Speaking is not fair

Speaking is not fair. The jobs, as well as the income, is very unequally distributed between people. In other words, some people book all the gigs, the rest fight for the leftovers. Learning to work with this distribution is key to success. 

Our data (and we have a lot of that) speaks this truth like a bold neon sign in crispy sub-zero night air: Very few speakers get the majority of requests. If you are already a popular speaker, it is easy to run a speaking business. If not, you still have work to do. You will get there.

What is interesting is that the distribution pattern shows how bureaus or agencies are mostly victims of client demand, and unable to impact the distribution of jobs significantly. That is, they cannot distribute gigs more equally between speakers. Typically clients already approach bureau with a speaker in mind. That is hardly surprising if you think about it: how often do you go shopping without having a pretty good idea of what you need?

It sounds fundamental. It is. It is also an essential insight for anyone trying to break into speaking. Do not put all your efforts into getting an agency as the first thing. It will consume energy and time, that will give a more significant return elsewhere. As a secondary thing, it shows that you can't afford to sit around and wait for that call. It probably won't ever come.

(In our free journal we look at this in relation to speaker directories - read more on that here)

Get to work. List small wins that will someday equal up to having a great speaker career.

Spend some energy getting free gigs, or making a showreel showing you on stage. You can also go to Squarespace or Wordpress and build a simple website. Doing this will be a better way to spend your time than trying to kick in the doors of agencies and bureaus.

Difficult dynamic

Think about the bureau-business for a while. It would make economic sense for bureaus to distribute jobs more equally if they could. It is an unfortunate attribute of existence that we can ever only be in one place at any one given time. Ideas shared via books do not have this limitation, but speakers do. When one speaker gets a lot of requests, that speaker is likely to be unavailable for clients. To a bureau, this equals lost income, and for business reasons, it would make much more sense for agencies if they could distribute jobs more evenly among all speakers. Some are bound to be available on the days requested by the client. 

Doing this would also leave agencies significantly less dependent on a few key relationships with high-income speakers and provide a more stable business. 

The point is; the bureaus would change this pattern if they could. Unfortunately, they cannot. As a result, the winner takes it all-type distribution becomes a reality. That changes the game. The challenge is not improving the internal distribution mechanisms in the field of public speaking. The problem is working with the powers that be and making them work for you. 

When you know how to harness these mechanisms, you are well on your way to becoming a speaker.

These numbers are from our report on International speaker fee levels. Join us at Speakers loft if you want to know more.