We’ve started prioritizing speaking gigs in our marketing strategy, and we want to take you BTS of how we prepare for them!
Speaking and events have been a hot topic lately. We used to say our Gmail Signature post was our best-performing blog post, but that has since been topped by our conference blog post. We get about 1,300 clicks every month from that one post!
People are craving connections and community. And we don’t expect that to change any time soon. Way back in episode #23, we chatted about how to secure your first speaking gig. Tune back to that if you are craving some advice on how to get started.
So, let’s chat about the two events we’ll be speaking at and how we prep for them!
Two Speaking Gigs in 2024
The first one we’re speaking at is the ESC Conference, an all-inclusive event in Louisville, Kentucky, in April for a VIP group of 21 attendees. The all-inclusive approach was so cool to us and one of our main reasons for wanting the speaking gig. You get to completely let go of decision fatigue with your schedule and meals all planned out. It will feature a mix of networking, masterclasses, and education. Join us and save 10% with code DUO10!
Next is UPP, Ultimate Product Party. It’s the go-to event in May for scaling your product business. It’s two jam-packed days of keynote speakers, breakout workshops, roundtable discussions, panels, networking, dreaming, and scheming. We spoke at this event two years ago, which was the very first event they did! We were blown away, and now we’re back! Get $25 off your UPP ticket with Code UPPDUO.
We are soooo excited to be speaking at these two events! We hope to meet you there!
How to Prep for Speaking Gigs
If you’re interested in speaking gigs but don’t know where to start, we hope this inside look into our process makes you realize it’s not that serious! Anyone can pitch themselves for speaking gigs. There are tons out there (according to our conference post 😉) So this is what happens after we’re booked for a speaking gig!
Flights and Accommodations
Both of these conferences are out of state, so travel and coordination is next level. We need to consider childcare while we’re out of town. Will the hubby watch the kiddos, or do we need to arrange daycare? Will we bring the hubbies along? Sometimes it’s nice to make it a little vacay! We also plan for an extra day for self-care or travel. These events are super fun but so exhausting. It’s go-go-go all day long, so planning a buffer day before going back to work is the move.
Prepping the Content
Next, we have to figure out what we’re going to talk about. Our topics for the two events this year are similar: We are talking all about leveraging AI to drive efficiencies. This was strategic on our part. The events are less than one month apart so we didn’t want to stress about planning two completely different topics. However, we will absolutely customize the content for each audience. We love adding unique flair based on the conference and who is attending.
For almost every speaking gig, we put together a presentation, takeaways, and promotion materials. Last time we spoke at UPP we gave away our Find Me On Google Sweatshirts. What do you think we should do at this time?!
We talked about the digital business cards we use at events in episode #102. We created a super simple business card with a QR code that goes to a custom website URL. Since it’s a page on our website, we can customize it to each event we’re at without needing to print new business cards. It also gives us insight into how that event went for us based on the traffic analytics!
Review the Contracts
Contract requirements can change dramatically depending on who you are speaking for, so review those contracts extra carefully. When do you need to supply your speaking materials? Do you need to do any promotion to your audience?
Promoting the Events
Usually, this is required, but we love to promote the events we are attending regardless. We want to see you there! We typically promote through our Tips and Sips email and Instagram (and, ya know, sometimes the pod 😉)
Make Connections
We love to connect with the host, other speakers, and attendees! UPP has a Facebook group where we can connect with the other speakers and attendees, which makes it super easy. We also follow and say hi to the other speakers on Instagram. Sometimes, the hosts will ask us to participate in Instagram Lives to give a little teaser of our presentation and introduce ourselves.
What’s next: We are actively pitching for more speaking opportunities and using our own blog post to get started! Seriously: it’s our entrepreneur conference bible 🙏 We highly recommend bookmarking it so you don’t miss key dates to pitch yourself! We constantly update it (literally all the time) so you’re in the know of what’s coming up!
And if you want us to speak at your conference, hi, we’d love to ❤️
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Abbey Oslin and Courtney Petersen are Minnesota-based marketing experts, educators, and co-founders of boutique marketing agency Duo Collective, which specializes in SEO, social media strategy, and branding for small business owners and creative entrepreneurs. To learn more about Duo Collective, or to inquire about working with our team, head over to www.duocollective.com.
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