I’m Not a Public Speaking Coach

Wait.. what?

Back in July, I signed up for a coaching session with Jerico Mandybur. She’s a tarot expert that I follow on Instagram (and you should, too, if you love alternative ways of reading the cards and socially conscious, psychedelic material) and she was offering up business and life coaching sessions for the first time.

Uhhh yes please!

I’d been struggling for years with what to call myself. Public Speaking Coach didn’t quite fit, but seemed fine enough. People understood it right away, and knew whether or not it was something they wanted.

Or, did they?

In fact, what I did with clients was often considerably different than what they expected. For example, many people came to me seeking speech writing skills, or wanted to know how to make a killer PowerPoint. Despite making every effort to be clear that my focus is on the presentational components of speaking, it still came up. A lot.

And that wasn’t too big a deal, to be honest. Often it started conversations that would lead to people hiring me, anyhow.

But the problem was: it didn’t sit right with me.

Niche

All through my business training (and all business training, really), we were told to “niche down”. To find our “ideal client”, we need to get very specific about what we do and who we want to work with. This ensures we can be a good fit for clients, but also that they’ll be a good fit for us. A copacetic and enjoyable client/coach relationship is such a wonderful experience and makes work a joy, instead of a slog. (Hence, why I left my secure and stable job at a high profile University in the middle of a pandemic. Relationships and job satisfaction are really important to me.)

So I’m in my session with Jerico, and I’m talking about how I need to niche down more to really find out what to call myself. I’d already decided that I prefer to work with women and non-binary humans. As many of you know, I work with men - a lot! I love men, but women/non-binary people face a whole different set of challenges, and I find those truly miraculous to work through. Again, job satisfaction. I decided that there was a certain age group and mindset that I wanted to get into it with - I had even thought about what stores they shopped at and what music they liked to listen to.

But it still didn’t fit.

And then Jerico said “I think what you need to do is niche up. From what I’m hearing you say, public speaking is just one of the things that your clients get from working with you. But it’s so much more than that.”

My mind was blown.

Sometimes, something incredibly simple is staring you in the face, but you’re too busy focusing on other things to see it. And there it was - the beginning of the “solution” to the “problem”.

I now go by Speaking, Visibility and Confidence Coach for Women. And that feels like such a better fit for a quick explanation of what it is that I do. Basically, nothing changed. Just my own mindset and what I suddenly felt comfortable talking about now that I’d figured out a better way to talk about my work.

Speaking

Standing/Breathing/Speaking/Reading. These things remain the same. If you’ve never signed up for my email list to receive my free guide, you should go for it. I cover the absolute essentials for showing up and speaking with power. Whether it’s in a personal conversation or speaking to 10,000 people, it’s all the same stuff.

Visibility

This is a word that’s become a hot topic of late, and for good reason. Visibility - showing up. Being seen (and heard). Saying your opinion. Talking to other people. Being in videos, in pictures, speaking up in a meeting. As opposed to flying under the radar and never allowing your voice to be heard.

Confidence

I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again. If anybody tells you that they can teach you confidence, run away. Confidence is an incredible byproduct of courage. Of putting yourself out there - whether slowly or quickly, whichever you need to do. Deciding ahead of time that you will say at least one thing at ever staff meeting. Deciding to sign up to deliver a seminar. Deciding to do Instagram Stories for the first time and showing up on camera. Your confidence comes from the doing - it’s earned from bravery. I can show you the mechanics of how to show up - you earn the confidence from actually doing it.

Ultimately, I am a public speaking coach. But that is just one of the many things we do when we work together. And truly - this work is so rewarding (for both of us!), but it might be even more difficult to understand what I do if I called myself an “I love working with people to help them be the badasses they didn’t know they could be” coach.

I’d love to know your thoughts in the comments. What does “public speaking” say to you, vs “Speaking, Visibility and Confidence”?

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Want to work with me? Email me and let’s make a plan!

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