Secret number five of superstar coaches and consultants are that they are consummate public speakers. Again, show many any successful coach or consultant, and I guarantee that they are an active public speaker. Why? Because public speaking is one of the best ways to market your services. Number one, it positions you as the expert. Even if you’re not an expert, the mere fact that you’re standing up in front of those people positions you as somebody who knows what they’re talking about. Number two, it gets you free advertising and exposure. Let me give you an example. In my niche in the spa and pool industry, when I give a speaking engagement at one of the big conferences, which I do every year, they put my name in the trade magazines inside their advertisements for the expo or the convention.  And that advertisement runs for probably about four to five months. So here I get my name and the name of my company in front of everybody in the trade industry in these magazines for four or five months for free, just because I’m speaking at the conference. And so it does give you a lot of free advertising and exposure. Number three, it allows you to connect on a very personal and emotional level with your prospects. You see, once you read somebody’s book, although you didn’t know that person before and you’ve increased your level of relationship with that person by reading their materials, actually hearing their voice takes that relationship to a whole other level. Then with personal appearances we actually see them, talk to them, perhaps shake their hand, and this takes the relationship to an entirely different level. That’s why some of your very best prospects will come from your public speaking engagements, because they’ve had a personal and emotional experience with you.  Now the fourth thing, and for me, the very best part about public speaking, is it allows you to market your services on the one to many basis. See, when you go to meetings and try and network with people, at the very most, you’re going to be able to market your services on a one to two basis or one to three basis when you’re standing in a crowd of people and they ask you what you do. But still, the drawback of that is that you’re marketing only on one to maybe one or two people. When you do public speaking, it allows you to market on a one to many basis, meaning you can reach 25, 50, 100, sometimes 200 people or even more with just one opportunity. And again, the fact that you’re standing up in front of somebody positions you as an expert rather than you talking to somebody on a one to one basis. It just leverages your time much better, and in the marketing world, time means money. It beats networking any day.  I tell a lot of my coaches and consultants that instead of taking the time going to all of these meetings just to network, take that same time, create a speaker’s sheet and an inquiry letter, and try and get yourself public speaking engagements, perhaps at least one public speaking engagement per week. In my marketing boot camp, I teach you a very simple method of getting public speaking engagements. And it’s even simpler to get these speaking engagements within your own industry, if you’re niching within an industry. In fact, I’ll share a little secret with you that I stumbled onto that will nearly guarantee you a speaking engagement in your target industry. I do it every single year, and it works like a charm.