Lincoln Jay

Filip Matous is the co-founder of Evergreen Reputation, which specialises in generating online leads and personal branding, and particularly how to use data to do it better. Filip has spoken at Google Campus, Microsoft, and the Digital Marketing Show at the Excel Centre amongst others, and told me he really noticed business taking off after he started speaking in public. He kindly gave me a few minutes to talk about what others can learn from his experience.

AD: Why did you first think to use public speaking to promote Evergreen?

FM: I got into speaking as it seemed a natural platform to share insights and test out stories.

AD: And how often does it bring in business?

FM: I’d say 50% of the time, really, but I’m not a pro speaker, yet. The last talk I gave brought two leads, and one converted into a nice project.

AD: And how does the process normally work?

FM: I’ve had this sales journey happen: Talk > Twitter mention > Twitter chat back and forth > email exchange > face to face meeting > business. That time I landed an online marketing gig. I’ve also had it go Talk > chat after talk > LinkedIn connection > Face to face meeting > business.

AD: What advice would you give for anyone who’s preparing to speak?

FM: I found that getting to grips with my core offering and how it is valuable to the audience makes a massive difference. If you try to be an expert in more than one or two things, you come off as a jack of all trades, and that sucks. But most of all, be honest with yourself. Does your story connect?

Also if you build your personal brand by making sure your Twitter handle & website are present – you will get spoken about online (unless your presentation sucked)!

AD: Do you have any final pieces of advice for the speech itself?

FM: Ask yourself: ‘do I really have something to talk about?’ ‘Am I able to stop worrying about myself and focus on the crowd?’ What helped me was one coach who helped my presentation skills (from RADA) who told me to stop thinking about myself and focus on others while I speak. Also, keep it simple and cut down on slides. I found that once I did that more interest came in.