6 PROVEN STEPS TO

find & book

PAID SPEAKING
ENGAGEMENTS

Adapted from Dan Irvin’s Process

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LEAD GENERATION
CONTACT STRATEGY
DISCOVERY CALL
PROPOSAL EMAIL
TIMELINE OF EVENTS EMAIL
AFTER-EVENT CONNECTIONS
CONCLUSION

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HAVE YOU BEEN TRYING TO GET
HIRED AS A PAID SPEAKER?

Thought it would be easy, but you’re coming up short? Struggling to

remember which emails to write back to and which to archive? There are
no loopholes when it comes to booking paid speaking engagements.
But there are practiced and proven steps that can get you started on the
path to a successful and sustainable professional speaking career.

6 STEPS TO FIND AND BOOK PAID SPEAKING GIGS

Today, we’re going to go through six steps to find and book paid speaking
gigs. They will help you find clients, get hired, nurture the client
relationship, and leverage the event to get more clients.

The steps are as follows:

1. LEAD GENERATION
2. CONTACT STRATEGY
3. DISCOVERY CALL
4. PROPOSAL
5. TIMELINE OF EVENTS EMAIL
6. AFTER-EVENT CONNECTIONS + FEEDBACK

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THESE SIX ELEMENTS WILL HELP YOU
MAXIMIZE PAID SPEAKING OPPORTUNITIES
AND BUILD A STRONG FOUNDATION FOR
YOUR SPEAKING BUSINESS.

ALL THE MOST SUCCESSFUL PROFESSIONAL

SPEAKERS FOLLOW THE SAME GENERAL STRATEGY
TO BUILD AND SCALE THEIR BUSINESSES.

Now, you can too.

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 STEP 1: LEAD GENERATION

At the beginning of your speaking journey, you’ll find quite a bit of

preparation and work behind the scenes happens before the fun starts.
Lead Generation is part of that grunt work. Lead generation in general
means finding and attracting potential clients to your business.

For speakers, it means researching events that you would like to speak
at, finding out the name and email of the person who is hiring speakers,
and cataloguing that information so you can reach out to them using
step #2 (Contact Strategy).

TRY TO ALLOCATE 30-60 MINUTES PER DAY FOR

PROSPECTING. AIM TO FIND 5-10 NEW EVENTS PER DAY

Don’t have that much time? Well, the key to getting booked and paid to
speak isn’t quantity of leads, it’s quality. Systematizing and refining
your search methods so you are looking in the right places will ensure
that you are reaching out to high-quality and high-potential leads.

It will take some trial and error before you figure out the “green flags”
that make a lead high-potential. If the perfect client seems like the
proverbial needle-in-the-haystack for the first few weeks, trust that
you’re still on the right track!

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A lot of speakers want to outsource this part of the work because it’s
boring and time consuming. We get it–nobody wants to spend hours on
end sifting through Google (pssst! AI can help with that!).

At the same time, nobody knows your speaking business, your goals, and
your passions like you do. You alone are the best judge of whether a
lead looks like a good fit. Once you start putting your trust in your
business into somebody else’s hands, you lose a little bit of control.

Until your speaking business has a strong reputation and firm

foundation, try to do all of your prospecting yourself.

IF YOU WANT ACCESS TO TOOLS THAT CAN CUT YOUR TIME

PROSPECTING IN HALF, GET IN TOUCH WITH US HERE

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 STEP 2: CONTACT STRATEGY

Once you have identified leads and put them into your system, it’s time
for your contact strategy. This is the part where you actually reach out
and follow up. Like lead generation, contact strategy takes time. Often,
it feels as fruitless and exhausting as the endless prospecting that came
first. While it’s not fun, it’s the only way to get those first paid speaking
engagements that will serve as the foundation for your career.

Write a general template for your initial email letting leads know you’re
interested in speaking at their event. Then make it personalized to
everyone you reach out to with the details of the event and target
audience in mind. Personalization goes a long way in this business! Paid
speaking opportunities come to those who put in the effort!

Many newbie speakers think that the first time they fail to get a response
from a lead, they should just cross that contact off the list. On the
contrary, speakers rarely win over event planners until the second or
even third follow–up. By consistently following up, you could find a
great paid speaking engagement that is just one more email away!

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 ONE SIMPLE CONTACT STRATEGY

A simple strategy is to reach out every a week for four consecutive

weeks. At that point if all you’ve heard is crickets, you’re probably not
going to hear back at all. TSL coach and professional speaker Dan Irvin
likes to send out one more email six months later with a humorous last-
ditch attempt–surprisingly, it sometimes works! (Listen to him
talk about these strategies here).

Once you get started on this contact strategy, the emails you have to
send each day will build up. Prioritize consistent effort over powering
through as fast as possible. In these early stages of your business,
reaching out to dozens of leads at once will give you a never-ending to-
do list in a few short weeks. Applying consistent effort just a few minutes
a day will get you a more manageable workload and paid speaking
engagements. There is no “get rich fast” solution with speaking–you
should only embark on this journey if you’re ready and willing to play the
long game.

To manage all your leads and time-sensitive emails, it’s important to

set up systems for your success. Using a good CRM like Hubspot or Zoho
is a great investment in streamlining the future of your business. But if
you don’t have the money for software yet, a well-organized excel
spreadsheet can serve you just as well.

WE HAVE TEMPLATES FOR SENDING INCREDIBLE EMAILS THAT

WILL HELP YOU LAND PAID SPEAKING GIGS RIGHT HERE

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 STEP 3: DISCOVERY CALL

Once you get a promising response from one of your leads, ask to
schedule a discovery call as soon as possible. If you have a scheduling
link you can send with a software like Calendly, that’s great! Or ask for
their number and their earliest availability. Then, use that call to learn as
much as you can about the paid speaking engagement while also
communicating the most important information about the speaking
services you offer.

The discovery call isn’t just about showing your potential client how
great you are. In addition, it’s about getting a feel for their needs and
their event so you can quote them an accurate speaker fee.

You might be tempted to keep using email for this part of the process,
but we can’t recommend a real-time conversation enough. Showing the
best parts of your speaking business is much harder over email! Think
of your discovery call as the first audition for the part of speaker.

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 3 MAIN Q’S IN THE DISCOVERY CALL

In addition to subtly selling yourself, you should expect to answer three

main questions in the discovery call. They are:

1. WHAT DO YOU SPEAK ABOUT?

2. ARE YOU AVAILABLE ON THAT DATE?
3. WHAT ARE YOUR FEES?

The discovery call is not a decision-making call. It’s your chance to

make a great first impression and learn enough about the client to set an
appropriate fee. It is also a chance for you to decide if this event is a bad
fit. The next step, the proposal email, puts the ball in the client’s park.

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 STEP 4: PROPOSAL EMAIL

It’s impossible to communicate all the details about your speaking

business over the phone. After all, the person on the other end might not
remember them anyway. That’s where the proposal email comes in.
At the end of your discovery call, let your potential client know you will
send them a follow-up email with your speaker proposal.

Your speaker proposal should include everything a decision-maker needs

to know about you. At the end of reading your proposal (and presenting
its contents to a board, committee, or any other decision-makers), they
should be able to confidently say a) “you’re hired!” or b) “our event isn’t
a great match, but we will recommend you to an event planner who
might want to work with you.”

Remember, it’s not the end of the world if a potential client doesn’t hire
you. Those leads can still lead you to speaking engagements through
referrals and recommendations.

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Your proposal should include at minimum:

1. A HEADSHOT
2. YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION
3. THE TITLE OF YOUR PROPOSED TALK
4. SHORT PARAGRAPH EXPLAINING THE THE TALK
5. TESTIMONIALS FROM PREVIOUS EVENT PLANNERS
6. LEARNING OBJECTIVES
7. REFERENCES
8. YOUR SPEAKER FEE

You can learn more about working with speaking leads in

this episode of The Speaker Lab Podcast.

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 STEP 5: TIMELINE OF EVENTS EMAIL

If your proposal does its job and your lead is a good fit, the next steps are
a signed contract and a check in the mail. It might feel like the hard part
is over, but there’s more! You have to nurture that client-speaker
relationship in order to make this the first of many paid speaking
engagements. Speaking is a relationships business–building your
reputation as someone easy to work with is one of the best things you
can do to market your speaking business.

Sending out a “timeline of events” email is a huge asset for you, your
client, and your speaking platform. In this email, you outline everything
your client should expect from you from that moment on until after you
step off the stage. Whether you book your gig a year or a month in
advance, sending this email will set clear expectations and give both
sides of the relationship peace of mind.

Here‘s a list of things to include in your timeline of events email:

THE POINT BY WHICH YOU WILL BOOK YOUR FLIGHTS

THE DEADLINE FOR SENDING YOUR HEADSHOT AND
BIO (ASK YOUR CLIENT FOR THIS AHEAD OF TIME)
SCHEDULE A CALL TO RUN THROUGH LOGISTICS
WHAT TIME YOU’LL ARRIVE AT THE CONFERENCE

Every time you cross off a step send an updated timeline of events email.
If new information comes to light about your flights, hotel, and
conference schedule, put it in the updated version. This email is both a
catalyst for staying constantly aligned with your event planner and a
differentiator that will set you apart from most other speakers. Event
planners remember small but important gestures like this!

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 STEP 6: AFTER-EVENT
CONNECTIONS + FEEDBACK

Giving a great talk is undoubtedly the most important marketing strategy

for any speaker. Trust, credibility, positioning, and stature are all things
that are best communicated from the stage. But you know what’s almost
equally as important? How you relate to your audience, event planner,
and other speakers at and after the event. As our founder Grant Baldwin
says in his book The Successful Speaker, “The best way to stay in this
business for a long time is to learn how to relate well to people.”

Small efforts you make after you get off the stage are helping get you
new speaking gigs before you even realize it. You never know which
audience members could be on the lookout for a speaker for a future
event–or on boards and committees that hire or recommend speakers.

Don’t force yourself on the audience, but don’t be shy either! Offer easy
opportunities to opt in to your marketing and follow you on social media.
If you use slides, you can show a QR code that leads to a subscribe form.
On the other hand, you can go old school and ask for your audience to
pass up business cards or even pass around a clipboard. Make it an easy
choice by offering a “freebie” (like a PDF of your slides) to anyone who
signs up for your email list.

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Finally, before you hop off the stage, advertise when and where you’ll be
available to chat later. Doing a keynote first and a breakout later? Invite
your audience to the breakout. Hanging around for 10 or 15 minutes
outside the auditorium? Let them know. Heading to cocktail hour before
dinner? Remind everybody to find you there. When an audience member
takes you up on the offer, get their contact information. If they ask a
specific question, try to take note of it so you can send them a
personalized message with helpful resources.

All of these points of connection with your audience members are fertile
opportunities for forging relationships that lead to paid speaking
engagements. Don’t worry if nobody asks you to come speak to their
organization then and there (although it is a possibility)! Speaking is a
relationship business and relationships take time. When you focus on
building those relationships with your audience, it will also reflect
positively on your re-hireability from the event planner’s perspective.
It’s a win-win!

But wait, there’s more! Once you head home, ask your event planner for
feedback about your speaking performance. You can create a survey or
even get on the phone depending on how busy your speaking business is.
If they are glowing with praise, it is critical to ask for testimonials now
while working with you is still fresh on their mind. In addition to
testimonials, ask for references to other event planners who might be
holding similar events in the same industry.

Don’t ask without giving–offer them some names of speakers in your

network who might be a good fit for them in the future. (Most events do
not hire the same speakers year after year. While there are exceptions,
most clients only hire repeat speakers on a rotation of every few years.)

If your client was disappointed in any way, listen constructively and use
that information to improve next time. Thank them for helping you
become a better speaker. After all, that’s what this is all about!

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 BE EQUIPPED WITH KNOWLEDGE
OF THE BEST PRACTICES

These six steps sound like a lot — and they are. But don’t be discouraged!
If you don’t have all of these systems in place as you first start reaching
out to leads, that’s perfectly fine. Every speaker starts small.

As you accumulate more contacts and book your first paid speaking
engagements, you will find that a more structured methodology aligns
with the process of scaling a business. These systems exist for you to
tailor to your needs, not the other way around. Being equipped with the
knowledge of these best practices will put you miles ahead of other
speakers.

These strategies are attested to by the professional speakers and coaches

here at The Speaker Lab. We have helped thousands of students build
and maintain momentum as professional speakers. If you want to work
with our stellar team of coaches, get in touch here.

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Q&A
HOW DO YOU KNOW WHAT TO CHARGE?
This is a really good question! When asked in an email about your
speaking fee, the real answer might be that you're unsure. However, it's
better not to say that directly. Instead, thank the person for asking and
express that you have some questions to help you properly put together a
package that's appropriate for their conference or event. Then, you
should proceed with a discovery call where you ask questions that help
determine your pricing.

There are many variables to consider, such as travel expenses, the

length of your speaking engagement, audience size, whether you're
conducting breakout sessions, and if you can sell your book, course, or
other items at the event. These nuances are crucial in building a package
for a proposal and pricing yourself as a speaker.

In the discovery call, you should also ask about their budget. If they don't
have a specific budget, you can reframe the question by asking what
they've historically paid their speakers. This information gives you a
framework to price yourself accordingly, in conjunction with the event's
budget and requirements.

Remember, every place you speak at will have a different budget, and
this is how you navigate the conversation about what to charge.

We have a FREE tool that can help you if you’re starting from scratch.
It’s called the Speaker Fee Calculator, and you can try it here.

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Q&A
WHAT ADVICE WOULD YOU GIVE SOMEONE JUST
STARTING AS A SPEAKER?
When you're starting out as a speaker, my first piece of advice to you is
to prioritize consistency, as it's critical for your growth. I have a couple
of other pieces of advice for you.

Second, you need to prospect, prospect, prospect. It's crucial.

Third, you should learn to emotionally disconnect from the outcome of

your prospecting. For instance, don't be upset when people ghost you or
don't get back to you or don't book you. Instead, you should choose to
reframe your mindset and view it as them not being a good fit for you,
rather than you not being a good fit for them.

But again, I want to stress that consistency is key overall. You'll find that
small, consistent daily efforts to move your business forward will lead to
much more progress than putting in a lot of effort upfront and then just
coasting.

Being consistent is what separates someone who gets booked and paid
to speak regularly from someone who does not. So remember,
consistency is key.

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 FEELING OVERWHELMED?
If you’ve made it this far, there’s a good chance you’re feeling a
little overwhelmed by everything.

I hear from people all the time who are feeling “stuck” on this
whole speaking thing. Stuck on making decisions about who their
target audience is. Stuck on what to charge. Stuck on everything.

If that's you, I want to see how The Speaker Lab might be able
to help. We have hundreds of free resources available — including
The Speaker Lab Podcast, free email scripts, proposal templates,
the Speaker Fee Calculator, and more.

We also have a world-class program called Booked and Paid to Speak

that has helped thousands of speakers book more paid speaking
gigs and build successful speaking careers.

If you're feeling stuck, book a call and talk to us. There's no

pressure at all – this is just a chance to talk through your speaking
business and find opportunities for you to book more paid speaking
gigs.

Click here to book a call to get unstuck and make 2024 your
year!

SCAN HERE

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