Create Sizzle - Get Hired to Speak

Conference and event planners are busy!  They are the engine that enable the gears to turn and move an event forward.  In addition to curating a program and agenda, creating brand assets, budget planning, coordinating audio and video production, meal planning, selling sponsorship, selling trade show booths, attracting attendees, securing permits, leveraging corporate partnerships, managing vendors, coordinating and managing volunteers, they are also in charge of hiring speakers and entertainers. 

Event planners are looking for experts to motivate their groups and inspire action. 

Unless you’re a celebrity, you need to make their job easy with a clear narrative about who you are as an expert and as a speaker. Is your personal brand or expertise positioned to become the unanimous choice to speak for their events?

There are 4 ways you can position yourself to get hired or invited to speak…

1.    Proof that you’re the expert or storyteller on a specific subject matter - If you’re continually providing value (content) on a specific topic, you will become a topic of interest when event planners are looking for speakers, coaches or consultants.

2.    Direct referrals based on established credibility - Leverage relationships.

3.    Publish a book on your personal brand or industry insights - Share the lessons you learned along the journey and how others can apply them to their life or business.

4.    High quality video content – Create a speaker sizzle reel. Show event planners how you engage and deliver impact for an audience.

Nowadays, anyone can create content based on their experience and how they interact with the world. You can get referrals if you ask for them and have demonstrated competence. Self-publishing a book is easier than it has ever been. Anyone can create video. It’s all within reach if you can execute.

While I could do a deeper dive about how the first three methodologies got me speaking gigs, this article is intended to help storytellers and experts take their craft to the next level by curating a speaker “sizzle reel”. 

So, what is a speaker "sizzle reel"?

Think of a trailer for a movie or mini-series. It’s a brief preview that highlights various moments, characters, and the plot within a few minutes. It's a teaser designed to build anticipation and excitement to get you into the theatre or lure you in to a binge watching frenzy. They share enough to get you to commit to your time and money to experience their product. 

A speaker sizzle reel (or demo reel) has the same objective as a movie trailer – it reveals the character(s), highlights moments, and outlines a story. If an event planner is looking to hire a speaker, they want someone who they can align their event theme with the expertise and inspiration of the speaker.

What an effective speaker sizzle reel does:

• Demonstrates the energy, excitement and competence you bring to the stage
• Showcases images and video of you in action to validate you as a speaker (B-Roll, Still Shots, Articulation, Monologue)
• Shares a glimpse of your style and teasers of your message

Here are some great tips from BigSpeak...

If you’re looking to book more stages in 2020 (like I am) outside of your immediate network, a speaker sizzle reel can be your ticket.  After publishing my speaker sizzle reel on YouTube I’ve already started to leverage existing relationships to become a part of their organization’s conversation as a keynote or workshop facilitator for their upcoming events. It’s working!

Your speaker sizzle reel is a direct reflection of your personal brand and how you deliver value to the world. With all the free or affordable digital tools out there, you can make a decent promo video if your time and patience allows. Or you can hire and pay for an expert, and/or barter trade.

In either case, you need various brand assets, social proof (testimonials), and a compelling message (if you want to stand out) before you start producing your speaker sizzle reel. Once you have primed your assets and brand narrative, you can begin production.

Here is the final product of mine (2 minutes, 50 seconds)...

Tackle the planning of your sizzle reel as you would a big project. This is how I curated my speaker sizzle reel before I hired someone for production…

PHASE 1: HARVEST INFORMATION

1.    Build an archive of photos and videos with you speaking in front of past audiences. Consider everything – an average video clip can make for great B-Roll if it’s only for a few seconds.

2.    Start asking event planners who have invited you to speak to take photos and video of you speaking. Many established educational and industry organizations will have videographers or photographers who donate their time to build their portfolio. You may be able to get free video content from them if they’re just starting out, creating a win-win for both sides.

3.    Consolidate all of your testimonials from past events you’ve spoken at and create a library of quotes from happy customers. If you don’t have testimonials, ask for them.

Once you’ve built a content library of you speaking, it’s time to study the pros who have been at this for a while.

PHASE 2: STUDY OTHER SPEAKERS

4.    You can find a ton of content from other professional speakers on YouTube if you simply type in the words “Keynote Speaker Sizzle Reel”.

5.    Study and begin to take note of what you like from other speakers sizzle reels, save the specific links and create a list of qualities and ideas that resonate with you.

6.    Then, take the traits you liked about their sizzle reels and start piecing together a narrative to tell your own story, message, and expertise.

You have a passion and a message. Now it’s time to share and test your ideas with trusted colleagues or advisors.

PHASE 3: GET FEEDBACK

7.    Begin to draft an outline that establishes you as an authority on your respective subject matter. What do you want to be known for? Where do you excel? How do you inspire?

8.    Identify and engage with at least 5 friends or colleagues who are willing to give you honest feedback. Get feedback on your script and ask if they understand the message and value you intend to deliver. If your content or message is unclear to your advisors, keep at it until your message is clear and concise.

9.    Create a monologue to fill in any gaps and to share more of you. Help the event planner get to know you. 

I asked for feedback among industry colleagues, marketers, and friends to help refine my sizzle reel narrative. 

Why are these details and feedback important? If you’re going head-to-head with other speakers who are competing for the same stage as you, these small details can make a big difference and set you apart. The more research you do on YouTube, the more you’ll discover there are speakers who simply throw stuff together without putting much thought into a clear message and value to the audience. You can win with quality and clarity.

PHASE 4: DETERMINE YOUR BUDGET - TIME & MONEY

The sweet spot for time in a speaker sizzle reel is 2 to 3 minutes. If you want to be considered you need to be short and sweet with your message. Event planners will appreciate that, and quality demonstrates your commitment to the craft. 

Now that you’ve done the work in outlining your sizzle reel, harvested relevant content, curated a script, aligned your brand assets, selected your background music, now you can aim to hire a producer. 

NOTE: The content you deliver to your producer should be clear and concise. They should be able to plug-and-play your content into your script.  Keep in mind that time is money, and often times you get what you pay for. Be very judicious and about delivering information so you don't go over budget.

You can find a decent producer/editor between $1000 and $2500.

When delivering your script and content to your event producer, consider color coding various aspects of the script to help them better understand how your content is put together. Where do they cue B-Roll, Monologue, Video, etc.

In today’s hyper connected world, video is king (or queen, depending on who makes the decisions).  It has the power to evoke the feeling that will inspire an event planner to hire you above all others. 

If you found this article to be insightful and of value, feel free to share your thoughts. What else would you like to know?

?About

Danny has a passion for helping others to achieve sustainable and repeatable success.  Diagnosed with brain cancer upon college graduation, Heinsohn overcame numerous setbacks to become a high-performance sales professional, Ironman Triathlete, award-winning philanthropist, author, and keynote speaker. Whether it's for a client or his team we build competencies, confidence, and habits that lead to sustainable and repeatable success. 

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