On February 8th I participated in a panel discussion entitled “How to Grow Your Business with Public Speaking”. The event was for the New Jersey Association of Woman Business Owners’ 9th Annual Procurement Event and Expo. In lieu of a handout I am posting my thoughts here for event attendees and others that might be interested in this topic.
The majority of the speaking engagements that I have attained though the years have come though networking and belonging to organizations. I must say that I have not taken a very proactive role in soliciting these engagements. I truly enjoy speaking and sharing my knowledge. I look at it as a way of giving back to the community as well affording BZA the opportunity to be in front of potential clients. So for me it’s a Win Win situation.
No one is a naturally born speaker and it does take practice to be able to be comfortable in front of a crowd. I want to underscore the fact that while employed at Hewlett-Packard I had the opportunity to take a one week class on making effective presentations.
My speaking experience has brought me several benefits:
- I always get business.
- Helps to keep me on top of my game. I always conduct new research.
- Provide press opportunity for BZA.
- Attend events for free.
- You immediately become an expert in your field, which brings more engagements.
My personal tips on what you can do to prepare and leverage your public speaking.
1. You need to be ready. You should have a bio and a brief written about your subject. Most program managers for organizations are volunteers, so make it easy for them. Information should be complete include your email, web site address, etc.
2. Post everything on your web site. The news release, calendar, newsletter, bio, speaking page, blog. Helps you be perceived as an expert in your field.
3. Do you have doubts that you are an expert in your field? Most likely you will know more about your subject than anyone in the room. Tell yourself that.
4. Give information freely. With the internet knowledge is everywhere. It might as well come from you. Practice good Karma; what you give WILL come back to you. Don’t have the mentality that if you give out “How to” information no one will need to hire you.
5. Nothing is less professional than rushing through material. It looks like you did not prepare, even if you prepared too much. Break out your topic in sections, so you can easily skip a section if you do run out of time.
6. Don’t let the audience control you. Choose to hold questions to the end or answer at the moment as you see fit.
7. Handouts. I am not big on handouts. My style is to refer people to BZA.com where they can download or print what they need. I would rather hand out a business card.
8. It does help to have visuals. Whether they are props, worksheets, PowerPoint presentation or a demo. I did a presentation on branding and I just brought a bunch of shopping bags and we talked about logos and brands from those bags. Have fun with it.
Now let’s look at how much leverage and exposure you can get from your speaking engagement. One you get the engagement follow the steps below.
1. You write a brief about what you are going to talk about and what attendees will learn. That goes to the event organizer.
2. You use that same verbiage to write a press release that you will send to your local papers and post on your web site.
3. The organization where you are speaking sends and email blast or printed materials to attendees mentioning your name. Most likely you will also get mentioned on their web site.
4. They also do a Press Release for the local or industry publications.
5. They also may do a recap of the event with pictures in their newsletter.
6. You prepare your pitch and put together the points.
7. You then turn that into an article that you post on your web site or put in a newsletter.
8. You create a more conversation version of the topic and your post it on your blog.
9. All this exposure brings you business success, new engagements, credibility and more clients.
10. Repeat process and go to Step #1.
Enjoy!
