The Power of Virtual Summits and How to Find Speaking Opportunities

 

As an introvert, you’re probably already terrified by me mentioning speaking opportunities and virtual summits, and you’re probably telling yourself that you can’t do that. Trust me, I can relate to that! If you already know that public speaking isn’t for you, that’s absolutely fine. However, it is a powerful way to get your voice, business, and skills out into the world without having to do live video. For the most part, you pre-record your presentations for virtual summits, so you have control over the end result, especially as an introvert. If you want to improve your public speaking skills with speaking opportunities like events and virtual summits, let’s look into how you can get out of your comfort zone just a little to help impact your business. 

In this episode, I dive into:

• Stepping out of your comfort a bit with speaking at virtual summits
• The benefits of speaking at virtual summits
• Showcasing your expertise as an introvert with speaking opportunities
• Finding speaking opportunities like virtual summits as an introvert
• …and much more

 

 

Using Virtual Summits as an Introvert to Step Outside of Your Comfort Zone

Speaking of stepping outside your comfort zone, finding virtual summits where you can pre-record your presentation and still showcase your expertise, collaborate with the summit host, and interact with the attendees if there’s a chat box or if there’s an accompanying Facebook group can be a really powerful way to get out of your comfort zone just a little as an introvert.

I have participated in many virtual summits at this point, and I love being a speaker and hosting these events. Even though I am about to host my fourth one soon, but at the start, it was terrifying. I will not sugarcoat that part at all. Since doing a couple of live panels and live interview-style presentations, I love the pre-recorded presentations the most as an introvert. However, if you try speaking at these kinds of events and you find that it isn’t for you, that’s just fine. 

You may find that you enjoy pre-recorded style presentations as a super introverted person. There are virtual summit opportunities out there for you that will fit with your ideal audience and allow you to share your voice in a way that isn’t way outside of your comfort zone. You don’t want to push yourself so far that it isn’t fun or sustainable for you, so once you try these kinds of speaking opportunities, you can decide if it’s something you want to keep doing.

If you’ve done a podcast guest interview on someone else’s podcast before, it is the same format – it will be edited, and it isn’t live. So pre-recorded presentations can be perfect for introverts who want to try the right virtual summit. 

 

The Benefits of Being a Speaker at a Virtual Summit 

What are some benefits of speaking at virtual summits? If you happen to be on my email list, then you know that I not only love virtual summits, but I love hosting them too. So many summits and events are happening right now, and I’m participating in quite a few. So I’ve been sending out more emails recently detailing those events. It’s important to note:

• What is the real goal of a summit?

• Why is it so beneficial to the speaker(s)?

You want to keep these things in mind because being a speaker is a definite time investment. For example, suppose you are creating a presentation from scratch. In that case, you have to create slides, record the presentation, possibly edit the video before submitting it, and promote the event, if there are promotion requirements. There are many details behind the scenes of getting yourself ready as a speaker of a virtual summit, like providing everything before the deadlines and providing your bio, headshot, links, what freebie you will offer, and what your bundle contribution will be.

As you can see, there are several things to consider when participating in a summit. Hosting a summit is an entirely different ballgame, though, and we won’t go into any details here. That being said, virtual summits have so many benefits attached to them. 

What are the benefits of speaking at virtual summits?

1. Getting your voice heard by sharing the stage with other entrepreneurs
2. Sharing other entrepreneurs’ audiences
3. Growing your email list
4. Increasing your sales right off the bat

Especially with the fourth benefit of increasing your sales right off the bat, if you have a freebie that has a tripwire offer or is part of a converting email funnel, you are going to get sales from that, and even more so if the audience of the virtual summit aligns with your ideal audience. So these benefits can impact your business, whether it’s email leads, visibility, people getting more familiar with you in Facebook groups, or at other events or speaking opportunities.

As a bonus of being a speaker at a virtual summit, especially if it is your first summit, there is a chance that you will start to get invites to speak at other summits. So you won’t have to search for summit or speaking opportunities as much. As you begin to do more and more of them, you will start to get people emailing you and pitching you to be a part of their summit, their bundle, or to speak in their membership.

So many opportunities can come from this and just getting a little more visible to your ideal audience.

 

Using Speaking Opportunities Like Virtual Summits to Showcase Your Expertise as an Introvert

One of the essential pieces of speaking opportunities like virtual summits is that they will allow you to share your expertise, knowledge, and authority easily. As a result, you can build that know, like, and trust factor with your audience. Since video is king, it is easier for someone to connect with you, not just with your voice, but through visually seeing them in a presentation.

Although video can be scary for introverts, I recommend that when doing your slideshow for a presentation, you use some kind of software like Zoom or Loom to show your face in that little box as you go through your slides to present. It makes a huge impact, builds that connection with the people watching your presentation, and will help them much more.

 

 

How to Find Speaking Opportunities as an Introverted Entrepreneur

In July of this year, I sent out an email with several resources on finding summits to speak at. I shared some great Facebook groups, where summit hosts put out a call for speakers, and a few websites for searching, as well. I will be sharing those again here today. 

One of the things I hear a lot from people who either want to start speaking at more summits or speak at their first summit is that they tend to find summits after they’re already live. I can relate to that as I had come across so many summits where I wish I’d heard about them when the hosts were doing a call for speakers. Some hosts pitch to everyone, and some don’t even do a call for speakers or have an application form. It sucks because it would have been a great fit and a great event to be a part of if you were selected for it. 

In situations like this, I do a few things to ensure that I am considered for the next round of the summit. 

• I attend the summit to ensure it’s a good fit by watching as many presentations as I can
• I follow the host of the virtual summit on social media and sign up for their email list so I can see if they eventually mention anything
• Add the summit to ClickUp with the following year’s dates or any project management tool you use, and add a subtask to check back three months before the summit is held to keep an eye out for anything on social media or in your inbox

So, keep these things in mind as you see summits that are currently happening or have happened and you want to follow up on them. Also, the summit resources I just mentioned will be below in the show notes resources. They will include those Facebook groups along with summit directories that you can be added to – more pitches in your inbox from event and summit hosts. Hopefully, they will come to you and pitch you if you are an excellent fit for their event. There are great ways to find these opportunities, get yourself out there more, and present at your first few summits. 

 

Big Announcement: The Course Creators Conference is Open For Registration

Being on the topic of virtual summits, my big announcement is that my Course Creator Conference is now open for registration! If you’re on my email list or you’ve been on any coaching calls, you’ve probably heard me mention it because it’s been taking over my life for the last couple of months. Today, September 1st is the official registration opening for the three-day virtual conference for course creators. This virtual event is from September 19th to the 21st, so register now and save the date. 

We are proud to be sponsored by Summit in a Box, Deadline Funnel, and Content Sparks.

This virtual conference has it all. We not only have the regular presentations you watch throughout the day as you can, but there are some fantastic speakers we’ve lined up, and then we also have pre-recorded panels. I’ve asked the panelists some tough questions and pieced them all together into beautiful recordings with so many nuggets of information and strategy. So you will walk away from those panels with so many notes. 

We’re also having live panels, one per day, and then, on Wednesday, September 21st, we will also have a live networking event on Zoom. You can find your next business bestie, your next clients, and connect with other digital course creators, coaches, service providers, and people who want to move into creating digital courses. So this event is for everyone. We’ve mapped out each day in a way that gives you what you need the most. 

Course Creator Conference – Day One

Day one is all about creating a digital course. This is for anyone who has never created a digital course before or has created a digital one but hasn’t seen great results and could use some improvement. So if you want to improve your course, day one is a great opportunity, and the live panel that day is all about audience building and increasing your visibility. 

Course Creator Conference – Day Two

Day two is all about marketing and selling your digital courses. Creating an epic course that’s so amazing is great and is the goal, but if we can’t sell it, it’s not going to do much. We will also have a live training event with Deadline Funnel in the private Facebook group for attendees, and the live panel will be on email marketing and sales funnels. 

Course Creator Conference – Day Three

Then on the last day of the conference, the presentations and topics are slightly more advanced selling and course creation strategies. Then, the live panel will be about high ticket programs or high ticket course sales. The pre-recorded panel that day will be from six and seven-figure course creators, and I asked some tough, really insightful questions. 

Grab your ticket and sign up for free right now. Save the date for September 19th through 21st. I hope to see you there for such an incredible event with so much knowledge and actionable advice that you can then take to create digital courses in your business, improve your digital courses, or scale your digital course empire to the next level.

 

 

Do you want to get out of your comfort zone a little and find speaking opportunities or virtual summits? 

 

A Breakdown of This Episode

[2:17] Getting out of your comfort zone just a little with virtual summits

[4:46] Some of the benefits of being a speaker for a virtual summit or event

[7:56] Being able to share your expertise as a speaker for virtual summits

[9:01] Finding speaking opportunities like virtual summits to be a part of

[13:22] Huge announcement: The Course Creator Conference is now open for registration 

 

If you enjoyed this episode, I invite you to drop a five-star rating + review with your biggest takeaway, so that other introverts can find this podcast for guidance and support through their introvert entrepreneur journey!

Download the Episode Transcript

 

 Resources Mentioned in the Show

• TheTaraReid.com
• Join the Introvertpreneur Club
• Grab My Free Resources
• Programs I Offer
• Sign Up For One of My Courses
• Coaching Services
• Shop My Digital Products
• Facebook  
• Instagram

 

Summit Resources:

• Virtual Summit Search
• Summit Speaker Collaboration Facebook Group
• Summit Host Hangout Facebook Group
• Get Featured: Media and Speaking Gigs Facebook Group
• HeySummit’s Speaker Directory