10 steps to becoming a motivational speaker Pt 7
10 steps to becoming a motivational speaker (Part 7)
By Lynn Serafinn, MAED, CPCC
author, speaker and personal transformation coach
Here’s lucky number 7 (and it IS a good one)…
STEP 7: Call a few “influential” people. Ever see the old 30s film 42nd Street with Ruby Keeler, Dick Powell and Ginger Rodgers? It’s one of my absolute favourites of all time (side note: if anyone knows how to find it on UK compatible DVD, please let me know!). The running joke in the film is how supposedly unassuming Ruby rises to fame via a series of accidents. And every time she gets asked to do something that puts her out on stage, she says, in the most innocent (and possibly totally fake) way, “Who? ME?” It’s great. I love it.
When I say to you now that it is time to call a few “influential” people to your gig, you might also say, “Who? ME?” And the answer is, “Yes, you. Why not?” I was a freelance musician for almost 30 years. I also spent 4 years setting up promotional speaking tours for a very prominent spiritual leader from India. Between the two of them, I have either “landed” or set up from scratch hundreds of “gigs”. In both of these cases, I learned pretty quickly that it doesn’t help at all to be shy about yourself or your event. You must learn to put on your promotional hat and just start shouting about who you are. Of course, when I say shouting, I don’t mean that you must become aggressive or unsavoury. There is a way to be both polite and confident. If you try to promote your gig without both, people will either get turned off or they won’t believe it is of interest to them.
Start with people who actually WANT to know what’s going on in the world. Make contact with a few people from the local press or media and invite them to the gig. They are always looking for a good story. Tell them WHY it is a good story and they will come. If that is too daunting for you, then call up some local businesses or charities who are interested in your target audience. In other words, if you are talking to a group of people on health issues, then see if people from health charities or businesses would like to come. Tell them that they are welcome to bring their business cards.
Once you start calling such contacts, you will be amazed at how easy it gets, and how open they are to finding out more. Always remember, in their eyes, your event is a story. Make your story a good one and influential people will be interested and come to your event.
Step 8 follows tomorrow… 
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Want to take this dream further?
I teach all these techniques and more in my course “Light Your Fire Without Burning Out”, where you learn how to set up your own social and business networks that can also help position you as an expert in your field. This course will be running again sometime in the spring of 2009. If you wish to receive a calendar announcement for when this (and other) courses are running, just set your RSS feed to receive this blog or sign up in the box at the left of this page.
You can find more information about my courses on my Create-a-Life website.
coaching info: www.create-a-life.co.uk
