Getting
Paid to Speak:
The Biggest Mistakes New Speakers Make
and
How to Avoid Them
(Part 3 of 3)
By Valerie Young
Yes you really can make money sharing your knowledge, insight, expertise and
passion as a professional speaker or workshop leader. 
In part one of this three-part series,
we looked at some of the biggest mistakes aspiring speakers and workshop leaders make
–
like thinking you don’t know enough and not really understanding how the
speaking business works.
In part two we looked at other costly
mistakes like not setting your fees high enough and confusing your audience with
your customer – meaning the person who writes your check. Both articles can be
found in the
ChangingCourse.com/archives
Issues 110 and 111.
In this final installment of Getting
Paid to Speak, we’ll look at two final challenges new speakers face – marketing
your seminar and investing in your business.
Mistake # 8: Not Knowing How to Market Yourself
Seminar marketing is a huge topic and it’s not possible to cover it all in one
short article. So let me hit the high points and then tell you where you can get
more detailed information.
If you’re new to the speaking business, one obvious place to start is by
offering your program through an adult education program. Most colleges and
universities offer continuing education programs. In larger cities you’ll find
private programs like The Learning Annex, The Boston Center for Adult Education
or The Knowledge Shop in Orlando.
There are at least
three good reasons to start here:
-
It’s a hassle-free, paid opportunity to refine your material because
someone else takes care of marketing your workshop, covering the cost of the
meeting room, and registering students. All you have to do is show up!
-
It’s a venue to promote any books, CDs or other related material. We’ll
talk more about this shortly.
-
Even if your workshop doesn’t fill, potentially thousands of people are
learning about you and your business through the short bio accompanying your
course description in the organization’s catalog.
In fact,
sometimes this kind of exposure can lead to amazing things. It was at a Learning
Annex workshop in New York where a publisher first approached Barbara Sher about
writing a book. Barbara is quick to admit that she was baffled as to how she
could possibly come up with an entire book. Wisely the publisher urged her to
think of each workshop module as a chapter. Barbara went on to write Wishcraft
which has sold well over a million copies.
The bad news is,
even with all their marketing, they may not be able to pull in the same numbers
you could putting on your own public seminars (that was certainly true for me).
And you’ll still earn significantly less than if
you produced your own event even if you get a good showing.
Once you’ve practiced on these audiences, you can always go on if you choose to
offer your own public workshops. That’s how I first started doing my How to Feel as
Bright and Capable as Everyone Seems to Think You Are workshop (ImpostorSyndrome.com).
Handling all of the flyer hanging and mailings, newspaper notices, venue
arrangements, and registration took a lot of work, but if I pulled in 20 to 40
people it was well worth it.
A note on newspaper listings. Don’t pay for ads when there are papers out there
willing to run event listings for free or practically free. If you live in a
large metropolitan area, it’s harder to get into a big newspaper, so you may need
to move to niche publications. Here again knowing your customer is key. An
animal intuitive I know gets a much better response by advertising in new age
publications than those aimed at pet lovers.
The other reason I never do paid advertisement is that the media will often
promote your workshop for free – if you know how to gear your topic to their
viewers or subscribers. To get free publicity you’ll want to craft an effective
press release and put together a press kit.
Don’t have any “press” yet to put into your press kit? Then start with a bio, a
photo, and some tip sheets or articles you’ve written (or paid or better yet
bartered with someone to write for you). If at all possible try to tie your
topic into some national event or survey findings. That’s what I did. Whenever a
new statistic came out about the growing number of home businesses or the
trend toward cashing out of corporate America I’d send out a press release
making the connection between these findings and my work.
From these humble beginnings I’ve since delivered this program to over 30,000
people around the country. How? As you may recall from Part 2 of this series, in
order to earn serious money in the speaking business, you need to move from
selling your presentation to individuals to selling to organizations.
Organizations include government agencies, higher education, non-profits,
professional and industry associations, and for-profit companies.
If you’re thinking about going after associations check out
Gales Encyclopedia of Associations found at any library.
Listings include annual budget, upcoming state, regional and national
conferences, publications, and contact information. A number of companies also
sell association directories and mailing labels on CDs. If you’re still
establishing a track record as a speaker I recommend submitting proposals to speak
at regional or national conferences. Typically there’s no compensation but it’s
a great way to network, can lead to paid gigs at future association events, and
since members often belong to other organizations, it can pave the way to
corporate, government, or non-profit work.
If you’re looking to do the college circuit, consider joining the National
Association for Campus Activities at
NACA.org. Another option is to contact any on-campus
organizations interested in your message. For example, I do a lot of speaking
for Women in Engineering programs found at most major universities.
Finally depending on your topic, you might also want to consider going after
corporate sponsorship. That’s what Patrick Combs did. Patrick wrote a wonderful
book aimed at college students called Major in Success. Then he got Visa to
sponsor a six figure college tour which was sponsored by the college’s career
services center.
Even if corporate sponsorship isn’t your thing, I encourage you to learn from
Patrick’s personal experience and browse his press kit at
GoodThink.com/speaking/viewspeakingtips.cfm?id=2.
Mistake 9: Failing to Tap Other Income Streams
Many years ago I bought a now out of print audio program called How to Build
Your Speaking and Writing Empire featuring Mark Victor Hansen. That’s where I
learned that in a survey of top speakers, the number one thing they wished
they’d done differently was to have developed some kind of product earlier in
their career. So-called “back of the room” products range from books, CDs, audio
tapes, workbooks, and so on.
I know what you’re thinking, “I don’t have a book!” Not to worry. There are
less labor-intensive ways to create workshop-related products for sale. For
example, create a participant workbook and charge each participant. Corporations
are used to a paying for materials on top of speaker fees and at 50-200 dollars per
attendee this can make for a nice revenue stream.
The other thing you can do is audio or videotape your program and sell the
DVD or CD. Making Dreams Happen
ChangingCourse.com/makingdreamshappen.htm, the 24-set CD program available
here at Changing Course, is an audio version of a live four-day workshop-retreat
I delivered with Barbara Sher and Barbara Winter. Even the 100+ page participant
workbook is on a CD.
If you’re speaking at a conference or other event, arrange to have it
professionally taped. That’s what I did when I delivered my 10 Steps to Escaping
the Job World and Creating the Life You Really Want
changingcourse.com
at a conference in Florida. If it’s a paying job, be sure to clear it with your
client who may have stipulations about participants not appearing on tape.
In the beginning you can just burn your own CDs. As your sales increase, find
a good duplication company. Most have a 100 minimum. We use
DiskFaktory.com. At about one dollar per CD,
which includes printing the name of your presentation and other information
directly onto the CD, it’s a great deal. This price even includes a jewel case
for your CD.
Mistake #10 Not Being Willing to Invest in Your
Business
By far the BIGGEST mistake wanna-be speakers
make is being unwilling to make even the most modest investment in themselves
and their fledgling speaking business. Whether you’re just launching your
speaking career or are a seasoned pro who wants to increase your bottom line,
you absolutely must be willing to invest in your own success.
On the low-cost end are books. The three I
recommend are:
-
How to Make It Big in the Seminar Business, by
Paul Karasik
-
Speak and Grow Rich, by Dottie Waters
-
1,001 Ways to Make
More Money as a Speaker, Consultant or Trainer: Plus 300 Rainmaking
Strategies for Dry Times by Lilly Walters
All three are available in the Changing Course
bookstore
ChangingCourse.com/bookstore.htm.
If you’re really, really ready to step into the
big time and start earning “mega” speaking fees I can’t say enough about the
sequel to the Mark Victor Hansen program I spoke about earlier. It’s called
Building Your Mega Speaking Empire. One of my favorite segments is the PR expert
explaining how to get onto shows like Good Morning America and Oprah. I
especially love the part where she reveals the three words you never, ever want
to say on Oprah and the five words you absolutely must be sure to use in order
to be invited back.
The CD series features a team of experts
covering everything from 52 lucrative profit centers for speakers to getting
bookings. You can read all about it at
ChangingCourse.com/megaspeaking.htm.
The Mega Speaking Empire covers how to get free
publicity on the radio. But if you’d rather target your self-marketing campaign
specifically to radio and want to fast-track your efforts. I highly recommend
letting an expert like Alex Carroll teach you the ropes.
A few years ago Alex Carroll wrote a book about
how to beat unfair speeding tickets. With a zero advertising budget he decided
to promote his book exclusively through radio interviews. To date, he's done
1,264 radio interviews, gotten more than four million dollars worth of free radio airtime
and earned over one million dollars in direct sales.
Carroll wisely packaged up his Radio Publicity
Manual for purchase. You can also get a database with the names and hosts and
producers from every prime time talk station in the US that have at least
100,000 listeners – 1,026 in all. To learn more
visit
http://www.webmarketingmagic.com/app/aftrack.asp?afid=48197
About the Author
Off the beaten path career counselor, Valerie Young, abandoned her corporate
cubicle to become the Dreamer in Residence at
ChangingCourse.com, offering free resources to help you
discover your life mission and live it. An expert on the Imposter
Syndrome, she's presented her How to Feel as Bright and Capable as
Everyone Seems to Think You Are program to over 30,000 people.
Find more articles written by Valerie at
ChangingCourse.com/articles/
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