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ASK GRANT

Got a question you’d like Grant to answer on an
upcoming episode of The Speaker Lab Podcast?

We want your questions, but let’s throw out a few basic guidelines first...

  • 1State your first and last name and where you're calling from.
  • 2Feel free to mention your website or blog once during the recording. Don't get spammy/sale-sy. (And no need to mention "www," just give the URL after that. For example, "TheSpeakerLab Dot Com.")
  • 3Keep your question to the point and under one minute in length. If it goes a little over, that's fine, but keep it short and sweet. 
  • 4Please only ask ONE question per voicemail (but feel free to leave multiple voicemails if you'd like).

(Please note that by submitting a voicemail question, you’re allowing me to share it publicly on the podcast.)

Here's a good template to use...

"Hey there...this is Grant Baldwin from Nashville, Tennessee and I run a site called TheSpeakerLab.com where we teach speakers how to find and book speaking engagements. Here's my question..."

There are 2 options to ask Grant a question...

  • 2Leave us a comment below
  • Savina

    Hello, Grant!

    Would you let me into a little secret?-
    You are speaking faster than anyone on the web. Nonetheless, I have got every single word of your mouth. What is it, that you have? A perfect diction, articulation or it is just me, having some kind of strange problem with my brain?

    Also, when you speak you always sound extremely confident, that I- the receiver of your speech will take it on board,

    Smile (only at the beginning and the end of the speech), Savina

    • Grant

      HA! Thanks Savina…I do like to talk fast 🙂

  • Grant:

    Recently started listening to your podcast. Great production and audio qualities. In show #6 where you talked about what should be in a speaker agreement/contract, I thought you had mentioned a template that could be downloaded. Didnt see one on the website. Did I misunderstand something ?

    I like the term agreement over contract, less likely to get a legal departments hackles in an uproar.

    Ron

  • Arun

    Hi,
    Since high school I always wanted to get up on stage and speak… Although I haven’t done much talking formally on stage, I would love to but the problem is I can’t narrow down to single topic, I love persuasive speaking. Can’t niche it down to single topic. How do I find topic what I love

    Looking for your reply

    Thank you

  • Hey mate, the webinar singup link on this page goes to a 404:
    http://www.bookedandpaidtospeak.com/gss-thank-you

    Love what you’re doing!

    Cheers,

    Will

    • Grant

      Thanks for the heads up Will! Looks like it should be working now 🙂

  • Katie Goodman

    Hey Grant. This is all so helpful. Quick question. You mentioned putting in our contracts two things: property (so video tapping us and not selling it) and merch (selling our books without giving them a cut) but could you possibly spell out the language you use for that exactly? Thank you!!

  • DrRay Charles

    Grant, I am a huge Podcast Listener. I recently came across your Podcast. It is an early birthday gift (My birthday, September 1st). I’ve shut down all other podcasts and I’m listening to the Speaker Lab podcast exclusively. My Goal is to be caught up with all 84+ Podcasts before my birthday and implement at least 52 techniques (nothing magical about the number 52 other than 52 weeks/yr). Bar none, one of my best birthday gifts…..

  • Hi Grant. Thank you for the wealth of great information on your podcasts. I wanted to ask you something since you are a former pastor. I was a Christian for a while and had a spiritual awakening. My position is not so popular anymore and I think this is going to make it difficult to get bookings. Do you have any advice, suggestions or comments for helping a speaker with an unpopular viewpoint to get placements? Thanks.

    • John…well it depends on if those viewpoints are communicated in your marketing or your speech itself. If not, and they are just personal beliefs that you don’t express, then it shouldn’t affect anything. But if it’s something you want to talk about and is controversial, then you would most likely have a difficult time getting booked by people who don’t share the same viewpoint. That make sense?

      • Yes it makes sense. I will just have to accept the consequences. Thanks Grant.

  • Do you have an affiliate program for the upcoming speaking event?

  • Jess Adam

    Hi Grant! I’m a beginner to speaking, where can I find information on speaker training? I live in the New York.

    • Go to freespeakerworkshop.com to get more details on our online trainings 🙂

  • Sarah Leeper

    Hi Grant! I am a college freshman and I will soon be starting my journey to becoming a speaker. I want to stay in college and earn my degree. What college major would you suggest to be the most beneficial to someone like me whose end goal is becoming a full time speaker? I am currently a broadcast journalism major, but I’m thinking that may not be right for this field. Thank you so much for your time!

    • I would actually focus on getting a business degree. Perhaps something along the lines of marketing. There’s lots of great speakers who have no idea how to find and book gigs.

      That being said, my degree is in nothing related to business or speaking. So I don’t think you have to have a degree in order to be a speaker. In fact, several speaker friends I know either dropped out of college or never even went. Depending on what you want to speak on, a college degree may not be that relevant.

  • John Antonacci

    Hi Grant, my name is John Antonacci. I signed up for your live webinar for Tuesday, November 22 @ 7 am Central. I am in San Diego, so it is of course 5 pm central time. I just found out that I have to work, my work schedule changes every week, so it is out of my control. When can I schedule another live Webinar, or at least I want to hear a recorded session. My email address is antonacci9@gmail.com

    • Hey John…go ahead and register and we may send out a replay 🙂

  • Kate Garnes

    Hey Grant!! My name is Kate Garnes! I just wanted you to know how much I love your podcast! It is revolutionizing my motivational speaking journey.
    I do have one question. I want to make motivational speaking my full time career, but I know that my audience are ages 18-30, the people who have grown up and are learning to live in a world driven by facebook, starbucks, netflix, takeout chinese food, and uber. I know that my audience is probably mostly high schools and colleges. SO I guess my main question is, IS it possible to make money when I’m not really aiming at big companies and cooperation?? I hope that makes sense!!!! THANK YOU SO MUCH!!!!!

    • Thanks for the kind words Kate! You can absolutely make a living speaking to high schools/colleges. That’s exactly what I did for a good portion of my career. Make it happen!

  • mikeyouthallie

    How do I get started as a motivational speaker and begin to start a business out of it? How can I succeed in the long run as well and grow the business successfully? This is something new to me. I had some experience speaking in front of small groups of adult men, children and teenagers in the past. I recently moved to a new state and area. I know that I want to speak to children, teenagers and young adults that I am passionate about and which industries and settings, as well as the problem and topics that are relevant to this specific audience and are an interest to them, for example I have experience with the issue of bullying, since I was a victim of bullying myself and have other personal experiences of life struggles and hardships.

    • Best thing you can do Mike is register for one of our upcoming free trainings at FreeSpeakerWorkshop.com. There we’ll walk through a step-by-step plan on how to get started.

      • mikeyouthallie

        Thank you brother for responding back to me. God bless. from a fellow brother in the Lord Jesus Christ. I had served in youth ministry myself as well.

  • Hi Grant, I like your teaching. I wrote ten books and knew how to speak about “the racism epidemic” facing people in the US for centuries. I believe that I have the solution for the racism epidemic and wish to talk to any organization to solve the problem and make people have respect for one another in workplaces or any organization.

    Unfortunately, I do not have any resources to pay now; I have been doing research in last eleven years without making money, I lived on my saving and retirement with my wife.

    Help me to get started; I will sign the paper for you to pay you as agent or pay you back from money I make.

    • Thanks for the offer Hamma but I’ll have to politely decline. The reality is you won’t work as hard if you don’t have any skin in the game. Plus, if we just gave away our premium trainings, you would value them less because again, you have nothing at stake.

      We would love to have you join Booked & Paid To Speak or one of our other trainings, but we still offer plenty of free resources on this site 🙂

  • steve

    Tried to purchase the program on my smart phone with no luck. Can I get a call please 214-679-5690 (Steve)

    • Hey Steve! Just followed up with you. Looking forward to you joining BPS 🙂

  • Greg Larkin

    Hi Grant, I hope you can sprinkle some of your rockstar-fairy dust on a puzzle I’m trying to solve. About 10 years ago I was one of the first voices on Wall St. to predict the financial crisis. I was in the news, talk shows, and featured as a keynote speaker often as the financial crisis unravelled.

    Since then, I’ve changed careers. I now specialize in digital product innovation. I have a great reputation with my clients – but I’m not famous. At all.

    I’m coming out with my first book in June. Is there a smart way to parlay my past 10 minutes of fame into my new life, or should I essentially start from scratch?

    Thanks in advance for your insight!
    Greg

    • Hey Greg! If you were speaking on something related to your past 10 minutes of fame, you may have something there, but since you’re speaking on a seemingly unrelated/different topic, there’s not much you can do directly.

      What you can leverage is on your site and in your marketing materials, share that you’ve been featured on XYZ talk show or in major media publications which will help you with credibility.

      Make sense?

      • Greg Larkin

        It makes great sense and thanks for your reply. Should I also link to the actual stories? My instinct is yes….

        • The downside is you’re showing content unrelated to what you actually speak about, so in some ways it could diminish the effectiveness of media appearance.

          • Greg Larkin

            Thanks!

  • Judd Albring

    isnt here a training starting now?

    • We do a weekly training you can register for at freespeakerworkshop.com!

  • Judd Albring

    Loved the workshop! I feel I have everything I need to get started and would love to start the training. However, I have NO clue how to begin writing my speech. Do you cover this in the training? Thank you

    • Glad you enjoyed it Judd! Yes, within Booked & Paid To Speak, we do have a few lessons on how to create/structure your talk. We also offer a separate, complementary training course (The Art of Speaking) that goes into it even deeper.

      • Judd Albring

        Thank you. Where can I find The Art of Speaking?

        • At this moment, we don’t offer it on it’s own, but if you join Booked & Paid To Speak, you have the option of also including Art of Speaking. Let me know if you need anything else 🙂

  • James

    I HAVE BEEN GIVEN TO KNOW THE LOST TEACHING OF JESUS CALLED THE WAY AND WOULD LIKE TO SHARE THAT MESSEGE WITH THE WORLD. Can you help me get some speaking gigs in san diego California?

    • Thanks for reaching out James! We don’t actually get speaking engagements for you, but we will teach you how to find and book speaking engagements on your own, so you’re not dependent on us 🙂

      If you haven’t already, be sure to register for one of our free trainings at http://www.FreeSpeakerWorkshop.com

  • Thomas Nestor

    Hey Grant. I purchased the beginning portion of the speakers lab and was listening to the google hangout with Tim Sanders, and Tim made a comment saying, “Most high paying gigs are going to come from speakers bureaus.” In your opinion, how much emphasis needs to be placed on getting involved with bureaus on a scale of 1-10?

    • 0 🙂

      The bottom line is if you can’t book gigs on your own, a bureau won’t be interested in you. Bureaus aren’t interested in 99.9% of speakers on the market, so I wouldn’t worry about them.

      Listen to this podcast – https://thespeakerlab.com/shawn-hanks/

  • Anah Reichenbach

    Hi Grant! I am wondering if you do a live training for new speakers? I do much better with a real time, experiential training then online. Thanks!

    Anah

    • Right not we don’t currently have any in-person events planned but it’s certainly something we’re considering for the future!

  • Kelly

    Grant, My name is Kelly, and I am a speaker in Ohio. I am taking your paid class in the speakerlab.com and I am wondering what you used to create your course. It looks great, clean, simple, and a great template for others to replicate and use. Can you tell me more about this and your paywall? Thank you for your time.

    • Glad you enjoyed it Kelly!

      We use Thinkific to house all of our digital courses/products and use ClickFunnels for the checkout process.

  • Jack Hirsh

    Hi Grant, this is Jack Hirsh from Phoenix, AZ and I just discovered your podcast and love it. I am a corporate speaker and sales trainer and I was wondering how you feel about groups that ask you to fill out an RFP. Do you just do it knowing that it will most likely get ignored or do you bypass that request and try to get someone on the phone so you can build that rapport?

    Thanks and looking forward to your response.
    Jack

    • Not all RFPs are a waste. In some industries, they may even be required. I might consider emailing the contact to learn more of what they’re looking for but then I would follow the process of the RFP. If you try cold calling them, you’ll catch them off guard and generally not make a good first impression.

  • Paula

    Hello, Grant. I’m Paula. I’ve done all kinds of original research for years and have some speaking experience. However, because of a horrific childhood and a misdiagnosed injury to my spine, I am a late bloomer. I am 66 and have only recently reached a place where I can create the career I’ve always wanted. Because I’ve already been discounted in a number of ways as a senior citizen, I’m wondering what kinds of attitudes I will get from people who hire speakers. I am a good speaker, however. I briefly joined a Toastmasters group. After my first talk, one of the members who had been a Toastmaster for decades told me my speech had the quality of a TED talk. Will my age matter?

  • Lucia Ferraro

    trying to download your info… as offered… i keep getting caught in a loop…never allows for the download. What shall i do??

  • That would be our Art of Speaking course! Here’s more info – http://learn.thespeakerlab.com/courses/art-of-speaking-bonus

  • Kendra Dahlstrom

    Grant, since you are a fellow Christian I know you will understand when I share this with you. For twenty years I have been looking for a way to tell my story in context of His story. I am a successful marketing exec at a high tech company and while great at my job I have never really found it fulfilling. I have finally shaped my story and how to share with youths and women in the Church and outside of the Church. This is how I want to serve and help others – even just one person – so they can avoid the pitfalls, pain and errors I have made.

    I just found your site this morning as I prepare to meet with my local Church about giving 3-4 Chapel seminars (45 mins each) over several weeks. i have listed to 2 podcasts and I am hooked. Thank you for providing this forum for people like me who aspire to tell their story, or just further brand and market themselves or their business.

    I look forward to learning more. Also would be interested in a 1:1 session when available.

    Best,
    Kendra

  • Marc Shulman

    Hi Grant, My name is Marc Shulman and I have been speaking to family organizations who have a family loved one with disabilities and teaching them how to set up a life plan for their loved one for the last 28 years. These will include setting up a special needs trusts with a special needs attorney, writing a letter of intent and much more. Is there a place in your program for this?

    • Absolutely! In fact, we have another speaker in Booked & Paid To Speak that I talked with the other day who speaks on a similar topic.

  • JH

    Hello Grant, I feel so excited about finding your information on IG. I have been speaking for 20 years, yet have not been as active in this loving work I adore in the past 5 or so years. I would love to know if you take on private clients or do private 1 on 1 training. What do you think?

  • Logan Kelly

    Hey Grant. LOVE the resources you offer. Thanks so much for paying it forward for all of us who want to do what you do!

    Quick question. Who do YOU consider are the BEST speakers in the biz right now??

  • LeVant Bracey

    Hi Grant,
    My name is Levant and i recently purchased your course on the monthly payment plan. I’ve been having trouble accessing the course. Could you please send me a link so that I can access the course. Please!

    • Our support sent you an email with your login details 🙂

      • LeVant Bracey

        Thank you

  • Amie Verhagen

    Hi, it seems like you’re not seeing the questions in the webinar chat feed…. but I posted 2 questions:
    1. I totally feel like this is part of my calling in life! I am a mother of 2 small children (still planning to have more), my husband works over time and is in school. How do I navigate this delicate balance without neglecting my family, and so my husband can eventually do a job he LOVES too?
    2. I know you said you go into depth on this in the course, but quickly, what is the rule of thumb about paying for travel?

  • Elizabeth Chapple

    Hello Grant, I am Elizabeth Chapple. I have mentored young ladies in the past and assist many in making relationship decisions. I have spoken at a my home church and small conferences. I would like to begin to speak to women and singles at conferences. I have found several larger conferences online but do not feel that I have the recognition at this time to be booked with larger events. When speaking within the church sector how would you find local conferences as these aren’t widely advertised?

    • Most conferences in the church world are hosted by individual churches. I would start with whatever denomination you’re part of and start reaching out to churches in your area (or within a reasonable driving distance) to find out if they have any type of relationship conference or event that you might be a good fit for.

      If you haven’t already attended one of our free webinars, we go into this process much more in depth, so I highly recommend you join us sometime. Register for free here – http://www.FreeSpeakerWorkshop.com

  • jillian

    Hey Grant, love your podcasts. My name is Jillian Bullock and I am the creator of Fighting Spirit Warriors: Fit 2 Fight 2 Have A Safe Life. My program is a fitness for self-defense program. I teach girls and women why it’s vital to be physically fit to help reduce their chances of becoming a victim of rape, sexual assault or domestic violence. They also learn how to use certain exercises for self-defense. As a speaker I talk about safety and preventive measures, how to spot a sexual predator and the red flag warning signs of an abuser. I would like to book my program at corporations, colleges, businesses, women’s non profit organizations, etc. on a national level. However, I’m not sure how to get a company like Walmart or AARP to hire me. Thanks.

    • I’d recommend you start by attending one of our free trainings on how to find and book speaking gigs. I think that will help give you more of a road map to get started.

      Register for free at FreeSpeakerWorkshop.com

    • jillian

      Thank you. I did sign up. Looking forward to it.

  • Robin Vanzant

    Hey Grant! So I’m looking to really improve my speaking website, rvanzant.com, but I’m lost in the depths of google, caught up with poor SEO and little skill to improve it. I have a friend who is a wedding photographer, and she took a course a couple years back where a more experienced photographer gave her the exact wording for her SEO as part of the course and her site has been on the first page of google listings in our area ever since! Do you offer a similar resource, or would you consider developing one? Pretty please!?!

    • SEO isn’t really our speciality but I’d recommend checking out the site backlinko.com

  • C.L. Whitley

    Hi Grant. I was wondering how much would be an appropriate amount to charge for a speaking engagement at a high school in a large city. I am changing my core speaking market to colleges and high schools and while I have found a lot of information on the college market, I can’t find as much on speaking at high schools. Thanks, so much! I love your podcasts!