I met Diana when she joined my Speaking in a Different World programme in 2020. Diana has a blue-chip track record from the world of performance and theatre, but when the pandemic hit she realised that for her business to survive she needed to learn more about operating virtually. She had a great website for her primary offering Theatre for Business though Diana wanted to find a portfolio of different ways to deliver what she did online and do more speaking to go alongside her training and coaching business. Diana says, “Maria was very rigorous, very demanding, very challenging and I enjoyed that hugely audacious editorial pen, both in the conversations and in some of the exercises that we had to do.  It really helped me rethink new ways to deliver my expertise. The big thing that came out of it for me was a new website. Maria told me I had to have my own website under my own name. Theatre for Business is one thing, but that’s kind of corporate training. As a speaker, coach and author of a book, I needed to have my own website, she said.”

“So, I did a show reel, and I did the website. Doing a website is a little bit like writing a book, all the drafting and redrafting of your thinking and you just get clearer and clearer. You have to ask yourself, “Is that I really what I want to say? And how do I want to say it? And what is my offer? And how do I want to be seen and heard?”

“Now it wasn’t an immediate hit. I didn’t suddenly get tonnes of work as an online speaker coming through the door, but what it did do was help me reposition myself with the clientele that I already had. The programme really helped me to become more agile with my expertise.”

With many speakers starting off in the training or coaching space and then growing into doing more stage (or virtual) work, it’s important to be able to reposition yourself with people who know you already. So yes, you need a website, and it’s not a great idea to have a website that covers everything you can possibly do for a client. A website with your name as the URL is best with other business interests sitting on their own domain. After all, when potential clients go to your website they want re-assurance that you take your speaking seriously and that it’s not just something you do now and then for a bit of extra income. The market is just too competitive for you to do that.

Need some help with your website? Get in touch to arrange a free consultation here.

Learn more about Diana here.