35 - Tip Tuesday - Becoming a Public Speaker As A Way to Market Your Business With Alicia White

Back of the Room Productions was the brain child of Alicia White when she saw that a multimillion dollar speaker was not getting the most out of his marketing. Alicia now provides speakers with speaker sheets, business cards, social media images, website graphics all geared to their speaker branding.

What can speaking do for your business? Alicia has learned that speaking is not only a great way to share her expertise but it also captures a greater audience. Alicia is now providing real value to people who may need her services. Speaking is a great business development tool, it gets you in front of more people, shows your expertise, and you are able to present your products or your services.

How can you get over the question of “What can I really offer?” Everyone does not know what you know even though it might seem like it. There will always be someone listening that resonates with something you are speaking on.

What are some first steps of where you should start looking and what you should start doing to get out there? Alicia recommends joining a ‘Toastmasters group to become comfortable speaking in front of the audience.

Alicia provides 5 steps to start speaking:

1. Define your unique promise of value. In 10 words or less create a compelling sentence of the value you bring to your audience. This is what you lead with and what your brand will support. Come up with the solution that you provide and then the ‘so what’.

2. Craft your message so that it is not a sales pitch. Your presentations should be information packed and your audience should have concrete take aways.

3. Start promoting yourself as a speaker and identify yourself as a speaker on everything.

4. Start speaking anywhere that they will let you. Start calling your rotary clubs, lions clubs, your chamber of commerce. Call any nonprofit organization that you think might benefit from your presentation. This allows you to practice your presentation. It is also important to ask for feedback.

5. Join a speakers group. You will get so much advice and so many tips.

What are speaker sheets and why are they so beneficial? Speaker sheets are either a sheet of paper or a digital file that you provide to the event planner. This has all the information that they need to know about you and is the decision maker in getting you booked. The speaker sheet needs five things: your unique promise of value, your speech titles and the take aways, your contact information, testimonials of people who have heard you speak, and a photograph of yourself.

What are some expectations you should set for yourself on payment? You will not be paid for every speaking engagement. After you have many speeches under your belt Alicia has two criteria. These are that the audience is her target client and that she be able to sell her products at the back of the room.

You can connect with Alicia at:  [email protected] and on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn with the handle @AliciaWhite911

More About Alicia:  Alicia White, an International Best Selling Author and Speaker, is a valuable resource for speakers, authors, coaches, and business experts. As founder and Creative Director of Back of the Room Productions™, she professionally designs and develops powerful products that give your message legs long after you leave the stage. Alicia also coaches speakers and offers strategy on how to generate leads and revenue at the back of the room. With 20 years of experience in the graphic design, print, branding, and marketing fields, Alicia has helped business owners and companies nationwide with their branding.