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Author:
Chris King

When I first aspired to becoming a professional speaker, I was willing to speak free for anyone, anytime and anywhere. One way I was sure that I would gain experience and exposure was to join several Speakers’ Bureaus of local organizations.

I became a member of several and the pros were and are:

• Practice. The best way to become better at anything is to do lots of it. Speakers’ Bureaus give you this opportunity, especially if you are willing to speak on a variety of topics and to be flexible when it comes to scheduling. It doesn’t hurt, either, if you are so good that they receive rave reviews for your presentations.
• Marketing. You don’t have to worry about selling yourself. The speakers’ bureau takes care of getting gigs for you.
• Learning. Working with an active speakers bureau, you will learn many of the important ins and outs of preparing and presenting. Examples of two areas that enhanced my training were provided by a ballot issue: To build our new baseball stadium, a sin tax was added to a May ballot. Those of us in the bureau who supported the passage of the tax were asked to speak about it. It passed, but there was still a lot of confusion, anger and angst about the construction.
• Preparation. I proposed putting together a presentation that would explain the issues to different groups. My first big learning experience was preparing the presentation so it was interesting, up-beat and positive.
• Audience Control. My second huge learning experience was when I presented to a group of senior citizens who were violently opposed to the stadium. Talk about a hostile group. After sincerely answering their questions and explaining why and how the stadium would help our city, they wanted to know when and where they could buy bonds. I had learned how to turn around the emotional reaction of an audience.

The cons, which are usually the same for all free speaking were and are:

• Lack of Content Control. In my final examples above, I had control of what I was presenting. In most other cases, however, I was handed a scripted talk and slides picked by the bureau. I did learn to add my own touches, but I was doing what I was told to do.
• Exposure without Hiring. One of the reasons I joined bureaus was to become known as an excellent speaker, so that I would be hired (and paid) for speaking independently. It just doesn’t happen. The groups that want free speakers -- even though there may be a few in the audience in the position to hire you -- don’t have any use for paid presenters. That is why you are there.

Chris King is a professional speaker, storyteller, writer, website creator / designer, free agent, and fitness instructor. Sign up for her eclectic E-newsletter, Portfolio Potpourri, at http://www.PowerfulPresentations.net You will find her information-packed E-book How to Leave Your Audiences Begging for MORE! at http://www.OutrageouslyPowerfulPresenter.com and her business website at http://www.CreativeKeys.biz

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