Use Your Words: Networking to Build Your Women’s Speaking Ministry

I’m a little late getting up the recording for my Use Your Words show last week, where I talked about how to network to build speaking engagements. Sorry about that!

But here are some key thoughts that I gave:

1. Don’t Ignore People you Know in Real Life

Talk to your friends. Chances are they know people who are influential in large churches in your surrounding area–even if they don’t go there themselves. Make a list of all your friends and figure out who, among your friends and acquaintances, knows the most people. And then ask for introductions! The more you meet people in real life, the more likely it is that people will hire.

Speaking of real life, network with those who minister to the same niche you do, even if they don’t speak. If you want to speak to teenagers, for instance, get to know the people who run Youth For Christ in your area. Get to know youth pastors. Get to know the person who does the youth show on your local Christian radio station. Meet for coffee, and keep in touch. That helps keep you fresh in people’s minds.

2. Remind your Facebook Friends that you Speak

Every so often, put out an update announcing that you’re working on a new talk, or that you’ve just landed a speaking engagement, or that you’re looking for a speaking engagement in a particular town. The more those you know in real life think of you as a speaker, the more likely they are to recommend you.

3. Use LinkedIn

LinkedIn is very useful for professional contacts. If you get on LinkedIn, you can find other speakers, women’s ministry leaders, denominational leaders, Christian media personalities, and more. Those are the kinds of people it’s good to get to know. Join LinkedIn groups they’re in. Participate in conversations. Keep track of those you really want to get to know better, and when you find something online that may interest them, forward it.

There’s lots more in the actual show, so make sure to listen in!

Use Your Words: How Effective is Social Media in Getting Speaking Engagements?

Every Tuesday when I’m not away speaking I try to host my Use Your Words BlogTalkRadio show at noon EST! And today’s topic was suggested by Jamie Blahun, who commented on my Facebook Page, asking how to manage the time that you spend on social media. You can listen to the thirty minute show right here.

Here are some highlights:

1. Think About Your Goal

If your goal is to get speaking engagements, then you need to devote your time online to the things that are most likely to do that. And remember the path that people usually take when booking a speaker:

• Someone’s name is suggested
• They Google that person
• They read their information and watch videos
• Then they contact them

In other words, the vast majority of speaking engagements will be secured because someone mentioned your name, and then they checked you out online.

If you do not have a good website that explains what you speak about, and that has a lot of photos of you speaking, it is unlikely you will be hired.

Thus, your main goal is to create a website that is likely to get you speaking engagements. The best way to do that is to create a high quality one that includes video, and to keep in contact through newsletters with people that have already heard you speak (so as to get referrals).

2. Facebook and Twitter are Really Peripheral to this

Yes, everyone needs to be on Facebook. Not everyone needs to be on Twitter. But when it comes to speaking engagements, if you have a limited amount of time to devote online, the priority really should be in getting your website top-notch and then in keeping in contact with people that you have spoken to through newsletters.

The problem with both Facebook and Twitter is that they are not geographically specific, and when you are looking to get speaking engagements, geography matters, especially when you’re starting out, because few churches have the money to fly someone in. So you want to get well known in a small geographical area. That’s not really Facebook and Twitter’s forte.

Does that mean that you can ignore them? No. But I certainly wouldn’t put so much time into Twitter and getting thousands of followers that I neglected to put up good videos on my website. Honestly, videos come first, along with keeping in touch with those who already know you. Getting to know strangers is helpful, but it’s secondary.

3. When You’re On Twitter and Facebook, Remember the Purpose

If you do want to spend time on Facebook and Twitter, make sure that you do so with an eye to creating your “brand”. If you want to be known as a women’s speaker about deep spiritual issues, don’t dedicate your Twitter feed to how hard it is to housetrain your new puppy. Don’t put lots up on Facebook about your family’s move, or the trouble you’re having with your new kitchen renovation. These things may be interesting to you, but they aren’t to people who don’t know you personally, and they will cause those people to tune you out.

The key to social media is not to confuse people. People will pay more careful attention to you if they know what you tend to talk about. They start to expect, “oh, she’ll have a pithy thing to say about doing your devotions”, or, “I know she’ll say something neat about prayer.” If you come out and talk politics, you’ll throw them off.

So stick to your brand, no matter how passionate  you are about other things. And then find other people who speak about the same things, and follow them and participate in conversations. As you grow relationships, you’re more likely to get recommendations.

4. Don’t Ignore LinkedIn

As we talked about last week on the show, LinkedIn can be  useful for getting to know people who work in women’s ministry and specifically want more women’s ministry ideas. If you can find groups on LinkedIn to join that have to do with evangelism to women, women’s ministry, women’s retreats, or anything like that, and then you participate in those conversations, you’ll get better known. But if the group is huge, and only two or three people ever participate anything, then chances are that group isn’t worth your time.

5. Set Parameters

Finally, take a look at your social media efforts and decide how much time it’s reasonable for you to spend a day. Then get a kitchen timer and set it for that amount of time, and count down. When you’re done, you’re done. No more feeling guilty.

Another thing that can help are the automatic scheduling programs. Hootsuite, for instance, can schedule your Tweets and Facebook updates to appear throughout the day, so you can schedule everything in the morning and then leave it for the day. That can save you tremendous time!

Look, everyone is on Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn and Pinterest, but they’re on it for different reasons, and those reasons don’t always add up to helping you get speaking engagements. So judge what really would be the most useful, and what your goal is, and concentrate on the areas that will bring you the best rewards! Listen in the whole show here.

If you want some more help in marketing your speaking ministry, my teleseminar, Treating Speaking as a Business, helps you prioritize your efforts!

Use Your Words: Marketing Your Book

Every Tuesday at noon EST when I’m not speaking, I host a BlogTalkRadio show dedicated specifically to speaking! This week we went off the reservation a bit to talk not just about speaking, but also about how to market your book.

Normally I just do a condensed version of the show on the blog, so that people can catch what they missed listening to, and I’ll try to do that here, too. But I’ve got to tell you, this show was packed with really useful ideas, and so you really need to listen!

Here, though, is the nutshell version:

The key to marketing is not to create an audience for your book. It’s not even to bring the audience to you. The key to marketing is to figure out where your audience already is, and then go and stand in front of them!

You basically have two main circles of influence to do that in. You have those people that you know in person and will meet in person, and you have the online world. You can’t ignore either sphere. The people that you know personally you have a deeper relationship with, and you’re more likely to be able to sell to them. But they’re such a small proportion of the population. You also need to reach out to the masses. So you need a wide reach on one hand, and a deep reach on the other. Let’s look at how to handle both these groups:

A. Marketing to Your Personal Spheres of Influence

1. Ask your friends for help

Send out an email to your friends announcing your new book. But don’t JUST announce your new book. Figure out who the main reader of the book will be, and what their main problem is. Is it young Christian moms? Is it recovering alcoholics? Is it men who have just been through a divorce?

In your email, say this clearly, like this:

“I know single, Christian women will really appreciate this book. Can you do me a favour and forward this email to FIVE single, Christian women that you know? Thanks so much!”

Ironically, naming a number, like five, makes it far more likely that the email will be forwarded. If you just say, “forward this email to single, Christian women” people won’t do it, because they don’t have an easy way to measure how big a task that is. Specify a number, and they’ll do it!

2. Figure out Where People Meet

What is the main problem your book is addressing? Or if it isn’t addressing a problem (let’s say it’s a women’s devotional), then think about the key people in your niche, and ask what problems they have.

Here’s why: people are more likely to meet to solve a problem then just to be together. So you have support groups for everything under the sun. Figure that out, and then contact those groups.

B. The Online World

The online world works on RELATIONSHIPS, not on marketing. If you start a blog, or start a Facebook page or a Twitter account where your main goal is to sell your book, and you make this obvious, you won’t be successful.

For your presence to be felt online, you have to participate in conversations that are already occurring. So start a blog where you talk about the problems your niche group faces (again, people are more likely to go online looking for answers to problems).

Then find people on Twitter who talk about those problems. Identify two or three good influences, and look at who they follow. Chances are they will follow people similar to your niche. Follow them, too.

Then just start participating in conversations. Share great YouTube videos. Retweet people. Put up interesting content.

Yes, you can share your book, but it is actually better to develop a relationship first, so that you stand out in the crowd and you build goodwill.

For instance, I once saw a tweet from a woman who was looking for a specific knitting pattern. I knew where to find it, and I tweeted her the link. It took me about 45 seconds. Now I love to knit, but my books have nothing to do with knitting. But that woman was so grateful, and she remembered me, that now she retweets almost everything I post about marriage. I made a connection by doing something helpful.

That sounds like a lot of work, you say. Yep. It does. But that’s what online marketing is. Try to schedule a little bit of time everyday to read through people’s tweets and respond, and to post interesting stuff on Facebook. If people think of you as someone who collects information in your niche, they’re more likely to listen to you when you talk about your book!

That’s the quick synopsis of the show, but there is so much more there. So listen in to this 30 minute recording, and take notes!

And if you want to know more about how to build an online community, my download, Build Your Online Community, is invaluable!

5 Ways to Make the Most of your First Speaking Engagement

 

So you’ve been working hard and you’ve landed your first speaking engagement! You’re so excited, but you’re scared at the same time. Will you make a fool out of yourself? Will people like you?

If you want to grow your speaking ministry, then you’ll also want to make the most out of this speaking engagement, so that it will spread word of mouth about you, and help you to garner even more engagements. You don’t want to speak once and then be back where you started: with no prospects in sight.

So here are steps to take to make sure you grow buzz about your speaking ministry:

1. Give a GREAT Talk

That’s the hard part, I know, but you’ve been building towards this for a while. You deserve to give it your absolute best shot.

And don’t be too nervous about it. Remember that chances are most of the audience won’t know it’s your first engagement. Don’t volunteer that bit of information, either, or else they’ll start getting nervous for you. Just walk up there, with confidence, knowing that God has put you here.

And how do you give a great talk? You don’t want to preach at your audience; you want to take them on a journey so they’re ready to hear your central message, and they’re ready to listen to God. Telling them a bunch of facts won’t work; connecting on both an intellectual and emotional level will. If you’re unsure of how to do this, I have an audio download, with a great handout, that will take you step by step in how to prepare a talk. It’s almost a fill-in-the-blanks thing, and will help you identify your central, unique message. Find out more with this audio download, Craft Your Signature Talk.

2. Record Yourself

In the future, you’re going to get speaking engagements through word of mouth, and that’s going to work best when women’s ministry leaders who may hire you can actually “hear” you. So record yourself. Later, you can use that recording to make a 2-3 minute video and audio clip to put on your website.

Don’t worry if you don’t know how to do that. Don’t even worry if you don’t have a website yet. Just record yourself, and then when you are ready, you’ll have something to work with. But if you don’t record yourself now, you can’t get that opportunity back.

Here’s a great recorder that works for me. You’ll need an external microphone, too, to pick up your voice the best.

3. Collect Email Addresses

Hold a draw for a prize, or something, and ask people to fill out a ballot with their name on it. Provide a box they can check if they want your newsletter about (whatever your main message is). Don’t just offer your newsletter; few will take it. But if you present it like this:

• Monthly Newsletter with Devotional
• Monthly Ezine on Christian friendship
• Monthly Ezine with Mom Tips
• Monthly Ezine with God’s Encouragement

Or whatever may be relevant in your case, more people will check the box. With this method, you’ll likely get about 30% of people signing up for your newsletter, which isn’t bad. You don’t want people to HAVE to enter their email address to win, though, because it’s more likely they’ll treat your emails as spam.

4. Take Pictures

Hand your camera to someone who looks like they know how to use it, and ask them to take as many pictures as they can while you’re up there. Take pictures around the table, too. Just take as many as you can, because you can use these later on Facebook, on a blog, on your website, or even on promotional materials.

5. Get testimonials

If anyone tells you that they really enjoyed you, ask if they’d mind emailing that to you. Or ask for their email address, and then email them afterwards and ask if you can quote them on that.

Send an email to the person who organized the event, and ask her for her feedback. The more testimonials you have, the better it will be for your website!

Even if you don’t have all the pieces in place yet to promote yourself, if you follow these steps, then when you do have a website running, and a newsletter running, and a Facebook presence, you’ll have content. So don’t ignore these beginning engagements. Use them for all you can get out of them! And remember: God is opening doors. Step through them!

Use Your Words: Finding the Work/Life Balance

Well, somehow I got through another Use Your Words show with a throat that is absolutely killing me! So if I sounded funny, forgive me.

But today’s show was inspired by an email I received from Lisa, who said,

“how do you find the time for everything? How do you balance your work and your family? How do you figure out how to find time to market? I just feel like I never get anything done.”

I so feel your pain, Lisa. And so you can listen to the show right here. But here’s a synopsis for the rest of you:

1. Stop Apologizing for Your Ministry

When I started speaking and writing, I felt like it was something I was doing for me–stoking my own ego, so to speak. Therefore, I couldn’t take any time away from my daughters, or my home, or my marriage, or I was somehow cheating. I was being selfish. So the ministry came last. I had to make sure I was SuperMommy before I could go on the computer.

Stop it. If God is calling you to ministry, He wants you to take some time. You don’t have to apologize. You don’t have to compensate. You don’t have to work four times as hard in every other area of your life to get “permission” to do ministry. Ask for help, explain to your mate what you feel is your calling, talk to your friends about it, and stop feeling guilty.

2. Stop Apologizing to Yourself

But if we’re not feeling guilty for letting everyone else down, we often feel guilty for letting ourselves down. I should be accomplishing so much more, we think. I should be trying harder. I should be further ahead.

No. You do what you can, when you can. When my kids were young, I only had time to work while they napped. My ministry grew slowly. When they were older, I did what I could. I didn’t begin blogging or using social media until 2008, when they were able to do most of their homeschooling independently (they were 11 and 13 at the time). God may be calling you to something, but it may be something that grows slowly, in different stages of your life. That’s okay. Even in the beginning years, when you are busy with little ones, or in years when you’re busy taking care of older relatives, He’s still grooming you. He’s giving you great stories to tell one day! He’s giving you life experience. You can still read and learn and pray, even if you don’t do as much speaking now. That’s all right.

3. Stop Feeling Guilty About Not Keeping a Schedule

I used to feel guilty about not getting up at 6:30 to start my day off right. I have finally come to peace with the fact that I’m not a morning person. I often don’t go to sleep until 11:30 or midnight, so I”ll spend some “time” with my husband early in the evening, say from 10-11, and then he’ll go to sleep while I’m on my iPad until midnight, lying in bed beside him. That’s okay. I’m getting work done at night.

I also used to feel guilty because I read all these productivity magazine articles that said that I was supposed to have “work hours”. I tried that. It never worked. And I felt horrible about it. I tried working from 10-12, thinking that then I would get stuff done. But then we’d have doctor’s appointments, or Katie would need help with math, and I’d end up resenting he for it.

You need to do what works for you. I start a timer at the beginning of the day, and try to work for 2 1/2 hours on my big projects. I hit start, and get to work. When an interruption comes, I hit stop. And then when I sit back down, I hit start again. So over the day I’m trying to get to 2 1/2 hours. When I do get there, I stop. I go make dinner, or I relax, or I do something else.

I find working for 2 1/2 hours less stressful than saying, “I need to get this done today”, because then if you don’t get it doen you feel guilty. Instead, I do what I can in the hours that I have decided are reasonable.

One caveat: this doesn’t work well when you have small children. If you’re constantly trying to “snatch” time when there are preschoolers underfoot, you’ll end up resenting them because they’re always interrupting you. It’s better in that case to have time at night, when your husband has them, or to trade baby-sitting time with friends, or to work when they nap or when they watch a video (we used to save movies for when Mommy needed to work).

4. Figure out your main goal for the month

We all have endless to do lists on what we need to do to get our speaking ministry going. I need a better website. I need a Facebook page. I need to write my talk for the retreat. I need to send out my newsletter. I need to do this. Stop it. Just stop it. If you think in terms of your to-do list, you’ll never feel to done. You’ll always feel like you haven’t accomplished anything because there is always more to do.

Instead, think in terms of one or two big projects you want to work on this month. Maybe it’s getting an ebook together, or cold calling churches to book a speaking tour. Figure out your main goals (and if you have trouble focusing, my webinar, Treating Speaking Like a Business, gives you an amazing tool to figure out what is most useful for you to concentrate on, and what will most help your ministry). Then you’re focused, and the other stuff can get done later. You’ve taken care of the importan tthings.

Do these four things, and you’ll stop feeling so guilty! So listen in if you missed the show. And be sure to check out my webinar, Treating Speaking Like a Business!

The Only Social Media Strategy that Works

Let me tell you about a woman I know who is an aspiring speaker. She also is quite involved in ministry to teens and the hurting.

I follow her on Twitter and Facebook, and occasionally look at her blog. And this professional woman, who is listed as “in a relationship” on Facebook, with no other information, spends 60% of her tweets replying to another male professional in the town where she lives. I have no idea what their relationship is, but I don’t think he’s the one she’s “in a relationship” with.

I don’t think there’s anything bad going on. It’s just odd.

And if I were a women’s ministry leader, and I were investigating her for a possible speaking engagement, and I took a look at her Twitter feed, I would have no idea that this was a woman who wanted to teach other women. And, by the way, I’d be very leery about this guy that she keeps talking to (even though it probably is innocent).

I know she is trying to build a speaking business, and a ministry, but she isn’t going to do it with that social media strategy.

We seem to think that the correct social media strategy is: If you build it, they will come.

In other words, if you’re tweeting, if you’re on Facebook, if you’re constantly updating your blog, you’re doing all the right things.

Nope. That’s not how it works.

If you want to become known in a certain sphere, and if you want people to take you seriously in your area of expertise, then you must actually tweet and update about that area of expertise. And pretty much ONLY that area of expertise.

That may not sound radical, but it is amazing how few people actually follow this advice. If you want to be known as someone who can minister to people recovering from cancer, for instance, then make sure most of your tweets have to do with inspirational quotes, cancer studies, links to inspirational stories or videos, posts on your own journey with cancer, and things like that. Do not talk about what you had for breakfast. Don’t throw in too many tweets about your kids’ soccer games (though the occasional one is okay). Don’t confuse people.

There is so much noise in the social media world that if people don’t know who you are, and can’t figure out what your brand is, they will tune you out. But if you can consistently talk on one main topic, you’ll get “listed” on Twitter (people can organize the people they follow into lists, so that they can keep better track of the people they find interesting. I’ve been listed almost 300 times now, because I tweet primarily about marriage). People will pay more attention to you. They’ll make sure not to miss your updates. They’ll interact with you on Facebook, and thus keep your Facebook updates in higher profile on their Facebook feeds.

I’m going to write a follow-up post on how to use Facebook appropriately so you don’t annoy your personal friends by posting too much about your business, but you also don’t annoy your “internet” friends by posting too much about your kids. So look for it!

But right now, do this experiment: take a look at the last fifteen updates on your Twitter feed (for those of you on Twitter) or your LinkedIn feed, or your Facebook feed, and ask yourself, “If I didn’t know who this person was, and just came across them, could I tell, based on only these updates, what their brand is? What their primary focus is?”

If you can’t answer yes to that, then you have a social media problem.

Social media can go far to define you as an expert in a field, but only if you consistently post about that field. So instead of thinking of “updates” as “updating people on what I am doing”, start thinking of updates as “updating people on something they would find interesting that has to do with my niche.” Don’t think about you would find interesting. Don’t start typing about what’s predominantly on your mind, or what you’re thinking about. Make the starting point what your target audience would find interesting, and then update them on that. They are the starting point, not you.

Refocus your strategy that way, and you’ll find a lot more people listening to what you say, because they know what it will be about and they’re interested in it. Keep updating people about your grocery purchases, or about your aunt who is sick, and you’ll lose them.

Coming soon: how to handle Facebook to find that balance between personal friends and fans!

If you want to learn more about managing an online community, my webinar and my e-course are tremendously helpful! They’ll direct you on how to focus your energies and be more strategic in what you do. Check them out!

Now’s the Time to Find Speaking Engagements for the Spring

Three weeks ago I was looking at a relatively empty fall and spring speaking schedule. I had reserved some major blocks of time for trips and writing, but it turns out that those things weren’t happening, and I started to get worried. Would I get speaking engagements to cover the time? Or had I lost it by saying no when people asked last spring?

I’m no longer worried. I’ve received a ton of stuff in my inbox over the last few days, and things are booking up fast.

So here’s what this tells me: Now is the time when churches are starting to think hard about their Christmas and spring events. I can just picture what’s happening: the summer is winding down, and all of those women who head up their ministry committees are starting to think abou the ministry year again. And they’re starting to realize that they had better have some names ready to suggest to people at their next meeting, or they had better have a speaker booked when the committee meets again. So they’re doing their research RIGHT NOW!

But what if you haven’t received anything in your inbox? What if your phone isn’t ringing?

Don’t worry! You can still take these steps to capitalize on this busy time of year:

1. Cold Call Local Churches

It sounds scary, I know, but if you do it right, it minimizes the awkwardness. Here’s the important thing to keep in mind: apparently that “six degree of separation” thing is true. Each of us can get to any other human being on this planet through just six people. So chances are that if you want to get booked into a church, you know someone who already knows the women’s ministry coordinator. Or you know somebody who knows somebody who does. And if you call a specific person, with a referral, that’s much more effective than sending out a block email.

Here’s a post on exactly how to do it, that takes all the fear out of it. Well, most of the fear anyway!

2. Send out Your Newsletter

Have you been collecting email addresses each time you speak? Have you been sending out newsletters fairly regularly, highlighting interesting things you’ve written, and interesting things you’ve read and watched, around the internet?

I know it’s hard to send out a newsletter regularly. I often am late by a few weeks–or even months. But now is the perfect time to send it! Sure, many people are still on vacation, but those are home are starting to think about who to hire.

In this newsletter, highlight very near the top the dates that you are available. Say something like this: I’m booking now for Christmas outreach events in November and December, and retreats in April and May! Let them think of something specific. They can still ask you for something that falls outside of those time periods, but the more specific you are, the more it looks like you’re in demand, and you’re purposeful about what you want to do.

If you want to know more about creating a dynamite newsletter that people read, check this out!

3. Talk about it on Facebook

Never forget the power of social media! Your friends and family can be your best cheerleaders. I know sometimes we take Jesus’ statement that “a prophet has no honour in his own country” rather personally, but if you let all your friends and acquaintances know that you’re gearing up to speak, your chances of someone passing your name on increase dramatically.

Every now and then, post a status update that says something like, “polishing up a Christmas outreach talk”, or “Writing a new weekend retreat package. Do you know a church that needs a women’s speaker?” When you ask directly, people are more likely to help.

4. Contact Places You’ve Already Spoken

Perhaps you have your former speaking contacts on your email newsletter list, but even so, it’s good to send a personalized email to those you have spoken to in the last few years, to remind them of you. Make your email short, so it’s not overwhelming, and try to do these things:

a. Mention that you’re booking up for the speaking season
b. Write down the titles of any new talks that you have that differ from the ones that you’ve already given at that church
c. Ask specifically if they are looking for a speaker this year
d. End the email by saying, “if you know someone in another church who may be looking for a women’s speaker, please forward them this email. I love partnering in ministry!”

There you go: my four tips for taking advantage of the August/September rush. What do you think? Have you tried to contact churches lately? What has been your experience? Let me know in the comments!

And if you want more information on how to get better bookings as you grow your ministry, check out this download that shows  you how to uncover even more opportunities!

How to Use Photos to Get the Word Out

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!