How to Book Paid Speaking Gigs Before Developing Your Talk with Erick Rheam

The Speaker Lab Podcast

"You can get rid of that limiting belief that you have to have a talk fully ready before you sell it."

One of the hardest things for new and aspiring speakers is putting together a compelling talk. It's hard to move forward until you feel like everything is perfect — but what if you could sell your talk before it even exists?

Your best marketing is a great talk — but you don't necessarily need to have that talk fully developed before you pitch it to event organizers.

This week, Erick Rheam is back to break down the four main reasons developing your talk first can actually be problematic, along with advice on how to test the market, why prospecting is a superpower for successful speakers, and much, much more!

If you're feeling stuck or you're not sure how to get things rolling as a new or aspiring speaker, this is the episode for you.

"When you're on the phone with an event planner and you're discussing what their needs are, if you're too rigid and you have this talk already developed, and you've got too much time invested in it and too much energy, it's harder to adjust and a little demotivating if you spent all this time building something that the event planner doesn't exactly want."

Looking for the highlights?

• 02:58 Four reasons why speakers shouldn't finalize talks before selling them
• 03:54 How to adapt your presentation to meet the event planner's needs.
• 07:00 How to draft a rough idea and adapt it based on feedback
• 10:10 Why you should be flexible with your topic and develop assets around it later
• 13:29 Why it's easier to pivot when you're already in the game
• 18:47 Why you don't need a dramatic story to speak
• 25:51 Why consistent daily prospecting beats sporadic efforts
• 28:05 Why success in speaking requires aligning passion with demand
• 33:01 How deadlines will force preparation and commitment

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