{"id":6873,"date":"2010-09-02T04:00:39","date_gmt":"2010-09-02T09:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/michaelhyatt.com\/?p=6873"},"modified":"2010-09-02T04:00:39","modified_gmt":"2010-09-02T09:00:39","slug":"why-public-speaking-is-so-important-for-authors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fullfocus.co\/why-public-speaking-is-so-important-for-authors\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Public Speaking Is So Important for Authors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Public speaking? The very words scare most people. But if you are an author\u2014or want to become one<\/a>\u2014you need to get serious about your speaking. It can directly impact your success as a writer.<\/p>\n

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Photo courtesy of \u00a9iStockphoto.com\/vm<\/div>\n

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Here\u2019s why:<\/p>\n

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  1. Public speaking is a way to discover what resonates with your audience.<\/li>\n
  2. Public speaking is a way to build your personal brand.<\/li>\n
  3. Public speaking is a way to prove to your prospective publisher that you have a platform.<\/li>\n
  4. Public speaking is a way to promote your books.<\/li>\n
  5. Public speaking is another way to monetize your content.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    But where do you start?<\/p>\n

    About a year-and-a-half ago, I attended the Professional Communicators Summit<\/a> in Nashville, Tennessee. The conference is designed to assist leaders in either starting a professional public speaking career or taking it to the next level. The next conference will also be held in Nashville on October 18-20, 2010.<\/p>\n

    As someone who does a fair amount of public speaking myself<\/a>, I was confident I could benefit personally from the Summit. However, I also thought I could use this information with many of the authors I publish as the CEO of Thomas Nelson Publishers<\/a>. I was right on both counts.<\/p>\n

    The conference is sponsored by Ken Davis<\/a>. In case you are not familiar with Ken, he is a very popular<\/a> public speaker and comedian. He has had a significant, wide-reaching career. He is also a student of speaking and, especially, the business<\/em> of speaking. He has distilled everything he has learned in 30-plus years of professional speaking and used it to take hundreds of other speakers to the next level.<\/p>\n

    While you can find programs to help you become a better public speaker, this is the only one I know of that will help you build a speaking career. Over the course of three days, you will learn four keys to finding success as a speaker:<\/p>\n

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    1. Discover your assets.<\/strong> In this session, you will take inventory of your talents and gifts. You will review your own content and platform. I promise, you will discover that you have much<\/em> more to work with than you may think.<\/li>\n
    2. Design your products.<\/strong> Your \u201cproducts\u201d are a direct result of packaging and selling your assets. You will explore the four different kinds of products:\n