Jennifer McClure`

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Written by Jennifer McClure

How to Choose Speaking Topics and Create Great Presentations

By far, the most frequently asked question I get is “How do I become a speaker?”, or something similar.

And while I’ve written blog posts on the subject, and have been interviewed on other people’s podcasts, and shared about the beginnings of my own journey as a professional speaker in Episode 7 of this podcast, there’s always more to learn, and everyone is at a different place in their speaking career, so I don’t think that I’ve run out of things to say on the subject.

Recently, a good friend of mine – Bruce Waller – reached out to me and asked if he could schedule a call to talk about Speaking. Specifically about how to choose speaking topics, and ideas for creating great presentations and slide decks.

I asked Bruce if he’d be willing to allow me to record our conversation, and share it with you on the Impact Makers podcast. Because it can likely help many people who are either interested in improving their speaking skills as a part of their current job, or who are interested in developing a speaking business either as a side hustle or full-time occupation.

Thankfully, Bruce agreed, and you’ll have the opportunity to learn right along with him in this coaching session. He asked some great questions, and it was lots of fun!

IMPACT MAKERS PODCAST – EPISODE 31

 

 

How Do You Decide On Topics For Speaking?

Speak about your area of expertise. Think about what questions people ask you the most.

It’s a good idea to keep a question log, and update it as people ask new questions through emails, messages, tweets, or other conversations. So, when you’re considering the content for a speaking engagement, look at your question log. It’s a great resource for a new speaking engagements, a keynote, a blog post, a book, or other topics. If several people are asking you the same question, you are already being viewed as a person with expertise!

Don’t just try to speak on a hot topic. Instead, plan to speak on something in which you have expertise. One way to identify those areas is to look at the themes of what people are asking you.

What Is The Process For Creating A Presentation?

One thing is to consider is that there are at least three different types of presentations. These are breakouts/seminars in which you’re teaching, workshops in which you’re both teaching and involving the participants, and keynotes which are more story-based, and typically provide inspiration.

To create a presentation, one idea is to start with slides and think about the images you’ll use, as well as the visual flow of the presentation. Ask yourself – what does the audience need to know about the topic? What are the questions people ask about the topic, and what are your answers? Share examples from your own experience, or examples of how others have solved those problems, and end with action steps. Participants typically want to be able to write down some takeaways to plan their next steps.

What Are Some Great Resources For Presentation Images?

When it comes to images for your slides, be careful not to use Google images, or images that are copyrighted, because that could lead to a lot of trouble. The good news is that there are several good sites where you can get free (and copyright-free) images, such as Unsplash or Flickr.

Personally, I use Adobe Stock Images, which is not free, but allows me to license a specific number of images for a monthly fee. To up your speaking game, it will be important to either invest in images, or use to find a good source where you can use copyright-free or creative commons use images. If you notice, big-name keynote speakers typically use a minimal number of slides during their presentations, which usually contain only high-quality images, their own quotes, or statistics from their own research. The focus is on what they’re saying, versus the slides that they use (or don’t).

How Does Someone Get Started As A Speaker?

Take a step back and consider who “your people” are. It’s important to be intentional about your audience, and your message. Who is the audience that you’re targeting, and what is the message that they need. Once you’ve determined that, then look at your relationships and ensure that you’re making connections and building relationships with meeting planners in that industry.

A first step might be to attend the events you’re targeting, and maybe even volunteer to help or support the event organizing team. Once you’ve developed some relationships, and become known by the meeting planner, you can submit ideas to be considered for breakout sessions, panel discussions or workshops in your area of expertise. Make sure that the message that you’re pitching is focused on what the audience needs, versus the story you want to tell. You’re there to serve the audience, not yourself!

More Info And Resources

Jennifer’s Free Speaking Guide: 10 Tips to Build Your Brand and Land Gigs as a Speaker
Bruce Waller
Find Your Lane: Change your GPS, Change your Career by Bruce W Waller
MILEMARKERS: A 5 Year Journey by Bruce W Waller
Find Your Lane: Change Your GPS & Drive With Purpose! | Bruce Waller | DisruptHR Talks
The 9 Faces of HR: A Disruptor’s Guide to Mastering Innovation and Driving Real Change by Kris Dunn
Kary Oberbrunner’s Igniting Souls Conference
Mike Kim’s Influence & Impact Conference
ERE Recruiting Conferences
SHRM Annual Conference

 


Thanks to King University, who’s support makes this podcast possible! King is proud to offer sixteen online degrees with accelerated programs and affordable tuition so you can start a new career faster than ever. You can choose from programs in technology, communication, and business – like an online MBA with six concentrations including human resource management. And because the program is offered fully online, you can earn your degree on your own schedule in as little as 16 months. Visit https://online.king.edu/impactmakers to learn more about the King Difference today.


Disclosure: Some of the links in this post are affiliate links, and if you go through them to make a purchase I’ll earn a commission. Keep in mind that I only link to products or companies because of their quality, or my personal experience with them, and not because of any commissions I receive from your purchases.

Categories: Podcast, Speaking
Posted on November 26, 2019

Written by Jennifer McClure

11 Podcasts To Fuel Personal Growth and Leadership Development

I’m a voracious consumer of content in the areas that are of interest to me – specifically leadership, entrepreneurship, speaking and personal development.

Interestingly, I’m not a good book reader (fixing that is a goal for 2016). But I do buy lots of books. I just rarely read them.

So a couple of years ago, I decided to try podcasts as a way to continue learning, and to fill time that was normally spent listening to the same songs in my playlists or on the radio over and over again. Now, I listen to podcasts while driving, traveling, exercising, cleaning the house, fixing dinner, etc. Suffice it to say, I’m hooked on learning.

[Read more…]

Categories: Blog, Leadership, Personal Development
Posted on January 16, 2016

Written by Jennifer McClure

How To Get Speaking Opportunities (And Where You Can Find Me)

As you can probably tell, I really enjoy speaking to groups and traveling to various places to meet new people. Recently on her blog, my friend and HR Blogger Lisa Rosendahl asked for some suggestions to help her overcome The Anti-Speaking Demon. I responded in the comments with a short novelette that I thought I’d also republish here, since it may be helpful to others interested in developing as a speaker as well.

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Podium To get started, I’d suggest making people in your network aware that you’re interested in speaking to some groups and some examples of topics you could talk about or do a workshop/seminar on. You’ll likely be surprised at how many opportunities are out there – especially if you’re willing to speak for free. Once you’ve gotten several under your belt, you’ll likely be referred and recommended to other groups who are willing to pay you for your time and expertise.

Beyond your network, here’s a few additional resources I’d suggest contacting:

1)  Schools or universities in your area. Usually, the Career Development offices are dying to connect students to business leaders who can talk to them about what it’s like in the “real world” and also provide networking and job search tips.

2)  Job search support groups or networking groups in your community – In Cincinnati, there are a number of groups that meet regularly to help people in career transition. Most have a speaker as part of their meetings and they’re thrilled to have someone from HR/Recruiting come to talk with them and answer questions about how to approach their job search.

3)  Check with your local HR Association or Recruiting groups. While most local chapters tend to book their lunch speakers months in advance (and it seems they like to book out of town speakers to add some “cred”), it’s likely they’d be interested in having someone in the trenches like you offer to provide a seminar, breakfast or lunch talk about one of the many topics you could speak on.

A few more tips:

1)  Add a Speaking page to your blog. List topics you can or have spoken about. Not only will your blog readers find you that way (and you’ll get opportunities from it I’m sure), but you’ll also get found through search engines. My Speaking/Workshops page on my blog gets daily traffic and more than once I’ve booked a speaking gig because someone Googled “Using Social Media in HR & Recruiting” or “Using LinkedIn for Job Search”, etc. and landed on my blog. I’ve also gotten interview requests from magazines, radio shows, etc. through being found by this page.

2)  Add that you’re a speaker, or open to speaking, on your LinkedIn profile. Same as above, I’ve booked speaking engagements and interviews as a result of being found on LinkedIn.

3)  Don’t be shy about asking attendees to write a recommendation for you on LinkedIn if they found your talk to be of value. I’ve not been comfortable with asking myself, but I know several speakers who have tons of great recommendations on their profiles – because they asked. Once your LinkedIn network starts seeing recommendations pop up for your speaking, you’ll start getting more requests to speak. Subtle marketing works.

4)  Bring your own evaluation sheets if the group doesn’t provide one. The feedback will not only help you understand what resonated with the audience, but also what you can improve upon. As you start speaking more and filling out Speaker Proposals, often they ask for evaluation results from some recent engagements.

5)  Eventually make sure you get a good video of you speaking to a group. Same as #4, it will help you see what you do well and what you need to improve and it’s also frequently requested for more high profile speaking opportunities.

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Where You Can Find Me

Since some of you may subscribe
to this blog via
RSS
(I hope you ARE a subscriber!), you may not have noticed the link
on my blog to the Speaking/Training/Workshops page before. Take a
look there, and you’ll notice that April, May & June are thankfully
shaping up to be pretty busy for me as a Speaker including:

RecruitCamp
– Raleigh, NC – April 22, 2010
. Thanks to RecruitingBlogs.com
I’ll be leading a session at this event and I’m looking forward to the
Keynote by my friend Laurie Ruettimann of Punk Rock HR!

HRevolution
– Chicago, IL – May 7 – 8, 2010
. Special thanks to Lisa Rosendahl
for asking me to co-lead a session on “Can HR Be Trusted” to continue
the discussion started with my recent post. (This should be good – can’t wait!)

Louisville
Kentucky SHRM Chapter
– June 8, 2010. Thanks to a recommendation
from Crystal Peterson, I’ll be joining LSHRM as their
luncheon speaker and also leading an afternoon workshop on Using Social
Media in HR.

I’m also super excited about speaking
at the Ohio HR Conference in September thanks a connection
from my friend Steve Browne and also the Sm@rt Social Media
Conference Reno/Tahoe
in December thanks to Dr. Bret L. Simmons.

You’ll notice in the engagements I’ve highlighted,
there was at least one person from my network who helped me to connect
with the opportunity. I’m grateful to each of these people and appreciate their support very much. My network rocks and if you’ll be attending any of these events, I’d love to meet you in
person to get to know you as well!

*

What did I miss? What would you
recommend to someone interested in developing their speaking skills or
becoming a professional speaker? I’d like to learn from you!

Categories: Blog, Presentations
Posted on April 19, 2010

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