Last Friday night I planned to attend an event called 20/20 “The art of concise presentations” at University Club. This event is based on the PechaKucha format: you show 20 images, and speak on each for 20 seconds. My intention was to attend and learn from the speakers. The night before, I commented on a Facebook post and asked “how do you become a speaker?” I got a reply from the organizer the next morning who informed me that several speakers cancelled last minute. They were down to 1 speaker but they prefer 6-8. I was asked to step up and speak with only a few hours notice. I decided to jump on this opportunity and create a presentation that emphasized the importance of public speaking to grow your business. So this began my search for free images…

I titled my talk “Speak Up! Marketing Success Through Public Speaking” and I streamed it on Facebook Live. Watch my 7 minute talk I put together in just a couple hours below!

CLICK TO WATCH NOW! Marketing Melodie Speaking LIVE at 20/20.

Pictured in the middle with my fellow speaker and the 20/20 organizers.

I love speaking and presenting in front of groups, but I usually have days, weeks and sometimes months to prepare. This time I had a few hours to put together 20 slides with images and figure out what I was going to say for only 20 seconds per slide. It was a little nerve-racking. I generally use very little text in my presentations anyway, so I already have a list of places to find free images I can use. This presentation inspired me to compile a list  so next time you have a chance to give a 20/20 talk, need images for a blog post or anything else you’re doing, you have go to resources too.

1. Photopin– Free Photos for bloggers and creatives!
2. Unsplash– Free (do whatever you want) high-resolution photos.
3. Picjumbo– The best of best free stock images.
4. Pexels– Best free stock photos in one place.
5. StockSnap.io– Beautiful free stock photos. Hundreds of high resolution images added weekly
6. Google Image Search– Most people know about Google Image search. However, many of the images you find on there are copyrighted and not labeled for reuse. Here’s an easy way to get around that: On the navigation bar click on “Search tools”. You will then see a drop down you can choose from. Scroll down and find an option that works such as “Labeled for reuse”. This ensures that all images that come up area available for you to use.

7. Build Your Own Library– Smart phones make snapping photos on the go easier than ever. See something interesting while walking down the street? See something that may make a good photo for later use, even though you don’t know exactly what for yet? Snap away and save all these photos in a file, so you have your own library of images to choose from.

These are the 7 ways I personally use to find quality stock photos, fast. Knowing about these resources saved me when I had a short amount of time to put together my 20/20 slides. I know there are dozens of other ways out there to find free stock photos that I’m not listing here. Please share your own resources with me in the comments and if you did get a chance to watch my presentation, share with me something you learned!