- On today's episode, we're talking about how to become
a professional public speaker and how to get paid.
But first, I gotta get a haircut.
Much better, let's get to it.
(rock music)
Hey there, my name's Adam Erhart
and welcome to the Modern Marketing Show.
Once again, incredibly excited to have you joining me
here today and for the opportunity to share some of the
latest and greatest marketing strategies, tools, tips,
and tactics that are really gonna help take your business
to the next level and way beyond that.
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So today we're talking all about how to become
a professional, paid public speaker.
Whether this is a means to an end, meaning you wanna use it
to boost your career in another field or as the ends itself
whereby you make public speaking and professional keynote
speaking a way to generate your primary forms of income.
Regardless of whether you want to do it solely as your sole
source of income in your career or
you wanna use it to boost your career,
the tips we're gonna cover today are gonna help you do it.
And I've got five of them, so without
further adieu let's dive right in.
Alright, step number one is gonna seem kind of obvious but
it's actually pretty important and that really comes down to
choosing the main area, or the main kind of topic
or general niche that you want to specialize in.
Now there's a bit of a line that you need to walk between
being so specific that you pretty much exclude everyone else
but also being too broad so that you're not really that
interesting or appealing and you're kinda generic.
An example of this is being just a generic leadership
speaker, there's tons of them out there and it's hard to
differentiate yourself from the crowd unless you've got a
really unique backstory or you specialize in kind of one
field of leadership or for one certain group over another.
So again, this is where if you're just getting started in
trying to break into the speaker scene it'll help to be a
little more focused and a little more specific
rather than going super broad.
As an example, when I first got involved in public speaking
I started talking specifically on social media
and specifically for small business growth.
Over time, that kinda broadened a little more into
digital marketing strategy and then all marketing strategy
and now it covers kind of all facets of digital marketing
and I'm able to tailor my content and my talks
depending on the audience and their level of
sophistication or knowledge of the topic.
Alright, so you've decided what area you wanna
specialize and focus in to get started.
Well step number two is to do a
comprehensive brand audit on yourself.
This means taking a look at all of your marketing materials,
your website, your social media channels,
any of the content that you're putting out there,
and ask yourself a really blunt question.
Would you hire yourself?
If the answer's not a clear and resounding yes,
well then your brand is going to need a bit of a face lift.
Because here's one thing I know to be true,
when someone is looking to invest in a public speaker,
especially to give a keynote or something that can range
in the thousands and thousands of dollars for your fee,
they wanna make sure that you're
the right person for the job which means
they're definitely checking out your online profiles.
They key here is to make sure that
the image you're portraying is the image
that you actually want to portray,
and making sure you're strategic
about the messaging that you're putting out there.
Alright, moving right along to step three
which is to create content around this core area
and around the core niche that you wanna be talking about.
Now when it comes to creating content,
you've got a variety of different options available.
You can teach a course, you can write as book,
you can write a blog, you can do podcast interviews,
you can create videos, whatever it is the point here
is to create lots and lots of content.
The reason you want to create lots of content,
and I should highlight this by saying quality content,
is because you want to prove your authority and your
expertise on the topic that you're gonna be talking about.
The reason you wanna produce this
much content is kinda self-evident.
After all, when someone's trying to hire the right speaker
for the job it makes it a lot easier to hire this guy over
here who's got lots of content and is clearly an expert
on the subject rather than taking a risk with someone down
here who may or may not have quite as much out there.
And that's gonna move us nicely into tip four.
Now in the previous tip we talked about creating all kinds
of different content whether it's podcasts or blogs
or interviews or anything like that but for step four
what I really want you to do is focus on video content.
The reason that video content is so important when you want
to become a professional and paid public speaker is because
short of actually going out there and doing a public speech
for the person who's looking to hire you,
well video is the next best thing.
After all, it allows your personality to come across,
it allows your voice and your tone and how you look
and how you interact and how you engage
and I know a camera isn't quite an audience
but how you present yourself on camera
can often carry over to how you're going to speak on stage.
It's for this reason that you want to alleviate
any concerns someone may have in hiring you by showing that
you're confident, that you're well-spoken,
that you're articulate, and that you've got the right style
for the speech they're trying to get across.
Basically, you gotta make more videos.
Alright, and that's gonna bring us all the way
to tip number five which is simply to get out there
and to speak as much as possible.
If you're just getting started and you're trying to break
into the speaker scene and you wanna
become a paid speaker it's alright to pay your dues
and start by doing a few free speeches or,
at the very least, have some minor travel expenses covered.
You don't need to do this for long but you do need to
build up a decent portfolio and get some content out there
and get some experience under your belt.
When you do move up into the paid ranks,
how much you charge, how often you speak, your style,
and all that are going to vary depending on your goals
and again, whether you want to use this as a means to an end
or as the ends itself, but regardless getting
that experience will do nothing but good things
for your business and your career.
And I'm sure that you'll agree,
the level of personal development that comes
along with public speaking is astronomical.
After all, nothing will push your comfort level
quite as fast as getting out there
in front of an audience and talking to them.
Brian Tracy once said, "Anyone can be a public speaker
but not everyone can be a paid public speaker,"
which is where these five tips are really gonna help
to move you from free to paid and into the ranks
of that professional public speaker status.
So thanks so much for watching,
I hope you enjoyed the video.
If so, let me know by hitting that thumbs up button.
Leave a comment or suggestion for a future video
in the comment section below, and of course,
if you're not already be sure to subscribe to the channel.
I'll catch ya next time on the Modern Marketing Show.
(mellow music)