Secrets to Paid Public Speaking Success #11 (of 101): Position Yourself as an Expert

Are You Perceived as an Expert on Your Topic?

People do business with people they know and trust… and we agreed that one of the best ways to get people to know you and trust you is through public speaking: worksops, seminars, keynotes…

That’s all true, but there’s a magical loop going on here.  The more you speak, the more you are perceived as an expert and the more you are perceived as an expert, the more you’ll be invited to speak…

Speak, Speak, Speak!

You see, to speak in front of crowds, you need 1. to get invited… or 2. you need to put on your own events.

I will tell you how to build your expert status, but first, let’s explore these two venues:

1. 1. To get invited to speak at events, you need to be perceived as an authority in your topic… or at least you need to be known as very knowledgeable on your topic matter.  However, to get invited to speak at national – or even international events – you definitely need to be perceived as an expert in your topic.  And when you get to this point, that’s when you start getting paid the big bucks… When you get to this point, and you are an average speaker, this is when you’ll make $25oo.oo per speech, regardless of the length… and when you become a good speaker, that’s when you’ll start making $5ooo.oo and well beyond per presentation.  Now visualize speaking 1oo to 2oo times per year with this kinds of fees… Hmm… not bad, ey?
2. 2. By putting on your own events, you can raise your expertise level in several ways:

a. You should consistently put on events that are on a very targetted niche [e.g. weight loss, productivity, stress management, internet marketing, etc. – it helps if it is even more niched, such as “How to Market Your Private Dental Practice”… or “Stress Management for Emergency Room Staff,” etc.]

b. Record your presentations and repurpose them:
– create audio and/or video products
– create online courses out of them
– transcribe your presentations [have someone transcribe them – I know someone who can do it for $3o per speaking hour – let me know if you need that resource] and transform your presentation into a book or booklet… into a series of articles… into an eCourse… parts for your newsletter or eZine that you are sending to your subscribers/followers

c. Whenever possible, give your presentation an angle that sounds like it benefits the community [e.g. Effective Communication for parents – reduce child abuse, improve family values, etc.] and invite the media to your event: newspaper & TV

There are some possible challenges with events that you put on [and I’ve been through each of them]:

• to rent a professional looking space, it can be costly [I started out with $5o/day hotel meeting room, that held about 3o people… now, at times I rent space that costs $5oo and up for a full day; however, I speak mostly at events and I do only a very limited public workshops]
• marketing your event can cost you in the thousands…. or you can stick to less expensive methods, such as
  – putting your flyers on billboards,
  – giving your flyers and other marketing materials to company managers and inviting them to your event + putting it on their billboards,
  –  try to get radio interviews by calling the stations and telling them how your topic ties into the daily news or how it’d benefit the community.  Try not to promote your event, but rather have an interview on your topic and mention in your interview that “If you want to learn more, join me at my upcoming event on…, at…, etc.]
  – use Twitter, FB, and other social media like crazy
  – ask your friends and enemies to promote your event on their jobs and to their friends
  – talk to your local TV stations as well
• at times when you put on a public event, nobody seems to sign up for weeks… or you get only one or two people signing up… then in the last 2 days you have an influx of sign-ups, if you are lucky.  It can be really nerve wracking…

7 Ways to Build Your Expert Status

It takes a little time and some dedication to build an expert status, but the pay-off is well worth the time invested in it.  Here are a few ways that will help you develop your expert status:

1. Consistently publish articles online – don’t waist your time submitting your article to too many sites. www.eZineArticles.com and www.ArticleBase.com are the two most popular sites with most views.  Putting your article on more sites, does not raise your link popularity as it used to in the past [it used to be that the more links went to your site, the higher you were ranked; however, google now sees it that the links come from the same article published multiple times and it will only count it as one link]
2. Consistently publish articles offline in niched magazines, newsletters, newspaper, etc. – this is not so easy, but if you can pull this off, this is a great credibility adding factor.
3. Consistently try to get the media to write or talk about you – there are some great books out there that can help you with that, such as “How to Get on Radio Talk Shows All Across America Without Leaving Your Homre or Office,” by Joe Sabath; “Guerrilla Publicity,” by Jay Conrad Levinson and Jill Lublin; or “On the Air,” by Al Parinello…
4. Consistently upload videos to www.YouTube.com and www.Vidler.com and any other of your favorite video site you might have.  I’m using VideoWebWizard which has both a FREE version and a paid version [around $37 quarterly, if I remember correctly]; or you can use TrafficGeyser, which probably uploads your video to slightly more sites and podcasts, but it costs close to $1oo per month [they have a great affiliate program, so that’s one way to recoup some of your investment – just with a few sales, you have your monthly fee paid for AND you make some more money…  Personally, I only use VideoWebWizard at this point – it’s less costly and it provides almost the same service as TrafficGeyser.
5. Start a blog on your niche topic and consistently post to it valuable info, including industry reports, and other niche-related valuable info
6. Write your blog with the end in mind… Transform your blog – and your articles – into a book. The BOOK is the piece of the puzzle that proppels most speakers careers [as soon as my book – Communication Skills Magic – was out, I started getting countlessly more speaking gigs at fees that I was rarely been able to commend in the past]
7. Allign yourself with other authorities and experts in your field.  Interview them, co-present workshops, co-create products, co-author books and articles… get creative and get hooked – that is, hook up with other great minds in your niche…

If you follow the above points, it will be only a matter of time that you’ll be viewed as an expert in your field.  You want to get to the point where the prospect enters your name in the search engine and they get pages and pages of your articles, videos, program descriptions, etc. letting them know that when they hire you to speak at their next event you will deliver value.

As Lao Ce said “The thousand steps journey starts with a single step…”  Start your journey towards becoming an expert in your field today.  Write a short article or make a short video… and commit to follow all of the above points.  And once you accomplish that, send me a thank you note :}

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