[Quick Tip] Are Free Speaking Gigs Worth Doing? - 305

Think of these quick tip episodes like a cold water swim. In just a few minutes, you can get some amazing benefits to support you on your speaking journey. And bonus, the only thing that's getting wet here is your appetite to try this stuff out. And if you have a question you want me to answer about anything related to speaking, storytelling, pitching, performance, or humour, then DM me on Instagram, LinkedIn, or Twitter. Hey, welcome to another quick tip episode. I often get asked this question, Sarah, I have been approached to do a speaking gig. They haven't got any budget for speakers. Do you think that I should do it? And this is what I say, I can't answer that question for you. But what I can do is give you some ideas around how to evaluate whether this is worth your while and whether it's going to be the right platform for your message. And I can also give you some tips on how to make those free gigs pay. And that is essentially what I want to share with you today. So I see a number of problems around this issue. First of all, because people haven't got that criteria as to whether it's good or bad, they agonise about it forever and potentially so long that they actually miss out on the speaking opportunity. So, that's the first thing. Second thing is, if you're in two minds, if you're not sure, then the whole communication process with the event organisers is going to be not ideal because as a speaker, you want to be responsive, available, enthusiastic, and, you know, giving the right attitude and vibe to the organisers so that you're the obvious choice for the gig. But if you're in two minds, your whole attitude and energy is going to be off and probably will affect their view of you. For that gig and any potential future gigs, right? The next thing is that if you take a gig that isn't right for you, that you can't see value for yourself in doing it, then chances are you're going to be feeling bitter and resentful, and that is going to affect the way that you show up at the event, on stage, and so on. So, that's also another issue. And if it is the wrong gig, then you've wasted your precious time and your energy and your message. So, we don't want that. The second-to-last one is that if you haven't got this criteria and you just say no, then you might miss out on some great gigs that can push your speaking career forward. And lastly, the other issue I see around all of this is that speakers who do free gigs just see them as an opportunity to share their message. They don't know how to make those speaking gigs pay, and that is something that I'm going to cover with you. So, the first thing to say that The possibilities, if you can get this right, are fantastic. If you've got criteria to be able to evaluate whether it's right for you, wrong for you, whatever, you can make those decisions quickly. You can save your energy, focus on what is right for you. So, you've got to have that clarity and those boundaries. If you, if you say yes to a gig and it's the right gig, then you've got the potential to win new clients, not just for potential paid speaking gigs in the future, but if you're using your speaking as a marketing asset to bring people into your world, to bring people into your programmes and buy your products, then it's a real opportunity done in the right way. I just want to be clear here, done in the right way, because we don't want any sleazy sales tactics that make you feel awkward, your audience uncomfortable. It has to be done in the right way. Which is classy and authentic, okay? What you also can do, again, if your talk is done right, is to change lives, get people thinking in new ways, and that is something that's not to be sniffed at. You know, if you can change one life with your message, that's an amazing thing to be doing. Other possibilities from free gigs is you can get some real fabulous assets to help your speaking career move forward. So, that could be photos, that could be video, all sorts of things. And as I've mentioned, speaking is one of the best ways to get other gigs. Even if it's a free gig, if it's the right one, it could lead to more speaking opportunities, more paid speaking opportunities. For you, okay? So lots of possibilities if we can get this right. So let's talk about the principles then around free gigs. First of all, what's the criteria you should use to evaluate whether it's worth you doing the gig, if there's value to you? First things first, and perhaps most important, is, is their audience your audience? Are these people with the problems that you can help solve? And if they're not your target audience, then it's probably, that's the first thing, it's not worth doing. Is the organisation or company a right fit for you in terms of your values? It's another thing to consider. Are they aligned with you? Are they bringing you in for the right reasons? What's their agenda? And so on. So, just consider some stuff like that. And then what is the potential value that you could get back from doing this gig? And I'm going to talk more about that in just a second. So those are some criteria to evaluate it. And I guess the final one, which is what I say to people, is after all of that, what's your gut telling you? Is this a fit? Is it not a fit? That also comes into play energetically. Is this right for me? So, there's some stuff for you to think about. And, you know, get those questions clear for you, and then you'll be able to make decisions quickly. Yes, this ticks all the boxes that matter for me. I'll say yes to doing this gig. Now, we move on to positioning, the principle of positioning. And there's 2 aspects of positioning that I want to share with you around this. The first is positioning for the event organisers. I want you to consider and to say that you are not doing a free gig. You are doing a keynote or a talk at your own expense. That's the positioning. I'm doing this at my own expense because you are making an investment in doing this talk, and we need to consider it in that way. And if you're positioning it in that way for the organisation, then we're in a good position for us to move on to some of the things that I want to cover in a minute in terms of value and ROI, the return on the investment that you're making. Second thing is positioning for the audience. Now they won't know most likely that you're not being paid. And we want your message to the audience somewhere in there for you to share that you are a professional speaker and you get paid to speak. Okay? And you will be being paid to speak because that's how we, what we're going to move on to next is how that you make these free or low fee gigs work for you financially and it, you know, give you value. So, the first thing is, and this comes into the content side of things, all right? We've talked about, you know, having a talk that enables you to make an offer in an authentic, classy way. So, that's something I'll be talking more about in a minute. The other thing in terms of your content is that you need to have content in your talk that appeals to the decision makers, that makes the decision makers You know, think. It is that how-to-think content so that they go, ah, because if you can give those types of people something to think about, and they're the ones that hold the budget and make the decisions about speakers for their organisations, then you're more likely to get them paying attention to you. If you just focus on tools and tactics for the practitioners in the audience, chances are you won't be reaching the people and connecting with the people who can make decisions about bringing you in. Creating those future speaking opportunities off of this one. That's the first thing. Okay, going back to the, to the positioning of you doing this at your expense for the organisers. What you want to do is ask them how they can add value for you. First of all, ask them that question, see what they can come up with before you give them some ideas, because they might have some options. So, one of the speakers that I work with normally charges a $10K fee. The organisation couldn't quite get there, so they gave them a sponsor package for the event, which opened up a number of other doors for them. So, there are other ways that organisations and companies can create value for you that you might not have even thought of, so ask them that question. Another thing to be thinking about is, you know, ask for expenses at a minimum. They can still say no, they haven't got the budget, but I would ask for expenses and see what they say. Also, I would be looking to ask them if they could do some introductions for you. So, do the event organisers know anyone else? That a company CEO or a founder or whatever that they could introduce you to as a potential speaker, and that can be worth its weight in gold. An introduction from them to someone that they know would be brilliant. So, ask for introductions to other organisers as another way of getting value. You don't know what opportunities can come that way. And then finally, I wanted to talk to you about this making an offer. So bringing people into your world, that's whether that's onto your email list that you can then create expert content that potentially gets them to buy you in if you're earning a fee for your speaking, or to bring them into your world with a view to them going into your products or programmes. It's as long as you do this in the right way. If it's a free gig, it's not sleazy, it's not salesy. You're creating a gap and then you're explaining what you do that can close that gap for them. Whether you have a book that they can go and find out more information to accelerate their journey, or you have programs, you can get people converting into those. I've had People, clients use the structure that I teach to convert 40% of the audience or more to buying books, low-ticket offers, or opting in for calls or onto the list and so on. It is absolutely possible to make free gigs pay. And that is one of the distinctions that successful speakers and failed speakers have. So many speakers fall by the wayside on the way to getting You know, those great fees that we want as a professional speaker because they haven't got any way to make money on the way to getting those. You don't just walk straight in, have your talk, and then be getting those high-paid gigs. It's a journey, but we can continue the journey, you know, when obstacles come up or whatever, if we're able to make these gigs pay for us on the way to the paid gigs. So that's really important. It's got to be done appropriately. You know, some— even if it's a free gig, it might not even be appropriate to be overtly making an offer, but there are ways that you can do that to bring people into your world. So think about using that criteria to evaluate whether it's the right gig for you or not. Have some criteria so that you're not agonizing over this, and then look at the ways that that you can get a return on the investment that you're making by doing this gig at your expense and make sure that you get some return to make it worth your while. I hope that's been helpful for you. Some of those tips, particularly the one about positioning the talk at your expense, was from a great speaker called Ross Bernstein, who I saw speak at a conference along with some other great speakers. And they were talking about how they stand out and how they, you know, do gigs. And Ross himself does over 100 speaking gigs a year. And what I've done is I've put the tips that I got together for you. I've curated them and added in my own guidance and put them together in a Stand Out and Get Booked Speaker Playbook. And you can get that playbook for free. I'll put the link in the show notes for a limited time. We're going to be making that available until the end of November. This is 2024 when this show's going out. That will be available until the end of November, the Stand Out and Get Booked Speaker's Playbook. And the feedback that I've had from the people who already had it in my community is that it's invaluable. There's some amazing tips in there. So make sure you go and grab that. It's completely free. It's my gift to you, but this will help you when you are doing those free gigs and all other aspects of your speaking journey. Some tips from the best of the best. Great. Well, I hope that you got value from the show today. It's been lovely as ever. I really appreciate you taking the time to watch or listen wherever you are. If you are watching, if you could subscribe to the channel, leave a comment below, that would be amazing. And if you're listening, Then you have the opportunity to leave a rating and review for the podcast. Just go to ratethispodcast.com/tsc, and you can do that there or on the podcast app or platform that you're listening to this show on. Thank you very much. All that's left for me to say is, besides going to grab your Playbook, go out, grab your life by the nuts. And get cracking. Bye-bye!