Chapter 2

Making a Living as a Professional Speaker

IN THIS CHAPTER

• What defines a professional speaker
• Why creating a niche is important to your speaking career
• Tips and tools for striking it rich as a speaker

 

There are hundreds of thousands of so-called professional speakers out there, but only a few thousand of us actually make a living at it. When I say make a living, I mean without holding down a day job or working the swing shift to make being called a professional speaker a reality.

How do you define professional speaker? A politician gives speeches. A flight attendant makes speeches about safety at 30,000 feet. Your server in a restaurant will make a brief speech on tonight’s specials. Does that make all of these people professional speakers because they speak in public? Are there some other criteria for being labeled a professional speaker?

Here’s my definition:

A professional speaker is someone who is paid to speak and then makes a living at it and any of its spin-off opportunities, like training and product sales.

If you’re not getting paid for what you do, then it’s a hobby.

That said, I want to remind you that I am strictly talking about the self-categorized professional speaker. I’m not talking about the emerging speaker who must practice before any audience he or she can get to sit still in order to sharpen and hone their style and delivery. When you’re first starting out, money is not important. I used to give speeches to my cat Guido. It’s only when you decide to make the leap and make this your sole profession that you’ve got to start thinking like a business person—making money is a big part of that mindset. Up to that point, you’ll be in emerging-speaker mode and getting your act—literally—together.

When I first talked with Lorri Allen, it seemed like the phone lines crackled with her energetic attitude and vitality for this business. Here’s a woman who’s taken her passion for speaking not only to the podium, but to the training classroom, and now to Sirius Satellite Radio on Mornings with Lorri and Larry. Lorri’s niche is speaking on and helping others make the cut as a profitable speaker and trainer. Her emphasis is on working with the media, and through her business, The Soundbite Coach (www.soundbitecoach.com), Lorri helps speakers craft their best message in media interviews.

Lorri’s a pro and as a working journalist, she’s not just giving advice from the podium, she’s actually in the trenches doing what she espouses. Lorri’s advice to the readers of this book: “Don’t waste time.” I asked her what she meant by that and she said, “When I started out most people would say, ‘Oh you’ve got to do things this way, or that way,’ neglecting that everyone has their own way.” Lorri said this only wasted a lot of her time until she found her own speakers’ groove. Good advice! See the sidebar for more of Lorri’s tips, tools, and techniques.

Let’s say you’ve practiced and worked at this for a while. Here’s more of my take on what a professional speaker is and does:

A professional speaker is someone who is paid for presenting helpful information to audiences, big and small, or to facilitate programs on his or her subject matter. A professional speaker has credibility worth paying for because he or she is a subject matter expert in a particular field. How the speaker becomes an expert varies greatly. Some earn PhDs and others go to prison, learn life’s lessons the hard way, come out, and have a story to tell.

Some experts on the speaking platform have lived through unimaginable tragedy, like Laci Peterson’s mother, Sharon Rocha, who writes on and speaks about her daughter’s and grandson’s tragic murders. Then there are those down-to-earth folks who can relay everyday life events, while possessing the natural gift of being humorous and bringing down the house with laughter. Erma Bombeck, the late author and humorist, was this kind of speaker. Many times, a professional speaker is a fantastic storyteller, someone who can grip and hold an audience’s attention with their tall tale.

A professional speaker makes his or her primary living at consistently earning enough money to live on. Remember, running a business—including the speaking business—is about making money and clearing a profit after you have given your audience the best you have to offer.

For example, if you spend $500 to market yourself to a client and you only get paid a $100 honorarium, then you’re sure to go out of business.

I am going to help you to better understand how you can make a living at being a professional speaker or trainer by investigating the many profiles of a speaker and understanding what a speaker earns in the marketplace. There are lots of ways to make this happen. I’m going to explain some of them here and more in the next chapter.

The key to building a profitable speaking and training business is that you find your niche or your strength and focus on that area of speaking and training. I have built a solid practice on the personal and professional development of people and the higher understanding of human behavior in the workplace and at home. This is my focus. This is what I write books about. I don’t do speeches on mobile technology or how to speak German. Those are not my areas of expertise.

Although they may try, speakers cannot be all things to all people. Do what you love and are really, really good at and the bookings will follow, as will the money. Heed my warning on this critical point. Do not attempt to be all things to all people. Find a niche and stick with it, especially when you are starting out. I see a lot of speakers, and trainers in particular, who try to be all things to all clients. It’s simply impossible. Not only will you eventually disappoint your clients, you’ll lose your credibility, damage your reputation, and wind up going back to your old job.

I had a discussion with Richard Boren, president of The Training Registry (see sidebar), who talked about the downfalls of how speakers and trainers stray from their niche when going after new business opportunities. “You might think that the speaker or trainer who offers a broad array of services is the most successful, but this is not the case,” states Boren. “My subscribers who have well-defined niches are the ones who get the most business off of my site and do the best year in and year out.”

Many clients clearly want to hire a speaker or trainer who is a subject matter expert, not a jack-of-all-trades. “It has become clear to me that when a subscriber responds specifically to what a company is asking for and then gives that company precisely what they need or want, that is the person who will get the business. But too many trainers just see the potential client as someone who might buy their ‘other’ seminars or services and so they try to sell those things without listening to and responding with exactly what the customer has requested,” emphasizes Boren. “The trainers and speakers who don’t have a niche and try to cover too many topics wind up going back to work in their original jobs when the market or economy gets tough. It’s the subject matter experts who have the long-range success.”

I agree with Richard entirely. If there is one gem of insightful information you can take away from this book right now, it’s get focused and stay focused on what you do best and sell that to clients. Forget the rest. When a potential client is asking you for a proposal, regurgitate back to them precisely what they are asking for. Don’t try to market a program on supervisory skill building because back in 1995 you were a company supervisor for two years. That does not make you a subject matter expert.

What makes you a subject matter expert is a published book, long-term experience, credentials, certifications, and a track record for having success in a certain area. Trust me. If you try to sell programs to clients for which you are dismally qualified, you may indeed land the deal, but you will kill your reputation by the time it’s all finished.

Julie Wassom is known as The Speaker Who Means Business. Having known Julie for more than 25 years, I can attest to her slogan. Julie is president of the Julian Group, Inc., a highly respected sales and marketing firm with a specialty in child care marketing and education. This has been her primary niche. Julie exemplifies the power of subject matter expertise at work.

Julie effectively markets her own speaking and training practice, as well, on her website www.JulieWassom.com (see sidebar). By examining what the best-of-the-best speakers and trainers are doing, you can develop and create your own products, book ideas, and online e-letters and e-magazines. Julie’s success as a speaker and trainer has not been limited to one niche. She’s one of the gifted presenters who has successfully dovetailed her expertise in marketing to include another unique and passionate business—alpaca marketing.

I want to wrap up this chapter with a fast money-making toolkit on the practical use of proposals, and their content, and using them to focus on and sell your subject matter expertise to whomever is in the market for your information.

I like Mark Victor Hansen’s quote about making money in this business: Find a niche, and strike it rich! This truly sums up the fastest and surest way for any speaker or trainer to build a profitable business.

I’ve used every one of these tools in the toolkit presented here and each of them have worked for me and helped me to make a good living in this profession. I’ll never recommend that you do something I myself have not field-tested along the way. These tools will help you to align yourself with quality clients and customers who will be more than eager to pay you for your expertise.

Tools for Striking It Rich

Decide what your niche is going to be. This is a speaker’s and trainer’s true north. Once you make this decision, you will have a built-in compass leading you in your most profitable direction. Be specific and focus on what you do best.

When you get clear on this, the money will follow. Think about the Mark Victor Hansen mantra and say to yourself, “I’m going to find a niche and strike it rich!”

Write down your niche here: ___________________

I am a subject matter expert on ________________

Here’s how I can prove it: ____________________

Get a hot topic and a hot title to support it. What’s your topic? More important, what’s the hot title you’ve chosen to support it? Think of a sample title you might use for your seminar, keynote speech, or training topic. Will it convey your expertise in this area and will it inspire others to want to hire you?

My speech or program title is: ________________

Titles you select for your programs and speeches should be captivating, stimulate audience interest, and help you make money. They should demonstrate your creativity and energy, knowledge of cutting-edge information, and suggest there is something exciting to learn from the program. Your program titles are powerful marketing tools that tell the world what it is you are going to be speaking or training about.

Many times I’ve had people contact me about a booking, simply because they were intrigued by the title of one of my presentations. For example, three of my program titles based on my books on motivation continue to get rave reviews from audiences and generate lots of fresh leads domestically and internationally: Motivating and Retaining Your Superstar Talent!, How to Motivate Every Employee!, and The Positively Outrageous Connection between Employee Motivation and Peak Performance! When an organization wants to offer a program on motivation to its employees and then comes across my website featuring these titles, they will often call and ask for my program outline and fees. That’s one foot in the door that didn’t exist prior to their seeing those titles. The titles alone are the grabber. Then I follow up with a detailed program outline and costs.

Examples of titles that wow, sell books, sell seminars, and sell speakers include Cynthia Heimel’s self-help book If You Can’t Live Without Me, Why Aren’t You Dead Yet? and Betty Londergan’s funny and frank I’m Too Sexy for My Volvo: A Mom’s Guide to Staying Fabulous.

Use Speaker Speedback to respond to inquiries within 24 hours—no exceptions. I began using the term speedback years ago in my communications seminars because the word feedback didn’t seem urgent or important enough. Speedback means exactly what it says, that you will respond within 24 hours to any inquiries, from anywhere in the world, about your programs and speeches.

Clients and speaker bureaus love it when a speaker responds quickly to their inquiries—the faster the better. We live in a world where instant gratification rules business decisions. Set yourself up with the latest mobile technology to be able to respond to clients instantaneously if possible, and at the latest, within 24 hours. My clients are all made aware up front that if they do not hear from me within six hours of their initial call or email, that I am en route and probably flying to an event, and that I will call them as soon as I reach my destination. And I always do.

I have to say that the most consistent comment I get from prospective clients, customers, meeting planners, and speaker bureau representatives is that I respond faster than anyone they know. Establishing my routine for speaker speedback with every person who contacts me tells them that I will deliver the same right-on-time, every time, performance if they hire me to speak at their conference. They know I will return calls and emails and get them whatever it is I promise in no time flat. Remember, time is money in any business. So how do you think this tool helps me to make money when I am pitching my Communications Excellence seminars and workshops? It helps me because I walk the talk. Would you want to hire someone to train your organization on communication skills if they didn’t respond quickly and in detail to your questions? Responding with breakneck speed in a breakneck-speed world will get you more engagements and make you more money—fast.

Have a detailed presentation outline of your program ready to go at a moment’s notice. I have outlines of all my speeches and training programs ready to go at any time I get an inquiry. Prospective clients and customers do not want to wait to know what’s behind your intriguing topic title. Your title piqued their interest; now you’ve got to deliver. Have a detailed, bullet-point outline of your program, updated, and ready to send.

Create a template for every program you offer. Everyone has their own way to structure and deliver a proposal or response to a potential client about how they will deliver a training session or speech. This structure is your unique template. The design and the layout should be simple to follow and allow the reader to extrapolate items of interest—fast. Templates save time and help you to get information to your clients without delay; they should include

• your availability
• title of program
• detailed outline of the program’s content with bullet points of what the program includes
• organizations you’ve delivered this program to in the past (give company names)
• anything that gives you additional credibility, that is, degrees, published books, speaking at the White House, overseas programs, or prestigious university, or association experience
• description of handouts or workbooks and who is responsible for duplicating them
• your value-added component to this program, such as giveaways and prizes, assessments, special handouts at no extra charge, and so on (Everyone’s looking for a value-added component. What’s yours?)
• length of program, times, breaks, and other logistics
• your updated bio, complete with credentials for doing this job (a photo on your bio is good, too—people like to see with whom they’ll be working)
• equipment needed and other items you will require to conduct sessions, such as PowerPoint equipment, an LCD screen, a DVD or CD player, cordless lavaliere microphone or handheld microphone, whiteboard, a book signing table and cover for that table, and so on.

Set your fees strategically and fully disclose them. Fees are what they are. So put it out there. You’ll get faster responses and more opportunity to make the short list of candidates being considered. Do not ask the client, “What is your budget for a speaker or trainer?” That is the kiss of death. When you ask this question, you look like an amateur.

If you want to be a pro in this business, then value what you do, set a price for services, and tell your clients this is how much money you will need to do the job. Of course you can negotiate at any point you deem it a good business decision to do so. But you don’t start out by asking your client what he or she thinks they can pay. If you do, you’ll appear weak and you most likely will not get the gig. If you negotiate with a client after you set your fees because it is a mutually agreeable business interaction, then you’ll be coming from a position of greater strength and confidence. And clients want to deal with confident speakers and trainers, not wimps.

One of the biggest mistakes I see new speakers make is that they hem and haw about the price of their speeches and training sessions. If you do this, you will lose business.

Clients want to hear confidence in their speaker’s or trainer’s voice when it comes to discussing money. So sit down now and think about what you are going to charge for specific formats of your presentation. For example, what will you charge for a one-hour keynote address? A dinner speech? A half-day training session or a breakout session at a conference? What about a full-day or multiday program? What about follow-up coaching for workshop attendees? What about international engagements?

Decide what you are worth, what the market will bear, and what you must charge to stay in business. What is the value of your program? What is the value of your time? It’s not about price. It’s about value. If you are being booked by an agent or speaker bureau, then you’ve got to factor in their 20 percent or 25 percent commission rate. Write down your fees and review and revise them regularly.

And remember, fees are not some government secret that the CIA is protecting for our country’s national security. Snap out of it and get over the fee disclosure thing. Set a fee and tell the customer up front. They’ll appreciate that you’re getting right to the point about money because you know what your program is worth.

Tell them what it’s going to cost and include extraneous expenses in your response or proposal. Is your fee all-inclusive, or are expenses a separate line item? What about travel, hotel accommodations, per diem? Let’s say your fee is $5,000 for a 90-minute program. Then you must add on your travel, hotel, meals, and so on. I like to direct bill my airfare, hotel, and car rental to the client and then charge a per diem of $150 for daily expenses like meals, faxes, airport parking, and gratuities, but this varies with every client. That’s $150 per day, including travel days.

Be sure not to leave any expense out of your proposal. If you have to go back and ask for more money, it won’t be looked upon favorably and you may well wind up absorbing the additional costs yourself.

Have a letter of agreement or service contract ready to be signed. I will cover the details of how to do this later in the book. But for now, understand that this is another template you will need to have ready to go and have signed by your client.

I find that most clients who hire speakers and trainers already have their own document in place and prefer to use it instead of yours. This is fine by me and it saves time. However, just be sure to read each document carefully and feel free to make appropriate changes right on the document and initial it. If there is something blatantly disturbing about your contract, then discuss it with the client. My experience is that almost every client or customer I work with wants to be fair and equitable with their speaker or trainer.

I had one client who used a contract for services agreement that indicated I could not speak in their metropolitan area of the state, up to a 250-mile radius, for up to 30 days after delivering my presentation to their association’s members. This seemed quite inequitable to me because I make my living and depend on dovetailing programs in whatever areas of the world where I am speaking. I discussed it with the client before signing on and she was extremely cooperative. We agreed that I would not deliver any programs on the exact same topic I was delivering to her group to any of their association’s direct competitors within a week of my presentation. However, I was free to deliver other program topics that I offer at any time and to whomever I chose. That made more sense and put my client at ease (that’s all she wanted in the first place), and it gave me the satisfaction I, too, was looking for. I rewrote the paragraph as an amendment to the agreement and we both signed the document that day.

The bottom line with speaker agreements is that people who do not know one another just want to be sure that everyone is going to do what they say they will do and that there are no miscommunications on the day of the presentation. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

For example, if a client gives me permission by phone to sell and sign my books following my speech, I am always sure to write that into the agreement. It’s not that I think the client will change their mind or renege on their promise, but a lot can change over the months before the event takes place. For example, that person may leave the organization and forget to tell their replacement that I have permission to do a book signing, or someone at the top may have had a bad experience with an author who sold books after an event and so they are against ever doing it again. So for communications purposes, not because I think someone is out to get me, I make things very clear and do so in writing.

As you build trust and relationships with repeat clients, all of this gets lighter and easier to deal with. I have rarely found a client or organization that did not live up to their promises or pay me what I was owed when it was due. You will find most people who hire you are reputable and exemplify integrity. Trust me, 99.9 percent of the population does not wake up in the morning with the sole intent to rip off a speaker or trainer. And if something occurs that did not go as planned (and that, too, will eventually happen; it just won’t be the norm), then chalk it up to experience and cross that client off your list. There are plenty of fish in the sea.