You're allowed to call yourself a speaker.
Deciding is not the same as doing.
Because I've made plenty of decisions and then not actually got on with anything afterwards.
And then, of course, nothing changes.
This is something I commonly see with people who want to speak more.
They've decided they want to do it.
They think about it
And maybe they've even done a little bit of it.
But they haven't completely put that line in the sand and made the claim.
When I work with clients who are first starting out with their speaking, one of the first things I will ask is whether they have the word "speaker" anywhere on their LinkedIn profile.
(Assuming they have a LinkedIn profile, of course)
Quite often, the answer is no.
So I invite them to put it on there and see what happens.
There's usually this moment of realisation when I say that.
And they might even ask “am I allowed to do that?"
Yes, mate, you are.
That first move can be really hard.
Because you're starting to put yourself in front of people, and that can be risky.
It might bring up all those feelings of being an imposter or not ready or needing to know more.
I remember when I was first offered the chance to host a gig.
Soon after, I was invited to speak at a couple of conferences.
And two things happened at that point.
The first thing was that I knew I needed to develop my speaking skills a little bit more.
The second was I had to say that I was a speaker.
So I changed my profile.
Updated my experience section.
And actually started talking about it more.
Now, nothing dramatically happened overnight.
I didn't end up with a gazillion followers, the phone didn’t ring off the hook and my bank account didn’t explode.
But it changed something in me.
That external declaration is far more powerful than just saying it in your head.
Your brain also knows it.
It gives that reticular activating system thing a little bit of a nudge.
You start looking for opportunities to speak. You start saying you're a speaker, and people then recognise it.
There is something I want to say about gatekeeping though.
When I first started calling myself a speaker, somebody said to me that I shouldn't.
They told me that I hadn't earned it yet and that there were criteria that I had to meet before I had the right to use that word.
I'll be totally honest, it knocked me for a bit and I thought, “should I be doing this?”.
Then I realised that it's not their call to make, it's mine.
Nobody gets to decide when you are allowed to claim an identity that you're actively building.
Also, speaking isn't just about big keynote stages in front of huge audiences.
It can be a room of ten people and a topic you know intimately.
A networking event, a panel, or even a team meeting.
If you use your voice to share your ideas with other people, then you are a speaker.
The more you speak, the better you get at it.
That ain't rocket science.
Yes, there are skills you can learn, frameworks you can apply, and tricks that you can pick up.
But you can't beat time served.
So if you want to speak more, say you're a speaker.
Change that profile.
Tell people.
Ask people if you can speak at their events.
Because you are allowed to.
If you want to chat about what your speaking journey could be like, drop me a message.