Professional Speakers – First Step to Getting Well Paid For Speaking

What’s Your Umbrella?

What do you stand for? What is your logo?

Think about it. What do you want to be known for? Can you sum it up in a few words? That’s your positioning. By positioning I mean where you stand in the marketplace. How can you stand out in a crowd of wannabe speakers and be memorable?

Suzanne Sherkin is the expert on Essential Conversations and uses that as her umbrella to stretch over everything she does. If something doesn’t fit, it gets left out.

Your umbrella defines your positioning which defines your audience. Conversations with teen-aged children, members of a team, a dying parent, an estranged family member, an inattentive business or personal partner fit under Suzanne’s umbrella. And one area where she’s in demand is the health care field.

Give your position some serious thought. I hate to see speakers with a list of topics as long as your arm and as diverse as New York City! They’ll neither get well paid nor well known. You need to own a certain category the same way Larina Kase owns the theme of ‘confidence’ and Joe Vitale, owns the name Mr. Fire.

Chris Widener knew he couldn’t compete with the big name speakers such as Zig Ziglar, Brian Tracy, Denis Waitely and so on. He also knew that he really wanted to be one of them. Chris crafted a great (and risky) plan to create a relationship with these top speakers and to position himself in The Next Generation of Great Speakers.

It worked out brilliantly. Chris hired Dennis Waitely to speak at an all day event that Chris hosted.
He paid Dennis his full fee even though, in the end, Chris lost thousands of dollars. BUT….Dennis recommended Chris to other meeting planners who couldn’t afford Dennis’ high fee. Soon Chris had a relationship with all the top speakers who spoke on video about what a great speaker Chris is. And a booming business!

Don’t start anything until you’ve clarified your positioning, put your umbrella in place and are distinguishable from all the other speakers.

What’s your area? What do you own? Not necessarily that you’re the only person speaking on that topic (if that’s the case, it’s pretty unpopular!). But that you have your own unique spin on an in-demand topic within something fresh and new to say.

What industries would be a natural fit for you? Who would most benefit from your speech? What industries are you personally drawn to or have experience in? Choose among those industries to find your particular niche.

That’s your position – make it as lofty as possible.