Professional Speaker: How to Get Paid to Speak to Your Target Audience

Professional Speaker: How to Get Paid to Speak to Your Target Audience

This is Episode 63 of This Old New Business weekly business podcast with Jeff Korhan.

There are thousands of live events hosted every day in search of talented speakers, with the most in-demand ones getting paid handsomely for that responsibility.

If this sounds like something you have wanted to learn more about, you’ll want to listen to this episode with Lois Creamer. She works with speakers to book more business and monetize their intellectual property, including top professional speakers like New York Times bestselling authors Jeffrey Gitomer, Jack Canfield and Shep Hyken.

You will learn how the business of professional speaking has changed, and how you can adapt to get paid for sharing your expertise.

Speaker Marketing is a Planned Performance

Professional Speaker: How to Get Paid to Speak to Your Target Audience When approaching an organization to inquire about speaking at their events, Lois Creamer points out there are only three things you will encounter. 

  1. The decision maker
  2. His or her assistant
  3. Voicemail

How you respond in each of those situations is different, and will determine if you get an opportunity to have a meaningful conversation

Lois Creamer explains that it is vital to be prepared when approaching organizations to speak at their events. They have to know you understand their meeting objectives, and there are many ways for quickly acquiring that information.

If you listen through the entire episode your learn several practices for easily doing this research, including one killer tip that is pure genius.

Once you have the right information on your side, you have to prove you are an accomplished speaker. Testimonials are one powerful method, especially if they can be validated. Lois Creamer shares how even beginning speakers can acquire them, along with other tricks of the trade for getting paid to be a professional speaker.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on being a professional speaker. Meet me over on Twitter to take the conversation further.

Key Take-Aways

  • Meeting planners are decision makers that rarely recommend speakers but often choose from a short list based on the input of others.
  • You can contact Lois at [email protected] and learn more about her work at Book More Business
  • Read more about getting paid to speak from this article by Lois in the recent issue of Speaker Magazine

How to subscribe to This Old New Business podcast

Click here to subscribe via iTunes.
You can also subscribe via Stitcher.

Help us Spread the Word

If you enjoyed this episode, please head over to iTunes or Stitcher to leave a rating, write a review, or subscribe.

About the Author:  Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business and host of This Old New Business podcast.

He helps organizations use media to create exceptional customer experiences that drive business growth in a digital, social and global world. Connect with Jeff on LinkedInTwitterFacebook, and Google+

Authentic Speaking: How To Master Every Stage Performance

Authentic Speaking: How to Master Every Stage Performance

This is Episode 56 of This Old New Business weekly business podcast with Jeff Korhan.

If you have struggled with the concept of authenticity, then this podcast episode is for you. Michael Port discusses why authentic speaking is misunderstood, and how taking action on your objectives helps you to achieve greater clarity.

Michael Port has been called “an uncommonly honest author” by the Boston Globe, a “marketing guru” by The Wall Street Journal, and a “sales guru” by the Financial Times. Michael Port is a NY Times bestselling author of six books including, Book Yourself Solid, and his hot new release, Steal the Show.

Preparation and Rehearsing Free You To Be Yourself

Authentic Speaking: How to Master Every Stage Performance It is an honor to be considered an authentic speaker, but what that really means and how it is achieved is much more than simply being yourself onstage.

According to Michael Port, the key to being authentic on every stage in life is doing the work to prepare so that you are free to be spontaneous. This means knowing your material well for job interviews, selling situations, or speaking in front of a live audience.

Port says, “If you don’t know your material well, it can be difficult to be in the moment, because much of your brain’s bandwidth is being taken up trying to remember what to do next.” Trained speakers instinctively know what to do onstage because they have rehearsed their performance.

People often think of performing as being fake, but Port challenges you to understand that making the effort to do your best is a performance. To be your best on the platform, Port recommends imagining the ideal outcome as if it were real, and then performing it to the best of your ability.

There isn’t one right way to rehearse for a presentation, but if you listen to the audio and you’ll learn proven techniques such as blocking that will help you to authentically engage your audience.

I’d love to hear your thoughts on authentic speaking. Meet me over on Twitter to take the conversation further.

Key Take-Aways

How to subscribe to This Old New Business podcast

Click here to subscribe via iTunes.
You can also subscribe via Stitcher.

Help us Spread the Word

If you enjoyed this episode, please head over to iTunes or Stitcher to leave a rating, write a review, or subscribe.

About the Author:  Jeff Korhan, MBA, is the author of Built-In Social: Essential Social Marketing Practices for Every Small Business and host of This Old New Business podcast.

He helps organizations use media to create exceptional customer experiences that drive business growth in a digital, social and global world. Connect with Jeff on LinkedInTwitterFacebook, and Google+

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