Struggling to Book Speaking Gigs? This Could Be Your Problem
You've got an itch to make a difference to more people, to get your expertise, your message, your story in front of more people, and you know that speaking is one of the best ways to make it happen.
And, bonus, you love it.
There's just one tiny problem: getting speaking opportunities.
You can't make your impact if you don't get on stage, right?
You've done exactly what the experts have told you to do.
You've told your network about your speaking. You are pitching your speech. You're finding speaking opportunities.
You're getting out there asking for referrals and building your platform, and still not much is happening.
Why is it that you are struggling to book speaking gigs?
Prefer to listen?
If you're making the pitching efforts and getting out there and still, it’s falling flat, there's a reason for that.
Marketing is tactics, pure and simple. You put a plan in place and you work the plan consistently, and you get results.
Messaging, on the other hand, is the thought leadership. It's the positioning. It's a deep understanding of who you serve with your speech.
We skip to marketing ourselves and pitching for speaking gigs because, frankly, it's a whole lot easier than getting messy with our message.
We figure once we get hired or booked, we'll find out our message. We're going to “customize” the experience for our audience.
While I'm all for customizing your speech to your audience, you can't abdicate the responsibility of figuring out what your message is and making it compelling to the people who want to hire you. It's not their job to tell you what to speak on.
There are three tell-tale signs that your message is not working for the people who would book you to speak.
[Tweet “Three tell-tale signs that the people who hire you aren’t getting the message”]
Table of Contents
Sign #1: “That’s Interesting”
So, you're heeding my rebel advice and working your network for your next speaking gig.
But when you tell people what you're speaking on, the number one response is, “Wow, that sounds interesting,” and the conversation just stops.
That's not the response you want.
The response you want when you talk about your speaking to people who could potentially introduce you to another person that can help you book a gig is, “Oh, tell me more,” or, even better yet, them talking about how they need your solution.
What I find is that most speakers give really short, non-curiosity-provoking answers when they are asked what they speak on.
- “I speak on sales success.”
- “I speak on leadership.”
- “I speak on conflict.”
It's vague. It's boring. It doesn't let the conversation go anywhere.
You have to be specific and invoke curiosity so that people want to know more.
Sign #2: The Sound of Silence
Oh, hello darkness my old friend.
But this time, darkness is an empty inbox or no voicemail, or, “You have no new messages.”
You've sent out pitches. You're trying to do informational interviews to build relationships and find out more about an organization you want to speak at.
You make calls. And every time, you get nothing.
Now, I will be the first to admit that cold pitching has a lower success rate than working your existing network.
It's just the numbers. You have to have the numbers to make cold pitching work.
But what can help you boost your chance of a response is grabbing their attention so that they are curious and want to know more.
This is a message problem.
If your email isn't interesting, it's just clutter and noise in their inbox.
People will find the easiest way to take care of that problem is clicking on the delete button.
But if you are able to clearly show that you really understand them and the problem their organization is facing, that will get you a response.
The Black Hole of Inbound Inquiries
In episode 67, I went on an epic rant about how to make your website better so that it's easier for people to hire you.
Most speaking websites have a lot of issues. If you're a speaker and have a website, go listen to that episode. You will get some invaluable advice on how to make your website better.
But before you listen to that episode, it's time to get clear on the response you want to generate from your website.
When someone is looking for a speaker like you, you want them to go to your website and then write an email or give you a call.
You want to hear, “I went to your website. I saw what you talk about, I checked out your video, and your message is exactly what our organization needs. Can we talk?”
That's the response that you want.
If you're not getting messages like that, you are in the black hole of inbound inquiries. That means leads are not coming to you.
Right now, what you're probably getting is nothing, nada, zilch. The fact is that you don't know that it's your message that is causing the problem.
Case Study of a Message that Matters
Let me leave you with a concrete example of a message that works.
This comes from my client Rachel Alexandria, and it's a really good, solid example of how a small tweak can make a big difference in the response.
When Rachel and I met she told people “I speak on difficult conversations,” and difficult conversations get the response, “Oh, yeah, interesting.”
Once again, not the response that she was looking for.
So we've tweaked it a bit, and now she says, “Hey, I speak on why conflict is so darn difficult for people and how using one sentence can defuse the emotion out of any intense conversation.“
Immediately people get curious.
They want to know what that one sentence is. They want to know why it's so difficult. Or, they start relating it to themselves.
It's like, “Oh, yeah, I really struggle with conflict. I just hate it so much. My boss and I the other day … ”
Then they start talking, and now you're having a conversation. She got more specific and she provoked more curiosity, and that makes it easier for people to want to know more.
Your Call-to-Action
If you are suffering from any of the tell-tale signs of having a messaging problem, whether it's getting the “that's interesting” response or the sounds of silence in your inbox or having a black hole of inbound inquiries, then you need to have a Speak for Impact Strategy Session with me.
We'll spend 30 minutes together: figure out what's holding you back from making your impact and booking those gigs, and put together an action plan for how we can make speaking happen for your business. Go to drmichellemazur.com/speak to book your session now.
I believe that marketing and landing speaking opportunities are easy.
It's creating a message that matters to the audience and to organizations that would book you, that's the hard part. Once you've nailed the message, it opens up a world of speaking opportunities for you.
