Every Tuesday on BlogTalkRadio I host Use Your Words, a 30 minute show where I give you speaking tips!
After asking on my Facebook page about the types of things you all wanted to hear about, I discovered that “writing a book” was right there on the top of the list. So I decided to tackle that in yesterday’s show. Listen in here.
A few thoughts from the show, in no particular order:
1. It’s very hard to get a book published today by a traditional publisher.
They’re looking for a great, compelling idea with a readily available and identifiable market. In other words, they don’t want lots of new books on “how to get closer to God”, which is basically what most of us who speak want to write. They want something very specific, that addresses a problem.
Unfortunately, if we write books for a specific niche, they’re hard to sell if we speak to general audiences. So traditional publishers aren’t likely going to help us much.
2. Self-Publishing is very expensive.
I say more about self-publishing in this post, but keep in mind that you’re looking at roughly $5000. That’s a lot of money. You can expect to sell books to about 10% of your audience, roughly, so if you speak to 300 women a month, and you publish 1000 books, you will likely sell them in three years. If you can guarantee that you can do that, self-publishing may be worth doing. If you can’t, then you should think about waiting.
3. Writing a Book Takes Time You Could Spend Elsewhere
Writing a book will take you at least six months to do well. In that six months, you could have been, instead, building up your web presence and your online community, which in turn would make it easier to sell that book (or to attract a traditional publisher). You could have been researching other speaking opportunities, or even writing magazine articles.
I’m not saying it’s not a good idea; only look at what should come first. Personally, I would concentrate on building a big online presence first, and then writing the book when you have a natural audience to sell it to. I talk more about my perspective in the radio show, so listen in!
In the meantime, if you need things to sell as you speak, a better route is to find something cheaper to produce. I have a great teleseminar that teaches you how to Create Information Products to sell, and helps you brainstorm what will work for you.
And this summer, I’ll be doing a webinar on how to get a book published, if you’re serious and you do want to pursue this. I’ll give you all the ins and outs, and teach you how to have the best reception from publishers. You don’t want to miss it, so sign up for my speaking information here!
You’re a Christian women’s speaker. You speak at church events. You do it for the glory of God. So thinking about marketing your speaking ministry sounds weird. Is that really part of ministry?
Yes, it is, because if God has given you a message, you should want to get it out there. And you can only get it out there if people have heard of you and if you capture their attention long enough to get them to suggest you or hire you.
So let’s look at one of the best marketing tools you have: pictures of yourself. You can use pictures in a whole variety of ways to get people’s attention, but to do that, you need one thing first: a professional photograph of yourself, taken by a professional photographer. It should look interesting, should portray you in your best light, and should make you look like you take ministry seriously.
I waited too long to pay for a professional photo. I settled for some that were just awful, and they were embarrassing on my website. One day I was asked to be on the most popular Christian radio show in Canada, and I sent them my photo to put up on their website before the fact. The host gently told me the photo wasn’t up to snuff–and honestly, it wasn’t that bad. It just obviously wasn’t a professional photograph. So don’t settle for your sister taking a picture of your smiling face. Ask someone who knows what they’re doing!
I finally paid for a photo shoot, and now I have 15 different pictures I can use at different times, and it’s so freeing!
Of course, it’s almost time for some new ones, because my hair keeps changing, but that’s one of the dangers of being a woman.
So get a professional photograph. And then here’s what you do with pictures:
1. Put them prominently on your website
Use a variety of pictures, if possible, on each page. People like visual things. Embed one picture into your header on your website so that it’s on every page, but you can add different pictures of yourself on other pages. They don’t all have to be super quality; as long as one really good one is in the header, you can include action or candid shots on the other. But include lots, to make it seem as if you’re very busy. The busier you seem, the more people will want to hire you!
2. Take pictures every time you speak
Whenever you speak, ask someone in the audience to take pictures. Hand them your camera, show them what to do, and tell them to shoot away! And ask them to take a ton, because I find that usually only 10% are usable. So get them to take lots so you have lots of choice.
And make sure you get pictures when you’re just chatting with people after the talk, or sitting at a table with people at a dinner. People like the action shots and not just the shots of you at the podium.
3. Put them up on Facebook
Even if they’re not great, after each engagement, post pictures to Facebook, both to your page and to your profile. This is easy to do by uploading them to your page and then tagging yourself in them using your profile account, and then they show up in both news feeds.
If they’re not great, I often upload them to Facebook and my blog and then delete them from my camera card, because I don’t need to save everything. But putting them up as often as possible reminds people: Hey! She speaks! And that may sound silly, but often people forget (especially your friends). Remind them, and they’re more likely to recommend you.
4. Wear different outfits as much as possible
This may sound a little too image-conscious, but I try to not repeat the same outfit very often, or at least within the last 2-3 speaking engagements. That way I have pictures of myself speaking in different clothes, which reinforce the fact: Hey! She’s doing LOTS of speaking! If you always speak in the same clothes, then the pictures can look as if they were taken on the same day, and people don’t have the same impression that you speak lots.
Give them the idea that you speak lots, and they will think of you as being in demand and want to hire you more.
5. Use pictures for video
You can make a video of your ministry without actual video. As long as you have an .mp3 of you speaking, you can combine that with still photos and create a short promo video. Candy Troutman, one of my students, made one here. So never underestimate the power of what you can do with photos!
6. Send out newsletters
You should be sending out a monthly newsletter to those on your email list. Include speaking photos from the last month in that newsletter–or at least photos from engagements that perhaps you haven’t highlighted yet. Again, let people remember, “she speaks A LOT”, and then they’re more likely to ask you to speak for them.
Note that you can’t do many of these things if you don’t take pictures. So be sure to take as many as you can everytime you speak, and you’ll find your ministry growing!
Maybe last year you had three paid speaking engagements, so you were hoping to have ten this year. But you’ve had three again. Or perhaps you dreamed of breaking out of speaking engagements for roughly 50 people each time, and speaking to hundreds. But that’s not happening.
Yesterday on my Use Your Words BlogTalkRadio show I talked about how to break out of a rut, and propel your ministry to the next level. You can listen to the 30 minute program here.
Let me let you in on the three principles that I shared:
1. Don’t be Boring
People underestimate how used to being bored audiences are. Most of the time that a speaker is talking, audience members are planning errands in their minds, thinking over shopping lists or to-do lists, and in general not paying attention.
It’s hard to capture an audience’s attention today.
That’s why if you come in and are actually interesting, people will tell others about you because you will stick in their minds.
And since word of mouth is really the only thing that generates speaking engagements, you absolutely MUST be interesting and engaging.
I talk about that in this blog post, 7 Ways to Bore Your Audience. Follow that advice, and they won’t be bored. They’ll be engaged. And then they will tell others about how great a speaker you are, because you will stand out from the crowd!
2. Get Strategic in Asking for Speaking Engagements
If you’re finding that your engagements have sputtered, and you aren’t getting very many requests anymore, think about speaking very strategically somewhere that you can talk to women from as many churches and areas as possible.
And the best place to do that? Conferences. Look into conferences in your area and propose 2-3 ideas of workshops that you can do. The workshops must teach a skill or address a need, so they’re not exactly the same as giving an inspirational talk. But the good thing is that you get to stand before women from a variety of churches who can then recommend you.
At that workshop, mention at the beginning and the end that you speak at churches and do retreats. At the end, say something like, “I’d love to come and share this message with your church, so please speak to me if your church is looking for speakers.” And then have some business cards on hand.
Where do you find conferences? Think about denominational conferences (even outside your own denomination), homeschooling conventions, MOPS conventions, worship conventions, or general women’s conferences. Look anywhere you’re willing to drive to, so it can be far from where you live. And then search online and make a list of all the recurring conferences in your area. Start contacting the organizers. And see where it goes!
In one year I did the main conference for the Christian Reformed Church, the Salvation Army, the North American Baptist, and two homeschooling conventions, and from those I had tons of speaking engagements. Now, I was actually keynoting at many of them, but when I was just starting, I did workshops at these types of conferences, too. And it’s amazing how those workshops can add to more things.
3. Project the Image “I’m a Professional”
Sometimes you’re stalled in small engagements because that’s the image you give off. If you want to get a larger engagement, you need to look as if you’re ready for it. I know this sounds petty, but image does matter, both in person and online.
So dress well. Invest in 2-3 outfits for speaking that are high quality, dynamic (as in not browns & blacks & beiges), and interesting to look at. Have a fashionable friend shop with you if necessary.
Get a good haircut and learn how to apply some basic makeup.
And then, make sure that your website looks like it belongs to someone who speaks frequently. Invest in a professional photograph, and put pictures of yourself speaking up on your website. Make sure your topics are easy to find, and testimonials from other people. But a high quality photo and a well-designed website will do much for giving the impression that you are professional and that you take speaking seriously.
A poorly designed website says, “I do this just for a hobby, and I haven’t invested in it.” A large church isn’t going to hire you then. So pay the money and get a graphic designer for your website, and hire someone to take a good photo!
There’s lots more in the download. Listen to the whole show here, and tell me what you think! And if you have ideas for future shows, or something you want me to cover, let me know!
This summer I’ll be starting a series of webinars that you can take to learn more about building your speaking ministry. I’ll announce those soon, and I do hope you’ll join me.
Recently a blog held a contest for the “25 Best Faith Blogs”. Somehow a ton of pagan blogs got on the list, along with a bunch of Christian mom blogs, and a voting war started between the pagan blogs and the Christian ones. It got kind of nasty. The Christians that I saw were trying to stay above the fray, and trying to minister the best they could, but things were dicey, because here were these women who were blogging for basically no other purpose than that they wanted to encourage other moms, and on all their heart-felt posts about motherhood, they were getting slammed in the comments by pagans, who had just found their blogs through the contest.
For many of these Christian moms it was a hard lesson about the internet. Up until then they had flown under the radar, attracting readers who were already Christian, and not really generating negative comments. Now, all of a sudden, they were being attacked for their faith.
I experienced something similar last week. Every week I try to upload a Vlog on my marriage blog that has something to do with marriage. Two weeks ago I uploaded one on what to do when marriage doesn’t meet your expectations. My advice? Remember that marriage is more about holiness than happiness, and instead of expecting your spouse to do all these incredible things, turn to God and ask Him to make you a great wife. Go to Him for your encouragement, and get your eyes off your spouse’s failures. Here it is if you want to see:
Well, the video went by with a few hundred from my blog watching it, when all of a sudden one morning from out of nowhere I had a dozen comments on it, all a variant of “dump the jerk!”, although several used much more colourful language. I deleted them all, but the thumbs down had been hit repeatedly. (If you can go and hit “thumbs up“, I would so appreciate it!).
I asked other friends to go by and thumbs it up, but the two incidents together taught me something.
We can’t be out in social media without being noticed. And sometimes that notice will be very negative.
You can’t stand for truth and not have people lambaste you. So what do you do?
In some cases, it’s better to keep the comments and not worry about it. If you were starting a blog where debate was the main purpose, then by all means, keep the comments. But that’s not what I chose to do, for several reasons:
1. My website is an advertisement
If people see that I’m consistently “thumbed down”, or attacked in the comments–even if they agree with what I write–they’re going to think that I’m not as persuasive or not as professional as they’re looking for. People tend not to like conflict. So be careful!
2. My website is a ministry
People come to my site and click on my links for advice–and godly advice at that. If people are writing things that diametrically oppose what you are saying, then they could be leading a hurting person who has stumbled upon your website in the wrong direction. And that’s why I deleted them.
Anyone who is online has to have a comment policy, and so here are just some thoughts:
1. Consider comment moderation
Most blogging platforms allow comment moderation. If your website is a ministry, then you may not want really bad comments on your blog–or even profane ones. Turning on comment moderation means that you have to click “okay” before a comment is published. It’s more time consuming for you, and it means that people’s comments don’t show up right away. But it’s likely a good idea.
2. On some platforms, turn off comments altogether.
I’m thinking of turning off comments on YouTube, though I haven’t done that yet. There are some platforms where it’s just too easy to be “discovered” by accident by people who don’t agree, and it’s too easy to be put down. So I’m considering turning them off, since the main purpose of my videos is just to minister, not so that people will debate in the comments. The debates happen on Facebook or on my blogs.
3. Allow comments, but respond thoughtfully
Another option is to keep the comments there, but respond appropriately to all of them. This may be seen as the “Christian” way to do it, because you’re answering their questions and doing further ministry. But the problem is that most people who comment never come back to see what you’ve said. Most just leave a negative comment and then are never heard from again, so you’re not really ministering to them. You’re simply giving them a platform for their views.
In some cases, allowing those comments may, indeed, be useful, especially if you can counter them in a loving and logical manner. But in others, the presence of comments is just hurtful.
4. Defriend if necessary
If someone on your Facebook Page is becoming a menace, or someone is constantly attacking you on Twitter, block them. you have the ability, and it’s okay to use it. Just because you’re out there does not mean that others have the right to attack you, or drain your emotional energy. It is YOUR platform. It is YOUR Facebook Page, your blog, your Twitter account. You are not obligated to give them a platform to say what they want to say. They can go make their own blog if they want to do that. So don’t be afraid to block people if you need to!
When you step out in faith and put your words out in the internet, people will at some point criticize you. It’s only natural. People don’t like messages about truth, and honour, and commitment, and dignity, and integrity, and holiness. So don’t take it personally when you are attacked. Just realize it’s part of the job, they did worse to Jesus, and He’ll handle it with you! And put some safeguards into your sites so that they don’t become places where bad advice in the comments is allowed to fluorish!
That’s the most common question I get from people–how do I figure out what to charge for speaking? What do other people charge? And is it selfish to ask for money?
On this week’s Use Your Words program, I tackled this thorny issue. I’ve already written a longer blog post about deciding what to charge. That really is useful for getting into the nitty gritty! But let me sum up here.
Once people start asking you to speak, as opposed to you generating the engagements, then you should definitely charge.
Some organizations pay about $50 or $75, but let’s face it: that doesn’t even cover your mileage. So you need to figure out what to ask for.
When I started out, here was my thinking:
If I had to support myself, what would I need to make? Then what is that on an hourly basis? (basically divide it in half and then divide by $1000. So $50,000 a year is $25 an hour).
If I want to make $25 an hour, then what do I charge for an event where I speak for one hour? Well, you have to look at what goes into that hour:
Time spent speaking
Time spent at the engagement
Average time of travel for the engagements you do
Time spent in preparation
But then there are also other hours that you have to account for, like:
Time spent building a website
Time spent networking
Time spent in training/study
Once I worked all that out, it looked like I was spending about 8 hours directly for each engagement, and then I averaged about another 3 hours that I had to add in to each engagement to cover my other time. And that gave me a figure.
Then, take that fee and double it for an all day Saturday engagement.
Take that fee and AT LEAST triple it for a weekend engagement
And, if, after that, you still have questions, ask in the comments. This is such an important question, and I want to really help. So ask away, and I’ll write a follow up post trying to answer them all!
If you want to learn more about how to earn larger fees and start using business principles to grow your ministry, check out my audio downlaod, Treating Speaking as a Business. It’s only $12, and comes with a spreadsheet that helps you prioritize your marketing ideas and figure out where to grow. I know it will help!
