Successful Workshops

Speak of workshops and people generally perk up with interest. It could be a workshop about gaining confidence. Or it could be about being able to find romance. Workshops are big business these days. So, learning how to attract your audience is the first thing you will need to learn if you are to run a successful workshop.

My art workshops are generally smaller than most workshops you might be imagining. I am not talking about the kinds of audiences that Anthony Robbins and Jack Canfield normally motivate in speaking engagements. But, once in awhile you might see one of these high powered speakers speaking to a group of people the size of one of my normal workshops. A small group of twenty to thirty is about the size you should be expecting as you are just starting out giving workshops.

In a group of this size, you can attract your audience in several ways. Some ideas come from the many talk shows that have paved the way. Other ideas are products of just plain good business. So, its a good thing to try them all.

Have a Controversial Topic

When you run a workshop, controversial topics arent hard to find. Most workshops have controversial issues connected to them anyway. Doing a workshop about gaining confidence has inherent controversial issues. People who have no clue what they are talking about are always attracting all the attention. The people who are the most boring are always the ones with the most information. Those are controversial even though they arent necessarily on a social or political scale.

Coming up with a controversial issue for my own art workshops is as easy as talking about the board of education. With art slowly being cut from the education curriculum, all I have to pitch is the fact that art benefits the kids and their educations. I can raise some great attention just simply putting the news out about the benefits of art and how it is being cut from the schools.

Give Your Audience a Question

Believe it or not, questions are enticing. Especially if you ask an open ended question and you dont give an answer. Scores of people will come to either find out the answer or to give it. Youve just created an issue. It might be your controversial one too. If its a good enough question, youll definitely generate an audience ready to listen. What was the question for the art workshop? Simple.

If you could help improve your childs grades, would you?

Who wouldnt?

Give Something Away

One of the tactics that attract people is when you give something away. Not everyone can be like Oprah and give a car to every member in her audience. But, you can always afford to give something away. Think about the services you provide, not the products you sell. Give time, no money. In my art workshops, I could give members of my audience a free workshop. I could have a system for choosing that would make audience members want to keep coming back to my workshop in hopes that I eventually give them a free workshop.

Think about the services you provide and try to find a give-away in that. You just have to be creative. Make it interesting enough to want and youll have audience members.

This is just the beginning of the system. You have to pull them in and keep them there. You have to keep them coming back in order to make your workshop endeavors a six-figure income enterprise. Workshops can easily be six-figure enterprises, art workshops are.

An internationally known artist as well as a mother of six, Rivky Shimon founded Rivkys Art Workshop in Brooklyn, New York. Rivkys step-by-step method for teaching children how to create and enjoy art has earned high praise from students, teachers and parents alike. Through her new training series, Rivky plans to teach artists from across the country how to duplicate her success. Not only to ensure that art education remains a vital part of every childs life, but also to enforce the reality that "The Rivky Method" tm works the same magic for adults as well.

Benjamin Franklin
Sigmund Freud