Paid Speaking Engagements - Is Your Presentation Relevant?
Just in case you're feeling under-valued as a speaker at this point in time, this message is for you.
If you had more paid dates on your calendar you would most probably not feel under-valued and/or invisible.
So, how do you become irresistible to decision-makers in your target market? You make your personal story relevant.
If you have a compelling story to tell, don't stop there! It's your responsibility to provide some steps or solutions to others who can relate to your story.
And if it doesn't help others, it will not have value to meeting professionals.
Your story allows others to have empathy for you and your situation.
Now you want to create an empathic transference-- meaning, help others with similar challenges and problems.
You may be thinking...
some of the world's best loved motivational speakers didn't have steps to follow at the end of their speeches.
It's true.
So there were likely two reasons that they were hired: either to increase attendance at an event or for the purpose of entertaining.
That takes care of the opening and closing keynotes.
But what about all those paid presentations in between? In 2010, your ability to make your message relevant will mean the difference in no dates and a full calendar.
I opened today's digital edition of The New Yorker and saw an article by Meaghan O'Rouke entitled, "Good Grief.
" One autumn day in 1964, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, a Swiss-born psychiatrist, was working in her garden and fretting about a lecture she had to give.
Earlier that week, a mentor of hers, who taught psychiatry at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, had asked her to speak to a large group of medical students on a topic of her choice.
Kubler-Ross was nervous about public speaking, and couldn't think of a subject that would hold the students' attention.
But, as she raked fallen leaves, her thoughts turned to death: Many of her plants, she reflected, would probably die in the coming frost.
Her own father had died in the fall, three years earlier, at home in Switzerland, peaceful and aware of what was taking place.
Kübler-Ross had found her topic.
She would talk about how American doctors-who, in her experience, were skittish around seriously ill patients-should approach death and dying.
There's much more in this great article, but the reason I wanted to share it with you is because the late Kubler-Ross's "stage theory" created a paradigm for how Americans die and how they grieve.
She began to work on a book outlining what she learned in her work with the dying.
It came out in 1969 (On Death and Dying), and, shortly afterward, Life published an article about one of her seminars.
She eventually wrote 16 books, all originating from this original compelling story and her "stage theory.
" She lectured across the world for many years.
Tell your story but be sure to turn it into a teaching opportunity to help your audiences.
There are lessons to be learned from dramatic and traumatic life altering experiences.
It's those lessons from which others can benefit that will drive your marketing activities.
If you had more paid dates on your calendar you would most probably not feel under-valued and/or invisible.
So, how do you become irresistible to decision-makers in your target market? You make your personal story relevant.
If you have a compelling story to tell, don't stop there! It's your responsibility to provide some steps or solutions to others who can relate to your story.
And if it doesn't help others, it will not have value to meeting professionals.
Your story allows others to have empathy for you and your situation.
Now you want to create an empathic transference-- meaning, help others with similar challenges and problems.
You may be thinking...
some of the world's best loved motivational speakers didn't have steps to follow at the end of their speeches.
It's true.
So there were likely two reasons that they were hired: either to increase attendance at an event or for the purpose of entertaining.
That takes care of the opening and closing keynotes.
But what about all those paid presentations in between? In 2010, your ability to make your message relevant will mean the difference in no dates and a full calendar.
I opened today's digital edition of The New Yorker and saw an article by Meaghan O'Rouke entitled, "Good Grief.
" One autumn day in 1964, Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, a Swiss-born psychiatrist, was working in her garden and fretting about a lecture she had to give.
Earlier that week, a mentor of hers, who taught psychiatry at the University of Colorado School of Medicine, had asked her to speak to a large group of medical students on a topic of her choice.
Kubler-Ross was nervous about public speaking, and couldn't think of a subject that would hold the students' attention.
But, as she raked fallen leaves, her thoughts turned to death: Many of her plants, she reflected, would probably die in the coming frost.
Her own father had died in the fall, three years earlier, at home in Switzerland, peaceful and aware of what was taking place.
Kübler-Ross had found her topic.
She would talk about how American doctors-who, in her experience, were skittish around seriously ill patients-should approach death and dying.
There's much more in this great article, but the reason I wanted to share it with you is because the late Kubler-Ross's "stage theory" created a paradigm for how Americans die and how they grieve.
She began to work on a book outlining what she learned in her work with the dying.
It came out in 1969 (On Death and Dying), and, shortly afterward, Life published an article about one of her seminars.
She eventually wrote 16 books, all originating from this original compelling story and her "stage theory.
" She lectured across the world for many years.
Tell your story but be sure to turn it into a teaching opportunity to help your audiences.
There are lessons to be learned from dramatic and traumatic life altering experiences.
It's those lessons from which others can benefit that will drive your marketing activities.