How to: Know whether to accept a Speaking Opportunity

If you are building your profile and increasing your visibility you won’t always be looking for speaking opportunities. They will come and find you. Therefore when these opportunities present themselves if they are not on your target list you need to know whether or not to accept the opportunity (even though it may be tempting to accept everything that comes to you).

Do your Research

Start by doing your research. Look into the speaking opportunity. How did they find you and what exactly is the opportunity. Learn as much as you can. 

Look into their Last Event

As part of your research, you should look into the previous events and the feedback and testimonials from these events. How many people attended? What were people saying on social media?

Make sure the experience was positive and that the event looks like it would be worth your time and effort (and an event you would want to be associated with). 

Ask your Network

If the event is in your area of influence or directed towards your target audience – someone in your network should have heard of it, attended previously or be otherwise involved or linked with the opportunity. So ask around and get a feel for the general opinion of your network which should help you decide whether it is a good fit for you. 

Ask yourself “Does the opportunity align with your goals?”

You should already know why you are looking for speaking engagements and what your goals are. So before accepting a speaking engagement ask yourself which of your goals does it align with. It might be as simple as improving your speaking skills or raising awareness with a target audience – but whatever the reason – make sure you are clear about which goal it is satisfying. 

How do you decide which speaking opportunities to accept? Share your tips in the comments.