Recently, I attended a monthly speakers dinner & dialogue meeting in Honolulu. Fortunately for me, Annabel Chotzen was the featured speaker during the evening meal. She gave a wonderful talk on how to “Stand Up, Stand Out and Get Speaking Engagements.”
Jeff Owens, the President of SAH introduced Annabel, as the audience listened, scattered comfortably around the octagonal tea-styled platform table over koi laden water at the Floating Pagoda restaurant.
Annabel’s style was friendly and accessible while offering valuable tools for all speakers. It’s clear why she is a popular and successful speaker.
Whether you are a professional or aspiring speaker, there are several things you can do to be more effective. Her talk focused on the following speaking tools:
- How to distinguish ourselves from other speakers, and become known for our expertise,
- Defining and communicating your unique gifts and talents,
- Promoting the qualities and attributes that make you different,
- Sharing your own motivational stories,
- Infusing your presentations with take away messages,
- Creating presentations that are valuable for large audiences,
- Developing topics that are content rich, timely and relevant.
Annabel Chotzen, VP of the Speakers Association of Hawaii
Annabel began her talk with a burning question for the audience. “How many of you would like to stand up, stand out and get highly paid speaking engagements?” Everyone raised their hands, of course.
She told us a story about how she got started in Hawaii. Apparently, she cold-called the president of a company bringing it’s employees to Kauai for a conference and asked to be the speaker at the event. The company president asked Annabel what topic she would be talking about? She replied, “Anything you want me to talk about.” He then asked, “What do you charge?” She responded, “What would you pay me?” He gave her a figure and she exclaimed, “You’d pay me that much?” He said, “If you prefer, I can pay you less!”
She got the gig and simply told stories for 45 minutes. At the end, there was silence and she felt horrible. But, then after a long pause, the entire crowd stood up and gave her an ovation. What a wonderful outcome for a beginning speaker!
She told us from that one speaking engagement, 5 organizations hired her to speak. For awhile, she flew around the US giving her talks, but then the phones stopped ringing.
It was during this time, Annabel began to learn what it really means to be a public speaker. She distilled her lessons in to the following tips.
- The first thing, she says it to define what is unique and different about you? What is special? Why do you want to speak? This is important for speakers to answer every day, why do you want to speak? What are you passionate about? Many speakers talk about the same things, she explained. For example, in her field, managing change, stress management, communication, all of these different topics. How do YOU stand out? What makes you different? People want to hear what’s happening to you.What’s authentic for you?
- Develop your own stories. What have you learned? What have you been through? One of her keynote stories is about how her Father escaped Nazi Germany through communicating with one of the guards. If he hadn’t communicated well with that guard, she explained, she would not have been born. This story she explains relates to communication, conflict resolution, managing change—all topics she speaks about. Take your story and relate it to the topics in which you are interested, she says.
- Promote yourself. She says the best way to do this is to speak for free. Speak as much as you can. People say they don’t want to speak at rotary clubs because you don’t get paid. Nothing comes of it. Au contraire, she said. She spoke at one rotary club and a couple engineers wanted to hear me speak. They hired her to speak at their convention and then as a result of that, she was hired to speak for the California Engineers. She did workshops and training. One thing leads to another, so get out there and speak. Don’t worry if you’re not getting paid.
- Have a personal website, or join the Speakers Association of Hawaii. As a member you get a bio and picture on the website. For example, Annabel reports she has gotten more than $100K worth of business from SAH. She mentioned the amount, because to her (and to us) that’s a lot of money! Right? Congrats to Annabel. She is an example for us all.
- Finally, she strongly suggests: Get a good speaking coach. She had a coach for years, who helped her create compelling personal stories. Now, she coaches other speakers. If you want to present, get a good coach. Constant feedback is worth every penny, especially if you tell your own stories. Keep promoting yourself, your website, or on social media.
In closing, she asks us all, What are you good at in the business of speaking? Annabel says she is good at asking for the business. She suggests, just call and ask for the gig.
So, that’s 5 of her 10 tips for Standing up, Standing out, and Getting highly paid speaking engagements. For more of her tips and coaching, you’ll have to reach out to her yourself.
Go ahead, make that call to Annabel, if you dare. Visit her website for more information. www.annabelchotzen.com
Annabel is the vice president of the Speakers Association of Hawaii, a business consultant, trainer and professional speaker for 20 years. She provides training and motivational speeches at conferences, conventions and businesses, and she works with organizations to help them to overcome obstacles during challenging drives, provide outstanding customer service and boost employee productivity and effectiveness. She has been a professor of business communications, public speaking and professional development at Hawaii Pacific University. University of Hawaii and Chaminade University. Two of her videos can be found here:
On Communication Strategies
and, putting Your Dreams to Work
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