How I Got Started in Professional Speaking

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I owned a real estate brokerage in New Orleans. But many of the agents I hired became discouraged from the slow hard work it took to build a solid client base. So, I led weekly sales meetings that were fun and motivational. They were popular, we were successful, and I had a lot of fun.

I sold the company and worked for a corporation for a few years when I happened to come across a book on starting a speaking business. It was packed with practical ideas, such as, to get your first clients, offer a free seminar so they can test drive you. Boldly, I sent letters to 50 of the largest employers in New Orleans offering a free 1 hour class on “How to Handle Difficult People.” The big Hilton Hotel said, “Yes.” I bungled through the seminar but my heart was in the right place so when I asked for a testimonial letter, she wrote a gushy one on beautiful Hilton letterhead that said, “Everyone was talking about you in the hallways.” (Yeah, I bet they were!) “You said things to us that no one has ever said before.” (I’m afraid I did!) I proudly flashed that letter around to potential clients and said, “Look what I did for the Hilton! I can do this for you, too!” It caught the attention of a national training company and they hired me to lead 150 seminars in 1992. That was my start.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, July 13th, 2006 at 8:03 am and is filed under Podcast. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

How I Got Started in Professional Speaking

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