They are out to take your money and give you VERY little in return. I’d be VERY suspicious of any organization that will claim that they can make you rich if you only join THEIR group.

I’m a member of only one group. The National Speakers Association. I am STILL a member because of the people I know there.

At this point I have (UNFORTUNATELY) found very little value from the meetings that they hold. This is because for all of their GREAT INTENTIONS, implementation of those great intentions is hindered by internal politics.

It was that way years ago when I got started and it’s still that way today. Maybe it’s just how ANY organization works.

My point is this: Don’t expect some organization that you join to give you the MAGIC BULLET for your seminar business.

The biggest “secret” to this business if there is one is to create a MASSIVE list, mail them often with valuable content and then make them AWARE of when you are doing events.

As far as joining a group . . . completely unnecessary!

Today, my entire methodology of promoting revolves around my own in-house list. I’ve even stopped attempting to ask others to promote my seminar to THEIR lists. Why? Because it never seems to work out. They don’t want to follow my timeframes and seem to be less than cooperative when it comes to promoting something other than their own “stuff.”

My list is everything to my seminar promotion effort. Without the list, I have no one to promote my events to.

Do you have a list? If so, you need to cultivate it properly. I just had a chance to watch the movie “Being There” with Peter Sellers for the third or fourth time the other night. In the movie, sellers is a gardner. When he is “discovered” by a slew of media folks and politicians, he turns Washington on it’s ear.

He uses examples from gardening when talking about EVERYTHING. Soon the entire DC establishment thinks he is brilliant. In fact, he’s a simpleton.

But, everything that he says in that film about attending to your garden is true about your list. It needs to be cultivated, watered, watched and nurtured. Treat your list like the valuable asset it is and you’ll be able to promote your seminars to that list for a long time.