EDITORIAL FEATURE
How to Get
Speaking Engagements
By Pam Terry
Here are some simple, yet effective, tips for
getting booked as a speaker:
Drive Value. First and foremost, do not
speak about why people should buy from
you or about all of your wonderful services and products. If you do, people will
feel like you are selling to them and no
one likes to feel like they are being sold to.
Your topic needs to be value driven so that
whether or not people buy from you, they
get value from your topic – your information has to be life-altering even if it simply
helps someone in the smallest way. Why?
Because your presentation is not about
you – it’s about the audience and what
they are going to get out of it – so make
sure that you deliver information that people can use or motivation and inspiration
to improve people’s lives in some way. The
more valuable your information, the more
credible and trustworthy you become in
the eyes of your audience and the more
likely that you will get invited for other
speaking engagements. This is KEY for getting booked.
Host Your Own Workshops. Not only do
public speakers speak at other people’s
events, you’ll find they have their own line
of workshops, teleseminars, and/or webinars. Doing your own event is a great
way to get started as a speaker because it
guarantees that you will be speaking and
it can lead to other speaking engagements.
In fact, having your own events is fundamental for being a speaker and it’s another
reason why your topic should have value.
While hosting your own events can be a
lot of work (getting the venue, marketing,
registration, etc.), it can be exhilarating.
Plus, you gain tremendous experience and
To begin getting booked, set a g
oal for how many speaking
engagements you want to do per
month. For example, let’s say
you want to speak four
times a month. To meet your
goal, get four bookings per month.
Pretty soon, you will meet your goal
and you will have four speaking
engagements each month.
have complete control over its creation
from where you want to have it, how long
it will be, the market you want to target,
and what you want to offer at the end.
Set a Monthly Goal. To begin getting
booked, set a goal for how many speaking
engagements you want to do per month.
For example, let’s say you want to speak
four times a month. To meet your goal, get
four bookings per month. Pretty soon, you
will meet your goal and you will have four
speaking engagements each month.
MeetUp. It’s great when you’re getting
asked to speak and you don’t have to “find”
speaking engagements. Driving value and
hosting your own workshops will definitely cause you to get requests to speak. However, you’ll probably want to do a little bit
of smiling and dialing (and texting, emailing, and googling) to meet your monthly
goal. So, how do you find speaking engagements? My favorite answer: It depends.
If your topic is business related, then networking groups are a great place to look.
You’ll find a lot of them on MeetUp (www.
meetup.com) or by just asking your friends
and contacts. Many but not all networking groups are always looking for speakers.
What if your topic is not business related?
What if it’s about selling your house, relationships, or pet care? MeetUp is still a
great place to look because you’ll find all
kinds of groups on MeetUp.
Clubs. I’ll have to say, however, that it’s a
lot easier to get speaking engagements for
business topics. If your topic is not business related, you’ll just need to find groups
that are a fit for you. Another great place
to look are the Rotary, Kiwanis, and Optimist Clubs. There are probably at least a
hundred of them in the Houston Metropolitan area and they are always needing
speakers.
Social Media. Another way is to look at
all the events that you get invited to on
Facebook and LinkedIn. When you get
an invitation and the group is a fit for you,
email the host back and ask them if they
are looking for a speaker for their event (or
their next event) and that you would love
to be considered.
Chambers of Commerce. There are 50+
chambers of commerce in the Houston
Metro area and a great market for business speakers. Chambers of commerce
usually either want you to be a member in
order to speak or to be someone of “klout”
in order to be considered as a speaker so
they are not as easy to get booked if you
are an “unknown” to them. But, if you have
a way to get “in,” they are a great source for
getting booked. If you are a member of a
Chamber of Commerce, you should definitely let them know you are available to
be a speaker.
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