Is Public Speaking Worth It? | Ep. #346

In Episode #346, Eric and Neil discuss whether public speaking is worth it. Tune in to find out the benefits of public speaking, such as networking and increasing your brand awareness. Eric and Neil also discuss what they aim for whenever they participate in a speaking engagement.

Time Stamped Show Notes:

  • 00:27 – Today’s topic: Is Public Speaking Worth It?
  • 00:50 – Neil was 20 years old when he started public speaking
    • 01:14 – Speaking consistently within your space will eventually drive a business
    • 01:26 – The content should be advanced
  • 01:45 – You can get better offers if you’re a public speaker
  • 02:01 – Eric was in Amsterdam a month ago and he talked with other public speakers
    • 02:12 – Having a network of public speakers is a benefit for Eric
    • 02:27 – The right people can introduce you to other people
  • 02:38 – Public speaking is a great way to connect with people
  • 02:50 – Eric will always aim for 1 good connection in every public speaking event that he does
  • 03:00 – Neil observed that speaking outside of your country can get you better results
    • 03:12 – Neil was in Brazil for VTexDay, and was an opening speaker for Richard Branson
    • 03:25 – Neil and Richard were the only speakers on a specific day
    • 03:44 – Neil has met different government officials, investors and business owners who are on the Forbes list
  • 04:40 – “There’s a much higher ROI speaking in smaller markets that aren’t as competitive”
  • 04:48 – That’s it for today’s episode!

3 Key Points:

  1. Speaking consistently can help build your brand.
  2. Your content should be invaluable and well-prepared for your audience.
  3. Growing your network and increasing your brand awareness are some of the benefits of public speaking.

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Full Transcript of The Episode

Introduction: Get ready for your daily dose of marketing strategies and tactics from entrepreneurs with the guile and experience to help you find success in any marketing capacity. You're listening to marketing school with your instructors Neil Patel and Eric Siu.

Eric Siu: Welcome to another episode of marketing school, I'm Eric Siu.

Neil Patel: And I'm Neil Patel.

Eric Siu: And today we're going to talk about if public speaking is worth it. So Neil you do a lot of this, I do some of this, Neil what are your thoughts around it?

Neil Patel: I like it, but I also get paid to do it! So from that aspect, yeah, right? Because I can charge quite a bit per hour. The funny thing is, is when I first started doing public speaking I think I was like 20, 21 at the latest. My first conference I spoke at was searching new strategies, and I spoke on something like Wikipedia or something like that, I don't know what the topic was. But when I gave my first public speech, it didn't really drive any business.
Then from there, I thought it was cool that I got a speaker badge and a lot of people would hit me up, and get feedback from me, and it would drive business. None of that happened. But what I did learn is, as I kept doing the public speaking, and you consistently speak at multiple events within your industry per year, it did start to drive a lot of business.
It's one of those things that doesn't work if you just do one offs, but if you do it in quantity and you're consistent at it, and your topic and the education you're giving is really advanced, I found that it's really great to generate more business if you're a business owner, especially in the service space, or if you're an employee at a business and you continually speak on the subject matter that you're an expert at. I have found that it helps you get a lot more job offerings, and people tend to pay you a lot more if you're a public speaker versus if you're not a public speaker.

Eric Siu: Yep, and I'll just speak to my experiences with it. For me, and I actually talked about this with a couple of speakers, I think it was a month ago when I was in London and Amsterdam. We were talking about it, we were like okay, what's the main benefit behind doing all this, right? Yes, we get to travel, yes you can get paid at times too, but the other thing is the people that you meet, especially the other speakers, that's one of the big benefits to me. Because sometimes yes you're going to get leads here and there, but a lot of them aren't the right fit, it depends on what the conference is that you're speaking at. Just hang out with the right people, and these right people will give you their links to introductions to other great people that probably are a fit, or links to other partnership opportunities that you probably we're expecting.
Ultimately, at the end of the day, when I look at public speaking, it's just another way to connect with people, and people like doing business with people, at the end of the day, which is why I do the public speaking stuff, I throw these dinners, I throw these happy hours and things like that, because you just get to connect with people. And even if you get one good connection from each one, that's all what I aim for. It pays for itself at the end of the day.
Neil?

Neil Patel: With the public speaking, what I found is when you do speeches outside of the US or whatever region that you're mainly based out of, and the US being a region. It's not a bad one, but when you do it outside the US, you tend to get way better results.
So for example, I was speaking at a conference called V-Tech's in Brazil a little while ago, and I was opening for Richard Branson, so my speech was right before his. And there were only two people speaking that day, it was me and Richard Branson.
Now of course, everyone was attending for Richard Branson, right? But, the cool part about it was because I was there speaking, [inaudible 03:34] Brazil, even though the businesses aren't as big as the US, people were taking the time and effort, because I'm not from Brazil, to introduce me to all the big companies.
So I met the people that run the consort for the United Kingdom within Brazil, the government officials there who have a lot of budget and power. I met the president of Sage. I met one of the guys who leads up the company for the mayor of São Paulo, which could be the future president! And I met a few other multi billion dollar organizations. I met an investment bank in which the founder is worth a few billion USD, and he's on the Forbes list, and I met all of these business owners and people because I gave a speech at a conference in which US speakers aren't that common.
It's not that everyone knew me in the audience, I don't have a big brand in Brazil like I do in lets say the US or the UK. It's just that in these international markets, they don't get as many US and English speaking speakers. Heck a lot of the people who were in the audience were wearing headsets, and someone was translating my speech in live time.
But the main point I'm trying to make is there's ROI speaking in smaller markets that aren't as competitive.

Eric Siu: Okay, so that's it for today, and we'll see you tomorrow.

Introduction: This session of marketing school has come to a close. Be sure to subscribe for more daily marketing strategies and tactics, to help you find the success you've always dreamed of. And don't forget to rate and review so we can continue to bring you the best daily content possible. We'll see you in class tomorrow, right here on marketing school.

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