Speaking engagements are a great way to build your business. Having a speaker’s profile is a simple tool you can use to help you get more speaking engagements.

By public speaking, I’m referring to speaking in front of a live audience, or being a guest on a teleseminar, podcast or online radio show or so forth. And rest assured, there are plenty of organizations in your community who are actively looking for speakers. Your local chamber of commerce and local networking groups are great places to start. If you are involved in social media, you can use your connections there to find speaking engagements. It seems that there is no lack of places to speak.

To help you book more speaking engagements, I suggest creating a speaker’s profile. This is sometimes called a one-sheet. It’s simple and short document that you can use in two different ways. First, you can send it to interested parties who request for you to speak at their event. Second, you can create a list of associations, organizations, groups or other events where you would like to speak and send your one-sheet to them along with a cover letter.

Either way you use it, I find that this document builds instant credibility. Here is a list of things you can include. You may have other categories depending on your industry, but this will get your creative juices flowing.

Your Name: Don’t assume they know your name. List it here.

Phonetic Pronunciation of Your Name: If you have a tricky name like mine, provide direction on how it is pronounced. For example, my speaker’s profile says this: LEE pelt (emphasis on Lee).

Company Name: List your company name.

Your Title: Use your formal title, or if you have a fun moniker that you go by, put it here.

Your Web Sites: List up to three web sites starting with your main site.

Category: List your areas of concentration. For example, mine are Marketing, Client Attraction, Business Development and Business Success for Solopreneurs, Micropreneurs and Women Owned Businesses. This is particularly useful if you are sending it to groups who don’t already know you.

Phone Number: Your direct number.

Fax Number: Your fax number.

Email Address: Yours, not your assistant’s.

Physical Address: Your full address.

Assistant Contact Information: Provide their name and contact information.

Logos and Headshot: Provide a URL where they can download your logo or headshot.

Your Bio: If you have more than one version of your bio, use the one that you’d like to use for your introduction.

Title of Session: Give your speech a memorable title.

Description of Session: Write a short (around 125 words) description of your speech that they can copy and paste to use for promotional purposes in their ezine, newsletter, blog, web site and so forth. Make it as easy as possible for them to promote the speech.

Top Five Things the Audience Will Learn: Every host wants to be sure that their audience will learn something of great value. List at least five things they will learn and make them big and bold enough that you feel like you should charge for it. Providing tremendous value will make people like you. It builds the know/like/trust factor which helps you turn prospective clients into paying clients – and eventually into raving fans!

Opening Interview Questions: Provide some questions to help the interviewee guide the conversation in case they like an interview format.

One Final Wrap Up Interview Question: Provide one big question at the end. It is usually something like this. “How can my listeners learn more about you and your services?” Or, if you have cleared a special offer with your host, the question could be, “You have something special for my listeners/attendees. Can you share that with us now?”

Product For Sale: Provide the name of the product or service your are promoting on the call or in the speech. Also include a URL so your host can view it online. Check with the host prior to making an offer because many times organizations or businesses have a certain way they like to deal with product or service promotions.

Equipment Needed: If you need a projector or white board or any other equipment, list it here. However always follow up on this to be sure it’s ready for you when you arrive.

Speaking Testimonials: Showcase your experience. Provide a few testimonials from previous speaking engagements or a list of previous speaking engagements. If you don’t have any yet, just leave this section off until you do.

It’s pretty straight forward, right? You can pull this together in an hour or less. But don’t let the simplicity of this document fool you. Having a sheet like this will set you apart from others. It will help you to increase the number of speaking engagements you get and it sets the stage to create a really great experience for you, the host and the audience.

Good luck! Keep me posted on your progress. I want to hear about your forthcoming speaking engagements!

© 2009 Meredith Liepelt, Rich Life Marketing

Meredith Liepelt, President of Rich Life Marketing, publishes Smart Marketing, a free bi-weekly ezine featuring marketing tools and resources designed to help the busy entrepreneur attract more clients. Subscribe today at www.richlifemarketing.com.

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