Public Speaking: It’s a great marketing tool when you speak to the right audience!
Last spring, I was asked to speak to a group of marketing grads at Seneca College in Toronto on branding. At the end of the speech I was approached by a woman who was a professor at Seneca and asked if she would do the same speech for a group she was involved with off campus. She also asked what I charge. After retrieving my composition from that unexpected question, I came up with an amount that I thought would work for me. At that moment I realized that I was going to become a speaker!
I started researching this and found that the sign of a good speech is “derivative” work, ie. more speaking engagements, project referrals, etc. Those were good news. This was the beginning of a series of speaking engagements. It seemed like they started appearing out of nowhere. People call me and ask me to speak at their event. I was so flattered that I enthusiastically said “yes” to each one.
I talk a lot about your “ideal audience” in my branding program. At a certain point, I realized that I was not following my own advice in this area. Many of these talks or speeches were for the wrong audience. Although they were appreciated by the group, they were not going to be a good measure to build my business. With that being said, I started getting projects and new speaking clients, but the flurry of activity was coming from the groups that were my “ideal audience.” They were well aligned with my message.
I was referred to Jane Atkinson’s book The Wealthy Speaker (http://speakerlauncher.com) Jane does a great job of guiding you through the process of becoming a speaker. She talks about positioning herself, in the same way that she positions a product or service. She gives exercises to help them be clear about you as a brand (similar to the Know Your Difference process), but takes it further by talking about the key elements you need on your speaking website and how to market yourself as a brand. speaker, what to charge, etc. She helps you get real about what it’s like to be a speaker. If she’s considering going in that direction, I highly recommend getting a copy.
So my takeaway so far is that speaking can be a great marketing tool, as long as you’re speaking to the right audience!
