Make Your Speaker's Reel Sizzle

With so many speaking ops on offer, (especially if you subscribe to the Weekly Rocket) you need to have a show reel, speaker's reel or sizzle reel to show you can hold an audience's attention and know what you are talking about.

While you are cutting your teeth building your keynote, hire a good videographer to get vision of you doing your thang. 

This is what you need to put in your reel. 

Intro

Start with an introduction. This is your first impression to people where you lay out your qualifications and experience. 

Your expertise

If this is not in your introduction, the next piece of information is your topic or expertise. This is the area where you talk about the reason why someone should hire you—your elevator pitch, in other words. Why are you an expert in your subject and what will people get out of listening to you? 

Samples from your talk

After people know who you are and why you’re an expert, they need to see you delivering the goods. Insert short clips of key points you make. This is not the place for long clips. You want your audience to see how you speak and what you talk about, but not the whole show. If they are interested, you can always send links with long examples of your talks.

Testimonials

Testimonials are key to decision makers. Grab people who attended you talk to say nice things about you. Decision makers want to hear from your audience. If you can't get video, use, text quotes (one sentence or a phrase) of someone’s praise and interweave these throughout your video. 

B-roll and graphics

Include b-roll, graphics, or both. Mix up the angles to make it more interesting to watch - show your background, interacting with the audience, graphics. 

Audience reaction

Seeing people leap to their feet to give a standing ovation is impressive. Make sure you get vision of your audience engaged in your talk. 

Good music

Great reels keep up the pace through the soundtrack. Grab some free upbeat music to include in the background or get someone to compose your very own score. Just make sure you don't breach copyright. 

Short length

Keep it short - between 2-3 minutes. That's all you need to cover the points above and get people excited about your speaking. 

Good editing

If you have the time and inclination, there are plenty of tools you can use to edit yourself. Or use a professional editor. You want your reel to sizzle.