Within 6 days in January, I was invited to share my blogging story and share some of my top blogging tips at two different events. Talking about blogging and helping others is something which I’m really passionate about. It’s fun to share my tips about how to blog and the two groups I was speaking to were both quite different. If you are thinking of doing some public speaking I’ve included my top 3 tips at the end of this post!
Learning How to Blog
The first event I spoke at was the Ladies 4 Networking Brighouse group. L4N is a ladies networking group I’ve attended since I began running my own business. It’s a supportive group which mainly consists of women who are running their own businesses – Real-life #girlbosses.
This was a smaller, relaxed group where I talked about the benefits of blogging for their businesses. Including how to think of ideas and getting people to read them which can ultimately lead to more sales. As it was more of an informal talk I answered questions throughout and it was a fun afternoon.
My next talk was for the WordPress Leeds group, held at Futurelabs in Leeds city centre. This was a larger group and I put together some slides (using my new branding – I’ll be sharing more on this later). This time, I talked about blogging for both a hobby and personal interest as well as for a business. Although a lot of the information is the same often the outcomes for the different types of blogging are different.
After speaking for around 30 minutes I took some great questions from the audience. We then had a quick break before the second speaker Lorna Jane. Lorna talked about how to create content for your blog, which was a great compliment to what I had been talking about. There were a few more questions at the end before the event finished with a trip to the pub!
That’s the best way for any talk to end!
If you find public speaking scary this can still be something you do, no matter what your subject.
3 Public Speaking Tips:
- Be prepared – Know your material and subject matter. Practice beforehand to ensure your slides are in the correct order, your talk flows and it is the correct length of time.
- The audience wants you to succeed – Nobody wants to see you fail when you are talking. If nothing else it’s because they don’t want to sit through it!
- Positive self-talk – If you believe you will be rubbish there’s a good chance you will be. Believe in yourself, own your subject matter and be the expert in your topic! If you believe you can then you will.
It’s always good to stretch your comfort zone and I really enjoyed giving both my talks and encouraging other people to start a blog, keep blogging or grow their blogging skills.
To access some of my favourite blogging resources for free click here.
[…] at two events all about blogging. I spoke at WP Leeds and L4N, I shared more about my experiences here. In February I spoke at JCI Bradford, which I am also a member of. Speaking about blogging is […]