175: What to Do When An Organizer Approaches You to Speak At Their Event
The incoming speaking requests are landing in your inbox, but you want to be sure that you are responding to these the right way that fits benefits everyone involved. In this episode, I’ll be showing you exactly what to do when an organizer approaches you to speak at their event!
If you loved this episode and it motivated you to work on more polished presentations, I’d love for you to leave a review on iTunes and tell me about your biggest takeaway. Take a screenshot of you listening on your device, post it to your Instagram Stories, and tag me @jessicarasdall.
Resources mentioned in this episode:
Timely Responses Matter
When an organizer is reaching out to speakers, they usually have a list in hand. Oftentimes, the speaker who responds first gets booked. It’s important to approach each response with the following in mind:
Have a response in mind and prepared.
Don’t just fire off a yes because you were pitched.
Ask questions to determine if you’re the right fit.
While it’s important to respond as soon as possible for these opportunities, you also need to do a little homework.
Speaking Opportunities are Not Created Equal
Since there are so many events and organizations out there, it’s important to do your homework on if they’re the right fit for you to speak at. Here are a few key items you should be considering when accepting a speaking opportunity
Logistics of the Event
When is it? Where is it? What is it? Does the event work for you and your schedule? Can you travel during that time? Have you made any other commitments already?
Speaking Tier
Does the event align with your speaking tier? What is the intention of the event? How does it fit into your speaking strategy?
If you’re new around here, I believe it’s really important that you know what speaking tier you’re in with your opportunities. Make sure you take my quiz to find out which tier you fall under.
Audience
Does the audience match your ideal audience? Are you speaking to people that will benefit from your business or speaking topic?
The Other Speakers / Brand Values
Last, but not least, you need to consider everything and everyone associated with this event. Are they in alignment with yours? Will their presence make an impact on how your brand is perceived?
If you’ve been approached by an organizer to speak at their event and want to ensure it’s the right fit, make sure you grab my guide of 23 things to consider before speaking from the Speak to Scale Vault! Use the code PODCAST for a special discount.
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Read the Transcript from this Episode
Transcript for Episode 172:
It's finally happening. The incoming speaking requests are landing in your inbox. But you want to be sure that you are responding to these the right way. On today's episode, I'm going to show you exactly what to do when an organizer approaches you to speak at their event. Welcome back to another episode of The speak to scale podcast, where we're helping business owners just like you grow and scale their companies by speaking on stages, podcasts, webinars, and more.
I'm your host, Jessica Rasul. And I'm so thankful that you're here today. I know there are so many different podcasts, and resources and videos and whatnot, that you could be plugged into. And the fact that you choose to come back here, week after week means the world to me. No, I'm hoping that after a few episodes ago, where we chatted about the your timeline for 2022, that you've started to take action, right that you're starting to put yourself out there, build relationships, shoot your shot. And now you want to prepare for when those incoming requests start coming in.
When people are asking you to be on their summit, be to speak at their conference to be on their podcast, whatever it may be. So in today's episode, I want to help you understand the do's and don'ts of responding to a speaking request, and truly how to make the most of it. listening to the podcast is a great first step. But I want you to go take action. So if you are ready to apply everything you've learned here on the show, listen up, we took all of our best resources, like our plug and play crafting your story workbook, or how to select your speaking topics, workbook resources on crafting your talk finding and pitching events, we put them all together inside of the speak to scale vault, and we put them in order, so you know exactly what to do and when to do it. to scale your business was speaking, ready to unlock the entire vault, head on over to speak to scale vault calm or click the link in our show notes. But be sure to use the code podcast for a special discount for me.
So the big thing I want you to know, is timely responses matter. Okay, like we need to get this clear right away. Because so often when we get a request to be a part of something, or we get a lead that comes in from a client, that we get to a place where we like, we pause for a moment, which is good. Because you don't want to respond from a place of emotion.
You want to be thoughtful, and strategic. But we pause so much. So sometimes, where perfection kind of gets in the way. And we overthink. Well, what am I going to say? And am I doing this right? And do I time this perfectly. And instead, we miss out on that opportunity? Because when an organizer is reaching out to speakers, they usually have a list of speakers in their hand. Right? They're working through a list of potential speakers. And many times, the one who responds first, if they're a good fit is the one who gets booked. So I need you to know that when it comes to responding to incoming requests, timeliness matters. So I want you to know this ahead of time, I want you to have your responses ready.
I want you to be ready to navigate this situation. But what I don't want you to do is just fire off a yes. Because that's not always right, either. speaking opportunities are not created equal. And you're not going to be the right fit for every event in every event is not going to be the right fit for you. So we do need to pause, not stop, but pause and take a moment to figure out are we going to be a good fit for this event? Is it a good fit for our business? So that means when you respond, you should be doing a little bit of homework. Because speaking opportunities are not created equal. Like I said, first and foremost, logistically, does this event even work for you? Meaning, the date, the time the location, whatever it may be?
Does this is this even a potential? Yes. That means if somebody reached out and they're like, Jess, we want you to speak at our upcoming conference. It's on July 15. And I look at my calendar, and I have something on July 15 already. That's a no like I don't need to ask any more questions. So first and foremost, check your logistics. Why? Because there's no emotions involved in this. It is the easiest first step for you because that is just a matter of like, do can I make this work or not? It's not even a do I want to make this work. So that's your first step. And then what I want you to do is to start to think about how does this opportunity impact your business? How does it fit into your speaking strategy?
If you're familiar with my lingo, if you're a member of the vault, or the academy, or you've taken our quiz, which I'll link for you in the show notes, you know, that we speaking opportunities fall into three different categories, whether they're to help us build brand awareness, build credibility, or get conversions, make more sales, or be paid for our time. And it's really, really, really important that every single time you get an incoming speaking request, that you take a moment to figure out, how does that opportunity fit into my speaking strategy? So if this is an opportunity that is promising, great exposure? Well, is it the kind of exposure that you need? And do you even need exposure for your business?
If you are tier two or three speaker, that might not be a good idea? If your goal is to make more sales, get new clients? Is this event for the right audience? Are the people in that room, even the type of people who purchase your product who invest in your services? So once we know if we logistically can make this work, the next most important step is figuring out does this event fit into your unique speaking strategy. From there, I like to really spend a lot of time diving into the audience who are going to be the people at this event, because, for me, that's what's most important in my strategy, I want to make sure that I'm in front of people who want to receive my message who are going to benefit from my message, because I've been speaking for over 15 years.
And I want to make sure that I feel good when I leave the room to maybe that's a little bit selfish. But when I show up, I want to deliver an incredible transformation for my audience. And I want to feel like I did that, like I hit that mark, not that I missed it. And when we start speaking in front of groups of people that are not for us, we can feel like we're not doing a good job, I never want to feel like that. So the audience is really important to me, are these the people I've been called to serve?
Are these my people, because if I'm not the best fit to serve them, another speaker might be, maybe I can make a better recommendation of one of my clients, or one of my students who would serve this audience much better than myself. And that one of the other pieces I want to make sure you are looking for is if you're not the only speaker at this event, who are the other speakers? What are the brand values of the company you're partnering with? Are they in alignment with yours, because when you are actively promoting this event, you're promoting the person who hired you. And you're also promoting all of the other speakers that are on this lineup. If there's somebody speaking who is just not a good fit for you, if they they like stand for the exact opposite of the things that you stand for, it's going to feel disingenuous to your audience are going to question you and what you say is important to you.
So we want to be sure that the stages that we say yes to are in alignment with what is important to us. So for me, all of this stuff, like it's great, you can ask yourself these questions. But a lot of times, we're going to be making assumptions here. When somebody requests for you to speak at their event, when they reach out to you they fill out your form. You don't always have all of this information to make these decisions. So what I like to do no matter what is schedule a sales call Schedule A Conversation with the host of the event, so that you can ask these questions.
Speaking is not a Buy Now button on your website. Period. Speaking is a high end boutique service that we customize for our audience, right? We are meeting with the organizers finding out what they need. And we're over delivering that from the stage. We're planning for this, we're preparing or customizing. And that takes a little bit of work. So for us when an inquiry comes in, they are automatically prompted to schedule a call with me. And that is where I'm able to ask all of these questions where I'm able to learn more about the host about the audience all of these things. So often we just want to jump to well, what's your budget? How much are you willing to pay? And that's not always the right question.
Because if this is an opportunity that's not even a good fit for you. You don't need to expel the energy having those finances Conversations. It's just a no thank you if it is a really good fit for you. Before you dive into this conversation about budgets and investments, it's important for you to take the time to know what is the organizers vision? What difference do they want to make for their audience? Because if you want to show them the value that your presentation is going to bring, you need to know what value means to them. What does a valuable presentation look like in their eyes? This is the part that so many business owners skip over, that they compartmentalize speaking as just as click this button, here's how much it costs. It's so much more than that. It's not transactional, it's relational.
And if you can take the time to respond quickly, schedule a call and ask the right questions, you're going to know exactly how to show up at that event, you're going to know what to put into your presentation, what the expectations are of the host, you're going to be able to maximize your return on investment for the time you put into that event. If you're looking for a set of questions that you should be asking, every time you get an opportunity, inside of the speak to scale vault, I have a resource for you that includes over 23 questions you should be asking yourself, every time you're considering speaking at an event, you can find that inside of the speak to scale vault at speaktoscalevault.com.
And make sure you use the code podcast for a very special discount. It's going to unlock that resource, along with tons of others, like workbooks on selecting your speaking topics, frameworks for writing your talk, and so much more. If you only remember one thing from today's episode, I want to make sure that when you get a speaking request, that you respond quickly, and you respond with the link to schedule a call. You know, a lot of times when an organizer is reaching out what they're hoping for for an event or what their vision is for the event is not communicated effectively in writing. And I don't want you to discount incredible speaking opportunities, because you didn't have enough information to make the decision. So schedule the calls, do your homework and ask the right questions. Every stage may not be for you. But if you can spend your time on the right ones for your business, you won't believe the difference you'll make for your audience, and the difference you'll make for your company.
Thank you so much for tuning in to today's episode of The speak to scale podcast. It would mean the world to us if you could just take a second and head on over to iTunes and leave us a review. Your support of this show allows us to continue creating this content for you each and every week. And we appreciate your reviews and you sharing about the show more than you know. As always, I will be over here cheering you on friend. I'll see you next week for another episode of The speak to scale podcast.
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