This Is the One Thing You Need If You Want to Get Paid Speaking Gigs Getting paid to speak can seem overwhelming, but having this essential element is a good start.
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A professional online representation of your speaking repoitoire is a must-have when it comes to getting paid speaking gigs.
To put it bluntly: A decent-looking website showcasing your speaking expertise will assist with meeting planners feeling comfortable in hiring you. Meeting planners and conference organizers are in a unique situation when it comes to hiring speakers. If a meeting planner makes a mistake and hires the wrong speaker, they and 500 of their friends will know it at the exact same time.
Making a mistake and bringing in the wrong speaker is a public embarrassment, so they want to make sure that they are bringing in the right person. A professional-looking website can go a long way toward making that happen.
Related: How to Grow Your Business With Public Speaking
Speaking website necessities
Your website should include the following.
- Your speaking biography. This should be a little bit different than your regular biography as you want it to emphasize your expertise with different speaking topics.
- Two or three workshop descriptions (along with a catchy title). It's that last part that's key. The term "how to" can stand out when it comes to titles (e.g. "How to Talk So Your Prospects Will Listen"), but something short and declarative (e.g. "Networking Like a Pro) also does just fine.
- A video of you speaking. This can be a "speaker reel" (a short video with music, professionally edited), or it can be a "full reel" of you at an event. Either one is perfectly fine. If you don't have any of these right now, that's also not a problem. Just make it a priority to have someone film you at your next presentation, and put it up when it's done.
- A few speaking-based testimonials. In a perfect world, these would be video testimonials of audience members who have heard you speak. However, you might not have that yet, and that's also fine. Just ask some folks who have heard you speak to provide a quick written (or even video) testimonial telling the camera their name, where they saw you speak and one takeaway they got as a result of hearing you speak.
- Appearances. In other words: Where have you spoken in the past? Remember, conference organizers do not want to feel like they are the first people to hire you. Give them some places where you've spoken before, and don't worry if you spoke for free at these venues. All you're doing is letting them know that you have experience.
- Contact information. Tell any potential how they can get ahold of you. Email and phone work best here.
Related: 8 Master Tips on How to Get Paid for Public Speaking
The next opportunity could be yours
If you don't already have this information accessible, you should get started right away. Remember that there is someone else who has a similar speaking topic, ability and work experience who's getting paid to appear today at a conference, corporation or event somewhere in the world. Why shouldn't that be you?
Related: 4 Expert-Backed Public Speaking Tips for Entrepreneurs
