Kat Millar

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5 Ways Presenting Skills Can Grow Your Business

No matter how hard we try, the reality is… it’s getting harder and harder to stand out online. It’s getting more challenging to have people pay attention and stop their scroll and engage in what we’re doing online.
 
Your ability to present and be confident on video, when you’re speaking to people in person and to groups is directly related to your income.
 
And if you’re not great at writing, then you really need to get great at speaking. Because we need to share our words for people to get to know us. 
 
There are only two ways that we can communicate with our clients. Either through writing or by speaking. And obviously there’s body language and all the other things that come into it, but those are the two main ways we communicate.
 
A lot of people tell me, “I don’t want to write blogs, I don’t have time to write blogs.”
 
So if you don’t want to spend your time writing blogs, and if you’re not naturally a great writer, if you haven’t studied the art and the science of copywriting, which is writing to influence, then you need to get good at presenting.
I’m very passionate about helping people with their presenting skills, because we all know that the online space is getting more and more crowded.
Presenting to a group is the best way to leverage your time because if you’re still doing one-to-one, it takes a long time, my friend, I’m sure you’ve realised that.
You will not have the massive impact that you want to have in the world if you keep going one by one by one by one.
 
I realised this when I was a Personal Trainer in the U.K. I had been to so many different conventions and conferences and seminars, and I remember watching the speaker on stage time after time after time.
 
And I remember thinking, “I want to do that, but I’m scared. I don’t want to get up in front of all those people. I’m an introvert, I don’t have the skills, I’ve got massive anxiety around getting up in front of people.”
 
I remember having all these limiting beliefs around it, all these fears around speaking to groups, I was so nervous about it.
 
But I got to that point where I was just fed up, and I remember watching this speaker, and he was not a good speaker, but he got so many people engaged.
 
And I remember thinking, “I reckon I could do a better job than him, but all he’s doing is he’s confident and he’s owning it. And so I want to learn the craft, I want to learn how to speak like that so that I am not going one by one by one.”
 
I was only doing one-on-one personal training at that stage. I’d done a little bit of group, but not to the level that I wanted, and I kept falling back on one-on-one because it’s where I felt confident and comfortable.
 
Maybe you relate. Maybe you’re working one-on-one with clients, but you know that your time is limited, that you want to have more freedom.
 
Especially if you’re working closely with people, it can be quite draining doing long hours. So you kind of set yourself up for a job, instead of setting yourself up as a business where you can work less and make more money.
 
So I decided that day, “I’m going to learn this craft, no matter what it costs me, no matter how much time and money I’ve got to spend, how much fear I’ve got to overcome, I’m going to do it.”
 
If you think about it, 50 years ago we had to only work with people in person.
 
But now we have the ability to reach thousands, millions of people by doing Facebook Lives, by doing YouTube clips, by doing podcasts.
 
We’ve got the ability to reach a lot of people and take our message way further away, to way more people that actually need help, right?
When I moved to Sydney in 2012, I barely knew anyone here. I had a couple of acquaintances, but it didn’t have a network of people or friends, I didn’t have any clients.
 
One of the first things I did was go to an event that was run by Shaune Clark, and he was running an event called Six Figure Speaker Training.
 
And I went along, it was a half-day, it was $97, and something dropped. I thought, “Yeah, you are going to teach me how to present.”
 
So I signed up for his course, it was about $3,000, thank you Shaune, shout out to you.
 
And it helped me change my whole thinking around how to craft a message.
I went on to do 4 other presenter training courses and they have all totally changed my business and changed me.
 
So I want to share with you five ways that you can use presenting to grow your business as well, and how presenting skills will help you make more money.
 
It’s the skillset that you learn and the mindset that you learn will help you make a lot more money and help you impact a lot more people and reach a lot more people.
So here are five ways that presenting skills can help you grow your business:
 
#1: Presenting skills help you get attention
 
We are in the attention economy where we’re all fighting for attention. Not like, “Look at me, look at me,” but, “Stop and engage with my post,” because people are scrolling so fast, they’re like this.
 
You see it on public transport, people waiting in queues at shops, they’re scrolling. You literally get a few seconds to grab people’s attention. So online is very difficult.
 
I am a huge advocate for positioning yourself correctly online and doing online marketing, you need to.
 
But I also advocate, not just online, but offline strategies, combining presenting together with online marketing.
 
If you get those two together, boom, a powerful combination. It helps you get attention.
 
Because if you are willing to put yourself on a platform, which most of the population are not willing to do because they’re scared of it, public speaking is apparently the number one fear.
 
So because most of your competitors are not willing to do it, you will get the attention because you’re actually positioning yourself as someone who is willing to stand out and be outstanding, and not just blend in with the crowd and everyone else online, right?
 
So you get attention.
 
There’s a new study done that shows that we actually need seven hours, we need to produce seven hours, of content, people need to consume seven hours of us before they make a significant buy-in decision.
 
Seven hours.
That’s a lot of Facebook posts, it’s a lot of doing Facebook Live videos, it’s a lot of blogs, it’s a lot of emails.
 
Whereas if you run a workshop for one day, your seven hours are done. It’s done in one day, so you can get people to sign up for your offers and your programs in a very short period of time by running the workshop.
 
And that was how I kind of got started, by going out of the one-on-one model, was running small little seminars at my gym. I ran them in the empty studio at my gym and had people come along, and I taught them what I knew, I was teaching on nutrition at the time.
 
But then when I moved to Sydney, I would hire my local library, Gladesville library, and I paid $18 an hour and had people come in, and I taught them stuff.
 
So that’s where I started out. And now I’ve run over 100 workshops and I’ve tested and measured the things that work in business.
 
There are lots of things that do work, there are a lot of things that don’t work, so I’ve made a lot of mistakes.
 
And it’s why I love teaching people this now because there are a lot of things you can do wrong.
 
A lot of people have fear about people not showing up, so there are strategies that you need to do to make sure that people come, that you get people in the room.
 
But it’s one of the fastest ways to get people’s attention. It’s very hard to get people’s attention unless you have a massive brand or you have a big budget behind you for Facebook Ads, right?
 
So if you’re starting out, it’s a very cheap way to get started fast and get clients fast.
 
#2: It gives you the ability to connect deeply with people
 
Before I was running events, I was stuck behind my laptop so much of the time, and I wasn’t spending enough time getting to know what people wanted.
 
I was just dealing with people one by one by one, and I also had this comfortable group of clients that I’d had for years.
 
I used to have my clients for years, so I wasn’t really improving my ability to connect with people and be able to influence large groups of people, all different types of people because I was kind of stuck in this comfortable one-by-one model.
 
I was very good at my very safe little world with my clients that were one-on-one.
 
Whereas now I can talk to so many different types of people. I know how to read an audience, I know how to keep people engaged, and it’s improved my people skills so much.
 
I never used to be a people person. I remember at my granddad’s funeral years ago, I got up and said, “I don’t like people very much. They are not many people that I like, but I like my granddad.”
 
I can’t believe I said that!
 
I love people now. I absolutely love people, and presenting has helped that so much. And to be successful in business, you have to like people. You have to, it’s essential because business is about relationships. Every time you make money, there’s a person who’s put that money into your account, right?
 
Business is about relationships. So it’s a great skill, to be able to connect deeply with people.
 
#3: It helps you to be able to influence authentically
 
Authentic influence is helping people create positive change in their life. And you do it ethically, and genuinely.
 
It’s not manipulating people to do what they don’t want to do.
That’s not what true influence is about, it’s about helping people get what they want, solving their problems for them.
 
It’s about finding out what they want to avoid, become, what they create, reduce, and get away from. That is influence; helping them overcome their fears and their false beliefs. That’s part of the skillset of presenters.
 
A big part of presenting is actually helping people overcome the things that are holding them back from getting what they want.
 
And that’s a very important skill that you can develop as a business owner, and one of the fastest ways to do it is to do it to a group.
 
You don’t have to be on a big platform, but to be able to get in front of group people.
 
The more I do videos, the more I do workshops, the more my ability to influence improves, by mastering the craft, by doing it and doing it and doing it.
 
Also, because I’m doing it, I’m always going to seminars and learning about the craft of influence to get better at it. So that’s something that presenting gives you a massive advantage in your business.
 
#4: It helps you to be able to speak with confidence
I don’t know about you, but I never used to want to get up and speak in front of people. I never wanted to do Facebook Lives, that was the freakiest thing ever, I refused to do it for ages until I realised it was here to stay and it wasn’t going away.
 
But I’m so grateful now, because now I can confidently speak.
 
The other day I was at an event and they said, “Right, we’re going to divide the room into four,” it was a massive conference room, they divided us into four groups and they said, “One of you from each of the four groups,” there were probably about 150 people in the room, “One of you is going to get up on stage.”
 
And I thought, “That’s me. I want to get up on stage.” Any opportunity to get up on stage, to help get closer and closer to that confident person that I want to be in every situation.
 
So I put my hand straight up, and went on stage and spoke, and it was incredible. A few years back, before I had been presenting and running workshops, I wouldn’t have done that. So it’s increased my confidence a lot. I used to be super shy, introverted, and not have any confidence at all. I would go red, I would shake, I’d be so nervous.
 
But it’s not a talent, presenting is not a talent. It’s training.
 
I’ve been trained, I’ve practiced and practiced and practiced, and that’s how I can now speak in front of lots of people and not get nervous at all. I love it.
 
#5: It helps you attract your ideal clients
 
This is something that I talk about all the time with my clients.
 
If you want to attract your ideal clients, one of the fastest ways to do it is to position yourself as someone who’s not afraid, someone who’s taking bold actions, someone who’s willing to do the hard things.
 
And one of the hardest things that you will ever overcome is your ability to stand in front of a group and risk being rejected and put on your own event. It’s not easy, it’s not for everyone.
 
But if you know that you’re not like everyone, that you don’t want to be mediocre, if you know you want to be one of those ambitious people that is a one-percenter…
…someone willing to stand up and have something to say, to have an opinion, to risk having haters, then the world is your oyster.
 
Every entrepreneur who’s successful has some haters, doubters, people who do the ‘thumbs down’ thing on YouTube.
 
If you’re willing to risk that, presenting is your golden ticket, it really is.
 
So those are the five things. Get attention, connect deeply with people, influence authentically, speak with confidence, and attract your ideal clients.
You have a message that the world can benefit from, that the world is actually waiting for.
No one can express it like you, and if you don’t present it, then the world loses it.
 
Because your unique combination of skills, abilities, stories, experiences, they are unique, and that’s what makes you outstanding, that’s what differentiates you from the rest of the market.
 
I am working to influence you to learn this skill because I know it can be a game-changer for you. It has totally changed my life. It has changed who I am as a person, and it has completely changed my business. About 90-95% of my clients all came because I learned how to present.
 
If you would like to learn how to use presenting to attract more clients, I’m running a free online workshop on Saturday 24th October called ‘How to Get Clients With Online Events’.
 
I’ve invested over $20,000 in learning the craft and run over 200 events. So if you want to learn this presenting skill, I would love to show you the best of what I’ve learned and help you fast track your ability to attract your clients and grow a profitable business.
Here’s the link for more details and to claim your free ticket:

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5 Reasons Why Most Entrepreneurs Struggle To Get New Clients

Are you struggling to attract paying clients? Or clients who pay you what you are worth?

There are some deadly mistakes that entrepreneurs make when it comes to attracting their ideal clients.

Here are 5 of the most common ones I see.

If you don’t have the number of clients you want, I bet you’re making at least 1 of these mistakes now.

1. Not doing enough dollar-producing activities

Spending time on dollar-producing activities, or ‘DPA’ is crucial.

When I'm coaching my clients and they tell me they are struggling to get paid clients, I say “How was your week when it came to DPA?”

And sometimes I hear about a lot of things people are doing that aren’t producing money.

DPA is the only thing that's going to keep you in business.

It really is. If you are not focusing on things that are going to directly produce money, then you're leaving money on the table.

Here’s the thing.

I don't know if you have noticed but the things that are dollar producing are usually the hard things that your competitors aren’t willing to do.

They’re things like sales calls. They’re things like following people up and things like networking - getting out there in front of people, like getting out of the house and getting out from behind your laptop.

They are usually the things that are hard. But remember the hard road gets easy, that the easy road gets hard.

So if you're just taking the easy road and you're just consuming on social media and reposting and putting up quotes, it's not really going to lead to paying clients.

What I recommend you do is take a piece of paper and draw a line down the middle.

Write on the left all the things the dollar producing activities, and on the right what are all the things you’re doing that isn’t.

And literally, the list on the left needs to become your action plan today.

The dollar-producing activities are doing the hard things that your competitors aren’t willing to do.

Like running webinars.

Like running workshops.

Like creating a funnel.

They're not easy, but they're going to produce more dollars and help more people.

 

2. No clear or effective strategy

In almost all cases, entrepreneurs who struggle to attract clients don’t have a clear and effective strategy.

If you don't have one, you need to start a plan, and you need to execute on it and not be random. That’s not going to work for you.

The 3 strategies I recommend for client attraction are:

1. Switch from manual to automated

2. Create consistent content

3. Run Workshops and Webinars

You can read more about these 3 strategies in my recent blog post ‘The 3 Things That Can Make The BIGGEST Difference In Growing Your Business

 

3. Being unwilling to do what competitors aren't

The fastest way to grow your business is to do the hard things.

Do the things your competitors are unwilling to do.

For example, most of your competitors aren't running workshops.

Because what's the number one fear? For most people, it’s public speaking.

So, when I heard this I thought hmmm. I need to do this.

I'm an introvert, and it freaked me out. I thought - oh my gosh I need to speak in public. Because I'm scared of it, and the thought of getting up in front of the group makes me want to vomit right now.

So I need to learn it!

I’m quite competitive and I thought well, if my competitors aren't willing to do it, then I’m doing it!

I'm going to learn how to speak, and I just watch public training public speaking training and spent over 20 grand learning that skill, because most people aren't willing to do it.

So, if you do it and you do it well, you get good at it.

You can only get good at it by doing it regularly.

And this is what most entrepreneurs will not do, and you will separate yourself from your competitors.

There's a great quote that Ben Harvey. He says “People on mission, have no competition.”

If you have full belief in your mission, and you really, really believe in what you're offering and you want to share it with the world.

Just focus on that.

Don't too much waste time studying your competitors.

Just get on with your genius zone and staying in your lane and producing your best work. Just create, create, create. Stop consuming and start creating more.

 

4. A Broad Niche

I see this all the time. People say to me that they know that they need to niche more. Yet they're too scared of narrowing down.

Most of you are too broad.

When people say to me “Kat, is this too specific?” I rarely have anyone who is too specific. Actually, I can only think of one. Most people are way too broad. I literally hear people say their niche is between 20 and 40.

I don't know about you, but I was very different at 20 to how I am now at 40.

So, 20 year olds and 40 year olds - completely think different language, different brand emotions, different brand colours perhaps.

So make sure that your niche is specific.

 

5. Unwillingness To Invest

Most entrepreneurs struggle to create their dream business because they’re unwilling to invest.

The two biggest things they’re unwilling to invest in are their time and their money.

But how are you going to grow a business if you're not investing time and money into it?

The people that say to me “I've tried this and that and it hasn't worked”, I ask them - how much time and money are you investing in getting clients?

And most people tell me they post on social media, but they're not putting money into Facebook ads.

They make pretty posts but they're not putting money into business coaches.

They're not putting money into learning new skills business skills.

This is a very costly mistake.

So, which of these mistakes are you making? Which one is the biggest opportunity for you to improve on?

Anytime we realise we are struggling with something, we have an opportunity to change it.

 

Register For The 1-Day Business Event “How To Attract Your Ideal Clients” Today

If you want to know exactly how attract more of your ideal clients then you must check out this 1-day live event THIS Saturday.

Learn what’s working right now in online and offline marketing, social media and much more.

Don’t waste another dollar or minute trying to figure it all out yourself. Learn exactly what’s working for businesses just like yours below…

You can learn more and register here

 

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7 Reasons You May Be Struggling To Get New Clients

Would you like to build a profitable business doing what you love?

I believe it's currently the best time in history for you to create a lifestyle business. There are opportunities everywhere for you to connect with your ideal clients and help them solve their problems.

There are more entrepreneurs than ever out there absolutely smashing it and earning a huge income helping people, and of course there are a huge amount of entrepreneurs who are broke.

I know you're probably reading this because you want to share your message in a meaningful way. You want to make a difference doing what you love and help more people. And you want to work with your ideal clients and build a business that aligns with your ideal lifestyle.

If so, this is for you. I want to show you 7 potential roadblocks that are currently tripping you up or could trip you up in the future if you're not aware of them.

Here are 7 reasons you may be struggling to get new clients:

1. Not enough focus on D.P.A - Dollar-producing activities

This was by far my biggest problem when I first started my business.

In my recent blog 'How to Avoid the Perfectionism Trap' I shared a story about when I moved to London and started working at a new gym. I had no clients and no money and it was in the recession.

I'll always remember that lesson about how getting clients is about focusing on the dollar producing activities, like making offers, not the fun stuff like creating a logo, business cards, brochures or hanging out on social media.

The single defining factor in your success is how you spend or invest your time.

Sometimes we can feel that we're doing things that matter, but really we're just doing 'busy' work. Productivity means you actually produced something. Dollar producing activities directly lead to you making dollars.

2. No clear goals with deadlines

One of the main reasons I see people not producing the results they want is that they don't have clear, specific goals with deadlines attached.

We all know that when our brain is left to its own devices without clear commands and instruction, it takes the path of least resistance.

I had 'Write a blog' on my to-do list for years (still do) and barely managed to get it done consistently.

The single thing that got me to take action to produce regular content for my ideal clients was booking workshops. I'd book the venue, pay a deposit and then I HAD to run the workshop.

Or I'd decide on a date for a webinar, make it public, and that would give me the incentive to produce the content. I'll easily let myself down but I don't like to let others down.

Once you create contents for things like workshops and webinars you can leverage it everywhere.

If you struggle with inspiration for your organic content, create an event, book a date, set some deadlines and you’ll create more amazing content than you ever have before.

You need to fail fast, get things out the door as fast as possible and refine as fast as possible. A lot of people won't do this because they're scared of looking bad. But you can't be afraid of failure. It's the only way to truly learn and grow fast.

3. Lack of structure, systems, and support

Something I see a lot is incredibly well-educated people who have a lot of experience and knowledge in a range of modalities, but where they get stuck is joining all the dots together and making it work.

They don't have the structure or the systems in place behind the scenes.

If you lack structure, systems or support, you’ll struggle to be successful. Business is too hard to do without these things. They are crucial. All profitable business owners know this.

4. Being unwilling to invest enough time or money

I’ve had so many people over the years tell me that they’re not getting clients. I ask what their marketing strategies are and discover they haven’t spent a cent on Facebook ads, or they’ve put down $20 for one campaign, it didn’t work so they gave up.

A lot of people are brilliant at the modalities they teach, but not brilliant at business. Unless you want to work for someone else for the rest of your life, you must invest the time and money on learning business skills.

You need to know how to market yourself effectively, use social media profitably, write influential content, position yourself and your brand properly, know how to invest time and money and a range of other different skills.

The good thing is, everything is what I called overcomable. It's all workoutable!

Every skill you need to learn in business, you can learn. Business is a skill just like learning to cook or drive.

5. Not working with enough clients

There are two categories that most people fall into that are struggling to attract enough clients. Firstly, they haven't worked with enough people and they want to charge too much from the get-go without having enough experience or skills to charge that amount. So people don't end up signing up.

On the other end of the spectrum, there are people who are severely under-valuing themselves.

They wonder "Who am I to charge for this? I love it! It comes easily and naturally to me!"

The main reason they do this is because they have unconscious competence around their genius zone. They assume everyone can do or knows what they do and so they don't value it enough.

Another reason people don't work with enough clients is that they are scared of rejection. So they offer cheap prices or don't charge at all, then people don't value them. Or they can't make enough profit to sustain their business so they end up stuck in a job they're not passionate about.

6. Having too broad a niche

Having a vague or broad niche is definitely one of the biggest reasons why people struggle to get clients. They try to be all things to all people. They don't understand that marketing is about attracting some people and repelling the rest.

You know the old saying - if you try to chase 2 rabbits you'll catch none.

If you want to get great results for people, it's better to be a specialist rather a generalist.

Here are some examples of the difference between a broad niche and a micro niche.

Broad Niche:

“I help people improve their mindset and motivation”

“I help people improve their health and fitness and create a happier life”

“I help people create a thriving business”

Micro Niche:

“I help busy women declutter their homes in 6 weeks or less”

“I help busy Mum’s to improve their energy and reduce their stress with simple-to-follow exercise programs they can do at home”

“I help Coaches and Trainers to build a 6-figure lifestyle business”

One word of caution - don't let choosing your micro niche be another trap that stops you staying in action.

It takes time to develop your micro niche. It took me years. But don't let that stop you from moving forward.

If in doubt, choose 'you' a few years ago, before you learned what you learned to overcome a problem you'd love to help people solve.

Just decide and get out there and help people.

7. Giving up too easily

Business can be simple, but it's not always easy.

I bumped into a friend recently who had done her coaching course at the same time as me back in 2014. I ask her how her coaching is going and she says “Oh, I have a lot going on at the moment” which we all know is really code for “I’ve given up for now”

The truth is, it's never really the right time. I procrastinated for years on creating a lead magnet and a funnel and kept buying into the story that I didn't have time. But that's not true.

The reality was that I did have the time, it’s just that I didn't think I did.

I've been running my own business since 2003 and I estimate literally thousands of challenges that I've had to overcome and hundreds and hundreds of little things I've had to learn. You simply have to make one decision - to not give up!

When you delay your decisions, you delay your dreams. Life is always going to be busy.

If you think it's going to get easier the longer you wait, it's not. Things get harder not easier when you delay them.

If you know that having a business you love helping people is part of your destiny, and you feel you have it in you to do it, do it now!

The world is waiting for you

Would you like help to overcome these client-attraction challenges?

I am running a NEW 1-day course in Sydney on Saturday, 16th March.

This event is a MUST for service-based small business owners who want to know the best client attraction strategies for 2019.
 
You''ll learn how to build a profitable service-based business you love, without sacrificing your lifestyle.
Spaces are filling fast, so don't miss out.
 
Details Here:
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