Should Trainers do free work(Pro bono)A thought provoking question!! Two thoughts:i) “Ghoda ghaas se dosti karega toh khayega kya?”....is what some feel.ii) Probono as an initial step is essential to prove your presence as a trainer particularly if you are new to the industry….is what few others feel.It all depends on the purpose of why you want to do Free workshops, there is no right or wrong answersHere’s my perspective -Not many know, I am a Certified Parenting Coach. Six years back I had done a certification on Parenting from Love Humanity International, USA. I was super charged after this and wanted every parent to gothrough this experience. I contacted my corporate friends and offered to conduct probono session on Parenting for their employees. My first session at TCS gave me a referral 11 other centers of TCS in Mumbai which further gave me leads to Crisil, ACC and so on. This further led me to announce my openworkshops on Parenting.I never made money from these probono workshops. I had no idea how to attract participants to buy my paid programs. I felt like a sweet vendor shop who gives his customers small pieces of free samples to taste. If every customer decides to enjoy the delicacy and have a stomach full why would he buy the sweet with money?My reflections on this taught me crucial lessons:i) Social Media platforms serve as the first introduction to the Trainer. Participants become aware of your services.ii) Display Testimonials of participants including sharing their experiences on print or through interview bytes ! This will validate your claims, first hand. Your prospective participant will know if the programme made any difference to those who attended earlier.iii) Include services to cross sell and upsell your target audience e.g. books, online programs,workshops to offer your target audience.iv) Have a structured methodology – even to conduct a free workshop!Step-by-Step Structure to conduct a free workshop :1.Define the Theme of your workshop: e.g. if the Theme is “Money”Ask  two open ended questions:a) How many of you would like to make lots of Money?b) How many of you would like to lead a Life of Abundance?Likewise, if the Theme of the workshop is on “Parenting”, ask these two open ended questions:a) How many of you want your child to be more responsible?b) How many of you want to teach your child self-control and knowdifferent ways to inculcate social skills?Remember two fundamental points here: 1. The questions should be open ended to evoke a YES from the participants 2. The question should relate to the topicAs you ask the questions there is one more body action you need to do, instinctively:Raise your handYou will notice participants will raise their hands too!!! That’s a psychological process where their minds get instinctively conditioned to mirror yours!2.Acknowledge and Thank them“Thank you all for coming on a Sunday morning and taking time off to learn. I truly appreciate it.” This is a sufficient acknowledgement and participants will appreciate it if they see your genuineness!3.WIFM : (What’s In it For Me)It’s important for the participant to feel “this programme is meant for me!” When they leave the workshop, they should be partially convinced, at least from the heart “yes I mustattend further workshops on this even if I have to pay”. While the free workshop will give them a glimpse of the full length programme, it will be just about enough to attract them and keep them yearning for more! It should leave them with “Yeah Dil Mange More”! Let them know“At the end of the workshop,you will learn”:1.2.3.The clarity would keep their mind focussed and be receptive to what you have to say to them.4.Your StorySharing your personal Story !!! Self-Disclosure can be a key step in convincing people. It helps in creating a space about you in the participant’s mind and heart.If you have any significant achievement to share, do that. It helps in creating an image of you as a role model in the eyes of the participant. You start getting noticed as an authority.If you have had struggles and overcame those, share them transparently. These are great morale’ boosters and motivators. They also become stories for the participants and stories have a powerful mind play and are easily absorbed by people. It also helps participantsresonate with you as most of them arefacing similar challenges in their life which gives them confidence toovercome their challenges. Thereafter let them know your “moments of decision”when you started acting on the challenges and how youmade it happen.This moment of decision would help them to make a life time decision and help them to participate in your paid programmes.5.Share the contentNow share the contents of the workshop with the participants. Make it involvement oriented and participative. Be crisp in delivering the contents since time is limited. If the workshop is seeking to provide a solution to a problem, then you need to play the role of a process Facilitator and demonstrate evolution of a solution through process facilitation. If the content of the workshop is of primary importance and its more of a knowledge based workshop, then you need to play the role of a Trainer*.It is also a good idea to present the participants with a structure of what will happen in the two days paid programme. This would go a long way in converting these prospective participants into full-fledged participants(* There is a difference Training and Facilitation. More of it in our next blogs………)6.ClosingHave sufficient time allotted to the closing so that participants can give their nominations for the paid workshop. Instruct them whatto do next even if it means handing over forms to fill, helping them fill, payment methodology, announcing the fees for the programme, offers for early bird registration if any, handholding post the workshop as a complimenting offer to those who need it, referral acknowledgements and gifts to those who give names for the next workshop etc. Market is abounding with several such creative marketing and selling techniques today! Just google it out. International speakers are no exception!!Today you will find even the best of International Trainers, Facilitators, Coach, Therapists and Corporate Czars offering pro bono workshops and programmes of short duration (which generally lasts for around two or three hours or a breakfast conclave). Pre workshop showcasing on probono basis is becoming an acceptable thing. It’s like watching the trailer of a forthcoming thriller movie likely to be released coming Friday!In the next blog I will share Strategies that Trainers should adopt to get continuous assignments and participants for their open workshops.If you like this blog do comment and do share about Learners Conclave platform to all your trainer friends and let themregister at www.learnersconclave.inAsif EbrahimLearners Conclave9967352331