7 Ways to Start Getting More Speaking Opportunities

How do you get more speaking opportunities? That is a question many professional speakers ask themselves when they are looking to grow their career. Speaking gigs not only look good on your resume, but they can also lead to new business and networking opportunities. In this blog post, we will talk about how you can start getting more speaking opportunities!

1. Use The Power of Testimonials

There is nothing more powerful than a testimonial. If you do not already have some on your website, LinkedIn profile or social media pages, get them! Ask clients and customers how their business has benefitted from working with you. These testimonials should be shared across all of your channels so that people can easily find them when they are searching for speakers online.

2. Speakers Bureaus

Speaking bureaus will help connect you to organizations looking to hire professional speakers in your industry niche because they work with many different companies at the same time and understand what each audience wants to learn about based on demographics and other information. There may even be referral fees associated if an organization hires one of their recommended speakers through the bureau. 

3. Networking Events/Conferences

If you are looking to expand your network, conferences and networking events can be an easy way to do so. They also offer speaking opportunities where speakers share how their business has benefitted from certain strategies or tactics that were discussed throughout the event (or how it could benefit others if they apply them). Find out which organizations host these types of events in your industry niche and reach out about potential speaking roles. 

4. Collaborate With Other Speakers

If there is another speaker who shares similar ideas as you but does not compete with what you have to offer, then think about collaborating on a presentation together for companies that might want both of your perspectives. It will help increase the number of options available when approaching a company with a request for paid speaking gigs. 

5. Speak at Your Own Events

If you are hosting an event or planning on starting your own business, then it is important to have a professional speaker at the helm of how things will be executed. This shows potential clients and customers that you know what you are doing when it comes to speaking engagements because they can trust that your company puts just as much thought into how each presentation looks as how valuable the information being shared truly is. Additionally, this also helps promote your new endeavour which could lead to more opportunities down the line.

6. Invest in a High-quality Video of Yourself

There is nothing that will help you get more speaking opportunities than a high-quality video of yourself. If your company does not invest in how it represents itself, then how can others trust and hire you? Investing in a professional videographer to do an interview style presentation with you about your business is the best way to demonstrate how serious you are about what you have to offer potential clients or customers.

7. Giving A Great Talk Is The Best Advertising

Professional speakers know how important it is to give a great talk. This can be why they are able to easily get speaking gigs because companies want presenters who will engage an audience and leave them wanting more by the end of their presentation. So how do you become that next professional speaker? Practice makes perfect, but having confidence in what you have to offer goes along way too. Just remember how valuable your ideas are and how they could benefit others by sharing them with the world. 

John Lawson is one of the most trusted and experienced eCommerce professionals in the industry. John is the founder of The Ecommerce Group, which he started in 2011 to share his knowledge with other entrepreneurs in the industry. It’s the oldest eCommerce group on Facebook with over 8,500 members from around the world!

John speaks at conferences all around the world, including Retail Global, South by Southwest, Etail, Digital Summit, Hubspot Inbound, Ad-Tech and more. He also writes for several international publications such as Power Retail, Small Business Trends and Disrupt Magazine.