Since I’ve shared so many aspects of Public Speaking with you, if you’re now thinking that there must be many reasons public speaking is important, then you’re right!

But up until now, I’ve concentrated on the “HOW TO” of the various aspects of public speaking, without telling you WHY it matters. My bad. And I want to correct that.

But before I do, let me remind you, public speaking skills are not only for those who speak from a platform with a large audience in front of them.

As a business owner, for you, public speaking also includes:

• Sharing information with your team
• Chairing a meeting
• Pitching your business or an idea
• Marketing your products/services
• Sharing your story to motivate groups of entrepreneurs
• Any other situation in which you are the primary communicator

So let me add some context to your communication by breaking down 10 reasons why public speaking is so important for you, especially in your role as business owner:

1. It helps you to overcome your perceived fear of public speaking
2. It assist you to demonstrate your confidence
3. Public speaking is important for sharing your message
4. It Assist you to perform key business roles
5. It also assists you to perform other key influencing roles
6. It improves your communication skills
7. It helps you to be comfortable around (new) people
8. Public speaking is important for telling your story
9. It helps you to control the conversation
10. Public speaking is important for selling yourself and your business

1.  It helps you to overcome your perceived fear of public speaking

 As a small business owner, there are some things you can’t outsource and you can’t be afraid of, because your business will suffer.

Public speaking is very near the top of that list.

As fears go, I’ve long believed that the best way to overcome them is to confront them and deal with them. 

Public speaking is no different.  

The more opportunities you give yourself to speak to your publics, the more comfortable you will become doing it. Pretty soon you will realise that public speaking is important for reducing your fear of the very thing.

2.  It assist you to demonstrate your confidence

There’s no getting around it.

Confident people are admired and they serve as a magnet to attract people to themselves.

When you have overcome your fear of public speaking and have begun to hone your communication skills, you give yourself a chance to demonstrate your confidence every time you engage in public speaking.

Just think of what this can do for your business…

3.  Public speaking is important for sharing your message

Not just any old message. But the one that goes to the very core of your purpose for speaking.

You see, when you stand before an audience to speak, your message must answer the question:

What do I want my audience to do or think at the end of this speech?

In other words, “what message do I want to leave with this audience?”

One of the reasons public speaking is important, is that with careful audience analysis, you can craft and share the correct message that connects your audience to your ideas.

4.  It Assist you to perform key business roles

 As a small business owner, there are many roles and activities which you perform that public speaking can make easier and more effective.

Here are 7 off the top of my head:

1. Hiring and firing
2. Interacting with suppliers
3. Customer success approaches
4. Negotiating
5. Prospecting, presenting and closing
6. Representing your business at the industry level
7. Building teams and leading them

Individually and collectively, all of these represent reasons why public speaking is so important to what you do on a daily basis.

5.  It also assists you to perform other key influencing roles

If you pause and reflect on your life for a brief moment, you will notice that your business life is often intricately intertwined with other parts of your life.

For example, As President of the Parents Teachers Association (PTA) you will often have to deliver speeches in that capacity.

When you have public speaking skills, making a presentation to donors to request funding for say, An extension to the Juniors Changing Room would be a breeze.

6.  It improves your communication skills

Here’s another reason why there’s little doubt that public speaking is so important to you as a business owner.

Even today, world-renown investor Warren Buffet still declares that his best investment was in a Dale Carnegie Public Speaking Course.

That simple course improved his communication skills, built his confidence and still enables him to make the connections he needs for doing business.

7.  It helps you to be comfortable around (new) people

Here’s a little case study which demonstrates this.

I noticed that my good friend and long-term business colleague would seldom accept any invitations to attend events. When I asked her about it, she claimed that her businesses had taken over her life…sometimes she hardly had time to sleep.

But I also noticed that she had time for lots of other non-productive activities.

When I press her further, she admitted that she disliked being in situations where there were people she didn’t know well. She felt “naked”,  she was tongue-tied and she was embarrassed when she didn’t know what to say next.

It took one of my best presentations to convince her that public speaking would help her solve this problem. Convincing her to let me coach her one-on-one was another drama-inducing event, but eventually she agreed.

Now, she chooses her events enthusiastically, often attempting to drag me along, even when I’m tired and half-asleep.

But best of all for me, she now has the public speaking skills to weave the value of my coaching and training into almost every conversation. Boy…I love my new evangelist!

8.  Public speaking is important for telling your story

Facts are facts. And make no mistake, they are important to supporting your message.

But when you want to connect with your audience, to motivate them to take the desired action, there is nothing like your story done right.

And public speaking is that important skill that will help you tell the story of your business or your personal story as the founder.

Why is it necessary to tell your story? The truth is…your story doesn’t belong to you.

It belongs to that entrepreneur who is thinking that her idea was not a good one after all. It belongs to that small business owner who can’t see his way out of debt. And it definitely belongs to that 65-year old woman who’s on the fence about starting a business at her age.

Public speaking is the key that will help your audience own “their” stories and the glue that will bind you to that audience and change them into customers.

This is one of the key reasons public speaking is important!

9.  It helps you to control the conversation

 Let me clarify what I mean before you go off with the wrong idea of what I’m saying.

By “control” I don’t mean hogging the conversation and not allowing other people to even get in a word edgewise.

What I mean is how you excite and engage another person in the topic or ideas you are sharing. It’s how you speak up in defense of yourself and how you remain strong in every communication situation.

The one sure way to do this is by having public speaking skills.

By why would you want to control a conversation? Well, when you control the conversation, you control the outcomes. And when you control the outcomes, you and your business are way ahead of the competition.

10.  Public speaking is important for selling yourself and your business

As a small business owner, speaking in front of others is the best way to get noticed, and those who get noticed are usually the ones who get the opportunities.

The more you polish your public speaking, the more access you have to wider and more knowledgeable and critical audiences.

When you can effectively sell yourself and your business to these audiences, you turn them into valuable customers or clients, maybe even for life.

Remember: If you want your business to be highly visible, technology levels the communication playing field, public speaking helps you to stand out from the crowd

How do you up-level your Public Speaking?

It’s easy, really.

If you want to advance your business and  position yourself as an expert, you’d better work on your communication and public speaking skills.

What better way to do this than to access public speaking training and coaching from a deeply experienced professional from ITDS?

The next move is entirely up to you…