Recently, I was contacted by an organization that asked me to speak to its members in a workshop format. Although they were not offering payment for this opportunity, they did offer that it was an opportunity to increase my exposure. The only rule was: I couldn’t promote myself. When I tried to find out what this meant, the person I was speaking with wasn’t able to give me any information or guidelines. Was I permitted to say that I owned a business? (Don’t know) Was I permitted to mention that I had worked with other clients? (Don’t know) Was I able to mention relevant articles or books if appropriate? (Don’t know) Since I wasn’t given any satisfactory answers, I respectfully declined the opportunity. It’s not clear to me how you can gain greater exposure if you can’t talk about yourself in an appropriate way. There is a way to promote yourself without being inappropriate or over-hyped. We’ll explore that idea in this ongoing thread.
Hi Rachna,
I had a discussion with a client one time about this very situation. The way to get around this, in our situation, is to use relevant stories about how you helped a client do this or that, and what the results were. Also use relevant 3rd party stories about how clients benefited in some way relating to the topic. If you canâÂÂt do that then definitely decline.
Another thing that I have used before is offer more information as a free download from our website. When I have given talks on Guerrilla Marketing I reference a âÂÂspecialâÂÂ? webpage to get more information.
I am looking forward to further discussion.
Doc Pratt,
Certified Guerrilla Marketing Coach,
Pratt Computing Technologies, Inc.
Doc- all great points, and I completely agree. Glad to see you here and looking forward to your continued participation.