Unlocking Paid Speaking Opportunities: 10 Tips to Find Your Next Gig

In today's competitive landscape, many aspiring and seasoned public speakers are eager to unlock paid speaking opportunities to grow their speaking careers. Whether you are a new speaker or an experienced professional, finding gigs that align with your expertise can be challenging. This article will provide you with ten actionable tips to help you find your next paid speaking engagement, ensuring that you get paid to share your message and build a successful speaking business.

Understanding Paid Speaking Opportunities

What is a Paid Speaking Gig?

A paid speaking gig refers to an opportunity where a public speaker is compensated for sharing their insights, knowledge, or experiences at an event or conference. These engagements can vary widely, from delivering keynote speeches at large conferences to conducting in-person workshops or webinars for smaller audiences. In essence, a paid speaking gig is a chance f...

10 Tips for Improving Public Speaking Skills: Become a Confident Speaker

Public speaking is an essential skill that can significantly impact your personal and professional life. Whether you are delivering a speech, making a presentation, or speaking in front of a group, honing your public speaking skills will help you convey your message effectively. This article presents ten invaluable tips to help you become a confident speaker.

Understanding Public Speaking

Public speaking involves delivering a message to an audience, and it encompasses various elements including content, delivery, and engagement. Mastering public speaking skills can enhance your communication abilities and boost your confidence. As a speaker, you must be able to connect with your audience, adapt your message accordingly, and deliver it with clarity. Understanding the nuances of public speaking is the first step in improving your overall performance.

The Importance of Public Speaking Skills

Public speaking...

Some cations from video: "Sit down, write it. It will suck. Here's some things that do need to be in a keynote. A captivating intro. You have to catch your audience. If you don't have them within the first 3 to 7 minutes, you've lost them for the whole hour. So it either needs to be a captivating story. It can be anything. You could be a musician. It could be anything that helps you be likable and connect to the audience.

Now here are some tips on writing your keynote that other speaker coaches are not going to talk about. Okay, first thing is when you go to sit and write your keynote, a lot of people rely on formulas. They will say every speech needs to have, you know, an intro and 3 points with the story and then practical application and then a conclusion. And I am going to tell you that I hear so many speakers and the problem with me with a lot of the formulas where you can just kind of plug and play your information into just like a That formula that they've created is I can h...

Want to be a better speaker?

When you give a speech, you can share a story OR you can invite the audience IN to the story.

 I don’t mean having them help tell the story with audience participation or communicating with them directly.

 It is more about “setting the stage” to invite the audience into the story so they are feeling and experiencing it at as you share. Much like a movie.

 A simple way to start is to utilize something called “focal points”. Focal points are where you look when you’re speaking.

 As an actor, you are never to look directly into the eyes of an audience member unless it something stylized. If you look an audience member in the eyes, that person may feel put on the spot. Some people LOVE this. I experience that performing in comedy clubs. However, most people don’t. I’m one who not only doesn’t like it – but is terrified of it. You’ll never see me in the front row of a comedy club for that exact reason.

Rather than staring at your audiences’ random eyes, yo...