September 20, 2024
0
Managing Your Speaking Business
The speaking business is alive and well! Some speakers have had more paid speaking opportunities over the past year with pandemic restrictions than pre-Covid.
The challenge is that the business of speaking is changing by the week and it’s hard to keep up with. In June, for example, event planners were rushing to organize in-person events and get butts in the seats. As we enter August, 2021, we are seeing some slow down due to restrictions coming back in some states.
The role of speakers is expanding too. Now we need to put on the additional hat of “meeting planner” to assist people who hire us for speaking opportunities.
We are finding most people who plan for events are very appreciative when speakers ask certain questions related the event, especially when it comes to virtual streaming and hybrid settings.
Come back each week to visit this page and see the current state of the professional speaking industry. We give ALL credit to the content in this post to the Make Money Speaking Clubhouse host, Lois Creamer. Of course, as is the nature of Clubhouse, the audience supplies questions and shares their experience and knowledge too.
As Discussed on July 26, 2021 at Make Money Speaking on Clubhouse
Question from Audience: Is it a good idea to have your spouse handle the contract paperwork?
- It can work. The key is to have a specific set of duties in mind when you ask a family member to assist you. As you look to outsource parts of your business, look for skills that you don’t do well to outsource. (Contracts, deposits, accounting, technology, etc)
- Outsource everything and anything except sales. Nobody is as familiar with your intellectual property as you.
- Make sure you pay well! See what a good executive assistant gets paid so they know they are valued. Also give them an end of the year percentage bonus based on your profits at the end of the year.
Question from Audience: When you see someone on stage and they are a $10,000 speaker, what qualities make them a $10,000 speaker? What are they doing differently than someone who is at a lower level?
- They gave the meeting planner peace of mind, they will get hired. Testimonials, depth of expertise, give audience memories, you deliver it well, client list, etc.
- Ability to tell an amazing story!! Completely transport audience away from their day for a brief moment in time.
Question from Audience: I got booked for a conference in October, a 1 hour session, workshop style or breakout, I like a lot of engagement. My question is regarding the tool I am using and how to translate that. I use a “Game Board” as a table exercise with categories and corresponding cards that open up discussions. The challenge is, it does not work well on powerpoint or big screen. Any ideas on how I could best adapt this tool?
- Could be fun to transform it into a big cardboard thing as a prop!
- If you could bring people on-stage to play, assign people to be in charge of different parts of the room like teams.
