In episode #528, Eric and Neil explain how you can be an event speaker without being a household name. Tune in to hear how you can eventually earn money and a following speaking at conferences.

Time-Stamped Show Notes:

• [00:27] Today’s Topic: How to Get Paid to Speak Even if Nobody Knows You
• [00:34] Neil shares the story about his early days of public speaking
• [01:00] He didn’t get paid at first and had to cover his own expenses.
• [01:26] A Harvard Football player now gets paid $25,000 for speaking gigs at financial firms regarding sales training.
• [01:33] The football player continuously reached out to every speaker bureau and eventually, they offered him paid gigs.
• [01:42] He also self-publishes books and then mails them out to the companies and people for whom he would like to work.
• [02:10] When you first start out, reach out to different conferences and offer your services.
• [02:26] The first speaking gig that Gary Vee (Gary Vaynerchuk) ever did, he asked for $5,000, because he wasn’t sure what kind of money he could get.
• [02:41] Now, Gary gets $100,000 per event.
• [03:11] Bryan Harris came out with a tool to help people get speaking gigs.
• [03:30] Make a prospect list to help you set your goals.
• [03:37] You can hire telemarketers from Upwork for about $30/hour to help you do cold calling.
• [03:52] It would be worth speaking for free at popular conferences, because it will help you build up your speaker resume.
• [04:34] Neil spoke about Wikipedia at the Search Engine Strategies Conference. He did not generate any revenue, nor did he gain any followers.
• [04:54] After doing a few more events for free, he eventually began to ask for money.
• [05:14] Go to the speaker bureau sites and see where those people are speaking, because those are the conferences that are paying.
• [05:25] Neil charged $5,000 for his first paid gig.
• [05:37] Eventually, he began charging more money.
• [06:03] That’s it for today!
• [06:05] Go to singlegrain.com/giveaway if you want to get in on a special giveaway opportunity!

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