Speaker - January/February 2009

Helpful Holiday
Resources

• 2009 Chase’s Calendar of Events,
McGraw-hill, www.chases.com

• Celebrate Today, John Kremer, www.celebratetoday.com

• “promote Your book, business or project via Your National holiday,” SpeakerNet News teleseminars, www.speakernetnews.com

• Linkedin group, rich DiGirolamo, www.linkedin.com/ groups?gid=151126

which would be encouraging people to play hooky.) I made it my birthday because I thought, ‘What better day to make sure I’m out on time?’ But my plan backfired. The media attention each year is so intense that I have to work 12 hours on my birthday to field all the interviews and radio shows!”

Steve Hughes is a presentation skills trainer whose target audience is lawyers. His National Be Kind to Lawyers Day is on the second Tuesday in April, smack dab between April Fool’s Day and Tax Day. With only a Web site and minimal public relations efforts, he was featured on the cover of St. Louis’s largest daily legal newspaper, which led directly to a big training assignment with the Missouri Bar.

Is it better to focus on a state, national or international level? Although I expect my holiday to become an international day, I wanted to focus on just the United States for the first two years to build my foundation. There are 50 million working parents in the United States, which is a good initial target market. In a few years, I’ll probably change the name to

International Hug Your Kids Day. Some NSA members, however, thought big and created an international holiday right from the start.

Having your own holiday is fun, and it can be a great marketing tool. But, like a blog or a cool Web site, just having a holiday isn’t going to help you sell more speeches. It’s what you do with your holiday, whether it’s billboards, events, a book, contests or, in my case, all of the above— that determines if you will sell a lot more speeches or earn higher speaking fees.

Anyone interested in starting International Pay Your NSA Speaker Way Too Much Year?

Michelle Nichols, founder of National Hug Your Kids Day, and author of Hug Your Kids Today! 5 Key Lessons for Every Working Parent, speaks to corporations and associations on why work-life balance is the wrong goal. You can reach her at (775) 303-8201 or