique in getting the perspective of others, but having the confidence that you need to have your voice out there because it will make an impact, it will make a difference, and, that'll come if if you just embrace it.

Carly Ries: 31:04

I love it. Love it. Love it. And ties into your business perfectly.

Carly Ries: 31:08

So if people are like, man, this Blair guy knows his stuff. Where can I find him? Where can they find you?

Blair Bryant Nichols: 31:13

Well, you can find me on LinkedIn and and Instagram, both Blair Bryant Nichols and BBN, as in baboon, as in Blair Bryant Nichols, Creative Management, and bbncreativemanagement.com. And you can sign up for a free 30 minute call with me, and I'm happy to chat about where you're at in your your business or speaking career, and maybe just help you figure out what next steps would look like. So go check that out, and hopefully, I'll be chatting with you.

Carly Ries: 31:38

Well, for listeners, Joe hopped off. It's not that he's not interested. He had some technical issues,

Blair Bryant Nichols: 31:43

He's so bummed. And his computer.

Carly Ries: 31:46

Exactly. Exactly. He was so excited. So, don't think that he left because he wanted to. He's so bummed and probably texting me right now about his frustration with his technology today.

Carly Ries: 32:00

But, Blair, this has been wonderful. We cannot thank you enough for coming on the show. And listeners, I'm sure you found this just as valuable. And if you think that, we would love that 5 star review. On any of the podcast platforms, subscribe to our YouTube channel.

Carly Ries: 32:17

You know the drill. Otherwise, we otherwise, excuse me, we will see you next time on The Aspiring Solopreneur. Take care.

Carly Ries: 32:26

You may be going solo in business, but that doesn't mean you're alone. In fact, millions of people are in your shoes, running a one person business and figuring it out as they go. So why not connect with them

Carly Ries: 32:36

and learn from each other's successes and failures? At LifeStarr, we're creating a one person business community where you can go to meet and get advice from other solopreneurs. Be sure to join in on the conversations at community.lifestarr.com.