5 Ways how to find speaking opportunities

We live in very connected environment and there are various way to get noticed and be active in your community. The ability to reach out to your online and offline resources is a great way to begin to open channels  of communication to get the opportunity to share your message with the world. You have  the expertise and knowledge that needs to heard.  Below are various groups to consider.

1^st  Meetup.com 

 Great place to speak to audience from 10-30 people. Great place to try your material and get feedback on your speaking style and see you are engaging audience with your topic.

2^nd Lunch and Learns

There are many networking groups that have lunch and learn that invite guest speaker to share their insight on topics that are of interest. Usually about 15 minutes is allocated to the speaker. You also have opportunity to network before and after your talk!

3^rd    Share Need a speaker? Post on your website or blog 

There are many organizers who are constantly looking  for speakers online. Create a page on your website or blog. Create a handout and give it to friends in your network. Use key words on your website or blog and internet SEO will assist in get world out

4^th    Join LinkedIn and participate in groups

An amazing  business  website where business owners share insights on the business, life and success daily in their posts. There are numerous open and closed groups that you can join and be part of the conversation on a weekly basis

5^th   Share in conversations (word of mouth)

The best way you can initiate and control on daily basis is to include it in your conversation on a daily basis. Ask the key influencers in your group if they have any group they can recommend that you can share a simple inspirational or motivational talk.

Perhaps you have started a blog and want to share insights on a article your wrote that will be beneficial  to  their group. 

We all have expertise we can share that can empower and inspire the world to succeed. It will require some effort and patience, as your create  momentum  you  will begin to create traction and the referrals will be begin to happen. Before you know you will have created the environment  where  they will be calling you to share and even begin to  pay you for your talks!

Get Connected 21st Century

Online and Offline Strategies that work!

There are various ways to stayed connect in the 21^st Century from attending networking events to getting connected online.  Key question to ask is what works for you? and how could this create long-term relationships that you can leverage and even monetize!

Offline Strategies

I have been meeting people for many years, in 2003 when I made to the decision to go out and learn more about business, life and success and I met my 2 mentors who had significant impact in my journey of success. Quickly realized that I need a strategy to connect and engage when I was networking and meeting  new people at events. Three areas are below

Presentation

What you say  and  how you dress are  extremely important in making a great 1^st  impression, in the end you do only have one chance to do it!

What you wear is a great start, being aware of the type of event you are attending and who will be there is important information to know prior to attending. You can do this by emailing or calling the organizer, to checking out previous photos of event online.

Having a business card (information card) is important tool to have. No matter if you are professional in transition or season entrepreneur it’s important to have connection point. 

Start with the conversation and introduce yourself and engage in the conversation. If you feel there was a mutual you can ask to exchange cards and so you can connect online or send them some information you promised (ex. Book, Nice to meet you card)

Attitude

There is great statement “ Attitude is everything” not matter how you feel, check your attitude at the door and be open to have a memorable conversations.

What is the first thing you do when you meet someone? You shake hands right! It’s important to do that correctly. I have had many situations where I have “fish” handshakes, don’t think that requires further explanation to heavy handed hand shakes. Important to implement that the strategy below

Mirror and Matching which is exactly what it sounds like, you merely match what they do to you. It may seem challenging in the beginning, the more times you do it you will begin to find the rhythm and connection point that works for you.

Lastly what you say and do is important, having energy and little enthusiasm will go long way in bringing energy to the environment. It will be “contagious” with others and you see it them smiling and have more engaging conversations

Response

This the 3^rd and most important step this not effectively used in most cases. It’s about asking questions and creating meaningful and engaging conversation.  It’s about asking great second question is where the magic begins. You may introduce yourself and then ask a question, such as  “Is this your first time at the event?”   If they say  “No, it’s my first time” You can responded in congratulating them and letting them know what will be happening for the evening. This make you host and leverage tool for the entire evening. You can ask what they do and how they got started in that industry.

As you do this process over and over you will feel more comfortable and become an amazing networker!

In the next section will learn on to leverage contacts from offline to online

Online Strategies

Having an online presence is important tool to have in the 21^st Century, from leveraging the people you meet to creating online connections to continue the conversation.

LinkedIn

This social networking site started in 2003 is very popular for many professionals and entrepreneur to be connected with. Facebook and Twitter may get all the attention, LinkedIn is the social networking to be a part of.

You can apply the strategies below to have a great profile.

Connections

We can add connections daily online and offline. We meet people face to face  every day at social gathering, events etc. Simply asking “’Are you on LinkedIn?” during the conversation is a great way to add value.

Recommendations

Great feature where we can ask our networking for recommendation. It can be from recent connection who heard you speak at an event, to a previous employer you can give you recommendation.

Groups

You can share you expertise with various groups and be part of the discussion forum. Most of them are open groups, there are some which are closed and require to be invited to join.

Applying the above online and offline will yield you success in growing you network in the long term and creating relationship that could result in meeting future mentor, business alliances and resource you can use in the future.

Make you connections work for you in the 21^st Century!

5 reasons to join LinkedIN

Social Media has changed the way we share our profile, from having an online profile to a professional resume.  Getting your resume on Monster, Workopolis  may give you the reach and exposure to attract employers or headhunters if you choose.  Utilizing  this social media tool can give you the opportunity to reach out and take advantage of opportunities that  you want.

Put  your  profile on LinkedIn, one of the largest professional networking sites  will give you access to industries and connections in specific  areas of interest. Started in May 2003 it has grown exponentially to attract CEO, executives and many

1^st  Expertise

In your journey  you have completed various areas of schooling, achieving accreditations goals or have become a talent speaker or writer. These are great areas to share with your new and future connections.  There are helpful profiles to use that will guide you where to put enter this information. You are building your profile online that give you flexibility on how and where to use it. 

2^nd Leverage

You can leverage your resources and connections as you are building your profile. Add new connections or LinkedIn can recommend connections to you, as your build your profile industry you belong to will be matched with connections in the database. Having only 50 to 100 connections can yield you great impact into connections of others, option is available to via 2^nd and 3^rd connections of your initial first connection.

3^rd Recognition

Having Award and Achievement  to enhance your profile, winning sales awards, completing certification courses to volunteering for organizations these are recognition based events that are important in your journey 

of success.

4^thGroups

There are various individual groups you can join specific to your industry that you can join. Most of them are free and few of them are permission based. You want to keep up-to-date and get weekly reminders you can set it up with a few clicks.

You can also post comment and feedback to comments being made on various subject and use your expertise to show your knowledge on various topics.

5^th  Book reviews

There is great feature where you can share insight on books you have read or you are going to read. You can add mini-report and even add you comment on Amazon.com for book you really enjoyed!

 

LinkedIn is a big program that has many  areas to use. The above are recommendations  that  I have sharing  through  numerous conversations and speak engagement that I have completed. Feel to do your  own research of other areas in this great program.