What’s the key to making speaking work for your business? Well, not just work. It can help your business grow, help you make an impact on the world, and help you create the life you’ve always wanted.

The key is to figure out the path to successful speaking that’s best for you. If you don’t — and you jump into speaking without understanding your strategy first — speaking can quickly become this extra task on your plate that’s not getting you results.

Luckily, I’ve mapped out the three paths to profitable speaking for you below! Which path will you choose?

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RESOURCES MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE:

Find out which path is best for you! Take the quiz >>
Kick off your speaking journey with Select Your Signature Speaking Topics
Speak on more stages with Book More Speaking Engagements: The Ultimate Guide
Make speaking sustainable and profitable with The Business of Speaking: Speaker Workflow
Find more resources in the Speak to Scale Shop
Join the Free Speak to Scale Community

Speaker Path One: Building Awareness

Speaker Path One (or Tier One, as I’ve called it in past podcast episodes) views speaking as a general marketing activity for your business. If you fall into Tier One, your focus is becoming the go-to speaker in your space. You want to boost your credibility and position yourself as an authority figure within your industry.

You might be brand new to speaking, or maybe you’re still working 1:1 with your clients and aren’t ready to take speaking full-time. In either case, you want to start speaking and start gaining traction fast. You know that speaking will help scale your biz now and in the future.

Tips for Speaker Path One

If this is your path, I encourage you to know your signature speaking topics front to back, top to bottom. Select the right topics and stick to them. You can’t be a subject matter expert if you’re trying to speak about everything!

As for speaking opportunities on this path, I recommend two things: guest podcasting, and choosing events strategically. Guest podcasting is typically low-cost, and speaking to podcast audiences can spread brand awareness and increase brand visibility.

While you should stick to your signature speaking topics, that doesn’t mean you should limit your speaking opportunities to only those topics. You can be one of many experts on a lineup, as long as you’re still an authority on your subject.

Say you’re trying to establish yourself as the go-to accountant for women business owners. You should still look for speaking engagements at accounting conferences even if that audience isn’t strictly women in business. See what I mean?

Speaking of accounting, I definitely recommend setting a budget for yourself. It’s easy to get excited about speaking and do all the things, But treat speaking as a marketing strategy that you would work into your business budget. Set boundaries for how much time or money you’ll allocate to speaking.

Speaker Path Two: Generating Leads

Speaker Path Two, or — you guessed it — Tier Two, views speaking as a targeted marketing activity. You’re past getting your name out there and building your cred. You are ready to sell from the stage so you can increase revenue for your business.

You might already be seen as the expert in your industry. One of your big goals is finding and booking the right speaking opportunities for your brand and biz, so you can keep making progress toward your goals: selling a course or program, building your client roster, selling a book, and so on.

Tips for Speaker Path Two

If this is your path, knowing your audience is crucial. You can’t generate leads, gain new clients, or increase conversions if you’re not speaking in front of your ideal audience!

Find out everything you can about your ideal audience and figure out how to turn that information into the right speaking opportunities. Does your ideal audience attend virtual summits? Awesome. Apply for and book those. Which podcasts do your clients listen to? Aim for a guest host spot or book an interview on those podcasts.

Just like Tier One speakers, I recommend you set a budget for yourself so that your speaking efforts are supporting your biz, not detracting from it. Plus, be selective with the events you say yes to. Figure out which opportunities are getting you results and moving you forward on your path. And book more of those in the future.

Speaker Path Three: Getting Paid to Speak

Speaker Path Three/Tier Three views speaking as a high-end service. On this path, you want speaking to be its own business. It generates its own revenue, and there are sustainable systems in place to make pitching, booking, and rebooking a cinch.

You have your strategy down pat, and you know which speaking opportunities are best for your business. Rather than thought leadership or conversions, you want getting paid to speak to be your ultimate source of income. You wanna get paid what you’re worth. And you want to get rebooked and referred to keep that revenue coming in.

Tips for Speaker Path Two

If this is your path, you have to be a great service provider — not just a great speaker. Speaking is a high-end service, right? So treat it like one, and deliver an incredible experience to everyone you work with.

That means investing time and money into your sales and booking process, your marketing materials, and your offboarding process. Every step someone takes to work with you, from sending an inquiry to booking to connecting during your event, should be wow-worthy. It should leave such a positive impression that they can’t wait to work with you again.

Of course, I recommend having a budget as a Tier Three speaker, but it’s a little different from Tiers One and Two. Here’s my advice: leave room in your budget for unpaid speaking events. I know, it sounds weird for this path that’s all about generating revenue! But hear me out.

As you gain experience and fall in love with speaking, you’re going to want to book all the events for causes that are important to you. And that’s okay! You can say yes to those events, because you still want to serve your people and share your message. Just don’t overload your calendar with unpaid events. Keep your goals in mind. And again, stick to your budget!

Changing paths? Change your speaking strategy, too

Let’s recap these three tiers/paths to profitable speaking:

Path One: Brand awareness. To become that in-demand speaker in your space, you need to get crystal clear on your signature speaking topics…and stick to them.
Path Two: Conversions. Know your audience like the back of your hand, and look for opportunities to get in front of them.
Path Three: Getting paid to speak. To make speaking sustainable, you gotta deliver on and off the stage so you can get rebooked and referred.

Once you’ve found your path, are you bound to stay on it forever? No! Your speaking path may change as you continue on your journey, and that’s perfectly fine. Just be sure to change your speaking strategy along with it.

Remember, speaking can be impactful and profitable with the right strategy. As long as you take action with intention, and know what goals you’re aiming to achieve, you’re on the right path for you.