Speaking to Authors

This week I’m speaking to a group of authors in Milpitas. I always strive to provide more content than anyone will ever expect.

Authors need to learn to get over their fear of speaking and get out into the community and start earning what they deserve.

Getting Speaking Engagements is a topic I have developed over the years and it teaches a simple formula to get everyone out and in front of their target audience.

I always suggest people start out by speaking at their local service organizations like the Rotary, Lions and Kiwanis groups. By the time you’ve been able to speak at more than 50 groups, you will be comfortable enough to speak anywhere with any type of audience.

While speaking at the service organizations, I recommend you record your presentations. If you’re pleased with the recording, edit the audio, add an music intro and tail, and you’ll have the material to burn a CD and now you have a product to sell at your next engagement.

Most authors truly believe their job is over when they’ve finished their books. But the truth is, that is when their job begins. Speaking is one of the easiest methods of increasing your income with the least amount of effort.

Making the Calls

This is the hardest task most speakers face. Without a doubt, it is the most difficult chore of all that we do as speakers.

I have many topics to speak about and therefore many people to approach with my various interests. Here are some of my target audiences:

• Realtor groups
• Corporate Sales teams
• Chamber of Commerces
• Women’s groups
• Business groups
• Outplacement groups
• Associations
• MeetUp groups
• Service organizations such as Rotary, Lions, Kiwanis & Soroptimists

I have no shortage of people to approach, but then again that’s part of the challenge. I have to narrow it down to stay focused.

Currently the groups that I have the most fun speaking to is the MeetUp groups. You can start your own and have your target audience come to you or you can attend MeetUp groups and find groups which have members who are your target audience.

I have found recently the people who attend the topic focused MeetUps are more receptive to actually continuing their education and paying for a product or service they need.

Those who I meet at Chamber functions rarely have a business plan or a marketing budget and somehow always manage to just limp along getting by month-to-month. They’re not much fun to work with since they rarely have any particular direction for their business.

Find your target audience and focus on how you can get yourself out there speaking at least once a week. When you get to the point when you have followers showing up who have heard you at previous engagements.