Public speaking is one of the most direct tools a small business owner has for generating new business, building authority, and deepening customer relationships. Yet as of 2025, roughly 75% of people experience anxiety about speaking in public — making it one of the most widespread but career-critical challenges for entrepreneurs. In a community like Lawrence, where the calendar is packed with chamber events, university convenings, and local networking gatherings, the opportunities to speak are everywhere. The question is whether you're stepping up to take them.
Pitching Well Is a Competitive Advantage
Every conversation with a potential investor, partner, or anchor client is a pitch — whether it happens at the Sandtrap Classic or across a conference table. Business owners who can clearly articulate what they do, why it matters, and what they're asking for close more deals. The ones who stumble through it leave money on the table.
According to SCORE, small business owners can use public speaking at chamber of commerce meetings and local networking groups to strategically target prospects and generate new business opportunities. That framing matters: public speaking isn't a soft skill separate from sales — it IS sales, delivered live.
Speaking at Events Expands Your Network Faster
Conferences, meetups, and industry panels don't just put you in front of an audience — they put you in front of the right audience. When you're a speaker rather than an attendee, people approach you. Conversations start differently.
Lawrence's event calendar gives members multiple entry points throughout the year: the Empowerment Expo, Business After Hours hosted at member locations, and the Annual Meeting drawing roughly 400 attendees each January. Each one is an opportunity to introduce yourself, share what you know, and walk away with connections that would have taken months to build cold.
Thought Leadership Builds Brand Credibility
Thought leadership — the practice of sharing specialized knowledge publicly to build authority in your field — is one of the most durable ways to make your business more recognizable and credible. When you're the person who spoke about supply chain resilience, commercial real estate trends, or workforce development at the last chamber event, you become the person people call when they have a related problem.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce notes that public speaking for small business owners extends to podcasts, virtual events, livestreams, and panel discussions — all channels that can increase brand awareness and generate sales. You don't need a conference stage to start building that reputation.
Your Audience Tells You What They Actually Need
Live speaking creates a feedback loop that no survey replicates. When you present and then open the floor to questions, you learn — fast — what resonates, what confuses, and what pain points your audience is actually trying to solve.
That real-time signal is valuable. A question that comes up repeatedly at two or three events might reveal a product gap worth filling, a service you're underemphasizing, or a misconception you need to correct in your marketing. Customer discovery doesn't have to mean formal research. Sometimes it means paying close attention to what people ask after you speak.
A Speaking Slot Can Launch a Product
If you have something new to announce — a service offering, a partnership, a product line — a speaking engagement is among the most effective launchpads available. You control the narrative, you're talking directly to your target audience, and the format naturally generates conversation and follow-up.
Business events in Lawrence, from the Taste of Lawrence Business Expo to Coffee Connections on the second Tuesday each month, put you in front of a concentrated audience of community members and fellow business owners who are already primed to hear what's new.
Turn Every Talk into Marketing Content
A single speaking engagement can produce weeks of content. Record your presentation and repurpose segments as social media clips. Use your notes and slides as the backbone of a blog post. Share a key takeaway on LinkedIn the same day.
Slides are a natural starting point for this kind of content repurposing. If you have existing reports, brochures, or documents already saved as PDFs, you can convert a PDF to a PPT file to quickly build a presentation without starting from scratch. A well-designed deck also extends the shelf life of your talk — it becomes a leave-behind, a follow-up email attachment, or a resource you share with prospects who couldn't attend.
In practice: The best speaking content serves double duty. Write your talk to be heard in the room and useful on the page — that's the version worth promoting.
Fear Is Normal — and Beatable
If any of this resonates but the idea of actually speaking in front of people gives you pause, you're in the majority. Toastmasters International emphasizes that great public speakers are developed through a growth mindset and deliberate practice, not born with natural talent.
Stanford strategic communications lecturer Matt Abrahams puts it plainly: "communication anxiety is absolutely normal" and is rooted in evolutionary biology — not a personal weakness. The solution is preparation, repetition, and low-stakes practice until the discomfort recedes.
Where to Start in Lawrence
Lawrence has practical on-ramps for business owners who want to build this skill without jumping straight to a conference keynote. In Lawrence, small business owners can practice public communication and networking through CORE's 1 Million Cups — weekly gatherings where entrepreneurs introduce their businesses and build community connections, as highlighted by the City of Lawrence Economic Development office.
For business owners who want structured support, Lawrence small business owners can access free, confidential advising through the KU Small Business Development Center, a partnership between the SBA, Kansas Department of Commerce, the University of Kansas School of Business, and the Lawrence Chamber of Commerce.
The Lawrence Chamber's own event calendar — including the Empowerment Expo and Business After Hours — creates regular opportunities to practice in front of a familiar, supportive audience. Start there. The stage gets smaller every time you step onto it.
This Hot Deal is promoted by The Chamber, Lawrence, Kansas .
