The Pursuit of Fame: Part 3

By Michael Scott Karpovich, Certified Speaking Professional, 2000-2001 Chair, Motivational/Keynote Professional Experts Group

979 Word Count

To achieve fame, we must now address authorship and media presence.

First…authorship. Must we write a book to achieve FAME?  Yes!  We must have a book (ideally several books), as well as articles, audios, and videos … we must find as many mediums as possible to get our message out there. No matter how many hundreds of thousands of individuals you speak in front of, you can never achieve enough notoriety by speaking alone.

Several years ago I made a list of speakers who I considered genuinely famous with universal name recognition and draw. I discovered two groups within my list. I noted that many became famous because of their involvement in famous events or famous roles they held.  However, I noticed a second group of “pure speakers” who either first became effective on the platform and then followed up writing great books or… wrote a great book that drove them to the platform. I would be surprised if you could show me a “FAMOUS” speaker in either group who doesn't have a book.

Although some of the books were never on a best seller’s list, most of them were. Also, many of the books were not actually written by the speaker, but rather, by a ghostwriter.  The point seems to be to have a book. (Ideally, your book with the title we discussed in Part 2.) But not just books… I believe that we should be writing all the time. Write anything from a simple e-zine, to an article in a newspaper or magazine article. Some of our colleagues write articles and then submit each article to several publications, which gets higher mileage out of each article. Others submit small articles to all of the “hungry” electronic newsletters (e-zines) that fill our e-mail boxes already. Once I heard NSA’s own “PR Diva,” Susan RoAne, suggest that we can effectively position ourselves by simply writing effective letters to the editor responding to news or articles as the experts that we are!

If our objective is to get our treasured message “out there,” it is just important that we use as many vehicles as possible to propel that message. So let us now move beyond the written word and expand it to our media presence. If we are to be truly famous, we must have a recognizable name… perhaps a recognizable voice and a recognizable face. Obviously, most of us will think about creating audio or videotapes of our programs… and that is brilliant.  However, it is just as crucial that we develop a media presence on radio and television.

We must all create a Media Kit which includes our photos, our books, news clippings, articles, letters, a sample video or audio tape of your program or media interviews, a list of “hot media hooks” (that which makes you a valuable guest), and a list of sample questions for any interviewer. Although this is similar to a promotional packet you may send to a potential client, this packet is focused on the potential radio or TV story. While the books & articles position you as the expert, the clippings, sample tapes and letters position you as an ideal valuable guest. The “hooks” and the interview questions are evidence that you are easy to work with and that you understand how media works.

Discovering our media-friendly hooks is very much like discovering our areas of expertise. However, we need to spin it to make it newsworthy & timely.  Ideally, we want to connect it to current news stories or perpetually hot issues. Instead of saying something like “How to stay motivated,” a brilliant hook may be something like “How to respond to your boss when she won’t give you a raise!” or “What makes our culture more depressed now than ever before in history?”  Media coach Joel Roberts explains that both of these hooks can still be about “How to stay motivated.” They just position the story with interest.  Although they may not always use it, your list of interview questions will then guide a busy host to ask the questions that will position you best, allow you to say your most quotable lines, and empower you to give the information that will encourage the viewer/listener to purchase your book, visit your web site, even hire you or attend your event!

Register with local and national press – let the appropriate people know that you are an expert in your niche. For example, ABC, NBC, CBS & CNN probably have a news office within an hour’s drive from you. You are now their resource.

 The best thing about radio interviews is that so many talk shows are hungry for good interviews that it doesn't take a lot of promotion to arrange for one.  Most of the time it can be done over the phone. Once I did as many as five interviews during one day all over the country… from one coast to the other from the comfort of my own home! I don’t have to get dressed up or fly anywhere… I just sit in my family room wearing my shorts and a t-shirt with my cat purring at my feet. I provided a useful interview with valuable information, and mentioned my web site and toll-free number, which allowed Pamela to sit by the phone taking book orders. (OK, I didn’t sell a lot of books, but that is the general idea.)

Fame is not about any sudden event… it is never about one particular interview… it is about momentum.  Every drop helps fill the bucket … every article, every book, every interview, every appearance will contribute to your FAME!

Remember, if you have any comments, please write a “letter to the editor” or post your comments on the “members only” section of www.nsaspeaker.org and the motivational / keynote PEG section of Collective Voices… our bulletin board discussions are getting hot!