Wouldn’t it be great if you could get in front of several prospects at once and tell your story? Speaking engagements let you do just that. Granted, public speaking is ahead of death on the “stressful things to do” list, but starting small and working up might be just right for you.

Who wants to listen to you, you ask? There are a lot of places to start you off on your oratory adventures. Business groups like Rotary, Kiwanis, Chambers of Commerce, schools, colleges and universities all look for speakers. Some pay, others don’t. It can be an additional source of revenue, but you’re not in this for the money. You’re in it to reach your prospects and position yourself as an expert.

Toastmasters is a good place to start honing your speaking skills in front of a sympathetic audience. If you’re not familiar with Toastmasters, it’s a club where folks practice their public speaking skills and get feedback and advice on giving talks. You can find information and a local club at www.toastmasters.org. There might even be some prospects in the audience.

Universities are a good next step. Students tend to make eager audiences and instructors do the happy dance when they find a pro who’s willing to share their experience with a class.

After getting your feet wet, try Rotary. Most clubs are always looking for speakers for their meetings. Rotary members are usually business leaders and community movers and shakers. You can find out more about the organization at www.rotary.org.

When you prepare your presentation, focus on your specialty. You can build the presentation with a few case studies, a bit of humor and some professional quality visuals to punctuate various points. But, it’s important that the content of your presentation isn’t a blatant ad for you. It should provide solid, useful information.

Here’s another spot for tip sheets. Use them as hand outs at your talks. For that matter, putting a few tip sheets together can form the foundation of your presentation. If you use Powerpoint, print it out as handouts. Either way, be sure to include your contact info on each page.

It’s important to rehearse your presentation until you it know inside out. With rehearsal comes confidence. When you know your topic well, it’s easy to talk about it and feel confident that you’re sharing valuable information and insights. Information that your audience probably doesn’t know. Try rehearsing in front of a friend or significant other. They tend to not throw tomatoes. After a bit of practice you’ll be ready to take your show on the road. A mirror and tape recorder can do the trick in a pinch.

First cousins to speaking engagements are giving seminars and workshops. These can be free events or you can charge a fee, creating yet another source of revenue. Seminars can be very lucrative if you’ve got a hot topic.

They can also be a huge pain and big money loser if not handled correctly. Promoting it costs money. A location, if you need one, costs money. If you have lunch or even coffee and snacks, that costs money. So, you’ll want some sort of sign up or R.S.V.P. method in place to ensure you have enough attendees to pay for everything and maybe make some coin on the event.

As with speaking engagements, carefully prepare your venue, handouts and visuals. Your seminar or workshop can be held in a meeting room at a hotel or other facility. If you have an office with enough space, it’s wise to begin on your own turf.

Presenting seminars and workshops is an industry in itself and really too broad a topic to detail within this post. An excellent source of information is Marketing and Promoting Your Own Seminars and Workshops, by Fred Gleeck - $14.95, Fast Forward Press.

If presenting a seminar or workshop freaks you out, consider teaching a course at your local adult continuing education facility. You’ll get many of the same benefits of speaking engagements, seminars and workshops, plus you get paid. Maybe teach a class on marketing, branding or advertising and promotion for the small business. You get the idea.

Until the next
Marketing Minute
all the best,
nt