THE NEW SPEAKING BUSINESS
MONETIZING YOUR MESSAGE
COVID-19 has left a lasting impact on the speaking business. Accelerating the shift to a digital business model and adding emphasis to growing your digital footprint.
As a Multimedia producer & Strategist we have had the opportunity to witness some of the best practices first hand when it comes to building a speaking business from scratch. We know first hand how far a good peace of footage can stretch!
Having a great message means nothing if you can’t get it out to the world. A lot of times speakers struggle out of the gate, because event planners usually want to see some type of proof that you can deliver a great speech. However, if you are just starting out you have no such proof because no one has ever booked you.
The great thing about problems is that they all have solutions! Content is the great equalizer. Successfully developing content and distributing it will check off every dot you need and then some.
Media becomes mass media once it reproduced in quantity, and mass media is what is going to help you stand out from the pack! Why not take a version of your signature talk and retool the content into short digital pieces?
Whether you speak at conferences, retreats, host workshops, give keynotes, speech to schools, do sales training, coaching, consulting, etc. You need to be out in front of your people consistently. Some type of daily content is recommend for the fastest growth.
With platforms like Youtube, Instagram, Linkedin, Spotify, etc. It has never been more easy to showcase your expertise. Simultaneously planting seeds of your content to harvest later. Via speaking engagements, followers, coaching clients, press inquiries, etc.
Sometimes you are going to post a piece of content that doesn’t work out the way you planned, and that’s apart of the game. It’s no different from a musician releasing a song that they feel is a sure fire hit record but the fans think otherwise. It just takes that piece of content to change everything for you.
GETTING BOOKED UP
It all starts with brand positioning. Conference organizers are looking to book experts. They will want to go through your website and social media platforms to get a sense of your skill and knowledge around your keynote topic.
This can be a Youtube series, motivational speech album, solid webpage, etc. Your social media presence may factor in but it is not the deciding factor. Conference organizers just need to know that you can offer a solution for their audience. Even if you only have 100 followers.
Making full use of the internet and sites like Eventbrite you can find speaking opportunities with a decent amount of keyword research. From there you can link to their site and make the connection.
Be sure to frequent conference directory websites as well. The executives book speakers on a wide variety of topics. Allconferences.com and gigmasters.com are two really solid sites to keep in mind.
Whether you are just starting out or you are a 7-figure speaker, joining a speaker bureau has probably crossed your mind. Some speakers love them while others feel like they can go without a speakers bureau.
Joining a speaking bureau does not mean that you are guaranteed anything! You will still have to do much of your own legwork. A speaking bureau is king of like a speaker directory. The success of your speaking career is solely in your hands. It is essential to stay active online with relevant content.
Posting relevant and consistent content will establish yourself as a trusted voice. Ideally you want organizations to reach out to you requesting your speaker demo, but many times it comes down to doing the legwork.
Want to give a TEDx talk? Start by searching TEDx events on google. Look on the tab under TEDx program which should be the first or second search result. Click on TEDx events. Depending on if you are willing to travel; you will want to search far and wide for upcoming talks. They are unpaid so keep that in mind as well. Connect with the organizer either via Linkedin or via there direct website which is sometimes Linked.
BUILDING YOUR TRIBE
Motivational speeches have a unique opportunity to impact the lives of people all over the world. With music you don’t have to be an international speaker for your message to be heard across continents.
There are over 400,000 professional speakers in the world and growing. Some may be more experienced but the cream always rises to the top and your content is what is going to get you to the top.
Building your tribe you will have to be amongst the people you are trying to attract. With most everything moving to the internet or not at all that has never been easier than right now.
With every post you are building your brand, your footprint, your leverage, let it work on your behalf and not against you. How many videos do you have of you actually speaking on your social media? How much audio do you have of you speaking on your social media? How often do you post in general?
It’s essential to have some kind of systematic process for content distribution. The marketing is where the magic happens! Keyword tools like Jaaxy make it really easy to see what your ideal audience may be searching for online.
Create a look or theme for your content. That could be a color, phrase, logo, etc. You just need something that your audience will be able to remember you by. You’ll also want to collaborate with other speakers when possible.
We have collaboration elements built within our services that are sure to help a great deal. Once you build your tribe things become a whole lot easier for you as a speaker.
Another way to collaborate with other speakers is to skimpily start a podcast and invite guest speakers on your show.
We did something similar where we would invite a few speakers at a time in studio to give freestyle speeches, group panel discussions, and play various games centered around speaking.
In doing do not only did we build content we were actually able to connect local speakers with one another who otherwise may have never crossed paths.