Jaimie: Welcome to Pitch Perfect. I'm actually doing a solo episode for the first time in ages. And my kids are asleep. I'm recording it from my home office. Friday night. It's the sixth of October. So if you're listening to this, I'm hoping it's the ninth of October. When is the day that I'm actually dropping this episode. And it's a big week because I have doors opening to my signature course Paid to Speak. It's actually the fourth time I've opened the doors that will be happening this Wednesday the 11th of October. But I'm also running for the first time a free challenge and at the time of recording this I have 200 people registered for my ‘Speak and Earn’ challenge. So if you're listening to this Monday, which is Monday, the ninth of October, you still want a chance to jump in because it kicks off on the 10th of October, Tuesday the 10th in Australian time, Sydney, Australia and Eastern Daylight Time 12pm so midday on Tuesday, the 10th. So you can if you're listening to this anytime in fact, even if it's just a bit after it's a three day challenge, so be running out this week, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, 10, 11, 12 of October, go to speakandearn.com and you can join the challenge for free so you got nothing to lose and we have a pop up Facebook group as well. So all of the recordings every day will get posted into that Facebook group and you can watch them up until doors closed for Paid to Speak on October 18. But I'll talk more about the course a little later.
But I thought this week I would just talk about how to break into the world of professional speaking and how you can earn money from these speaking gigs. So at the moment, I am inundated with speaking requests or knocking some back because I have a big adventure happening in a couple of weeks time which you know, stay tuned for future episode to hear about that. But I my time is pretty compressed and so I'm actually knocking back a lot of speaking gigs at the moment because I can't fit them in. And to me that shows that there are so many opportunities out there for paid speaking gigs. And when you do one you kind of realise just how many there are, you know, because you do one and then someone asks you to come back and then you are in the audience. Someone in the audience will want to book you again for their upcoming event. So it just kind of has this incredible flow on effect. So I highly recommend, you know, you really start pitching yourself and that's what I want to talk about today. So if you've been dreaming of taking the centre stage and and getting paid for it, you know what, you know, grab a notepad because I'm just going to take you through some really quick easy tips during this episode on how you can become a paid speaker.
So number one, find your niche. Now before you begin, you want to ask yourself, what is it that I'm really truly passionate about? You know, your niche could range from tech business self help to storytelling, and even specific hobbies. Now remember, the more specific you are, the better because not only does a niche build credibility, but it also ensures that you stand out in a sea of speakers.
Number two is craft your message so once you've got your niche, it's then time to develop your signature talk or your presentation. Now this could be like a combination of your personal story, maybe your professional expertise and a unique perspective that just provides value to your audience.
Step three, build a portfolio. Start small, so offer to speak at local clubs, schools, maybe some community events and record the sessions. So if you're speaking at a local Lions Club or a rotary club, for example, recorded you know, get someone to film or come out get bring someone along and making the film on their smartphone, because this can then become essential material for your portfolio because if you've got a strong portfolio that showcases your speaking style, your engagement with the audience and most importantly your expertise. You're going to get booked for future speaking gigs.
And that brings me to step four network can choose to connect with event organisers. Join speaker bureaus, be active on platforms like LinkedIn recommendations and word of mouth or just golden in the speaking world. So attend conferences, maybe even virtual conferences and engage in discussions. This is a great way to network. Remember that every conversation can lead to a potential opportunity.
Step five, set your fee now this can be tricky. So initially, you might do a few events for free or a minimal fee. But as you gain experience and demand, you must know your worth. So research what other speakers in your niche are charging. Don't undersell and people do that too. Often we really undervalue our work, but also be realistic as well. So you don't want to just all of a sudden, say I'm going to charge 50,000 If you're only just starting out So be realistic. And you know, I guess I get asked this question probably the most this is you know, how much should I charge? I think what is the minimum you'd be happy with, then go higher because you can always negotiate your fee. So that's what I always say to people, but in your head, make sure you have an absolute minimum that you want to do it for and if they might negotiate you back down to your minimum but you're still happy with that. That's great.
And lastly, so number six is promote yourself. So create a professional website that showcases your speaking engagements, testimonials, and maybe even this is what I do. I have a blog where I regularly regularly share my insights. So engage with your audience on social media platforms, perhaps consider hosting webinars or go live on Instagram you go live. I use stream yard to go live on LinkedIn, Facebook, and YouTube at the same time. And I go live on my Facebook groups, my Facebook page, my personal profile, my LinkedIn personal profile, as well as my LinkedIn company page, then my YouTube channel as well. It's just a really great way to interact and then grow your fan base.
And a bonus tip I want to give you before we wrap up is never stop learning. The best speakers are also the best learners. So what I want you to do is attend workshops, take courses, read books, just keep refining your craft. I think it's really really important to do that.
Of course if you want to take it to the next level my signature course Paid to Speak. The doors are opening on this week, Wednesday the 11th of October. They will only be open for eight days until Wednesday the 18th of October. We've had over 100 people now go through the course can you believe that? Over 100 People over three marches and people are just getting incredible results. You'll see a lot of the testimonials being rolled out in the next week and they almost make me want to cry just hearing the effect that this causes had on people's lives. Keep refining your craft in the meantime but the Paid to Speak course will really take it to the next level. You're going to get contacts you're going to learn how much to charge, how to really pitch yourself, you get pitch templates. You'll learn where to find the lucrative speaking gigs. We have a group coaching live session four weeks in, plus you get over 60 videos in the course it's just incredible value no one has ever said it's no good enough value. There is a lot of content in there. There are even speaker agreements templates for virtual and in person events as well. You get Canva templates you get like a stack of bonuses to I've got media planners and how to have how to monetise your expertise, how to do your sales page all these types of extra bonuses that I've thrown in there and they're like giant PDF planners and some of them on a 30 pages and so that the 60 pages so those bonuses alone are worth a lot of money and they are thrown in for free. There are 10 of them. Oh plus, is a surprise bonus. Well, I'm giving it away. Now there are 1200 media contacts in there. So I say over 1000 because journalists are always leaving in switching around jobs. So the email addresses can be updated within a day. But I have a fairly meaty list of Australia's top journalists, producers from online TV, radio blogs, all over the country and you can actually use that to pitch yourself and I show you how to write press releases. It's literally everything you need. To know to start promoting yourself as a speaker.
So there you have it. That's your roadmap to becoming a sought after speaker and earning money from it. I want you to remember that every big speaker started with a single speech. Your voice has power. It's time you monetise it. So thank you so much for tuning in to Pitch Perfect. If you found this episode valuable, please share it with someone who might benefit until next time, keep speaking and keep shining.
