How to Craft a Signature Talk that Launches Your Speaking Career Success
with Aleya Harris
Ready to launch your speaking career but not sure where to start? Dive into this crucial episode of The Flourishing Entrepreneur as I unveil the secrets to crafting a signature talk that will set you apart in the competitive world of professional speaking. Whether you’re a novice speaker aiming to make a mark or an experienced orator seeking to refine your approach, this episode offers the blueprint to success.
Key Takeaways:
The Power of Story: Learn how to harness storytelling elements effectively to captivate and engage your audience from start to finish.
Structuring Your Talk: Discover the Spark Storytelling Framework, a step-by-step guide to building compelling narratives that resonate deeply with listeners and motivate them to action.
Practical Tips for Success: Gain insights into the practical aspects of creating and delivering a signature talk that not only informs but also inspires and transforms your audience.
Why Listen: If you're serious about becoming a professional speaker, understanding how to craft a compelling signature talk is crucial. This episode provides you with the tools to structure your presentation in a way that connects emotionally and intellectually with your audience, ensuring your message is not only heard but felt. Enhance your speaking skills and set the stage for a successful speaking career by tuning in now!
Tune in now and start your journey towards becoming a confident and inspiring speaker!
About Aleya Harris
Aleya Harris is the spark for your spark™. A trailblazer in purpose-driven story crafting, she is a marketing executive and ex-Google Vendor Partner who brings her dynamic experience to her role as the CEO of The Evolution Collective Inc. Aleya is an international award-winning speaker, the founder and lead trainer of Spark the Stage ™, and the host of the award-winning Flourishing Entrepreneur Podcast. She is also the author of the upcoming book Spark the Stage: Master the Art of Professional Speaking and Authentic Storytelling to Captivate, Inspire, and Transform Your Audience. Her unique approach as a Strategic Storytelling Consultant has revolutionized the way businesses communicate, transforming workplace cultures and market positioning. With her dynamic energy and proven methodologies, Aleya guides clients to unlock their potential, articulate their radically authentic stories, and achieve unparalleled success.
Watch the Free Masterclass
Join Aleya's free masterclass "Unleash Your Authentic Voice: How to Captivate Any Audience with a Signature Talk." Learn to become a professional public speaker by mastering storytelling and confidence. Inspire any audience with your unique message and style
Register at https://www.aleyaharris.com/masterclass
Sign Up for Spark the Stage™
Spark the Stage™ is a 6-week on-demand and live-taught course that helps entrepreneurs and executives become radically authentic professional speakers who can deliver a compelling signature talk from the stage.
Enroll at https://www.aleyaharris.com/spark
Work with Aleya to Craft a Better Story
If you can't communicate who you are, your company will make less money. An unclear strategy, confusing brand, or undefined workplace culture will repel ideal clients, visibility opportunities, and career-making connections. Work with Aleya Harris, a strategic storytelling consultant and seasoned marketer, to develop an authentic story that differentiates you from the competition and builds stronger relationships with your target audience.
Schedule a call at https://www.evolutioncollective.com/
Book Aleya to Speak
To book Aleya to edutain your audience at your next event as a keynote speaker, please visit www.aleyaharris.com/speaking to check out her speaking topics, reels, and why. Click "Schedule a Call" to secure the speaker with "that something new" you've been looking for.
If you are a Corporate Event Planner, Employee Experience Professional, Head of Marketing, Learning & Development Professional, Executive Assistant, Speakers Bureau Destination Management Company, or Destination Management Organization who is looking for a top-quality, energetic speaker, you should definitely hop on a call with Aleya.
Connect with Aleya Harris
Speaking & Media: https://www.aleyaharris.com
The Evolution Collective Inc.: https://www.evolutioncollective.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/aleyaharris/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aleyaharris/
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@thealeyaharris
Links Mentioned on this Podcast
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[00:00] Aleya Harris: How do I get speaking gigs? Alayah. How can I get paid to be a speaker? Alayah. How can I show up on more stages? Those are the questions I get asked all of the time. And I'm here to tell you that the answer is actually probably more simple than you would like it to be. And I kind of don't want to sound like a **** giving you this answer, but it's the truth. You just need to be a good speaker, because speaking begets speaking. Once you get out into the world and you start speaking, then you will end up on more and more stages. Because you speak at one conference, that conference turns into three conferences, the three conferences turns into 6912, and you're off to the races. But that doesn't happen if you're not very good at what you do, if you're boring, if you're not giving actual advice, if you people can't have be drawn in to what you are doing. Speaking begets speaking. And the best marketing tool is to be good at what you do. So let me tell you a little bit of how to do that. Here on this episode of the flourishing Entrepreneur podcast, we are going to dive into how to craft a signature talk that launches your speaking career success. So that when you spend the time doing that foundational work of doing calls for speakers and getting out into the world, that you really are maximizing the effort that you're putting into becoming a professional public speaker. All right, let's go.
[01:39] Yuliya Patsay: Welcome to the Flourishing Entrepreneur podcast with Alea Harris. If you're looking for actionable ways to overcome communication and differentiation challenges by sharing radically authentic stories, you are in the right place. Listen in and learn how to stand in the power of your unique narrative to transform your personal life, business, and workplace culture. And now, your host, award winning international speaker, strategic storytelling consultant, and japanese whiskey lover, Ruby corals mom, Alayah Harris.
[02:28] Aleya Harris: One of the biggest things that people do not do is use the power of story. When they're on stage, they usually have an idea of what they want to talk about, and then they quickly just go straight to the outline to outline the presentation. And there's actually a step that should happen in the middle, which is you deciding on the storytelling elements that you're going to weave into your presentation. I'm not just talking about the stories you are going to tell, but the narrative elements, the very technical elements of storytelling frameworks that you are going to weave in in order to help my students and spark the stage do this. And the people that are buying my book, which is coming out on September 19. Do this. I use and created the Spark storytelling framework, and I am going to give you a sneak peek in this episode of a chapter of my book where I talk about the spark storytelling framework and how I use it, and I teach other people to use it to ignite connection through story. I'm going to give you a snippet of chapter 20 from my book to wet your appetite a little bit so that you can go out and purchase it. And also just to be of service, because I don't know about you, but I'm real tired of these boring presentations. And I'm also real tired of being in those awkward conversations. When I see a speaker that was mediocre and they get off stage and then they say, hey, I know you're a trainer and your keynote was awesome. How do I get more gigs? And what I really want to tell them is be better. And it makes me feel like a ****. So instead of that, I'm passive aggressively creating this podcast episode. So maybe you could just listen to this and be better. And so then when I see you, you're really, really good, and I can really, actually help you a lot more because you're just a good speaker. Being a good speaker, again, is the best way to become a professional speaker, is to be a good speaker. So the spark storytelling framework is a structured approach to crafting compelling narratives. It will help you create emotionally resonant and intellectually stimulating presentations that captivate and inspire your audience. So we have, again, an idea. You start off with an idea, and in the book I go into your controlling idea and your golden thread. But let's just say you have a general idea of what you're going to talk about, and then you know that you're going to turn it into an outline with the exact slides in order. Well, before you get there, you need to use a storytelling framework to really make sure you have the elements that get people in their head and their heart and their gut so that they understand what's happening. They feel it emotionally, and then they have a sense of wanting to connect with it at a deeper level. At a deeper level, I designed the spark storytelling framework to help speakers and entrepreneurs ignite a deep connection with their audiences by crafting stories that resonate, inspire, and motivate in line with the goals of being a radically authentic professional speaker, which is what I am talking about ad nauseam here. Hopefully you pick that up if this is not your first episode. This framework is built around the concept of lighting a spark within the audience transforming passive listeners into engaged participants in the speaker's journey. So it has six parts, and I'm going to go through each of the parts. And the way that you do it is think of it like a worksheet, and you're going to have all of the answers to your six pieces, and then you're going to pull that over into your outline. And I'm just going to go through the spark storytelling framework in this episode, and then an outline. If you want to know all about the outline, well, my friend, by the book. But the outline is straightforward. Once you have your story down straight, you have all of the elements there, and it really becomes easy to go from there. So the first element is kindle the desire. Build an emotional and intellectual desire for change or action. Highlight the motivations that compel the hero you're potentially the audience member to embark on their journey. Questions you should ask yourself here are what is it that your audience wants? What are the internal and external reasons compelling them to go on a journey? How can you articulate any initial reluctance and the means to overcome it? And what emotional hooks can you use to deepen the audience's investment in your presentation? The second step is illuminate the challenge. In this section, you're going to work on hooking the audience in by presenting a relatable problem that sets the narrative in motion. Introduce the setting and the initial challenge you or your intended hero face. So if you're the hero of your story, then it's all about you. But if you're telling the story of someone else, then it's all about that hero in that story. Some questions that you could consider in this area are what specific problem or challenge will capture the audience's attention? What emotional state has the problem activated within them? How does this problem relate to what the audience desires or aspires to achieve? And what are the stakes involved? If this problem remains unresolved, then you move on to step three, which is fuel the journey. Discuss the journey, including the trials, tests, and conflicts that come along the way, which are the juicy bits and the lessons that are learned that can empower the audience. This starts to really get into why they should care, and questions you should ask yourself in this section are what key obstacles or conflicts have you or will your hero encounter? What specific crisis stories from your experience illustrate these challenges and lessons effectively? And to get some good crisis story explanation again by the book, spark the stage that's coming out on September 19, or scroll back a couple of episodes to the one where I break down crisis stories. And then you also want to talk about how these stories help progress the narrative towards resolution. Section four is called ignite the transformation. You're going to identify the core message or breakthrough insight that will change the audience's understanding or perspective. You want to ask yourself, what are the critical turning points in your narrative? How do these turning points lead the audience from their current state to where they need to be? And how does this transformation align with the overall promise of the entire signature talk? Section five is radiate the resolution. This is where you outline the transformations achieved and how they can be applied practically by the audience. Questions to consider, what are the key outcomes or resolutions you want the audience to experience? How can these outcomes be practically applied to the audience's life or work? And what long term impacts do you envision these lessons having on the audience? Section six and the last section is share the spark. This is where you get to motivate the audience to implement what they've learned in their own lives and use it to improve the lives of others. Focus on ongoing engagement, like how you can connect with them, how they can connect with themselves, how they can further their experience, and using your presentation as a jumping off point for their ongoing journey. Questions to consider in this section are what specific actions do you want the audience to take following your talk? What is a grander sense of altruism you can inspire in your audience based on your content? And how can you ensure the audience remains engaged with the content or with you as a speaker? The spark storytelling framework is not just a tool for structuring content. It's a comprehensive approach that ensures your message resonates deeply and elicits the desired emotional and intellectual response from your audience. Am I going to know if you use this or not? I may or may not. Probably not. I mean, if it is a great presentation, I'd like to think that you did right and I'm sitting in the audience, but I won't know. But you will know. You will know if you use a tool like this to make your presentation the best it can possibly be, or if you just kind of like, winged it and hope for the best. And then you're one of those people that asks me, can you help me become a better speaker? I want to get on more stages and I'm trying to, like, look at you and how to tell you nicely that you're really needing to improve your craft first. Right. This spark storytelling framework is inside of my book. Again, it's chapter 20 of Spark, the stage master, the art of professional speaking and authentic storytelling to captivate, inspire and transform your audience. This book is available for sale in a week on September 19, my birthday. I am so excited. Not only does it talk about the Spark storytelling framework, but it goes all the way, all the all the way from the beginning, from working with you internally to excavate your radically authentic self, giving you the tools to then translate that into your crisis stories, which are the foundation for your presentation. Translating that into the radical spark signature talk framework, outline slides, booking the gig, getting the gig, all of it. It's inside of this book, spark the stage. I encourage you to go and get it when it comes out on September 19. If you need a reminder, go ahead and follow me on Instagram aleyaharris a l e y a h a r r I s so that you can get alerted when it comes out. Because you better believe your bucks that I am going to be posting all about it, which I already am starting to do so because I'm super excited. And people that I've sent advanced readers copies are excited. They're transformed. They're waiting to buy the hard the hard tangible version, even though they have a free PDF copy because they want to use it for reference because they felt it was that valuable. So I encourage you to do so. Buy it when it comes out on September 19 and then send me an email. Did you like it? Did you not like it? Go to aleah leaharris.com. that would be where you can send me a direct email because I would love to hear from you. All right, this episode is kind of short today, but when it's good, it's good. I guess. I just want you to use the framework, see how it transforms your speaking. If you have questions about the framework, you can also email me aleahleaharris.com dot. I am not a stranger and I don't want you to be one either. This is the flourishing entrepreneur podcast. My name is Alayah Harris and as always, I am sending you lots and lots and lots of love, light, and abundance. Bye for now.
[13:29] Yuliya Patsay: Thank you for listening to this episode of the Flourishing entrepreneur podcast with Alea Harris. Vibing with what you hear, leave a five star review to spread the love and be sure to click subscribe. We wish you love, light, and abundance. See you next time.
