Public Speaking Portfolio

Are you marketing your full potential? Your public speaking portfolio is an essential part of your success.

If you are a job hunter, if the playing field is equal in terms of those applying for a job, who do you think will get the job. The one who has included the public speaking skills in the resume or the one who has not.

If you are aspiring to become a professional public speaker, then are you marketing yourself? A public speaking portfolio could be your ticket.

Let me explain how this can and really did work in my experience and the importance of letting others know that you are a public speaker.

One day there was a buzz on the floor of the hospital where I was working as a nurse. The press was coming. They were reporting on the success our hospital was experiencing. Then much to my surprise, I was approached by one of the managers and told that I was the designated spokesman for the hospital.

If the camera crew wanted to get a shot of a nurse or wanted an on camera sound bite, I was to be the nurse they would use.

Needless to say, not only did I include in my resume but also made my manager aware of my skills when I was interviewing the hospital. Yep, I interviewed the hospital to see if I wanted to work there. Needless to say, it was a memorable experience for all. Who checks interviews an employer to decide if they want to work there or not?

When concluding with Speak Well and Prosper, it is not only a wish, it is a truth.

To market your self, include your public speaking skills. You can market yourself by creating your public speaking promotional kit. By creating a public speaking portfolio that will satisfy the needs of meeting planners, you can improve your chances for getting a job and getting speaking jobs.

Meeting planners want to see certain things to make sure that the speaker they hire meet their needs.

What Is In a Public Speaking Portfolio

Demo CD / DVD (audio and video)

Create a short professional public speaking video showing you and your skills, abilities and talent. Allow your employer to get the look and feel of you and what you will do for them. Your videos should be related to the job or the gig you are presenting to.

Initially the cost of having these done for you can be beyond the reach of many. However there are options. Get a local school with a video program to have a student to do it as a project. They will turn in a copy for a grade and you will get a professional looking production.

Also consider getting your own software and learning how to edit. It is not that hard and the learning curve is not that steep. Programs like Camtasia work on both Mac’s and PC’s and are easy to master.

This is key to the success of your public speaking portfolio.

Content Sheet

The content sheet is an outline of what you will be presenting. There will be a different content sheet for each speaking gig or employer. The outlines need to be relevant to the employer of the themes of the seminar or meeting you will be speaking for.

Client List

Maintain a list of the clients that you have worked for and the topics you spoke on. Even if your clients will provide feed back. You can still include them on your client list.

Testimonials and Reviews

When ever you have an opportunity to speak, you have an opportunity to get a review. Include reviews and testimonials in your portfolio. These allow prospective employers an indication of your credibility.

Where a testimonial is someone touting praises about you, a review is a critique on the topic of which you speak. A critique is a are formal assessment of your speech or seminar. It can include a critical appraisal of your command of your topic and your ability to deliver the speech.

Personal biography

Your biography is the one place where you can put your best feats forward with out being a braggart. It should be short, It should be short, sweet and neat. The reader should be given just enough of your background information to sway them to use you. Include a head shot (picture of yourself) your education from Masters Degree on, relevant certifications, and relevant qualifications.

Note: A number of speakers have multiple skills and expertise in more than one field. So, if I am giving a health care related lecture, it is irrelevant and should not be included that I am also a mechanical engineer and have developed a third generation hydrogen fuel cell that is smaller than a bread box.

You can create more than one public speaking portfolio. If you have two unrelated career tracks or expertise in two areas, create two different portfolios.

For the head shot, use a professional portrait photographer. Even if you have a friend who is a photographer, the quality that a pro can bring to the picture will be worth the investment.

List of your back or the room products or Books

Your books, CDs or DVDs that make up part of your back or the room sales should be included so long as they are related to the topic your speaking on. Prices should be clearly indicated. Want a major coup, rather than selling the books at the back of the room, sell the books as part of the speaking fee and give one to each of the attendees. Rather than selling 30 books at $30 dollars and making $900, you could include the price in your speaking fee. Then give one book to each attendee. To sweeten the deal for your client, offer the books at 66 percent off retail. Sell them for $10 and walk away with $3000.

Other speaking, coaching and training you offer can be listed along with your fees.

Contact Information

Make it easy for your prospective clients to contact you. In addition to your snail mail address, your email and website, provide other ways that you can be contacted.

If you are a one man or woman operation, offer office hours (read: when they can catch you on the phone). If you will only be able to be reached by phone and you will never be around to answer, let them know that they can leave a message and you will return their call within so many hours.

If you make a professional public speaking portfolio, you will reap the benefits in being able to close more sales of your speaking services. The importance of marketing cannot be stressed enough. When times get tough economically, this is the one thing that often is the last thing.

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