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 More Evidence Of Speaking Excellence
For all speakers, whether or not you have good video, other evidence of your speaking talents can be very helpful. Other evidence may include testimonials, experience at multiple credible venues, speaking references, and radio interview segments. Understand, however, that most of the individuals in charge of speaker hiring decisions see things mostly through the prism of the topic they want to you speak about and/or the audience they want you to speak to. You may have riveting video of you speaking dynamically on energy, but if they want you to talk about land use, they will often discount your video. To a surprising extent, they do NOT reason that if you are a great speaker on one topic you will also likely be a great speaker on another topic. Likewise, if you have testimonials showing the most positive possible reactions from university audiences, a venue hiring for a business audience won’t give those testimonials much credence. Soliciting Effective Testimonials This should be a series of quotes (at least three, not more than ten) from the leaders or conference planners of organizations to whom you have spoken. Like dust jacket quotes for books, these blurbs should be short and should laud in superlative terms your qualities and contributions as a speaker to their specific conference or event. Quotes should be followed by name, title, organization, event (annual conference, etc), date, and type of talk (keynote, plenary speech, luncheon talk, etc.). Solicit testimonials whenever you think you have hit a home run or where the response of the audience, group leader, or conference planner was strongly positive. Strike while the iron is hot. Ask for the testimonial on the spot, and get it as soon as possible. Be clear that it is for purposes of marketing you as a speaker, and that you’re looking for a sentence or two capturing why your talk was received so positively. Did it create excitement and energy for the event? How did the audience react? Did it set the right tone and/or introduce critical concepts? Was it what the occasion called for? What they wanted? Why did it get such a positive response? If you speak on widely differing topics or to very different types of audiences, making more than one testimonial list could be helpful. For example, if you speak to campus audiences on Making A Difference and to professional and business conferences on Energy Alternatives, the best testimonials for one may not be the same as the best for the other. The testimonials included on two lists need not be entirely different – just adding or deleting one or two and shifting the order of presentation can make one testimonial list more effective in demonstrating success at “campus inspiration” and another more effective in demonstrating success at “professional education.”Make Venue Lists Thoughtfully Rather than a long exhaustive list, better to have an introductory paragraph followed by a scanable list (e.g. “[Speaker’s name] has given more than [round number] of presentations over a [#] year period. A few of the more notable are listed below…”). In general, list conference keynotes and plenary talks and campus presentations as well as presentations to significant meetings or organizations. Avoid listing panels, workshops, training sessions, high schools, churches, local nonprofits, bookstores, libraries, and other venues not likely to be viewed as “professional” speaking experience. If you speak on more than one topic, and if your speaking experience is deep enough to permit creating a list for each topic, that would be a good idea. If your speaking history has particular strengths, you can call them out in the opening paragraph and emphasize them in the listing. Again, if your experience is deep enough to reflect several strengths, multiple lists can be useful. Strengths might include lots of high profile organizations, prestigious universities, big business or governmental venues, many international appearances, etc. In general, a large number of speaking engagements will be viewed as evidence that you are a popular speaker. Most venues will attach more significance to depth of speaking experience they view as directly related to their audience. For example, a business organization focused on energy will relate to a venue list with lots of business and professional entities dealing with energy. A campus venue will see lots of major campus talks (not classes) as evidence that you can “relate” to a student and an academic audience.Using Your Best Speaking References A references list should be the cream of the crop… events where you were at your best, really connected with the audience, and where the reference person will sincerely and enthusiastically give you a rave review. Obviously, list references and their contact info only with permission. Name, title, organization, event, your speaking role, speaking date, phone, address, and email should be provided for each reference.
As with the venue list, only keynotes, plenary talks, or other major paid presentations should be included. One cautionary note, if you gave your presentation at a discount for someone used as a reference, you might want to remind them of that so that they don’t tell an inquirer how affordable you are and pull the rug out from under your price negotiation. Radio Interview Segments Not many people will take the time to listen to radio interviews, but they can nevertheless be helpful in some cases. They can help establish stature and credibility if they were broadcast on high profile outlets such as NPR, the radio news branches of the major TV networks (NBC, CBS, ABC), or the Associated Press Radio Network. This can be especially impressive if the radio interview is not a one-off but rather part of a series of high-profile interviews. An interview can also help if your introduction by the moderator reinforces your stature and credibility, especially on the specific topic in which a venue is most interested. If you have an audio program the first few minutes of which are effective in establishing your credibility on a topic for which you lack video samples, that can be useful as well. In this case, you should specifically point the inquiring party to the audio segment with that as the stated reason.
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