Transcript:
In the last video we talked about the number one thing you need to build your speaking business and in this video, I’m going to tell you the process for getting hired as a speaker by Fortune 500 companies…and really just getting hired in general.
This is the process people go through when they say, “We need to hire a speaker for our conference.”
And if you know their process and you know where they look for speakers then you’re much more likely to get booked. But if you have no idea how event planners hire speakers then you’re going to have a hard time getting on stages.
When you know the process, you insert yourself into the right moment. What that means is that at the very moment when they decide to look for a speaker, you come up. And if you come up before other speakers then you basically book the gig without even giving other speakers a chance.
You see, it’s not just about visibility, it’s about getting visibility at the right moment. It’s about getting visibility right when they need to hire speakers.
Now this process is actually very simple and you can figure it out for yourself but most speakers stop there.
They might think to themselves, “Well duh! Of course that’s the process.”
But they don’t use it to their full advantage. I’m going to not only show you the process but how to use it to it’s full advantage.
This is exactly what allowed me to fill up my speaking schedule. Once you know how companies hire speakers, you basically know how to get gigs.
Before I tell you the process, I’m going to see if you can figure it out for yourself.
Lets say that you’re an event planner. You’re planning a conference and you’re ready to hire a speaker, what’s the first thing you do? How would YOU hire a speaker?
Really think about it. What would you do?
The first thing you would do is try to remember any speakers you’ve already seen. I mean, if you’ve already seen a speaker that would be great for your conference then it’s game over. You immediately hire that speaker.
And that’s what event planners do.
The first thing they do is go inside their own head and see if they can remember a speaker they like, a speaker they’ve seen before. Because if you’ve already seen a speaker then you already know whether they’re good or not. And if you liked that speaker and you thought they were just flat out amazing then of course you’re going to bring that speaker in.
Common sense right?
Of course, but like I said, most speakers stop there. They don’t use this to their full advantage and I’m going to show you how to use that information.
But before we go there, what do you think happens if they can’t think of a speaker? The event planner is ready to hire a speaker but they haven’t seen one in the past at another conference. What do you think they do now?
If you were planning an event for your company, and everyone in the company obviously knows it, how else do you think they would find the speaker?
Well what if someone came up to you and said, “Hey, you need to hire this speaker John Doe. He’s amazing and would be a perfect fit.”
Well once again, it’s game over.
That speaker just got a solid recommendation from a co-worker…a referral by someone they trust.
Think about how you buy books. You probably bought most of your books off recommendations. Maybe someone you know said, “Hey you should get this book, it’s good.” Or maybe you heard that a millionaire or billionaire recommended a book so you bought it. Or maybe a friend told you about a restaurant so you went there to eat.
The second way speakers get hired is through the recommendation.
Recommendations are powerful but most speakers don’t know how to get them because they leave them to chance.
They might say, “Hey can you recommend me” but that’s all they do. And then no recommendations come through. You have to take advantage of every opportunity and learn how to create opportunities.
So the recommendation is powerful as long as it’s coming from someone they trust.
I mean, you’re not going to read a book if a friend has recommended several bad books in the past and you’re not going to go to a restaurant if the friend keeps recommending restaurants that always give you food poisoning.
But if a friend is always on point and their recommendations are gold then what do you do?
You don’t even question it. You just say, “Ok done. I just bought the book.” Or, “Ok, done. Lets go eat there tonight.”
And the same happens when you get recommended as a speaker.
Now you might think you don’t have control over the person recommending you. You might say to yourself, “Well what if the person recommending me is hated by everyone at the office. Then I’m screwed.”
And technically you would be.
But that’s why I said you have to think business. You have to know how to take advantage of opportunities and create them.
So who do you think would get you hired by a recommendation at any company, no matter what? Even if people didn’t like this person, if you got a recommendation from this person, you would immediately get hired. Who do you think that person is?
Yup…it’s the head honcho. It’s the CEO or the next person in charge, the VP.
If the CEO said, “Lets hire this speaker.” Then who do you think is going to get hired?
The key to getting recommendations is to get them from the higher ups. The higher up the ladder they are, the more you’re guaranteed to get booked.
I was at an event where the CEO of a Fortune 100 company saw me and at the end he said, “Give me your card. I’m going to make sure you get booked for all our conferences this year.” It was just that easy.
Now what do you think the last process is for hiring speakers?
If they can’t think of a speaker they’ve seen themselves, and nobody else can think of one, what do you think their last step is? You guessed it…
They go to the internet.
They might go for a speaker bureau first or just type in something like ‘motivational speaker’ or whatever type of speaker they’re looking for. If they don’t want to spend a lot of time looking for the speaker then they go to a bureau. If they don’t mind and realize that they’re going to be looking at videos anyways, then they just go straight to the search engines.
And guess what?
The internet is the most competitive out of everything.
The hiring process goes like this:
“Who do I know?”
“Who do you know?”
“Internet search”
And here’s the brilliant part…
If you can get visibility in the first two, the “Who do I know” and “Who do you know” then you’ve sealed the deal and you get the gig.
But the second it gets down to number three, the internet, now you’re in a huge world of competition with people who are doing SEO, PPC, and all that other stuff. And of course you can get good at it but if you get good at putting yourself in the first two situations then you instantly get booked.
No need to sell because they’re already sold.
Now remember when I said that most speakers kind of know this process but very few know how to use it?
I’m going to tell you how to use it to your advantage.
As you know, the key is to get yourself in the first two situations and not in the last process where they search on the internet.
But how do you actually do that? How do you get yourself to be that speaker that people remember when they’re looking to hire someone?
The key is the marketing you do at the event itself.
And I don’t mean selling your product at an event, that has nothing to do with getting hired for future events and it can actually hurt your chances because a lot of event planners don’t like that in the keynote speaking industry.
What most speakers do at an event is they hang out in their hotel room all day, come out right when they’re supposed to speak, and then go back to their hotel room. Or maybe they arrive on the day of, just a few hours before the presentation, and then leave once it’s done.
That’s exactly what NOT to do.
This is your biggest opportunity to get more speaking engagements. It’s your opportunity to turn one speaking gig into 10 without spending any extra money.
I know some speakers say they like to be in and out so they can get back to the office to work. They want to get back to doing PPC, SEO, sending emails to events, and they just don’t get it. They don’t realize that they’re stopping to pick up a penny when someone is trying to hand them a dollar.
What these speakers are doing is they’re putting themselves into the same competitive market as all the other speakers. They go from the first two hiring processes, “Who do I know” and “Who do you know” and they go right back down to the third one.
That’s just stupid.
So what you do is your arrive early and stay late. If you can’t arrive early then you definitely want to stay late.
And you basically talk with people at the event.
The goal is to look for the higher-ups and talk with them…you have to remember…they’re the ones you want the recommendations from and they can only recommend you if they know you.
And you’re also on the lookout for other people who are hosting events.
Once you know who these people are, now when you go up to speak, they get to see how great you are…and once you’re done, you can go talk to them again. But this time, they’re amazed at what you did so now you start talking about speaking at their upcoming event.
If you don’t know who these people are because you just show up, speak, and leave…then you’re ruining your opportunities.
And that’s just one way to get spinoff gigs.
I’ve broken this thing down into a science and put everything into the SpeakPro Academy.
I realized a long time ago that it’s a million times easier to get booked when someone’s seen you and I realized that you can make it happen deliberately.
Even the way I gather video testimonials helps me get booked. You can do it in a way that gets them focused on hiring you to speak.
Most speakers leave all this to chance. They literally just speak, hand out a few business cards, and hope that someone calls them.
I don’t.
I know exactly what to do the second I’m at the hotel.
So what I want you to do is really think about this process. Flesh it out. I’ve given you an example of how to use this process to get more opportunities to speak so try to think of your own ways.
By doing this, you’re going to start getting more business-minded.
What you don’t want to do is just wait for me to tell you everything. If I have to do the thinking for you then you’re in big trouble. Yes, I can tell you a million ways to get gigs while you’re at an event and it’s like a well orchestrated play, I’m actually pretty proud of myself for knowing how to do it.
But if I told you everything then I would be doing the exact opposite of what I want to do.
The purpose of Speaking Lifestyle is to create business savvy speakers and the way you become business savvy is to stay sharp. It’s to think for yourself.
So think of ways you can put yourself in a position where you’re getting hired with that process. The process is that they first think of a speaker they know, then they listen to recommendations, then they go to the internet. If you can make yourself visible in the first two situations then you’re going to book more speaking gigs than you realize.
In the next video I’m going to show you why speakers don’t get booked.
This is the biggest reason why speakers don’t get booked and it’s a very simple fix. It’s just hard to see because we don’t have that perspective on our problem.
If you’re not speaking on as many stages as you want then I can guarantee you that this is your problem…so make sure you watch the next video.