The Business of Lifestyle Medicine newsletter just crossed 100 subscribers!
A BIG THANK YOU to everyone who has joined me on this journey so far.
–> 15 editions of the newsletter (and counting)
–> Business coach to 7 LM practitioners
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Without further ado, this week’s article 🙂
“According to most studies, people’s number one fear is public speaking. Number two is death… This means to the average person, if you go to a funeral, you’re better
off in the casket than doing the eulogy.” ― Jerry Seinfeld
I am helping a bunch of LM humans step into their public speaking journey – webinars, workshops, and podcasts.
Speaking in public is powerful – for you and the people you serve.
If you’ve been thinking about adding speakership to your LM practice, but feel a little hesitant, this one’s for you.
🎤 Here are 4 reasons to speak in public.
1️⃣ Public Speaking Helps You Get Over Fear
When the teacher asked a question, I was the kid that avoided eye contact and shrunk into my chair.
For years, I didn’t speak up – not in class, not in groups, not even when I had something worth saying.
I was afraid.
Then, I became afraid of what I was missing out on.
Public speaking helped me get over this.
I have been speaking for 14ish years. For most of those years, my aim wasn’t to become a better speaker, it was to get over fear.
I knew my relationship with fear had changed when I emceed a Bathiya and Santhush concert. In front of 1400 people, I sang! And here’s thing, I can’t sing 🙂
When you start out as a speaker, it’s less about the speaking and more about getting out of your own way.
The aim isn’t to do a ‘good job’, it’s to do something that scares you (over and over again).
Public speaking lets you do that.
2️⃣ Public Speaking Helps You To Refine Your IP
Thinking in your head is limited.
What happens when you take this thinking from inside your head and bring it outside?
The brain becomes better at handling the information.
It’s a process called externalisation, one of many learnings from Josh Kaufman’s ‘the personal MBA’.
There are 2 ways to externalise your thinking —> Writing and Speaking.
Both will add value to the quality of your thinking and intellectual property.
For example, this week I am running a workshop on Relationships for 80ish school teachers.
I have a lot of thoughts about relationships.
I externalised these thoughts by writing Chapter 7 of Do Happy. The more I wrote, the more it refined my thinking.
And now, I am externalising these thoughts into a spoken workshop.
Each time I externalise my thoughts, it furthers my thinking.
Speaking makes you better at what you already do.
3️⃣ It Positions You as an Expert (Even Before You Feel Like One)
Think of someone giving a keynote, featuring on a podcast, or sitting on a panel.
You automatically assume they have something valuable to say, right?
That’s the power of positioning yourself as the ‘speaker’.
Lifestyle Medicine practitioners tend to show their credibility through qualifications.
On the flip side, a single stage appearance can elevate you more than a whole CV.
What is an expert anyway? At what point does one become an expert?
It’s all perception.
I like to replace ‘expert’ with ‘someone worth listening to’.
In case you have any doubts, if you are reading this, YOU definitely have something worth listening to.
Great positioning leads to opportunities.
💰 More income
🌍 More impact
🤝 More connections with interesting, inspiring, and influential people
Oh by the way, there is a lag between being positioned as an expert, and actually feeling like one.
That’s normal, so get on with it 🙂
4️⃣ It’s About Service At Scale.
You already say valuable things to your patients and clients every week.
Imagine spreading that value to 10, 100, 1000, 10000 people at once
Think of:
- Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream”
- Dr Rangan Chatterjee’s global speaking tours and Feel Better Live More podcast.
- TED talks with millions of views.
This the potential of speakership.
This is why it’s so important to get out of your own way (see 1).
Once you do you can focus on what actually matters, serving others.
💬 If This Helped You…
SHARE it with another Lifestyle Medicine practitioner who could use a nudge.
Much love to you and of course, myself.
Dr G
Ready For Business coaching?
CONTACT ME BELOW with a headline ‘Coach’ if you would like help turning your passion for LM into a living.
Thanks Jenny (Founder of Nourished and still deadlifting in her 70s!) for your kind words 🙂
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