Make Marketing Suck Less

3 Must-Have Messaging Ingredients to Book Your Next Speaking Gig

A lot of attention is given to how to book your next speaking gig.

I've talked about it on the Rebel Speaker podcast and here on the blog.

There are whole courses devoted to how to market yourself as a speaker. There are even people who will offer to do the marketing work for you.

Let's face it. Marketing is a big job. There's your sizzle reel, the website, the pitching, the one sheets, the cold calling. Oh, my.

There's so much to do that it can make your head spin. It feels rather overwhelming. All that work and where should you begin?

Here's the Rebel truth:  All of that marketing work, all of that energy, time, and money invested in video production, and pitching, and a one-sheet is meaningless if you don't have your message nailed.

[Tweet “Your sizzle reel has no sizzle if you don’t have a smokin’ message”]

If your message is not what the audience needs or it isn't appealing to organizations that book speakers, then all the marketing in the world isn't going to drive results in your speaking business.

The marketing isn't what gets you gigs. The marketing isn't what helps you reach more people or to make a bigger difference.

The message is.

Messaging is the key. It's the linchpin to book more speaking gigs.

And yet, so little time is spent talking about how to develop that message. And you end up with a ton of frustration when you put a message out there and it doesn't resonate, it doesn't work.

How do you go about finding that all important message?

Let me hook you up with the three must-have messaging pieces so that you can book your next speaking gig.

Prefer to listen?

#1 Your Message Starts with Your Audience

The first must-have piece is a deep understanding of where your audience is beginning with your expertise.

When I work with clients, either in my three-month intensive or my Speech That Converts program, we're always trying to determine where the audience is starting from with that topic.  

What is their experience with your area of expertise? Because when an audience walks into a room to see you speak, they already have ideas about your message.

They have made assumptions about your topic. They have beliefs about it, they have misconceptions, and they face challenges. Challenges that you can help them with in your speech.

Your job, your action step, is to identify those beliefs and misconceptions and challenges and address those in your speech.

The benefit of doing this type of research, this deep dive into your audience, is when you talk to prospective organizations about having you come in to speak, you can demonstrate that you understand their people, and you know a bit about their industry, and how your expertise can help.

Knowing Your Audience – A Case Study

Now, here's a result that can come from understanding your audience really well. When I first started working with Tracey Warren of Ready, Set, Grow Marketing and also of InSpark CoWorking, she had a signature speech where she was talking about how not to be craptastic on social media.

Great speech. People loved her.

She was booking gigs all over the place. However, her audience didn't hire her.

They weren't saying, “Hey, this was great. I want to get into social media more. Can you help me?” Instead, they would take notes and they wouldn't implement them. They would take no action.

What we realized is that Tracey was starting in the wrong place with her message.

Her audience wasn't afraid of being bad on social media. They were afraid of being seen, and that is a whole different challenge.

Instead of talking about how not to be craptastic on social media, she started talking about how social media is a great place to start experimenting with visibility.

What happened for her is that with one speech, she ended up booking a $15,000 client from one speaking event, which is an amazing payday from one speech!

That's the power of understanding your audience.

You get to start in the right place with them, solve the right problem, explain the right misconception, so that they can take the next step with you.

The next step might be getting a client, getting another speaking gig, or even selling more training to an organization.  Without understanding your audience you have no next step.

#2 Your Message Gets Grabby

And then once you know that starting point, where the audience begins with your message, you can move to step number two, and that is a message that grabs people's attention and makes them want to know more.

How do you figure out how to grab your audience's attention? You've done the deep dive, you know what they're challenged by, but what are they looking for?

What an audience wants from a speaker, what an organization wants from a speaker, is to get a result.

What result does your speech produce for an audience?

That result is what makes you stand out.

Now, for Tracey, the result that she's producing is this mindset shift that social media is the perfect place to experiment with visibility. It's a safe place to do that.

When people receive that result and realize, okay, yeah, I can get on social media, that's when she was able to generate more business.

The result of your speech – that is what is going to get you hired.  

The result makes you stand out from other speakers who speak on a similar topic, and it gives you leverage when you negotiate your speaking fee because you can say, “I produce this result for my audiences and that result is worth something.”

If you want information on how to figure out what result that you can uniquely produce so that you can negotiate higher speaking fees and show how you stand out and book the big, then go to DrMichelleMazur.com/Result, and grab my guide to figure out the result you can create for your audience.

Once you've worked through that guide, you can then take the next step, the next must-have, and that is a speech that is your best selling product.

#3 Your Message Is Your Best Product

What we've done so far is that we have a beginning point for the audience. We know what's challenging them, what they believe about your message, and now we also have an end point, the result that we want to get the audience to.

Then the speech serves as the vehicle from getting them from point A to point B.

Your signature speech is the product that you're selling.

If it's not exceptional, if it's not driving a result for the audience, all the marketing in the world won't help you get more referrals or get more trainings and workshops within an organization, because you haven't nailed that message.

Once you have that speech, you're going to find that it is so much easier to market yourself, to pitch yourself, to do the sizzle reel.

If you're ready to nail your message so that pitching yields more speaking opportunities and that people who hire speakers are curious about your message and want to know more, then grab a Speak For Impact strategy session with me.

We'll figure out what's off about your messaging, what plan we need to put in place so that you can reach your speaking goals, and I'll show you how I can help along the way. To book your session, you can go over to DrMichelleMazur.com/Speak.

[Tweet “Your signature speech is the product that you're selling.”]

Your Message – Got one?

Marketing is meaningless if your message is not what the audience wants, what the organization needs, and doesn't get a result.

Once you figure out where your audience is beginning, the result that only you can produce, and you put them into an amazing signature talk that nails it, marketing just got a whole lot easier.