Weirding Word

Promote Yourself When You Speak

A guest blog by Sally Strackbein

When you speak, train or are on a panel, do you use that opportunity to promote yourself? You will stand above your competition when you give an information-packed handout.

I attend a lot of meetings that feature speakers. It amazes me how few give handouts to support their presentations. The speaker at one meeting did have a handout. It had her PowerPoint slides printed in a grainy resolution on cheap quality paper and it had no contact information. Most speakers don't have a handout at all. Some pass out their brochures. These brochures are often beautiful and expensive to produce. I look at them and throw them away as soon as I get home. (Actually, I put them in my recycle bin.) I don't save them.

On the other hand, give me a good handout and it goes in my reference file. A good handout gives me the major points the speaker made with some supporting detail. It gives me an action step to take and it gives me a way to follow up with the speaker.

Do you provide a good handout that your audience will save? People have called me years after a presentation because they were looking through their reference file and found my handout. (Yes, these calls lead to business.)

Here are some handout tips:

• Use your professional photo.


• Use color - at least on the title or cover page.


• Make your layout attractive.


• List your phone number, website and e-mail address on every page.


• Print it on 28lb paper instead of the more common 20lb paper. People can feel the difference.


• Most important, give valuable information.

Use every engagement as an opportunity to promote yourself with your handout. Handouts trump brochures every time!

Sally Strackbein inspires people to discover, clarify and express their value through speaking and storytelling. Her presentations, workshops, and coaching help her clients create and deliver messages that motivate, educate, or sell. She is also the host of the international online speakers directory, www.SpeakerZone.com. You can reach her at www.DefiningStory.com. Or, learn how you can discover your best stories and tell them like a pro at Sally's Storytelling Speakshop, September 12-13, in Reston, VA.

Gaea Honeycutt
blog@weirdingword.com

Weirding Word®, a division of G.L. Honeycutt Consulting, LLC, is a virtual publication department that provides editing, freelance writing, and publication and web design services. Copyright 2008 Gaea L. Honeycutt. All rights reserved.

June Beltway Poetry Quarterly and Metro Area Events

The June Poetry News is now online at Beltway Poetry Quarterly, with listings of calls for entries, new publications, and special events.

Upcoming events include:

"GLBT Poets of Washington," a guided walking tour of the Dupont Circle neighborhood, June 21, 10:30 am to noon. Led by Dan Vera, the tour costs $5 and advance reservations are required. Celebrate Gay Pride Month and learn how gay literary culture has flourished from the 1970s to the present in the Dupont Circle neighborhood, with the influence of such writers as Essex Hemphill, Ed Cox, Tim Dlugos, Michael Lally, Lee Lally, Richard McCann, Andrew Holleran, and many others. Stops include Dupont Park, Lambda Rising Bookstore, the site of the Community Bookshop, and writer's homes. This is an expanded version of the tour first developed for the Split This Rock Poetry Festival in March 2008. The tour takes approximately 1.5 hours and will run rain or shine. Limited to 25 participants. Please wear comfortable walking shoes and carry water. The tour starts outside the Starbucks Coffee where Connecticut Avenue and New Hampshire Avenue intersect with the northern part of Dupont Circle. RSVP to Kim Roberts at beltway@mac.com.

Gaea Honeycutt
blog@weirdingword.com

Weirding Word®, a division of G.L. Honeycutt Consulting, LLC, is a virtual publication department that provides editing, freelance writing, and publication and web design services.

Copyright 2008 Gaea L. Honeycutt. All rights reserved.

Beltway Poetry Quarterly Readings

Beltway Poetry Quarterly will sponsor 2 readings just prior to the Split This Rock Festival (which is now accepting registrations.)

Sunday, March 9, 2008 at 6:00 pm
Split This Rock Poetry Festival Reading, sponsored by Beltway Poetry Quarterly.
Featured readers: Brian Gilmore, Melissa Tuckey, Heather Davis, and Steve Rogers. Followed by open mic. Iota Bar and Restaurant, 2832 Wilson Blvd., Clarendon neighborhood, Arlington, VA. (703) 522-8340. Series hosted by Miles David Moore - Free Admission. http://www.wordworksdc.com

Sunday, March 16, 4:00 pm
Sunday Kind of Love Reading Series: Split This Rock Festival Reading sponsored by Beltway Poetry Quarterly.
Featured readers: Winona Addison, Naomi Ayala, Teri Ellen Cross, Yael Flusberg, Tanya Snyder, Dan Vera, Rosemary Winslow, and Kathi Wolfe. Followed by open mic. Busboys and Poets, 14th & V Streets, NW, DC. (202) 387-POET. Free Admission, although contributions are gratefully accepted. Guest hosts: Kim Roberts and Regie Cabico.

Weirding Word (SM), a division of G.L. Honeycutt Consulting, LLC, a virtural publication department that provides editing, freelance writing, and publication and web design services.

Copyright 2007-2008 Gaea L. Honeycutt. All rights reserved.

Upcoming Poetry Readings: DC Metro Area

Kim Roberts, a DC area poet interviewed on this blog, will be reading her poetry at events in and round DC:

Monday, October 29 at 8:00 pm
Kim Roberts, Jennifer Gresham, and Kwame Alexander
Reading from the new anthology Family Pictures: Poems and Photographs Celebrating Our Loved Ones
Free. Busboys and Poets, 4251 S. Campbell Ave., Shirlington neighborhood, Arlington, VA. (703) 379-9756.

Wednesday, October 31 at 7pm
Vrzhu Press Scary Halloween Reading: Hiram Larew and Kim Roberts
Kensington Row Bookshop, 3786 Howard Ave., Kensington, MD (301) 949-9416. Hosted by Nancy Allinson. Free Admission.
http://members.verizon.net/~vze4nbyt/

Wednesday, November 7 at 7:30 pm
Hiram Larew and Kim Roberts
Intersections series: readings, discussion, live music, and open mic. Hosted by Fred Joiner.
$2 suggested donation. Honfleur Gallery, 1241 Good Hope Rd. SE, DC. (202) 889-5000 x141.
http://americanpoetrymuseum.org/events.html

Wednesday, November 14 at 7:30 pm
Dreamers Poetry Series: Hiram Larew and Kim Roberts
Frederick Coffee Co., 100 N. East St., Frederick, MD. (301) 698-0039. Hosted by Daniel Armstrong. Free Admission.
http://www.fredcoffeeco.com/

Tuesday, November 27 at 7:30 pm
Reading celebrating the new anthology Family Pictures (ed. Kwame Alexander, Capital BookFest Books, 2007), featuring Katy Richey, Jacqueline Jules, Deanna Nikaido, and Mary-Sherman Willis. Guest host: Kim Roberts
Grace Church, 1041 Wisconsin Ave. NW, lower Georgetown neighborhood, DC. (202) 333-7100. Series hosted by David Bujard and Sally Avignone - Free Admission
http://www.gracedc.org

Weirding Word (SM), a division of G.L. Honeycutt Consulting, LLC, helps you communicate your ideas and information more effectively through tailored editing, freelance writing, publication and web design services.

Copyright 2007-2008 Gaea L. Honeycutt All rights reserved.

Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Call for Proposals

Beltway Poetry Quarterly is a proud co-sponsor of the Split This Rock Poetry Festival: Poems of Provocation and Witness, which will take place March 20-23, 2008 in Washington, DC. The online journal is coordinating a series of concurrent guided walking tours that will take place on Saturday morning, March 22. (The festival will also include readings, workshops, panel discussions, youth programming, film, and activism.) We are also publishing a special issue of the journal--our next issue, which goes online January 1, 2008. The Split This Rock issue (co-edited by Regie Cabico and Kim Roberts) will feature the work of poets with strong ties to DC, as well as going behind-the-scenes to feature poems by members of the festival coordinating committee.

Contributors to the Winter issue of Beltway Poetry will include: Naomi Ayala, Sarah Browing, Grace Cavalieri, Teri Ellen Cross, Joel Dias-Porter (aka DJ Renegade), Brian Gilmore, Esther Iverem, E. Ethelbert Miller, Susan Tichy, Melissa Tuckey, and others.

Want to get involved in the Festival? The organizers invite proposals for panel discussions and workshops, and the deadline is December 1, 2007. Full guidelines can be found at http://www.SplitThisRock.org.

From the website: "Split this Rock invites proposals for panel discussions and workshops on a range of topics at the intersection of poetry and social change. Possibilities are endless. Challenge us. Let’s talk about craft, let’s talk about mentoring young poets, let’s talk about working in prisons, connecting with the activist community, sustaining ourselves in dark times, the role of poetry in wartime. Let’s remember great poet activists and discover new, let’s think international, visual, collaborative, out of the box. A panel may consist of 3-4 persons, with one person designated as facilitator. Please title your panel and include brief biographical information for each participant, along with a two paragraph description of your panel—what are the questions you wish to explore—why is this conversation timely and necessary at this time—how will this panel further the goals of Split This Rock? How are the members of your panel uniquely qualified to lead a conversation on your proposed topic? We have a strong interest in interactive conversation and community building, so please indicate how you will involve participants in the discussion."

Weirding Word (SM), a division of G.L. Honeycutt Consulting, LLC, helps you communicate your ideas and information more effectively through tailored editing, freelance writing, publication and web design services.

Copyright 2007-2008 Gaea L. Honeycutt All rights reserved.