Five Tips for Setting up Events

My most recent radio interview was with Lisa Hanna of Action Biz Concepts.

Five Tips for Setting up Events

I do a lot of public speaking and workshops and I’ve been doing that for the last five or so years. this last half year, in particular, I’ve really been focusing on setting up events for my coaching practice, and as such I’ve had to learn all over again how to setup events, because the audience I’m working with as a coach is decidedly different from the audiences I’ve previously presented workshops to. In fact, it seems to me that when you change your business focus, you’ve got to start from scratch all over again, but that’s an article for a different time.

While public speaking and presenting workshops isn’t for everyone, it can be an excellent tactic for becoming more visible to clients and to your network in general. However, to really make this tactic work for you it’s important to keep the following tips in mind:

1. Practice, practice, practice: It’s important to practice your speaking skills. Toastmasters is one venue, which is specifically focused on providing people a place to practice, but hiring a communications coach to help you can also be useful. In my case, teaching students for a few years, and then presenting talks for some of my writing gave me a lot of practice, and more recently I offered some talks for free for local networking events as a way to practice and also get myself in front of people who didn’t know me.

2. Approach Chambers, networking groups, etc. about speaking: Getting a good venue can be hard, but it can be made a bit easier by approaching the right people. Go to your local chamber of commerce events or others that are close by, look into other networking groups, and otherwise ask around about who can help you organize an event. Having sponsors can make setting up an event much easier, because there’s more of a potential to attract an audience.

3. Bring handouts to give to the attendees: Providing handouts is great, because it not only shows that you really are thinking of your audience, but it also gives them something to take away, ideally with your name and contact information on it. A handout can also be useful for helping you organize your speech.

4. Use Evaluations: Evaluation forms are great for telling you what you can do to improve your speech, as well as providing you the information of the people who listened. If you add a section where people can indicate if they are interested in more programs, coaching, etc., you can also know who to contact about specific services.

5. Follow up with every person who attended: After a talk has been give, follow up with every person that day, with a brief email thanking them for attending and for any feedback offered. This shows your attendees that you genuinely did pay attention to what they had to say and can sometimes lead to more speaking opportunities or consulting gigs. Of course, make sure you follow up with people who requested specific information or services with a longer, more detailed email.

These five tips can help you set up and make your events a success, as well as continuing to make you more visible to other people.

Upcoming Events

Play To your Strengths and Delegate your Weaknesses! Teleclass

Do you feel like you’re always trying to fix your weaknesses in your business, instead of focusing on your strengths? Do you find yourself doing a task which leaves you feeling drained and unhappy? Are you feeling business Burnout, where you just don’t want to work on your business anymore?

If your answer is yes, come to this discussion which emphasizes playing to your strengths, while delegating what you are weak in to people or technology which can do the job for you, so you can focus on doing what you love. In this event you will learn:

• How to identify your strengths and weaknesses in your business.
• How to play to your strengths, while delegating what you are weak in to other people.
• How to use your strengths to create the business you always wanted.

This class is FREE and is offered on Two separate dates: May 28th from 3 to 4pm (Pacific Standard Time) and June 3rd 4pm to 5pm (Pacific Standard Time).

RSVP here

How to know when your Book is ready to be published! Teleclass

If you find yourself keeping your writing in a desk and only bringing it out when it’s time to go to your writing group, this class is for you. There’s a time to write, edit, and revise, and there’s a time to let your writing go. In this class, we focus on recognizing when it’s time to let your writing go, and get it published. In this class, you will learn:

• The Three signs that you writing is ready to be published
• How to stop the eternal cycle of editing, revising, and writing
• What turns a writer into an author

This class is free and is offered on June 5th from 3 to 4 pm (Pacific Standard Time).

RSVP here