Hi, I’m Grant Baldwin, founder of The Speaker Lab.
Despite starting my speaking career with no audience, no following, and no network, I’ve earned over $2+ million from 500+ paid engagements all over the world. I’ve done everything from closed-door workshops to keynotes in front of 13,000 people. And I did all of that without using traditional booking agents or speaker bureaus.
The Speaker Lab is the resource I wish I had when I began my speaking journey. We help aspiring speakers get consistently booked and paid to speak through our SPEAK Framework™, or the “business” side of speaking.
Not familiar with the SPEAK Framework™? Here’s a quick overview:
Select a Problem to Solve
Prepare Your Talk
Establish Yourself as an Expert
Acquire Paid Speaking Gigs
Know When to Scale
Let’s unpack that more.
Select a Problem to Solve:
Whether you’re just getting started or have been speaking for years, zeroing in on the right problem to solve for the right audience and industry will make a dramatic difference in how much (and how frequently) you’re paid to speak.
This step will prevent you from spending years fighting an impossible battle trying to get booked for topics that don’t have an existing (or paying) market.
Prepare Your Talk
It’s obvious that delivering an outstanding talk can go a long way in getting you more paid opportunities. But how do you actually create one?
What specific actions can you take to fine-tune an existing presentation that’s “pretty good” and transform it into something unforgettable?
This step will teach you how to create keynotes, workshops, and seminars that will captivate your audience and inspire event organizers to give you referrals and repeat bookings.
Establish Yourself as an Expert
You do NOT have to be the world’s leading expert in your field in order to get paid to speak.
You do, however, need to demonstrate some level of expertise. And as long as you know enough about your topic to deliver presentations that engage your audience, trust me—you have more than enough expertise.
But none of that will matter if you don’t know how to properly communicate your expertise to decision makers. And the two biggest pieces you need in order to do that are a rock-solid website and a compelling demo video. This step will show you exactly how to create both (or improve your existing ones).
Acquire Paid Speaking Gigs
If you’re like most speakers, this is the part that feels the murkiest to you—finding the best paid opportunities and taking concrete steps to actually book them.
Even seasoned speakers who feel 100% confident and comfortable on stage often feel at a loss when it comes to reaching out and winning over decision makers. You don’t want to say the wrong thing. You don’t want to come off overly salesy. And to top it off, you don’t even know where to look.
This step is designed to equip speakers with the right information needed to feel confident in their ability to land more paid gigs.
Know When to Scale
Learning how to consistently booked paid gigs is one thing…but how do you build a healthy, thriving business around yourself as a speaker once momentum starts to grow?
Whether you want to speak full time or on the side, understanding how to scale as your success increases will help you build a sustainable revenue engine without getting overwhelmed or burned out.
