Becoming a Sought-After Speaker: Strategies, Tips, and Insights

If your business isn't working the way you expected, it's not because you're bad at business. It's because no one ever taught you.

How it actually works.

We were trained to master algorithms in medicine, but when it comes to revenue teams and growth, we were never taught anything. We weren't even told to figure it out. We just assumed somehow we'd know. Like it would magically make sense. But it doesn't. The era of the seven Figure Physician CEO is here. And it's not about working harder. It's about learning entrepreneurship as a system. The same way you mastered ACLs and pals, you can master the algorithm of building a profitable scalable business. That's why I recorded the Seven Figure Physician CEO audiobook. Whether you're building a medical or non medical business, and whether your goal is your first million, first 2 million, first 5 million, first 10 million, this is where the journey starts. There is no calvary coming to save us. We are the Calvary. So. So go get your audiobook now. Www.entremd.com 7Figurebook. And let's rewrite the narrative for physicians starting today.

Hi, docs. Welcome to the Entre MD Podcast, where it's all about helping amazing physicians just like you. Embrace entrepreneurship so you can have the freedom to live life and practice medicine on your terms. I'm your host, Dr. Una.

Well, hello. Hello, my friend. Welcome back to another episode of the Entre MD podcast. As always, I am super grateful that I get to be in your ears. Thank you so much for listening. And today I want to ask a favor, like, right off the back. Okay, so typically it's like, give value before you ask for anything. But we're over 300 episodes of the On Tremd podcast, so you know what's about to happen. I want to ask you to do me a solid. When I look at the state of the physician community, there are so many people who have started businesses and they're really struggling. There's so many who want to start and don't think it's an option for them. There are many who've started businesses, they've hit seven figures, but then they build a business that they've grown to hate because it's hard, because they haven't built a team yet. So they escaped burnout to create their own place, their own business, and they're burning out there. We talk about all of that on the ontremd podcast. And so I want you to give another physician the gift of the ontremd podcast today. So just pull out Your phone, take the link and just do a countdown, send it to 10 doctors and say, hey, I listened to this podcast. It's been a big game changer for me. And I want you to. I want you to give it a listen. Like, listen to three or four episodes, let me know what you think, and then just send that to 10 people. Now, if you do this, I do want you to do something else, which is reach out to me on Facebook. I am Una Chukwu on on Facebook. It'll be in the show notes. And I just want you to send me a private message and say, hey, Dr. Una. I took you up on it. I sent a text with the link of the entremde podcast to 10 of the doctors in my life. Just because I want to be able to tell you thank you. Right. Like you took out the time you did that. I want to tell you thank you. I want to really appreciate you. And so send me a message, let me know you did that. It'll mean the world to me. Okay? So I'm going to tell you thank you in advance because I know you're going to. And let's just spread this everywhere. This is a free resource. This is like the free MBA for physicians. We're committed to giving really high value. It's not fluff, it's not a placeholder. It really is designed to totally transform any physician's life. Right. So thank you for doing that. Appreciate it. Can't wait to see you in the PMs. Okay. All right, so today we're going to be talking about how to become a highly sought after paid certificate speaker. And this was really triggered by a conversation I had within the marketing company, the Physicians Marketing team. We have a mastermind that's all about building out your brand as a physician. So especially if you're an employed physician and you want to build this brand and you want to learn to monetize it and all of those things, we have a program for that. Okay. You can find more about it at physicians marketing team.com. but, but I was, I go in there once a month to do this Q and A, which is so good because I love Q and A. I love coaching, I love developing strategy, I love doing all of that. So one of the doctors was, I was like, what is that thing? What is the one thing that you're trying to accomplish? And it's like, I want to be a paid speaker. I want to do a number, a quarter. And I was like, okay, great. And she's like, but I don't know how to get these gigs. I don't know how to make that work. And I'm like, great, let's talk about it. And so we had a conversation around there and I thought it was really good. So I said, you know what, I'll come talk about some of those strategies here. Because speaking is something, it's really low hanging fruit for physicians because we have the expertise, we have the authority, we have access to places that want us to speak because of all the wisdom and skill and experience that we have. We have access to so much content. Like if you think about every patient visit, every interaction with your fellow physician, we have access to so much content. We make, we have the basic best stories. And so, and like, even if you say, I love my job and I just want to build out my brand and have this speaking as an arm, you can build that, you can build that to multiple five figures. You can build it to six figures. You could build to multiple six figures. Like you really could. Right? So let's talk about some of those things that you know you'll need to do so you become more findable, right? And so that people would be up to paying for what you do. Okay, all right, so the starting point of this, the, the first thing I told her is. And in fact, let me backtrack, right? So this really is about becoming more visible as a speaker, right? Like, it doesn't matter how good of a speaker you are if people don't know that you're there, if people don't know that you're a speaker, if people don't know you charge a fee to speak, if they don't know any of those things, then it's not just, it's just not going to happen. So this is really around how do I become visible, how do I put myself in front of decision makers and all of that. Okay, so the first thing here is beyond all the things that we can do like posting on social media, all of that is really building a network with speakers, right? Because speakers, they hang out together. Speakers know what events are coming out coming up. Speakers know what events are looking for speakers, speakers know, they know, right? And so the more speakers, the more events will know about you, the more speakers, the more people could open doors for you. And so this happens in the entremd business school, like quite a bit where an event would reach out to somebody who has an established brand as a speaker and is like, could you come speak at this event is going to be October 28th. I'm totally making up the Date, it's going to be October 28th and all of this and like, oh man, I can't make it on that day. I have another event or I'm on vacation with my family. But I know somebody who will be perfect for it. Would you like me to connect you? And the person says, yes, and they come back to the business school community and they reach out to somebody who they know is a speaker and like, hey, I can't do this event, but it looks perfect for you. Are you interested? Right? And so the more speakers, the more speakers you have in your network, then the more opportunities you have, the more access you'll have. Many times somebody will reach out to me and say, hey, I'm doing this event. And I'm, look, I'm recruiting speakers and I will find it. And I know I have a community of people who are speakers, so I just take that from there. Boom, posted in the group. Next thing I find that we have three people from the Ontario Business School who are going to be speakers at that event, right? So you just, you need to build that network. That's just the way that works. You may say, oh yeah, but how will I find these people? Okay, of course they already exist, right? These people are all adults, right? So they already exist. So I want you to think about it, right? Look at events you would like to speak at, look at the people who spoke there, find them on social media, find them on LinkedIn, connect with them, hey, a fellow speaker here, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, happy to connect. You're not pitching them anything, right? And you start building your network that way, okay? And it will lead you to say, oh, and they're all gathered at this event and you're there and like, or they're on this, in this other group and you connect with them in the group or you just look for, you get on one on one conversations with them, right? But don't believe the lie that you can't build a network. They all exist. And speakers love speakers and connect, okay? So build a network with speakers. And if you're like, oh, that will make me uncomfortable. Okay, so we have option number one, I am uncomfortable and I sit in my, I sit in the discomfort of it and I build this network. And the end result is that I'm a highly sought after paid speaker. There is, I'm uncomfortable and I don't want to deal with this discomfort. I do not build a network. And I'm not a highly paid, a highly sought after paid speaker. So then we have to choose which one we want, right? The prize for greatness is discomfort. Or one of the prizes, right, is discomfort. And so I would challenge you regardless, not to run away from discomfort, like, ever. As an entrepreneur, as somebody who is growing, as somebody who is evolving, as somebody who wants to become the best version of yourself, we don't run away from discomfort. We embrace it. That's what we do. Okay? Okay. So that's the first thing. The second thing is to position yourself as a speaker. If you do not let people know, if you do not position yourself as a speaker, if you do not let people know that you're a speaker, they will not know, right? And so this is about being intentional and putting it out there, right, in the marketplace, in the speaker space that I am a speaker. So what does that look like? Well, that could look like on your social media, you have spoken at an event, you have pictures from that and you post it on social media. And you're like, throwback to when I had the honor of speaking at X, Y, Z conference, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. The people kept coming, coming back to me with this quote that I said and all those kinds of things. What are you doing? You are telling your followers, I am a speaker, right? Like, I am a speaker when you're having conversations or you're doing posts generally, or you're a guest on a podcast and all of that in your stories, right? Like, think about this, right? They say, don't make a point without using a story and don't tell a story without making a point, right? And so one of the things you do in your communication is you tell lots of stories, and so you to pull some of your speaker stories, and then those become stories that you share. And it is subtle, but what you're telling everybody who's listening and the person who's interviewing all of that is, I am a speaker, right? I am a speaker. Okay? So that's the second thing. You position yourself and don't feel like, oh, I posted that one picture before, I can never post it again. Of course you can, right? You can post a picture talking about this one point you made when you did a talk. You can post it, like weeks from then, talking about how you prepare to speak on stage or how you're an introvert, but you still rock the stage, right? You can post it again weeks after that, talking about somebody who came to talk to you after you talked and what they said, like how they said your talk changed their life, right? You can post it weeks and weeks after that, talking about how you're constantly working on your skill, and you gave that talk, but you've actually done five more hours of work to make that talk even better. So many variations, right? So many variations. And so you can keep rinsing and repeating, but coming from different angles. And it's all about telling, forcing on the marketplace the awareness that you are a speaker. Okay? So that's number two. Number three is create evidence of your credibility, right? Create evidence of your credibility. And so what that means is give people the opportunity to experience you speaking. And that could look a number of ways, especially if you're a speaker who started off, you're not really commanding $10,000 or $20,000 or $30,000 per talk. There is a strategy behind speaking for free. Okay? So there's some people who say, oh, I know my worth. Of course you know your worth, right? But your worth as a speaker is what you're paid. Like, right? Like, once you become more valuable as a speaker, you'll be paid more, right? And so if you're not there, you're not there. There's no point. Don't make it a thing. Right? And so there's a place for, say, you don't even have a sizzle reel, right? Like, there's no video of you speaking on stage. There's none of those kind of things. You can strategically go and do a really great talk because you want to get the pictures, you want to get the videos, you want those people to experience you talking and all of those things. It sets you up to be in a position where you can command more of a speaker fee, right? So there is a time when that is a strategic thing to do. Okay, now this is a little off track, but I'm going to say it here. So everybody is reminded of this when it comes to being paid for a talk, even though here I'm talking about being paid as a keynote. But when it comes to being paid as. As a speaker, there really are two main models, right? And the first model will be, okay, you're a keynote. So you go, you talk, they pay, they cut you a check. The other version is the pitch from the stage model, the selling from the stage model. And so, for instance, let me use myself as an examp. Say I went to a conference. It was physicians, physician entrepreneurs. I may say, don't pay me, but give me the opportunity to talk about the entremd business school. Like, sell the entremd business school from the stage, right? So say if I went and I did a keynote, they could say, okay, we're gonna pay Dr. Dr. Una. We're gonna pay her 15 grand, 20 grand, 25 grand. Right. But I can say, I don't want that. I would rather just sell from the stage. And there are different conferences that work in different ways. So I'm trying to use this as an example. And I may say, okay, I'm going to do that from the stage. Well, if I do that and I talk to 200 people and five of them decided, oh, my goodness, this is exactly what I've been looking for. I want to be in the Entrepreneur Business School. I want the coach, I want the accountability. I want the community. Like, you're telling me there's a community of physician entrepreneurs who are killing it, who are growing their businesses, who are living quarter to quarter. What? Right? So If I have five people say, yes, the entrepreneur business school is $25,000 for a year. And so what that means is that talk generated $125,000 for me. Someone may say, oh, but you spoke for free. Well, happily, I spoke for free, quote, unquote. Do you see what I'm saying? So there are two models. So I don't want us to forget that as we talk about this. So I just thought I would dump that there. We have a whole podcast episode on that. You can check it out, the two major ways speakers get paid. Okay, so back to creating the evidence of credibility. Right? So you're speaking for free and all of those kind of stuff. But again, it's strategic. Then speaking on podcasts is a really good one because somebody can listen to a podcast episode and they're like, oh, I know this person. They speak with a lot of energy. They're clear in their thoughts. They have. They have something really profound to say. They know how to connect with an audience. Like, this is amazing. Right? And so you want to put in the reps, right? Like, you want to put in the reps and create this evidence. Like, I'm this highly sought after. I want you to think about your social media you're posting about. I was a guest on this podcast. I was a guest on that podcast. I was a speaker on this stage. I was this. It gives this feel of somebody who is a speaker. Right? Okay. And the more. The bigger the stages you're on, the more you're on stages, it's like, clearly, she doesn't do that for free. You know what I mean? Like, so that's part of it. Okay. Number four. Number four is the real thing you would do as an entrepreneur, someone who is building a speaking business is an entrepreneur, okay? And if you think you're not, then you know that's the beginning of the problem, because you're not going to apply the entrepreneurial methods that you need to. Okay? So number four is actually pitching conferences, right? Like reaching out to conferences. Say, hey, I see that you're putting on this event. This is what I talk about. This is how it could be. This is how it could benefit your audience. And all of these, these are some conferences I've spoken at for, would love to be considered as a speaker for your event, right? And so you're pitching now. When it comes to pitching, it is a numbers game, right? Now I have. I've had the privilege of being behind the scenes with somebody who is. It was a professional speaker, okay? And he did the keynote model and he did his cool 2.5 million a year just from speaking, okay? So not from sales of books or anything like that, just from speaking. His speaker fee was 50 grand, but, you know, he didn't start from there, but it's 50 grand, okay? Now, in his business model, they would get up, they would draw. They would draw 50 circles on a dry erase board and they would pitch 50 people every day. That's what his sales team did every day, right? And you might be like, 50, fine, I don't want to be a speaker, right? Okay, don't do 50, do 20, but whatever, right? You want to start pitching. It's a numbers game. You want to start pitching. The more you do it, the more things will stack in your favor, right? You're like, okay, who is responsible? You call who's responsible for booking speakers at your event. They give you the information, you take that, boom, I could, this is what I can do, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. But you want to start pitching, okay? So I'm not going to go into terrible, great detail here, but that's part of what you need to do. Number five. Number five is you have to practice charging. You have to practice charging. Sometimes the big thing is, oh, getting comfortable on stage. And after that, it's like, I've arrived. No, you have to practice charging for your talks, okay? You have to practice asking for money. You have to practice asking to be paid. Because if you're going to be a highly sought after paid speaker, you're going to have to be paid. And if you're going to be paid, you're going to ask to be paid. Okay? And I, again, this is something that it's a little more than we can discuss on this podcast, but I will give you One of the most important things, and that is this, people say, so how much do you charge? How much do you expect to be paid? And the best question you can ask them is, what's your budget? Okay, you want to throw the ball back into their court because you may be thinking, oh, I'll just charge them a little, I'll charge them two grand. And they may be thinking, there's no way she'll do this for less than 10, right? Like, so what's your budget? All right, like my fee varies and all those things I want to be understanding with your, of your conference, blah, blah, blah, what's your budget? Right? And then you can start the negotiation from there. So these are things you can do. Every last one of these things are things that are simple, not necessarily easy. But if you think about the payoff is that I'm a highly sought after paid speaker. We have a number of physicians who are in the entrepreneur business school. That $10,000, is there, is there a start like that's that, that's what they'll take to, to speak at your event and stuff like that, right? And they're even turning event. Can you do that? Absolutely. Of course you can. You're a whole physician. Of course you can. Right? But I want you to start with these processes, okay? So what I want you to do from listening to this is I want you to actually take each of these things and start experimenting with them. Right? You may say, well, I don't know any speakers. Of course, speakers. Right, speakers. Just reach out to them. Start from the known and then work your way to the unknown. So start building that network. Start positioning yourself as a speaker. Start creating evidence of your credibility. Start pitching conferences and start practicing charging. Okay, I want you to think about this, right? I want you to think about a year that you brought six figures in just from speaking. I want you to think about that. Like that can totally be your reality. But you're going to have to start. It could be six figures, could be a multiple six figures. Maybe you make it a thing and this is what you go on to do. And then maybe you crack the seven figure mark. I will be celebrating you. Okay? So I want us to take this seriously. I want us to start the work. I want us to take our, the next step in our evolution. Okay? Now remember what I said. Pretty please with 17 cherries on top. Take this episode, take the link to the podcast. Share it with 10 doctors in your life. Send me a PM, let me know. My goodness, Dr. Una, I did that. So happy to support the movement. You're a part of the Calvary. I want to acknowledge you. Okay. And I will see you on the next episode of the Ontreamity Podcast. Hey, if you love listening to the.

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