Daniel Hall says that once you’re approved to speak on a cruise ship for free, all you have to do is win over the audience and you can pretty much get invited back on that cruise line, and speak on many others.

“You are, generally speaking, approved forever,” Daniel says. “This means you can then pretty much cruise when you want as long as you give enough advance notice.”

That’s one of he big differences between speaking on cruises and speaking on shore. Daniel is an expert on the topic of speaking on cruise ships and was my guest during a teleseminar called “Speakers Cruise Free: Trade Your Talents for Free Luxury Cruises.”

Stage hypnotist Victor Maranto was on the call and told the story of his own success speaking on cruise ships.

It was Fourth of July week and Victor would leave in just four days on a nine-day vacation cruise.

Armed with a step-by-step list of instructions on how to get booked as a speaker on the cruise, he called the woman who works with speakers and ended up in her voicemail.

“I started singing to her on her voicemail,” he said. “I kept chanting her name. Then I laughed and hung up. Fifteen minutes later, she calls back and says, ‘What can I do for you?’”

He had no presentation planned but pitched seven ideas for programs. She told him he wouldn’t be able to hypnotize any of the passengers but that she wanted to hire him to present on the last day. They settled on a program called “Take Action Now: How to Unlock Your Mind’s Hidden Power.”

It all happened so quickly that Victor actually had to create the presentation on-board. He used a friend’s Power Point slides and substituted his own bullet points.

He had postcards about the presentation printed and took them with him. But he wouldn’t know until he boarded the ship exactly when he would speak, so he left the time and date blank. Once he knew that information, he filled it in, then recruited his kids to distribute the postcards to passengers.

The day of the presentation, Victor taught one woman how to overcome her fear of crossing bridges. He instructed other passengers on how to muster enough confidence to perform Karaoke. He even videotaped the presentation and now has a video that he can show other cruise ships that need speakers.

Victor followed Daniel Hall’s instructions to the letter because Daniel is the expert on how to cruise for free in exchange for presenting a program. You can too. Listen to the replay of our teleseminar.

Speaking on cruises, by the way, can generate fabulous publicity for you. For example, many cruise lines have newspapers or newsletters that are distributed daily. They might feature an interview with you. That means you get in front of passengers who come to your presentation, as well as those who don’t.

Your local daily newspaper and may even your TV station might also be fascinated by the fact that a local resident is speaking on cruise lines. And that means even more publicity for you. See “How to Get onto the Local TV News Tomorrow.”