Earlier this week, I wrote a piece on a couple of speaking engagements that I have coming up. [READ] Both of them are at local universities and to modest-sized crowds (no more than 75 people each). Both gigs are pro bono gigs as well. Despite the non-lucrative sounding nature of these speaking engagements, I’ve had no less than three people contact me asking how they can get into these kinds of speaking engagements. I do these gigs for purely philanthropic reasons and to keep my public speaking chops up. I can see, however, how someone might have other motives for these kinds of gigs. The “how” part of this article is simple – pick up the phone and start shopping around for opportunities. The “why” is a bit more complicated.

Why

There are several good reasons why someone would want to give a free talk to a group of impressionable youth or other community members:

1. Free publicity

Discounting the time it takes you to prepare for the talk and the opportunity cost of attending the event, it’s a great opportunity to tell people your story and let them get to know you. It’s hard to predict what kind and quality of business leads might come out of a speaking engagement like this but you never know.

2. Goodwill

I’m someone who definitely believes in the concept of building up a goodwill (or Karma) bank. I believe that you make deposits in this goodwill bank when you do pro bono work and you can make withdrawls just as easily when you need to. For example, some of the work that I’m doing for UBC right now requires me to call on volunteer panellists to help evaluate technology that could be commercialized. I know most of the people I draw upon from other volunteer gigs that I’ve done. They know I’m someone who gives generously of my own time and know that I will appreciate it when they do the same.

3. Recruiting

Particularily when you’re going out to talk to university students – you’re not just giving up some time. You’re putting yourself in front of dozens of potential employees. We are moving rapidly into an era where providers of labour (students leaving the school system) will have all the levarage. You want them to think of you fondly as someone that they might want to work for in a few years’ time. Some of them are looking for work now. I always get a few calls from students after doing this kind of thing and they’re interested in working for me.

How

Now that you understand why it’s an attractive prospect, here’s how you land some of these speaking engagements:

1. Contact universities

Go back to your alma mater – specifically the department that you studied in and tell them that you’d like to give back to the school and if there are any opportunities to talk to the current crop of students to give you a call. You’d be surprized at how often you’ll get called. You can also go to schools that you didn’t attend and offer to do free talks. Universities love brining in guest speakers.

2. Non-Profits

Non-profits (there are millions of them) also love bringing in guest speakers for their membership and public events. Find a group (or group of groups) that you feel passionately about and have something to say. Again, just pick up the phone and call them.

3. Industry Associations

Many of these are non-profits – with an important discinction. They’re non-profits that work with real commercial entities that might hire you to do something. Examples are Canadian Manufacturers and Exporters, BC Business Association, Canadian Trucking Human Resource Council. There are thousands of these organizations out there. They are all looking for ways to bring value to their members. I’m sure you can think of a few ways to bring value to their membership with a speech or two.

What

The real rub is once you’ve landed a speaking engagement – you have to come up with something to say. If you’re already someone who writes lots (eg. a blogger), this is going to be easy. Just pick a topic and pull together a slide deck on it. My rule of thumb is 2-3 minutes per slide. If you have to give an hour-long talk – that’s 30 slides, tops. The key is to be confident. Confidence comes from knowing the material and having a defendable “angle” on the topic.

For example, I’ve given talks on finding jobs in the “hidden” job market in the past [READ]. I’m no HR expert but I found a way to talk about looking for jobs using some of the tricks and tools I use in market research. It was a very popular talk. Think of an interesting angle. Unless you’re close to retirement age, no one is going to take you seriously if you position yourself as the “voice of experience”. Think more about your unique experiences and how you can help someone discover something about themselves by hearing what you think.