BRX Pro Tip: 3 Tips to Pursue Speaking Opportunities
Stone Payton : [00:00:00] Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, in a previous Pro Tip, you mentioned, and we talk about it quite a bit with our own clients and our own network team members, but it’s getting speaking opportunities. What have you learned over the years about pursuing speaking opportunities?
Lee Kantor: [00:00:22] I think it’s important for a lot of us, especially professional services, who are selling kind of their brain to get out there and to speak, is a good strategy, but it’s important before you do all that is to understand the appropriate audience. Once you understand the appropriate audience and you got to find out what events, chambers of commerce, associations and conferences that those ideal clients attend, then try to get speaking opportunities there. You know, if you’re just starting out in speaking, then sure, speak anywhere. But if you’ve been doing it for a while, you better be strategic and show up to where your best prospects are.
Lee Kantor: [00:01:01] Number two, I’d choose a topic that exemplifies number one, your superpower and your ability to solve a problem for those ideal clients. You don’t want to make your speech a sales pitch about yourself, but you want it to be a place where you’re trying to inform and educate and entertain your audience about a pain point they’re struggling with. And that because you’re doing such a great job and you’re so passionate and you’re so educated about it, they’re going to want to hire you to solve the problem for them rather than them figure it out themselves.
Lee Kantor: [00:01:35] And number three, you got to kind of get the word out to a group of people that hire speakers. So you better get to know some event organizers, some meeting planners, some association leaders, so they know that you are available to speak on topics that are important to them and their members. And you got to remember to follow up relentlessly because these people are always working on their next event. So, they’re going to always have a need for insightful speakers that have great information. And as you do more speaking work, you’re going to kind of earn your way up the ladder and speak at larger and larger events.
Lee Kantor: [00:02:11] And a bonus tip is to maximize your visibility, to accelerate your growth by promoting your speaking before and after the event because this is a great piece of content for you to demonstrate your authority, your knowledge, and your higher ability.
