Where my most recent speaking engagements have come from ...
From my experience, speaking opportunities come in all shapes and sizes.
There's also more than one way to run a successful speaking business. I am connected with several different speaker communities and am constantly learning how others target and focus their speaking, training, coaching and consulting.
If you've read my book PAID to $PEAK, then you know I focus my speaking business on association audiences. I also focus my business on PAID speaking engagements, not pro bono ones.
More than 80% of my business is referral because when I get in front of association audiences, every seat is a different business being represented. Think about it ... this is why associations are ideal for speakers. Association events are how I land speaking engagements from specific companies, schools and colleges as well.
And when I do outreach campaigns 2-3 times a year, I focus each on a targeted association. This approach helps me with clarity, structure and the follow-up business systems I have in place make it easy - these are the basic business fundamentals I can help you with.
Speaking as a hobby is different than speaking as a business. Isn't that why you're reading this ... to learn about getting PAID to $PEAK? Hope so.
Not to impress you; but rather impress upon you my point, below are some of the groups I've spoken to
... my full client summary is on my website here and it's a bit outdated!
If I've spoken to a group or industry you're desiring to speak to, we should have a 1:1 to discuss how I landed the engagement so that you can too.
Anyways, I thought it would be helpful to share how some of my most recent speaking engagements came to manifest. They did not result by accident.
Where did this first recent speaking engagement come from?
Audience: SHRM event (SHRM = Society for Human Resource Management)
Source: This event was a referral because the Past President had been in an audience where I had spoken before.
Since my speech: 7 immediate leads for future speaking opportunities and 3 already booked.
Where did this second recent speaking engagement come from?
Audience: Team training event for the Foundation of HOPE
Source: My TEDx talk called PURE Vulnerability.
Since that speech: 6 immediate leads for future speaking opportunities and 2 already booked. If you haven't already viewed my TEDx talk, called PURE Vulnerability, I'd be honored if you watched it.
Preparing for it was difficulty and delivering it was cathartic. You'll see.
But my TEDx talk has unexpectedly opened up an entirely new keynote and training program on the topic of mental wellness and resilience ... which leads into #3 below.
TEDx is an incredible opportunity for you to share your story, introduce an idea and springboard your speaking ... if you have an idea worth spreading!
Where did this third recent speaking engagement come from?
Audience: NASLEF (National Association of State and Local Equity Funds).
Source: Referral from another organization who booked me from my TEDx talk.
Since my speech: 3 immediate leads since last Friday (!) for future speaking opportunities.
Where did this fourth recent speaking engagement come from?
Audience: Private company (internal training event)
Source: GigSalad
If you're not on GigSalad, you should be. It's one my easy systems to be found.