You’ve created both push and pull demand – you’ve wooed the bureaus and meeting planners and you’ve created a strong platform – and you’re getting inquiries. What do you need to do to create a thriving, sustainable business? Following are the three essentials for long-term success in the very tough business of (paid) public speaking.
First, understand that from your customers’ perspective, it’s all about risk reduction. So reduce their risk.
The greatest fear of a meeting planner or a speaker bureau rep is that a speaker will do something stupid, disastrous, or unforgettable. Sure, they want speakers to be good. But even more than that, they want them not to offend anyone. Think about it from their perspective. You put on a few conferences a year. The brand and reputation of the company, or the association, or the group are on trial for those several days. And you’re responsible. You’re not very high up in the organization, so everyone can abuse you if you screw up. “How could you have hired (Speaker X) when he insulted every single one of our customers by saying they weren’t green enough?” That indignant, perhaps career-ending question can come from anyone in your organization from the CEO on down.
So your job is to ensure that you are a safe commodity for them. You must consistently deliver exactly what you say you will. You must do so without histrionics, complaints, or unreasonable demands – in fact, with a smile on your face. You must show up a day early, introduce yourself to the meeting people and the A/V people and anyone else that is involved, and then stay out of the way while they do their jobs. You must have arranged any needs you have for A/V or transportation or bottled water from Fiji well in advance, and you must not complain about minor shortcomings in the on-the-ground actual arrangements. (Major shortcomings are another story. You will deal with those respectfully but firmly.) Most importantly, you must begin your speech on time, deliver a good performance, and then get off the stage on time. You will thank the A/V people for their professional help. You will cheerfully meet, shake hands with, autograph books for, and otherwise perform reasonable social duties for the organizers, the top brass, company employees, and their heirs and assigns.
In short, you must be professional – always.
Second, deliver consistently on your brand.
People hire you to speak to give them an experience – the experience of you, your brand, your passion. The better known you become, the more this is true. Many speakers new to the paid speaking world write fresh speeches for every single occasion. That is actually a very bad idea, for three reasons. First of all, it’s not what the customers want. They want the idea, the brand, the platform for which they hired you. So tailor your basic speech, absolutely, but don’t make up something entirely new. Second, it means that you won’t be as effective as a speaker, since you won’t know the speech thoroughly and in your gut. Real knowledge of a speech, like any kind of performance, only comes through delivering it in front of a live audience many times. If you’re always making up new speeches, you’ll never achieve that elegance, assuredness, and style that comes from complete comfort with a message. And third, you won’t get the word-of-mouth you need to sustain your business, because audiences will (rightly) see your speech as completely particular to them.
And there’s another way you need to deliver consistently on your brand: your marketing materials. Your website, your blog, your one-sheet, your DVD, your book – all your marketing – needs to look highly professional and consistent. It’s astonishing how many speakers have an inconsistent, or non-existent, brand presence. The first thing someone who is thinking of hiring you looks at is your DVD. Then, he or she looks at your website and blog. Then, the one-sheet and the book. Are they all consistent, and do they all clearly present a brand that shows you in a very good light? If not, get to work and fix them. More about marketing materials in a later blog.
Third, generate good word of mouth.
Most of your long-term business will come from repeat engagements and word of mouth. Every single audience member is a potential marketer for you – so embrace your audience, make your speech audience-focused, and enlist their help in spreading the word. You can’t build a speaking business on a series of one-off speeches. Find ways to connect with your audience before and after the event. Find out what makes them tick, help them, and establish real relationships with them, and your career will thrive.
Hey Nick,
This is such great, sound advice I wouldn’t have figured out until it was too late! Thanks so much.
I do have a question about not creating an entirely new speech. I have a fairly solid speech, but I catered it to a particular audience. I’ve been asked to speak again, for a different amount of time, with a completely different audience, and a different focus.
I’d love to use the same speech and refine it, but I feel that it won’t resonate as well this time around, since it’s not catered to them. I was planning to create an entirely new talk, but then I read your blog. Should I still use it? How do you navigate your speech to create consistency while you’re working with different crowds that have different expectations?
Thanks so much!
Amanda
Hi, Amanda —
Great question. For the long run, you should create the core of a speech that takes the audience on a journey to action and changes the world. Then what you do is thoroughly tailor the opening to connect to a particular audience, together with specific references from time to time in the body of the speech, and a conclusion tailored, again, to the specific audience. Most of the customization should come at the beginning of the speech. The core of the speech should remain consistent.
Without knowing the particular speech, it’s hard to be more precise. There will be “one-offs” and speeches that you can’t reuse, of course, but you should keep those to a minimum, since it means, necessarily, that you’re going ‘off brand’.
Thanks Nick, that’s really helpful, I’m going to go ahead and use that as my template. Looking forward to reading more! Best, Amanda.
Well said Nick. I’m frequently reminding my clients that a brand is a series of small gestures. When made consistently over time, we build our brands. Thanks for setting a great example.
First off, it’s good to know the correct terms. Someone who speaks for a living is called a PROFESSIONAL speaker. You wouldn’t call them a PUBLIC speaker since they do it for a living. A free ebook on the speaking business would be helpful for you, go to:
http://www.FredGleeck.com/ebooks
Fred, we call it ‘public speaking’ to distinguish it from private speech, such as conversation among friends. That’s why I wrote ‘paid public speaking.’
Hmm…. Public Speaking vs. Professional Spaking… Interesting :)
You are both right – Professional Speaking is Public Speaking (as you do it in public for an audience – I know, Duuh!)
But not all Public Speaking is Professional Speaking. We have lots of people out there who just speak in public once or twice [usually with no compensation) or volunteer regularly to speak at events, conferences, etc… these are not professional speakers, but they are definitely public speakers – at least for the day when they do their public speech.
I think some professional speakers do call themselves public speakers, because that’s what they do for a living – they speak in public and get paid for it. In my “book” a professional speaker would be a CSP or someone who earned that title somehow (it’s more than just speaking for a fee).