Are you are working to build your email marketing list and your business? One of the best things you can do is get booked to speak anywhere and everywhere your ideal audience may be found. In order to do that having a speaking kit prepared ahead of time is very helpful. It saves you from scrambling for items that will be needed by your host or by promoters.
There are seven elements that I find essential for any speaking kit. Your hosts will love you for proactively providing this information.
1. Your headshot. If you do not already have a professional headshot, I recommend having one taken. What you do for business and who you want to connect with will impact the tone you want for your headshots. Remember, these are not just about having nice pictures. The headshot should represent your business and your brand. Be sure you work with a photographer who understands the work you do and appreciates the tone you want your pictures to convey.
2. Your bio. Many clients come to me with five paragraph bios that are written about where they went to school, their three most recent jobs, and what town they live in. While these bios are accurate, they do not help create a connection with an audience. Be sure to start out with what you do and for whom you do it. Audience members will love to know not only that you are there to speak about something they are interested in, but also that you have crafted a talk for people just like them. Be mindful of having too long a bio as well. Remember, it will be used to introduce you at the beginning of a talk. If it is too long, you will have lost some people right from the start.
3. One or two prepared talks. If you have not spoken much to promote your business, it is helpful to have a topic and supporting materials that lead people to want to work with you. The content of the talk should be educational and should leave your audience feeling they have learned from you. It should also have them feeling that working with you further may be very beneficial to them. For example, I do a regular talk called “9 Ways to Build Your Community and Your Income” which outlines nine different ways an entrepreneur can build his or her email-marketing list. It teaches a lot, but at the end I have a variety of ways attendees can work with me individually or in groups to get more individualized support on the elements I cover in the presentation. No doubt there are ways for you to apply this to your business and the talks you could create.
4. Appealing, benefits-oriented talk titles. Often the title of the talk is why guests attend or not. Be sure yours speaks to the audience you want to appeal to and focuses on the benefits participants will receive as a result of attending.
5. Bullet points that support the headline and highlight what people will learn from your prepared talk(s). In order to promote your presentation, you or someone else will need to tell potential attendees why it is worth their time to attend. Having supporting bullet points provides more information to those who respond well to your talk title and can be convincing to a potential guest who is on the fence.
6. Questions for an interviewer to ask you. You may have an opportunity to be interviewed. This is a way for you to cover the same information as you would in a solo presentation. To keep the interview focused on the content you want to provide, have leading questions available for your interviewer. This is essential and a way you can provide the information you intend to cover in the desired order.
7. An offer. Depending upon where you are speaking and what restrictions you may have, you will want to have several levels of offers prepared to make to your audience. Being able to make a paid offer is always the best for you, but it may not be appropriate or authorized in every situation. The alternative is to put together a free gift that will help you keep in touch with the audience and build your budding relationship. Be sure your offer directly correlates with the talk or interview you have just done. I wrote in depth about how to put free gifts, or lead magnets, together in the March issue of CYACYL Magazine. You can learn more about them there.
Take the time to organize your speaking kit soon. When you have put these seven elements together, asking for and providing speaking gigs will be a lot easier than they may seem to you now. Additionally, having them ready to go highlights to any hosts your level of professionalism and your knowledge about your topic.
