Whenever I ask speakers what their number one problem is with their speaking business, it’s almost always, “How do I get more paid speaking engagements?”
So if you’re a speaker and you want to get more speaking gigs then listen up.
Right now, you have a problem and you believe that problem is a lack of speaking gigs.
Maybe you have a great message but you’re just not getting booked. Of course you’re telling people that your speaking business is doing good and maybe you do a little bit of marketing here and there. Maybe you check some Facebook groups to read what other speakers are doing or maybe ask for advice.
But you’re just not getting booked.
Deep down, you know you could be doing so much more than what you’re doing now and you know you should be getting more paid gigs but for some reason you’re not. So what’s the deal? why aren’t you getting booked?
I’ve mastered the ability to get booked in the corporate market just because I had to. I’ve never had a real job, I’ve always been performing and speaking for a living so I kind of had to make it work no matter what.
And I realized that there are tons of speakers out there who have a great message, maybe they’re really great on stage, but nothing seems to work.
What’s even worse, maybe you hear all these gurus tell you stuff about how to market yourself as a speaker and you hear all this advice about creating webinars, writing your best selling book, and all this other stuff…but nothing seems to be working.
No matter what you do, no matter how hard you try, you’re still not getting the paid gigs.
So how do you turn it around?
Well there are a few reasons…in fact, there are many reasons as to why you don’t have the speaking gigs you want and I’m going to give you those reasons.
The first reason is that you’re confusing the seminar market with paid keynote speaking.
I talked about this in another video but most speakers want paid speaking gigs but they market themselves like a seminar speaker.
If you want paid speaking gigs, you have to market yourself almost like an entertainer. Instead of talking about how your message is that you change lives, you talk about how you’re going to energize the room and get people excited with your keynote. You talk about how you’re going to make the event a success rather than how your message is going to help people achieve their dreams.
You need to have that message to market match and don’t confuse the two. I suggest you watch the video that goes into the seminar vs corporate market.
Another reason for your lack of speaking gigs is that your marketing materials aren’t good enough.
If you want paid speaking gigs then you need to have marketing materials that show the event planner the type of experience you create.
Notice I didn’t say that you should talk about your message as a speaker. Your marketing materials need to reflect an experience. They need to prove to the event planner that you’re a pro.
Do you have pictures of you in front of big crowds? Do you have TV appearances? Do you have clips where the audience is having a great time? Do you have testimonial videos?
All this stuff matters.
So many speakers want to get to the point where I just tell them how to get booked. They want me to say, “Contact this person and you’ll get booked to speak.” But that’s not how it works.
90% of you getting booked is in the things you do before you ever contact someone. If you don’t have the right marketing materials then it doesn’t matter who you contact, you’re going to have a hard time getting paid speaking gigs.
Now I want to tell you the biggest reason why you’re not getting booked. The biggest reason for your lack of paid speaking gigs and it’s something that people listening to this either get it or they don’t.
I’ve always wondered, why does one speaker get booked and stay booked versus another speaker who might be just as good, if not better, and yet that speaker still struggles to get booked.
I used to think, maybe it really was just the marketing materials. Maybe the speaker who’s getting booked has a better website, better videos, all that stuff. Then I took a look at Les Brown’s website and said, “Man, that’s the worst speaker website I’ve seen in my life.” But he’s obviously getting booked.
And on top of that, how do you get the videos, the website, the great marketing materials to begin with? I mean, all speakers started from scratch…no videos or anything.
So it can’t be the marketing materials.
Then I thought…
Ok, maybe they just don’t know what to do.
Maybe they just don’t know which actions to take to get booked on corporate stages. And that’s a big problem. If you want to get paid gigs but you don’t know what actions to take every day, then you’re going to have a hard time getting booked. So maybe it was a lack of information out there.
And that’s why I created the Speaking Lifestyle site. I thought to myself…if people have the information, and I specifically say, “Hey, here’s how I get companies to pay me $10,000” then people would just follow it.
But then I realized something.
I realized that it’s not a lack of information. The information is all out there…especially on the Speaking Lifestyle site. Everything you need is out there and it shows you how to get paid gigs.
The reason speaker aren’t getting booked is because of their psychology. They don’t run their speaking business like an actual business.
If you’re asking yourself, “How do I get video footage, how do I get a good website” and all that stuff when you’re just starting out…then you need to change your psychology.
Here’s how most speakers, who have a hard time getting booked, here’s how most speakers spend their day.
They wake up…maybe they have a job so they go to a job. Or maybe they’re lucky and they don’t have a normal job…so they wake up a 10am. They grab some breakfast, check Facebook, check their email.
Noon comes, they’re still online just messing around. Checking out some Youtube videos, looking at the latest viral video.
Every now and again they think about their speaking business and do some research. Maybe they read a business article here and there…maybe they chat on Facebook groups for speakers or read what other people post.
It’s 4pm, nothing really has been done when it comes to their speaking business.
Before they know it, it’s night time. Maybe they read a self help book and dream about how they’re going to build their speaking business. They get all excited and start doing affirmations because they just read a book that talked about mindset.
They go to sleep, promising that tomorrow is going to be a new day and they’re going to kill it with their business. And guess what, nothing happens.
Most people live a groundhog day.
Today was the same as yesterday. Yesterday was the same as the day before and so on.
I realized that the difference between the speakers who aren’t getting booked and the ones who are getting booked is two things.
Number one is specialized knowledge.
The speakers who are getting booked have specialized knowledge about how to get booked. They know exactly what to do either because they learned it from someone else or because they eventually figured it out.
Second, they have this iron determination about them.
Remember when I said that you need good marketing materials like the website, the videos, all that stuff? Well someone who’s serious about getting booked will figure out how to get it no matter what.
They realize they’re not speaking on any stages but they know they need testimonial videos. So what do they do? They ask friends to give them a testimonial and they use it until they get testimonials from real speaking gigs.
They wake up early and start contacting people. They don’t mess around online, they just contact people to hire them.
If they have a horrible website, they make it better. If they can’t hire someone to do it, they figure it out themselves.
If you haven’t already, I want you to watch the video that says, “Do you want me to book speaking gigs for you?”
I want you to watch this video because most speakers are in the mindset of, “Hey can you book gigs for me and I’ll give you a commission?” If you’re in that mindset then that’s the very thing that’s stopping you from filling up your schedule so I suggest you watch that video.
The problem is that most speakers just don’t have the business mentality.
They’re so caught up in things like, “Oh, I don’t want to pay $348 to join PLATFORM” “Oh, I have to go run errands” “Oh I don’t like sitting down and contacting people all day. I like being on stage”
They’re so caught up in little things that blind them from building their business.
I know I talk about this a lot and that’s because speakers don’t realize how their mind is stopping them from getting gigs.
I tell speakers all the time, get a better website…and then I check it a couple weeks later and guess what, nothing changed. Then they still ask, “Hey how do I get paid gigs?”
Or I tell speakers to join PLATFORM because they’re going to get more specialized knowledge there than they would anywhere. I mean that’s the place where I really reveal all the tactics. But they just keep doing what they’ve always done.
What’s even worse are these free videos I keep sending out. There are a lot of people out there who say they want to build their business but they don’t even open the emails and watch the videos. Now that just amazes me.
If you keep living your life today and you did yesterday and the day before then nothing’s going to change.
You literally have to become someone new.
I don’t mean this in a woo-woo kind of way. I mean, it literally.
You and I are different. You and your friends are different. Everyone is a completely different person. Well guess what, you have to become completely different than what you are now if you want to get paid speaking business and really grow.
You normally wake up at 8am and doing xyz…well you have to wake up at 7am and do abc.
You should be so different that the people who know you say things like, “Man, that’s not like you.”
Most people think that’s a bad thing. But it’s a good thing if what you’re doing is the right thing.
I see so many speakers who say they want help when it comes to building their speaking business but they’re not willing to help themselves. They’re not willing to do the work. They’re not willing to invest in anything. They just expect to be themselves and have everything magically work out.
The way you’re going to fix your lack of speaking gigs is to start doing things that you don’t normally do.
Do you normally contact 100 people a day to hire you? No? Well now you should.
Do you normally do Google Adwords for marketing? No? Well now you should.
Have you read every single blog post on the Speaking Lifestyle site? No? Well now you should.
Who you are right now, needs to change. Not in a motivational speaker kind of way. I mean literally. Every thing you have done needs to change. I mean geez…everything you have done hasn’t worked out…so change…be someone different.
Literally, imagine you’re sitting next to Tony Robbins and watching him run his business. What do you think he would be doing right now? Would he be doing the same thing you’re doing? Does his day look even close to your day? Probably not.
So guess what…change what you’re doing. The same way you would see Tony Robbins as being someone completely different, you have to see who you are right now as someone completely different the second you stop listening to this.
And I’m not saying it’s easy, it’s going to be the hardest thing you’re going to do in your life. But either you want to build your speaking business or you don’t.
If you don’t have the speaking gigs you want, then don’t fool yourself into thinking that they’re going to magically appear if you just give yourself affirmations and read self help books.
Your lack of speaking gigs is caused by you. It’s sole cause is because you are doing certain things and those things aren’t producing results. So you have to become someone new. You have to become someone who instantly wakes up, doing the right things every single day in a way that produces the speaking gigs you want.
So starting now, be someone completely different.