You’ve polished your keynote, mastered your stage presence, and are ready to inspire an audience. Now, it’s time to figure out how to get paid speaking gigs on your calendar. We’re sharing 8 booking tips from successful speakers on The Bash.
From defining your niche and building credibility to creating a marketing portfolio, advertising and sales strategy, and more, securing bookings takes effort, consistency, and strong communication. With keynote, corporate, motivational speakers, and more all getting booked on The Bash, we've rounded up 8 tips from some of our successful speakers on how to get paid speaking gigs.
Here are 8 Tips on How to Find Paid Speaking Gigs.
1. Define Your Niche
Your niche is what sets you apart and makes your services stand out. Your topic and presentation style are just two examples of potential niche areas. Once you determine your niche, you can hone your expertise, clarify your messaging, build your branding, create selling points, craft a compelling story, and connect with and engage an audience.
"Depending on the event, I open with a live straitjacket escape that grabs attention and sets the tone for the entire presentation. I don’t just motivate — I equip. My presentations give people actionable strategies they can use immediately."
- Mike Breeze | Motivational Speaker
2. Build Credibility and Authority
Establishing yourself as a trusted expert will help you secure more paid speaking gigs. Consider developing takeaway content like PDFs of key presentation points or guides containing actionable tools. Publishing a book, press release, or white paper will further position you as an authority on your keynote topic and reinforce your expertise.
Sourcing testimonials from clients and leveraging them across content can also influence future bookings. After a successful event, consider asking satisfied clients for a testimonial or word-of-mouth referral. Building credibility and authority builds trust, which will ultimately lead to more bookings.
"I'm continuing to finetune my core message, developing strong signature talks that can be delivered with quality consistently, updating my website and other online profiles to be consistent and grab the attention of event planners, and building a portfolio of credibility as a thought leader (LinkedIn, YouTube, and writing a book and a journal)."
- Steve Fredlund | Keynote Speaker
3. Create and Maintain a Marketing Portfolio
Your marketing portfolio is your first impression and should be thought of as your professional storefront. Creating and maintaining an up-to-date marketing portfolio will make it easy to share more about your business with prospects. It should contain a variety of content, including a bio and professional headshot, a promo video or highlight reel that showcases your stage presence and audience engagement, or one-pagers with key benefits of booking your speaking services.
Your marketing materials are another great opportunity to showcase positive testimonials from satisfied clients. By keeping your marketing portfolio fresh, you’ll always be ready to impress prospective clients.
4. Advertise Broadly
The more visibility you get, the more likely your business is to get booked. Therefore, our speakers recommend advertising across multiple channels, including a professional website, listing on online booking platforms like The Bash, speaking bureaus, social media (Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, and YouTube), and through paid advertising like Google Ads.
Networking events are a great opportunity to build brand awareness and share more about your speaking services while also making in-person connections with others in the industry, which can lead to future collaborations and bookings. Online and in-person advertising can be effective on their own, but don’t rule out traditional forms like direct mail.
"I am researching the cities where most events are scheduled and advertising in those places. It pays to be in an event planning organization as they often know the industry trends and can help you determine trends like places, venue types, and even what clients are looking for in speakers, so you can adjust your profile to showcase what is trending. This makes you relevant."
- Jean Briese | Motivational Speaker
5. Develop a Sales and Follow-up Strategy
A strong and reliable sales and follow-up strategy is key to securing gigs. Consider what has worked previously, fine-tuning this process, following it consistently, and making adjustments as necessary. Always prioritize responding quickly, as the booking is likely to go to the speaker who responds first.
The Bash speakers we caught up with consider following up as an essential step in securing gigs. Most speakers follow up with leads via email or text and request a phone call or virtual meeting via Zoom to further discuss event details.
"I use almost exclusively email for follow-ups and request phone or Zoom calls; I like having a record of my outreach. I follow up once for most; twice for opportunities I'm really excited about -- then set a follow-up date in advance of the event the following year."
- Steve Fredlund | Keynote Speaker
Recording when and how often you follow up with a lead will help you create a follow-up process and ensure you never miss a touch point. Following up increases your chances of getting booked by keeping you top-of-mind, showing your interest in the event, and helping you and the event planner to determine if the partnership is a good fit.
"I absolutely believe that the key to success is a defined sales process that you follow every day, every lead. Get a good sales process in place and follow it. We can't speak unless we get booked, and we won't get booked if we aren't selling every day."
- Jean Briese | Motivational Speaker
Just because an event is over doesn’t mean the sales process should end. Follow up with clients after the event to thank them for booking you and let them know you’d be happy to provide your services in the future.
6. Clarify Event Goals
Every speaking engagement has a purpose. Learning about the audience, location, venue atmosphere, and goal will help you to prepare accordingly and determine how to best connect with and engage the audience. Consider creating a list of questions to ask the event organizer so that you can learn more about their vision. This will translate to professionalism, dedication, and will show your thoroughness, attention to detail, and reliability.
“Being responsive is huge, but the most important thing is ensuring upfront that you are the right fit. I understand the group, I understand the goals for the event, and I understand what the event planner is looking for in a speaker."
- Jean Briese | Motivational Speaker
"'What does success look like for you at this event?' That one question helps me understand what really matters — whether it’s energizing a team, launching a new initiative, or leaving a lasting impression on attendees. Once I know the goal, I can reverse-engineer the experience to match it."
- Mike Breeze | Motivational Speaker
7. Overdeliver
A successful speaking engagement is achieved not only by delivering what you promised, but also by exceeding expectations. Showing up to the event as the reliable and professional speaker they hired, plus going above and beyond, often leads to client satisfaction. Arrive early to setup and meet the event organizer beforehand, be flexible with requests, and allot time after the event for engaging in conversation with attendees. Consider leaving time toward the end of your presentation for a Q&A session or bring supporting handouts for attendees to take with them.
Overdelivering isn’t about lowering expectations so that you can be perceived as going the extra mile; it’s about making the extra effort to ensure the event is special.
8. Be Authentic
Authenticity is just as powerful as the takeaways your audience will leave with. Let your passion and personality shine throughout your presentation. Share your unique stories, experiences, and perspectives. The more you connect with your keynote, the more it will resonate with the audience.
"Be so passionate about what you speak on that you’d shout it from the rooftops. When people hear your topic, your name should be the first one that comes to mind. That only happens when your message is authentic, lived-out, and deeply connected to who you are. Passion is contagious — and in this business, it's your most powerful marketing tool."
- Mike Breeze | Motivational Speaker
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It takes time to build a successful speaking business, but these 8 tips from successful vendors on The Bash will help you land more paid speaking gigs. If you’re a speaker who is ready to connect with new clients and book more events, create your profile on The Bash!
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