Episode #11:
Eight Types of Speaking to Embrace to Fill Your Calendar and Gain Insta-Clients

In this episode, Caterina discusses eight ways to use public speaking to expand your reach, increase your visibility, and gain insta-clients for your business. Whether you are speaking in-person or virtually, whether you are just getting started or you are a seasoned pro, these ideas will help you ensure that you are speaking as often as you would like to the right audience at the right time. Listen to this short and impactful episode to discover all the different types of speaking opportunities that are out there for you that you may be missing – that you can now embrace to book more speeches and workshops to impact more people, more often, with more ease.

 

Episode Highlights:

[00:01:55] The type of speaking that has value, but should be limited

[00:04:49] Two criteria that support you as a guest speaker

[00:05:40] Getting paid to speak should be one revenue stream, not your only revenue stream

[00:07:21] How collaboration can lead to more speaking opportunities

[00:08:18] Three of Caterina’s favorite types of speaking

[00:11:42] The importance of using speaking in your business

[00:15:47] Why you should get started speaking now

Expand Your Fempire Podcast Show Notes

Eight Types of Speaking to Embrace to Fill Your Calendar and Gain Insta-Clients

Welcome to Expand your Fempire with Caterina Rando, the podcast for women in business on a mission. Sharing ideas to support you to grow and thrive. Now here’s your host, Caterina Rando.

[00:00:00] Caterina Rando: Hey, my friends, Caterina Rando. I am so excited to be with you. I was teaching my workshop the other day on “how to gain instant clients with speaking and workshops, both live and virtual,” and I started talking about all the different ways that you can use speaking to grow your business. Meaning all the different types of speaking opportunities that are out there, that you can use or create, to get yourself booked more.

[00:01:02] I thought I would take a minute to talk about, or a few minutes, to talk about it now so that you can begin to apply these ideas, look for these places, and get yourself booked more. Because you know what’s happening right now with our virtual lifestyle is that we are able to speak to groups all over. I’ve spoken to some East coast groups. I’ve been considered for an international conference, all virtual. And I want to make sure that you’re getting more opportunities for you to be speaking.

[00:01:40] Okay. So right now, I’m going to share with you the eight different ways that there are to get booked, or the eight different ways there are to speak for you to grow your business.

[00:01:55] The first one is actually not one that I want to see a lot of from you. The first one is one that I actually see a lot of ladies using a little too much, and that is community service. Here’s the thing.

[00:02:12] I only want to suggest and recommend that you speak to your ideal clients, where your ideal clients are gathered, that’s where you want to be speaking. When you go talk to the high school for career day, when you go talk to the group of people that are between jobs, unless you’re a career coach or career counselor. That’s great. It’s wonderful – provide massive value. Recognize though it’s not a marketing speech. It is community service. And that’s okay.

[00:02:51] I want you though to limit your community service speaking. I’m going to suggest a once a month is a ton of community service speaking. And if someone asks you to speak and its community service, meaning they’re not paying you and there’s no ideal clients there, then you can go. But only go once a month and ask them to schedule you for another month, if you’re already doing your community service that month. Because I don’t want you to think that that kind of speaking is going to fill your business with clients.

[00:03:30] Now, I will say that I have done community service, and had it turn into revenue and clients. For the amount of community service I’ve done or most of the rest of you have done, community service speaking, I’m sure you would agree with me that the return on your investment is the, the heartfelt gratitude of the people you speak to and the good feeling in your heart that you did it, not so much the revenue in your pocket. Let’s limit your community service speaking.

[00:04:05] Okay. Number one, community service. Number two, what we mostly do, and that is when you are a guest speaker at an existing event. Could be a conference, could be a virtual meeting like we’re doing a lot of right now. It could be you’re the guest speaker at the luncheon, at the breakfast meeting, at the conference where you’re doing a breakout session or a keynote speech. If you’re not getting paid for it, it’s not considered professional speaking. If you’re getting paid for it, that’s number three, it is considered professional speaking.

[00:04:49] Now, I want you to be a guest speaker all over. There is a particular criteria that you want to follow before you’re a “yes” to be a guest speaker. I have five different points of criteria that will support you to have each place you’re presenting as a guest speaker, be the kind of place that you can come home with some insta-clients.

[00:05:16] The first thing I want to make sure you’re clear: you only speak to your ideal clients. Again, if you’re not it’s community service.

[00:05:25] Another part of this criteria is “can you make an easy yes invitation?” If you can’t, it’s going to be a lot harder to monetize that guest-speaking opportunity.

[00:05:40] Number three, we’ve already said professional speaking. This is where you go somewhere, you give a speech and they give you a check, bing, bing, bing! That is awesome. Professional speaking is fabulous. Guess what though? It is very challenging to build a business only on professional speaking. Because every day you go, you give a speech. Guess what? When you come home, you gotta go get booked for another professional speech. 

[00:06:11] It is one revenue stream I want to encourage you to embrace, not the only revenue stream I want to encourage you to embrace. And you know, why? Because a speech is education, maybe inspiration. If you’re lucky, you’re going to get some transformation, but guess what? A speech does not provide ongoing support, ongoing guidance. It doesn’t provide a structure to grow and change. It doesn’t provide accountability. It doesn’t provide ongoing encouragement or a community.

[00:06:48] And that’s what your group programs do. And that’s what your one-onone work does. Even your retreats with some pre and post-sessions can do that. Recognize professional speaking – don’t have it be your only revenue stream. If you do, you will go hungry my friend. Okay. Have it be one of your revenue streams.

[00:07:11] So what have we discussed so far? Community service. Guest speaking, being the featured guest presenter. Professional speaking.

[00:07:21] The next kind of speaking is when you collaborate with other speakers to put something together. Put together a conference where you’re all doing something together, virtually. Put together a workshop where you’re the three of you or the two of you are each having people come and you’re producing the event together.

[00:07:43] Collaborative speaking can be very effective. But here’s the thing, you have to have a criteria for who you want to collaborate with. I don’t encourage you to collaborate with people that you don’t already know and have a relationship with. I want to encourage you to have a code of conduct and a confidentiality agreement. If you’re going to do any of that. So that you are setting yourself up for success. Also, of course, clearly defined roles and responsibilities. Now that is number four.

[00:08:18] Number five, my personal favorite, bing, bing, bing: the public workshop. This can be live. This can be virtual. There are a variety of workshops. It could be a one-hour introduction workshop. I just finished a one-hour introduction workshop, right before coming to be with you and it was virtual where an organization sponsored me. They asked me to come in and speak to their people, which I did. We did it all virtual. And at the end, I invited them to come to my upcoming workshop which, by the way, you’re invited to, we have workshops coming up. We’re going to have totally massive value that we’re going to talk about at the event and I am very, very excited to have you join me for that.

[00:09:07] Okay. We have talked about the community service speaking, the guest presenter speaking, the professional speaking, the collaborative speaking, my favorite the public workshop. What else, Caterina? What else?

[00:09:24] Well, you know what else? Another one of my favorite is “pay-to-play.” Pay to play is when you pay an event producer a fee for them to put you on their stage and they’re responsible for filling the room and you get to pay their fee, so you don’t have to fill the room yourself. Isn’t that great? I love pay-to-play. Now. Pay-to-play can be extremely effective.

[00:09:56] There is a particular criteria you need to follow to ensure a successful pay-to-play. One of the criteria – super tip alert – if it’s the first time they’re ever offering this pay-to-play, you may want to go and see if they’re the right match for you before you make an investment.

[00:10:17] Because – super tip alert, super tip alert – it has been my experience in my many years of doing my thing that often event producers do not get the numbers they are looking for the first time they do an event. I do not want to be told, and you do not want to be told, that there’s going to be 300 people in the audience and show up. And there’s only 30 people in the audience. I’m sure you would agree. Right? And guess what? Been there, done that, do not want to do it again. Very, very important that you ask questions before you say yes to a pay-to-play, to ensure that it is going to be a good use of your time and your money.

[00:11:09] Okay. My next one that I love is bing, bing, bing: the stage swap. That’s where you go and speak on someone’s stage and they come and speak on your stage. And you can also, of course, do this virtual. You go speak to their community. They come and speak to your community. The stage swap is an amazing way to expand your reach, expand your network, and of course, gain insta-clients.

[00:11:42] And I’ve got one more way for you. Now, why does this all work? This works because, when you speak, you build insta-influence. And I want to encourage you to recognize that there is nothing better than giving a speech and gaining insta-clients. Sometimes people you never knew before the speech, sometimes people that have been looking for what you have to offer for a very, very long time.

[00:12:11] All right. The last kind of speaking that I’m going to share with you is another one of my favorites, which is sponsored speaking. Sponsored speaking is when a brand, or a company, or a business gives you money to speak and represent that brand. Now you could call it a brand ambassador. This is where you are speaking as part of your brand ambassador responsibilities.

[00:12:45] Sponsored speaking. I’ve been fortunate enough to be sponsored by Staples, by Jones New York, some other sponsors earlier in my career. And I love, love, love sponsored speaking. The thing is, this is like professional speaking, only times two. Because you have, of course, your audience that you want to bring massive value to. You also though, have another client, which is your sponsor, to ensure that they are getting value from working with you.

[00:13:18] And the value they’re getting, my friends – very important point – is not only your amazing speaking, it is that you help that brand get in front of their ideal clients. Because I work with small business owners, I was a good match for Staples. Because of course I talked to women, I was a good match for Jones New York when they wanted to expand and reach certain segments of businesswomen.

[00:13:50] This is very, very important to recognize. It’s not just about your amazing speaking. It’s about the platform, the community that you give your brand access to. [00:14:02] Let’s recap, there’s eight kinds of speaking that you can use to gain instaclients. Community service, but that’s really not what you want to be doing in terms of gaining insta-clients. Again, rarely it can work. Mostly it’s you being of service, which of course is fine.

[00:14:24] The second one is when you are the guest presenter at a conference, at a luncheon, for a virtual meeting. The meeting is already existing, and you come in as the guest presenter. Number three is professional speaking, when you go somewhere, and you get a check. Number four is collaborative speaking – you partner with other speakers to do something together so that you all draw on each other’s reach.

[00:14:57] Number five is the public seminar or workshop, which is fabulous. It could be a one-hour virtual. It could be an all day, virtual or live and in-person. Number six is of course the stage swap. We love the stage swap. We love the stage swap. We love the stage swap. And we also love if you’re doing it right, the pay to play. Where you pay to be on someone’s stage, and they use that investment that you make to get more derrières in chairs. Or if it’s a pay to play virtual where they’re getting more smiles in the squares on the screen. And the last kind of speaking number eight is sponsored speaking.

[00:15:47] Okay. These are eight different ways for you to gain insta-clients with speaking and remember live and virtual – it all counts! By the way, this is the center and the specialty that I bring to my clients, many of my clients are already speaking, but they’re not coming home with clients. My specialty is supporting you and my clients to massively monetize your speaking. That’s what I’m going to help you do. And I cannot wait to have you with me very soon.

[00:16:19] Because you know what? My friend, you have massive, massive, massive value to bring. And there is a lifetime supply and a whole planet of people to serve. I want to encourage you to be louder and prouder about the massive value you bring.

[00:16:36] I want to encourage you to use your voice for good. This is the time for your phenomenal voice to get out there. And you know what? Many of you. I shouldn’t say many of you, some of you, a few of you, maybe one of you, you are getting ready to get ready to begin to think about getting going with all of this. And I want to tell you that the goal is not just to do it. The goal is to be masterful at it.

[00:17:05] But how do you be masterful if you’re waiting and trying to figure it out before you get started? Let’s be very clear. Ready is a myth. Ready is a myth. It is in the doing that you figure things out. It is in the doing that you get ready. [00:17:25] And if you don’t get started, you cannot get to mastery, because it’s by doing, and upgrading that we get better and better every time.

[00:17:35] My friend, Caterina Rando sending you some love. Feel free to send me a message if I can serve or support you in any way, because there is a lifetime supply of people to serve, and it is your job to use speaking, to build insta-influence and gain insta-clients.

[00:17:56] Talk to you again soon. Again, another time smooch for you. Sending you some love and look forward to seeing you live and in-person, or virtual very soon. We hope you enjoyed this episode of Expand Your Fempire with Caterina Rando.

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