Perhaps the biggest challenge any solo entrepreneur faces is how to find their voice. Last Friday, I wrote about personal branding and this follows on. There are two senses in which you may need help finding your voice.
Public Speaking
The obvious dimension is having the courage to speak out. This challenges many people, be they entrepreneurs, politicians, religious leaders or anyone with a message they need to convey.
The underlying principle is confidence. Not only confidence in the message but confidence to stand up and speak. For many, fear of speaking inhibits their voice.
Actually, once you find your voice as a public speaker, you will find expression through other media becomes easier. Once I can stand up and speak about a personal experience, it becomes less of a challenge to write about it and publish online.
I headed this section “public speaking” because it is perhaps the most challenging approach to communication most of us encounter. But many business people worry about everything they put out, particularly if it means telling their own story. There is something empowering about speaking to others because that way you get feedback and through feedback perhaps hear yourself for the first time.
Personal and Business Voices
Everyone in business has both a personal and a business voice. It is possible to unpick the two but it is not always beneficial.
Let’s say you’ve studied for many years and deliver a coaching service based on your studies. You are brilliant at what you do. Your problem is finding clients. How do you put the message out? You can list your qualifications, explain how you work and point to testimonials from happy clients.
We fear yawns when we are finding our voice! (Why are there no pictures of business people yawning?) mattysimpson / Pixabay
Yawn!!
Why does any of this matter to me? Tell me a story about how you solved a problem like mine and now I’m listening.
That is of course too simple. But the point is you need to find a voice that does justice to who you are as well as what you offer.
You can be entertaining, educational, inspirational, challenging and the chances are your business is none of those things without the essential element that is you!
Ah ha – I hear you ejaculate – but doesn’t that mean you are selling yourself? Precisely!
Finding your voice is hearing what is unique in your delivery and integrating it with your offer, to make something people want to hear and some may be willing to pay to follow-up further.
The chances are you don’t know your own voice or if you do, you do not how to use it to become most effective.
Maybe now is the time to gather the fragments of your life together and make something of it that people will pay to hear because they need to hear it.
What is unique about your voice?