The SPEAK Framework — Lesson 3

Once again, welcome back to the SPEAK Framework course. My name is Grant Baldwin, founder of The Speaker Lab. I am here to help you understand how to find and book paid speaking gigs, and to ultimately make an impact, make an income with your message today. We’re going to be looking at the next part of the process and the speak framework.

The E is about establishing yourself as the expert. Now, before we get there, let’s zoom back out. Let’s look at this overall speaker success roadmap, and this framework that we’ve been talking through over the past couple of days, and also look ahead of where we’re headed with this. So we went back a couple days to the S selecting a problem to solve.

We talked about the importance of not trying to speak to anybody in everybody. Not trying to be a, just a, all things for all people, but you want to solve one specific. For one specific audience. And the last lesson we talked about preparing your talk and how your speech is actually your best marketing asset.

When you think about other product services that you recommend and talk to about others, it’s because the product is so good. And you want your speech, your presentation to be exactly that for others today, we’re gonna be talking about how to establish yourself as the expert in the next lesson. We’re going to be talking.

How to acquire paid speaking gigs. They consistent repeatable predictable system to be able to find and book gigs. And then finally, we’re going to talk about how to know when to scale. So you have a message that you want to share that you want to help people with. And speaking is one way to do that.

We’re going to talk about how to build your business beyond the stage. If you want to do a book or coaching or consulting, or a course, or any number of ways to share your message with others, we’re going to dig into that. But again, today, We’re going to be focusing on how to establish yourself as the expert.

And when we talk about this, I want you to kind of think of this as your product packaging, right? So, and the S we know what problem we’re solving and the P we know how we’re providing that solution. Now we’re going to put some packaging, some wrapping paper on that, and to think about it. I want you to think about it like this.

I want you to think about when you go to the grocery store and let’s say that you are looking for. Ice cream. When you walk down the ice cream aisle, there are so many different companies and brands and flavors and colors of, of packaging here. And in fact, as a quick side note, let me ask you. What’s your favorite ice cream flavor and topping, I don’t know about you.

I love all things chocolate. In fact, the more chocolate toppings the better, but when you go to the grocery store, you’re looking for ice cream, just about every brand or, or ice cream company offers some form of vanilla. Right. And on one side of the spectrum, you have something like a Ben and Jerry’s vanilla, right?

And then you also may have a, a great value kind of a store brand. And then on the other end of the spectrum, you have. I don’t even know what this is. I don’t know that I’d recommend it or that I’d even try it. But which one would you prefer? Which one would you prefer? Most of us would probably prefer the Ben and Jerry’s, but the truth is they all provide vanilla ice cream.

So what’s the difference? What’s the difference between these different vanilla versions? Well packaging for products and packaging for speakers. Matters packaging for products and packaging for speakers matters. And with that is kind of a backdrop here. There’s two key marketing assets that every speaker needs.

You need a website and you need a demo video. You have to have both of these things in place because the truth is. If you don’t have a website, you won’t be taken seriously. If you were talking with a potential event planner and they said, Hey, I’d love to, to research a little bit more, or look at your website.

And you’re like, well, I don’t, I don’t have one or I’m working on one or someday. Maybe I’ll have one, or I don’t need a website. It’s hard for people to take you seriously. Now, I also. That creating a website. It can feel a little complicated. It can be a little tricky key if you’re not someone who’s maybe super tech savvy.

I totally get that. And so in fact, one of the things that we do is we actually work with our speakers and our students to create websites for them. And in fact, let me just show you a couple of examples. These are actual websites that our team has created for some of our students. So for example, Ben Fagan is a former baseball player.

He helps students and educators. Redefined success for optimal performance. This is a Lena’s website. She speaks on helping to provide solutions for women’s global rights. Yeah, this is Robin Reed’s website. We w he helps companies, organizations to get unstuck. Dan Paris works with nonprofits and entrepreneurs to do work that matters.

Carrie Sawyer is helping teams to design inclusive work culture. So again, these are some examples of speaker websites that our team has created for our students to help them continue to get their message into the. Now let’s shift gears and talk about your demo video, the importance of this. I want you to think of this kind of like going to a movie theater.

You remember like you remember movie theaters, like pre pandemic. I, back in the day, we would all go to a movie theater. What was one of your favorite parts of the movie theater experience for most people? It was this, it was the preview. Now, even though you could watch any preview on YouTube today, there’s still something fun about seeing a preview in a theater.

And you think about what the point of a movie trailer actually is. It’s to give people a taste and a sense and make them want to see more. A demo video serves that exact same purpose. You take a, a movie, you boil it down to a couple of minutes. You take a speech, you boil it down to a couple of minutes that makes people want to see more.

Now again, I emphasize just a couple of minutes there. You want to keep your video short? Why? Because ain’t nobody got time for that. You can’t create some 30 minute video and expect people to watch that they’re not going to. So keep your demo video tight. Usually no more than two to three, maybe four minutes at the most.

Now, in addition to the websites, we also create demo videos for our students. So, so let me give you some screenshots, some examples from some of those, for example, here’s Rachel Cook. She helps leaders to build better teams and David Nichols, who speaks on climate change, a D D who teaches on breaking through barriers to success.

Jack who’s a, a medical doctor who works with companies to shift their workplace culture and simplify wellness in the workplace. And then Vanessa Browers who helps leaders in healthcare to find better work. Balance. And so the important part is. Your website and your demo video, lets buyers preview the product before buying it less than preview the product before buying.

It gives them a sense of if we hire the speaker, what is it like to work with them? Can I trust them? Do I believe them? Are they a good speaker? Are they a good fit for our audience? Now? Why is a good website and a good video important because buyers equate packages. With value buyers, equate packaging with value.

Let’s go back to the ice cream example for a second, which one of these costs the most. Ben and Jerry’s great value or the artificially flavored vanilla ice cream. I’m assuming it’s maybe a stretch, but the Ben and Jerry’s is probably the most expensive and probably the, the, the highest quality. Why?

Because again, buyers equate packaging with value. And so if you want others to take you seriously as a speaker, you have to take your marketing assets. Seriously. Let me introduce you to, uh, one of our students, Phil Phil is a nationally recognized author and speaker who speaks on emerging technologies and the future, and feels shared this way.

And he said, Hey, all I’ve I had my first paid speaking engagement in September of last year. I’d always wanted to be a speaker, but never did anything about it. Maybe that describes you. You’ve always wanted to do this, but you’ve never taken the next step after I got the chance to do it. I knew it was the right career for me.

So late last year I signed up for grants class and joined this community. So are working on building a speaking business. I’m pleased to announce that today I got my first signed contract for a speaking engagement and I am negotiating a series of three workshops with the client who initially hired me last year.

Plus I’ve got email conversations going with several other potential clients, many thanks to grant and to everyone who has helped me out with my website and video to everyone who worries that it can’t happen to them. Or, and this was a thing for him. He’s saying that they’re too old to start something like that.

Push on. You’re not too old and it really can happen. So listen, if you are serious about finding and booking gigs, you want to make sure that you keep implementing, keep applying what we’re talking about here in the speak framework. Now in the next lesson, we’re going to be talking about the, a, how to acquire paid speaking gigs.

This is the part that you’ve been looking forward to. We’re going to give you the next steps that you need to be taking. But in the meantime, I want you to go back to the email that sent you here. I want you to complete the homework to get the next lesson right away. And again, the goal here is to keep moving forward, to keep adding to these building blocks here so that you can keep sharing your message with the world and making that impact and the income that you desire.

We’ll see you in the next lesson.