Professional Speaking | GetSpeaking.com

One of my favorite resources for ideas and practical business-of-speaking tips is SpeakerNetNews.com.

There are years worth of archives and articles with a compendium of solutions to common–and not so common–problems faced by professional speakers and trainers. This includes virtually every aspect of the business from speech content to travel, from vendors to meeting planning, all from real life experiences from real professional speakers. Sign up for their regular ezine to get ideas delivered to your email in box.

Almost every issue contains an idea that I can use or that sparks another idea that improves my business acumen. Access to the site is free and there are hundreds of hours of audio created by successful professionals that you can purchase for download. I’ve never been disappointed by the quality of the content of any of the presentations that I’ve bought.

What useful speaker resources have you found?

I’m Mark S.A. Smith. I’ve been a professional speaker since 1989 when I started my first publishing and training company. I average more than 60 speeches or training events a year.

Often, people ask me about becoming a professional speaker, or more frequently put, “I want to do what you do.” Over the years, I’ve accumulated resources and made recordings about how to do this based on my experience and observing the industry for best practices.

I’ll use this blog to post those resources and update you with ideas that I find useful. I’m always interested in your ideas, thoughts and questions.

Prosperous and happy speaking!

To kick things off, here’s a recording I made 15 years ago advising two insurance agents how to speak at local events to find new customers and get lots of practice.

I’ve included the forms that I used to book the speeches and follow up after the event. This can seriously short cut the time needed to get going. In fact, if you follow these ideas, you can be speaking in a couple of weeks.

Let me know how this works for you and enjoy it!

Click to download GetMoreBusinessJustBySpeakingOutlineandForms.doc