Get More from Every Speaking Gig as an Author

Hey there author. You've written a book or you're writing a book with the plan that you're going to become a paid speaker. Deep down you probably know that's not instantaneous. Write book, get paid to speak. But you're still hoping your book launch helps you get into paid keynote speaking pretty fast, right? But what are you going to do when you get invited to speak right away, but it's for free? If you're wondering what you should do when you get that offer to speak but there's no cash involved or well, this video is for you. Hey there. I'm Julie the Book Broad, founder of Book Launchers. We're your first choice for nonfiction, book publishing and promotion support. Connect with us@booklaunchers.com I have done a lot of in person speaking over the last decade or so. I haven't counted, but it's definitely more than 100 speaking gigs and maybe closer to 200. I've enjoyed audiences as large as 800 and some as small as 5. The vast majority of my speaking gigs, though, have have not been for money, but I don't do them for free. I know that sounds like a riddle, but it's not. So what do I mean? Well, unless you're already commanding tens of thousands of dollars for talks when you launch your book, it's probably not realistic to think you're immediately going to get paid big money for your speaking. You might if you have a really impressive resume or a story people are just dying to hear. But generally speaking, just like becoming a successful author, taking your book from page to page speaker Take Take steps. It can also be that your topic just doesn't lend itself to the big keynote stages that pay you the big dollars. Take my stories for example. I'm typically not going to be keynoting an event talking about how to write a book with marketing in mind, but you will find me in the breakout rooms and running workshops. Now, I haven't pursued keynote spot, which would mean I'm telling a transformational kind of story, not teaching a how to kind of topic, which is what I like to do. But I have gotten very creative in how I get paid for my talks. So here are my six high value ways that I get paid when I speak. And you can use them too. And by the way, for most talks you don't have to settle for just one of these. You can mix and match and attempt to get most of them when you speak without a paycheck. Number one Social Media gold. Call yourself a speaker, but have no physical proof that you've ever been in front of an audience. Well, hello Free speaking engagement. Getting pictures of you holding the mic in front of an audience, engaging with attendees. That footage of you captivating an audience is content that will be very valuable to your online presence. Instagram Reels, LinkedIn posts, TikTok clips, whatever you use, showcasing your expertise and energy in front of an audience. Well, this is really important and you can hire a photographer, but a lot of events have an event photographer and you can just ask to get some of their pictures or or have a friend in the audience snap a whole bunch of pictures. Just get creative, but get some content. Number two Referrals and Recommendations Every stage puts you in front of a new network. These aren't just random attendees, they're potential clients, future collaborators, and even people who might recommend you for your next gig. Even if there's only five people in the room, those are five people who are committed to hearing you speak. And you never know if one of them is checking you out because they have an event coming up or they're looking for a speaker. Or when you're at an event, be sure to connect with the organizers and other speakers. Be kind and easy to work with. Take contact information, send follow ups to thank them and engage with them. It's also a wise idea to ask for a letter of recommendation or testimonial after you speak. The more people you know, the more likely you are to get bit booked for bigger and bigger gigs. I book speakers for EO Las Vegas as the Learning Chair on the board and while we don't pay super well, not as well as the big corporations, our speaking gigs do pay. And every single speaker I've booked over the last 20 months has been someone I either knew well personally or someone I completely trusted, said they were excellent and recommended them. I get cold pitched by speakers twice a week and I haven't booked any of them. So make sure people who are connected to people who book speakers know who you are, know your topic, and see you as an engaging expert. Because that's how you're going to get speaking gigs. Number three Email subscribers. Imagine walking off stage with dozens or even hundreds of new subscribers on your email list. One of our clients has been doing just that, landing 100 plus new email subscribers with every talk he gives. And he's been giving one or two talks a month. How does he do this? Well, he has a killer resource that he offers during his talk that everyone wants to get. Boom. Now you've got a pipeline to nurture future book buyers and clients. You often can't sell things from the stage, but organizers want the attendees to get value. So if you're not getting paid to speak, a great way to get paid on the back end is to put up an offer the audience can't refuse. Now, when you're on stage, the easiest thing to do is to pop up a QR code or have a phone number people can text that gets them opted into your email list. The other technique that I've used is a feedback sheet. Give every person a handout with key takeaways from your talk and have a feedback sheet stapled to it. People can opt into your newsletter or even indicate they want to have a consult call with you for the future. Number four Speaker Reel Footage if your goal is paid speaking and you want to book the talks that pay thousands and thousands, you're going to need a great speaker reel. Most events will be recording your talk, so ask for the footage for your speaker wheel. Even better, if you know the room is going to be a good one, hire a videographer to come in and shoot you so they can capture the audience's engagement as well as you on the stage. A videographer is going to give you better footage than the event. Organizers Use that talk as a big stepping stone to where you want to go. 5. Sell books free gigs can lead to big book sales. A captivated audience is way more likely to head to your table and buy your book and they'll leave his raving fans. Or another approach that I've used is get the organizers to buy your book for their audience. I've done lots of these kind of deals where a group or association doesn't have a speaker budget, but they have a marketing budget. If they do, I would propose hey listen, why don't I sell you 100 copies of my book at a discounted rate and you can use that as an incentive to get people to attend. Plus, I'll sign books for 30 minutes after my talk. It's not big money because I'm usually only making $6 per book or so, but it's pay and it's my books in the hands of a lot of readers. Gaining favor and gaining favor with organizers because I'm on their team helping them fill their event. Number six Marketing, Advertising and cross Promotion Getting the word out and building your brand takes a lot of time and energy, so wouldn't it be great if you had a partner in promoting you? Many event organizers have a great list of people as well as they're putting out great content on a variety of platforms, check out what they're doing and propose some extra features. Maybe you can be featured in their upcoming newsletter, do a live stream together, or maybe they agree to promote your book in a few different ways through their platforms. Get creative. As someone who books speakers and always has to get them to reduce their speaker fee for our nonprofit events, I'm open to doing all kinds of things to make it work. I'll even commit to promote them to other people who have my same role in other cities. I'll write letters of endorsement and I'll even allow them to give us a promo video that I give to our group. I want it to be a win, and most event organizers would feel the same, but they won't know what a win for you would be unless you ask. So never speak for free again. Get massive value and start leveraging the opportunity to gain these currencies Building your brand and getting paid gigs in the future. Now if you're just getting started and you're wondering where to find any opportunities, let alone ones that you would get paid for, start local. Just search online your City plus association. Type that into Google Leverage directories. Check out resources like Directory of Associations or Events in America. Then of course network locally, Rotary Clubs, Kiwanis Chamber of Commerce. There's so many different events that you could go to and they're looking for speakers, but you also can get connected to other groups that are doing the same. Ultimately focus on building momentum, relationships and those connections. Every talk you give puts you closer to those paid gigs. All right, now you know you're going to get value for every engagement, but maybe you're not done writing your book yet, but. Well, here's a video to help you with that. And if you're new to speaking and have a new book, well, this is a video on building your author brand and that's a must watch too. Click on over after you've clicked like on this video and subscribe to the channel and I'll see you there. And if you're watching mobile, I'll put the links in the description for you there.