Chapter 3

Wannabes to Celebrity Rock Stars: Many Aspire to Speak

IN THIS CHAPTER

• Different types of speaker profiles
• Why combined speaking and training earn you more money
• What shift is and why it happens
• Six speaker demographics and what they charge

 

Imagine how public speaking might have gotten its start. Go back to the Stone Age. There’s a group of cavemen sitting around a fire one evening. Half of the men took part in a violent battle that happened earlier that day, first between a saber-tooth tiger and later a woolly rhinoceros. Suddenly one of the men leaps to his feet and begins communicating to the others what took place at the bloody scene. He starts jumping up and down making sounds so graphic and compelling, no one speaks or moves. He’s acting out the battle, waving his arms and gesticulating in a way that everyone sitting in the group begins to re-live or “see” in their own minds what took place that day. The caveman is telling the story of what his group of hunters encountered that day and everyone is captivated and terrified all over again.

One caveman then communicates to another that this cave dweller is no ordinary man and that there is magic in his words. So the cavemen take the storyteller away and kill him. Today, that same guy would be paid a speaker’s fee and probably have an agent.

Unlike other professions, speaking is not classified as a part-time or full-time job. Those terms just don’t make sense in this profession. I may only give 30 speeches this year and conduct 10 training workshops, but still reach, or exceed, the income goals I set out to attain. Does that make me a part-time speaker or a person who does not speak full-time? Would I have to speak five days a week, all day long, all year long, to be considered a full-time speaker?

The point is this: This is a unique business where the terms part-time and full-time mean nothing. It’s all about setting income goals and getting booked at the fee you want to earn so that you meet those goals. If you were to charge $15,000 per speech, a handful of those may be enough to pay all of your bills. If you charge $1,000 for a speech, you’d have to do a lot more speaking or other speaking-type jobs to survive. There are many and varied speaking-type jobs out there. It’s not just about keynote presentations and training workshops. Having a good understanding of what the opportunities are in this business can best help an emerging new speaker to align him- or herself with various areas of public speaking and training.

I will say right here that 90 percent of us do more than one type of speaking. Yes, there are the speaking circuit superstars like former president Bill Clinton who command the podium and are paid well over $100,000 for a one-hour or less keynote. However, I assure you that Bill Clinton will not be running to the back of the room to handle product sales and then be heading over to the Eucalyptus Room to lead a breakout session. Celebrity speakers are in a different category altogether, and I’ll explain more about those categories and their general fees shortly.

In the meantime, here’s what you can expect among the wide and varied jobs that come under the heading speaker. Which profile best suits you and your talents? How many of these profiles do you see overlapping with your abilities and willingness to participate? How do these speaker profiles fit into your fee schedule? At which venues can you make the most money? At which venues will you enjoy presenting the most? Make notes after each profile as to where you fit in.

Professional speakers and trainers are often categorized to meet the following delivery profiles. They are not, however, limited to these profiles.

Keynote Speaker

This is the headliner for a conference or large meeting. He or she is the star attraction who sets the theme or mood for the event. This is a featured spot at an event. A keynoter is often a celebrity or well-known author. Keynoters can be the kick-off speaker, luncheon speaker, or closing speaker. This person gives the main speech at a function. The speech can last 30 minutes to 90 minutes. Keynoters are expected to engage and motivate the audience.

Rock Star Platform Speaker

Tony Robbins is an amazing platform speaker. He’s a rock star of the industry and that’s a fact. He’s larger than life on stage and uses bigger than life gestures while speaking. You have to have a larger-than-life presence and persona to deliver at this level. Platform speakers literally make presentations raised above their audience on a platform or stage. They know how to use headset microphones like Madonna uses in her act, and they know how to work with a highly professional audio visual team as they go about delivering their highly energetic and entertaining program. They move around the stage like gazelles and they never use notes or a podium or lectern. These speakers are in perpetual motion and are considered the rock stars of professional speaking.

Trainer

Trainers expressly create skill transfer among groups of 10 to 30 learners. They conduct workshops and seminars of varying length. Trainers who are independent contractors might offer mini-workshops or half-day workshops; some do full-day seminars; others do multiple-day training sessions. Trainers also can work for in-house training departments in organizations and corporate universities. They may work as employees or independent contractors for seminar companies, as well.

Facilitator

A facilitator’s job and a trainer’s job often overlap. Facilitators spearhead the success and learning of the group. Their job is to help their learners to do something better, such as communicate more effectively, resolve issues more efficiently, or learn to collaborate and become more constructive leaders. Top facilitators bring out the best in their learners by letting them do most of the talking and problem solving. Facilitators are experts at debriefing learning opportunities. They ask smart questions that get their participants thinking. They summarize and demonstrate what’s taking place, and they often provoke intellectual debate and discussion.

Dinner Speaker

This form of presentation usually takes place right after dinner. It takes a real pro to deliver a dinner speech because the audience can be tough. They’ve not only knocked back a few, but after they eat, they get sleepy. Great dinner speakers are thick skinned and not easily insulted or distracted by boisterous jabs and jokes, drunks, or boring speeches by top executives prior to their speaking. Awards presentations are often the reason to have a dinner speaker. This can be lengthy and tiresome for attendees and so the dinner speaker must be able to jolt them back to the stage and keep their interest after a long day, a heavy meal, and wine with dinner.

Master of Ceremonies

A master of ceremonies—also known as an emcee, MC, or toastmaster of a ceremony or banquet—connects the separate parts of a meeting or ceremony. He or she introduces other speakers and keeps the program flowing.

Moderator

This is someone who moderates a panel discussion and gives explanations of topics, rules, and procedures, and introduces panelists. A moderator also handles questions from the floor and is the timekeeper for panelists. Being a moderator requires keen attention to each speaker and audience participant, time, and flow of content.

General Session Presenter

A general session presenter addresses the entire audience at a convention or large meeting and usually does so within a two-hour timeframe.

Concurrent Presenter

Concurrent sessions are simultaneous. One is taking place at the same time others are taking place. A concurrent presenter typically has people who sign up for his or her workshop. These workshops take place at conferences and conventions where there are many workshops being held each day. Concurrent sessions can be brief, lasting only 45 minutes or so, or they can be half-day or all-day workshops.

Breakout Session Speaker

Meetings and conferences often have breakout sessions following the general session speaker’s program. These breakouts can be as short as one hour or much longer. They offer depth and breadth to the overall subject matter or theme of the meeting or conference. Oftentimes breakout session speakers will include the general session speaker, who dovetails information from his or her key presentation with additional information on the subject. Authors often do breakouts and then stay to sell and sign books afterward.

Character Players

These professional speakers and thespians dress up like period figures, such as Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, or Rosa Parks. These presentations are big hits in schools and some businesses. The presenters who do this type of speaking are knowledgeable and entertaining. They provide new and interesting ways to interpret books, famous people, and historical events. They are well choreographed and rehearsed to tie in famous speeches in history and historical roles that pertain to an organization’s professional development.

Character players also come in the form of actors who role-play real-world situations in companies with specific issues, like coaching, communications, or conflict resolution. Each player takes on the part of one of the organization’s staff and presents real-world scenarios and different ways they can play out in the workplace depending on how they are handled.

Humorists

Of all the speaker categories out there, this is by far the most difficult to pull off and the most entertaining eloquence to observe when done well. If you thought timing was everything in a straightforward keynote speech, try doing stand-up for Microsoft or Sony. These punch-line practitioners can range from Jay Leno, Jerry Seinfeld, and Ellen DeGeneres as heavy-hitter speakers at a convention in Las Vegas or New York, to lighter-weight humorists who show up anywhere on the agenda tying together inside information about the organization and leadership personalities to the event taking place. These funny-bone specialists of the platform can affect an audience well beyond the event where they create the laughter.

With the exception of celebrity speakers, who get paid as much as $150,000 to an extraordinary $200,000 a speech, I would say the speakers making the most money are the independent contractor trainers. I say independent, because a corporate trainer’s income is obviously restricted to salary. But a speaker who does speaking and training as his or her own business venture—well, the sky’s the limit.

An independent contractor operates their own speaking and training business, like I’ve done for years, or they may work on behalf of a large seminar company, like Fred Pryor Seminars, or SkillPath Seminars, CareerTrack, the American Management Association (AMA), Achieve Global, or Dale Carnegie Training. These organizations, by the way, are great ways for trainers to get volume work and to build a following while sharpening their skill sets in front of an audience.

The professional speakers who also include training programs in their repertoire are the ones making the most money. I would say more than 90 percent of the speakers I know personally do training. And there’s obviously a reason why that percentage is so high.

The biggest pay is earned in keynoting engagements— speakers who are a conference’s main drawing card—the big names like Dr. Phil, Debbie Ford, Tom Brokaw, Deepak Chopra, and Ken Blanchard. But even Ken Blanchard’s organization, The Blanchard Companies, offers hundreds of onsite training programs, train-the-trainer sessions, and public seminars featuring their own speakers, as does the Chopra Center, which offers mind-body-spirit programs headed up by their own staff. And Debbie Ford transforms lives at retreats through coaching and in her highly popular workshops and training programs.

When I am referring to speakers who make the most money most of the time, or consistently, I am referring to the daily and ongoing business of combined professional speaking and training. It is through this combination of speaking engagements that you the speaker can achieve greater flexibility, earning potential, and creative blending of your subject matter expertise to a wider and more varied audience of clientele.

Seldom is speaking all that a successful speaker does. It’s usually a combination of creating and selling products, writing books, a little coaching or consulting, and lots of training. And just because you are blending your talents does not mean that you have 14 different forms of expertise going on. Remember in chapter 2, I spoke about the critical importance of being a subject matter expert and finding your niche. The same applies here. You are simply matching venues and moneymaking opportunities to your specific expertise and niche.

Together, it’s what pays the mortgage and puts food on the table.

Remember, the most successful speakers fill a variety of client needs and roles in the speaking world. The more needs you can fill for your customers while staying true to your subject matter, the more value-add you can offer everyone.

A keynoter may knock the socks off their audience with their speech on change in corporate America, but then that same speaker may be even more valuable to the client if he or she is willing to offer a breakout session or concurrent session afterward to a group of attendees. Add to that a speaker who’s willing to stay an extra hour, meet and greet their guests, and sign books. Now, suppose that same speaker brought along their fliers or one-sheets (more on this marketing tool and others later in the book) and was able to set up appointments for one-on-one coaching by phone the following week, while promoting their upcoming webinar? Now that’s how a speaker makes money!

There are six speaking demographics that I’ve created for this book. The information is not scientific but comes from my experience and the confidential interviews I have conducted with speakers worldwide, their agents, speaker bureau owners, and meeting planners. Fees go up and down in accordance with the popularity of the speaker, the economy, and the economy’s effect on corporate meetings and company budgets. What I’ve provided are general fee ranges. They are not meant to be interpreted as fact. Fees rise and fall with the times.

It should be understood that the fees here are ranges of pay that each category or demographic of speaker could charge or may be charging in general. Many speakers will price themselves at an affordable fee, rather than the going rate, in order to attract more business. If a speaker thinks he or she can do four workshops at $5,000 a piece, or get paid $7,500 for one keynote, then that speaker may well shoot for volume discounts and earn more money doing it.

Volume work that is discounted is a common practice, and is something I do myself. If I am already in Buffalo, New York, I am happy to stay there for a week and do several programs and make more money in total than I would get for one larger fee for a one-hour keynote. If I am there anyway, I try to maximize my time and, therefore, my profitability. If I am going to be in a certain area, I will contact other clients nearby as well and let them know I am there and ask them if they would like to offer something to, let’s say, their employees’ management council one afternoon. Many times the answer is no, but then I’ve gotten a lot of yeses when the timing is right for all involved. That means more money for my time spent in that area. See how it works?

Professional speaking is a form of self-transformation that starts with a shift in your thinking and subsequently how you see yourself up there on a platform with a microphone, getting paid the big bucks to talk to people.

As a professional speaker and trainer I am certain of one thing—shift happens. I am referring to the shifting paradigms we speakers have of ourselves and of our confidence level in order to compete in this rough-and-tumble world of professional speaking and training. To survive and thrive in this business, you must be willing to shift your paradigms along the way so that you can earn more money and get better and better bookings. The key, however, is to shift up, not down.

The moment you decided to become a professional speaker and trainer, or to buy this book, you were in the process of making a paradigm shift for life. Remember, a paradigm is a way of thinking that becomes a pattern or model for something. A paradigm shift shapes the basis of a theory or belief in something—like your belief that you, too, can succeed as a professional speaker and get paid for it.

To be a part of this business, you’ve got to be willing to shift upward. It’s all about getting better and sharpening and improving your presentation skills. When we shift our thinking about what we can do and how we will get it done, or how much money we can make, we shift our paradigms into a higher gear of greater potential, and that translates into greater success and more paid speaking (see Figure 3.1). To use a driving analogy, you can actually feel yourself rising to the higher road of professional speaker ability, while merging into your audience comfort zone along the way.

Keep in mind that there are inevitable pricing gaps between some categories because the ranges quoted from various confidential sources in the industry consistently shift over time.

Wannabe Speakers

They do a lot of talking and they want to be (hence “wannabe”) in the profession, but these folks are held back primarily by fear or lack of self-confidence. The wannabes never actually do much speaking, except perhaps at small community functions that they might be involved with, or when they make presentations at their homeowner’s association. That’s about it. Income from professional speaking in this demographic is zero to perhaps a $100 honorarium.

Gonnabe Speakers

This may be where you are now. Gonnabes are serious about getting into this profession and don’t just talk about it. They actually do something to make it happen. They are the up-and-comers in the profession. They join Toastmasters, with an eye on the National Speakers Association, they subscribe to Speaker magazine, they get memberships in the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), and they buy books like this one. They study the best in the business, and they practice, practice, and then practice some more, honing their speeches and then trying them out on friends and family.

Gonnabes know how to profit from no-fee presentations. They may do freebies for local organizations to get the exposure and experience but fully intend to get a paid offer along the way, and they do land paid speaking engagements that spin off from their freebies and the exposure they bring. Remember, even A-list comedians like Robin Williams and Jay Leno will try out new material at comedy clubs to test their audience’s reaction. The gonnabes do the same thing. The gonnabes typically make honorium fees from about $100 to $500 per speech, and sometimes land a $1,000 event once a year. They are on the way to becoming the driven have-to-bes.

Driven Have-to-Be Speakers

These speakers are the driven ones of the pack. They feel something deep down inside that tells them that “they have to be” a success in this business. They are goal setters who are determined to make it happen, no matter what.

They are not only determined, but they are thick skinned. They can take the criticism and hard feedback. They have a business plan, and they study the best-of-the-best speakers out there. They don’t mimic others; they adapt and modify other presenters’ presentation skills to their own personality and unique delivery styles. The driven have-to-bes practice storytelling and, most of all, they invest in themselves.

The driven have-to-bes possess a good business sense about speaking. They know they cannot go far without the necessary marketing tools, like streaming videos, or press kits, four-color postcards and one sheets, and professionally designed websites and blogs. They spend their money to hire professional website designers; they don’t try to do it themselves because they are focused on speaking. They invest in assessments and tools they can use in training, they get accredited if necessary, and they join professional organizations, like ASTD or Toastmasters International. They get professional coaching along the way. They do whatever it takes to make it in this business. They are the climbers, and they generally will start out making between $1,500 to $3,500 for a presentation; over time they begin to climb higher and then start earning about $3,500 to $5,000 per speech or workshop.

Making-a-Real-Good-Living-Speaking Speaker

The driven have-to-bes often graduate to this level once they reach that higher-level income bracket. These are well-networked speakers and trainers. They have built a reputation over the years. They have repeat business from clients and customers and have built a strong following. They may not be represented by the Harry Walker Agency, but they are most likely represented by several speaker bureaus across the country, and those bureaus are proud to feature them on their websites. They are contacted by meeting planners to present at meetings, and they are paid a decent fee for doing so. The range here in earnings is quite wide, and fees can generally run between $7,500 and $25,000 per speaking event.

Superstar Speakers

These are highly paid speakers and celebrities in their own right. They often make between $25,000 and $80,000 to speak at an event. At the low end they are well-regarded authors and professionals, perhaps doctors or former politicians, or famous business owners. On the high end, they are the Tony Robbinses, Dr. Phils, and Maria Shrivers. They, too, are represented by their own agents or top agencies and bureaus. Superstar speakers are often promoting new books or projects.

Celebrity Rock Star Speakers

I call them celebrity rock star speakers because they draw huge crowds and generate enormous excitement and adoration from their audiences. It’s that same energy that you feel when you are at a rock concert and you can tell the audience is filled with excitement and anticipation about the performer about to take the stage. It’s a similar feeling when the celebrity rock star speaker takes the stage.

These speakers typically come from major-name agencies and bureaus, such as the Washington Speakers Bureau in Washington, D.C., or the William Morris Talent and Literary Agency and the Harry Walker Agency in Manhattan. These bureaus book speakers, such as Christiane Amanpour, Bill Clinton, Michael Eisner, Al Gore, Colin Powell, Her Majesty Queen Noor of Jordan, and Bono. These agencies also book film and television celebrity
speakers, such as Whoopi Goldberg, Bill Cosby, and Marie Osmond. Speakers in this bracket typically make more than $85,000 in fees for one event and oftentimes $100,000 or higher, including first-class flights and accommodations, plus lots of extra perks. You define this demographic of speaker by the mere fact that their name recognition will draw substantially large audiences and create long-lasting buzz about an event. Events sell out when it is announced they are speaking.

I believe having this sliding scale of speaker categories gives us all a chance to measure where we are and determine how far we want to go in this business. Not every speaker wants to be a rock star and that’s perfectly all right. Many of us do just fine flying at a slightly lower altitude.

As for myself, the most I’ve ever been paid for one single speech was $17,500, plus first-class expenses. The speech I gave was for a large insurance company. I haven’t topped that fee for any one-hour presentation since. I’ve come close, but for the most part, I am happy to consistently remain in the making-a-real-good-living-speaking speaker category.

Fees are a very individual thing. But the one thing they are not is private. Once you are out there on the circuit, disclosing your fees is part of the business of staying in business. How you market yourself and your fees is of critical importance. More on this and how the best-of-the-best promote and market themselves wisely in part two.