Amy Carroll » Marketing Your Message » Getting the Word Out

Getting the Word Out

The question we receive most often from our readers is, “How do you start to get the word out about your speaking?”

I want to give an easy, practical application to answer the question, but I’d like to address the elephant in the room first.  The big struggle for most of us is whether we should even create a plan for promoting our speaking.

I’ve had the exact same source of inner conflict.  I’d constantly battle these questions:  If this is really God’s plan for my life, won’t He make it happen?  Won’t it seem really self-centered to others?  Who do I think I am to promote myself?

My “lightbulb moments” about marketing and promotion centered around this one idea…

Although we need to give people some information about ourselves, the 2 main focal points of any “promotion” need to be the audience and the message.

It truly is a huge risk for any event planner to hand you the microphone, so you do need to give information about your background and experience to set her heart and mind at ease.  But the focus of promotion should be your message and how it will help the people who hear it.

That was a huge weight off of me.  Once I understood that even my promotional materials–my website, my biosheet, etc–shouldn’t be self-serving but rather about service, I was set free to talk about what I love the most about ministry.  I could share the message about how God has changed me.

One of my first steps I took years ago to get the word out about my messages is one I’d like to recommend to those of you just starting out.  I wrote a letter to friends and family to tell them about my new sense of calling and ministry venture.  I included women who I’d been in church or Bible study with who had moved to other areas.  Most of them were people I knew really well who would know my heart, and lots of them were people who had heard me teach at some point.  I was still afraid of saying it out loud, so humility wasn’t a problem in letting them know about my ministry! 🙂

At the time, I hadn’t developed a biosheet, but I highly recommend including one when you send your letter.  It may be a short, simple one that you create on your computer.  However, I think it will carry more weight for your friends to hand your biosheet to someone, along with their verbal recommendation, than it will without it.  If you need examples of a biosheet, visit the speaker pages for Proverbs 31 Ministries to read samples and get your creative juices going.

For those of you who have been growing your ministry, how are you getting the word out?  Do you have any other questions about marketing?  If so, leave them in the comments, and we’ll write a blog post to answer your question for our whole speaker girl community.

 

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3 Comments

  1. Jennifer Meyers says:

    This is a great reference starting point. God has given me the desire to serve and I feel like speaking is part of that. I am currently teaching Sunday School and tag team teach a discipleship class. I am praying about that next step and waiting for His leading. I haven’t shared with many people about what I feel God is calling me to. I am staying faithful in what I am doing though. Thank you for this. I will keep this information handy for reference purposes….

    1. I’m so glad it was an encouragement, Jennifer! You’re doing all the right things–humbly serving and learning while you wait to see God’s plan unfold. Blessings to you!

  2. Thanks Amy, you always say just what I’m thinking. I guess that’s the way it is with all of us. We privately think we are the only one with this or that question, thought or fear. In reality most of us are secretly sharing the same feelings. What a relief to hear it out loud.