How to Get Paid Speaking Events (What Every Speaker on the Planet Wants to Know)

You have a message. You see on social media these speakers flying to and fro making money at paid events. You've gotten offered to speak but the event doesn't pay. You've googled "paid speaking" and you still can't find the elusive strategy of how these professional speakers find paid events.

I'm going to say something controversial right from the get go. There is no one strategy to find paid speaking events. What happens is speakers throw a lot of spaghetti on the wall until something sticks. When that sticks - they hone in and refine what they are doing and keep doing whatever it is that worked.

I've paid a bajillion dollars over time learning other people's sales strategies for speaking and none of them worked for me because I don't speak on what they speak on. My audience and target market is different. So is my personality including strengths and weaknesses, which is why their processes may have given me ideas - but I was never able to implement fully or successfully.

Having said that, there are some generic strategies that do work. It's all in the fine tuning of whether or not it will work for YOU.

First: This may seem obvious but I am shocked how often people have no idea what I'm talking about when I mention this. If you want to get paid to speak, you need to have a speech that is sellable. It needs to solve a problem that is costing the company or industry money. Period. No problem solving - no checks being written to you.

Example: you may be fascinated by the history of cat hair and all the cool things you can make out of it. Christmas ornaments. A sweater. Maybe your Grandmother is the founder of a cat breed or you've studied tiger hair all over the world.

No-one is going to pay for a talk about cat hair - no matter how passionate you, and maybe two other people might be.

If you can tie cat hair and how it's used to support the rest of the cat's body, maaaaybe you could tie it in to team work or leadership - but it's still pretty out there.

On the other hand: if you sell yourself as a "leadership speaker", woopety hoo haw. You and 4 billion other people speak on "leadership" so why would anyone hire you over someone else?

A sellable speech solves a problem, has your unique perspective, story AND delivery style. 

THAT'S why they should hire you over anybody else. If you don't have a unique perspective or style or story, you are the mid-range toilet paper in the grocery store isle. It gets the job done, but there's cheaper, or nicer, or organic, or the same brand you've used for 23 years because you fear change, that you can buy instead. 

You need a sellable speech.

THEN you need assets to sell yourself. This includes a website, demo reel of you speaking, pictures, speech title, topic, at least three take aways for an audience, and a bio at the minimum. Social media presence and shorts videos are secondary but very helpful in getting you hired. 

Some people SWEAR you need a "one-sheet". To this day not ONE meeting planner or bureau has EVER asked me for a one sheet. The ONLY people who have asked me for a one-sheet is other speakers when they want to refer me. 

Who Pays for Speakers?

Events:

1. Association Conferences: This is my personal favorite. I do most of my speaking for associations. What's great about associations, besides the fact they pay their keynote speakers, is the potential of being re-hired, also known as "spin".
2. The #1 way I get hired is "spin". This is where someone sees me speak, then I get a call three years later hiring me for another event. OR, if it's an association and I spoke for a state conference, I get recommended to speak at the National, or it happens in reverse order. Basically, "spin" is slang for "word of mouth" (Which, I'm fairly certain is also slang, but I'm not writing a 100 page thesis so....)
3. RFP's. Request for Proposals. These are on-line forms conferences put up a few weeks out of the year to find speakers. You fill it out. They read through hundreds of submissions. Then you get an email saying they appreciate you but they found someone else they want to be in a relationship with -who is better than you. I mean someone else to speak-(a little go my emotional baggage slipping out there).... OR on the rare case - you get hired.
4. Direct Contact to Companies: I personally hate doing this. Vice Presidents, anyone over middle management, if the company is large enough to have a meeting planner or HR are places you can start to contact. There are also ERG's that hire, however these can be difficult to track down as ERG's are usually volunteer positions. With companies in general, it is helpful if you know if they have an annual event, or if you know they are CURRENTLY having specific issues regarding something you help solve. Those two things narrow it down, making it easier to find the right person to contact and gives you an actual advantage regarding bringingyou in.
5. Non Profits. Non-Profits normally have at least one annual fundraiser each year. They often hire speakers for them.
6. Schools. I don't do schools anymore so I can't say much about them - other than I'm glad I'm not doing schools anymore.
7. Hospital Community Outreaches. A lot of hospitals have a community outreach event - especially for women - at least once a year. They often hire speakers. I do a lot of these and love them. The Hospital is your client, but the community is your audience.
8. Private Events. I've spoken one too many times in someone's living room or barn. These are often from "spin" (aka word of mouth). They find me - I've never found them. I don't know how to find "Aunt Bertha's Foundation for Food Critics Board Member Retreat" type events.
9. Bureaus: The thing with Bureaus is they are exactly like acting agencies - exactly. They don't want you until you've reached a certain pay and or success level. Once you hit that level you don't really need them anymore. I personally love to work with bureaus because I've had acting agents for years. I'll happily give them a percentage of my fee considering I don't have to do any paperwork and it's an event I wouldn't have had otherwise. But bureaus won't be the majority of where your work comes from.
10. Holding Your Own Events: I don't do that so...I have nothing to say about it other than it exists.
11. Government: I do a lot of events for government employees. These events are one of my favorite places to speak. There's sooooo much government everywhere. Local, state, federal. It's all over the place -literally.
12. Other Speakers. Referrals from other Speakers are wonderful. I am a huge fan of the National Speaker's Association. I wouldn't have a career or 90% of my friends had I not joined. I do get speaker referrals and I've met most of them from NSA.

How do you find these events???

First, anyone who swears they'll get you millions of dollars in events if you do their program, is a liar. No-one has a magic bullet. They just don't. If they do, it'll be outdated in 6 months because the industry is in constant change. You have to be good. You have to be unique. You have to have a sellable and relevant speech. They can't sell you or you sell you following their 5 step plan you paid $10k for - if you don't have those basic things (unique, sellable, solve a problem, relevant). 

Also, I don't spam and annoy a million meeting planners. I personally don't shmooze at networking events, either. I find the whole thing awkward. It's just not my thing going somewhere and acting nice and "casually running into someone" in hopes they'll hire me. It feels phony to me. But some people really love that.

Software and Lists:

I've paid a lot for lists. Hands down the ONLY software I use now is Sam Richter's Intel Engine. Sam is a Sales Speaker and a really nice human. His software is specifically made for speakers. Meaning you can cyberstalking other speakers, find RFP's, contact info to companies, etc. 

It has saved me so. much. time. I tell all my coaching clients to buy it first thing.

You can check it out here. (It is an affiliate link but I am being genuine in saying don't waste your time on the internet when you could just go here because it does the heavy lifting for you.)

https://www.knowmore.university/a/aff_gqtxt90h/external?affcode=231462_e4qadq6x

I made Youtube video a little while ago that shows how I use it. I am tech challenged so I don't use it fully, but it will give you an inside peek so you can check out to see some of what it does. The link to the video is below.

https://youtu.be/kilm3iOtnGE?si=zeaMjG4pGNVlRGHR

Again, I know I have said it twice now, but be careful about spending a ton of money on a promise someone will get you events. Maybe their system will work. However, not until YOU know why someone is hiring you, why you are different and who your audience is. Otherwise, it's a waste of time and money. It really is. 

You need to package your toilet paper correctly so it gets put on the right shelf, in the right area, in front of the right customer.

No-one is going to be able to sell you as toilet paper in the frozen food section....Be careful you're positioned and packaged correctly.