How to become a Professional Speaker (Part 2 of 2)

If you’ve already read part 1 of the Influencer series, you’ll be ready for part 2: becoming a professional speaker. If you missed my related post, please check it out now before proceeding so you have necessary context. Welcome back! Now that you’ve built your reputation by sharing valuable insights and information and expanded your network, it’s time to build on the foundation as an influencer to become a professional speaker or presenter. Before submitting to speaking opportunities, there are a few interim steps you can and should take to round out your credentials. These steps include generating expert quotes in industry articles and receiving industry awards and recognition (aka public relations).

With my background in PR and being a relatively early entry in the digital marketing world, I’ve had an advantage over others with greater technical marketing or business knowledge. For starters, I’ve made a habit the past 5+ years to regularly respond to Help A Reporter Out (HARO) pitches as an expert (as a marketer and entrepreneur primarily). In exchange for my time, expertise or soundbite, I receive a link back to my digital marketing agency along with my quote or advice (which provides great SEO value in addition to the exposure). The last two years, we’ve averaged over 80 press mentions at Anvil, most of the coverage originated from my HARO submissions. You will benefit from spending 5 minutes a day reviewing requests and another 5-10 minutes responding to each query, as appropriate.

In addition to securing mentions in the press (online and print, including books), I’ve made an effort to submit Anvil for industry awards and recognition. While we’ve had some success when proactively applying for awards, much of the recognition I or Anvil receive has been unsolicited. Instead, our reputation precedes us, and we make the shortlist for these awards. This is due to a combination of how long we’ve been around, how often we engage in the community, the quality and consistency of content we create and share and of course, speaking engagements. I mentioned in my first article that ‘Entertain’ is one of my mission statement components, and as a tie-in, I will say that the most common compliment I receive after I speak is that I’m engaging and entertaining. I prefer to educate through storytelling, yet I always sprinkle in a bit of industry research or statistics to provide context and support for my overall message. Fact tell, stories sell as the adage goes and I would validate the accuracy of the statement based on my experience.

Path to Professional Speaker

I’ve found that speaking hasn’t been the destination as much as the journey, perhaps because I enjoy being an educator. For others, speaking is a livelihood or essential marketing strategy. Regardless of your motivations, building credibility as a speaker has many benefits. One of the benefits I enjoy most is being able to travel the country and world as a business expense. I’ve had the opportunity to host workshops in Singapore and Hong Kong and host a keynote in Dubai. Those opportunities were more about good timing than anything, but years of speaking experience certainly helped secure these high-profile opportunities.

Once you’ve created a foundation as outlined above, it’s time to start soliciting speaking engagements. I don’t recommend starting with a press agent or speaker’s bureau. Build your speaking resume by starting small with online webinars, which are ideal for practice and getting feedback from an audience (usually via live chat or phone-based Q&A). The next step is to start locally and with smaller groups to help refine your style, format and content in standard seminar or workshop format. I recommend local chambers of commerce, area chapters of larger industry trade associations and other educational groups peripheral to your industry as a starting point. Work your way out to regional, national then international opportunities as you gain momentum and credibility.

High-profile speaking engagements beget other higher-profile speaking engagements. When I first started speaking at SEMA in Las Vegas in 2011, I had no idea that being on their agenda would lead to at least two other speaking engagements at sister organization events around the country. Those events led to new clients and other opportunities, simply by appearing on the website as a presenter. I’ll be speaking again this November at SEMA on Amazon and managing online reviews, as my sessions are typically highly-rated and I’ve developed a relationship with the event organizers. You can take a similar approach by proactively seeking out events and contacts that can make referrals or recommendations and taking care of them by being responsive and meeting deadlines.

Speaking engagements can come from any direction or source. I’ve secured speaking engagements based on an event organizer finding an article I’ve written on a topic and others where I was referred from local chapter contacts of larger national or international trade associations. My volunteer work on various industry and non-profit boards has also led to opportunities in the past. If you find yourself out of ideas on the local business or industry organization opportunities, consider connecting with area colleges and universities as a guest speaker or even instructor. I’ve hired from my Search Engine Marketing workshop at Portland State University over the years. Although that isn’t why I teach, it’s a significant benefit considering there are currently no formal degrees in search engine marketing to recruiting has always been a challenge.

Over time, the network I’ve curated over the years, and organizations I’ve created or supported have led to some of the best speaking opportunities. As I mentioned, I’ve been an adjunct or volunteer instructor for various organizations over the years, all of which have helped build my business and my reputation. Another avenue less-traveled is working with educational organizations that specialize in creating online classes and workshops. I’ve been paid to speak for a few organizations and volunteered for others just for the exposure and access to prospective clients.

When exploring speaking opportunities, don’t forget to leverage your clients/customer, partners and vendors. I’ve been asked to speak at client educational events, for technology partners in the digital marketing space and even for a few of our vendors. Lastly, I tend to shy away from pitching to speak at digital marketing conferences (with some exceptions like Digital Summit, which is an engaging national event series in our industry) and focus more on being the only marketer at other industry conferences for verticals with which we have experience or see strategic value. Don’t forget to promote the events at which you will be speaking to your network.

In the end, building your credibility as a speaker builds your credibility as a professional and the relationship is symbiotic. Many speakers are in it to sell books or consulting, but others have the luxury of time and financial freedom to speak for the love of educating on a given topic. I’m nowhere near the later, but that is my goal. What is yours?