You are not alone. Next to the fear of public speaking, the fear of making cold calls is the primary reason why most people never turn their dreams of becoming speakers into reality. They are held back by the fear of rejection or the fear of not wanting to be invasive. But you don’t have to make cold calls to be booked as a speaker.

Five things you can do to generate a flow of speaking engagements:

1.	Write articles that identify a problem that is affecting a segment of your community or the industry you want to speak to. Offer solutions or key strategies to solve the problem. You will appear as an expert and will be invited to speak. You can do the same for radio and TV markets.
2.	Develop your own regular newsletters—either printed or electronic. It is better to have both but an electronic newsletter is more cost effective.
3.	Whenever you speak, leave everyone with a piece of paper with information on how to contact you. To make sure the paper is kept, include key points of your speech that need to be remembered.
4.	If you have friends whose organization hires speakers, it is not a cold call to ask them if they would have you as one of their speakers. If you can call your friend to check how their life is from time to time, calling for an opportunity to speak is part of your ongoing relationship.
5.	After your speech or in your newsletter, offer a cash reward for any referral that leads to a paid speaking engagement. For example, you can state that if a reader of your newsletter or an attendee at an event you presented to refers you to an organization that eventually hires you, he/she will receive $250.