I've made the same mistake I've seen speakers make
business development for speakers client relationships get more speaking gigs get paid to speak how to get booked and paid to speak past clients professional speaking speaker bookings speaker marketing speaker prospecting speaker sales speaking business speaking opportunities staying in touch with clients
I haven't been taking my own advice
I've been a bit rubbish.
If you subscribed to this newsletter, presumably you did so because you wanted regular insights on the speaking business.
And then I went quiet on here. For six months. Wow is that how long it’s been? Wow.
I haven't disappeared completely. I've been writing regular posts, coaching speakers, and generally getting on with things. But writing proper newsletter editions? Not so much.
Which is rather embarrassing, because it goes directly against what I tell speakers every single week: stay in touch with people who already know you. Don't disappear for months and only resurface when you have something to promote.
Yet the irony of me publishing a newsletter just as Mary Tillson-Wharton and I are running our first joint event since 2019 is not lost on me. (The last time we ran a workshop together was 2019. Wowsers.)
I promise this isn't the start of a barrage of "BUY THIS" articles.
Over the coming weeks, I am getting back into the habit of sharing practical, commercial thinking right here: finding the right corporate targets, why mass automated outreach fails, and how to create considerably more value from the clients who already book you.
I will tell you about the workshop too, of course. But first, I thought I should practise what I preach and actually turn up.
Have you been better than I have at staying in touch with the people who already know you?
Maria
P.S. If you want to see what Mary and I are running on 29 October in Guildford, the details for FIND IT. WIN IT. GROW IT. are here: https://find-win-grow-speaking-a6bwqdr.gamma.site/
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