Comments on: Getting Speaking Gigs

By: Tom

Tom — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 00:26:47 +0000

Join a Toastmasters group, you get contacts, practice and evaluation. http://www.toastmasters.org They have a wealth of information and activities to help you grow. And if Harvey McKay, Zig Ziglar and Paul Harvey recommend it it cannot be all bad

By: Gary Barber

Gary Barber — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 12:00:28 +0000

Good advice Derek. Especially in finding the gigs, that can be the hardest part.

Also allowing yourself to be honest about your own USP. Often it may not be what you want it to be. I could be a skill or a knowledge base that you consider secondary or not the one you see yourself as representing.

Agree with Ben the short run gigs are hell, they really sort you out.

By: Ben Buchanan

Ben Buchanan — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 02:42:04 +0000

Something I’d add to the ’start small’ advice – don’t assume you have to start with a conference, workshop or some other “long” presentation. BarCamp (unstructured), Webjam (3 minutes) and Ignite (5 minutes) are just a few examples of shorter formats that will let you get a feel for speaking to a room. They’ll also teach you how fast your time runs out :)

By: feather

feather — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 20:01:11 +0000

Angela — great point; starting small really does help new speakers. And practice with a topic is critical to being able to present it well to a large audience.

Cindy — all I can say is “go for it!” You don’t know until you try!

Snook — yes, indeed. Proactivity is something we could all use more of; good strategy too on “plugging holes”

Anton — hope it all happens for you, my friend. I’ve put out some emails to a few people and we’ll see where it might lead…

By: Anton

Anton — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 16:40:06 +0000

Thank you from the bottom of my heart for posting this, Derek. Your advice on IM was already enough to get the ball rolling for me, and taking the time to post a blog article about getting into speaking makes all the difference in the world.

I’m hoping that I can start easing my way into the industry a little deeper when it comes to sharing my knowledge to other people.

Wish me luck!

By: Jonathan Snook

Jonathan Snook — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:50:01 +0000

Being proactive is the biggest. We always love when people come to us but the fact is, it rarely happens that way. Instead, you need to go after conference organizers to get a spot. And when you do, have session ideas in mind; possibly one or two. If a schedule has already been posted but has a couple open spots, suggest something that fits into those spots (ie: don’t suggest a topic that is mostly covered by another session already scheduled). Otherwise, it sounds like Anton is well on his way!

By: Cindy Prosser

Cindy Prosser — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:27:32 +0000

Thanks for those tips & references Derek, I’ve been mulling over thoughts of getting into speaking one day so very useful.

Though I don’t think I could ever keep up with your pace! :-)

By: Angela Colter

Angela Colter — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 15:23:02 +0000

Start small.

Lots of professional organizations have local chapters that are always looking for speakers and topics of interest to their membership. There may only be 20 people in the room listening, but an audience is an audience. It’ll give you a chance to develop your presentation topic and gain some experience actually presenting it.