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• Classic-Fiction

Use your best sales voice and smile while you’re talking on the phone. Talk about ideas for getting people to the booth, greeting them, plastic sales incentives, balloons. Be creative and magnetic. You might be instantly interviewing!

The only downside is that you’ll be bound to the booth and can’t maneuver when it’s open.

Or you can use the program to . . .

Pick a Speaker

There are three kinds of speakers: Headliners, Keynoters, and Everyone Else.

Headliners are the arena acts with their marquees selling motivation and moneymaking. Google, call, and sell.

They need security, setup, and sales help in unlimited numbers. Free works.

You’ll need a large left front pocket. Thirty business cards per performance should do it.

Keynoters are tradeshow draws. Sometimes they get paid an honorarium. Other times, they just get expenses. Many peddle their wares (books, CDs, DVDs, whatever) in the back of the room, and they like to appear with a large entourage.

You just meet the keynoter there and do your thing. All expenses paid.

Then head for interview heaven—the vendor area.

In the Everyone Else category, you’ll find a treasure trove of leads.

Industry-specific trainers, consultants, and other providers make their living by compulsively contacting. Becoming a free sidekick—willing to do grunt work with a suit and a smile—is a way to instant and incessant interviews.

Less-known business speakers also won’t have a problem saying nice things about you. Most truly care about service and can always use a verbal fan touting their verbiage.

I’ve done everything from “name in lights” to “referee food-fights.” I like low-profile workshops the best.

You probably will too. The demand is instant and insatiable.

When you’re in your hotel room, find the Yellow Pages in the desk, dresser, or nightstand drawer. If there’s a free local call feature in the room (or if you have a cell phone with unlimited minutes), call around, and tell a few juicy prospects that you’re here from out of town and would like to see the famous whatever-your-business-name-is. Arrange to meet that person when you’re free. Do this many times and write down the name and contact information. That’s why hotels have notepads and pens right there.

Otherwise, take the Yellow Pages, pad, and pen down to the lobby. Smile and politely ask for an open local line at the front desk. Most hotels gleefully accommodate, since charging for local calls makes guests angrier than paying for beer nuts.

As a last resort, use the lobby phone booth.

Then go back to your room (if you left), lie down on the bed, stretch, and dial the hotel concierge or front desk. Arrange to meet the hotel courtesy (read free) shuttle driver in half an hour outside.

Then call the toll-free number for the airline and find out the last flight you can catch home the day of your departure, with no upcharge in your ticket. Book it.

Now that you’ve rested, pack up. Be sure that your shoes match, your pockets have your I.I. kit, and go down to meet the shuttle driver.

Like taxi drivers, shuttle drivers are literally streetwise. That’s because they’re professional listeners. They’re like nurses in pilots’ uniforms (inside joke, Do 51).

Ask to go downtown to a shopping center or an industrial park.

Now back to the last thing to do before you leave . . .

Instant interview away.

Don’t forget to turn in your expenses!

Do 32: Forming Your Very Own Job Club

. . . And volunteering to be the program director!

Job clubs are informal groups that meet to discuss help-wanted things. Usually at members’ homes one evening a week. The members exchange leads, talk about their interviews, and practice interviewing. Some have newsletters and even participate in job fairs.

As a lead source, many are excellent. The members are out and about every day and get job market intelligence you can’t possibly find by yourself. And sooner. Members learn about jobs while they’re hot. By the time they’re publicized, they’re cold and old.

The members are