How to Get Speaking Engagements That Land You More Clients

When I went to the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, the founder, Joshua Rosenthal encouraged his students to give live workshops or get speaking engagements as a way to build relationships and get clients.

I was determined to make my health coaching practice a success, so I followed his instructions.

The idea of approaching different places or businesses to give live workshops or come in as a guest speaker brought up a lot of fear, not to mention the fear of public speaking.

I felt the fear, fought it and did it anyway.

While I focus my work now on online marketing, I believe it is critical to employ offline marketing strategies – especially when you’re just starting out or wanting to quickly sign new clients.

Giving live workshops was one of the key strategies I used to build and market my health coaching practice.

You might be thinking, “Okay Amy, I get it, but how do I get speaking engagements?”

How to Get Speaking Engagements for Your Health Coaching Practice

Step 1: Determine what types of places you want to be a guest speaker.

This decision should be informed by your chosen niche. I focused on Yoga and Pilates studios. Just because I chose this doesn’t mean it is right for you. You might want to speak at PTA groups, doctor’s offices, birth centers, or professional women’s groups, to name a few ideas.

Step 2: Create a list of places to contact.

Use Google or online directories and create a list of places you want to contact. I created an excel file and included the name of the Yoga or Pilates studio, website, contact person (if I could find it), contact email, the date(s) that I contacted them, and their response.

Step 3: Send the following email to reach out to potential venues.

Here is the exact script I used to land several speaking engagements in the course of one month.

Dear xx,

My name is Amy Lippmann.  I am a Certified Holistic Health Counselor offering Nutrition workshops.  I specialize in helping busy, professional women lose weight naturally.

Do you accept outside speakers?  My signature talk is called: “How to Conquer Your Sugar Cravings and Take Back Control of your Diet.”

If so, please let me know…

Warmly,
Amy

Super simple, right? Looking at it now, even I am amazed at how well it worked! I believe it worked because it was short, to the point, and I made a specific offer.

Step 4: Follow-up (This is the most important step, so don’t skip it!)

You’ll notice that in Step 2 I suggest making a note of the date that you contacted  (in this case emailed) the potential live workshop venues.

One week after you send your emails, email the venues again if you haven’t heard from them.

You can make this a simple email where you write “I wanted to checking-in again regarding potential guest speaking opportunities,” and then include the text from your previous email.

You may feel like a nag emailing someone two or three times, but it is important to remember that everyone is busy.  Some of my most successful live workshops or speaking engagements were with people I had to email multiple times.

 
Now I’d love to hear from you!
What questions do you have about how to get speaking engagements?