The Value of Speaking Engagements - With Dr. Meghan Walker

May 29, 2023

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min read

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Dr. Meghan Walker is a naturopathic doctor and entrepologist. She focuses on the health optimization of entrepreneurs and game changers. She's the host of The Entrepology Podcast, founder of Entrepology labs, creator of the women's performance supplement line BADASS FUEL and chief cheerleader at Clinician Business Labs, which is a platform to assist clinicians to scale and amplify their businesses.

Dr. Walker is also an award-winning speaker. She's spoken on international stages and through multiple media outlets. She's also the bedtime story reader to her three young girls.

Show Notes

2:06 - The strategy Dr. Walker would use if she was building a business from the ground up

People ask, "If you have no money and you had to rebuild a business, or just from the ground up, what strategy would you use?" I always say, simply, “speaking”!

It's giving people the opportunity to get to know you. So I'm really excited to impact this topic, because I think it's so on point right now for so many people with respect to their business.

2:40 - What got Dr. Walker interested in speaking engagements

I've always loved to speak. And I want to acknowledge that, that it's something I've almost always loved to do, because I know it's not necessarily something that comes naturally to everybody. It doesn't mean that it's still not a great strategy. It just means you might need to work at it.

I think it's such a valuable tool and rarely do I say work on your weaknesses. This is one where I think it's worth investing some time to just have some techniques to bring you up to speed. So if I look at speaking for me, it goes way back. I was always in public speaking competitions, that was a part of my identity and what I did.

When you speak to people on a subject that matters to them, you can move the room. Speaking has this powerful capacity to influence the mindset of your audience.

When I started practicing over 10 years ago, it was a no brainer that we were going to use talks to get started. We knew they were inexpensive to deliver.

We knew that if we did it effectively, we were going to be able to give that audience a call to action on the other side, that would drive them into our business, but would simultaneously deliver them with value.

6:19 - How entrepreneurs can start a successful speaking practice

It starts with understanding who you want to target.

If you’re not delivering value, no one’s going to pick up what you’re putting down.

I've watched this happen a number of times with my coaching clients, where they want to deliver a value to one particular audience, but it's a mismatch with that audience's needs. So really truly understand who you are speaking to and ask yourself: are you hitting their needs?

Truly understand who you are speaking to and ask yourself: are you hitting their needs?

So you may want to hit millennial women with your offer. You need to make sure that the topic is legitimately of interest to them. That it's legitimate pain point for them in their life. They're going to want to give you their time and attention, which is really valuable.

There's a million and one things demanding their attention, including their Instagram feed. So you have to be more important.

It's not about you, it's about them. The talk and the topic needs to deliver a tremendous amount of value.

It doesn't have to be an hour long talk. It can be as simple as 10 minutes. And Instagram — if that's where you like to hang out is a great place to start because you can do something prerecorded or you can do something live. And it's a mini talk. You can introduce the topic, you can identify and plan beforehand. What win do you want to deliver to this audience? And you can watch the response. So start small. Start in like four to five minute, little segments.

Speaking does not always mean it's on a stage. It comes packaged in all sorts of different ways, but remember you got to solve a problem and you've got to deliver a win.

9:08 - How to craft a message that will resonate with your audience

You have to be open to feedback. I would start by getting a sample group of peers together, not your mom. She's going to tell you it's amazing. That's not helpful. You want a group of peers and they have to understand the rule here … that they need to tell you when they don't understand something, or if they’re bored, or if there’s too much information.

Ask them to provide you with constructive feedback before you release it out into the world.

This is not about going through the motions, it's really easy when you first start your business. And I see this happen all the time, people are like, "Well, I'm doing everything. I'm doing all the things and I'm not getting any results." And what they're doing is they're going through the motions, but they're not really getting in there and thinking through it strategically.

Tap into why you got into this industry in the first place, why you invested your time and energy to go to school. You wanted to influence and impact people's lives. Which means you have to be willing to put yourself into an uncomfortable place. You have to be the warrior for your message and warriors are going to get hurt. They're going to understand that it's part of the battle. So start by getting your people together who will be really honest, take that constructive feedback as a way of making you stronger.

Think of them as your trainers for this piece of work that you are putting out into the world. And then when you give your talks, watch your audience, watch their facial expressions, watch where they engage.

If you're delivering it online, encourage them to engage in the chat. If it's crickets, either you don't have enough people in the talk or they're not engaged in the content. Take that feedback and detach from it. It's nothing personal. This is about putting better work into the world and driving better outcomes.

11:48 - The importance of including a call to action in your talks

A call to action can be something as simple as “join us in our Facebook group. We're going to be talking about this next week.” The call to action can be, “I'm going to drop a link below for you to hop onto my mailing list, because we're going to have an awesome further discussion around X, Y, or Z.”

Whatever it happens to be, be confident enough in the product that you are putting out into the world. You will have zero issue encouraging and inviting people to pick it up.

13:53 - Busting a common misconception around how health practitioners should handle online talks and speaking engagements

So many of the talks practitioners give is about proving to everybody else that they are as smart as other medical practitioners. And so the nature of the content, the way they're speaking about the content is about proving to people that it works as opposed to delivering value to people and delivering a tangible outcome.

I would ask your peer group that you're sampling this talk to, to watch for that piece too. Does it look like I'm really trying to justify my position? Does it look like I'm overselling what I'm doing and underselling someone else? It needs to be a standalone value piece that you are delivering to your audience.

Don't make this about proving to the audience that it works. If they are in your audience, they already know that. They don't need you to do that.

So you can reinforce their wisdom in wanting to access this system of medicine, but give them a win. That's what this phase of your invitation cycle, your sales cycle is really about.

15:55 - How to cut through the noise and stand out on the internet

If you build it, they will not come.

But if you build it and it looks professional and your message is different than other people's and you are willing to pay for traffic, then the world is your oyster.

One of the things that I think we're reticent to do in the wellness industry in general, is pay for leads and part of why we're so tired and so hustled out is because it's like we will try anything and everything to avoid paying for a lead.

One of the things I encourage people to do is understand your numbers, understand what is the revenue, and yeah, we have to talk numbers because there is revenue. That's what enables you to have impact in the world. What's the revenue that you have when you have a new patient? What's the lifetime value of that client? How long do they stick around? How long are they in your ecosystem? What does that number look like?

Listen to the full conversation on the Making It Real Podcast, and be sure to head over to the Meal Garden Instagram and follow us so you get regular updates on practitioner stories and interviews.