How to Get High-Paid Speaking Gigs - Even If You're Just Starting

Hey, good morning! How are you everybody? Chad Thibodeaux here. Welcome to another Monday Morning Mentor. So glad that you guys are here. Hopefully you guys can hear me. Hopefully you can see me. I'm here in the beautiful Pacific Northwest right here at Port Orchard in Washington State hanging out with my sister here, getting some work done, getting a book finished that I have been trying to get released for quite some time. And I wanted to just come on and do this Monday morning with you guys here. I didn't want to skip a beat, didn't want to miss it. So I want to welcome everybody. Who is watching us inside of our Night School program, who's watching inside of our Launch Fuel program, who's watching us from Speakpreneur, and of course, are watching me live from Instagram, YouTube, Facebook. Wherever you may be watching, we're so glad that you guys are here. I want to invite you to grab a pencil and a piece of paper because we're going to go pretty quickly today, and we're going to try to get through a lot of information as I help you figure out how to get high-paid speaking gigs. So, I'm just going to catch my breath. I'm gonna reset so the editor knows where to start and to stop. And once again, if you guys are in night school, let me know who you are, where you're watching from. Also, if you're watching here on social media, let me know who you are and watching from. We're gonna get started in 5 seconds. Here we go. Today what I wanna do is I wanna talk with you guys about how to get high-paid speaking gigs. Because it's super important that we get paid for what we do. Now here's what happens a lot of times. A lot of times people tell us that they want to become a speaker, maybe even a professional speaker, someone who gets paid to speak on stage. And it's interesting because most of the time when we ask people how much money they've been paid, it's typically nothing. Okay, it's typically nothing. Or if they have been paid, it barely covers their expenses, or maybe that's what they got paid, they got their expenses paid. But very few people come to us and say, "Hey, you know what? Yeah, man, I got paid $10,000." in order to speak on this particular stage, and that's relatively rare. And one of the top questions that we get as we travel the country helping people figure out how to create professional speaking businesses is, Chad, how do I get paid to speak? So I'm wondering how many of you guys have that exact question. If you're here and you have that exact question, let me know inside the chat room. But how many of you would like to know how to get paid speaking? 'Cause I'd love to know that. And grab a pencil, you have a piece of paper, 'cause we're gonna jump in and we're gonna teach you step by step on exactly how to do that. Now, the first thing you have to know is if you're going to get paid speaking gigs, you have to have something to say, and ultimately you have something to sell, okay? You have to have something to say and you have to have something to sell. That's critical because you could be a good speaker, you could be a very handsome or beautiful, handsome man or beautiful lady, you could have your act together, you could have a big social media following, you could have it all together, but at the end of the day, if you don't have something to say, then nobody is going to hire you. You have to have something to say. And the question I like to have my clients figure out is, what do you want to be known for? So in other words, if someone was to say, hey, I got a 30-minute speaking spot on my stage, what could you talk on? You got to be able to answer that immediately in less than 5 to 7 words. So what happens sometimes is when we say, hey, what do you want to speak on? You ramble for about 2 minutes. And what that tells the promoters is you have no idea what you want to speak on. So the first thing you have to do is you have to know what do I have to say. So for instance, if somebody was running an event for coaches and they were to say, "Hey Chad, what do you wanna speak on?" Well, there's typically 4 or 5 topics that I could speak on, but the first one out of my mouth is, "I can jump on stage and I can teach your people how to launch a business in 28 days or less and get paid over $10,000." Great, I wanna know that. Another one could be, another one that I have is, I can help people craft a stupidly irresistible offer so 80% of the audience says yes and only 20% say no. Okay, see, that's something to say. What is it that you have to say? So I want you to take some time and figure out like, what do I have to say and why would somebody pay me to say that, okay? So I'm gonna jump into my notes here and I wanna show you this, is I wanna teach you the 9 shifts. That separate $500 gigs from $10,000 keynotes. Okay, there are 9 things that you have to do if this is gonna be helpful for you. Okay, so the first thing is, is you have to stop calling yourself a speaker. You have to stop calling yourself a speaker because event organizers aren't just buying a talk, they're ultimately buying an outcome. Okay, so here's what's weak. Hey Chad, what do you have to say? Oh, I speak on leadership. Okay, so, I mean, that's boring. Who cares about that, right? Nobody, right? So you can't be generic there. What you have to do is you have to say, I help sales teams increase close rates by 20 to 30% in 90 days by fixing their message and follow-up systems. See how very specific that is? One is weak, one is just generic, and one is very specific. And the more specific you become, the stronger you are. So you have to ask yourself, what problem do I solve? Who do I solve that problem for? And what measurable shift happens? Because as a speaker, if you know what problem you solve in your keynote, you know who you solve it for, and you know what measurable shift happens, you're gonna have a pretty powerful keynote. And people are gonna wanna listen to that keynote. So you need to stop calling yourself a speaker. You're not a speaker. What you are is you're someone who delivers an outcome and delivers a result. So don't just say you speak on a topic, tell them what that topic will do. So answer this question: What problem do I solve? Who do I solve it for? And what measurable shifts happen? If you can answer that, you're gonna go a long way. The second thing is, is, and I apologize about this, you have to build one signature talk that sells transformation. Build one signature talk that sells transformation. You don't need 10 topics. You need one core talk. Like, literally work on it and get it done. Here is the process that I like to go through when I'm creating a talk, okay? The first one is the problem. I like to define the core pain that my audience feels, okay? I like to define the core pain that my audience feels. So, when I can define this core pain for them, then I know that I can tap into the emotion of the audience. And when I can tap into that core problem that they have, then they lean in, they listen, okay? They listen. So I define what the problem is, and if you've ever been to one of my talks, you know that there's really 3 types of pain that people have. The first type of pain is what we call surface level. This is things that people just talk about on the surface. And that's really important because that's ultimately what your audience is shopping for. Okay, so I know that in my business, like when I'm helping people launch businesses, the number one pain they have is like, Chad, I don't know where to start. Another one that they have is like, oh my gosh, I know what to do but it's so overwhelming. Another one is, oh my gosh, I don't know if I can figure out tech. Another one is, wow, how am I gonna get visibility or leads? Man, Chad, I don't really know how to sell. Right, so those are 5 core, or surface level core problems that I know my audience has. So I can teach on any of those and it's going to be very effective. So I start with the surface and then I go to the secret. The secret is, is what's the emotional pain behind that? You know, Chad, listen, if I don't make sales, my business is gonna dry up. I may have to go back and get a job, or whatever. What is the secret level? And the third level is what we call the source. Right, so why Why do they have that? Why do they have that pain in the first place? So what I like to do is as I'm defining my talk, I start with the problem and then I move on to the cost, right? So like the cost. I show the consequences and I apologize, I don't know why my screen's doing this. I show the consequences of staying the same. What happens if you don't move? So it's one thing to have the problem and then buy into it. But now that you also have to sell them on the cost. And then the third part, which is the core of my talk, is my framework. What are you gonna do about it? And what I do is I teach my repeatable system. So in my case, I like to teach the P.O.I.N.T.E.R. system, P-O-I-N-T-E-R. If I'm only teaching one of those pieces, I break it down into a step-by-step framework. So I'll go in and I'll teach my framework, and then the fourth level is proof. I'm gonna show results in brief case studies that what I just taught them worked. Okay, what I just taught them worked. That's a pretty big deal. So I'll share results and case studies. And the reason why you do that isn't just for you. It's not just so you can brag on yourself to show how good you are, but it's also so the audience can see themselves in your talk. So they will see themselves in the people that you got results for, and subconsciously they're going to say, okay, if he can get them a result, chances are he can get me a result. And then the fifth part of my talk is I talk about the path forward. I offer the next step toward transformation. Okay, so here's what to do next. And I like to use words like, hey, I want to invite you to XYZ. Okay. Hey, now, if you don't get anything else that I've said, I want you to think about this. Hey, listen, information alone doesn't do anything. And so many of you guys are information junkies. You just listen but you don't really ever do. And what I want to do is I want to invite you to take this next step and here's what the next step is. So, when I'm crafting my signature talk, I'm crafting one signature talk that sells transformation. The problem, the cost, the framework, the proof, and the path forward. And what you have to do is you have to think of your talk as a live case study in a system. Every section begins to earn trust and builds toward your offer. That's the whole point, okay? What's the point of doing a talk if you don't have something to sell at the end? So, as we said at the beginning, you have to have something to say and you have to have something to sell. Build your one signature talk like this and I promise you that really good things are gonna happen. The next one is what we call our Core 4 1. Your signature talk should map directly to this structure so it always leads somebody somewhere. So, here are the things you want to think of. Okay, number 1: Why you? What is your core competency? Why are you the unique authority? Why should you be giving this conversation? Okay, they invited you to this stage for a reason. Why? Why? And you need to be able to communicate that and have practiced why you're the right person and deliver that in such a way that your event planner doesn't have to think about it. When you're pitching yourself or whatever, you need to know why you are the unique authority. So a lot of times I see people do these bios and, you know, "I worked with this person and this person and this person and this person." That's not why you have authority. You need to know why you have authority, unique authority around the topic that you're teaching, and that is your core competency. You need to be able to communicate that. The second thing is, is you have to be able to communicate what they get. What specific measurable outcomes will the audience get by listening to your talk? If you haven't done that work, then you haven't done the work, and they'll know it. They're not gonna do the work for you, so you have to do that work. Preparation is everything. So why are you the unique authority? What do they get specific and measurable? The third thing is how does your curriculum work? How does your method or your intellectual property, your framework as we talk about, how does that work? And then finally, what are you gonna offer at the end? Are you gonna offer a call? Are you gonna offer a sales pitch? Are you gonna offer a product? Or does your talk not have any of that? Well, you're gonna have to show them then if it doesn't have any of that how your talk is gonna help them sell what it is that they're selling. You have to be able to put thought and processes behind all of this. And most of us haven't thought about any of this, okay? We haven't thought about any of this, okay? The next one is you have to create speaker assets that signal value. There's really a few assets that you're just gonna have to have, okay? And at Speakpreneur, which is the company I travel the country for and help people learn how to become 6 and 7 figure speakers, they do this as good as anybody. They create a speaker reel. So when— it's just something about watching you on video that just is brilliant. I remember the very first event that I went to, I did not have a speaker reel and the event planner who was a good friend of mine had one professionally created. And I remember watching the speaker reel about me and thinking like, oh my gosh, I like sort of made it. Like, this is pretty cool. Well, if you have a speaker reel already, there's two different types that you want, okay? The first speaker reel is about 2 to 5 minutes, pretty tight and powerful, and it's just examples of you speaking, okay? So I have one of these with my consulting business that I'll show people, and it's just powerful line after powerful line after powerful line, 4, 5, 6, 7 different settings that I have. It just gives them an example of your personality, gives them an example of the dynamics that you bring on stage, gives them an example of how you appear and how you show up, how you look like with your wardrobe and everything. It just gives them a viewpoint, a 360-degree viewpoint of you speaking on stage. And what your speaker reel needs to communicate is, "Man, I want that person on my stage. I want that person on my stage." That's what that speaker reel communicates. Make it about 2 to 5 minutes, make it tight, make it powerful. The second thing that you need is you need a speaker page. A speaker page. A clear outcome, topic, and proof. Clear outcome, topic, and proof. Now if you guys are inside of our Launch Fuel or Night School program, I'll put some examples of a speaker page in there so you can see, but it's basically like a hero section with you on one side holding the microphone or having a wireless mic, maybe a big crowd in the background. AI can create some of this for you. And then like the hero, the headline would be, is not just gonna be your name, but it's gonna be like what outcome are you gonna produce, right? You know, and then somewhere along the line it's gonna have to have your name obviously, but that'd be like hero section. And then clear outcomes. Like, you know, I teach on this outcome, I teach on this outcome, I teach on this outcome. Here are topics that I have and here's proof, like here's testimonials from different events that I've been at and that I've spoken at. Obviously, if you're just starting, you don't have any of that, so you're gonna want different type of proof on there. Your speaker reel would be on that particular speaker page as well. Contact information would be on that speaker page, a way to get a hold of you or maybe like a form that they can fill out that will email you or text you directly if they're interested in talking with you. You may even have some information there on your pricing or expectations. You may have a writer as you get a little bit more, a little more advanced. But at the end of the day, you need clear outcome, you need the topics you speak on, and you need proof that you're good. That's really what you have to have on your speaker page. And if you can, get get like, you know, bookchadtibodeaux or chadspeaks or something like that. Get a really cool thing. If you're only a speaker, then it's yourname.com, if you can, if you have it, okay? If you're only a speaker. If not, then it's, you know, yourname.com/speaker, whatever. You just want to have a clear one-page where your promoters can go to learn about you, okay? The third thing that you want is you want talk titles and testimonials. You want 3 to 5 titles with strong promises, okay? 3 to 5 titles with strong promises. These titles need to be things that the event promoter could see that, okay, I really would love my audience to learn that, and it's clever. You don't want your event promoter to have to come up with the talk, your title, okay? So for instance, like if you say, hey, I could speak, you know, on how to crush limiting beliefs so you can 2x your profit in the next 90 days. Okay, that's what you talk on. Now put that in a really gorgeous sellable title so your event promoter doesn't have to do it. Testimonials. These aren't just, "Hey, this person's a really good speaker, come listen to me." But, "Hey, I worked with Chad and I had hired all sorts of coaches, but boy, I just had one call with Chad and boy, he unlocked everything for me." Okay, you want those kinds of client results, like after the talk, the client results, right? Because if you're gonna pitch on stage or whatever, they want to know they're not letting a buffoon pitch on their stage. Okay, they want to know that they're bringing credibility to their stage, because you should offer more credibility to the stage than the stage offers you. Write that down: you should offer more credibility to the stage than the stage offers you. If you wanna go speak on stage so you can get credibility, then you need to pay them, not the other way around. Are you following me? If you need that stage for your credibility, you pay them, not the other way around. However, if you being on their stage brings them more credibility, then they will pay you. The fourth thing that you're— the fourth asset you need to build is your after-speaking pathway. What's your offer? What's your program? What's your consulting? What's your next step? Okay? If you have no assets, you look like a risk. If you have assets, you look like a premium investment. And you just have to know that. This is stuff that you gotta think about and prep for before. Okay? The next step: start where you can get proof. Start where you can get proof. Some of you guys may just be starting out, and if you're just starting out, you don't jump to a $10,000 stage. We had a gal in Colorado this past weekend when we were talking, she grabbed me after the event and said, Chad, listen, I don't want to have to sell anything. I just want people to pay me $10 grand to speak on a stage. And I asked her, I said, okay, well, why should somebody pay you $10,000? She goes, I'm an incredible speaker. I'm like, so? There's plenty of incredible speakers out there. Why should somebody? Well, you know, I can just, I can really entertain their audience. So, there's plenty of people who can entertain their audience, okay? So, what I told her is, You don't really have proof that you can do any of that. You just sort of think you can do that. So what I told her is you need to, you need to start where you can get proof. In fact, I actually added this slide in this presentation after having this conversation with her. So where do you start? You start at a local event or any type of industry meetings. One of the best places to give introductory keynotes is like at coworking spaces because they're always looking for education. Education. So not too long ago, so I'm at the Kiln in Gilbert, and I was talking with one of the clients there at the Kiln, and we were just having a conversation. And he goes, "Yeah, I've got this event coming up and this is what I'm gonna do." And I was like, "Hey man, like, I'm sort of like the king of offers. If you want, I can come in and teach for about 45 minutes and help your audience. We'll workshop it right there, how to create a killer 6-figure offer." And he was like, "Really? You'd do that?" I was like, "I would be happy to do that." So here in a couple weeks I'm gonna be going down to the Kiln and I'm gonna be speaking on his stage that he paid for, okay, on how to do a 6-figure offer. I even told him, I'm not even gonna charge you for that, I'm not even gonna charge you for that, just let me pitch my Stupidly Irresistible Offer Lab to them. It's $1,000, it's a course that they can get, it's got a lot of teaching, a lot of guiding, I'll give them a little coaching, and I tell you what, I'll give you 50% of anything that sells. So if they buy it for $1,000, I'll give you $500 and you take $500. You got it? It's a wonderful place to start, okay? Podcasts. This is massively underrated. I encourage people who are trying to get on stage, you need to book yourself on 5 to 10, yes, 5 to 10 podcasts every single week and practice your talk, practice your speaking, practice your pitch, practice, practice, practice. And what you find is most of the people that you will speak on podcasts for, chances are they have an event coming up. And guess what? You already are building a relationship with them. Chances of them inviting you to their stage is pretty high. So, so start on podcasts, workshops, and corporate lunch and learns. These are really big. Okay, really big. Find someone who's already got an event, offer to teach a workshop at it. Look at these corporate lunch and learns or go to Chamber of Commerce lunch and learns and just go and offer your services. Let them know that you would love to do that. You don't charge anything. Okay, all you're gonna ask for them is just like, "Hey, give me a little video testimonial or written testimonial when you're done." That's it, okay? And what you learn is every talk that you give ultimately builds your future speaking fees, okay? You're not speaking just for exposure. What you're trying to do is you're actually trying to build leverage. And you need, like, if you can come and say, "Hey, this is my first keynote, pay me $10,000," they're gonna be like, "Yeah, yeah, right." But if you can say, Hey, I spoke on, you know, I did 32 corporate events last year. Oh really? Tell me more. You don't have to tell them that you paid for it. You don't have to tell them that you didn't get paid for it, but you spoke on 32 different stages last year. That's a really big deal. Okay? So here's what you're collecting when you do these introductory events. Number 1, you're collecting video footage. So I'm using my camera, my iPhone camera right here, and what you want to do is you want to set up your camera in the back of the room. Put it to 4K, okay? 4K. And you want to put it at 30 frames per second. And you want to record your keynote. Make sure nobody's heads are in it. You want to record your keynote and just get really wide. The nice thing is, is you can zoom in 4 times. Like, you can bring that bad boy 4 times. And so even if you are getting the whole room and it doesn't look all that cropped because you filmed in 4K, in your edit you can zoom in, do different angles, do all that sort of thing. From 4K. Okay, so you're getting video footage. Second thing you're getting is you're getting testimonials. Okay, so don't be afraid to ask people in the audience, hey, what do you think of that? Hey, would you do me a favor? If I just put my phone on you for like 30 seconds, could you just tell my future audience like what you thought of the talk and whether you'd recommend them coming to one of my talks again? Boom, you put that on there, they'll happily do that for you. You're building case studies. Okay, make sure that you're working with your event manager, the person who invited you to speak, and get case studies, and then figure out the audience results as well. That's what you're trying to collect in your free talk so you can put that on your speaker page and you're leveraging those assets to make you a ton of money. The next step is you have to turn speaking into a revenue engine. Turn speaking into a revenue engine. Okay? So here's the 3 different types of models. That you can get. I'm sorry for going fast, I just got a lot of information I'm gonna cover today, so I hope you're taking great notes. The 3 types of talks you can do is what we call number 1, the speaker fee model. This is what so many of you guys are interested in, where I go and I speak on a stage and I get paid $1K, $5K, $10K, and what that is is that's driven by your brand and demand, okay? So Chances are, like, when I get paid a lot of money to speak on a stage, chances are it's a church. It's a church, okay? I have a few signature talks that I give at churches that really fire their churches up, and it helps them take that next step with their goal. So either they need to raise some money, they need to be a little bit more outward-focused and do evangelism, or they need to raise up leaders. Those are the three things that when I come into churches and I give my signature keynote that I'm going to teach on. So if a church is trying to do one of those three things, I'm a really good guy, and I'll get paid anywhere between $5,000 and $10,000 to speak at a church. Typically, here's how it works: they'll offer me like $2,500 plus my expenses, and then they'll take an offering for me. That's normally how it works at a church. In the— in the— in— so that's my speaker model. I don't sell anything on the back end. I don't do anything. I just— they pay me to come speak. I help them with a particular costs. When I'm at a corporate event, then typically what happens is they'll pay me a small fee to come in and I do anything and everything I can to see if I can sell something on the back end. Many times they won't let me, but sometimes they will. So if they'll let me, their fee is lower. If they don't let me, then their fee is higher. So typically at a corporate event, I'll be somewhere between $3,000 and $7,000. Now corporate events, sometimes they want me to just come in and do comedy. So I'll come in and do some stand-up comedy, or I'll come in and do a leadership talk, or I'll come in and do a team's talk, or I'll come in and just teach something that really moves the needle for that particular organization. I have 2 or 3 signature talks around that, and they'll pay me corporately. They'll pay me a little bit more than churches because they understand the value of cash, so they'll typically pay me somewhere between $5K and $10K. The second type of model that you're looking at is what we call the backend model. This is where you come and you speak and you sell coaching, you sell your consulting, you sell your program, you sell your books, you sell your courses. And this honestly is where the real money is made. So if I can, I try to avoid speaker fees. Okay? I try to avoid speaker fees for a few reasons. Number one, when I tell people I normally charge $10,000 to speak, But you know what, I'll waive my speaker fee if you'll let me sell my coaching at the back of the room. More times than not, speakers jump up and down for that because they can use the $10,000 they had budgeted for your slot to give to even a better speaker and bring in a bigger name. Okay, and what I like is I like that bigger name to go on right after me so everybody's in the room for me because they're waiting to hear that person speak, right? So then when I pitch, I know everybody's gonna be in the room. So I like to do a backend model where I get up, I do a keynote talk, it's called a pathway to pitch, a pathway to pitch talk where I get up there and I teach my pathway and then I pitch my product and people either scan a QR code, they go to the back of the room, they come up front, shake my hand, whatever, and they buy my stuff. You can make more money with a backend model than you can a speaker fee model. And then there's a hybrid. This is where they pay you a low speaker fee and revenue share or offer sales. I love to do that. That's probably the most effective model for both you and the speaker, or you and the event, excuse me, where you as the speaker get paid a low speaker fee, maybe $500 or $1,000, then you sell your stuff at the back and you may do like a 70/30, 60/40 split with everything that you sell in the back. So now the event can actually make money by having you at the event. That's a win-win for everybody. Okay, that's a huge, huge win for everybody. The next one is go direct to buyers. Stop waiting to be discovered. Some of you guys are just sitting around waiting for your phone to ring. You're sitting around waiting for your email to pop up an invitation. You need to stop doing that. You need to go to them. You need to be proactive. You need to stop waiting to be discovered. So Who do you target? Okay, what you want is you want to target like corporate training departments, event planners, conference organizers, associations, mastermind groups. You can Google or put in ChatGPT. There are lists. I'm not, I'm not going to promote them on here, but there are lists of organizations that will, uh, promote their events looking for speakers. Just Google them and find them. I'm not going to— once again, they're They're not paying me to do this, so I'm not gonna promote them on here, but just a little Google search and you'll find them. But you need to target them, you need to reach out to them. LinkedIn is a very good place to reach out to people. But once again, if you target somebody and they can't Google you and find you, you don't have a speaker page, you don't know what you're talking on, then Ogilvy says good marketing makes a bad product fail faster. And that's exactly what's gonna happen with you, is your product will fail faster. So who do you target? Corporate trainings, departments, event planners, conference organizers, associations, masterminds, you need to be spending a lot of time. If you're looking at speaking as being your full-time job, you need to spend 40 hours a week trying to find your next speaking gig. Okay, you need to set it up. You need to have 5, 6, 7, 8 events on your calendar at every given time. Okay, so if you're spending 40, 50 hours a week fishing for speaking gigs, you will find them. Okay, what's not gonna happen is you will not get a speaking gig if you just sit back and do nothing. Second thing is, here's the simple template I like to use: "Hey, Johnny, I helped this audience achieve these results. I noticed your upcoming event and I believe I could help your attendance get this clear outcome. Would you be open to a quick conversation?" Something really simple. Something really simple, okay? So just screenshot that and grab it when you're reaching out to people. That's what you want to reach out to. Now notice, I didn't say, "And attach your speaker page and give this talk and..." No, no, no, no. That's overkill. That's desperate. You want to simply reach out and say, "Hey, I help this audience achieve this result. I noticed your upcoming event and I believe I can help your attendees get this particular outcome. Would you be open to a quick conversation?" And it's either yes or no. Or they may ask you a few other questions. Or they may say, "Hey, send me a speaker reel." Or hey, whatever. Okay, fine. You only send what's requested. Okay, the next one: you want to build authority in public. Okay, you don't get booked because you're good, you get booked because you're visible and trusted. Okay, so here's what you need to do with that. You need to post consistently. And what are you posting? Number one, you're teaching your framework. Okay, so you're teaching your framework consistently. Number 2, you're sharing client results. Number 3, you're breaking down problems your audience faces. Number 4, you're posting clips of you speaking. This is what you're posting consistently. How consistent? 4 to 6 times a day. Yep, 4 to 6 times a day you're posting on social media teachings of your framework, client results, breakdown problems your audience faces, and clips of you speaking. I remember one of— I remember a few years ago, I got invited to speak on stage. And even after I said yes, I mean, this person could not believe that I said yes, that I would come speak on their stage because they viewed their event as small potatoes. And at that time, they viewed me as a bigwig in their particular, their particular space. And I remember when I said, yes, I'll come. And they couldn't believe it. Honestly, they couldn't believe it that I said yes. And what was interesting was because I had been posting pretty consistently, consistently, they thought that I honestly was bigger than what I was. And because of that, they rolled out the red carpet. They flew me there first class. It was actually the very first time ever someone had flown me first class to come speak. They gave me a very large $5,000 honorarium, which was very nice of them, and they let me pitch my Kavuu program in the back of the room. I ended up only pitching my Tribe 100, so I pitched a $3,600 product. We still made 12, 13 sales. Which was pretty good. So you think about that, that ended up being like a $40,000 or $50,000 event for me. Uh, and it all came because I was posting consistently. Okay. I was posting consistently. So now let's talk about raising your fees. So once you do the free event, like, so start here at number 1. Once you do the free event and you're building your assets, now you need to target local and small events. Okay. Local and small events. Okay. Now, before I get to local and small events, let's go back to the free. I'm a big believer of paying people to speak on their stage. If they're gonna record it, they're gonna have cameras, photographers, they're gonna have an audience, they're gonna have a nice stage, pay what you have to pay. I've paid $2,000, $3,000, $4,000 before to speak on stages because I know the assets that I'm gonna get. You know, there's something about you speaking on a big stage that looks pretty good. So pay if you have to because you're building assets. Now, then you want to go to local and small events, chambers of commerce, coworking spaces, real estate. One of the first small events that I ever did, local small events that I ever did, was for a realtor. I got asked by this gal to come and speak. She goes, Chad, I've got 24 realtors who are going to be here at this event tomorrow night. My speaker just bailed on me. Would you come and teach them on like how to build a funnel? I'm like, happily do that. And I had no idea what I was going to speak on, to be honest with you. So I literally, just an hour before the event, I'm in the parking lot and I sketch out this idea of like, what would I do if I was them? And that's how I created my pointer system. It was interesting. That pointer system, something that I just created in the parking lot right before this 24-person event, ultimately has become the foundation of what I do. I got books, I got keynotes, I've got— and I've literally made millions and millions of dollars using that system, all because I agreed to go speak at a small event. It can help. You're gonna charge somewhere between $1K and $3K for that, okay? I wouldn't charge any less than $1,000 if they have, you know, if they've been around for a while. But they're probably not gonna pay you more than $3K, okay? And so I would do that. Once you get maybe 6, 7, 8, 10 of those under your belt, Now you want to go to corporate and then, and you want to begin niching your authority. You got your speaker page built, you got your sizzle reel built, you got your introductory video, you got plenty of testimonials, you got plenty of proof that you know how to speak, you got your outcomes all dialed in. Now you can start going after corporate style events, and I like corporate events because they have money, and you can begin pitching that. Your keynote will go somewhere between $5K and $10K, and then once you get proven then you can speak at the bigger places and they'll pay you $10K. But at the end of the day, in my opinion, all that's great, but do the hybrid model where you get paid a little bit of money to come speak, you can sell something on the back end, and you both win. That, that to me, that's the best. You'll make the most amount of money, you'll make the most amount of money where you get paid nothing to speak and then you get 100% of your revenue on the back end. You'll get paid, you'll make the most amount of money there. Okay? And then finally, the real shift. You need to go from random gigs to a predictable system. Okay? Here's the process. Okay? Here's the process. Your message must solve a costly, specific problem. I was teaching in Colorado Springs this past week for Speakpreneur, and we were on stage and I was working with the audience. We had about 75 people in the room. And I was working with the audience trying to help them figure out like what problem they solve. And it blew my mind that very few people actually knew what problem they solve. Well, if you don't know what specific costly problem you solve, then why in the world would somebody hire you to speak? Why would someone hire you to coach? Why would someone hire you to do anything? You have to know that. This is where the work comes in. The second thing is, is your talk, you have to have it down. So, I like to tell people you need to have 3 versions of your talk, okay? The first one is you need a 10 to 12 minute version of your talk. The second one is, is you need a 25 to 35 minute version of your talk. And the third one is you need a 45 to 60 minute version of your talk, okay? You just need that. You have to have that. And regardless of whether it's a small, medium, or long talk, it has to demonstrate a proven method. It's got to demonstrate it. It doesn't matter how many jokes you have. It doesn't matter, you know, how good of a communicator you are. If your message doesn't solve a specific costly problem and your talk doesn't prove that method, so what? The third thing is your presence. Your presence. And I want to talk about presence in two angles here. Number one, you need to consistently be present. So you need to be all over social media all the time. There's way too many automation systems out there that allow you to be sort of omnipresent for you to be dormant, okay? So you need to be 3 to 5 times every single day posting on every single platform, okay? I prefer to pick one and go with it, but if you like more than, then do that. But so like for me, I'm a Facebook guy. But I link it so when I post on Facebook, it also goes to my Instagram. Those of you who are watching me live right now, like I'm going live in my night school Launch Fuel program, but it also goes to Facebook, it also goes to Instagram, it also goes to YouTube. So I can be present on multiple platforms by dominating one platform. You have to be present. Second thing is, is you have to have a presence. You have to look a particular way. Particular way, okay? Nobody's gonna put a bum up on their stage, okay? So I encourage you to invest in one really nice outfit, in one really nice outfit. A really dear friend of mine and former client, Lori McNeil, she's the pink girl, right? So she wears this beautiful hot pink dress, okay? And when she first started, that's all she had was this hot pink dress. Now she's Now she's got 4 or 5 or 6 different outfits, all hot pink, and she's sort of known as the hot pink, hot pink gal. Sometimes she'll venture into red, but it's her look, it's her style, it's her brand. She has a presence when she's on stage, okay? And I really encourage you to at least invest in one really nice outfit, okay? Um, it's just, it's important. Look good, okay? Men, wear a— don't, don't wear, don't wear a formal suit. That's, that's not good. Uh, but wear a really sharp blazer, okay? Go down and spend a few hundred bucks on a really sharp blazer. Wear a nice dress shirt. Wear a solid pair of pants or a solid pair of really nice jeans and really nice shoes or a really nice pair of tennis shoes that's sort of like, oh, that's pretty cool, he looks young and hip, okay? But invest at least in one so you have a presence, okay? So you need to be present and you need to have a presence. And the fourth one is the offer that you're gonna sell must capture the value you create. The offer you sell must capture the value you create. This is so important. So important. When you have this system in place, your speaking gigs aren't gonna just feel random, they're gonna become predictable. And once again, you're gonna spend 40 to 50 hours a week chasing stages, and then there'll come a point where you no longer have to chase, but right now you're gonna chase. You're gonna chase, so you get 5, 6, 7, 8 events on your calendar, and every time you lose one, you need to replace it, and you should have 5 to 8 events on your calendar. Here's what this does: when you have a lot of events on your upcoming calendar and you look like you're in demand, your fee goes up. Your fee goes up. This is why, even if you have to do it for free, you go to every coworking space and say, I want to teach this class at this particular time, will you let me? Yes? Okay, great. Stick it on your calendar. And you want to get your calendar full of 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 events, because when you look full, your fee goes up, right? Because you look like you're in demand. Okay, so this is why you have to have that. And you have to have this, you have to have all of this going for you. And I promise you that if you get it going, that you will very easily be able to charge pretty significant dollars. For your speaking. So that is how you get paid speaking gigs. It starts with having something to say and having something to sell. That's super big, okay? And there's 9 shifts that you have to make. So if you guys are like me and you just scooped to the end, I'll recap them. The first one is you have to stop calling yourself a speaker, okay? And you're not, you're not a speaker, you're someone who helps build an outcome. The second, you have to build one signature talk that sells transformation. The third, you need to have your core 4 framework in place. Why are you the right person? What does your audience get? How does it work? And what's next? Fifth, you have to create speaker assets that signal value. Have a solid speaker reel, 2 to 5 minutes. Have a speaker page, have talk titles and testimonials, and know what's going to happen after your speech. Fourth, you need to start where you can get proof. Start where you can get proof. Start locally, go on podcasts, do workshops and corporate lunch and learns. Start. Fifth, turn speaking into a revenue engine. You know, you have the speaker model where you get paid, you have the backend model where you sell your product and you guys split it, and then you have— I'm sorry, you have the backend model where you don't get paid to speak but you sell something and you get the backend, and the third one is the hybrid model where they pay you a little bit of money and you guys split the revenue. Sixth, go direct to buyers. Stop waiting to be discovered and go hunting. Seven, build authority in public. Okay, build authority in public. Post consistently. Eight, raise your fee the right way. Start free, then go to $1 to $3, then go $5 to $10, and then, and then go $10 on. And then nine, the real shift happens when you go from regular gigs to predictable income when you get your message dialed in, you get your talk dialed in, you get your presence dialed in, and you have a presence, and then you have your offer dialed in. When that happens, people cannot wait to get you on their stage and pay you. So guys, I hope that was helpful for you today. Hey, if you are thinking about starting a speaking business, I would love to talk with you about that. I've got some really cool assets that I can put in your hand to be able to help you create a professional speaking business, a 6-figure, 7-figure speaking business. And if you think you have what it takes, I'd love to be able to talk with you. So just shoot me a DM, just, just, uh, just in my DMs, say, hey Chad, I watched your talk and I want to know more about, about speaking. And I'd love to be able to jump on a call with you and tell you exactly what we do now to be able to help people create 6 and 7-figure speaking businesses. I believe in it. I love it because I don't believe anything will build your credibility, build your authority, or build your wealth faster than speaking on a stage. And I'd love to help you do it.