This content was created by Dan Willis. This content was uploaded by Dan Willis. This is a YouTube video titled "3 Tips to Land Speaking Gigs (and a BONUS Secret)" (uploaded Oct 31, 2018) featuring Dan Willis of Millennial Motivator. It's a solo, instructional video in which Dan gives entrepreneurs and creators practical advice for landing their first public speaking gig: (1) develop a clear message and the ability to deliver it (practice and publish regularly on social platforms), (2) build and genuinely engage an audience that can be leveraged, (3) bypass generic "call for speakers" routes by getting visible to event decision-makers and staying in their feeds, plus a bonus tip to get involved locally (Toastmasters, Chambers, meetups). He also notes republishing the audio to podcast platforms (Anchor, SoundCloud, iTunes) and invites viewer interaction.
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So you're looking for a way to land that very first speaking gig. No problem, I'm gonna help you out. Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen. I am Dan from millennialmotivator.ca, helping you learn how to create, engage, and inspire. If you're new to the channel, click that subscribe button down there, the little bell next to it. You'll get notified when my next video goes live. We put out videos here Monday through Friday on anything business related. So if it's about starting a business, getting your business out there, promoting, branding, marketing, social media, you name it, we talk about it here. Now, big change on this, guys. I know a lot of people were messaging me in my private inbox saying, listen, we can't sit down and watch the videos, we're constantly on the go, we're entrepreneurs, is there another way? The good news is this. Yes, there is another way. I'm gonna start putting all of the audio from these videos over onto my Anchor podcast. You can catch it on Anchor, you can catch it on SoundCloud, Google Voice, iTunes, it's all over the place there. Just search for Dan or Millennial Motivator, Dan Willis Millennial Motivator, and you'll be able to find me, alright? Today though, what we're talking about is how do you get that first speaking gig? You've built some influence, you've got a brand, you've got a business, it's growing, and you'd love to get out there and share your message, share your brand, share your vision, and you're not sure how to make that happen. Not a problem. This is something a lot of people face, and landing that first speaking gig can often be a hard thing to do. People aren't quite sure what you're about. So stick around, I'm gonna give you some tips that you can use to land your first speaking gig, or maybe you haven't been able to land a gig in a while, your first gig in a while. Let's go. Okay, the first thing that people want to know, guys, before you even take a look at putting your pitch out there, your deck, your speech info, before you do any of that, what you want to do is make sure that you've got something to say and you know how to say it, okay? And those 2 go hand in hand, that's why I'm not going to do 2 separate things with that, they go hand in hand. Before you can even reach out to a decision maker, an event organizer, you're going to have to be able to show, you're going to have to demonstrate clearly that one, you've got something to say, and 2, you know how to say it, okay? What do I mean by that? Well, YouTube's a great example. There's tons of creators out here every single day, millions of channels, and the reality is some of us tell a story and some of us do not. There are tons of people out there that just can't break into partnership. They cannot do it. And there's a couple of different reasons why that may happen, but the reality is this. If you can't break into partnership, either your message isn't strong enough or your commitment to telling that message isn't strong enough. In either case, those are hurdles that you're gonna have to overcome. Now, as a business or a brand, that's equally true. It doesn't matter what your platforms are, whether it's Instagram, Snapchat, Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, it doesn't matter what you're picking. If you're unable to get on there, pop on live, and do a speaking gig without being paid live into a video or on a recorded video into those channels and have that message resonate, you're in trouble. You're in trouble before you hit go. So the beauty of it is this, there's no limit on what you can put out on social media. Fine-tune your message, be on there daily, just like we're doing here. Put your message out there, speak regularly, get used to having that happen, and engage. Build an audience behind it, which is going to bring us to point number 2. If number 1 is have a message and have a way to get it out there, number 2 is making sure that you've got an audience that's engaged and listening. What do I mean by that? So often here on YouTube, guys, the biggest, biggest problem I see with people being able to hit partnership is they don't engage with the audience. Yes, they might create great content and they create it on a regular schedule, but comments are left unanswered. They're not sharing it out into social media. They're not a part of conversations in their niche. And as a result, they're not building exposure around the brand. They're not building awareness around the brand. And most importantly, they're not building an audience that can be used to leverage themselves when they want to move into something like professional speaking. So what is crucial is you start with a brand, you start with your message, your product, your service, you get it out there. Okay. And that's daily. You're getting your message out there. I don't care where, get it out there. The next is anybody and everybody that wants to engage with that message, it resonates with them, make sure you are hitting them up, giving them message, dropping DMs, answering all the comments, whatever it may be. It is a critical point to success if you are gonna build a community around your brand, product, or service that you are capable of not only getting your message out there but creating a following and a community behind it. The key to that is constant and consistent engagement and that is a legitimate engagement from you. Don't autobot that, it's gonna fail you every time. Be legitimate, be real, be present, engage a community and build it. It's gonna go a long way to getting you that first speaking gig. Last but not least, guys, and this one is so, so crucial. If you missed yesterday's video, you should go back and check it out. Yesterday's video was about how to skip the line and get to a decision maker. That goes hand in hand with how to get your first speaking gig. So often people just Google call for speakers and that's how they go about doing, doing it. In reality, you're just putting yourself in a line behind thousands of people that are doing the same thing you are and it's not going to lead to anything. You want to actually get into that first speaking gig in your niche. The best way that you could go about doing that is track down the decision makers in your niche. Find the people that are hosting the events, the businesses that are sponsoring events. Get in there, get to know their decision makers and make sure that your message is popping up in their feeds. Regularly. If you're somebody like VaynerMedia who's hosting Agent and you're one of the top sales agents in the States and you want to get out there and start on a speaking platform, I guarantee you if you are in Gary Vee's feed regularly showing how you are killing it in that agency field, you are gonna get a tap on the shoulder very soon from somebody at VaynerMedia saying, what are you doing when our next event is up? That works for everybody in every niche. If you are out there and you are constantly tapping the shoulders and turning heads of decision-makers that are event planners, business owners, sponsors, you are gonna end up getting offers brought your way instead of you out there hunting and seeking, begging through a call for speaker call. It's just reality of it, guys. Last but not least, guys, I'm gonna give you a bonus tip here. Be involved locally. And this may seem counterproductive. We've got the internet. Do we really have to be involved locally? The reality is yes. You're looking to do a public speaking thing. If you are gonna get into public speaking, your body has to be fit. Physically there. What better place to start than locally? Find the local big city that's close to you and start getting involved in clubs there, whether it's Toastmasters, Chamber of Commerce, Lions Club, whatever it is, get involved, get in there, young entrepreneurs clubs, meetups, get out there, get your voice there. If you can find collab spaces, get involved with the collab spaces in the area. These are all crucial ways that you can build local awareness around your message and get yourself a gig by reaching decision makers organically. It's so crucial. There's a bonus for you there. I hope these tips were helpful for you guys. I know this was a quick one. Halloween is upon us and I've got a family to get out to, gotta get my costume on, so have a great Halloween, keep it safe out there. I hope these points helped. If you're struggling to become a public speaker or you're a public speaker struggling to find gigs, let me know which of those tips is gonna be most helpful to you down in the comments below, and again, if you're listening on audio, thank you so much for taking a listen. Make sure you subscribe, And if you guys have questions, feel free to hit me up on all of those channels that are available, especially the Anchor FM, iTunes, and Google Play. I will catch you guys tomorrow with another great video. See you then.
