Quick Announcement: I am running a webinar on “Why doctors should build a digital presence (and how to do it)” on Wednesday 6 August 2025 at 7:30pm (AEST). If you have been on the fence about getting started, you will love this! Register here (P.S it’s $20). 

Without further ado, this week’s article.

***

I had a big response from my last article about what I learnt from public speaking.

“Wow. There’s so much information in here.”
“Just wanted to say how incredibly valuable your emails are :D”
“Fantastic Gihan! Just fantastic! So many gems of wisdom here.”
“Another banger, brother!”
 

Over the next few years, my aim is teach y’all everything I know 🤓

So, let’s keep going.

I had a great question from a fellow LM nerd after my last article about public speaking. 

“How do I land more speaking engagements?”

Here is my ONE word (3 letter) answer:

ASK

Asking is like any question, it demands an answer.
And the answer could be YES!

Here are X steps to ASK effectively. 
 

✅ Step 1: Make a list

Make a list of everyone you know:

• Friends
• Family
• Phone contacts
• Social media followers
• Newsletter subscribers
• Colleagues
• Clients

✅ Step 2: Grow the list

Eventually you will run out of people to ask.

That’s why you need to not only make a list, but grow your list. 

If you can grow your list at the same or faster rate than you can ask, you will never run out of asks.

You are only limited by the amount of people you ask (and you can always ask more people).

The power of the Ask depends on the quality of the relationship you have with the person you are asking.

Relationships move on a spectrum of:

Stranger —> Know —> Like —> Trust

Stranger: They don’t know you.

“Did you see Dr G’s recent article. It was epic.”

They respond with, “Who’s Dr G? You mean the rapper? Oh no, that’s Dr Dre.”
 

Know: They’ve heard of you

They’ve seen your posts on social media.
A friend has mentioned your name.
They scrolled your website once.
 

Like: They resonate with you

They’ve watched multiple videos or consistently read your posts.
They’ve heard you speak.
They read and reply to your newsletter.
 

Trust: They believe you can help

They become a client.
They recommend you to others.
They ask for advice and follow it.
They buy your book.
 

The more they know, like, and trust you, the more likely they are to say Yes when you Ask for something. 

2 ways to grow your list

1) Digital

—> Post on social media
When people engage (i.e. Follow/Like/Comment), take it deeper.Start conversations.
Invite them to your newsletter.
Invite them to future events.
Have coffees and walking meetings with people you want to meet.
Send them articles that would be useful for them.

—> Write a newsletter
Treat it like a conversation.

Give them ways to interact with you.
Ask them to REPLY to your newsletter with questions or ideas.
Ask them to SHARE your newsletter.
 

2) Real-world

—> Attend events
Take an interest in people, and people will find you interesting.
When you tell them what you are working on, don’t hold back. Share your enthusiasm.

—> Speak at events
“Don’t attend events, speak at them” – Matt Church.

It’s always better to be positioned as the speaker.
You get to share something valuable at scale and when you are networking, people come to you and they already know (and potentially like and trust) you.

Nurture relationships

Bring people into my world and keep them there.

That’s how I can consistently and steadily nurture my relationships.

My favourite way? My newsletter.

People’s email addresses generally don’t change. It’s a great way to stay in touch, without actively doing it with every single person.

Get into the habit of constantly inviting people to you newsletter. 

I invite humans (constantly) onto my newsletter. If they accept, they have a chance to know, like, and trust me on most weeks as I pour my heart into something I am passionate about.

These are tactics. What’s the intention behind them?

Want to know a sure fire way to progress up the ladder of trust quickly?

Be uncommonly generous (great for them) with minimal or no expectation (great for you).

Give away your best stuff.
Give away stuff that any right minded person would happily pay for.
Genuinely, in your heart of hearts, want the best for them.

If they become a client, great.
If they never work with you, great.
It’s all good.

Wouldn’t you trust someone if you were on the receiving end of this?

Take this newsletter.

I have literally invested nearly $50K (and counting) into growing myself and my business.

What you see in these newsletters, a lot of it I paid good money for it.

Even more valuable than money, my time.

Thousands of hours trying to understand life and business, and then I write about it 🙂

P.S Spoiler – my mind is marinating on the idea of writing my next book:
“The Business of Lifestyle Medicine – How to turn your passion for LM into a living.”

You better believe that book is going to have my best stuff.

It will happen, just wondering if it’s next.

CONTACT ME BELOW with the headline – ‘WRITE THE BOOK’ if you are keen!

✅ Step 3: ASK (A LOT!)

Ask people if they are looking for a speaker.
And do it a lot.

How many people should you ask?

🔢 The Rule of 4s

Here’s a good rule of thumb:
Ask 4 people → 1 will be interested
Ask 4 interested people → 1 will give you a speaking gig

So, you need to ask 16 people to land one speaking gig.

Or inversely, you need 15 No’s for one yes.

People often underestimate the amount of work that is required to get a result.

Landing speaking gigs takes effort.

Anything worthwhile does. 

My personal life has transformed from this approach.

It’s not the Yes that has done it.
It’s the No’s.

To the degree you can build a healthy mental relationship with being rejected over and over, sometimes coined Rejection Therapy, you will get out of your own w

Once you get out of your own way, you can focus on what actually matters: Helping others.

🧮 Do the Maths – here’s an example

How many speaking gigs do you want? 10
In what time period? 6 months

How many people do you need to reach out to?
16 x 10 = 160 people in the next 6 months

Don’t freak out. Stay with me.

• Monthly? 160 ÷ 6 = 27 people a month
• Weekly? 27 ÷ 4 = 6–7 people a week
• Daily? ~1 person a day

That’s just 5–10 minutes of work every day.

160 people seems like a lot. 1 person a day?

“Easy peasy lemon squeezie” – 4 year old niece

✅ Step 4: Make the Asking work better

🔥 Warm Up Your Asks

Not all asks are created equal.

• Cold Ask = You don’t know them
• Warm Ask = You have some familiarity
• Hot Ask = They know, like, and trust you

10 hot asks will probably lead to 8 speaking gigs.
10 cold asks may lead to none.

The hotter the better.

🤝 2 ways to make Cold Warmer

1) Ask for Introductions

Cold asks work, but they are inefficient.
You can (and should) warm up cold asks by asking for introductions.

Example:
Let’s say you already know Alana. Alana knows, likes, and trusts you.

“Hey Alana, as you know, I recently published Do Happy. People are loving it. I am keen to share the message with corporates. Do you think your company would be interested in me running a session?”

If yes → “Awesome! Who organises them? I would love an introduction.”

Let them open the door.

2) Move up the 7/38/55 rule

Albert Mehrabian states that in communication:

• 7% is conveyed through the words used
• 38% through the tone of voice
• 55% through body language

Most of communication is not what you say, but how you say it.

People do business (and life) with people they know, like, and trust.

This happens through communication.
 

When you are texting or sending DMs (direct messages), this only utilises 7% of your ability to communicate.

If you move it to a phone call, now it’s 45% (words + tone).

If you move it to a video call, now it’s approaching 100% (words + tone + body language of upper body).

If you move it to an in person, 100% baby.
 

Play around with this but as a rule of thumb:

• Small talk → Texting and DMs
• Big talk → Phone/Video/In-person
   

Not (Fun Fact): I have seen friendships breakdown because they were having big talk … via text.

✅ Step 5: Think Strategically

Ask yourself:

• Who is my target market?
• Who has access to them?
• How many handshakes away am I?
• Who can introduce me?

We’re all a maximum 6 handshakes away from anyone in the world.
We are all a maximum of 6 introductions away from anyone in the world.

✅ Step 6: Get More From Every Gig

Once you land a gig:

• Offer to do deeper next time
  “Everybody seemed to love it. I would love to go deeper with your team. Keen to do this again?”
• Offer different topics
  “Everybody seemed to love it. I have so many other things I could share about X, Y, or Z. Keen to do this again?”
• Ask for referrals
  “I am glad you loved it. I’m keen to keep spreading the message. Can you think of 1 or 2 people you know that would be interested in having me come and speak?”
  (i.e. warm up a cold ask)
  

Questions? CONTACT ME BELOW and let me know

Loved it? SHARE it with a fellow LM nerd you care about. 

Much love to you and of course, myself.

Dr G
 

Academy MEE Webinar next Wednesday, 6 August 2025 at 7:30pm (AEST)

If you are a doctor looking to build a digital presence or you want to find out whether you should, you will LOVE this.  
If you are on the fence about getting started and need a nudge, I shall provide the nudge!

Register here: Why Doctors Should Build A Digital Presence — and How To Do It (It’s $20) 

 

LM Starter with ASLM: Build and launch your LM offering in 4 weeks

I have teamed up with ASLM (thanks legends!).

Over 4 weeks, you will get all the support you need to launch your LM offering. 

Let’s get on with it. Let’s do it together. 

It’s really not that complicated if you know what to focus on. 

Register here: LM Starter – Build And Launch Your Lifestyle Medicine Offering In 4 Weeks
(Free for ASLM members, $200 for Non-ASLM members but if they decide to become a member, this will contribute towards that)
 

Ready For Business coaching?

CONTACT ME BELOW with a headline ‘Coach’ if you would like help turning your passion for LM into a living. 

No Idea Where to Start? Start with a newsletter

A newsletter is the one of the best ways to deliver digitised value straight into someone’s inbox. (This is exactly what I am doing now!)

If you want my tutorial on setting up a newsletter in under 1 hour, CONTACT ME BELOW with a headline ‘Newsletter’.