How to Start Speaking Without Experience: Build Confidence, Land Opportunities, and Claim Your Role as a Speaker
Welcome to the Confident Speaker Podcast by Speaking Your Brand. This is your host, AI Carol. So you wanna speak, but you don't have much experience. Maybe you're asking, why would anyone put me on stage or thinking who am I to speak when I haven't even done it that much? Let me reassure you with this.
AI Carol:Every speaker you admire once stood where you're standing now, full of passion and ideas, but light on stage time. No one is born with a speaker reel or a packed calendar. They earned those by starting, you can too. When I began speaking years ago, I wasn't doing keynotes. I was giving local lunch and learns and guest speaking at meetups.
AI Carol:And I'll be honest, I was nervous. But those smaller talks gave me the space to find my voice, get feedback, and grow my confidence. That's why I believe the best way to get speaking opportunities when you're just starting out is this, start local, start relational, and start showing up. Let me give you three specific ways to start getting speaking opportunities even if you don't have much experience. Tip number one, tap into your local community.
AI Carol:Pull up a list of local business, professional or nonprofit groups in your city. Think rotary clubs, chambers of commerce, industry meetups, women's networking groups, co working spaces. These groups are always looking for speakers to come in and teach something valuable. Here's what I want you to do. Pick three groups that seem like a good fit based on your schedule and what feels most comfortable, and then start attending their events.
AI Carol:Not to pitch, just to show up, get to know people and build trust. After a few meetings, reach out to the organizer, express how much you're enjoying the group, and let them know you have a talk that could really benefit their members. You're not cold emailing, you've built a connection, which makes your pitch feel natural. Tip number two, position yourself as a speaker. I can't tell you how many confident, brilliant women I've talked to who speak regularly, but still don't call themselves a speaker.
AI Carol:If you want opportunities to come your way, people need to know you're available. So whether you've spoken twice or 20 times, update your LinkedIn profile headline to include speaker along with the topics you speak on. Create a simple speaking page on your website. Just one page that includes your topics, your bio, a few bullet points about what audiences will learn and how people can contact you. Don't wait until you have a perfect speaker reel or a dozen gigs.
AI Carol:Claim the identity now. Tip number three, speak where you already are. This is one of my favorite pieces of advice. Leverage the communities you're already part of. This could be your company, mastermind group, church, Facebook group, alumni network, anywhere you already show up consistently.
AI Carol:Send a message to the organizer or leader and say something like, I'd love to contribute some value to the group. Would you be open to me doing a short presentation on your topic at an upcoming meeting? This is a great way to practice your talk in a warm environment and accounts as a speaking engagement. You're building experience and authority at the same time. Remember, you don't need to wait for a big stage to get started.
AI Carol:Start where you are, pick one opportunity, say yes, then another, then another. Before you know it, someone will come up to you after your talk and say, would you be willing to speak at my event? Yes, getting experience helps, but it's not experience alone that gets you booked. It's clarity, courage, and consistency. You have something worth sharing.
AI Carol:The sooner you step forward, the sooner others can benefit from your message. If you're ready to work with us to craft your signature talk and start getting visible as a speaker, head over to speakingyourbrand.com to learn more. Make sure to follow the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so you don't miss future episodes filled with insights like these. This on demand episode was generated by my AI voice clone trained on speaking your brand content.
