Last Friday (13th!), Saturday and Sunday I hauled myself up to London each day to speak at the Invest in Property Show at Earl's Court. Unfortunately for the show, it fell on the hottest weekend of the year so far which meant it wasn't as well attended as it could have been but I was over-the-moon that all three of my talks were packed out. This was especially satisfying since the guy who was on before me on the Sunday (a particularly quiet day at the show) didn't even bother speaking as nobody showed up!
I do enjoy speaking at shows like this for many reasons, which I've listed here because I would urge anyone in business to get out there and get speaking engagements at events that fall into their niche. Here's why I do it:
- it raises my profile and looks great when I can list these events on my promo materials;
- every time I speak, even though I've been doing it for many years, I feel I'm improving my presentation skills;
- I love the appreciation I get from audience members when I share my knowledge;
- you never know who is in the audience and what other business can come from the contacts you make;
- the great questions from the audience make you work and exercise your intelligence muscles (if you want to learn something more deeply, teach someone else);
- it's a great opportunity to actually sell.
On the last item, I've already now booked up 3 property mentorships with me on the back of these talks, so it was certainly worth the train fare and my time getting up to London. All in all, it probably cost me around £130 for this publicity (and a large chunk of that was payment for the 3 x Kir Royales I enjoyed at The Metropolitan in Park Lane whilst waiting to meet Marilyn Manson - but that's another story). What other great marketing (with lucrative sales) could you buy for this small amount?
Learn to present on your subject and get out there and do it!
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