The Biggest Lie About Becoming a Paid Speaker

Like any profession, you must pay your dues before you can expect to get paid.

-- Arvee Robinson

Attend one speech class and get paid thousands of dollars to speak. Lie, lie, lie. You will be lucky to even speak for free anywhere. No event coordinator wants a speaker with little to no experience or reputation that may make them look bad. The stories you hear about speakers who get paid a lot of money for speaking mostly involve athletes, celebrities, high former government officials, or people with dramatic physical defects. These people are extremely rare. You on the other hand, no matter what business you are in, are one among many thousands of people attempting to get on one of these few high paying stages .If you are an actor fresh out of acting school, you would not expect to get a lead role for a million dollars in a major movie. This would be ridiculous. Yet an inspiring speaker takes one class and expects to be paid thousands. This is super ridiculous. – Excerpt from the book Speak Up, Get Clients by Arvee Robinson

The Truth About Becoming a Highly Paid Speaker

Expect to speak for free on a lot of small stages for years and build your reputation, experience, and message. As a new speaker, speak on at least 200 stages, and build your craft before you ever ask for a dime in return. Use these speeches to build your database, generate leads, get referrals and build your business. Focus on cultivating special relationships with influencers in every organization you speak to. If you do this, you will begin to attract higher-level speaking opportunities, and in time, get paid.

Along the way, some organizations will offer to pay you a small honorarium which can range anywhere from $25 to $1,000. Accept it with gratitude. Jack Canfield, transformational speaker, personal development trainer, and best-selling author, and one of the highest paid speakers in America, started this way. After 50 years on stage, he now requires a speaking fee of $35,000 or higher, plus expenses per speech.

The late Tony Hsieh, CEO of Zappos in Las Vegas became an overnight celebrity when his online shoe business took off. Because he made so much money in so little time people wanted to know how he did it. Even though he did not want to speak, he received numerous speaking invitations, so many that he raised his speaking fee to $75,000 per talk hoping to discourage people from asking. They still asked.

Becoming one of these highly paid speakers is like expecting an average high school basketball star become an NBA pro. The odds are 100,000 to 1. This doesn’t mean you can’t make money. I’ve made a fortune by using speaking as a marketing strategy to generate leads and attract clients. I’ve also made hundreds of thousands of dollars selling my products and services from the platform. Way more money than all my paid speaking engagements combined.

Not to mention, this is a far more reliable source of income than an occasional paid speaking engagement.

Your personal journey will be unique to you. There is no magic recipe for speaking success. No one; except for you can make you a success. You must carve your own way, taking advantage of every opportunity, and create as many of your own opportunities as you can.

Keep learning, practicing, and taking massive action every day toward your speaking goals. One day, you will be paid the big bucks. No lie.

To improve your speaking skills, let me help. Schedule a quick conversation here:

https://calendly.com/arveerobinson/30min