We CAN! promote our books

Platform Girl - How to Get Your Endorsements

Kathi Lipp here -sharing all the not-so-secret tips to building your platform through speaking. 

This article is taken from my booklet 5 Simple Steps to Kick Start Your Speaking Career.

The very first thing you need to do as a speaker is get a list of references together. You need to prove you’ve got some street cred. No one wants to hire a speaker that no one else will endorse. Event planners need to know that you have spoken before and that you didn’t pass out while doing it.

 

These endorsements will be used over and over again—on your website, promotional postcards, speaker packets and on other speaker websites that you will eventually become a part of.

 

If you are just getting started in speaking, you may be wondering who will endorse you.

 

Step #1

 

This is the time to start getting creative.

 

1. Brainstorm the times you have been in front of a group.

 

If you are pursuing a career in public speaking, chances are you have done some presentations, somewhere.

 

Maybe it was teaching a Bible study at church, or a talk you did for coworkers. Have you ever worked with a youth group, or been in a Toastmasters group? Those are all people who have heard you speak and can write an endorsement for you.

 

2. Offer to speak to a group, free of charge.

 

Many of my clients have started out by speaking for a group for free, just to get their foot in the door and to get their first endorsements rolling

 

 

 

in. Look for civic groups, mothers or MOPS (Mothers Of Pre-Schoolers) groups. Most of these would welcome the chance for you to speak on a topic that is tailored to their audience.

 

Let them know that you will be happy to do the presentation for no charge as long as the leader of that group would write you a recommendation (if they felt that you were recommendation-worthy!) It is a win-win—they get a fabulous speaker that they may not otherwise be able to afford, and you get that oh-so-valuable endorsement.

 

 

3. Make it easy for the event planner

 

Experience has shown me that it is very hard for people to write recommendations. It is not that the event planner didn’t love you—quite the opposite. She knows that she is not able to express her feelings well enough to do you justice. Everything she writes sounds dull and flat to her ear.

 

 

I strongly encourage you to give her an example of a great endorsement—that way she will know what you are looking for, but can write the endorsement in her own words to best reflect you.

 

If there are key words that reflect who you are, let her know that those are areas that you would love for her to highlight if she felt comfortable. Again, you are not writing the endorsement for her (everyone can see

through those kind of endorsements…) but giving her a framework to work within that will make the task easier for her and more useable for you.

 

 

 

Letting MOPS and MOMS Groups Know You're Alive

Kathi Lipp delivering on her promise - 5 steps to let MOPS and MOM's groups know that you are ready and willing to speak:

1. Create a postcard
When it was time to start drumming up more gigs, I found that, besides word of mouth, postcards were my best option. Instead of telling you everything to include on your own speaker post card, I am going to make this real easy on you. Just drop me a note at kathi@kathilipp.com and I will send you a sample of a postcard that I created. No muss, no fuss.

In addition to creating your own card, you can go to a discount printer such as VistaPrints.com for a more professional look. I have used these as well with excellent results.

Get Booked NOW at MOPS and MOM groups

Sorry friends – didn’t mean to be an info tease last week. I know that everyone was just waiting on the edge of their computer chairs to find out how to get bookings from mother’s groups.  You see, I was on vacation in Mexico last week and just when I needed to upload my article – internet no mas. Sigh.

So, no more waiting. Let’s start with tip number one for getting in good with MOM and MOPS groups:

1. Have an Irresistible Topic and an Interest in the Audience

I am a MOPS mentor mom, (which is pretty funny since I am “mentoring” women who are older than me,) so I get to see a lot of people who are trying to get in to our group as a speaker.  It is amazing how many truly fascinating people manage to make their topics sound as boring as watching bass fishing. That is one of the main reasons we don’t invite these speakers and authors to come – if they can’t make their topic sound interesting and compelling, we are going to lose attendance at our meeting.

The Mommy Book Tour

Kathi Lipp here to talk to you about how to organize your very own platform-enhancing book tour.

I had the opportunity recently to go to a book signing with an author friend. (I am concealing her name to protect the embarrassed…)While my friend is a whiz at marketing and publicity, this was a very painful experience.

She did all the right things:
1. She made contact with the manager of the store well in advance to talk about the event
2. She sent postcards to her local readers
3. She did local radio to let people know where she was going to be
4. She made it into an event. She had a drawing to win free swag. She had a poster up to let everyone know what was going on. She baked chocolate chip cookies and bribed people to come over to her table.
5. She brought me and her mom along so she would be sure to have a crowd.

She was witty. She was delightful. She was charming. She did everything right... She sold seven books.

Getting started as a speaker (even if you flunked speech and debate in high school)

Kathi Lipp here (www.kathilipp.com), your personal guide to the wide world of speaking when it comes to promoting your book. Every single time I speak somewhere – whether it is at a writer’s conference, at a retreat, or at a MOPS group – I get the same question, “How do I get started in speaking and writing?”

There are about nine other bloggers on this site who will help you with the writing. I will deal with the speaking.

Just Call Me Platform Girl

Hi my name is Kathi Lipp, henceforth known on the CAN blog as the other Kathi with an i.