Make Marketing Suck Less for Expertise-Driven Solo Businesses

Your speech is not a speech. It's your next best-selling product. That's the strategy that I outlined in my book Speak For Impact . It's one of the core pillars of building a successful, thriving speaking business. It's one of the things that you should be focusing on whether you're just starting out as a speaker or you're an old pro. But here is what I see happen all the time in the speaking indu...

If you have ever been on the verge of pushing the send button on an important email pitch - the one for the gig on a stage you have always dreamed of being and suddenly you hear a voice. " Who do you think you are to be pitching for that speaking gig? You don't have enough experience, maybe if you had a Ph. D. then you could pitch for that speaking gig. And what if you get it? What if you get it?...

As a speaker, you've got a lot of responsibility on your shoulders. Especially if you're running your speaking business like a lone wolf. You are in charge of finding speaking opportunities, pitching those speaking opportunities, and tracking those pitches when they go out the door.  Then, the sales conversations, negotiating your speaking fees, booking your travel, marketing your speaking. Plus,...

You listen to this podcast because you're interested in speaking. You want to be booking more speaking gigs. You want to become a better speaker and improve the  experience the audience has with you.   Yet there might be this little niggling feeling that you're not 100% committed to adding speaking into your business mix. You're just not sure if it's the best move for your business. This month we...

A terrible fight with your wife. Your kid just got suspended for the eighteenth time from school. And maybe your business, well, that's not so hot either. Any one of those things are enough to throw us off our game. But what happens when you feel like the world is crashing down around you and you have to get on stage to speak? One of my private clients emailed me recently to say that she was a mes...

How do I find more speaking gigs? This is the number one question that I get all the time for speakers. Speakers are looking for the magic bullet to find those gigs and to find them without doing the ONE thing that makes the biggest difference to your speaking business: building relationships. On the Rebel speaker, we are very fortunate because we have David Fisher here. He is a speaker but he is...

The best way to book more speaking gigs? Easy, ask. Then ask some more, and ask again, and then follow-up. Sounds simple right? You know that you need to be pitching if you want to be speaking, but it's not as easy as it sounds because a lot of the times we don't feel ready to pitch. We think, oh, my website's not good enough. Or I don't have a speaker sizzle reel yet, I don't have action shots, I...

You've decided to be a speaker and build your speaking business. Now the universe is going to test you on how badly you want it. You send out a pitch and get a "thanks but no thanks", or you send out a pitch and you hear crickets. You're in the middle of a negotiation for your speaking fee and they say "Sorry, we don't have any budget to pay you". They're going to be times where you need to have t...

To speak for free or to not speak for free that is the question. It seems to be the question that members of the Rebel Speaker Facebook group come up against. It's the question my clients have for me all of the time in our sessions. It's wild to me how many organizations from non-profits to Fortune 500 companies and everywhere in between, expect speakers to speak for free or as they like to say it...

Do you ever feel like you’re the best kept secret in the speaking industry? If only more people knew about you and your message, you could easily book speaking gigs. As a speaker, you want to be known for what you do both onstage and off. One of the best ways to boost your speaking credibility, get the edge of your speaking competition, and even get paid more to speak is with PR.   Today on the sh...

There's a lot of advice, courses, and information about how to grow your speaking business. From how to market yourself as a speaker to how to land paid speaking gigs. And everything in between. There's a lot of information and it can be overwhelming. In fact, you can feel like you're drinking out of a fire hose.                                       What should you work on first? Marketing your s...

The speaking industry is competitive. There are so many keynote speakers, breakout speakers, trainers and more. How do you stand out from all of the competition? How do you get hired over other speakers who speak on a similar topic? In fact, why you’ll get hired has NOTHING to do with you! It has EVERYTHING to do with how you answers these two questions. Discover the two questions to that get you...

Your speech is the keystone of your speaking business. It showcases your expertise. It's the vehicle that produces results for your audience. It highlights your story and your passion. It also does something else for you. It's what gets you booked to speak. Because you’re about to listen to this podcast I know you want  to be speaking more. You want to build your speaking business. It's important,...

You want to get paid to speak, right? Yet the thought of pricing and negotiating your speaking fees makes you feel uneasy. You’re not sure what to charge. You don’t know how to negotiate or what to negotiate for. You think “we don’t have a budget” means that you’re not going to get paid at all. If this is you, you’re going to love our first guest expert interview on The Rebel Speaker. Our guest ex...

You want your speaking business to take off like a rocket. You want speaking inquiries to land in your inbox. You want to be making a difference to the people who need your message most, and get paid for it. How do you make that all happen? Good news! You don’t have to wander around in the dark to figure out how to build your speaking business. There’s actually a fairly predictable process (not fo...

Speaking more isn't a goal. It's a hope. When I hear somebody tell me, "Oh, I want to be speaking more in 2017," I know one thing: if they're going to make that goal of speaking happen, they have to define their vision and get a lot more specific about that goal. Research shows that the more specific you are when setting a goal, the more likely you will accomplish that goal. In this episode of the...

I have that little ’80s ditty “ I Wanna be Rich” from one-hit-wonder Calloway playing in my head, “I want money; lots and lots of money,” because today we’re talking about money—one of my all-time favorite topics. If you want to make money by being a speaker, you will have to talk about it sooner or later even though most people would rather have a root canal. Before getting caught off guard by th...

Believe me. A speaker who has great delivery on stage can be mesmerizing (just ask me about my days in grad school judging debate tournaments). But if you rely on just your delivery as a speaker, you will fall flat on your face. Content and delivery are both important. If you want to get paid to speak, the first step is to develop a solid message to share with your audience. In this episode, we di...

Do you ever get déjà vu when listening to a presentation? When that happens, it’s because you’re listening to a me-too speaker who never heard the advice of Sally Hogshead when she says, “Stand out or don’t bother.” The speaker is only regurgitating thoughts shared by others previously without adding any original substance or spin. Being a me-too speaker is a public speaking pet peeve of mine. I i...

Have you ever noticed how many people talk about the finale of a television series, but rarely give two hoots about the pilot episode? The Sopranos. Six Feet Under. Mad Men. People are still talking about these series finales even years after they aired. Just like on television, how you end your speech matters. Don't let the final thought of your speech by an afterthought. Today is all about how t...

Want to know how to make your audience hang on your every word? You must capture their attention immediately with a powerful introduction. And nope, telling them your name or what you did last night is not powerful. Thanks to the 30-second Head and Shoulders commercial from the 80s, I know you never get a second chance to make a first impression, but as a professional speech coach, I see far too m...

Since coaches can help with your fitness goals, your golf swing and your kid’s baseball team, doesn’t it make sense to hire a speech coach to help you achieve the next level of speaking success? Yes, of course, but before you let your fingers Google “speech coach,” you need to get clarity on few things to know for sure if hiring a speech coach is the right thing for you and your business. The firs...

Is vulnerability the silver bullet to speaking success? Not necessarily. A presentation infused with personal anecdotes can be powerful, but when you’re in the midst of a vulnerability hangover you’re just exposing yourself and giving your audience too much information, rather than leaving them changed. Every time you step on the stage, you must ask yourself if there is a lesson for your audience...

Just like the Force that pulls Luke to the good side and Vader to the dark, persuasion is inherently neutral. It’s how a speaker uses a persuasive technique that makes it ethical (good) or manipulative (bad). When persuasion is used ethically, it is an amazing tool! Persuasion can create incredible results for your speaking and for your audience. It’s powerful, changes lives and truly serves. In t...

Have you heard it? All the hype that you, yes YOU, can triple your income with public speaking in just weeks, “just like I did”? Yeah, right! This marketing message implies that speaking is a quick and easy fix to make all your revenue goals come true. When it doesn’t happen for you, and believe me it won’t happen that quick or at all for most of us, it positions you as a failure. Today, our episo...