“Get Picked” Could Save You from Getting Overlooked.

Have you ever sat in a conference listening to a speaker and thought to yourself, albeit humbly, “I could do that… and probably even better.”? But, there you sit in the audience while someone else was picked to speak.

I have been on stage since high school as an entertainer, a trainer, and currently, a pastor. It’s only recently that I’ve begun to consider speaking at conferences. I have much to learn, but fortunately, I now have expert help in my corner.

Photo by kasto. DepositPhotos Image ID: 48763103

Maybe you’re a church leader who teaches regularly, a business person who gives in-house presentations often, or a writer longing to promote your works. Since you’re reading this, chances are you have something to offer and you long to spread your influence beyond your own organization.

If speaking at conferences is your goal, you need to develop a speaker proposal that will make you stand out from the crowd.

Aurora Gregory and David Pitlik have just released Get Picked: Tips, Tricks and Tools for Creating Irresistible Speaker Proposals. I was fortunate enough to get an advance copy of the book to preview and have loved it from the Introduction.

Remember that feeling on the grade school playground when all the kids gathered to play a game? Each captain alternately picked players from the crowd. The knot in your stomach kept growing tighter and tighter with every passing turn…

Funny how some things in life never change. Submitting yourself to speak at an important industry conference is just like being back on that dusty playground. No matter how successful you’ve become in your professional life, once again someone else is deciding your fate…

But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing you can do to dramatically improve your odds of getting chosen.

Get Picked is very well written, well organized and filled with insightful and extremely practical help for the novice, the experienced, and the most ADD among us.  It is organized into six very readable, even scannable, chapters with Pro Tips (learned from decades of being in the trenches) and helpful list of concise reminders and summaries of “The Big Takeaways” for each chapter.

The authors guide us along the journey to find the place to speak, create the proposal to convince the organizers to entrust their audience to us, to polishing the actual presentation we give, and the follow up afterward.

• Introduction: Start by Choosing Yourself
• Chapter 1: What’s in It for Me?
• Chapter 2: Finding Conferences and Events to Speak At
• Chapter 3: Getting Started with Your Speaker Proposal
• Chapter 4: Creating a Speaker Proposal That Gets Picked
• Chapter 5: Crafting a Great Presentation
• Chapter 6: Resources and Helpful Hints

The insights on Crafting a Great Presentation alone are worth way more than the price of the book.  Throughout the book, Aurora and David pass on “Tips, Tricks, and Tools” they learned over decades in the trenches to help prepare you (and me) for success.  This is not theory.  The advice clearly comes from veterans who have helped individuals and top organizations tell their story.  Now they are ready to help you and me tell our stories.

I just saw the movie, Creed yesterday.  I can’t help but think of the imagery of being in the fight encouraged by knowing who are in my corner.

The book is available today on Amazon for Kindle or Paperback (130 pages).  You can learn more about the authors here and here.  You can access additional resources here.