Like any business, growing your speaking business does take time. However, putting the following strategies into place can help you uplevel your career and get booked faster.
In my work with Public Speakers and Meeting Planners, which spans almost two decades now, I have seen enough to know what works – and what doesn’t. There’s no secret formula, really, but there are insider secrets a lot of people won’t share with you for free. Not me, I’m a giver, and I’m going to give you my 9 top strategies for getting yourself booked solid this year.
Remember, you can add each strategy over time. Don’t try to do them all in one week or you will drain yourself out. And when we drain ourselves, we quit. I don’t want you to quit. I want you to keep moving forward. I want to see, more than anything, you succeed by getting you in front of the highest number of audience members possible.
Here’s your roadmap to a booked solid schedule. Let’s get moving.
1 – Check that your website is spot on! If I were to land on your page, would I immediately with no confusion, know exactly what you do? How about the problem you will solve for me?. If not, get back to the drawing board and make it crystal clear.
2 – Videos. Huge today! If you don’t have a video on your site, you may be missing golden opportunities. You know, I’m going to be frank – you are missing golden opportunities. Gone are the blind-date days of speaker websites. Planners want to see you in action – anyone can write about how awesome they are, but, as they say, the proof is in the pudding. And that means good quality vids of you speaking and really impacting the audience. Please get your video done, and done well. Leverage free events for this if you need to, but get a quality video on your site.
3 – Your social media presence, again huge. Planners will look on your website for your social icons and they do go check you out on social to see what you’re doing, who you talk to, how you interact and how people react to you. Make sure it’s branded well and your message, again, is crystal clear. Don’t ignore social, because it is the best free way to get more web presence so you don’t miss out on opportunities.
4 – Write. Write. Write. Constantly and consistently be writing content and putting it out there – everywhere. Blog posts. Guest blogging. Podcast guest. Reviews of other’s books in your field. Forwards, too. Do a podcast and from it create a post and social media content and videos. Tie it all together to funnel listeners to your killer website. It’s important to be writing and sharing all the time because this builds your platform and shows the world you are the expert they’re looking for.
5 – OneSheet. No, a OneSheet is NOT the dead marketing tool as you might hear these days. Planners still look for this important marketing piece to download it and or will request it be sent via email. If you don’t have one you need to get this done. This is a key piece. Make sure it, like your video, is done well and by someone who knows what planners are looking for.
6 – Have a catchy title that will get you noticed. If it’s blah and boring, you won’t get much traction from that. Don’t be afraid to step out of your comfort zone on this one. And don’t be too wordy either. Use a subtitle if you must, but make sure your main talk title is catchy, quick and unique, and under 9 words.
7 – Have beautiful, clear images. No blurry stuff! If your images are blurry, non-professional, and portray you in a non-trustworthy light, don’t use them – ever. Your bra strap showing? A planner will be moving on quite quickly. Have a bit of scowl, careful there, that may not be the best approach. I want you to have professional images, and fun images (if that fits) which portray you as you, capture your personality, and catch the planner’s eye and intrigue them enough to want to learn more. Don’t just have old school headshots, be brave and spice it up a bit.
8 – Make sure your niche is tight.tight.tight. And when you think it’s tight enough, niche down even deeper. This will peg you as *the* specialist and get you booked more often. Being a generalist will get you nowhere except hitting walls eventually, because planners are looking for expert specificity.
9 – Don’t be afraid to speak for free. Hold on, hear me out. This will do many things for you including getting a video done, building your client list, getting testimonials (video ones preferably), selling products and programs, growing your email list, funneling students to your courses, adding new members to your club and so much more. Keep an open mind on this one because it can be very lucrative.
(See my post on How to Be a $10K Speaker: It’s Not What You’re Thinking – https://charlijane.com/how-to-be-a-10k-speaker-its-not-what-youre-thinking/)
Any one of these strategies can boost your bookability quite a bit.
Implement several and you’re well on your way to getting yourself booked solid this year. Do all of the above, and you’ll be someone to move the industry forward in big ways and reach more and more people with your message than ever before.
Isn’t that why you decided to take on this extremely challenging calling in the first place?
Thought so.
Ready to uplevel your speaking game? Join our fantastic Facebook group “Grow Your Speaking Biz” to learn, share, grow and get connected today. PLUS, get great tips on creating your speaker demo! www.SpeakingBizCommunity.com