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Do you know how to protect your intellectual property? You need Copyrights and Wrongs — Protecting Your Intellectual Property, an e-port written especially so speakers, trainers, and other "information entrepreneurs" can protect their most valuable asset.

If you're a professional speaker, then you need Speakers Contracts That Work — Avoid Problems by Getting It in Writing. Period. End of story.

Create Your Own Holiday!

Do you know that March 1st is "Refired, Not Retired Day"?

Or that February 28th is "Romance on a Budget Day"?

Or that August 7th is "Professional Speaker Day"?

Well, they are! These three days — and thousands more — are listed in Chase's Calendar of Events, published annually by McGraw Hill, as officially-recognized holidays.

Now you may be wondering why you care. But there's more....

• The official contact for people wanting more information about Refired, Not Retired Day is Phyllis May, author of the nationally-recognized book on retirement, Refired, Not Retired.
• The official contact for people wanting more information about Romance on a Budget Day is Heidi Richards, author of several books about romance, including Romance on a Budget.
• The official contact for people wanting more information about Professional Speakers Day is none other than yours truly, Jim Barber, the founder and proprietor of the Up Your Fee Speaker Enrichment Center.

How did these people become the official contacts for those holidays? Simple — they created the "day" and named themselves as the person-in-charge.

Here's all you need to do.... First, think of a new, imaginative spin on a holiday that has something to do with your market or expertise. For example, let's say you speak on "networking." Now "National Networking Day" is probably already taken. (I don't know for sure. These is just an example.) But it's possible that no one has thought of "National 'How Do You Do?' Day" yet. Or maybe "International Business Card Exchange Week". Or maybe just "Howdy Day".

Then pick a day (or a week, month, or other time period) that you want to designate as the official holiday. (You don't have to explain why you chose that particular day, so pick whatever you like.)

The next step is to go to www.chases.com and use their short on-line form to submit your information — the actual date(s), a brief description of your holiday, and your name as the official contact. Click the "submit" button and you're done!

(You can go to the library beforehand and look in Chase's to see if your choices for holidays are already taken. But unless you've got a lot of free time, I recommend you just pick a good name for your holiday, submit it, and see what happens.)

Chase's doesn't accept every holiday submitted, so don't be upset if your suggestion is rejected. Just pick a different "day" and try again. (My personal experience has been that Chase's has accepted about 50% of my submissions.)

The deadline for inclusion in the 2008 edition of Chase's Calendar of Events is April, 2007. So start planning now, and maybe in 2008 "your" day will be receiving national — or maybe even international — attention.

In my opinion, marketing just doesn't get any easier (or more cost-effective) than this!

  Jim Barber