134 - How to Find Paid Speaking Gigs: Insider Tips From a Speaker Booking Pro

Finding paid speaking gigs is tough, even when you're not a newbie. The difference between speakers who stay booked and those who struggle usually comes down to strategy, not talent.

That's why I was thrilled when Susan MacConnell of Diversified Sales Solutions, who advises aspiring and mid-level speakers on landing opportunities, agreed to join me on the podcast. In this interview, Susan shares practical strategies for networking, applying to events, and leveraging platforms to grow your speaking engagements.

 Top Takeaways 

🔹Common misconceptions about speaking careers
🔹Strategies for finding and applying to speaking opportunities
🔹The importance of follow-up and persistence in securing gigs
🔹Using platforms and bureaus to grow your speaking business
🔹The role of diversity and networking in speaking engagements

Chapters

00:00 Introduction and Guest Background
01:03 The Business Side of Speaking
02:12 Common Misconceptions About Speaking Careers
03:04 Applying for Speaking Opportunities and Follow-up
04:06 Mistakes to Avoid When Seeking Gigs
04:54 Evaluating Free vs Paid Opportunities
06:10 Using Video and Testimonials Effectively
07:09 Building Relationships with Event Organizers
07:57 Leveraging Platforms and Bureaus
09:02 Negotiating and Asking for What You Want
09:59 Tips for Advanced Speakers and Bureaus
11:10 The Power of Referrals and Networking
12:11 Diversity and Inclusion in Speaking Engagements
13:11 Resources and Platforms for Finding Gigs
14:01 The Importance of Being Organized
14:57 Final Tips and Encouragement

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Transcript

Speaker 2 (00:02.456)
Hi, I'm Annette Richmond, your host of Content Marketing School. And I'm so excited to have Susan McConnell here with me today. Now, Susan, I met you through a speakers group, mainly for women. And you are just so generous with your knowledge and your advice to all the members like me. And so I am so delighted that you said yes and you are joining me here today. So before we get started, for anyone who doesn't know you,

Please tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do.

My name is Susan McConnell and I call myself Diversified Speaker Solutions, AKA Diversified Sales Solutions. And the reason I changed over to speakers is I'm a business dev salesperson and I started helping speakers two or three years ago find speaking ops. And it's in addition to marketing, which is what you teach people, there is a wholesale side to finding speaking. And so I bring those skills to that because as you probably know, being a

either a newer or even a mid range speaker, it's a work, there's work involved. It's not just you find it, you gotta find it and go get it.

Yeah, you know there there's so many things like that and and I will just say that that's one of the reasons that Podcasts often fail because people think oh I'm gonna do a podcast and I'm just gonna turn on my mic and I'm gonna talk and next thing You know, I'll be raking in the money and they don't realize that while I like it I've been podcasting since 2020 and that's part of like who I am now. There is work involved So I'm glad you mentioned that and and you know, I want to say that

Speaker 2 (01:42.612)
I am newer to speaking. I have just really, years ago, but I've just really gotten into speaking at conferences in the last few years. So I'm still a newbie. And I think there are so many people like me and even people, as you say, that are kind of in the middle that we think about our topics and our presentation and what the stories and everything. But when it comes to the business side, which is obviously, as you say, if you don't do that.

You know, you're not going to have any business. just be speaking for free forever. What I'd love to start with, what are some of the misconceptions besides the idea that, you know, put up your shingle and people are going to come calling and begging you to speak to for them? What what are maybe the biggest misconception that people have when when they think they're, you know, want to be a speaker?

I think there's probably a few, but the biggest one that I can think of off the top of my head right now is that all you got to do is do your speaker reel and your website and develop your talk and people are going to come get you. Like you said, come find you. you have to find who your audience is, go find who's having those events, and apply. And not only do you have to do that, you have to.

follow up once you apply. can't just apply and say, well, they're really going to say yes or no. You have to kind of put yourself out there to have people call you back.

Yeah, so I guess I was gonna ask you like mistakes and I guess the biggest one is just sort of like feel the dreams, build it and people will come, that that's not happening. Can you give us a couple of other mistakes that people make? know, because there's so much, it's like we don't know what we don't know.

Speaker 1 (03:36.722)
there's, okay, I'll start them. like I was saying, when you apply for a speaking opportunity, you like, you really think you're a good fit, you should and sit, you know, it's usually like you'll go to a website for some reasons and then you'll put in your application. But what I suggest everybody do is to actually look up the event, look up who the speaker person is and try to connect with them on LinkedIn, email, whatever it is and ask them like who they're looking for and what they're looking for. Because.

Maybe you can tweak what you say so that you get picked. And also, you're also getting them to know you. So it's kind of a dual thing. Because it's not just you submit it. You have to do a little more, I would call, sales tactics or being politely persistent, which is what people call me all the time.

I love that idea of being politely persistent because I you know, I am one of those people that Sales isn't isn't really you know easy for me when I the first time when I started doing you know a boot camp and I get to the sales page I was kind of like and and now I've gotten to the point where I practice it and I just I hold my breath I say it and I'm done with it but one of the things that that I've learned too and and this is some

the idea that there are many conferences where they're offering you exposure. it's the exposure. It's the exposure. And, you know, even, you you pay for your travel, but they give you maybe they give you a free conference ticket. And, you know, I part of me thinks like I've done that for like a national association because I'm a newer speaker and it's good for me to have that experience that I've spoken there, et cetera.

But where do you suggest kind of like drawing the line? when, you know, maybe how to evaluate when it's free, when it's not free, that whole, you know, the audience is great audience for you. It's like, I'm sure everybody says that who wants the speaker to speak for free.

Speaker 1 (05:43.802)
Yeah, they all do. Yeah. When you look at the speaking ops, it's one, it's free or they only pay travel or it's pretty minimal. What you have to look at is who's the audience. And if I'm speaking to this audience, do I have the ability to find new clients? Because then that might that's worth it. Because if I find a client from a speaking up, I get a client.

And secondly, like you said, if you're newer and you need the exposure, you can ask questions around, it going to be filmed? So you can have a copy of a film that has a value. We asked this for one of my clients. She's doing one, I think, in the next couple of months. instead of, like I said, we asked them to film and then we asked for a LinkedIn testimonial and a written testimonial afterwards, because those will help you going forward build

you're business. And so you got to ask for different things, but you don't want to go somewhere where you can get very little value. Meaning like if you can't find clients, like you're in marketing, you could probably find some marketing clients. If you go to a marketing event or an event where there's companies that are in your profile of who you want to have as clients, I say you should have an offer. If you're going to be speaking that kind of level where you're just going to get clients, I think other than that, I would say.

I would say no.

Yeah, you know, and I want to ask you about that because as I said, I spoke to a national organization last fall and it was fun. I was happy to go. I was able to drive there. It was only overnight one night and I did get, you I was at the conference. But one of the things that they said to me was there was, you like you cannot have, not necessarily selling from the stage. Obviously you don't want to be up there pitching, pitching, pitching, but even

Speaker 2 (07:39.106)
you know, a download or something that that wasn't allowed, even though they weren't paying, which at the time I was, now I'm thinking that maybe that's not such a good deal that even if, you know, just being there is not enough, have to have something.

Yes, definitely. I agree. If you're if you're going somewhere and they're not going to give you anything, then it's not it's not a good fit for you and you shouldn't do it. Like you said, even if they can't do a download, can they give you the list of attendees? Can they let you put your information out in advance? There's some conferences that use special software apps where you can get on prior and you can kind of see who's going to the to the event and you can kind of get on and look through and

invite people like there's different ways to do it. But like if they're not going to bend and give you anything for doing it. Yeah, walk away.

Yeah, yeah. You know, it's so hard. It's so hard to do it. And there's one organization I spoke, I spoke for you, you know, for them for a couple of times. But I was actually a member myself. So, you know, it was it was beneficial to me because I probably would have gone anyway. And then once I moved away from that and they're like, aren't you going to pitch this in? I'm like, no, no, I'm done. I'm done with that.

And I also think even though they said that if you can't offer a download or a paper, there should be some way for you to weave into your talk without being salesy and spamming gross, which is definitely a line I used to use quite a bit to get people to want to come up and talk to you after. Yeah. I there's got to be you just you have to finesse that piece a little. yeah, I'm not going to sell from Z. Of course you are. You just got to figure out how to do it. And if you don't, you know, why do it unless you're getting paid?

Speaker 1 (09:31.574)
Really good money, right? Yeah!

Yeah, no, exactly. As we were talking before we went live here, that I just got back from a gig and it was a wonderful time, great people, I was paid well, so of course I'm not gonna be pitching anything because I'm there, it's my gig. But when you're up there speaking for free, that's different things. So can you give us some tips of maybe things that...

are maybe negotiable things that we should look for. I'm anything, you know, what, tips you can share, I am grateful for. And so are my listeners.

Yeah, it's funny. One of the ladies on Innovation Women said she has a list of 100 things that you can ask for when you're going to speak. The top ones, think one is, like I said, the referrals, a recording list of the people that are attending. Let's see, what else can I think of? Maybe a referral to another speaking app. And another thing too,

Well, maybe that takes you in a different direction. So when I think about some of these speaking ops, sometimes when you go to some of them, like you want to say, like, do you need any other speakers next year? And they'll say, yeah, because you're there, you're probably not going to be able to speak to them next year. Like have one or two buddies that you can all refer each other. That way you can all give each other speaking opportunities because you're all not going to be at the same place every year. So have a group of like five people that are

Speaker 2 (10:43.254)
Okay, go where you go.

Speaker 1 (11:10.658)
five different things and learn how to refer each other too.

Yeah, well, that is a great way to do business. there's also a lot of talk about speaker bureaus and somebody was telling me about e-speakers is something and there's all these different ways to go out there. And of course there's LinkedIn, we're both on LinkedIn. And I've certainly learned a lot from our mutual friend, Brenda Miller, who is just the...

so knowledgeable on LinkedIn and also a marketing coach. you know, she's a great, great help to me. what are there any, any platforms or anything that, that you would, you know, would recommend or I know you work with speakers also. So if you can talk about maybe places where it might be advantageous, is it worth it to be on like the national speakers association as a speaker of these things?

And if they want to hire somebody, I know this is big, what do they look for?

Let's see, I would say like, it depends on where you are in your speaking career, I suppose. Like if you're new, I wouldn't put yourself on our bureau. wouldn't, obviously like Innovation Women, Bobby Carlton site, if you're a woman, that's where you should go first because one, it teaches you all the things you know. And two, she has a whole list of speaking opportunities there, which you can go through.

Speaker 1 (12:44.824)
Granted, you have to filter through to try to find the paid ones. the more you do it, the more you kind of keep your own little list of what ones that are paying. So those are like less expensive ways to do it. And then, you know what? Sometimes Google is a cool thing because you can sit there and say, hey, I live in New York City. So I'm going to Google speaking opportunities in New York City in 2026.

That's how I found one of them for one of my speakers is in Austin, Texas. Wow. And it's like the it's the obscure like different kind of groups that you want to look for, especially if you're new, like she's going to be speaking for the Texas Rural Water Association. Like there's some really cool associations out there that need speakers.

Wow.

Speaker 2 (13:33.166)
I have heard that, that you should be looking for associations and not necessarily like a large conference because a large conference, you you have to be at a certain level. And, know, I'm certainly, you know, I'm certainly not a keynote speaker. Likely I will never be a keynote speaker. That's not, you know, what I'm looking for, but doing breakout sessions and trainings and things like that are the things. So you look like you're going to jump in and add something there.

Yeah, you're exactly right. There's these obscure groups that you'll see actually, like I said, if you get on a site like Innovation Women, then there's other sites like that that are not real expensive. There are some that are really expensive, but if you're going to pay, you're going to really work it. You can't, you you're going to be on the site and they're going to come find you. No one's ever going come find you. You have to find them. it's like I said, the Texas Rural Water Association, there's

Even like Diane Darling does really well. She's a networking speaker and she does well with like the legal associations and things like that. You can look at sometimes even chambers because chambers have like small businesses there. And if you're selling something, a small business buys some chambers might be good if they do some virtual, you know, if they're not local, your local chamber.

But there's like so many different interesting associations that there's a lumber association. One of my old speakers from a long time ago used to speak at the big lumber conferences. Because they need business help because they're, they're, yeah, yeah, can learn how to cut lumber and I can build a building, but how do I do my business? How do I communicate? How do I market? Those are things they don't know.

Well, that's the thing. I talk about video marketing specifically. when I was speaking over the weekend, somebody, a couple of people did come up after me afterwards and said, by the way, I'm with this organization. Can you send me something after the show? So I love that idea. I love about asking people for referrals and making sure that you are referring people as well. Make sure that when you'd have

Speaker 2 (15:49.614)
Don't have the effort. I worked in the career field for a long time and I would say to people, um, you know, I worked with senior executives, if recruiter calls you and you can't help them, it's not for you. See if you can refer somebody else because that person, could be perfect for them. And then you are, you know, you're in that mind as, as a giver.

completely, totally unbelievable, awesome Annette because that's kind of me at my core as I'm a networker. found like three people jobs. I've, cause it was just because I saw the ad and I knew who the person on LinkedIn. said, you should hire this person. And then I found another job for someone local and like she just forever. That's her opening story when she gives it is that I knew her well enough to refer her to, to somebody else because that's how.

you get a little extra when you have that whole connection and you do it the right way. Because it comes back to you. It doesn't matter if it's not like definitely the person that you gave the referral to, but somehow the universe brings stuff like that back.

It does. does. you know, there there is such a thing. know Brenda talks about it like social media, social media karma. And it does come back to you and it comes around to you. And, you know, I am I will also say I give a plug to Innovation Women. I've been a member for several years. And one of the things that I like best about it really is most helpful to me is the Friday mornings where I got to meet you and I learned

And I've learned from you that they have every week where you can go in and say, here's my question. And other women, it's mainly women, but there are a few men there, will jump up and help you. And that's all that karma thing. And I will say the gig that I just had, it was all women. And it was like, yes. Yes, it was so cool. Because women are so underrepresented, correct?

Speaker 1 (17:49.932)
Yes, it was kind of cool. think I said this at the last meeting last Friday. I was I talked to a lot of EO, it's called Entrepreneurs Organization. And those are that's another area like of people that I mean, they have professional speakers, but they're always looking for new people and they pay decently and they're good groups. They're all entrepreneurial companies. And I was talking with one of their

they call them learning chairs and I was like so what are you looking for this year and what's kind of cool about what I do is now I don't have to go and say do you need leadership this year do you need burnout do you need stress like what do you look like I can come and add it like to solve that problem what do you need who do you want who's going to help serve your membership and then from there I can kind of talk about it but what's cool about him is he's he said hey because I want to have more women speakers this year and as a guy and I was like yay

Yeah, yeah. That's one of those, I guess, remaining sort of glass ceilings that's not really broken yet. And I know, you know, I've done virtual events, people that I invite in my podcast, I've done virtual events with multiple speakers. And I always like to make sure that like everyone is represented different ages, different ethnicities, men, women. Because, you know, I think that is so important. know, diversity is a big

big thing in my mind.

You say it anymore though, right? Is that like a taboo?

Speaker 2 (19:17.858)
I don't know, not on this podcast, but we rocking and rolling for diversity here. So let's say someone, you know, okay, we have innovation women. I mentioned e-speakers. They have a low level, inexpensive, where I can just be listed there. So, you know, I could do something like that. What about when someone is not like me? Say there's, we have someone who's listening right now and they're not newer like me.

but they're more mid-range and maybe they're thinking of a site where they maybe want to spend more money, maybe work with someone like you or you. What do they look for? Because as I always think, you know, it's like we don't know what we don't know.

Yeah, there's a couple different angles. One of the sites that I know of, I think it's called Speaker IO. Here, I'll show it really quick. It's called StageFinder AI. And that's for, I would call it a little bit more advanced speaker. It's very AI driven. What's cool about it, it's somewhat expensive. It's a license, you purchase it, but it, you...

Okay.

Speaker 2 (20:19.214)
Okay.

Speaker 1 (20:30.434)
put in all your information of who you are, what your topic is, who you're looking for, and it kind of curates where you should be, you know, all the databases and it pulls up some speaking for you. so from there, you have to, you know, obviously apply, but again, the follow-up is the biggest piece, which almost doesn't matter. Like you could be on any site. It's more about you making that attempt and then following up and following up and following it up and being.

a little more persistent because that's how you're going to get it.

So, so for our advanced speakers who are who are chewing in, because I have all kinds of different people listening to this podcast. What about if someone is ready for say a speaker bureau? What, mean, what, what are, are some things that they should think about, consider, a couple of ideas you can give that would be fabulous.

I think if you're going to join any sort of a speaker bureau, you have to get involved with that actual bureau because there's going to be so many people on there. You get to know the people that are running the bureau because they're going to be the ones that are asked who they should pick. mean, no one's going to, you know, yeah, you can jump on a site and search people, but someone's going to, like you said, they're going to ask. So if you get to know the people running that bureau and could have them get to know you, you probably, probably better shot. Someone asked them who they should pick.

It's getting involved. Like it's not just sticking your profile up there. Yeah. Getting involved with the bureau, being part of that. And then that's where you also can find some of your referral people, especially if you're in one of the bigger bureaus. But you, it's not, you got to still do the work.

Speaker 2 (22:06.368)
Yeah, no, no, I like that. One of the things I did a little brief presentation on networking and I always ended by saying, you know, it's not about who you know, it's who knows you, who is going to think of you when there is something coming up. So as we're, you know, we're not done yet, but I just want to fit this in now. If someone wants to get in touch with you, where can they find you? Where's the best place? I know you're on LinkedIn.

Yeah, just like Brenda, back in the day, I think during COVID, she and I were both doing the same thing, teaching LinkedIn. So I'm always on LinkedIn. I'm a big advocate of LinkedIn. So reach out to me there. And I try to work with what I call mid to upper level speakers because it's easier for me to find them kind of the speaking that they're looking for. When you're a beginner, you kind of got to just grind the pavement a little bit.

And you don't need me to do that for you because you kind of got to learn it. I go a little deeper and I do a little more follow-up and that's kind of, so it's just a little further in.

So, so you you coach people and and also your maybe part partly accountability partner to make sure that they're

I actually do some of the work to find the, we'll actually put in the applications and do some of the follow-up for them. Cause I have a team that helps me do a few of those things. So we can go in and do a lot of the grunt work to find some.

Speaker 2 (23:26.568)
okay.

Speaker 2 (23:41.198)
Okay, so you're for someone, obviously not like me, who would like to do, know, I'd like to do a number of speaking training gigs this year, but again, it seems like you're more for the, as you said, higher level, bigger conferences, keynote speakers.

Not even I would like a keynote I think of as someone like they say this nowadays. It's like a sports celebrity or a big influencer. Those are like your high level keynotes. It's the people that like want to be involved in a speaking off where they're not quite the high level keynote. The lower end. They'll also do like you said the programs and

the learning piece of it.

Yeah, no, no, I love that. love that. you know, I have and, you know, I'm talking about smaller, the conference where I was and I was part of a, you know, a certain pavilion that I was working and speaking and giving some, some LinkedIn advice, but it was Hoda, Hoda Kotvi, is that her last name from the Today Show? She was the keynote speaker. So that's like a whole other level. That's a whole other thing. So, so,

As we're winding down here and people can find you also on your website as Diversified Speaker Solutions.

Speaker 1 (24:58.958)
It's actually diversified sales solutions. never really changed because I'm not a marketer. I'm a salesperson.

Okay, that's-

Okay, we got to get that in there. Sales is so hard. my gosh. so we have talked about, we're winding down now. We've gone through, I think I've learned, I know people listening have learned. What is something that I haven't asked you that we haven't really talked about that you think would really be helpful for listeners to know?

yes. If you want to be a speaker, have to have the organized and you have to have a little small CRM so that you can keep track of the opportunities and you can set tasks up for yourself because you're speaking and then you also have to manage all of the pieces around it. But yet, if you lose some of these opportunities that you have applied for and like I said, you can automate some of the tasks part of it so that you

It kind of just helps you keep everything organized so that you can follow up and follow up this year, follow up next year, whatever it is, you can start building your list and tasking it. Like let's just say it's conference this April. But you didn't get picked, but you really like it you want to do it next year. So first of all, you want to put tasks in to connect with them on LinkedIn, tasks to email them what they're looking for, and then to...

Speaker 1 (26:21.71)
reapply the next chair and you can just put that all through in your CRM, which is really just a database where you can keep all your records and it helps you stay organized. And there's cheap ones out there that like $10 a month you can set yourself up.

So, so it seems to me that the bottom line is if you want to be a speaker, you have to treat it like a business. Now I love to get up on the stage. I don't get nervous. I, you know, I get excited. I really, really enjoy it. but the thing is, you know, I finally got to a point where much as I love it, I can't pay somebody else to let me get on their stage. Even if I am the opening speaker on, you know, in the, at the breakfast with the entire audience there.

So, but we have to just, we have to think of it as a business.

It is. You have to make money doing it. I mean, who knows how much you need or want, but you have to, you're going to do it and you want to make money doing it. You have to treat it as a business and that way you have to have some of the tools to help you because you're busy doing your speaking. You have your tools to help you stay organized. Then, you know, it'll kind of help you down the road too. Like you want to be thinking about next year and the, you know what I mean? Like

Some of the people that I'm talking to right now that are in EO, they're planning, they're speaking for 2027 right

Speaker 2 (27:45.324)
Wow. Okay. Okay. All right. Well, I see that I have a lot of homework to do. So Susan, thank you so much for joining me. As I said to you before we got started, I'm sure you have people asking you all the time because you are very generous with your knowledge. I appreciate it. Thank you to everyone who has been listening and I will see you next time.

Thanks, Annette.