Creating a Testimonial Video/Testimonial Page

Starting to speak can be a vicious circle. To get an engagement you need a promo tape or video and some testimonials, but how do you get those without having engagements?

The first year that you’re speaking is like walking uphill. But don’t waste even the little engagements! When you’re giving your first talks, even if you’re not being paid, you can turn these events into promotional opportunities to help you garner more engagements!

In previous posts, I’ve written about how to get more engagements in the first place.

But now I want to talk about how to get testimonials.

Here’s a video I just produced with different testimonials from people. It’s less than 90 seconds, but I think it gets the point across:

You can do this, too!

Next time you speak, bring a video camera along. Ask for permission from people, but when they comment on how great you were, ask them to say it into the camera! Many people get really shy with this, unfortunately, and often the candid comments are better, but it still works!

When anyone sends you an email with comments about one of your talks, keep it somewhere safe so you have a list of all of these comments.

Then you can create a web page just with testimonials listed. You can print them out and hand them out in your promotions package. Or you can do what I did, and create a video and upload it to YouTube and GodTube.

This video took me about an hour to make, and wasn’t that difficult. I use Pinnacle Studios, but you can do it with Windows Movie Maker, too. If making videos is intimidating to you, get your kids to do it, or hire a teen! It makes you look much more professional. And this is free for me, but it looks more expensive than something that I would hand out that is printed.

The best way to get some testimonials is to ask specific questions. When you speak, hand out evaluation forms, and tell people that someone who fills it out will win a prize! On that form, though, don’t just ask them to rate you from 1-5 (although that is useful, too). Ask things like: what did you most appreciate about the speaker? What one thing did you learn? What do you think you will change in your life? Even if you only get one word answers, that’s more useful.

Now you have something that you can use for your own promotion! It also helps to get feedback so that you know what your strengths are, and what your weaknesses are.

When someone hires a speaker it’s a very scary step. I know, because I’m in the midst of trying to hire a youth speaker for a large youth event this spring! I know what I want. I can picture the event in my head. But how do I know that the speaker will do what I envision? How do I know that they’re any good?

That’s why you need testimonials! Don’t be afraid to ask. People are usually more than happy to fill out an evaluation, and some will certainly talk on camera. And this helps ease event planners who may want to hire you.

Do you have any advice on how to get testimonials? And what do you do with them? Let us know so we can help each other!

What Are Your Ummmm, You knows?

Ummmm…
You know…
Right…
Okay?
Uh….

We all do it. We all have our “filler” words that we throw in frequently when we’re on mental pause. It’s normal.

But when you throw them in while you’re public speaking it sounds horrible, unprofessional, and distracting.

I know that’s brutal, but it’s the truth. I’ve just spent the day editing audio on some older talks that I’ve given, and I’ve made them much better! But one thing I did was delete a ton of “you know”s. You know?

We don’t realize we’re saying it quite often. The only way to tell is to actually listen to a recording of yourself. It’s difficult to do! I don’t even like reading my published work because I’ll always find something that I would have edited differently. Listening to yourself speak is even worse.

But if you’re going to move up to the next level, you have to do it!

Once you realize what your particular quirk is, it’s easier to avoid doing it.

Here are some other tips:

1. Practice. Say your speech out word for word. We mostly commonly throw in those little phrases when we’re unsure of where we’re going next. The more you’ve actually spoken your talk out loud, the better.

2. Get comfortable with silence. If you need to collect your thoughts, it is so much better just to say nothing at all. A three second pause will not bother the audience, even if it seems like an eternity to you. It actually makes you sound cool and collected and not nervous at all. Someone who talks non-stop sounds nervous; someone who makes dramatic pauses sounds comfortable. So if you’re not sure, or if you want to emphasize something, don’t just throw out these inane time fillers. Be quiet! It’s ever so much better.

3. Use a lot of stories. We are least likely to utter those “you knows” when we’re telling an anecdote or story, especially one that we’re comfortable telling. Even if the talk is a new one, if you’ve thrown in stories that you’ve told before, then at least that portion of the talk is familiar to you.

People relate better to stories, anyway, and they remember things better. So try to sprinkle as many anecdotes as will fit throughout your talk. You’re less likely to say “ummm” if you know the story. You’re more likely to say it if you’re just stringing a bunch of thoughts together and you’re not certain where it’s leading!

So figure out what your own time fillers are. It’s crucial to know. And then learn to bite your tongue! You’ll immediately sound more professional and more comfortable!

So….How Do I Get Bookings?

If you want to be a speaker, this is the proverbial question.

You’ve honed up your speaking skills. You’ve carefully crafted a talk that inspires change. But now where do you give that talk?

Several organizations are often eager to have speakers, foremost among them Stonecroft Christian Women’s Clubs and MOPS groups. If you’re male, and you want to speak, I would personally start at men’s prayer breakfasts.

These organizations don’t really pay. You’re lucky if you get $50. But what you do get is exposure.

So I encourage you to seek out the MOPS groups (Mothers of Preschoolers) or the Christian Women’s Clubs in your area. MOPS are obviously looking for parenting & marriage topics; Christian Women’s Clubs are looking for testimonies with a salvation message. If you attend a few meetings you’ll get a feel for it, and then you can approach the organizer.

In some communities these clubs may not work. There could be barriers to entry, or they just may not be open to outside speakers as easily. But the idea is the same: locate some groups that meet regularly but don’t have a large budget for speakers. Churches or summer camps are also good for this sort of thing, especially around the holidays, when many host outreaches or special events.

What you don’t want to do, though, is to give an amazing talk, and then still have no bookings. So here is how to turn these smaller engagements into future larger engagements.

1. Make Sure They Know How To Contact You

This isn’t as hard as it sounds. Printing business cards is fairly inexpensive, and can often be done for about $50 with black and white cards. You can seek out local printers for this, or even online printers like vista. Have your email and your phone number, and a tagline that clearly states what you do: “Pointing Women to Christ”, “Speaking with Passion”, or whatever.

If you don’t want to invest the $50, another option is to have a draw during the event for some sort of prize. You can make up a beautiful gift basket that looks expensive but isn’t by buying a basket from a thrift store, and filling it with color coordinated bathroom items, or notebooks, pens, a tin of coffee, or whatever. Shop at your dollar store and see what you can come up with. Wrap with cellophane, tie a large bow, and it will look like it cost you $50, although you can easily fill a basket for $20. The key is color coordination!

Once you’ve done that, hand out paper for people to enter your draw. Ask for their name, their church (if they have one), and then have a line on there for “Do you know of other organizations looking for speakers?” And ask them to list them, with a contact name, if possible. Many women are happy to list their women’s ministry at their church. You may also get other leads.

Finally, ask them for their own email addresses if they want to hear about your future speaking engagements. DON’T SKIP THIS STEP! Sometimes someone may hear you speak, love you, but have no idea how to get in touch with you again. If you collect their email addresses and send out a newsletter once a month, with inspirational sayings and your itinerary, they can just reply to it. Now they have your contact information!

Fold the pieces of paper and pull one for the basket!

To distribute the ballots, the easiest thing is to lay them on chairs before the event begins. If the organizers are reluctant to have you do this, you can always ask for a table that you can stand behind with your basket and several of the papers across it, with pens. Certainly some will complete the ballots!

2. Record your talk

Now people can get a hold of you, and you have some leads. But you won’t be able to turn those leads into real, paying engagements unless people have a chance to hear you. So as you’re doing these early talks, record them. Often churches have this capability, but if not, a digital recorder is under $100 and is quite easy to use.

You can then edit your audio (more on that in a future blog post) to make yourself sound as professional and polished as possible.

If you have the chance to be videotaped, even better! You can post clips on YouTube of your talks, and then direct people there. You don’t even have to have your own website at this point!

Here, for instance, is how I put up a clip of a talk I gave, clearly telling people how to contact me. You can also just have an email address at the end if you don’t have a website yet. But blogs are free, so at least start one of those!

I hope that helps you get started. More ideas soon, but in the meantime, I want to start expanding my blog roll. Do you have a blog specifically for speakers or authors? Let me know, or leave it in the comments!

I’m going to answer some specific questions in upcoming posts, including one on how I started, and one on speaking bureaus. So come back soon! And if you want to be kept informed when I have more resources available, or when a particularly good post is up, just sign up here!

Creating Rapport with the Audience

Because speaking is different from teaching, and because our aim is to inspire transformation in some aspect of people’s lives, we have to connect with the audience. If we don’t connect, they won’t feel the need to change in the same way.

That’s why I always begin every talk I give with an anecdote, usually lasting 3-4 minutes. It’s usually humorous; it’s usually something everybody can relate to; and it’s usually some sort of a metaphor for my main point.

Here’s an example of one I give quite frequently when in my talk “The Perfect Christmas Tree”:

After this intro, I go on to say that what God wants from us isn’t to work so hard to look perfect; it’s to let Him work in us so that we become the person He made us uniquely to be.

And the props help, although they are on the small side!

Do you have an intro that you often give? Or do you find this a challenge? Let’s start talking about it!

Do You Need to Be Gifted to Speak?

Who should speak?

That’s a toughie with different schools of thought. Personally, I believe speaking is a spiritual gift, similar to teaching or evangelism. Have you ever listened to a pastor and just known that God is speaking through him? I have.

And I once flew to Europe on a missions trip with a man who had the gift of evangelism. He was quiet, and unassuming, and by the time we took off one stewardess had already told him her life story. By the halfway point, three stewardesses were standing in the aisle, talking to him, crying. They all prayed to receive Christ on that flight. And he hardly spoke at all. God was just with him profoundly.

Speaking is a gift, and some of us have it. But that doesn’t mean that we don’t have to prepare, or practice, or be professional. We still need mentoring and discipline, in the same way that preachers need to learn.

Some of us, though, may not feel gifted in speaking, but we are gifted writers, or communicators in other fields. And people ask us to speak, and we want to be ready. Or, perhaps you’re a writer and you know that speaking will boost your writing ministry. The two do go hand in hand, after all.

I believe that we can all learn to speak well, even if it isn’t our particular gift. What I want to share with you on this blog is some of the templates that I use to prepare talks that can help you work through your thoughts, hone your message, and pare it down to the central point. I’m sure other speakers will want to share how they plan a talk as well. (And if you are such a speaker, and you’d like to guest post, do email me!)

Preparing a talk well is one step to speaking effectively for change. Two more are just as essential:

1. Practise, practise, practise. Practise with friends. Practise in front of a mirror. Tape yourself and listen critically to it, even if it’s painful. You have to get used to saying the words out loud. Sometimes what works in our heads doesn’t work when we speak it. We need to practice delivery, timing, and everything.

2. Start small to gain confidence. Target groups that you feel comfortable with: fellow writers, your church small group, a mom’s and tots group, a brown bag lunch at your local library. You don’t even have to use a talk that you would give to a larger audience. Just start to speak in public to small groups, and you will slowly begin to see that you can do this!

Once we have a book out, especially if it is a non-fiction book, we cane expect to get speaking requests. But if those requests come before we are comfortable speaking to a group of people, it will become a nightmare, similar to that recurring dream we all have when we’re late for that final exam in high school and arrive naked or something.

Don’t do that to yourself. Prepare now, before it’s necessary, so that you become comfortable listening to your own voice in front of an audience. Here are some ways to do that:

1. Volunteer to give a talk to Sunday school teachers on how to prepare a lesson.
2. Give a talk to a seniors’ home about Christmas, sharing family memories, or communicating with family members.
3. Lead a Bible study in your small group.
4. Present a missions update at your women’s Bible study group or your small group.
5. Take the opportunity at a family get-together, like Christmas, Thanksgiving, or a family reunion, to lead a talk about your favourite family memories, and then invite others to share.
6. Join a committee, like the PTA or something at church where you will have to give reports.
7. Get involved in a local organization, like a local library or a local guild, where presentations are frequenty made.
8. Teach a class on something that is your hobby, like knitting, scrapbooking, or gardening. Often churches will open their doors for this, or you can volunteer at a local club or supply store.

All of these venues are low stress. People don’t expect a super-eloquent presenter. But the more accustomed you become to speaking out in public, the easier it will be to craft a message for a larger group!

What Does “Giving a Talk” Entail?

Sheila praying at a talk

If you dream of being a speaker, or even if you’ve already been asked to speak, you know that at some point you have to prepare a talk.

So let’s begin by discussing what it means to “give a talk” in the first place. Over the next few days we’ll talk about how to get those speaking engagements, how to organize your talk, and more. But let’s get some details out of the way first.

In my opinion, a talk is an inspirational message that you deliver for the purpose of helping people transform their lives.

Get that?

You don’t give a talk to teach, though you may end up teaching. You don’t give a talk to promote yourself, though you may end up doing so. You don’t give a talk to share your wisdom, or your dreams, or your intellectual capabilities.

You give a talk to inspire someone to transform some aspect of their lives.

My goal, as a writer and a speaker, is to see lives changed. And I use both the spoken word and the written word to do that. To do so I have to connect with my audience; I have to share from my heart and my background; I have to pray; I have to share Scripture. But the point of my talk is not any of those things.

A talk must lead people somewhere, or else all they will say at the end was, “that was very informative” or “that was very enjoyable”. If there’s not something that going to change afterwards, then all that you provided was some momentary entertainment or some brain candy.

I think that’s what differentiates “talks” from “sermons”. I know that pastors have as their goal to change lives, but let’s face it. The way most pastors preach that is not what is happening.

Most pastors have seven points, or four points, or five points that all start with P, or all rhyme, or all have to do with some type of vegetation, or whatever trick they’re using at the time. They use these tricks to try to help you remember facts, because most pastors are trained to teach.

But we can know all the facts in the world and not do anything about it. A talk has to have as its goal that people will, at the end, know what change they should make, know how to make it, and feel encouraged and motivated to do so. Does it really matter if they totally understand the end times prophecies in Daniel, or if they can explain to you what grace means from the book of Romans, if they don’t do anything about it?

I am not saying that there is something wrong with speaking on Romans. Not at all! We do need to focus our talks around Scripture.

But we don’t do so just to transmit knowledge. We do so to transmit knowledge so that they will make a change.

And that’s why talks tend to be more emotional than sermons. They need to include anecdotes so people can relate. They tend to appeal to a wide range of emotions, from humour to sadness to empathy. As we connect, we reach the heart, and not only the head. And thus people are more likely to be changed.

Before you plan a talk, before you start a speaking career, before you start looking for engagements, ask yourself this question: what is it that I am uniquely called to help people transform? What is the one area where God has spoken to me that I can share with others so they can change something? What is your primary focus of transformation?

I started thinking along these lines about speaking when Family Life Canada, whom I speak for at times, gave me the book Communicating for a Change: Seven Keys to Irresistible Communication. It really changed the way I saw speaking.

A speaker is not a pastor. We are supposed to be more personal, more anecdotal, and more motivational. I highly recommend this book if you want to start thinking along these lines. I’ll be putting it up on my new resource page tonight, and if any of you have other resources that you want to recommend, leave them in the comments and I’ll add them!

In the meantime, what transformational change are you called to talk about? I talk about how to give up the idea of happiness and focus on God being enough–in your marriage, in your life, in your parenting. When we do that, happiness follows. But it can never be our goal. All my talks, across the different groups I speak on, focus on that. What about you?

Why This Blog?

Sheila Wray Gregoire

I’m Sheila Wray Gregoire.

I speak.

Do you?

I didn’t always. I started off writing articles, and eventually books. But I’ve always loved making people laugh, and I love communicating God’s truth.

But when I started speaking it was tough. I didn’t have a mentor, and I didn’t have any clue where to find speaking engagements, how much to charge, how to write a good talk, how to market myself, and more.

Now I speak 4-8 times a month to audiences from 50-1000. And I love it!

But there aren’t enough of me. And there aren’t enough other really good speakers, either. There need to be, because our churches, and our culture, need to hear good, biblical messages that can help transform their lives, families, and communities.

So I hope this blog can become a place where I can share what I’ve learned, and where you can add some of your own ideas and comments. Let’s make this a community, where we can trade knowledge, grow from each other, and inspire each other!

In the next few days I’ll have posts up on how to get started, how to figure out how much to charge, great places to launch your speaking ministry, and more! So bookmark me now and visit back often, or subscribe via RSS! I’m going to provide some great tips that I wish people had shared with me way back when. And you can get them here, for free!

Thanks for joining me!