Obstacles to Building Your Speaking Gig Pipeline - 295

Hello, you're watching Sarah Archer and episode 295 of The Speaking Club podcast. So I'd like to open this show with a quote from sales strategist and speaker Jill Konrath. I got lucky because I never gave up the search. Are you quitting too soon, or are you willing to pursue luck? Luck with a vengeance.

I started this podcast for 2 reasons: because I want to help people recognise the power of stories and humour in speaking, and because I believe it's your message that counts, not the number of ums and ahs you use. There are some organisations that want to create robot speakers. They want you to sacrifice your personality in order to speak perfectly. I want to let you know that you can be yourself, And a sensational speaker. So if you want to be a speaker that connects and engages authentically through stories, a speaker that gives value as well as a great performance, then welcome home.

Hey, hey, I hope you're well. Thank you so much for joining me again here on The Speaking Club Podcast. And yeah, today I'm talking about something that resonates with a lot of people. So, just this week, I got an email from a speaker, and they were pretty frustrated because, although they've got a super important message to get out there that can save lives, literally save lives, they are struggling to get people to book them to speak, and what frustrated them Besides struggling to get booked, was that there has been this TikTok meme sensation. Apparently, it's something called Hwak Twa. That's what they said. They said, has it reached the UK yet? Because they're based in America. So, and apparently, this girl who was interviewed for a video by a YouTuber was asked the question, how do you please your partner in bed? Slightly more misogynistic version of that, actually, truth be told. And so, he was saying, this is frustrating. Like, this person is getting booked for paid speaking gigs just because of a TikTok meme of them basically recreating spitting into a mic. Now, I was obviously Very curious when they said this, so I did check it out, and I didn't actually want to sort of add to this hype, especially because it's a bit misogynistic and a little bit banal, a bit silly, but anyway, checked it out, and yeah, literally this person's spitting into a mic and they've got all this publicity, and there's other people making money off of this girl by selling merch and stuff that will probably end up in some sort of donation charity shop in the future, Goodwill shop in the future, but anyway, good luck to her. 5 to 15 minutes of fame, make the most of it, that's brilliant, but I can understand why it is so frustrating for him in particular, you know, why it feels like you've put all this effort into creating a great talk and yet you're struggling to get it out there, and it's such an empowering powerful message, and that's the thing with a lot of speakers, you know, they've got big messages to share. So, you know, that's the thing. The first thing that I want to say is, you know, it's so easy to say this and hard to do it, but don't fall into the trap of comparing yourself to other people. You know, it's just pointless, and it just leads to, you know, More frustration and, yeah, it makes you bitter and stuff. The best thing I heard for this, you know, is Matthew McConaughey's version of comparison, which is like, compare yourself to you in the future, um, and keep chasing yourself. It's a much healthier version of this. So, that's the first thing, but really what I want to do in today's episode is sort of address the underlying, uh, question that causes the frustration, which is why do so many speakers find it a challenge to get booked and paid to speak consistently? That's what I want to address today. And the first thing that I want to sort of COVID is the different ways that you can build that speaking pipeline, because there are a few different ways. First way is through speaking, whether that's on stage, webinars, podcasts, whatever, it's through speaking. Especially if you're speaking on stage, a great talk should be generating 3 to 4 speaking opportunities, okay? So, that's the first thing, speaking, great way to generate gig opportunities and leads. Second one is inbound inquiries, which are based on you getting really good SEO, that's search optimisation, that's making sure that when people are actually looking for a speaker, you come up in their search criteria, and that's the things that you put on your webpage or whatever. Then you've got LinkedIn, that's a way to get people inquiring, making sure your profile's up to scratch, saying the right things, and again hitting those things that people are looking for when they want to bring speakers in. And then you've got adverts. They create inbound enquiries. And then the third way to get a speaking pipeline built is through outreach. Gig outreach, I call it. And this is— not a lot of people do this, you know, so, but we're going to cover, talk a bit more about each of these things as we go through, but those are the 3 ways. Speaking, Inbound enquiries, outbound enquiries, or outreach, it's also called. So, let's talk about some of the big issues that cause speakers to mess this whole building a pipeline thing up. First thing, right, is this, and I was speaking to someone just today who said that this was an issue for them. They refer, they're relying on referrals and spin-offs. So, that's organic inbound inquiries to fill their speaking pipeline. And this is the thing, right? If you sit back and let— expect these things to come to you, then it's— chances are you're not going to have a very full diary for speaking gigs. Okay? Yes, you know, sometimes these things can come to you, but it, it won't fill up your diary. And professional speakers, speakers who are getting consistent paid gigs, £5K, £10K, £15K, £20K gigs, are the ones that are treating their speaking like a business, and they, they're building the pipeline, they're being proactive and going out to get gigs, and they don't rely on one, uh, way of getting gigs, they have multiple ways of getting gigs. So, that's the first thing. Don't rely on referrals or spin-offs, and a spin-off is where you may be a consultant or a coach, you're doing work for an organisation and they ask you to do a talk as well, like as an extra thing. That's a spin-off. Okay, cool. So, let's move on. Second thing you need to be making sure is that your talk is a wow experience for your audience, that it hits all the different levels of content that it's got to hit, and resonates with the people who make decisions, to buy people in, to buy speakers in, and, you know, can make these decisions quickly. But basically, most speakers, their talks aren't good enough. You know, I often talk to people when they have a chat with me about their speaking, they say, maybe I'll get the odd speaking inquiry, or, but it's a bit hit and miss. You should be hitting those 3 to 4 inquiries each time you speak if you've done everything right. The content is clearly attractive, you know, is dealing with a burning platform problem that someone will see the value of getting that solved for them to bring you in in the first place. And then when you're on stage, as I say, it's a performance. It's an experience for the audience. You have unforgettable moments in there, people remember the talk, and it's also transformational. So, it's shifting people's beliefs, shifting perspectives, getting people to think differently, and those are the types of talks that will get you more gigs on the back of them. Just again, the other day I had someone come to one of my workshops, and she said that she had, 2 years after she spoke, she had an inquiry from someone who remembered the talk. So, she was clearly doing something right with that talk to be getting that inquiry. And that's the other thing, it's really important to say is that these things aren't overnight. When you start out speaking, you know, and you're getting into paid speaking gigs, the lead time for those is like 6 to 9 months, you know, so it's not going to be quick, but you've got to start building the pipeline, otherwise it's never going to happen. It's a bit like that saying, you know, when's the best time to plant a tree? 10 years ago. When's the second best time? Today, right? So, that's the thing. Okay, next thing I wanted to talk about is the speakers who get on an agency's books and think they've made it. Nope. I think I might have talked about this recently on some tips that I got from a summit from speaker bookers and agency people. You are one of thousands unless you've kind of got that celebrity cachet. Like, if that girl from the Hot Tour, whatever it's called, was on an agency's books, chances are they'd be pushing her out as much as possible at the moment. I'm sure she's not because I don't think she's doing keynotes. It's more like appearances. But anyway, my point is, if you're hot, they might push you. But for most of the speakers that have got these important messages, they're not hitting that celebrity status thing. And again, recently had someone on the, on a call with me who had been in The Apprentice in the UK, and, but their celebrity cachet was wearing off and they were struggling to get gigs and they wanted to find a way to get them consistently. So, we talked about some of the things that I'm sharing with you today. Okay, so you can't sit back. You're, most of the time you're not going to be front of mind for them. So, 2 things about this. You obviously got to go and get your own stuff. That's one thing. But also is when you do something that is worth updating them about, if you get press coverage or anything like that, pop them over an email, let them know. So, when your star is rising, you know, make sure they're aware of that because they may well be able to push you at that point. Next obstacle for speakers getting consistent paid gigs is that they don't know how to find gigs. Don't know how to find, because they've been relying on them coming, because they're on a speaker's book, they're thinking things are going to fall into their lap, they don't know how to find gigs. So, the best way that I can suggest that you look at this is taking the view of the way that people book speakers and flipping it. So, the way that people book speakers is, you know, whether they're inside the corporate organization and they're looking for someone to fit a particular brief, or they're a speaker booker agency or whatever, they will go, for this thing, you know, where we need an expert, who do you know? Or, sorry, who do I know, first of all? If I can't think of anyone, if I've not seen anyone do a memorable talk or whatever, then I'll turn to my colleague and say, do you know anyone? Do you know anyone at all? So, first it's who do I know, then it's who do you know, and if they still haven't got anyone, then they'll go and jump on the internet. And try and find someone. So, you then, thinking about how do I get gigs, have got to flip that and think about, well, who do I know? Who's in my network that might be looking for speaking opportunities, looking for speakers? And then, who do I know that other people that do speak, where, what sort of gigs are they getting? And then, and then going on the internet and actually finding opportunities for yourself. Okay? So, you've got to be proactive and think, you know, how do I reverse engineer getting gigs thinking about the way that speakers are booked? Okay.

Cool.

So, let's say you've found a gig. What people then fluff up in is actually making the approach. And I see this a lot. People will send an email to someone who is organising organising a conference or within a corporate environment, and they will make a pitch to that person saying how wonderful they are, how valuable their talk is, and it's kind of like going to a bar and asking someone you fancy to marry you. We don't want to be doing that. We want to be approaching that conversation, that initial outreach, For engagement, to start a conversation. We don't want to be getting conversions on those emails because this is a long-term thing and it's a relationship-based thing. So we want to be building those relationships and getting conversations and engagement. So that's the thing. Don't go for the, you know, the proposal. Go for asking them a question, okay? Okay, next thing that people make a mistake in this arena is, as I said, putting their eggs in the one basket. So, we want to make sure that we are doing all of these different things, making sure we're getting out speaking, making sure that we have all of our inbound stuff, our speaker page, our one sheet, all of that stuff, primed our profiles on social media, primed for inbound inquiries, and then actually going out and getting them. Don't put your eggs in one basket. Okay, next thing is that people give up too soon, and there are 2 reasons that, that are under sort of lying this. Basically, first of all, As I've said, and as most people who sort of have some nous, have some idea of how speaking works, know that you are not going to literally go from zero to paid speaking gig. You know, there's some things that you need to do, and it's a journey. However, and I've mentioned this for sure in another podcast, the thing to understand is that it doesn't mean you can't get paid in other ways through speaking on the way to getting those paid speaking gigs. So, you have to think, how can I make this strategic free speaking gigs pay? So, having some sort of offer, you know, think about how can I monetise this without actually getting paid? And if you can do that, then you can absolutely stay the course and get to where you need to be in order to get those higher-paid speaking gigs and make the fee where you get paid. But it's— it's a journey. Okay? Now, the other thing to say here is that when you make approaches, people give up too soon, they don't follow up. You can't just bung an email out and expect that if you don't hear back, that's it. You've got to be following up, and something that I call thoughtful persistence. We want to be following up, but we want to be following up in a way that is respectful, thoughtful, and, you know, builds the relationship rather than breaks it. We don't want to be burning bridges by being arsey in our follow-ups, and I get a load of people Um, you know, whether they're trying to get on the podcast as a guest or whatever, they'll get quite arsey, you know, attitude in a follow-up, and it just turns me off. And if you do the same thing, you're going to turn whoever you're reaching out to off as well. So thoughtful persistence. Do follow up, but do it in a way that builds the relationship rather than breaks it. And then the final thing that I wanna share to you, a lot of people fall at the final hurdle. You know, they'll, they'll do the outreach, they'll get some interest, and then they will mess up the close. So, I really want you to think about how you manage that end conversation to maximise the chance of you getting booked. Okay? Don't necessarily go straight for one fee. Think about how you may give some options for them, you know? And then also, don't be so rigid in the way that the fee is paid, because especially when you're on the sort of starting journey or even midway through, there may be other ways that you can get paid Whether that's through a video, whether that's through book sales, all sorts of different ways that you can get that fee met without devaluing what you're doing. All right?

Good.

So, let's do some takeaways then. First takeaway, make sure that you take ownership of your speaking pipeline. All right? Make sure your talk is absolutely on point. Someone I was speaking to the other day, a speaker booker that is coming on the show, talked about the speakers who were in the rarefied air of being amazing speakers. That's where you want to be. You want to be absolutely on point, memorable, your talk is memorable, so that you build those speaking inquiries and get 3 to 4 per gig, yeah? Then also, diversify, Diversify the way you're getting gigs. We don't just want to have our eggs in one basket. Do regular outreach. This is a quantity game, as long as the quantity is based on quality. So, make sure you're, you know, finding the gigs that are right for you where you are on your speaking journey, and then, you know, just put them out there and follow up. That's really, really important. Follow up, follow up, follow-up, thoughtfully persistent. And then at the end, don't just, you know, when it comes to actually closing the deal, think about how you can maximise the opportunity for them to say yes, all right? And also how you can swing the benefit for you if they can't quite meet your budget, your fee. Okay, good. Well, I hope you found this episode useful, and if you did, why not let me know? Come find me on LinkedIn, Sarah Archer 15. Drop me an email at sarah@saraharcher.co.uk. And yeah, that's really great that you chose the show. Really appreciate that. And if you're a regular listener or you, you know, you're on YouTube, you're watching this, do subscribe to the channel, to the podcast. And if you can leave a rating or review, that would be amazing, either on the comments below Or if it's podcast, then do go over to ratethispodcast.com/tsc, or wherever you're listening to it. It might be Spotify, Amazon, an app, whatever. There's opportunities for you to say, I got value from this, Sarah's great. That'd be amazing. Um, but you know, just leave an honest review, basically. Smashing. Well, that's it for me. Thanks again for listening to the show or watching the show, and I will catch you next time. Until then, don't forget to go out, grab your life by the nuts, and get cracking.

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