How to Write a Book to Build a Speaking Career

Publishing your book may feel like crossing the finish line, but when you publish a book to build something bigger as a business owner or a thought leader, launch day is actually just the start of the race. Becoming a speaker can change your career trajectory, increase your income and make your name known. And it can all start with your book. If you're wondering how to build a speaking career from your book, then this video is for you. Hey, I'm Julie the Book Broad, founder of a fabulous author services company called Book Launchers. Speaking engagements are worth the butterflies and stage fright you might face at the thought of standing in front of a big audience. They are effective and awesome way to make more money, sell more books, and boost both your reach and your influence as an author and thought leader. But landing those first speaking gigs that create a foundation for your future as a speaker can can be tough, especially if you're not known well within your industry or you're just new to speaking on your subject matter. I said tough but not impossible. To help you out, I asked our wonderful book marketing manager Sarah Bean for her top tips and tricks for landing opportunities as a new speaker. So let's get into it. We have a speaking career to build after all. Tip 1 if you've never spoken before, you need to first figure out who you are addressing and how you can help them. Whether it's business owners who need to level up their company growth or parents looking for solutions for problem teens, know who your audience is and how listening to you buying your book or your talk will solve their problems. Be specific and know that there are organizations out there for pretty much everything. 2. Build your unique topic and brand. Create one to two topics or abstracts that directly help the audience and be able to adapt those on the fly for different audiences. You want buyers to know right from your talk title who you're addressing and what they can take away from it. Practice those topics so you're prepared well in advance when opportunity comes knocking. One of my standard talks is five tips to write a book that sells. There are fundamental principles I cover in every talk I give on that subject, but this week I gave that talk to a group of entrepreneurs, so I adapted it to be 5 tips to write a book that grows your business. A lot of the same material goes into it, but I change up the examples and I also drive the points towards business benefits versus selling books. 3. Have your materials ready. The most important thing A speaker's reel. Even unpaid engagements will ask for this. If you don't have a reputation as a speaker already, they want to put somebody who's going to entertain and educate their audience in front of their audience, so they want to check up on you. They just want to see examples before they invest in you for their event. So put together a video, a reel, or a speaker. One pager at a minimum that shares your topics. Your speaker reel is ideally a combination of different talks that you've given, showing the audience engaged and clapping and laughing. But if you've only given one talk, well, that will have to do. Maybe you showcase the whole thing or just take a clip for your reel, but in the future, you want to collect as many videotaped talks as you can to create a robust speakers reel. Then you want to create a speakers one sheet that showcases the topics you can talk on. Create a list of past client engagements to showcase your expertise. And I would ideally ask for recommendation letters from some of the key talks that you've given so that you can include those as referrals in your speaker's package. You also want to create adaptable abstracts in advance with three to five audience takeaways. And remember to make sure your materials are on brand for you so you can stand out from the competition. 4. If you're brand new to presenting to audiences, start small and local. That $25,000 keynote opportunity doesn't usually magically come along just because you've published a book. You have to build up to it. Besides, it's better to gradually move up. When I started speaking, I went from my first talk being in front of an audience of, I think, about 12 people at a local meetup and to an audience of 600 people on a large stage in Toronto, Canada. I was so nervous I don't even remember the talk. So I suggest you practice your material like a comedian would. Go to, you know, the equivalent of an open mic and test your material on small live audiences. For me, those are usually local meetups or local association education sessions. When you do that, it can organically lead to bigger opportunities anyway and then you're more comfortable with your material and and those local events, they can actually sell a lot of books and you may find a lot of local support for you and your book. Number five. Don't say no automatically just because there's no paycheck. When we watched the super bowl halftime show this year with all our favorite artists from the 90s, my husband commented on how much they must have been paid, and I said, if I were them, I would do it for free. Think about how much people pay for a Super bowl commercial, and these people are getting massive exposure. And in that halftime show, I think for many of them, it's the best advertising they could ask for. Well, I did a little research. It turns out they do it for free, and they do it because it's huge exposure to a really wide audience. And in their case, you know, decades old songs get new life. But for an artist, it's also a feather in your cap to be invited to do a halftime show. So as a speaker, don't turn your nose up just because something's free. Some free events have enormous value when they're the right event for you and for reaching your audience. So before you say no, let's look at what factors might make you want to say yes, like who's in the audience or what channels that organization might open up for you, or if you could just use that video footage for a better speaker's reel. And if you have a chance to sell books or drive a lot of traffic to your website, those might be really good reasons to do a free free talk. Sometimes those are even bigger results than getting a speaker's fee when you can't promote your stuff or your book at all. Number six. Know that if you bring your best self and deliver value, whether it's paid or free, one speaking gig almost always leads to another. Never discount an audience as not big enough to be prepared in the audience. There may be somebody who wants you to speak for their company or something that you may say that resonates with somebody who becomes a new client or, or refers a whole bunch of new people to you or wants to buy a copy of your book for everybody in their organization. I've been a speaker at events that have had thousands of people in the audience, only to have 20 people in my breakout room for a talk. That can feel really demotivating if you just look at the empty seats. But I usually encourage, cajole, pick on people until they move forward so that I feel like they're a good group together. And then I deliver massive value to to the folks that are there. Because my belief is that every person showed up there for me. I'm going to show up for them and give them value. And who knows, they might become a client, buy my book or tell somebody else about my book or my business. You can also focus on finding one person that you can really help that day and just cultivate those relationships and take advantage of the opportunity that you've been given to get in front of that audience. And if you're allowed, invite them to download your reader magnet so that you get their email address and and you can start building a long term relationship with them. Or if you're allowed as well, you could have books to sell or even give away during the event. When you're finished speaking, make sure to network with the organization, the team that's there, and the audience. And of course, send thank yous. You'll never know what connections you could make. Number seven if you're struggling to find a speaking opportunity, skip the cold call and start with your network. I started by speaking at the groups I was already a part of. Within your industry, you may have all the warm leads you need, so start with a list of your own contacts, your network, your organization's past or current clients. Or just look at the groups that you're active in and they might be able to introduce you to people looking for speakers for their audience. By reaching out to these friendly contacts and seeing how you can help them with your content, you'll probably find yourself on stages pretty quick. Now, there is no easy or fast button, but if I were to tell you the three most important things to building a speaking career from a book, it would be Number one be prepared. Have a talk ready to go on short notice and test that material live before you go big. 2. Be okay with free when it's a good fit. 3. Get your speakers real and references ready as quickly as you possibly can. Without that, it's tough to land giant paid speaking gigs. A book helps you open doors to put you on stage. It gives you another way to monetize your time on stage and develop deeper relationships with audiences. But it won't happen with one talk. Build on each talk and keep going and looking back. Two years later, you'll likely find yourself with a paid speaking career. Looking for more marketing tips? The noboringbooksway well then you should watch this video right here on Preparing for a book signing because many of your speaking gigs will also be book signing events. Or you could also watch this one right here that YouTube thinks you'll really like. Either way, I'll be waiting there for you.