If you have dreams about speaking on a stage in front of hundreds of people, your success comes down to increasing your visibility in your career and marketing yourself as a speaker. Here are four steps for getting started:
Identify 2-3 speaking topics focused on ways you can help a specific audience
- Persevere
- Get over their fears
- Solve a problem and take action
- Transform, shift perspective, or rethink commonly held beliefs
Create speaker marketing materials
- A media kit or speaker one-sheeter, which includes your speaking topics, experiences, press, testimonials, and past speaking gigs.
- Social media graphics to empower and educate your audience. Include captions indicating you’re available for speaking opportunities.
- A speaker demo reel of previous speaking events. If you don’t have one, create a 2-3 minute video about page focused on who you are, what you do, and a transformative message for your audience.
Build your own online platform
Your website is your billboard,
digital storefront, and “stage” that puts the spotlight on you and your message. But take note, just like a new home comes with standard amenities, your website should have a few must-haves:- Book or hire me link on the menu bar
- Links to social media pages
- An opt-in to collect email addresses
- Contact form for people to connect with you directly
- About page that showcases your experience and speaks to the needs of your audience
Think of yourself as a TV network so you can plan and attract meeting planners, colleges, networking groups, media publications, etc.
- Use a yearly calendar to help you create relevant content around holidays, industry trends, and hot topics. Content includes a podcast, videos, webinars, blog posts, magazine articles, and e-books. Let’s say, you want to become a domestic violence speaker, October is domestic violence awareness month. So at least three months prior to October, you can pitch media; host on/offline events; and produce a variety of inspiring, actionable, and shareable content.
- Repurpose your content across social channels – Every time you produce one piece of content, think about how you can turn it into at least three pieces of snackable content (e.g., hashtag campaign, social media challenge, Instagram quote, SlideShare presentation), that way, you can expand your reach and influence as a speaker.
- Invest in Facebook ads – You can spend anywhere from $5 – $50,000 to promote yourself, expand your reach, and grow your email list.