today we are going to talk about how to get your first speaking gig.
But before we do don't forget to subscribe, whatever platform you're
coming from if you want to grow predictably in life and in business, all
right, so let's talk about this.
Maybe we should talk about why it makes sense to speak in the first place so it
could be for branding.
It could be for getting more clients.
It could be for just building relationships with amazing people.
So networking right?
Sometimes when you speak you think you can travel to places that you normally
wouldn't go to like I've been to Ukraine.
I've been to Poland.
I'm going to Australia.
I just spoke in Hong Kong.
I haven't been in Hong Kong since I was like, six years old or seven years old
and God.
I've been to like, you know a lot of places in Europe just because of
speaking but.
Y'all have to start from somewhere, right?
So for me, I'm not going to say like, you know, it's easy getting there, but I
will say in the very beginning what I started.
Do I first started speaking when I was about 25 26 years old and I didn't know
anything.
I was actually definitely scared.
This is what I was this is when I was working at leading marketing for a for a
start-up I spoke in front about 30 people or so as the like many startup
event and my friend that throws these happy hours in La ask them.
I wanted to speak.
Actually, we have to sponsor his happy hours to now I remember you know, what
happened was I was really nervous going up.
Like I wasn't sure if the slides were going to work.
I wasn't sure if I was going to add value for people.
I just said I'm right now.
I had a lot of arms and eyes I spoke there.
For about 30 minutes or so answer questions for about 15 minutes and at
the end of the day, it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be I thought people
would judge me.
I thought all these bad things right how to get your first speaking gig is you
just ask right.
So what you do there is there's a lot of.
Local events around you startup events around you just offer to speak.
There's a lot of meetups Go to meetup.com, you know, it's not calm.
There's probably Tech web sites around the local area.
They're doing events just searched like your city like Los Angeles Tech events
or B2B events or stuff like that right or sales or marketing whatever industry
that you're in you go there you offer to speak you have to add value want to do
it too small group first.
Maybe you come on a panel first or maybe you moderate a panel first you ask
questions.
Those are a lot lighter in terms of you being alone.
Versus you being alone.
And from there again, what you want to do is when you first speak somewhere you
think about you talk to the organizer you say?
Hey number one who's in the audience right?
Number two what we home run to the.
Number three.
Is there anything else you'd like to add you ask those things and then you can
tailor the conversation to adding value to people now you think about this when
you're on stage you don't think about what people are thinking about you
because that's vain what you want to do instead is you want to think about hey,
what kind of value can I add for these people?
How can I how can I blow their mind with the value that I'm about to give them
right?
Because I know the stuff that I'm doing is amazing and it's going to help them
and it's going to make them level up its going to make them grow and you know, I
would like you more for that because you added value.
That's why people become fans, right, you know, the first level is, you know,
go to the local meetups first, you know get to know people and then maybe ask
and what you do is you go to the next level.
Once you gain more confidence you look at you know conferences that might make
sense to speak at and there's always often, you know call for speakers.
You can apply to speak eventually what will happen is you keep applying people
give you a shot.
And then what happens is if you do a really good job, you're going to be
invited to speak again and again and again again, there's one conference like
I keep speaking out over and over.
It's the growth marketing conference.
And this year.
I'm going back to just a stock in Dublin again as spoken as a stock Dublin as
focus a stock Hong Kong going back to Dublin and I really enjoy it because
there's really smart people there but it says a lot if you're going to be invited
back, right so initially, what you want to do is think about how much value
going to add offer to speak for free reach out to people be proactive about
it.
Keep going keep going keep going persistence and.
Eventually to get better as a speaker and what I would say as a speaker is you
don't need to come up with new topics all the time because most people haven't
heard about you.
What you can do is continue to refine your talk over and over and over add new
stories to it.
And then that talk will be fresh.
There's people that have used the same talk for over five years or so, you
know, maybe I'll give some practical speaking tips and another video.
Let me know in the comments if you actually want me to do that.
Yeah, that's how you get your first speaking gig and eventually leads to the
next level.
Don't even think about making money on these.
I spoke at a conference in Brazil and I paid I think like.
A lot of money to fly down there stay for one night.
It was like a 14 hour flight and the next day I flew back.
That was a really short period people like, oh you're in Brazil for a really
short time, but I got to meet I got to meet my buddy who runs the growth
marketing.
If I didn't meet him in Brazil, I don't know if that would have happened or not.
And then I also met another one of my good friends there Zach who runs
dribble.
I met him there at the time.
He was working at a company called hired now.
He's the CEO of dribble but that would have happened if I didn't go there for
free.
So you have to sometimes Pony up and eat the costs and then eventually you'll go
to the next level and you start to get.
Where the at least cover your flight they'll cover your accommodations,
right?
And sometimes they'll cover your business class flights, and they'll pay
you to speak there and that's, you know triple amazing right?
So anyway, let me know in the comments.
If you like to see me talk about some practical speaking tips in another
video.
And also if you're coming from YouTube, don't forget to check out the video over
there the next one over there because it's amazing.
It's going to help you grow and don't forget to rate review And subscribe and
we'll see you tomorrow.