Teaching on a Regional and National Stage

Abstract

I distinctly remember looking at the speaker who was center stage and thinking “I want to do that.” The path to becoming a national speaker has been quite circuitous with more losses than wins and many lessons learned. To be a successful educator on a regional or national stage, you must not only educate but you must entertain to some degree. This requires that you first develop a quality product. Delivering quality content means you are creating a story, mindful of your stage presence, and following basic multimedia principles of slide design. Once you have developed a quality product, you must practice, practice, practice, and practice. Then comes the marketing phase of your journey. Until you are a well-known entity, people will want to see samples of your quality product usually in the form of a short video. You can utilize various social media platforms to amplify this sample and to advertise your prior, current, and future engagements no matter how big or small they are perceived. You must also learn to seek opportunities. This is done through networking and submitting submissions. Lastly, you must persevere. If you don’t hear “no” more often than “yes,” then you are not submitting enough. “No” can be tough to hear and failure is a tough pill to swallow. However, both are inevitable. You must step outside of your comfort zone and extend yourself if you wish to be successful on this journey. In this section, we will discuss each of these steps in further detail to help you on your path to teaching on a regional and national stage.