I’m no genie but your income streams as a professional speaker are probably some form of coaching, book sales, and speaking engagements. It’s an easy assumption when most speakers are doing the same things to market themselves. Just imagine how all the event planners feel! It’s never been easier to stand out from the pack. All it takes is a little foresight and follow through.
Imagine being paid 25k for 5 seconds of your speech being licensed out to a TV Show. The right blend of music mixed with an informational & inspirational message can create a real social impact. Historically speakers like Zig Ziglar and Dave Ramsey laid the foundation for putting your message on CD but not really monetizing it though. In 2017, Eric Thomas had a speech track go viral and land on the Billboard Top 100 Songs.
From there he was able to raise his speaking fee to over 200K and ultimately transition his whole business model to only speak on stage when he wants to, usually for free to a school or civic organization. In a recent interview with EYL University he states “His mixtapes created the pathway for corporate”. Today it’s all about a multitude of content marketing.
At this point event planners need to hear new buzzwords. 5K International streams on your keynote just sounds better. Event planners sift through tons of speaking applications before they come up with a short list of about 7 speakers. Being able to highlight the fact that you have developed a community online will separate you from the pack easily.
Why not have a few Spotify playlist titled around various keywords and phrases in the realm of your speaking topic? You would be able to give value that will ultimately drive traffic that you can leverage into more speaking opportunities. Yes, footage on stage is essential but today it’s easier than ever to create your own stagetime.
Packaging your keynote into album form is like having digital real estate. First you will need to segment your keynote topic into about 8 to 10 sub categories. With that, you now have your “tracklist” and now you are ready to get your album produced. Once in production it should take less than a month to get your album done and distributed to all of the major streaming platforms.
Creating short form content around your album will differentiate you from other speakers who just market their book as well as help you create cool offerings for organizations centered on access to your album material.
When crafting your tracklist you have to look at your tracks as sales people and be mindful of the events you would look to be booked to speak at. Most conferences book speakers atleast 5 months out so it wouldn’t be a bad idea to create a wishlist of upcoming speaking engagements that you would like to be booked for.
If you know that an upcoming conference is specializing in a certain theme for their conference; you might want to title your tracks around the themes for their conference.
Executed the right way and you have now positioned yourself as the obvious choice above all other candidates. From there they will gladly pay whatever fee you ask for. They will be excited to here your presentation and may even request that you play a few tracks from your album.