Recipe: Getting Booked as a Speaker
To approach any of these groups about being a speaker, you will need to develop one to three speaking topics you would like to present. Your topics should be interesting, distinctive, and showcase your specialized expertise without being excessively self-promotional. They should also allow you to tell stories about your work and include examples of what you have done for clients. In this way, you can deliver valuable content to your audience and promote yourself effectively at the same time.
Most networking groups, service clubs, and professional associations give their guest speakers between 20 and 60 minutes for their talk. Conference breakout sessions and virtual speaking opportunities typically last from 60 to 90 minutes. Workshops and classes can run from 90 minutes to three hours. When you are speaking on an unpaid basis to fill your marketing pipeline, you will typically not want to present programs longer than three hours. Presenting longer seminars or multi-session classes should normally be reserved for paying engagements.
Give your presentation topics enticing titles that will attract plenty of prospects when publicized in a group’s newsletter and announcement mailings. Write brief descriptions of each topic that will give group organizers enough information to decide if they like it, and can also be used to promote your talk once it is scheduled. (A sample topic description appears in Figure 7-2.)
The second essential tool for getting yourself booked as a speaker is a speaker’s bio to accompany your topic descriptions. This can be the same professional biography you might display on your website or include in a marketing kit, with one important addition: include any prior speaking experience you have.
If you have given only one or two presentations, you might just add a line to your bio like, “Carlos Maldonado’s presentations have been well received by organizations such as the Miami Independent Computer Consultants’ Association and the South Florida Technology Consortium.” If your speaking experience is more extensive, you can list the places you have spoken separately.
It’s a good idea to include your website’s URL in the bio you provide. If the group decides to invite you to speak, they will typically print your bio exactly as you wrote it. Then when the group’s members see your program advertised, they will know how to find you, and may visit your site before or after your talk.
If you have never spoken in public and have no credits to list on your bio, don’t let that stop you. If you believe you can do a good job, go for it. You have to give your first talk sometime.
Figure 7-2: Speaking Topic and Bio Example
Speak Like a Pro: Tips and Techniques to Become a Polished Presenter
Wouldn’t it be great to be able to stand in front of an audience of hundreds of people and hold them in complete captivation? Would you like to go into a presentation confident that they’re going to love you, and overhear comments afterwards such as “He was excellent,” or “She made a real connection with her audience”? This program offers proven tips that will help you speak like a pro … in a short time!
You will learn how to:
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Enroll clients to purchase your services and products
Your Presenter:
Sandra Schrift has spent 20-plus years working with over 1,500 professional speakers. She founded the first national professional speakers bureau in San Diego in 1982. Today she is a speech coach to executives who want to improve their presentation skills, as well as a career coach to both the emerging and veteran professional speaker who wants to grow a profitable speaking business. Sandra is also the founder of the first virtual university for emerging public speakers, Speakers University, which conducts ongoing teleclasses for anyone, anywhere in the English-speaking world. Find out more about Sandra at www.schrift.com.
With your topic descriptions and bio prepared, you are ready to start approaching your chosen venues. For networking groups, Chambers of Commerce, service clubs, association meetings, and vendor-sponsored programs, you will typically need to contact the program chairperson or program director. This is sometimes a volunteer working out of his or her own home or office. It’s a good idea to find out more about the group before you contact the chairperson. You want to make sure the audience is right for you and be able to tell the chair why your topic would be of interest.
Visit the group’s website to find out what sort of topics and speakers they usually have. Or, contact the group and ask for information about their upcoming events. Most groups will send you an information packet or newsletter. This will tell you more about the group and probably also give you the program chair’s name, if it isn’t on their website. If you still think this group is an appropriate venue for you, contact the program chair directly by phone or e-mail. Don’t waste your time sending information to the group’s main postal or e-mail address; it will probably be discarded.
If the program chair expresses interest, find out how far ahead the group is scheduling speakers, and send the chairperson your topics and bio. Then follow up after an appropriate interval to see if you are able to get yourself on the program.
With conferences, educational institutions, resource centers, and adult learning centers, study last year’s schedule or the current catalog before you contact them. If they already have a program on your topic, see if you can find a new and different angle that hasn’t yet been covered. When you’re sure you have something fresh to propose, call the department chair or program director to see if the organization is interested. You will probably be asked to submit a proposal, for which the group may or may not have written guidelines. If no guidelines are available, send a description of your proposed topic and speaker’s bio, with a cover letter explaining why you think this topic will be popular with the organization’s audience. And don’t forget to follow up.