How to Use Speaking Opportunities to Build Your Startup Brand in 2020

Offline can often be more scalable than online. 

You are in no need of convincing of the benefits of creating content to build thought leadership and influence when it comes to your personal brand, which in turn ties to the company brand or your life’s work.

There are times when going offline makes more sense, and yes is even more scalable.

If you consider the shortness of people’s attention span in general (and specifically online) you may realize that indeed the world of post it and they will come is long long gone. 

I actually don’t remember when it was that simple, but I digress.

Go Speak at events.

No, it's not hard.

Yes, you already have plenty of value to add.

When you are physically in a room with someone, or even better, an audience — you command the attention of the room. Psychologically, when you take to the stage, you are already seen as an authoritative figure in possession of value to share. 

Sadly, most people do not make the most of it, either because they are too focused on the wrong notions of success, or that there's too much to think about already. 

They present their slides and exit stage left, like their part in an organized school play is over and they can now relax. I know this well because this used to be me. I’d be happy enough just to get through my slides.

The dynamic of being on stage and having an audience has several benefits, but some of the more hidden ones, so lets get tactical.

(I’ve randomized the numbers below for added drama and oomph)

Tactic 655. The En-Masse CTA 

First step, the oldest form of marketing, go for an en-masse call to action during your presentation, where you have a tracking link that redirects to a public conversation where they can be seen. 

Simple examples of this is:

• Linking to a status that you start on LinkedIn or other social media platforms where people can comment and be seen
• A hashtag on twitter (oldie but goldie)
• A hashtag on instagram (not oldie, still goldie)

Tactic 421. DOCUMENT the talk 

I’m not sure why I didn’t write this one first because of how video content can accelerate your influence, but I’ll let it go.

When you leave your smartphone or camera in the background, or with a dedicated videographer (read: your buddy) you instantly have lot’s of content that you can scale after the fact. If it was a quiet enough room, you can extract that audio and put it on Soundcloud and Spotify. 

You may also transcribe what was said and provide a written version of the talk. Not to mention the actual video itself. Not to mention yet again how you would be able to repurpose different segments of the talk (depending on it’s length) into smaller micro content pieces.

Tactic 422. DOCUMENT the Q&A 

Similar to the one above, but as can be used totally differently. Or better yet, combine this one and the one above.

Tactic 387. Find other influencers and interview them

This one is straight from the heart of our figurative book of tactics. 

By interviewing women and men of influence on topics that they are engaged in, when done right, you [may] build credibility by association.

In addition to that, you may gain free targeted distribution channels when they share it on, or in some cases when you tag them in your piece of content featuring them.

Tactic 106. Just be real, and participate face to face

Not as linearly scalable as some of the other tactics above, but likely the most important and worthwhile.

Getting into the habit of making physical presences often acts as an excellent complement to your online efforts.

It treats people who may be following you online to another angle of you, and acts as a method to seed more people into your tribe, your life’s work, or whatever else you’re reading this article to achieve :) 

I think offline is one of the fastest ways to build content, which is the best of both worlds, and helps you to go faster, and more authentically on both fronts.