Max Partain walks through building a speaker reel: film yourself on any stage you can access, hire a video editor for $250-$500 to polish it, and pay close attention to music selection. Repeat across at least three different stages to build credibility and land higher-paying gigs.
Chapters
If a speaker is at the early part of their journey and maybe they haven't got the footage in to the extent that they would be able to work with someone like you, but they've got to put a reel together, what's the top 3 bits of advice you would give them in the interim, in the hallway between where they are— to use Angela Gargano's point before— where they are to where they want to be? They're in that hallway. What's the 3 tips around their speaker reel?
Okay, so tip number 1, you have to get footage of you on an elevated stage.
Yeah.
No matter what's— no matter what it takes. And it's easier than you think. And I have a lot of meetings with people who are not qualified to work with me, but I still want to give them advice. And the number 1 advice that I give out is you probably know somebody in your local area that works at a church or high school or college where where you could probably get on their stage. You could probably say, hey Dave, I'll buy you a drink. Can I use your stage for 10 minutes? Just like, please, come on, dude. And you could probably get on a stage. And if not, you could probably buy a stage from that high school, church, whatever, for, you know, 20 to 30 minutes. Then you get on that stage and then you film your optimized 10 minutes of your keynote speech and you make sure that you film your positioning statement and a couple other key lines, which I have a massive resource that I can send out to your audience if they want it of like, how do you make your first speaker reel? kind of is what it's called. How do you make your first speaker reel that doesn't embarrass you?
Yeah.
It's like, that's kind of the goal. If it's embarrassing, don't even put it out there. It's better to have nothing than to have one where it looks like you're teaching to student, like, like 10-year-olds in a classroom with a chalkboard behind you. You gotta make sure that at least it's semi-decent. So you gotta get on a stage and then you gotta hire probably somebody on Fiverr or on, you know, Upwork for around, $250 to $500 to make you a speaker reel. You probably aren't as good of an editor as you think that you are, and $250 to $500 will get you like 80% of the way there if you hire somebody to do it. The thing that you can't really teach these people that don't charge a lot of money though is musical taste. That is so important and really hard to teach. So you have to make sure that as you're going through it, The music is on point because that is going to be one of the clear— for me, one of the clear qualifiers between like you're, you're a $1,000 speaker and you're a $10,000 speaker. If your music is amazing, then you're probably amazing, which is so dumb, Sarah. Okay. It's so dumb, the games that you have to play, but it's just true. Yeah. So make sure that your music is on point. Tip number 3, get on another stage.
Yeah.
And another and another and another. And just find the free stages around you that are elevated. Just think about the elevated stages around you. If you can get on 1, 2, 3. 1, again, going back to the beginning, 1 stage, maybe you've only done this 1 time. 2 stages. Oh, interesting. 3 stages, you're a professional. Yeah.
Yeah. And I think going back to what you said previously as well, don't miss the opportunities that arise to get that B-roll footage.
Yes.
I'm rubbish at doing stuff like this, but like, you've got to think strategically, what is this event going to give me? And this, I talk about getting strategic free gigs. Sometimes having a professional videographer, having the opportunity to get some of that B-roll footage will be worth a fortune to you.
Yes.
And, you know, do those gigs where those opportunities can give you something for the future. So I'd probably add that in based on what you said earlier.
So I totally agree. If you're, if you're getting on a stadium and you're not hired, If you're getting on a stadium and you're doing it for free and you're not spending $1,000, $2,000 on an amazing videographer, what are you doing?
Yeah.
Spend the money on that videographer because that could literally last you the rest of your career. That could catapult you into the next phase of your career if you can get proof that you were— good proof that you were on that stage.
Yeah.
Because once you're on a stadium, you're worth $10,000 to $20,000, which is so dumb. But it's like the perceived value. If you're on a stadium, you are worth more. So make sure that you capture those really cool stages.
