![]() social media posts, newsletters, blogs, submitted to well known publications, etc.). Once you’ve got great content, it can be repurposed in so many ways (e.g. Determine where you shine best – shooting video, writing articles or white papers, recording podcasts, etc., then develop a schedule for generating content. One of the best ways to do that is to generate content frequently and consistently. The #1 piece of advice that I give to new speakers just starting to build a business is to become a thought leader in your industry or domain area. ![]() While I’m not a believer in being pushy (or obnoxious) in any way, it was certainly helpful early on to realize that many organizations will negotiate pricing, but you may have to stand firm on pricing to start the negotiation. Typically, corporate events have much more flexible budgets and this isn’t an issue as much, but if you’re just starting to speak professionally, industry and professional organization events will provide many of your initial speaking opportunities and they’re typically much more cost constrained. Even if you’re not able to secure payment to speak, you might propose that they consider getting a sponsor to bulk purchase your book (if you’ve authored one) and cover your expenses. annual conference in a major city at a nice hotel) typically will have budget to support paying a speaker (particularly the keynote). For example, events where there will be a large number of paying attendees (e.g. I learned to proactively discern which events would most likely have some speaker budget flexibility. ![]() Overall, I learned that some professional organization or industry events simply don’t have speaker budgets or they just don’t pay speakers as policy, but others may be willing to pay only those speakers who stand firm on their pricing. Of course, these fees are nowhere near where you’d want to charge after you’re more seasoned and in-demand, but $5,000 beats $0 any day when you’re starting out. Typically, professional organizations would only pay about $3,000-$5,000 per event, but they were paying nonetheless. Over the next couple years, when negotiating with various clients (including professional organizations), about half agreed to pay after initially stating they had no budget. It couldn’t be that simple I thought, but in many ways it was. You just have to insist on it!” I was floored. When I asked him how he’d managed to get them to pay him for the same types of events that I’d done for free, he simply said, “They’re always going to say they don’t have budget. I reached out to one guy in particular who had a speaking calendar posted online filled with speaking events for a professional organization that I’d spoken to for more than a decade (for free!). Let me explain…Once I decided to transition from unpaid to paid speaking, I actively sought out professional speakers who were consistently securing paid events. I know this sounds overly simplistic, but it was the first strategy I employed that worked immediately when I made the transition several years ago. Even though I would consistently have packed audiences at my events and long lines of eager participants waiting to chat afterwards, I’d never really thought about monetizing speaking – then I shifted my entire business model to focus primarily on paid speaking events. While I may not have been paid for the event, I would regularly accept invitations to speak due to the exotic location, opportunity to get in front of a target audience (who would hopefully contact me for follow on work) and most of all – I just loved speaking! But after a few time consuming speaking events in Milan, Marseilles and Costa Rica, I had a bit of an epiphany – Why am I speaking for free when I could be making money doing it? I know it sounds crazy, but prior to that moment, I never really thought of speaking as a potential revenue stream itself. However, for the first decade or so of my business, I viewed speaking engagements as a marketing tool, not a revenue opportunity. Having run a successful training and consulting business for more than 16 years (after a career in corporate America), I’ve spoken frequently to audiences large and small around the globe. Transitioning from unpaid to paid speaking can be tricky to navigate but well worth it.
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