I came across a copy of Paid to Speak: Best Practices for Building a Successful Speaking
Business, written by dozens of members of the National Speakers Association
(NSA). It includes lots of suggestions, strategies, and tips on how to launch,
build and maintain a successful speaking career.
Readers
will learn to:
·
Work
with speakers bureaus
·
Convey
a professional image through dress and body language
·
Create
compelling presentations via humor and story telling
·
Sell themselves effectively
·
Establish themselves as an expert in their niche
·
Hone their facilitation skills
Perhaps
the most important part was right in the beginning, in the introduction,
written by the 1988-89 NSA president, Jim Cathcart, CSP, CPAE. He identifies
eight core competencies that speakers should adhere to. They include the
following:
1.
Display
good platform mechanics, such as staging, lighting, choreography, and sound.
Whether you appear in person or via video, audio, online, or via satellite,
make sure the dynamics of your physical presentation are tuned up.
2.
Present
well by knowing how to reach your audience in the manner that will achieve your
desired effect. This calls for a little psychology, but you need to develop
stories, insert humor, control your voice, and find ways to tailor your message
to the specific audience that you perform for.
3.
Good
business management is needed: Know how to deal with the administrative side of
speaking -- contracts, systems, money negotiation and collection.
4.
Sales
and marketing: know how to secure speaking opportunities with corporations,
associations, and other groups. Design good promotional materials. Think of how
to convert speeches into seminars, products, branding, and media coverage.
5.
Topic
development and the selection/expansion of what you talk about is important.
Use your goals, interests, skills and the marketplace to dictate what you speak
about.
6.
Develop
authorship so you can convert your words into books, audio, video, articles,
and a learning library.
7.
Have
an understanding of the speaking industry, who the players are, what issues
they confront, and how others present themselves.
8.
Develop
professional relationships and know the interests, needs and issues in dealing
with clients, colleagues, suppliers, and co-workers in the speaking profession.
Understand those who serve the meetings industry -- meeting planners, agents,
speakers bureaus,, and venue owners
NSA Turns 40: Great
Opportunity For Authors
The
National Speaking Association (NSA), the country’s leading organization for
professional speaking, is celebrating its 40th anniversary this
year. NSA, with 3,000 members, is also a member of the Global Speakers
Federation. Founded in 1973, NSA offers the highly acclaimed Certified Speaking
Professional (CSP) certification, online education programs, Speaker magazine,
Voices of Experience audio publications, conferences, research, and networking
opportunities. Authors looking to grow
their brand and their business should look into attending NSA events and
joining the group. For more information, consult www.NSAspeaker.org
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Brian
Feinblum’s views, opinions, and ideas expressed in this blog are his alone and
not that of his employer, Media Connect, the nation’s largest book promoter.
You can follow him on Twitter @theprexpert and email him at brianfeinblum@gmail.com. He feels more
important when discussed in the third-person. This is copyrighted by
BookMarketingBuzzBlog © 2013
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