Becky: Hey everyone, welcome to the Becky Beach Show. I’m Becky Beach. And in today’s episode we’re going to be talking to Caterina Rando. She’s a famous speaker and she helps women achieve their dreams. Welcome Caterina. Welcome.

Caterina: Hi, Becky. Blissing to be with you. Oh, I’m so excited.

Becky: Catarina is going to tell us all about how to use speaking to grow our businesses.

Becky: Speaking is one of the best strategies. To build influence and gain insta clients. Since I’ve been joining Catarina’s program, I’ve been getting a lot more speaking engagements, and I’ve been doing lots of one-on-one coaching, and it’s really helped me get to know my customers better.

It’s just a great way to earn more income in your business if you offer this as a service and also attend virtual and in-person speaking engagements.

So, how can you find these in-person and virtual speaking engagements?

Caterina: Well, the first thing, Becky, is that we want everybody to be a loud and proud speaker. And what I mean by that is that in all the 25-plus years I’ve been using speaking to grow my business, most of my speaking opportunities have come from somebody who knew me or somebody who heard me speak.

And the thing is that people we connect with daily are mostly involved in some kind of group, association, or community. Where you could be a great speaker. But the thing is, if we don’t tell them we’re a speaker, they don’t think of us. So, the first thing is, are you introducing yourself as a speaker?

Like, I just talked to a lovely gal. She’s an attorney. I said, when you introduce yourself, say, I’m an attorney and a speaker. That’s the first thing. Be louder and prouder. Make sure it says speaker in your LinkedIn profile. Make sure it says the speaker in your Facebook profile. Make sure that you’re posting.

Hey, I’ve got a great speech on XYZ. What groups can you connect me with? These are examples of being loud and proud that you’re a speaker, which could bring you some bookings.

Becky: I made sure to put speaker on my LinkedIn profile. I haven’t checked my LinkedIn in a while. I think, I don’t know if I’ve gotten anybody messaging me on there, but that’s always good to do when I put on my website as well.

Caterina: Yes. And let’s talk about that. So if you want to speak. Make sure you have a page on your website that says speaking or topics. It says about what you talk about and what kind of groups you’re looking to connect with, and then you can direct people there who want to book you for speaking or who want to check you out as a speaker.

Also, I have a video of you speaking there. And these days, since we all speak virtually, it’s totally fine. If you have a few minutes of you doing a virtual presentation as well Oh, yeah, it seems to be a lot easier for me to find virtual speaking than it is in person I love to do in person. How do you recommend finding them in-person speaking?

Well, one of the things is, you know, actually on Eventbrite, there are hundreds if not thousands of groups having meetings on a monthly basis. Go do a search for whatever your category is—moms, women, attorneys, whoever it is that you want to talk to—and see what opportunities come up. Then, you can scroll down to the bottom of the page and you can see who the organizer is.

And you can reach out to them. And here’s where it’s really helpful to have a page on your website about your speaking because then you could just send them the link. Hey, I speak on this, this, and this. Here’s a link to more information about my speaking. I would love to be considered as a speaker for you in the future.

You can do that. You can also go, and I’ve done for years, Becky, I do a Google search. Women, plus conference, plus the year, women, plus business, plus event, plus organization, whatever your keywords are for your audience, you want to do a search for that and see what comes up. And you do have to build a list and you do have to reach out because a lot of groups are only booking speakers at one point during the year.

Becky: Oh, fabulous tips. I’m writing them down. Sorry. Oh, I thought I’d go back to the video later and watch it, but that is just such amazing tips. Yeah. I love, you know, doing the Google search. I mean, that’s so simple. And you think people would think about that, but a lot of people don’t, you know, it’s just such a simple thing to do to find like different conferences.

And what if the conference is already going on and you want to speak at the next one, like, what do you do? Then do you just reach out to them?

Caterina: Absolutely. You reach out. Many of them have speaker application pages. You can fill out for this time or next time. The other thing is if there’s an event that you really want to speak at, virtual or live and in person, go to that event.

Also, start looking and see who’s spoken there before, who goes to that event, and who might be able to give you a personal introduction to whoever books the speakers. You’re always going to get further with personal introductions. I mean, I’ve filled out tons of requests for speakers, but personal introductions get you a lot further.

Becky: Yeah, I agree. That’s such a great way to get more speaking engagement. What is it about speaking that helps you build your business?

Caterina: Well, the thing is, as you know, people have to know us, like us, and trust us. But the other thing is when we’re selling to women and, you know, I like to sell. To women. Those are the people that I serve.

Women also have to feel a rapport with you. They have to feel like they vibe with you, that they could talk to you. And they also have to get that we genuinely care and we genuinely want to help. And as a speaker, you can build rapport with the whole audience at once. Now, not everybody’s going to vibe with you.

There’s going to be people that don’t, but there’s going to be people that really do. And there’s going to be people that have been looking for someone like you. And that’s why it’s so helpful. Because we get to connect with people, one to many, rather than, you know, 10 speeches you could connect with 200, 300 people, as opposed to sitting down for coffee with 300 people.

That will take you a lot more time. Right. And during your talk, you get to build influence, you get to share your super tips and your massive value. They get a sense of your personality. And some people are going to resonate with you. Now, Becky, as you know, because you’ve been in the Thrive at Sales class, we also have to do our follow-up, though.

The Fortune is still in the follow-up. Now, we might get some Instagram clients. For example, we could invite people to join us for our membership or our upcoming seminar. We can probably sell some low-cost things and get an instant yes, but one guiding principle is that the more time people spend with us, the more they’re open to investing with us.

But then, the more time they spend with us, the more dollars they’re open to investing. When I give a talk, I like to invite those gals to come to one of my workshops and spend more time with me, or some to come to one of my one-day or two-day events and spend more time with me because why?

The more time they spend, the more value they’ll get, which will build more influence. So this is why, Becky, you know, I recommend that every single woman who has a service business, even if she has a product business, host her own Zoom workshop or event every month.

So when we’re networking, when we’re talking to people who’ve been referred to us, we always have something to invite them to. And when we invite them, that’s going to build influence because we want to build influence, of course. Before we ask them to buy, that’s just such great advice. I actually did do that last week.

Becky: I had what’s called a brain dump party. We’re invited by my list to go to this brain dump party. During this party, you took 20 minutes to think of everything you could do to make money in your business. And then we all talked about what we did. And we learned so many different things people are going to do to make money in their business.

We had a really great talk. It was such an interesting way to connect with others, and it was all free. I should have pitched something, but I didn’t. I didn’t really want it to be stressful, so I just didn’t have any pitching, but I probably should have.

Caterina: First of all, I love that idea, Becky, please invite me to the next one. I would love to come. And that’s the thing. We just want to spend time with people. Remember the more time they spend with you, the more they’re open to investing. I just said, I’m going to come back to my, what I wanted to talk about.

What do I want to say? I told my team this morning that I took some gals to the museum on Saturday. We had a private docent tour of the fashion exhibit. It was all social; it wasn’t intended to be business. But you know what happened when we were there? One gal could not stop raving about the fact that she was coming on our Amp-up Mastermind cruise.

Another gal was raving about the Thrive At Sales Class. So even though it wasn’t intended for business, Just the fact that women were together Was good for business, And I want everyone to recognize that because social can also help with your business because anything that gets the gals together Is good for business and I love that you did your brain dump party. Now want to make sure, Becky, did you take a screenshot of who showed up?

Becky: Well, I did record it so I can’t go through again and just Only a few people appeared on camera like I should have had most people had their camera off.

Caterina: Okay, so we want to always take a screenshot. Now you can go back and you can see everybody that showed up. We take a screenshot. So then immediately after, We can send people a direct message through LinkedIn or Facebook.

We can thank them for coming. And then, Becky, you can invite them to have a conversation with you. If they want to talk to you about some consulting, some one on one consulting. If they have any questions. Or if they’re not yet in a program, Hey, based on what you shared at the brain dump, I’m sure this program or this XYZ or this product or this course would be great for you.

Would you like to schedule a time to talk about it? So let’s be very clear. When we’re in the group meeting, which I’m sure you did, you say, Hey, if you’d like to talk to me, please follow my schedule link. And we can talk, but that’s a one to many invitation. And that doesn’t necessarily evoke a decision to talk to you.

They might, they might say, okay, that’s a good idea. We do not follow up after. And we say, Hey, I’d love to talk with you. Pick a time now because they were at our event. They are absolutely going to respond, but what do they have to do first? They have to make a decision. And that is another reason why this works so well.

Invite them to your thing and then invite them to a conversation. And that is where we get clients or more. That’s such an amazing idea. I’ll go through, cause I do a record of everybody that signed up and then I’ll go through and like maybe email them individually to see if they’re interested in working with me.

Becky: Like that, that’s like a fabulous idea. And also wanted to, I also had a thought in my head, as you were saying, you know, speaking in front of people, like, you know, if someone can even film that and it could go viral, if you’re speaking it somewhere, you know, and then you can get even more, more people interested in you.

Caterina: Yeah. You could take some of the super tips that you shared, Becky, at your event, and you could put those all over the place. And then you could say, Hey, this is what I talked about at my brain dump party this month. If you think you missed out, here’s the date for next time. So we can get more signups for the next one.

By the way, one of the things, Becky, you know, I’m very much a fan of is personal invitations. So when we have an event like a workshop, we post it all over social media, in our emails, and on our website. Those are all good things to do. We post in groups we’re in, but that’s all promotion.

What puts more smiles on the screen, as you know, are personal invitations. When we reach out and say, Hey Mary, haven’t talked to you in a while, I’m having this event or this workshop, please come. I know you’d give value. Now, if we have even a little bit of influence with her, she is going to respond to us, but she has to make a decision And that’s how we get more smiles on the screen.

Becky: That’s such great advice. Yeah, I’m in, um, Catarina’s program. I’m going to her, her business cruise. What was it called? The Bliss Retreat. Yeah. Coming up in November. Really excited. Joining the Amp-up Cruise. Cause that one’s like lower price. We haven’t like decided on that yet, but like she has amazing programs.

You should definitely check her out. I’ll put all her information in the show notes. Do you have anything last minute, Catarina, before we end the call today?

Caterina: My friend, you know me, I got a lifetime supply of value for the ladies. What I would say is I want to encourage everyone. To set goals around speaking at least twice a month with virtual.

You could do it four times a month, at least easily. You don’t have to leave your house. You do three speeches in a day. I encourage everyone to schedule their own Zoom thing, just like you’ve done, Becky. It could be a workshop. It could be an event. When the pandemic started, I would get the gals together for virtual tea.

Tea and chat, you know, and now you want to have some hot topics that you’re going to talk about, which showcase whatever your business is. You don’t just want to have, you just don’t want to have just a chat. You want to have a chat and super tips or a chat and coaching or chat and consulting so that you can.

Be helpful to the attendees, but also build influence and show your massive value. And the other thing I’ll say, Becky, because a lot of gals, they’re like, okay, well, I’m not a very good speaker, right? People, people are not coming because they want to evaluate your presentation skills. They’re coming because you’re a health coach or a life coach, or a business coach, and they want to get some value from you for themselves.

They’re going because they want value for themselves. How to be, you know, we have our friend Elizabeth who talks about joyful parenting. Nobody’s going to a joyful parenting workshop unless they want to be a parent, right?

Becky: Yeah. Yeah. I love Elizabeth.

Caterina: She’s lovely. So the idea is, please just get started.

Don’t get ready to get ready. Pick a date, pick a time, pick a topic and do it. And that will put you on the right path for more influence, more clients, and of course, more revenue. Oh, I just love that. Yeah. Caterina has been helping me so much. I’ll make sure to put some of our programs in the show notes so you can check them out.

Becky: Thanks so much for being here again. And please check out Caterina’s website, Caterinarando.com. I’ll have everything in the show notes at BeckyBeachShow.com. I hope everyone has a great rest of your day.

Caterina: Goodbye.