I recently had my nails done in New York with the American flag for a bit of fun (it’s a great conversation starter). And it got me to thinking…this could be part of my personal brand. It certainly opened doors – flight crew, theatre attendants, receptionists male and female loved it, it brightened up their day, so they were more ready to do me favours…which of course I love.

What are YOU doing to stand out as a speaker or even as yourself? You don’t have to be whacky…but you should be distinctive. Who wants to do business with someone they can barely remember?

 I’ll give you a few examples of some ways people are able to stand out:

• Your accent e.g. you went to Sandhurst and you sound like it – it helps, it makes sense to people because it is congruent or you went to Sandhurst but you have the thickest regional accent going – it helps because it’s incongruent

• Physique – are you in a minority in some way in your country? Very tall or very short, very fat, minority ethnic background, disabled? Perhaps that particularly stands out because it’s surprising e.g you are tall & Japanese. You need to capitalise on it – point it out and give the audience permission to remember you for it.

• Your clothes – if you are creative, or old-fashioned then people will assume your offering is too – is that OK with you?

• Your business card – what about getting some really good ones done that are different in shape or texture? (I still harbour a desire to get velvety ones done) Mine currently open up like a book.

• Your story – are you making enough of where you’ve come from? People want a hook to remember you by. For me it’s actress, for you it might be military, athlete, rock star… if you look and sound like that it helps.

• Your title – do you have one? I call myself ‘The SpeakingSuccess coach’ so that other people will (hopefully) call me that too. ‘She’s the… ‘ or ‘He’s the…’ is one of the most powerful ways you can stand out.

• Your hook – what’s your main claim to fame in your niche? Do you say it every time? For example in interview skills I have a 100% track record of getting people the job. You know it’s ‘hooky’ when people go ‘oh!’

• Your angle – do you bring a fresh twist to an old theme? My angle is that I teach speaking but specifically with an eye on sales – my type of speaker training is all about persuasion & influence. What’s your angle?

With all of these things, if you don’t know what makes you distinctive, think about how someone would describe you when you’re not there – spot these chefs:

‘Celebrity chef…you know, the one that shouts at everyone.’

‘You know, The Naked Chef…what’s his name?’

‘Famous chef…makes weird things all the time – using bunson burners’

‘Who’s that chef? Huge black guy, really tall, massive smile?’

Don’t be afraid of boxing yourself in – just accept this is how the human brain works…if an audience can’t ‘place’ you inside of a blink, they’ll just forget you because it’s too hard. You can always surprise them later.