Top 7 Ways to Succeed in the Business of Speaking

How attractive are you as a speaker? No, your looks, but your consistent ability to provide a quality presentation, attract clients, and be irresistibly attractive to meeting planners and speaker bureaus? Below are some useful tips that I learned while owning a national, professional speakers bureau for 13 years.

1. Presentation ? do you have something interesting, inspiring, and useful to share with audiences? Be mindful of your voice (keep it deep and low pitched), your personality and attitude (positive), your tone (soft, loud. Encouraging as needed), your style, your vocabulary.

2. Connection ? how quickly do you get to the core of your audience's problems and challenges? Skip what is between their ears and go straight to their hearts.

3. Passion ? do you love what you do? Develop a niche or specialty that you truly enjoy ? and are good at.

4. Network ? enhance your speaking career by networking with 50 or more other speakers. They become your referral sources. Join the National Speakers Association ? a 4,000 member organization that holds conferences and has local chapters to help you with your marketing skills and networking. Call 480-968-2552 (Arizona)

5. Products ? write a book, booklet(s), create audio tapes, video tapes, CD/ROM. Having products will catapult your speaking career and make you more valuable to your clients. This "passive" income is like having frosting on the cake.

6. Value added ? become known as a value added speaker. Provide handouts, attend the cocktail reception before your program, stay after your speech, offer follow-up teleclasses, offer your consulting services, be a facilitator.

7. Hire a Coach ? The Olympic Games remind us that a world-class athlete is surrounded by a number of people whose function is to keep him/her on track. No serious athlete or professional speaker would expect to progress very far without a COACH.

©2004 by Sandra Schrift. All rights reserved

Publishing Guidelines: You are welcome to publish this article in its entirety, electronically, or in print fre*e of charge, as long as you include my full signature file for ezines, and my Web site address (http://www.schrift.com) in hyperlink for other sites. Please send a courtesy link or email where you publish to sandra@schrift.com Thank you.

About The Author

Sandra Schrift 13 year speaker bureau owner and now career coach to emerging and veteran public speakers who want to "grow" a profitable speaking business. I also work with business professionals and organizations who want to master their presentations.

To find out How to Become a Highly Paid Professional Speaker, go to http://www.schrift.com/ProfessionalSpeaker/

Do you have a question about your speaking skills or presentations? I will answer your top question at: "Ask Coach Sandra" http://www.schrift.com/ask/

Join my free bi-weekly Monday Morning Mindfulness ezine http://www.schrift.com/monday.htm

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