A practice-building secret weapon

Public speaking is your secret weapon for building a professional business. It will be critical to your practice’s success and will allow you to achieve your goal of helping people while becoming financially successful. Expensive Yellow Page ads and marketing gimmicks cannot compare to the close, personal connection you can establish with patients at a lecture or workshop. That connection builds trust and trust builds your practice.

Unfortunately, most doctors don’t implement this strategy out of fear. The fear of public speaking affects more people than the fear of death. Many doctors fear appearing like they are trying to sell something. Guess what doctor? You are selling! You’re selling yourself and the value of chiropractic every day. Failure to realize this fact will put you on the fast track to practice ruin. Your primary objective in public speaking is getting new patients into your office. For that to happen, you’ve got to be willing to “close” them.

Below are five skills you can develop to step beyond the fear.

1. Add value to your speech.

Many speakers are concerned with one thing, getting their speech or presentation over! If they survive without dying, embarrassing themselves, or throwing up they feel like a success. This means the speaker who just wants to survive is more concerned with himself or herself than the audience. They are more focused on their feelings, appearance, or nerves than delivering a message that will create maximum impact in the lives of their listeners. Great speakers think more about their audience than themselves. Their main objective is to present a message of value that delivers information and motivation and can alter the lives of those who use it.

How do you do this?

1. Discover the audience’s problem and address it with a solution.

2. Provide information that will show them how to produce the desired change. Offer complimentary treatment immediately.

3. Speak in a way that will help people remember and apply the information. This can be achieved by storytelling, such as a success story.

4. Create an emotional experience during the message, such as laughter, tears, or intense thought. Emotions produce connection.

2. Precision Application

Every audience member asks, “What’s in it for me?” or WIIFM for short. This is the golden rule of marketing. People care about themselves first. They want to know how they can walk out of the room and put the message into action immediately. Most don’t because the speaker failed to tell them precisely how. They are craving for you to show them the way.

Be direct, precise, and forceful in directing them to take action. The people in the audience want more than good material; they want material relevant to their lives. They want to be able to take your words and turn them into reality.

3. The 2/96/2 Rule

Two percent of the crowd will think you are the best speaker they have ever heard. Two percent of the crowd will think you are the worst speaker they have ever heard.

Aim for the remaining 96 percent because the other 4 percent are not normal. There is no reason to approach a speech with the fear that people want you to fail. They don’t. Because the audience wants an interesting, informative presentation, you have a positive expectation right from the beginning. You get to start off with the audience on your side; they want you to succeed!

4. You are the one

The number one excuse or fear of speaking is usually, “Who am I to speak to this group of people? I’m nobody special.” You are the one to speak if you want to be. Every speaker began at level zero, but they did one thing, they decided to be the one. They told themselves, “I am going to be an expert in…” and they did. You are an expert chiropractor. Make a decision that you will be the one to give the message; nobody else will. You will be able to corner the market.

There is no other you. That sounds cliche but it is true nonetheless. The way you view life, your prior experiences; they are unique to you. The best speakers rely on their personal experiences to add credibility to their message. You should too.

5. Passion

Stick to topics you care deeply about and do not keep your passion smothered inside. An audience’s biggest motivation is the speaker’s enthusiasm. What passion can you share with others? What makes your heart race? What topic makes your blood rush? Refuse to suppress your passion. Let it out. Let it flow. Let it rip. Don’t be afraid to be you. The worst mistake I see doctors make is mimicking other speakers. You can’t force yourself to become someone you’re not. It appears fake and the audience can sense your uneasiness. Couple your principles with your passion. Passion alone can get the crowd excited, but unless you provide practical ways for people to live with their passion, you’ve psyched them up uselessly.

Don’t let fear stop you. Use fear to your advantage. There are a lot of myths associated with public speaking that prevent doctors from doing anything. Everything in life you desire lies just outside of your comfort zone. The quickest way to overcome any fear is by action. Do the one thing you fear the most and the death of that fear is certain. Toughen up and just do it; your future patients are waiting.