How to Get Your Next Speaking Engagements: The Bookable Speaker Checklist: Podcast Ep. 492

492-SYB-Bookable-Speaker.mp3: Audio automatically transcribed by Sonix

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Carol Cox:
We’re kicking off a new podcast series called Become Bookable, because we want you to get more speaking engagements. And today’s episode, we’re going to cover your bookable speaker checklist. What are the things you absolutely have to have to get booked as a speaker? What are the things that you can start working on, and what are some things that you may think are essential, but really are not the ones that are going to get the attention of event organizers? If you’re not sure where to pitch to speak or where to submit, or if you have been pitching, but you’re not getting any responses at all, or you’re not getting yeses. This episode in this entire series is for you. Welcome. I’m your host, Carol Cox, joined today by our coaches, Diane Diaz and Erin Mark. Hi, Diane. Hi, Erin.

Erin Mark:
Hi, Carol.

Carol Cox:
I’m excited to have you on because each of us is out there doing speaking, but we approach it in different ways and we have different topics and different audiences. And I know, Erin, you worked with us. You started working with us just about a year ago, and now you’re our visibility and speaking business coach within the Thought Leader Academy. You’ve attended our in-person workshop and our retreat coming up in February, and you are very much on the speaking circuit out there getting speaking engagements and building that. So we’re going to definitely tap into you and what you’ve been learning. And of course, Diane, you and I have been speaking for a very, very, very long time. We have built up a lot of our speaking network, which has come in handy for us. But I know that there are some other things that are working now for speakers that I will be honest and say was not the case. We didn’t need certain things when we started with speaking your brand ten plus years ago. So we’ll share what are some of those things that have changed because the industry has shifted, especially since the Covid pandemic. Coming out of that, the event organizers and bookers and people who are going to pay you to speak are looking for finding trust. They need to figure out who are the speakers for them, who are going to deliver really great value to their audiences. And these events are getting inundated with speaker submissions. Thanks to ChatGPT and AI, everyone can put together a speaking proposal.

Carol Cox:
So everybody is and they’re submitting them, and that’s great if it helps you out. But the problem is now competition has skyrocketed, so you need to make sure that you stand out. So we’re going to talk today about the three R’s of being a bookable speaker, which are relevance, reach and relationships. And at the end we’re going to each share the number one way we get speaking engagements. Now you can get the bookable speaker checklist that we put together to go with the series at speaking your brand.com/checklist. Again, that’s speaking your brand.com/checklist. All right, let’s dive in. Diane and Erin, let’s talk about the first R, which is relevance. Relevance, of course, is making sure that you as a speaker have a topic, have a talk that the event organizers that and their audiences are interested in. And so when you think about what’s relevant to them that you do, you have to think about your positioning. So how are you positioning yourself as a speaker in the marketplace of all the other speakers out there who could fit a similar profile that you have? Erin, I know that when you went through the Thought Leader Academy with us earlier this year, you created your talk. You’ve been working on different types of positioning statements for your talk. Can you explain a little bit about how you have really just one keynote, but that you positioned it in different ways depending on the audience and the buyer?

Erin Mark:
Yeah, absolutely. And to me, I think it starts with the positioning statement as asking two questions. Who do you work with and what do you want to be known for helping with? So my broader positioning statement is I work with organizations to strengthen resilience, reduce burnout, and sustain performance through change. But depending on what industry I’m talking to, I may adjust that slightly. So I’m not changing what I speak about. I’m really just trying to connect the same expertise to the problem that matters most for that specific buyer or industry. So I work with a lot of healthcare organizations, so for them, I may focus on helping teams navigate pressure, change and burnout while continuing to deliver for their patients as opposed to HR. So I do also HR or people leaders, and I might talk about building resilient teams that adapt faster, stay engaged and perform through change. I think my biggest piece of advice is your positioning should stay consistent, but the language can change depending on the buyer.

Carol Cox:
Erin, it sounds like you are selecting the words, the key words for those different positioning statements based on what that audience, that buyer would be most interested in. So what they’re searching on, or when they find your speaker website or they have a conversation with you, they see certain key words versus other words.

Erin Mark:
Yes. Yeah, exactly. And I think when we think about that, it’s more of a formula for what problem they’re solving, what’s keeping them up at night, you know? So that’s where, as I think about that, as I work with who to solve or improve what so they can outcome because we want to make sure that we are providing value to that industry, to that buyer. And we are solving a problem for them by our frameworks, our lived experiences, our science backed research, whatever you speak about. But it’s really creating that value. And that’s what I think the most important part of that positioning statement does.

Carol Cox:
Well, and it reminds me that not too long ago, just recently, I delivered a keynote at a leadership retreat for the Space Coast Chamber of Commerce here in Florida, where I live. And I’ll tell you at the end how I got that keynote speaking engagement. And it was it was a two hour keynote. So I definitely built in some activities for the 100 plus people who were in the audience, because I was not going to talk to them for two hours straight, and I think they were thankful for that. But they. So the reason I got that speaking engagement was because they knew the work that I do at speaking your brand around the importance of story and voice. But the people in the audience were not my usual audience. They weren’t women entrepreneurs or women executives and professionals. They were leaders within the community, members of this Chamber of Commerce. So they were nonprofit directors, leaders of companies, elected officials, people who worked at the different private space companies in the Space Coast. So very different type of audience. So I couldn’t go to them and say, I’m going to teach you how to do public speaking, or I’m going to teach you how to do storytelling.

Carol Cox:
Number one, that’s not a keynote. We don’t train people within a keynote environment. But number two, that’s not relevant to them. So I had to really think about how to take what I do, because I still want to share with them what my deep area of expertise and interest at interest is, but position it and frame it for them. So I came up with what is the bigger community question that you all need to ask to have the kind of positive impact you want to have? Because even organizers told me that they were facing challenges with breaking down silos between different groups within the community to solve these problems. So I frame this. What is this bigger community question? And who is in the room, but who’s not in the room, whose voices are missing, whose stories are missing, and how do we bring them in from the very beginning instead of way down the road? And it was a they really resonated with this idea, but I had to position it differently than I normally would have. But now I have a brand new keynote topic that I can position for other similar types of leadership retreats that I never would have before.

Erin Mark:
I love that, and also I think that helps too, to ask those clarifying questions on the call, like you were able to, to get that information. So when you talk to the event organizers or someone who’s interested in hiring you, asking the question, what outcome do you want from my keynote, from my talk, if you could wave a magic wand, what would make this perfect? They’re going to give you the answers, right? And it’s on us to make sure that we deliver for them and that everybody wins for the day. Everybody feels good.

Carol Cox:
I think Diane and Erin, we have a a special ability because we have a background in marketing. And Erin, I know you have a background in sales. And for us, I think I think of these conversations with the event organizers in the same way that I approach a sales conversation with anyone else is, what is the problem you’re having? What is a positive, successful outcome look like? What have you tried before? What has worked well? What hasn’t worked well. And I feel like for so many speakers, if they especially if they don’t have a background in marketing and sales, they don’t really know what to ask event organizers to get that information, or they don’t even think about asking those questions at all. So in that book, a speaker checklist that you can download on, on our website, we’re going to have those questions that you should ask the event organizer so that you can get that information. This is especially useful when they may be looking at several speakers and trying to decide which to hire. If you can ask them these questions, show your interest and then put back to them that proposal that reflects what they need and how you’re going to help them to get that you have a much greater chance of getting of getting that booking compared to someone else.

Diane Diaz:
That’s a great point. I’m glad you mentioned that, because as Erin was explaining, I was thinking about how it really is kind of just marketing one on one, right? Is that you identify their challenge or what problem they’re trying to solve. And then, you know, you let them know how you can solve that problem for them, but also the differentiation, right? What makes you stand out from the other speakers such that you deliver this experience that they want the audience to have, right? So really your, your pitch, your proposal, your, your submission to a conference, that is your marketing of yourself as a speaker. So you have to use marketing principles when you’re doing that.

Carol Cox:
Absolutely. And if we think about relevance, that’s what a lot of marketing is, is making yourself relevant to ever the end buyer or the end user is now. Diane, I know that a lot of times when we’re thinking about positioning ourselves as speakers, we want to be relevant also, what is going on in that particular industry or within that organization or within the news. And so making sure that we’re on trend or maybe addressing some trends. But I also like to think about that. Your signature talk, your keynote talk should be about 80% timeless. So it doesn’t matter what year you’re speaking or what is going on. It could have been 2020 in the middle of pandemic. It could have been 2018 before we even had thought about that. It could have been 2025 where we’re way past it, whatever’s going on, 80% timeless and then about 20% trend. Now, this is not a hard and fast formula. This is just a general thing to think about because you want a little bit of trend to show that you’re not just dusting off a talk that’s been sitting on the shelf for ten years, that you are up to date with what is going on, and you’re addressing the concerns of the event and of the audience. So, Diane, think about what is the topic that you really like presenting on and what are some current trends for that topic that you have thought of?

Diane Diaz:
Yeah, it’s a good point that the, the 80/20 because you can have your sort of steadfast through line, but you can always refresh it for whatever is going on and therefore it stays relevant. Relevance, right? It stays relevant to the audience. I think it also makes it more interesting for them because it is tapping into current trends. Right. And I think it makes you as the speaker, seem like you’re on top of things like, you know, what they might be hearing, seeing, and then you’re addressing that. And so I speak about personal branding a lot. And I have for years personal branding. I think if we’re thinking about it, like, let’s say pre-pandemic, a lot of my speaking was around sort of visibility on social media, making sure you’re coming across the way you want to come across that stuff is still true, that you need to think about how is your personal brand coming across? But if to tap into trends now I’m thinking about the idea of building trust, right? Because there’s so much going on, there’s so much noise. There’s a lot of people who speak on that. How can we build trust with our personal brands. Why do we need to build trust with our personal brands? So trust is huge. And I think something that goes along with that is this idea of the human brand. In the AI saturated world, there’s a lot of AI.

Diane Diaz:
Everybody can create everything all the time, and a lot of it is so-so, right? So how can we as humans still come through with our personal brands to stand out, to get noticed? So I can speak to entrepreneurs about that. I can speak to, um, corporations and organizations about how their employees can stand out and help them build personal brands that help build the organization brand. So I can tap into that idea of AI, but sort of like the counter to it, right? What can we do to kind of cut through that with the humanness? And then the idea of thought leadership versus content creation rather than just creating all this content, how, how are you the entrepreneur standing out as a thought leader, right? How is your personal brand tapping into some more important message, some bigger message that your thought leadership message, but that can help your audience, right? So I’m looking for those things to take personal branding, which again, has been around for a long, long time. Personal branding is not a new concept, but how can we refresh it? And then I can use those ideas to pitch and, and make a more interesting talk that I think event organizers would think, oh, that’s actually, you know, that’s really relevant for today. Let’s talk about that.

Carol Cox:
And then you could find conferences that maybe have an AI bent where they really are looking for topics related to that, and then position your personal branding, talk around AI versus other conferences. And you can tell from their website that maybe they’re not so much interested in AI because they want to prioritize the human aspect of it. So in that case, then you would position it more as, as humans, are we developing our personal brands in this AI age.

Diane Diaz:
Absolutely. So so anybody who’s listening to this, whatever your topic is, when you’re looking at the conference tracks or you know, you’re pitching to an organization and once you understand what their needs are, you can take your topic and make it fit that with just a few minor tweaks to make the message more relevant to whatever it is they’re looking for, whatever the conference is looking for, whatever the tracks are in the conference.

Carol Cox:
And Erin, I know that you just were talking about how you have several different positioning statements on your website. You have different topics that you list, but it really is all back to the same signature talk, the same keynote for the most part.

Erin Mark:
Yeah, absolutely. Because I want to cast a wide net. There is a thought that if you talk to everyone, you talk to no one. Right? Okay. That that does make sense. But I feel like for me at least, my topics of that uncertainty change, strength and resilience, they’re are all in the same category. And with me, especially speaking for ten years pro bono before I even went into the business of speaking, I kind of have seen all aspects of it. And what was interesting was when I was creating this next talk to give and to businesses and corporations and organizations, there could be different titles of your talk, but really they’re the same talk. So for example, I have one called calm in the chaos, right? How to navigate Uncertainty Without burnout. And that’s great. But some organizations don’t want to tie the word uncertainty to a title because it may have a negative connotation. So that talk is more it’s now I call it the resilience response. So there’s just different ways they’re the same talk. And I’ll customize that 20 to 30% depending on that organization as we were just talking about those needs. But it’s really the titles that change. And I think that’s a way that speakers think, oh my God, I have to have 3 or 4 different talks. Again, go back to if you talk to everybody, you talk to no one, but you can have a specific talk and theme and that customization matters.

Carol Cox:
Yeah, that reminds me, we just did an episode on this episode for 86 called Stop Creating Every Presentation from Scratch. Build one talk. You can adapt for any audience that’s right there. Why we do it.

Erin Mark:
And even workshops, I just the workshop piece of it. I never saw myself, I’ll be honest, doing a workshop because all I’ve done is keynotes and I was approached to do a workshop. I did one last week on this is more how to advocate for yourself and healthcare. A little spin on my Ted talk, but it was amazing. And I thought, oh my gosh, I could do this with my keynote. That adaptation is easily broken down. So, uh, if you are listening to my voice or you’re seeing us and you’re like, I can never, I’m not going to do a workshop. I was you, I was you like a month ago, and now I’m doing workshops. So you got this, you’re gonna do it.

Carol Cox:
And that’s why it’s also a good idea to say yes to opportunities, even if you’re not sure about them, because you may end up discovering that you really like them. And I know Aaron for that one. It was a hybrid speaking engagement. Part of the audience was live in person, and the other part was on Zoom.

Erin Mark:
Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. It was a really cool experience. It was a classroom, but they also had a production team on Zoom who would also feed me questions. You know, either the fear goes away or the opportunity does make the choice. So I was like, the opportunity I’m going with, let’s do this.

Diane Diaz:
We need t shirts that say that.

Erin Mark:
I.

Carol Cox:
Might drop on that one love it.

Carol Cox:
So that was number one. Relevance is your positioning. Who is your buyer? What problem do they have and how is your talk addressing that problem? Now obviously you’re not quote unquote solving the entire companies or audience’s problem in one talk, but you are addressing it so that they know that they’re getting certain value from it. Relevance number two is reach. That is about being the speaker that the algorithms recommend. And this goes for social media algorithms, YouTube as well as AI, SEO. We’re going to talk about those in more detail in the next two episodes of the series social media and AI, SEO. But I want to just touch a little bit here on the importance of video clips. Now, this is the thing where I said ten plus years ago, when I started speaking your brand and started doing, speaking specifically on behalf of speaking your brand, different from the speaking I was doing for the tech companies that I ran is that I didn’t think speaking, having a speaker reel was a big deal. I, I, I mean, I had video because I just I like to capture video. And so I had video.

Carol Cox:
But for most of our clients, they didn’t have video, they didn’t have speaker reels and they still got plenty of speaking opportunities. Now mind you, this was 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018. It was not as easy to capture video as it is nowadays. Even the smartphone cameras were not that great. The resolution was not that great. The audio was not that great. Most people weren’t going to hire professional videographers to film it, except for us. We actually did, which is why we had great video. But for our clients, we really didn’t think it was necessary for them for the most part. And it was also hard to edit and was expensive and time consuming to edit. Well, I have done a complete turnaround on this topic. And really, Erin, it’s because of what you have been discovering as you’ve been out on the speaking circuit of how often event organizers are asking for your own video clips video of you to so that they can see you in action. So tell us a little bit about discovering how important video is and how you have gone about getting video of you speaking.

Erin Mark:
Yeah, absolutely. When I started going into the market, because I never thought to film myself when I was doing these speaking engagements for over a decade because I just wasn’t seeing it as a business. And then once I got into that, where there were event organizers or even just marketing myself, they have to know how I speak, have to see how I engage. And I think that video is one of the fastest ways also for a buyer to understand what they’re getting when they actually book you in sort of what we’ve been talking about with AI. It makes it incredibly easy for anyone to create this like polished copy. Anybody can look like Oprah, right? With an AI up there and a great website can have a great speaker description, but videos shows you something you can’t manufacture as easily, especially with those clips. So like I said, how do you communicate? How do you engage with the audience? What does it feel like? What’s the vibe when you’re in the room? You want a buyer. I at least want my buyers to imagine, you know, what I’m like on stage? I want to show them that.

Erin Mark:
So for me, getting that video, yes, you can pay for an AV team, which is a great investment and you should like you want someone to be able to know what spots to look at for B-roll in the crowd to kind of follow you. But that isn’t always available. And that adds up fast. So a lot of time at my speaking engagements, I will bring my own, you know, tripod phone, just as you were saying. But I also do this little trick where there’s people in the audience and I will bring $5 Starbucks gift cards, and then my business card. And what I’ll do is I’ll pick out a few people, usually towards the back, maybe some different angles that I want to get. And I’ll say, hey, I’ll introduce myself. I’m so excited to be here. If you don’t mind, at some point, no pressure. Would you take a picture of me as I’m speaking? Feel free if it’s easier to take like a ten second video. Whatever you want. And would you just email it to me? And here’s a $5 Starbucks gift card.

Carol Cox:
That is such a brilliant idea, Erin. I literally have never thought of that because I do set up my phone on the tripod, kind of towards the back so I can get the back of the audience for some b roll and then me in the center. And that’s what we recommend. But then you only have that one angle because it’s stationary just sitting there. But it’s such a great idea to include some people in the audience and give them that sense of reciprocity that you’ve given them something so they’re more likely to follow through and send you what they took.

Erin Mark:
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Erin Mark:
I’ve gotten some great shots from that. And you can read the room too. Some rooms you go into, you’re like, I don’t know if these are the people who are going to do it, and that’s okay. That’s no problem. Right? Uh, but I don’t think it hurts to ask. And I think people are like, oh my gosh, everybody loves. Well, most people love coffee or at least tea or some little treat or treat. Yeah. Right. I should start like I, you know, don’t discriminate. I could do Dunkin Donuts. Like if I go to Massachusetts, you know, Boston, maybe I’ll bring Dunkin Donuts.

Diane Diaz:
Gotta be Dunkin, right?

Erin Mark:
Yeah. So if you’re listening and you’re a Boston, I want to come and see you hire me. I’ll bring Dunkin Donuts for everybody. Uh, yeah. I just think it’s a great way to be able to do that. You know what I’ve done as well? I had a talk in Atlantic City, uh, this past March, and I went on like thumbtack. Uh, they have those sites where I ended up just having it was a wedding photographer, but he had an off season, so he was looking for work. So I had him come just to shoot some raw footage of my, uh, my, I was doing actually a session at that one. So you can be creative about it. And then when it’s time, I think, pick 1 or 2, make sure you’re asking the question before you invest in actually hiring an AV team, that. What does the room look like? Ask to see the room, the stage set up. I did an own keynote locally, and I hired my AV team because I could control the room. So that was really helpful. I have a a main stage keynote coming up in November, and it’s going to be one of those bigger stages. So for me, I think about, okay, that may be a good investment piece because there can be a lot of shots of the room, but you want to make sure you ask to see what that room setup is before you’re investing a lot of money.

Carol Cox:
Yes. And this will be part of that bookable speaker checklist that you all can get to is about what questions to ask a videographer, so that you can make sure that they’re a good fit for shooting speaking events, which is different than shooting other things like weddings, even though it may, it may be a good cost reduction, but you have to make sure that they understand what the shots to get. Diane, I know that back in 2018 or 2019, you delivered the keynote for the Orlando Women’s Conference. And it was a beautiful ballroom and a beautiful stage. And so you invested in having a professional videography company come and film you for that.

Diane Diaz:
I did because it was such a beautiful stage and it was a large conference. I think there were 600 women in attendance, which is a nice size audience. So if you’re, you know, you can capture a video at smaller events as well. So don’t get me wrong, definitely do that. But if you’re presented an opportunity like that, definitely get video. So I did hire a videographer who is a local videographer who understands they shoot a lot of conferences so they understand audiences and B-roll and, you know, different angles and stuff like that. And so I wanted to make sure to capture that because, you know, you don’t know how often you’re going to get on stages like that, right? And it was a beautiful stage and a beautiful setting, big audience, a keynote, right? Everything, all the factors were right. So having them there was such an advantage. And then I was able to use that in a speaker reel. I can use that as evidence that I can do a keynote talk. Right. So it sort of fits the bill for all those things that you need, uh, speaking content for that you need that video for. So definitely when you’re thinking about, you know, where to speak and, and you know, when to get video, that’s one of those times when you want to do that also. That was an unpaid engagement. I did quote a fee, but they didn’t offer, they didn’t have a budget. And so I negotiated a couple of other promotional things. But then I basically said, I’m going to bring my own videographer, so I’ll need credentials for them. And they’re like, oh, of course. So they didn’t even question it. So if that’s a concern, like, well, I don’t know if they’ll they will, they will let you do that. So, you know, you just have to make sure that you just let them know that you’re doing that. But, you know, don’t miss those opportunities when you are on a beautiful stage like that to get that video.

Carol Cox:
Yes. One thing that I put in my speaker contracts is that I can film it so I can either obviously film it on my own iPhone, at least at the minimum, but then also bring a company in. If I decide that I want to make that investment and I put into the speaker contract that if they have any professional photographer or videographer, they’re capturing the conference or the event for themselves, that I will also receive a copy of that of my of my session, of whatever my keynote was. I don’t need the footage from the entire event, just what my session is. So just make sure that you also put that into your speaker contract so that there’s no guessing about whether or not you’re going to get that footage afterwards.

Diane Diaz:
If I can just add one thing. So if the conference does have their own videographer and you say you want to bring your videographer and they say, don’t worry about we have our own. Don’t rely on just that. That’s great. If you get that footage and you should have that in your contract, but still hire your own photographer and your own videographer because they’re going to be focused on you, not just. I have gotten video from the event videographer before, and it’s a couple of seconds of me or it’s not the quality I wanted, or it doesn’t come from the right angle, or it doesn’t include multiple angles, and then it’s really not that usable for me. So really still hire your own videographer even if they say they have one. Just, you know, let them know you’d like to hire, like to bring your own videographer. I think that’s important.

Carol Cox:
Yes. And because most of the time their videographer is not going to film your entire talk, they’re floating around and they’re getting 10s here and 20s there, but you don’t know if they captured the best moments of when the audience laughed, or when you were at the pinnacle of your story that you were sharing, but they didn’t catch it because they didn’t know versus the ones you hire, you know that you’ve given them the instructions and they’re going to get the entire talk as well as the different B-roll.

Diane Diaz:
And you don’t know how long it’ll be before you get the video from them, right? Because they’re not, they’re not, you’re not the one that hired them, right? They’re not on your time timetable. So definitely hire your own.

Erin Mark:
It’s so true. Well, I like what you said about that. Oops. Sorry. I like what you said about the moments. I like to tell them ahead of time. Like the laugh. I never thought about that. And I have this, like, one moment where everybody usually laughs when I tell you guys that this Make-A-Wish story and everybody laughs. And I never thought to capture the crowd instead of me because I was like, oh, that’s the moment where I know most people will laugh and oh, Diane, such good advice. Yeah, they will know because you are going to feed them that ahead of time where an event photographer videographer isn’t going to ask those questions beforehand. So yeah, that’s awesome.

Carol Cox:
Well, speaking of getting before we get to point number three here and our three R’s, speaking of getting speaking footage that is for you and captures your best moments and the best B roll. That’s what you can do at our three day Speaking Your Brand live retreat coming up in February 2027 in Orlando, Florida. We spend three days together at the Citrus Club in downtown Orlando. We have a stage, so you get to craft your signature stage segments, those humorous moments, the storytelling, your thought leadership message, your framework. We’re going to help you identify and craft those. And then you get to practice with me and Diane and Aaron and the other women who are there. We have a lot of fun. And then on day three, we’re bringing in professional videographers to film you on the stage so that you have that professional video footage and a speaker reel from the time that you spend together with us. So you can get all of the details and schedule a call with us. If that sounds like something that you would want to do at speakingyourbrand.com/live, and we would definitely love to have a chat with you about whether that’s a great fit for you. And so that, again, is coming up in February 2027 in Orlando. Let’s get to.

Diane Diaz:
Carol.

Carol Cox:
Can I add.

Diane Diaz:
One more thing? The beauty of coming to that retreat too. Yes. You get the footage. You can, you know, you get your speaker reel, you get the practice and all of that. But also you get practice being on a stage, being videoed. I think that’s important because I early on in my like before I did that, that, uh, keynote and hired a videographer, I had never been videoed doing anything. And so it was a little unnerving for me to not only deliver the keynote, but also know that there’s a videographer capturing that. Right? So I think the experience of being videoed and knowing where to stand on the stage and sort of how to gesture and like all those things, you’ll get to practice. So then when you deliver a talk and you’re being videoed, you’re going to be that much more prepared for that. So I just wanted to add that.

Carol Cox:
That’s a great point, Diane. I remember that at the retreats we’ve held in the past few years, that a couple of the women got a little bit nervous when they saw the cameras, because these are professional cameras. They’re not your smartphone, iPhone camera. These are professional grade cameras on tripods or on gimbals, and it can get a little nerve wracking if you’re not used to it. It reminds me of watching Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour movie. The. The concert is in that you. She knows step by step, beat by beat, exactly where all those cameras are and exactly what camera she’s supposed to be looking at at exactly that moment. If she needs to be looking at a camera. Now, obviously we’re not going to make you do that at the retreat, but that’s what creates great footage.

Diane Diaz:
That’s what creates the experience too. So when we watch that, we get that experience of feeling like we’re personally connected to her. And that’s, that’s what your audience will feel when they look at this, this video that you’ve captured at the retreat, at our retreat. They’ll feel connected to you as a speaker because we will help you with how to do that. But you’re absolutely right. She is chef’s kiss masterful at playing with the camera. I like to watch her when she’s on a red carpet, because she knows exactly the expression to make at exactly the right time. She is so good at that.

Erin Mark:
Are we calling this a Taylor Swift experience?

Diane Diaz:
I think we are.

Erin Mark:
I think we should. There’ll be Taylor Swift trivia. She might be there. Taylor Swift is coming to Orlando for the Speaking Your Brand retreat. Everybody market.

Diane Diaz:
Oh, maybe from your mouth to God’s ears. Yeah, right.

Erin Mark:
Right, right. Allegedly. What do they say? Allegedly.

Diane Diaz:
Allegedly? Allegedly. Yes.

Carol Cox:
We’ll send the invitation out to her. And where she.

Diane Diaz:
Can do is say no.

Carol Cox:
Well, let’s talk about speaking of cameras and being a natural on camera and, and knowing how to act in front of cameras. Let’s get this gets us into the third R. So we talked about relevance. We talked a little bit about reach. And we’re going to dive into that in the future episodes. Number three is relationships. And the reason I said talking about cameras is that, Erin, you just did a TV appearance in your where you live locally. And so you’re wondering, okay, what for number three relationships? What does that have to do with Erin being on TV with relationships? Well, Erin, I think you told me that you got that invitation to come on that TV program from someone who knew someone who knew someone. So tell us a little bit about how that happened and how you felt going on TV.

Erin Mark:
Yeah, absolutely. Oh my gosh, she’ll love this. So Melissa Snyder, shout out. I have to send her this episode. She was recently there. I live in the Saratoga Springs area in upstate New York. There is a lifestyle show. This was their 16th week called Upstate Living. It’s an incredible positive show that highlights local folks in the capital region. So when it started, it was all this press beforehand. I reached out like I wanted to apply. I was like, this is great. I can tell my story about my Ted X, really spread the word about how to advocate for yourself and healthcare, how to practice realistic resilience, all of these things. And I submitted my information and I didn’t hear back, which happens all the time. And I’m sure they were flooded with inquiries. So my friend Melissa recently was on the show, so I was chatting with her because she did such an incredible job. And she said to me, why haven’t you been on that show? And I’ve had other people ask me, why aren’t you you doing all of these things in the area you travel across the country? And I said, well, I submitted, but you know, I’ll check back with them at some point. Melissa was like, absolutely not. I. She became like best friends with one of the hosts, Billy, who’s awesome. So she put me well, first she said, I’m just gonna, I’m gonna give you his number.

Erin Mark:
You can text him. And I was like, all right, I mean, I’ll talk to anybody, any stranger, so I’ll shoot him a text. I have no stranger danger. Apparently, Dateline is not affecting me. And, uh, so the next day I didn’t text him yet because it was like a Friday night. So she goes, actually, I’m going to put us three on a thread, which I kind of was secretly hoping. I was like, okay, good. So she basically sent him this voice memo. It was the pitch of the year pitching me. And Billy was like, oh my gosh, I looked you up. Absolutely. Come on our show. So, you know, it was funny. The co-host Ann, who also is amazing, she said, I cannot believe you’re here. I have to show you. She had a screenshot that she follows me on social media, and she took this screenshot, I guess a couple of months ago as wanting me to come on the show, but they haven’t got around to connecting me and who knows when that would have happened. But it was kind of this full circle moment, and the only reason I got on that TV show today, you know, as far as that, when we’re filming September 29th is was because of Melissa referred me. Those relationships matter.

Carol Cox:
Yes. And remember at the top here of this episode in the intro, I said, a lot of times speakers think that there are certain things that are what they have to focus on the most or first, and that’s what’s going to make the difference. And then they tend to either forget about or not prioritize or honestly, because it feels harder not focus on relationships. So they worry and they obsess over their speaker website and posting on social media every single day. Which yes, you should have a speaker website. You need that for your AI, SEO, you should have some a social media presence on the platform of your choice, whether it’s Instagram or LinkedIn or even TikTok, but understand how it’s working for you because usually it’s not at the top of the funnel. It’s usually as the social proof. Once the person has made contact with you or you’ve made contact with them. So to your point about the host, she screenshotted you on Instagram, which was great. But then what happens is in that photo, right app and then you disappears because so many photos take its place. But then once she saw your name came through to her again through that connection, then you having been on social media, was that additional proof point. But that was after the relationship.

Erin Mark:
Yes, yes. So true. They’re going to look for you. They’re going to Google you. They’re going to look you up and want to make sure that you have that social proof that goes back to the video, but also written content as well. If video is not your thing, I understand. Get a little comfortable with that though, because you are a speaker and you’re going to want to be shown that you can speak. It’s really important. I get it. It’s awkward to kind of, you know, do a selfie talking, but you need that proof. So people, when they find you, they’re going to say, okay, she is a thought leader. He is thought leader, right? They know what they’re talking about and they feel passionate about it. And they solve a problem.

Carol Cox:
Thinking about Relationships there are so many of us have so many more people in our network who could help us out and would be happy to help us out than we think. And it doesn’t necessarily mean that the people in your network have to run events or be hosts on TV programs, but you could have that six degrees of Kevin Bacon where someone knows someone and you can ask for that warm introduction. So for those of you listening, think about your LinkedIn connections, past employers, past associations, you’ve been a part of schools you’ve attended that have alumni groups. A lot of those are great places that can get you started getting speaking opportunities. And then post those photos and those video clips of you speaking on social media. So people see that you’re a speaker. So you have that those additional proof points because speaking bar none is the best way to get more speaking invitations. That has been the case for me. Diane. Noah has been the case for you. Erin, I know you’ve gotten stage side referrals. People see you speak and then want you to speak at their event because all of a sudden people in the audience put two and two together and think, oh, Erin’s a speaker, Diane’s a speaker. I could hire them and bring them in for my event as well. Diane, I know this worked for you really well, especially early on in your speaking career. When you first started your own business, the brand teacher, before you came over to speaking your brand?

Diane Diaz:
Yes, absolutely. I was new to speaking and I actually, I want to be honest with you, I wasn’t even really a speaker yet. I was doing a little bit of consulting with a women’s group. And the woman leading that said to me, oh, you talked a little bit in that meeting about personal branding. I think you need to come talk to this, this larger women’s group here in Orlando. And I said, sure, I didn’t even have a talk yet, but I was like, sure, no problem. I could put something together. And of course I did. Then I spoke to that group, and then someone at that group saw me and asked me to speak to another group. And so then later on, that’s what led to the organizer of the women’s conference here on that beautiful keynote stage, asking me to be the keynote speaker for that conference. Fast forward to a couple of years ago, where the president of another women’s group, who I who was at that event and who knew the organizer of that big event, but I hadn’t talked to in a while, reached out and said, we would like someone to come speak to this women’s group about personal branding. And I ended up, of course, wrapping in all the things we talk about storytelling and voice and all of that. And we ended up getting three clients from that. So the speaking led to speaking, led to speaking, led to clients.

Diane Diaz:
I mean, it is a, it is what you say it is the speaking is the best way to show that you can deliver a talk that engages the audience. And the honest truth is that that talk where I where we got the three clients was probably one of my best because the audience was so engaged with it. And, you know, and I felt so, so sort of, you know, grateful to the woman that reached out to me because I hadn’t talked to her in quite some time, but I maintained sort of an email back and forth or, you know, contacting her on LinkedIn, hey, and championing her content. That’s how you nurture the contacts, right? And then they remember, oh, she speaks about this. Let’s bring her in. So remember that when you’re, when you’re on LinkedIn, it can be as simple as just someone does something and you say, you know, congratulate them or someone else speaks and you, you share that for them, right? So nurture those contacts and then, you know, people who can get you speaking engagements. And then every time you speak, there’s someone in that audience who knows somebody who’s going to an event or who’s organizing an event, or who knows someone who’s organizing an event. You could speak there as well. So they are out there.

Carol Cox:
And because they’ve seen you in person live, they’ve heard you for 30 minutes or 45 minutes. They’re going to remember you in a way where they’re scrolling through their feed. It’s not going to have the same impact. Think about that, Diane. This was these were places you used to have spoken maybe eight years ago or more. And then she remembers you because you’ve maintained that visibility on LinkedIn. So she knows you’re still out there and still still doing things. And then she invites you to speak again. And I feel like that is the impact of relationships. That is the long game and is truly about relationship building, not about transactions. If you want transactions, hire a PR agency for. So you can leverage their connections. They absolutely. If you’re paying them, they should have connections for the types of things that you want and, and then do that because that’s going to get you somewhere fast, but you’re going to pay for it, but it’s not probably going to give you the same type of longevity as building true relationships with people in your local community and people in the speaking industry for the audiences and topics that you speak on. I mentioned that to our keynote that I delivered just recently. That invitation came from a woman I have known for over ten years, and she used to live here in Orlando. She attended some of the workshops that we’ve done for Speaking Your brand. She had since moved over to the Space Coast, the coast of Florida, and is now coming in as the board chair for the Space Coast Chamber of Commerce next year. She was thinking about what kind of speaker they wanted for their leadership retreat. She reached out to me. I have not laid eyes on her since probably 2019, but I comment on her LinkedIn post. We stay in contact. We have a true relationship where we support each other, even if it’s infrequent, and that’s where the best speaking opportunities come from. Erin, I’m sure you’re finding this yourself this year as well.

Erin Mark:
Yeah, 100%. Don’t discount other speakers. Speakers are not your competition. Speakers refer. Other speakers come from a place of abundance. They are not going to have me back next year. Carol, that conference probably won’t have you back because it might be the same people. But what a great opportunity. Before we get off the stage, I can say, oh, you know who would be great? Are you looking for someone for next year? The event planner is like, thank God. Now I don’t got to peel through. Carol Cox would be wonderful. Diane Diaz would be great. And what a great way to refer each other. And now you are a trusted source because you did a good job and don’t do it expecting someone else to refer you. It will come back at you. I think that is the thing with other speakers. I have a goal. I was just talking with a speaker friend of mine to try to reach out to at least, you know, 5 to 10 speakers a week to connect with on LinkedIn just so I can learn what they’re talking about, what their message is, just what a great way to be able to have a quick ten, 15 minute Zoom chat. And those speakers also, if I get approached for something that I’m not a good fit for, learn to say no to because if you are not good fit for something, it we could make you no content. But if I go into something that I’m like, oh, this isn’t right, maybe it’s heavy AI. I’m going to refer Carol, the AI queen. You know, like, it’s just like, we want to make sure that we are going to be an expertise. And what a great way to also have that Rolodex to be able to refer other speakers. So don’t discount other speakers as well for those relationships.

Diane Diaz:
I think referring other speakers also makes you sort of a friend of event organizers, right? Because you become a trusted source for those things and it makes you, it makes you more referable because event organizers are going to refer speakers to other event organizers, right? So that helps the other speaker. But it also helps you by making you referable. Yeah.

Carol Cox:
So it sounds like then relationships are definitely a priority. And for those of you listening who you may feel like, oh, you don’t have a big network, you don’t know, a lot of people start local, start small and build from there. Attend events that are going on locally. Get involved in different groups that are a good fit for you, for the types of audiences that you like or have. Are certain associations just build from there. Like I said, speaking is a long game. You have to build that trust and build those relationships with people over time. I mentioned at the top that we were going to share each of us the number one way we get speaking engagements. And so it’s not social media and it’s not YouTube, and it’s not just things magically appearing in our inbox, which would be great, but really is relationships. And that has been the case for my entire speaking career that I’ve been doing for over 20 years. Diane, I think you would say the same thing.

Diane Diaz:
Absolutely. And, you know, again, going back to the marketing 101, think about how, you know, most business happens. It’s it’s connections and relationships, right? So this is no different. This is the business of speaking, right? And so if you’re treating it like a business, relationships are the way you’re going to get more speaking business.

Carol Cox:
Erin.

Erin Mark:
People want to do business. They with business, they know they like and trust, right? It’s just you want to make sure you have those relationships. And even if you’re doing or asked to do a small five, ten minute talk somewhere, don’t discount that. You never know who you would meet in the audience. I’ve been hired stage sides from a five minute talk that I did, so don’t discount those either. And I built those relationships up over time as well.

Carol Cox:
Yeah. So go do speaking. Get yourself out there in front of audiences and then get the proof, the photos and videos so that you can share that it really is an entire ecosystem that you’re building and that we’re going to continue the Bookable Speaker series. We are going to talk about social media, and then we’re going to talk about AI, SEO, how you can get the algorithms more likely to show you and to recommend you, because that is an important element. It’s not it’s not that it’s necessarily that relationships are the only thing that you should be doing. But I just feel like it’s so much easier for us to hide behind our computers instead of going out and building relationships with people, which is why we’re trying to prioritize that. So stay tuned for those episodes, and don’t forget to get the checklist that I mentioned that has the recap of what we talked about here, including the questions to ask event organizers, questions to ask videographers that you’re going to hire, and so on. You can get that at speaking your Com slash checklist. And while you’re there on the website, check out our online program, the Thought Leader Academy, where we work with you to create your signature talk and that you learn how to get booked and paid as well as that February 20th 273 day in-person retreat that we’re hosting. You can get all the details and schedule a call with us to see if it’s a great fit for you. Diane and Erin, thank you so much for coming back on the Speaking Your Brand podcast.

Diane Diaz:
Thanks, Carol.

Erin Mark:
Thanks, Carol. It’s been so much fun.

Carol Cox:
Until next time. Thanks for listening.

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