Public Speaking: Send Your Client a Customized Flyer

The phone call comes in, you listen intently to the person on the other end of the line and you know you can deliver what the company needs. Within a few minutes after completing the call, you fax your customized public speaking marketing flyer to the client. The individual receives the flyer and is amazed that your public speaking program is exactly what the organization needs. You’re hired!

What went right in this scenario?
* You had a pre-printed shell ready to customize a public speaking flyer for the client.
* You listened closely for key words as the client talked about the current climate at the company and what needs to change. For example, if the meeting planner said morale was low and they needed to motivate employees and create enthusiasm, you would use the words “morale,” “motivate” and “enthusiasm” in your bullet points on the flyer.
* You sent the information to the potential client immediately after the phone conversation.
* She was impressed with your ability to fulfill the company’s needs, as well as your timeliness in providing additional information.

How to develop your shell.
A shell is simply a professionally pre-printed flyer with blank space for you to add specific bullet points. With pre-printed shells, you can quickly customize your public speaking marketing materials to target a qualified prospect. Here’s what to include on your shell:

* Printed on the shell:
o A very brief bio.
o Your photo.
o Your contact information at the bottom.
o Testimonials.
* A blank space for:
o A large topic at the top of the page. Remember, they are buying your topic. They don’t know your name unless you are a celebrity so make your topic big.
o Bullet points in the center of the page to tell what the members of the audience will learn.
o A paragraph describing the program.

Why have your photo on the flyer?
People like to deal with a real person and want to see what you look like, especially if you are a keynote speaker or selling training services. Your photo gives meeting planners a better feel that you actually exist and that you have a pleasant appearance. I think that’s important for a speaker.

How to use the shell.
While on the phone with your potential client, I listen carefully for key words and then customize the bullet points to what the company needs. Then I fax or mail the flyer to the customer. When they see that I offer exactly what they need, they often hire me.

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Public Speaking: Making the Most of Keywords on Your Website

Keywords are the heartbeat of a public speaker’s website. Choosing proper keywords and placing them strategically can mean the difference between drawing no visitors to your site and thousands of new visitors. Thousands of site visitors can translate into thousands of buyers for your public speaking products and services. Follow the tips outlined below to increase traffic to your public speaking website.
Do your keyword research. Know the words the people who need your services are typing into their search engines.

Place a keyword in the title bar, which is the blue bar located at the top of your computer screen, not at the top of your website. This is the primary place search engines look when they are looking for your keywords. The search engine works from the top of the page down. Remember, every page on your website has its own title bar.

Put keywords in links. When you put a link on a page to one of your other sites or pages, use keywords in the link to describe what is on the linked page. For instance, name a link “Public Speaking Tips,” not just “Click Here.” Known as anchor text, the keywords will help the search engine rank your site. Don’t use the same keywords for every link.

Use Keyword Prominence. The position of the keywords on the page signals to the search engine the importance of the word. Remember the search engine starts at the top of the page. Begin with the title. Place the words at the beginning of the paragraph and at the beginning of the sentence.

Eliminate dropdowns. Dropdown menus use a huge amount of code, making it more difficult for the search engines to find your keywords. Also, long dropdown menus confuse your site visitors. If you are using lots of dropdown menu items, you probably need to have more websites.

Add side door pages. Create short content pages (350-500 words) that are search engine friendly with properly placed keywords. Create lots of these pages for your websites to increase search engine rankings.

Support your site with a blog. Blog postings get faster ratings in Google. Put your main keywords in the title of your blog. Also make sure your blog is hosted on a different hosting service than your website so you can link one to the other.

Add feeder sites. Make very simple and very clean sites that are totally about one keyword or keyword phrase. The goal is to drive people to your main site with the feeder sites.

Obtain better domain names. Use your main keyword or keyword phrase and get a .com with no dashes. Dashes are unnecessary and people forget to type them in. You probably won’t be able to get the .com you want, so add up to six characters before and/or after your keyword.

Name pages properly.
If the keyword is in the domain name, don’t name your pages with that keyword. If the keyword isn’t in the domain name, use the keyword to name your page.

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Public Speaking: Enhance Your Marketing Presence with E-zines

An important part of your public speaking business is marketing your products and your speaking engagements. A great marketing tool that is easy and inexpensive to produce is an e-mail newsletter, or e-zine. An e-zine is a text based push product that allows you to e-mail information to people who opt-in. With an e-zine, you can continually show people that you are a real entity and that you provide great public speaking information. You can also sell or barter advertisements with other business owners in addition to advertising your own products.

Why are e-zines important?
E-zines add a lot of value to your public speaking marketing plan.
* They increase your visibility and your sales.
* The keep your subscribers informed of your new products and services, your events and upcoming speaking engagements.
* They constantly keep your products and services in the minds of the people who opted-in to your e-zine.
* E-zines will build your credibility.

Another thing they do is build your list of contacts. The subscriber list is a ready-and-waiting customer list for every product you develop. You can use your high content e-zine to market to your list. Back issues of your e-zines can be an important part of your marketing strategy, too.

Formatting
You can find a free e-zine template online. Copy the template and insert your own content. I use Notebook to create my e-zine. Write the content and then edit the e-zine. After you have it finalized, place a hard return after every 65 characters. This will keep the appearance of your e-zine neat and prevent words from jumping lines and looking awkward.

Avoid using graphics and photos. They don’t always load and when they do load, they can look different in various e-mail programs.

How often should you send out an e-zine?
Though there is no set time to distribute an e-zine, I initially sent mine out twice a month. You may want to experiment to see how your subscribers react to the intervals between issues to find timing that is right for your publication. Look online for a site that will announce your new e-zine, which will help you attract subscribers.

As an extra measure of security, I subscribe to a list serve, a company that maintains control of my subscriber list. They handle subscriptions and unsubscribes. It’s extremely important to immediately remove people who request to be unsubscribed. My list serve company does this for me. Even with the list serve, I still watch to see who is subscribing and unsubscribing.

Launch your own e-zine, post high quality information and watch your business grow.

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Public Speaking: Teaming Up with Another Presenter

Technical training presentations demand that the audience learns hard skills. One approach to public speaking in a learning environment is team teaching. Splitting the public speaking presentation between two speakers will ease the strain on each of you while allowing you to maintain the quantity and quality of the information presented to your audience.

Here’s a checklist to follow when team teaching.
* When you decide to team teach, select only partners you trust not to upstage you. Each presenter should strive to make the other speaker the hero.

* At the beginning of your public speaking program, let your audience know that two presenters will be speaking throughout the event. This will prevent their perception that the off-stage team member is interrupting the on-stage member.

* Each team member’s first segment should be long enough to build rapport with members of the audience.

* To keep the interest of the audience, position one presenter on the left side of the stage and one on the right side of the stage. This will force individuals to physically move their eyes when listening.

* Use a variety of team teaching techniques to add interest to the presentation. For example:
o Give each presenter one morning segment and one afternoon segment.
o Try changing speakers every six minutes.
o When both presenters are experts on the topic, use a spontaneous delivery, not scripted.

* Cautiously use point/counterpoint action, taking care not to create a perception that a presenter is either too conservative or too liberal.

* Have one team member ask a question already in the mind of the audience and the other speaker answer the question.

* When using an interruption action, decide who is in charge of each topic and plan to the minute when transitions and interruptions will occur.

* While one team member is presenting a long segment, the other speaker may leave the room.

* Have a place for the off-stage presenter to sit when the other presenter is speaking. This may be in front of the room or to the side nearest the exit.

Team teaching will work in many settings and make it easier for you to present a long program.

Speakers: Make $5500 or More Everytime You Speak!

Public Speaking: Articles — Written by You, Written About You, Promoting You

If you have ever been in a position to do sales or marketing, you have undoubtedly heard someone ask, “How can I get my name out there?” I’ve heard that question many times, though the answer has often been vague. As a professional public speaker, you have the perfect opportunity to get your name out there. Simply recycle your public speaking presentation materials to create promotional materials and products. Turn them into demo tapes, an online press kit, one-sheets, and articles written by you and about you. Articles written by you and articles written about you are good to have to add to your online press kit.

While articles written by you are easy to get, obtaining articles written about you may take a little ingenuity. One public speaker has had success in getting articles written about her by tagging her subject to something that is happening in the news or to some well-know topic. For example, if you speak on growing a greener lawn, you might approach a landscaper and offer to speak at the company’s annual springtime open house. Barter to have your name mentioned in their advertising materials promoting the event in exchange for your presentation.

To entice a publication to have a reporter personally interview you with the purpose of writing about you, contact the editor who handles the section your topic covers. Tell the editor that you give presentations on a topic that you think would be of interest to their readers. Do your homework first to ensure their readers would like to read about your subject. If you are speaking on mixing house paints and the publication targets homeowners, then the editor would probably agree that the readers would like to hear what you have to say. If on the other hand, you call the editor of an art magazine to sell the same story, the readers of that publication would have no interest and the editor would turn you down.

As you write more and more articles and reports, you can begin to put them together to form chapters. When you have a few chapters, you’re ready to compile them into a book. That gives you a product to sell. From there, you can audio tape your articles, create E-zines, post them on your web site and use them every way you can think of to promote yourself and produce income.


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Public Speaking: Adding a Lower Third to Your Video

Public Speaking: Adding a Lower Third to Your Video

Public speakers who produce and sell videos have extra opportunities to draw people to their websites. By adding a feature call “lower thirds” to your public speaking video, you can publicize your web presence to your viewers.

What is a lower third? A lower third is a graphic or banner placed at the bottom of the video frame. It is used to display text such as website addresses, names, phone numbers and any other information you want to appear on the screen to promote your public speaking activities. This article describes how to make a lower third using the video editing software Sony Vegas.

How to make a lower third with Sony Vegas.

· Create a new project.

Open Sony Vegas and create and name a new project.

· Select the background color and pattern.
In the middle area where all the tabs are, click on Media Generators. Select the background color and patterns. For this exercise, I am going to use a solid gray. Put the color into Video Overlay. The dimensions and color will display. Close out of the box. Now gray covers the entire screen. We want the gray to be only a thin strip of color positioned at the bottom of the screen, so we have to change the size.

· Set the options for the video overlay.
In the video overlay, there are three options: generate a media, event pan crop, and event effects. To create a lower third, we want to use the “event pan crop” option. On the left, select “moving y up and down only.” Click “Vertical.” Select “size about center is turned off” and also turn off “Aspect Ratio.” Go to “Source.” Where it says “Maintain Aspect Ratio,” click “No.” Turn off, “Stretch to fill frame,” which is located underneath “Maintain Aspect Ration.”

· Resize and position the box.
Click and drag the top edge of the box down until the box is the size you want. Remember to leave the box large enough to put text in. the text will need to fit completely in the box and also be large enough for people to read. Make sure you have some background area under the gray box. You can click in the middle of the box to display the four-headed arrow and drag it to the position you want. Click the “event pan crop” box to close it.

· Enter the text and position the text.
Still in Media Generators, click where it says, “Text.” Choose “Sample text” and drag it to the text layer. Highlight the sample text and type in the URL of your website. You may have to adjust the size and position of the text. In the media generators, click the “Placement” tab and then move the text into position. Next, you can change the font size. Select the “Edit” tab in the media generators and change the size of the font so it will fit in the gray box. If necessary, reposition the box so it is centered. Close the media generators.

Sony Vegas allows you to set the length of time the lower third will display on the screen. Adjust the timeline so the lower third will run across the bottom of the screen through your entire video.

Learn More About Making Better Videos!

Public Speaking: Uploading Your Public Speaking Videos to YouTube

How can you show your public speaking videos to thousands of people quickly? Upload them onto YouTube, a website where public speakers and other users can upload and share videos. Before you broadcast your videos on YouTube, you will need a user name. Though you can upload videos from a mobile device like an iphone or record from a webcam, this article discusses uploading videos from a computer.

Login
Go to the YouTube home page and enter your login. You’ll see an “Upload Button” on the upper right of the screen.

Click the “Upload” button. The “Video File Upload” page will display.
Just below Video File Upload, you will see the comment, “Press Upload Video to select and upload a video file.” Follow the instructions and click “Upload Video.”

Using the “Browse” field, navigate to the location on your computer where you saved your video file. Click on the file and then click “Open.” As the file is uploading, a blue progress bar will display across the screen.

A title bar will display below the blue bar where you can enter the title, description and tags. You can also enter a category, which also helps people find you through searches. Fill in the title, description and tags. Remember to use your primary keyword in the tags to help search engines find your videos.

Next, choose your privacy options. There are two: “Share your video with the world” or “Private.” If you are uploading a business video, select “Share your video with the world.” If you choose Private, the only people who will be able to use your video will be the people on your list of users. Even then, you would have to know their YouTube user name and send the video to them.

When the video is successfully uploaded, you’ll see a green checkmark, along with the word “Success.” At that point, click “Save Changes,” located under the privacy option. The phrase, “Your video settings have been successfully saved,” will display. YouTube will begin to check and process your video.

If you want to make edits …
If you want to add annotations, more tags or delete the video, go to the top right side of YouTube and place your mouse over your user name. A drop-down menu will display. Click “My Videos.” YouTube will show you the most recently uploaded video. Select the video and make your edits. You can to edit immediately after uploading, though YouTube will still be processing it.

Why should you make videos for your business?

Public Speaking: Writing Copy for Your Marketing Materials

Public speakers who learn to write good copy for their public speaking marketing materials can increase the traffic to their websites. What elements should you include? What techniques are effective? How can questions increase your sales? Writing a powerful sales letter to promote your public speaking events is easier when you follow a few copywriting guidelines. Using the elements described below can increase your sales.

The elements of a good sales letter:
Pre headline

Headline
Headlines entice people to read the rest of the article.

Subheading and parallel tracks
Write subheads that allow the reader to skim and grasp the main points. In addition, add details for those who want them. Using easy-to-scan subheads in conjuntion with details in this manner is known as “parallel tracks.”

Teasers
Teasers raise interest and make the person want to know more. A teaser you might use is “See below.”

Layout tips

In a sales letter, remember text is more important than graphics. Try using the following layout characteristics and styles in your sales letters:

• One sentence paragraphs
  


• Indented paragraphs
  


• Colored text
  


• Bolding inside a paragraph
  


• Highlighted text
  


• Choppy sentences
  


• Text boxes
  


• White space
  

No underlining for online marketing pieces.

Part 2: Techniques of Copywriting on Wed. 3.17.10

Learn to write copy like a pro!

Public Speaking: Speaking to Continuing Education Audiences

Public Speaking: Speaking to Continuing Education Audiences

What does a public speaker need to know about speaking to an audience of licensed professionals who are required to take continuing education units (CEUs) to fulfill their licensing renewal requirements? First, many of them do not want to be in the room listening to a public speaker. In fact, those who are very experienced in their field may feel as they are the experts and actually resent the mandatory training. How can you keep them interested?

Respect their knowledge.
I once saw a very polished president of a company walk out onto a shop floor and take a stance similar to the shop workers, thinking he was appearing to be one of them. As soon as he returned to his plush office, one of the workers expressed contempt for the president. Rather than perceiving him to be one of them, the worker thought he was talking down to them so his message was scorned. This can be an important lesson for those who take on the job of CEU training. You must respect the knowledge the course participants have acquired over time, as well as their professional experience. They must sense that you are honestly at their level and are there to help them, not look down on them.

Don’t ever tell a joke.
In typical public speaking events, humor is an important part of the presentation. Not with this special audience. They want the training to be over quickly and will not want you to waste their time telling jokes. Self-effacing humor is good, however, if you relate it to the course content.

Use a variety of media.
Show short videos, play audios and display web pages from the Internet with projector and screen. Intersperse these with your talks.

Energize them.
Move around the room with high energy. Participants may have been driving all day, working outside in bad weather, pounding a computer, standing behind a hairdresser’s chair — any number of tiring activities. In addition, they may have had to go to class without having dinner. Your movements can help hold their interests and keep them awake. Try to make the time go quickly for them.

Stay in control of the class.
When you tell stories related to the content, be careful that class members don’t chime in with unrelated anecdotes. Don’t ever let your class turn into “Here’s what happened to me,” or the other students will lose interest.

Remember, the objective is to help people qualify to renew their license and certification. Be sure you relate the content and your handout materials to the type of work the participants do.

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Public Speaking: How to Work with Newspaper Photographers

The next time a newspaper photographer takes your photo, remember the 8 things they hate:

1. Bossy people who demand that other people be included in the photo, so there won't be hurt feelings. Never tell the photographer whom to photograph. This puts them on the spot. Usually, the photographer will oblige and take a few shots just to placate you, and then make a mental note that you're a real pain to deal with.

2. Know-it-all photo subjects, usually amateur photographers, who think they know the correct angles, lighting and backdrops. The photographer doesn't tell you how to do your job. So you shouldn't tell her how to shoot a photo.

3. Not giving the photographer enough time to take a photo. After he arrives, he might want to look around, consider several different backdrops, check and double-check equipment, make sure the lighting is adequate, and experiment by shooting you in several different settings. So don't rush him.

4. Public relations people and staff members who act like bodyguards and refuse to let the photographer talk one-on-one with the photo subject. Photographers like one-on-one contact for several reasons. It makes the photo subject feel more at ease. It also helps the photographer discover something about the photo subject that they that might not have known.

5. Inconsiderate people who leave the photographer waiting for half an hour. Call media outlets as soon as you know there will be a delay in case the photographer wants to reschedule. Every minute you make a photographer wait is one less minute they can spend helping you look good.

6. Demanding to see al the photos they have taken so you can choose the photo you want printed. Leave this decision to the photographer and photo editor.

7. Demanding that you get to keep negatives. Negatives are the property of the media outlet. They are under no obligation whatsoever to give them to you, although some media outlets will sell you a print.

8. People who ask if the photographer can send them 10 reprints--for free. Don't make this request of reporters or editors, either. Call the publication and order them yourself, and expect to pay.

Publicity expert Joan Stewart, The Publicity Hound, publishes "The Publicity Hound's Tips of the Week," a free ezine that shows you how to generate thousands of dollars in free online and offline publicity.

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Presentation Skills: Use All The Senses

Audience members assimilate information in three different
ways. Some people hear the information, some see the
information, and some feel the information. Although most
individuals switch their emphasis frequently, one style
usually predominates for a given individual. The styles of
information transfer are called respectively auditory,
visual, and kinesthetic.

For you to connect with the most audience members, you
should include information throughout your program that
appeals to all three of these styles. People that are
primarily visual assimilators may be daydreaming throughout
the portions of your presentation where you are using only
words to convey your information. They will perk-up when you
use a visual aid such as an overhead, flip chart, or prop.

People that are kinesthetically oriented are looking for
those words that describe feelings and that evoke emotions.
They will also wake up and come to attention if you have
them come up on stage with you and you shake hands with them
or put your hand on their shoulder (not in Asia). Auditory
assimilators might just love to hear you talk or they might
like to hear a recording of JFK or some type of music.

When you plan your program so that auditory, kinesthetic,
and visual elements are interspersed throughout, this will
increase your chances of connecting with all the audience
members and decrease the chance that old Mr. Sandman will
come knocking on their heads.

Speakers: Learn to make $5500 or more every time you speak!

Public Speaking Humor

=> If we had an instant replay camera like the NFL has we could
watch that joke die again.

=> I asked the meeting planner what I should talk about. He/she
said, "about 20 minutes."

=> GOOD SPEECH FORMULA: Have a good beginning; a good ending; and
keep them close together.

=> He who hesitates is probably right.

=> No one is listening until you make a mistake.

=> Two wrongs are only the beginning.

=> The sooner you fall behind, the more time you'll have to catch
up.

=> If you think nobody cares about you, try missing a couple of
payments.

=> Love may be blind, but marriage is a real eye-opener.

=> Half the people you know are below average.

=> 42.7% of all statistics are made up on the spot.

=> The new computers are so humanistic that on Monday morning
they come in late.

=> Live every day like it was your last . . . and it soon
will be.

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Public Speaking: Toasts

Toasting is not nearly as common as it once was. However, the polished public speaker should have a few short toasts ready to go if and when the occasion arises. Here are a few fun toasts and a few touching ones too:

Birthdays:

To your birthday, glass held high. Glad it's you that's older not I.

Heres to you. No matter how old you are, you don't look it.

Christmas:

'Twas the month after Christmas, and Santa had flit; Came there tidings in the mail, which read: Please remit.

Here's to the Holly with its bright red berry. Here's to Christmas, let's make it merry.

Meals:

Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow you diet.

A full belly, a heavy purse, and a light heart.

Friendship:

Here's to a friend who knows me well and likes me anyway.

May the friends of our youth be the companions of our old age.

Banquet speech ending:

Good day, good health, good cheer, good night!

Health:

Here's to your health. You make age curious, time furious, and all of us envious.

Luck:

As you slide down the banister of life, may the splinters never face the wrong way.

May your luck be like the capital of Ireland. Always Dublin.

New Year:

May all our troubles in the coming year be as short as our New Year's resolutions.

In the year ahead may we treat our friends with kindness and our enemies with generosity.

Marriage:

Marriage is an institution, but who wants to live in an institution. - Groucho Marx

May for 'better or worse' be far better than worse.

To close this section I would like to tell you that I feel like a loaf of bread. Wherever I go, they toast me.

Attention Speakers: Learn to make $5500 or more everytime you speak! It's easier than you think!

Presentation Skills: Tough Venues

Did you ever present in a barn? How about a bowling alley? How
about a community center where drum lessons are being given in
the next room?

Well I've been in all those situations and more and so far I've
survived the recurring nightmares and waking up in a cold sweat
just thinking about them. I've been diagnosed with PTVD -- Post-
Traumatic Venue Disorder.

If you are really gung ho about speaking, you're going to jump at
the chance to do just about any speaking engagement. You should
do this because it helps you to get really good, really fast. As
you get more experienced you'll learn to use your pre-program
research to recognize potentially disastrous venues before you
agree to speak. But sometimes, even with the best of preparation,
you get blindsided and have to present in a lousy venue.

What is a lousy venue?
A lousy venue could have one or more of the following problems:

=> Bad lighting

=> Bad sound system

=> Noise coming from outside

=> Numerous sight blocking fixtures

=> Poor heating and air conditioning

=> Large distance between the stage and the seats

This list is by no means comprehensive. One time because of a
scheduling mishap, I ended up on the dance floor of the sports
bar during lunch time. I would call this a lousy venue, wouldn't
you?

So what do you do?
My first piece of mundane, but powerful information is to stay
calm and keep smiling. (Don't think I haven't violated this rule
before because I just did last month when a very large amount of
money was riding on my presentation and nothing was set up when I
got into the room.)

Then, determine what is in your control and what is out of your
control. If the air conditioning is making noise, you can turn it
off yourself or go find a janitor to do it for you. (in past
issues I have described ethical bribes where I'll grease a
janitor's palm with twenty bucks if he can get something resolved
for me in the next five minutes)

But if you've got 500 people waiting and the sound system just
blew up, what do you do?

Go directly to the meeting organizers and ask them what they want
you to do.

They are under as much or more pressure than you are so again,
try to keep smiling and portray a very helpful and accommodating
attitude. This is no time for prima donna antics.

Know your schedule in advance and the costs to reschedule
airfare, etc and be ready to tell the meeting planner what you
can and can't do. For instance, if you must make your flight to
be able to get to your next speaking engagement on time, then you
certainly can't agree to do the presentation after they fix the
sound system if it will make you miss your flight. It wasn't the
other group's fault the sound system blew up at this event so you
can't cause them problems by being late.

Be creative and be prepared
On big events where they have plenty of money, maybe they would
agree to charter you a flight or call in the corporate jet if you
can stay and get the job done. Maybe the meeting planner of your
troubled event knows the meeting planner of your next event and
they can help each other out behind the scenes with scheduling so
that you can get both jobs done.

On local and smaller events you could have your own portable
sound system in the trunk of your car as a backup.

For noise coming from the next room, have some pre-planned ad-
libs ready to acknowledge the distraction and continue if
possible.If the weather is nice, take people outside (which
has it's own set of problems) or go to another part of the
building.

I certainly don't have solutions for all the problems you will
run into in your speaking career. What I want to get through to
you is that bad venues will happen. Sometimes you just can't do
anything about it and you must quit or reschedule the event and
sometimes you can be flexible and creative and find a way to get
the job done. . . . That's what being a pro speaker is all
about.

P.S. What did I do about the sports bar presentation? I got
manager to turn on the DJ booth and show me how to work the disco
lighting. I got the lunch patrons involved and a good time was
had by all.

Learn all you need to know about speaking in a bad economy!