Does Speaking to Sororities and on College Campuses Interest You?
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Professional speaking to college students has been one of the most gratifying experiences in my career, and it can be that way for other woman too. For over ten years, I taught my unique accelerated learning and memory program for graduate students studying difficult scientific information, and have no regrets at all about the experience. It was fun, lucrative, and exciting! A deep sense of satisfaction comes from positively influencing thousands of people and making their life a lot easier. This crowd, as a general rule, loves life and learning, much more than the general population. Their openness to new philosophies, ideas and ways of doing things provided extra passion for me to continue creating additional memory seminars to fit their needs. At my final count, I had specifically designed 14 seminars for this crowd. The more I filled the needs of the students, the more seminars they wanted; their appreciation always astounded me. Taking your topic to the college crowd is a marketing challenge for many. Questions such as these will soon arise: • How can a woman speaker interact successfully with an all male audience? • Will my topic fit the college scene? • If I have little more than a high school education, does my education restrict me from this exclusive group? • How do I find the most appropriate college crowds to speak to? • Who pays for me to speak? • Why can I get a minimum of $2000 in one market and $5000 in another, for a one-hour speaking engagement? • How much more can I charge for longer presentations? • What kind of contracts should I have ready to seal the deal? • How do I deal with situations where I don't want to honor a contract, despite the fact that I fulfilled all the contractual agreements? • How do I get my book, CDs, home study courses, and DVDs into their bookstores? • Is it possible to create great high-quality products fast? • Do I have to do any marketing on the college campus prior to the event? • How can I sell products when speaking without sounding like a used car salesman? • How do I get invited back? The key to marketing to this crowd is knowledge. For example, you don't have to have your own book or products to get a speaking engagement. If you're an expert in your field, you've earned the right to speak in front of this group, no matter what. And they'll respect you for what you have to say to them. Let's look at it from a business perspective. Let's say your speaking fee is $3000 for your presentation and you're booked in the next year for 20 presentations, bringing in an extra $60,000. That's less than two presentations a month. Although speaking fees of $4500 to $10,000 is not an uncommon salary for Women speakers, you may want to test the market and start asking for $3000 initially. Now, let's say that 100 students and faculty, a modest number, attended each one of your 20 presentations. (Consider the fact that some presentations will pack auditoriums or stadiums!) If you authored a book and CD where your profit was $10 per item and your conversion rate (the percentage of people purchasing from you) was a low 10%, you would have an extra $4000 for that year. These are very conservative estimates, as many female speakers have the ability to connect well with the audience and have conversion rates around 50%. When you expand your product line to eight or more items, your income increases exponentially, since the chance that one of the products will appeal to each audience ember and their circle of influence increases. Imagine how much your income can rise when you consider the possibility of getting your products into college bookstores, pre-event selling for every audience member, and post-event selling strategies. Then consider the posssibility of additional revenue and decreased expenditures from booking additional colleges in the area. With New Technology, Women Can Create a Product In Less Than a Weekend! The interesting part for professional speakers learning how to penetrate the college market is that once you have an idea that fits the well-respected collegiate marketplace, the product development phase for your first CD can be handled in a weekend, from start to finish. After you've created the first three high-quality CDs with your product creation mentor, you can do the process yourself. Consider a conservative maximum estimate of 20 hours as your investment of time for the first CD creation during training; then only 10 hours each successive weekend. It becomes another simple task after the first few times. What this means to you is that you can have six CDs ready to sell within six weekends, or six months if you focus on one per month, by altering your schedule slightly. By doing so, you're strategically placing yourself in a prime position to maximize your finances once you're in front of any audience. Consider speaking in the college market as an additional way to create revenue. Spending adequate time preparing to speak on college campuses will save you considerable time, effort and frustration later. Get the knowledge before you start!
Dr. Donna Schwontkowski is currently the editor of Health & Fitness Magazine. She hosted and produced her own TV show, Health & FItness Solutions, which aired for 4+ years. She frequently consults and teaches authors and professional speakers about CD product creation in a weekend and how to utilize the best internet marketing strategies to market books and products. For info about strategies and upcoming speaker training for colleges, send an email to DrDonna@fastermac.net
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