Most speaker have a problem getting paid speaking gigs. They want to book more gigs but for some reason, they’re not getting booked.
What I’m about to tell you is one of the biggest reasons why speakers don’t get gigs and most speakers have no idea that they’re doing it. In fact, if you’re doing this, then you’re guaranteed to never grow your speaking business.
What is it?
Most speakers confuse what they talk about with the topic a client hires speakers to speak about.
You want to get more paid speaking gigs…but lets say you talk about HIV/AIDS (I’m using this as an example because I’ve gotten emails from several speakers on this topic). Now let me ask you this…how often do companies hire speakers on this topic for their annual conference?
Rarely.
And when that happens, you don’t get paid speaking gigs (maybe one or two, but you definitely don’t fill up your calendar with paid gigs)
Never confuse what you talk about with the topics that companies hire speakers for.
Now you might be thinking that your topic is different…most speaker do.
So here’s what I want you to do…
Go to a speaker bureau’s website (just type in ‘Speaker Bureau’ into Google)…and look at their ‘topics’ section. Do you see your topic? If not, you’re going to have a hard time getting paid speaking gigs.
Which speakers get hired more…
Motivational speakers or speakers who talk about Forex Trading?
Leadership speakers or speakers who talk about How To Write A Book?
Marketing/Sales speakers or speakers who talk about HIV/AIDS?
The winners are clear.
Here’s what happens when people are looking for a speaker. They first get the details about the event itself. Where it’s going to be, the theme, etc. Then they think about what type of speaker would be good for this event.
So if the event is for their sales department, and there will be 200 sales people in the room, they’re probably going to hire either a motivational speaker or a sales speaker.
They think of the type of topic they want to hear about and then go out looking for that speaker. What they don’t do is look for the speaker and then ask for the topic.
You also need to consider how big your market is.
Can you get paid to speak on a topic like HIV/AIDS? I’m sure you can. But if you got 100% of that market, and booked all the paid speaking gigs, then it still wouldn’t be nearly as big if you booked only 1% of the motivational speaker market.
You have to really think about your topic in terms of how big the market is and match it up with your goals.
If you want to make a million dollars as a speaker, but your market is small, then it doesn’t matter if you’re the greatest speaker in the world, you won’t reach your goal.
But if you want to make a million dollars as a motivational speaker, well you know that this is a huge market and you’re more likely to get there.
An easy way to figure this out is to look at the top speakers who speak about something similar to you. If you can’t think of 5 speakers who are making multimillions (from speaking alone), then you’re in a small market. Because if the top speaker aren’t getting paid, then nobody else is.
Take this same test…and apply it to the motivational speaker market. All you have to think about is Tony Robbins. They’re making over $500 million (and I’m sure it’s a lot more). So this gives you an idea that it’s a good market.
If you want to get paid speaking gigs then you have to stop confusing what you talk about with what topics companies hire. Because if you keep saying, “I speak about…” then clients are saying, “Yeah but we want a speaker who….”
Look at what speakers get hired, and think about how can you fit what you talk about into the same area.
If you’re expertise is from the military, then you might talk about military stuff…but if you position yourself as a ‘leadership speaker’ then the type of speaker you become changes…and it changes into the type of speaker that companies pay for.
Look up ‘Afterburner speakers’ and you will see what I’m talking about. This is a group from the military who could have come up with a military ‘talk’ but instead, they used their expertise and positioned themselves as Leadership Speakers.
So if you’re not getting hired, then take a good look at how you describe yourself. Are you telling people what you speak about or are you the type of speaker that companies hire? There’s a huge difference.