[Transcript starts at 1:08]
Hello. Hello. Hello. My podcast people. And thank you for joining me for yet another episode of my favorite podcast. Podcast. If you're watching this on YouTube, you saw me just look over to the side because you don't hear this part, but before I start the episode, I clap. It allows me to sync up the audio and the video in post production when I'm doing the editing, but Rupert's in here today.
And so the clap, I was like, did it wake him up? Did it, did it startle him? Yes, it did. Uh, so if you're watching this on YouTube, thank you for joining. If you're listening on the podcast and whatever your favorite player is, thank you for tuning in. Y'all are the best. So if you're listening, watching them on the day that this drops, it is Monday, October 7th.
Hello, October. Hello, October. Where September went, don't know, but either way, get your PSLs because where you know, Starbucks is about to be rushing you away from fall and they're going to start selling that rose pepper mint drink. I did actually have a PSL this past. Week my was it actually now that I think about it.
I'm like, wait, what did Lex order? I didn't drink much of it We haven't gone to starbucks in like forever Namely because I got the espresso machine and like that's all we do is I make them I make all kinds of drinks now uh, but either way, it was like really sweet and I was like, I don't really want this but Uh, we'll say that I had mine for the, for the season, but today we are talking about how to get invited to speak on stages, how to get invited to speak at conferences.
And one of the things that inspired this episode is a little announcement that I'm gonna give you right now. Uh, the, uh, the conference that Jill and I are hosting this week. So if you are like super last minute, Lucy, this is it. This announcement is for you boss of 2024. It is going down this Thursday and Friday, October 10th and 11th in Redondo beach, California.
Boss up is the in person event that Jill and I host. I want to say annually, but it's not annually, but it is specifically for female online business owners who want to grow their business. And perhaps more importantly, my favorite part, deepen their impact. I have been talking about this event for a zillion episodes now.
And I have episodes that are specifically dedicated to it. So I actually want to keep this promo very short. Um, and I'm doing it, this promo in general, right? Largely because I stay preaching about send the last email. I send the proverbial last email, and this is the last official announcement I'm going to give before, uh, the actual event.
And it is my belief that if you were to not know about the event, And I didn't do everything I could to let you know about the event, then I'm at blame. I'm at fault. I'm at blame. Wow. I'm at fault. So I'm doing everything I can to let you know about it. And I say this because I went to an event. Few years ago, 2022.
And I hadn't heard anything about it until it was like very close to the end. And I was like, but that was because they didn't talk about it a lot. And I was like, that is not good marketing. Uh, but I don't want to be that person. So letting you know, all the deets are in the show notes, the link in the show notes.
So go check that out. We'd love to have you DM me. If you've got questions, text me 3 5. If you've got questions, love to answer them. Right. One more announcement. It's not even an announcement. One more update. Cause I'm really excited about it. And then we'll hop into the episode. Um, Lex and I did go to Miami.
So if you listened to the, what, last Monday's episode, I was talking about that we might be going, it was very last minute planning. And because I record, so I record the episodes on Monday. And then it goes out the following Monday. So we recorded that episode on Monday and then we actually flew out on Thursday.
Um, and we were kind of thinking about going and there was a hurricane, in case you didn't know. And so we were just tracking it and kind of seeing everything with that and seeing if it was going to be bad in Miami. One, two, three. It was not really supposed to be bad in Miami, but we had to fly there. And I was like, is the storm going to be passed?
What's going to happen? And it ended up being passed. And so we took a late flight out on Thursday. Our flight got delayed an hour and a half, which is actually a really good thing because that meant that we flew behind the storm. We got in, we got in Thursday night. We stayed until Sunday night. The weather was amazing.
Like I, I really want this to become an annual thing. Um, we went for a volleyball tournament. It's called King and Queen of the Court. It's a different format than traditional play. And it's so much fun. Um, we went I love Miami. I love the weather. I love the food. Lex had never been there. It was a phenomenal trip.
We used points. So like basically it feels like it's free. Um, and it was just so good. So we did go, if you follow me on Insta, you saw, it feels weird saying Insta, if you follow me on social media. AKA Instagram, then you saw that we went, um, but here is your sign to book that last minute trip. Hint, hint.
Come to Boston. All right, so on to today's topic, which is how to get invited to speak on stages and speak at conferences. The cliff notes here, the spoiler, yes, you can absolutely just ask, but if you're not It is all about who, you know, and what you're bringing to the table, right? I will straight up say that the dark side of this kind of what you're bringing to the table for many conferences translates into, do you have a big following?
Why? Because most of these conferences are trying to at least not lose money. Ideally, they want to make money, but they're trying not to lose money. And so they need to fill the seats, right? So they want to invite people to have big followings. And hopefully that carries over into people. Signing up and paying to attend.
Side note, if you're listening to this and you are the one thinking about putting on an event, don't spend a zillion fucking dollars to do it. Use math, right? Start small and then grow. Selling on a 10 person event is dope as hell. Right? Start with that. There's a big point here that I don't discuss this in the rest.
I'm not going to discuss it the episode, cause I've already outlined it. Um, and there just wasn't like a space to put this. So we're gonna put it right here, which is. Don't be afraid obviously to start small, but more than that, don't be afraid to build your own stage. So right now we're speaking about how to get invited to be on stages.
And one of the places that can start is you making your own stage. All right. This could be, uh, you know, starts with social media. Like that is a stage as a platform. And then from there, maybe you host an in person event. It's a retreat. It's a single day event. You know, I have a former client who did it at her house.
It's like, Yes, that's awesome. It's, it can absolutely start like that. So if you're thinking about how do I get invited, absolutely listen to the episode, but also think about how do I build my own stage and do I want to build my own stage? Right? So back to the big two points, which I said before, where it comes down to who you know, and what do you bring into the table?
In an ideal world, an ideal situation that translates into who respects you and believes that you could bring a lot of value to the audience. And yes, the value is going to be, you know, related to and relative to the audience. So you may be like really good at what you do, but it's just like not at all related to what this audience is.
So like, it doesn't make sense to invite you, right? So it's not that you as a person aren't valuable, but like, how can you help that audience? I will forever be thankful to my girl, Molly Galbraith of Girls Gone Strong. You've heard her on the podcast before. Courtney, if you clinked that episode, thank you.
Um, she's the one that got me onto the Raise the Bar stage. I, I, from what I understand, I think she basically gave him an ultimatum and was like, yo, we need to diversify this and we need different voices and, I got someone that, you know, to recommend and suggest and I'm not speaking unless you diversify this and we hear from different voices.
And I, I've spoken at that conference for three years in a row, but that was because of Molly. All right. So check her out. If you don't, I guess you know her cause she's Molly. Um, but check her out. We'll check it out. We'll link that episode, link her socials and everything like that. But the action items for This first part, right, of getting invited, which is the, who, you know, right?
I think there's three things you can look at here. Things you can do. Number one is obviously develop that network. And when I say network, I don't mean like in the gross grimy way and networking and the gross grimy way. Y'all know, I love that book, the go giver and in the go giver, they talk about a network and it kind of reframe it and loosely what they say is that it's a group of people who want to see you do well and who you want to see do well.
Love it. That means it's based on, it's founded in building genuine relationships and that's what we want. Um, so to that end, this, this aspect of who, you know, right. One of the action items here is not a gross thing. It's literally build relationships with people, develop that network of people who you want to help people who you want to see succeed.
And conversely, people who want to see you succeed, people who want to help you. I did a whole entire episode about networking. Courtney, if you could link that as well, thank you. All right. So the second action item here for, uh, that, who, you know, side of things is consider asking people, right? So yes, you can obviously pitch yourself to be a speaker at something.
Um, Sean, I see Sean Pastucci is doing this right now and trying to become a speaker. He wants to do a TEDx talk. Um, but you can ask your friends to help you out, to connect you with people. So I spoke at Carotha, uh, ConvertKids Craft and Commerce. Uh, a few years back, and that was absolutely because I mentioned it to Claire Pelletreau, who we've met on the podcast.
She's phenomenal. And she mentioned it to Alexis Teichmiller. We were actually all sitting at a table and she was like, Alexis, do you know Shante? Uh, She'd be a great speaker to have here. And I had met Claire the year before and we just stayed in touch and, you know, we helped each other out building that network, right?
Building those relationships. Uh, I had also befriended Barrett Brooks. He worked at ConvertKit at the time and I had pitched myself to him. Um, that sounds weird, but I pitched to talk to him and, you know, all those things came together and I got to speak at ConvertKit. ConvertKit, all right. And also they could see what I was bringing to the table because of all the stuff on social media, but that who, you know, you all, you listening to this, you know, how, how much weight that carries, right?
How much weight a referral carries. When you're looking for someone, you're looking for a dentist, you're looking for a doctor. You go to your friends first. You're like, Hey, can you recommend someone? So circling back to Alexis, uh, she actually left ConvertKit and works for Circle. And I. She asked me to keynote, uh, their online summit a few months back.
All right. Again, this is who, you know, what you bring to the table because she needed someone with energy to motivate online business owners, that's like, it was literally, she's like, I immediately thought of you, right? Because we have a relationship now, right? There's that network component. She knows me.
And then that second part, which is, she knows what I'm bringing to the table, cause she's already heard me speak. So number three here. So three action items for this. Um, part of the equation that is who you know is to be a key maker, not a gatekeeper. So Molly is the epitome of this, and that's an Arlen Hamilton quote, but, uh, Molly is the epitome of this.
This is exactly what she did, right? She, Went and recommended me to them. So I'm going to suggest that you do the same thing, right? Ask if people are looking for people to speak at a conference and then recommend your people. And so this is kind of like, especially if you've been asked to speak, uh, if you've been asked to be on a podcast, right, then look to pay that forward.
If you will. I do this every, every podcast episode that I'm on. Um, not because I expect it to come back to me, but because it's It's a kind and helpful thing to do. And I've been on the receiving end of that. And I'm like, dude, I want to put that energy out into the world. So anytime I get asked to be on a podcast, I go on the podcast and then I ask them at the end, like, Hey, is there anyone that I know that I can connect you with?
Um, and I think it's just, it's, it is the go giver laws. It is that, you know, put out into the ecosystem, put out into the ether, put out into the universe, what you would like to see there. And if you get it back, that's great. Uh, but that's not the only reason to do it. So those are the three action items for that first half of, um, you know, the.
Who you know side of things. The second part of that equation is what you're bringing to the table. So three parts here, three action items. Number one, be fucking good at what you do. Be a master at your craft. Be a master of your craft. Right? People want to invite people who are good at what they're doing because it provides value to the audience.
Ideally, the person hosting this conference does care about the audience and does care that the audience has a good experience and so they want to bring people who are really good at what they do. Second part with this is being able to get people results. So that's, that's, it's kind of twofold within that being able to get people results in the thing that you do just in your general day to day, your general business, but also when you go and speak, I have been to a lot of conferences and a lot of people suck.
I'm just going to say it. They suck at speaking and not because they're bad speakers or because the stuff they're presenting isn't helpful. And not everyone who is good at, you know, having an online presence. Is a good speaker, right? These are two different skills. So if you need help with that, nope, not me.
I'm not the, sorry, that sounds weird. If you need help with that, no, not me. Don't hire me to help you with that. Uh, I'm going to suggest my guy, Mike, I'm totally blanking on his name right now. Um, I will have, uh, uh, Courtney, I will send that to you and then you can look that in the show notes. Um, but he was the speaker coach, uh, for ConvertKit.
Um, so that's what, this is what he does. He is a speaker coach. So if you want help with that side of things, hire someone to help you. This way you can be truly valuable to that audience, not just because of the things you know, but what they actually learn, right? Cause it's not about what you know, it's what you learn that matters.
Point number two here is to share what you know. There is a trend right now that's going up on social media and I'm already sick of it. It just started and I'm already fucking sick of it. And the trend is, it's like a reel that you make that says, I'm tired of making content. Just hire me for the thing that I do or hire me for what I do.
It's nonsense. It's bullshit. Making content that shows people what you do is how you get people to hire you. All right. It's try before you buy. It's invest. It's test before you invest. Share everything, right? How are people going to know what you're bringing to the table unless you show them what you're bringing to the table.
So yes, that word of mouthing is, it trumps everything else, right? If someone vouches for you and they're like, Hey, yeah, this person's like really good at this. But the second part is they're like, what can you talk? What can you do? What do you like? Right. What, what is your expertise in? Share that everywhere.
And the easiest, lowest hanging fruit to start off with is going to be your social media. And then the third part here of how to demonstrate. What you're bringing to the table is if you ever do get the opportunity to be on a stage, whether that's a virtual conference, uh, you know, speaking to someone's group or an actual stage, bring the fucking noise, have your shit together and bring the fucking noise, right?
Bring down the house, whatever the phrase is, right? Be fucking awesome when you give that, that presentation in terms of growth from this, right? Very, you know, uh, specifically, easy to understand here is that people who host conferences. Go to conferences and also people who attend conferences, go to conferences.
Meaning when you're speaking, there's people in the audience that host conferences and those hosts see you. And they're like, Hey, you crushed here. They invite you to speak at their event. That's actually, that's absolutely how I got asked to speak at, uh, Raise the Bar, nope, excuse me, Real Coaches Summit.
So I was speaking at Raise the Bar, Aram was at that conference. And then he asked me to speak at the Real Coaches Summit. Additionally, like I said, the people in the audience, most people, mostly people, there's overlap. Like people, there's a certain type of person that really likes to go to conferences and oftentimes they go to multiple conferences and so you have them at one and they meet you and they hear from you and they're like, Oh.
I want to go see this person again. We do it with music, right? Where you hear someone and you're like, I want to go to their conference again. I want to go to their conference over there. Their conference. Wow. Their, uh, what is it called? What? I'm totally blanking. Concert. Concert. I want to go to their concert there.
I want to go. I've, I've heard, uh, Chris Stapleton play like five times now. All over. Love it. All right. So the, the three folks that we are bringing in to speak at BossUp, they have both of these things, right? We know them very well. I in particular know them very well. And they have shown time and time again that they can bring so much value to anyone who's willing to listen, any audience that's willing to listen.
All right. So I'm bringing in, we are bringing in Rachel Strickland, we've had in the podcast, Dr. Uchenna, Jack, Dr. Uchenna Osai, who we've had in the podcast and Dr. Jennifer Hutton, who's also been in the podcast, all very good friends of mine. And so one, there's that first part of the relationships, who do you know?
We know them, and what do you bring to the table? And they're bringing fucking everything to the table. So As it relates to Boss Up, my, the, the goal of Boss Up is to help female online business owners learn how to do business in a way that feels good for them and a way that feels good for their people.
As it relates to the actual strategy and tactics side of online business, Jill and I got that covered. We had it on lock. That's what we're going to be focused on. As for the personal growth side, the personal development side of things, that is what we're bringing the speakers in for. And we know they can deliver on that.
Because. I've seen their work. I've been privy to their work. I've brought them in for their things. I've heard their work. I've seen it on social. Listen to the podcast episodes they've been on. I know what they can do. I'm part of Rachel's Patreon. I know what she can do. I know what they all can do. I've heard uc speak a bunch of times, and I worked with, with Dr.
Uh, I almost said with Dr. Rachel, I'm meant to say, uh, with Dr. Jennifer. I I know what they can bring. One thing that was super important for Jill and I, um, and I wanna state this. Because just kind of, you can take away a lot of things from this episode, whether you are looking to get asked to speak or you're going to host your own, um, was when we asked the speakers, um, if they would want to participate in this and want to speak.
We mentioned, we specifically said that they wouldn't have to promote the event, right? Yes, it's nice if your speakers promote the event, but honestly, it's annoying as a speaker to be expected to fill someone else's event. Right? In the beginning, when you first start getting invited to speak at things, it's really cool, but As your business and life goes on, it is a lot, right?
Cause you have a full ass schedule. You have a life, you have a family, you have a business you're running, and then you have to take time away from that to go travel, to go and put this, this talk together, to be on, have this energy at this, at the place. And it becomes a lot. And then to be expected on top of that to go and market this and write emails like that's way too much.
So we did not ask them to market anything if they wanted to. Awesome. But we didn't ask them that. And then we also are paying them. All right. We were paying for their flight. We're paying for the hotel, paying for transportation, their food, and we're giving them 500 speaker fee. It's not much, but it is 500 more than literally any other health and fitness conference out there.
Like again, I said in the beginning of this. It is not some lucrative thing to be speaking on stages. Most conferences do not pay. Um, you know, I'll be the first to say my zone of genius is not in how to, uh, be a professional speaker. And, and that is a thing. Um, but for what I'm guessing the majority of you listening to this are looking to do and looking to get started on, it's this more organic approach at speaking on, at these types of stages and these types of places that you have gone to.
And I'm going to let you know, like, you're not getting paid very much. All that to say, if you're listening around the edges. If you're hosting event, hosting an event, pay your speakers. If you are looking to speak at an event, understand that it is not necessarily some super lucrative things, which doesn't mean you should not do it.
And it doesn't mean that all that no, you know, things are, can you, it's like, so I'm tripling over my words. It is not a super lucrative thing, but that is not to say that you can't make money at the event. These plate that these, these gigs and doing this, like, yes, there are people that do this. But again, for those of you listening to this, my guess is that you are thinking about trying to speak at the conferences that you've attended, and 99% of those are not paying the people to speak.
Okay? So the zoomed out thing, uh, like I said, is while I have no expertise on, you know, how to turn speaking into a career, uh. It can be done, but understand that it's an entirely different skill set, namely one that involves pitching and negotiations, which is not at all something that I at all enjoy.
Right. Which is why I didn't have this episode title, how to pitch yourself for a speaking event. This was how to get asked to speak. And a lot of times when you're getting asked, you're probably also not getting paid. Right. So just, just think about that. Uh, I do truly think that it is an honor To be asked to speak.
And I don't take that lightly. Um, and this is something that I did chase for a few years and I caught it. And which is why I'm doing this episode and I can speak from the other side of things. Um, now it's not something that I desire so much. Um, like I said earlier, it is a lot to leave your home. And go fly and go stay at a place and be on and, you know, talk to all the attendees.
Cause it's like, when you're there, you're there. And that's, it's, it is great. And if you've ever been in a conference and like we've been there together, like, I'm glad if you came up to me and we spoke, I'm fucking so glad about that. But it is also a lot, right? I've said this a bunch of times. I'm huge, I'm hugely introverted, right?
So, you know, I said yes to the recent CPTA gig. Um, because it was same day in and out flight, they did not pay. Um, but I really did feel like I could have an impact on that audience. And I'm pretty sure, I was pretty sure that they were going to get something different from me as opposed to all the other speakers.
And I know that I didn't have that example when I was a student. I didn't have that example on when I was practicing earlier on. And that is why I said yes. Right. So all that to say that last part is ask yourself why you want to be on stage. Right. It's also, you know, super important to, to dissect this and sit with it for a little bit, because it will impact what you say yes to and what you say no to.
If you're like, I want to get my message out there. I like being on stage. I like have the energy and feeding off the, you know, feeding off that energy of the audience. I like inspiring people. I want this kind of more scaled model there just to, you know, get my ideas out there. Amazing. You'll probably say yes to a lot more things.
And that's why I said yes to those things before. Cause I was like, I just want to be on the stage. I just want to talk. I love it. What I did find, though, is I also so strongly champion. Action. And one of the toughest things with a live event is that I don't know what you're doing after it. If I work with you for six weeks, if we worked together one on one, right, if you're in the intensive, if you're in the lecture line, if you're in legacy, I know that you're taking action because we're working together.
When I'm on stage, I don't know. It's a hope and that's fine for a lot of people. Right. Where you're just like, Hey, I'm going to talk to you. And then like, it's on you. There's nothing wrong with that. And I can sit with that for something like CPTA and giving those talks. But to give a lot of my time for something like that, where I didn't know if people were doing the thing and I couldn't hold them accountable.
That was really tough for me. And so that's why I was like, I'm good with speaking on stages. I don't feel a need to. Do that to get my message out. I have the channels now. I talking to you folks. I got my podcast. I, we have the YouTube version of things going up. I have social media. I have my email list and I.
I really like speaking and communicating via that. So ask yourself why you want to do this. There are no wrong answers, right? Again, it's just, there's no wrong answers. There's no like, this is wrong. This is right. There's just your answers. The reason I want you to ask yourself the question is because it will help influence and guide what you say yes to what you say no to.
Again, That this is not a super lucrative thing. This is not to say that, you know, five figure speaking gigs isn't a thing, but for the most part, people who are getting those five figure, four figure, any figure speaking gigs, they have that second part, which is what do you bring into the table? And they're bringing a big audience.
So there's some famous author or some famous travel blogger or whatever. They have a big audience. They're someone that people want to hear from. And so, People are paying a pretty penny to get these people to speak. Last part here, and then I'll wrap it up. You can also, if you get asked, you can also ask for a speaker fee and be like, yes, and, um, I will say, you know, who actually, I'm remiss if I didn't say this, Allison Tenney always pays her speakers.
She is phenomenal at that. Um, Allison does a really good job of taking care of her speakers. Um, so let that be known, but, um, Yeah, you can ask for a speaker fee. All right. It's not to say that like you have to accept nothing. Um, that's on you, right? That's up on you. That's up to you. But I do want to put it out there that.
Speaking doesn't guarantee some lucrative thing. Um, isn't, you know, some lucrative paycheck. Um, oftentimes they will reimburse you, right. For your flight, like your travel, they'll pay for the hotel. That's the easiest one. Cause that's already on their thing. You have to put a card down for incidentals. Um, but like, they've already paid for the hotel.
Um, they'll reimburse you for your travel there. They'll reimburse you for food, but like you do have to pay up front and then they, they will reimburse you. Um, so just some things to keep in mind. I want to pull back the curtain. It is a phenomenal opportunity. To be able to speak on a stage, to speak at a conference, absolutely.
But just want to put some context around it, give you a little information. If you got more questions, by all means, hit me up. Okay. Looking at the time, we're going to wrap this up here. Summary. If you're looking to speak on stages and you're wondering how to get invited to speak, how to get invited to speak at conferences.
Yes, you can absolutely ask, but it all comes down to who do you know? And what are you bringing to the table? Okay. All right. Don't forget, if you're a super last minute Lucy, Boss up is going down this Thursday and Friday. This week, we got three bomb ass guest speakers. All the info is in the link in the show notes, all right?
All right. As always, endlessly, endlessly appreciative for every single one of you. Until next time, friends, Maestro out.
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