How to Get More Speaking Gigs: Don't Wait for Opportunities, Create Them

The cool thing about this natural ability is that it can be turned into a profitable career. But you can't just talk about anything and everything; you have to establish yourself as an expert first.
This post was published on the now-closed HuffPost Contributor platform. Contributors control their own work and posted freely to our site. If you need to flag this entry as abusive, send us an email.

Although studies reveal that public speaking is the biggest fear of most people, some just really have the knack for it.

The cool thing about this natural ability is that it can be turned into a profitable career. But you can't just talk about anything and everything; you have to establish yourself as an expert first, so gain all the information you need and claim your micro-specialization. If you need help narrowing yours down, I created a 5 step process to find your micro-specialization.

So now you're an expert and you know you can speak well to educate and motivate people. But how do you get the job as a speaker?

Seasoned speakers always say, "Get yourself out there."

That's good advice, but is this enough? No.

The important thing to remember when figuring out how to get more speaking gigs is to have the mindset of a businessman. Sure, you can offer your "talent" for free, but you still have to think of what you do as business.

You need to determine your niche audience, establish strong and beneficial connections, continue learning and market what you do powerfully.

Establish Your Niche Audience

Start with knowing your niche audience. This is an important consideration because you can better make your presence felt and establish your relevance in the lives of those who actually care about the information that you hold and can share.

If you make it known that you're an authority and a good repository of knowledge, they will seek you out, and then you can offer to present all the information you have through a speaking gig. The key here is to turn the offer into an opportunity for a speaking gig.

Connect With Other Speakers And Expand Opportunities

Align yourself with other speakers. Take a cue from church pastors; they know that their congregation already loves them, so every now and then, they invite a different pastor to speak at services or conferences to provide a different perspective and flavor to the message.

It's the same thing with public speakers -- in an attempt to spice things up every now and then, they get the help of new speakers that can reinforce their own message and provide something new to their usual audience. Another advantage to cultivating strong relations with other speakers is that all of you can work together and create an event where you all can speak, and when you create your own event, it would be easy to get support from these people.

Be In Persistent Pursuit Of Higher Learning

This will enable you to provide something new -- and "new" is what audiences want. If you have information that only you know, demand for you to speak in a variety of venues will come pouring in, or it can serve as your marketing tactic for an event you can put together for yourself.

Likewise, continue to hone your speaking skills -- study voice projection, gestures, and some acting -- all these will turn you into a more dynamic and engaging speaker.

Market Yourself Wisely

Market what you do powerfully. Use social media and other avenues for you to reach an audience.

You have webinars, podcasts, Google Hangouts and YouTube videos; these are all speaking engagements that you can offer like products. Create a website as well to interact with your target market; get the consensus on the topics that interest your audience so you can create an event for that to be discussed. You have various options, and of course these also include the traditional speaking gig where you take the stage.

If you're just starting out and you're creating all these speaking opportunities yourself, be open to all invitations to speak as well (even to discuss subjects that may be a little off your specialty -- if you know your field of expertise well, you can simply relate topics to it). Just get all the experience you need and do an impressive job each and every time -- even if it's just at a school's show and tell -- because people will notice and keep you in mind.

Close

What's Hot