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How to: Land a Speaking Gig at the Conference of Your Dreams

Posted by Laura @Pistachio Fitton on Apr 10, 2015 6:53:00 PM

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INBOUND's 2015 Call for Speakers opened today and will close at 5 PM on MONDAY, APRIL 20th. We are looking for exceptionally well prepared, proven speakers for five of INBOUND's eight stages, and we hope experienced speakers will consider applying. This call includes Bold Talks, our Executive Track, Ideas and Experiences, Hacks, Tips and Tricks, and our Partner Track.

HOW CAN YOU IMPROVE YOUR CHANCES FOR ANY GIG?

Rather than prattle on and on about what we're specifically looking for, we thought this would be a great time to get really real with all the aspiring (and experienced) speakers out there about how to go about landing any speaking gig. If you want to become a professional speaker, or just want to speak at more events, this post is for you.

SHORT VERSION: Work really hard, show up, and be humble.

LONG VERSION: Read this post, do the stuff in it, and then work really hard, show up, and be humble. (See the pattern here?)

For those of you who don't know me well, I write this from decades of experience coaching speakers, speaking, and now also helping select and recruit speakers for INBOUND. Please forgive parts of this that come off as hardassed. There is a lot of work involved, but I have personally done pretty much everything on here at one point or another.

Most of all, remember: we are talking about YOU onstage at the event of YOUR DREAMS. Your Dreams deserve nothing less than the unvarnished truth. You're not likely to get what you want easily or right away, but I can personally vouch that if you put in the kind of work described here, you're going to see returns.

Ready?

1. Be Great for the Audience

Begin with the end in mind. Put the audience above all other considerations when you are striving to speak at an event. Your job as a speaker is to deliver an amazing experience - and real value - to those attending the event. That's always the ultimate goal.

While there's a lot you can do for the organizers (we'll get to that next), most all of it boils down to making the them successful by serving their guests.

You do this by returning value for the audience's investment of time watching you speak. There are a million other things they could be doing. They cannot get that time back. It's on you to make it worth their while.

"Speakers need to know the level of subject matter expertise in the audience, and the kind of experience organizers are looking to create for their attendees. I think it's Nancy Duarte who noted (that) delivering a talk without understanding your audience is like addressing a love letter "to whom it may concern." The better I know your audience, the better I can meet their needs" - Margot Bloomstein, Author, Content Strategy at Work.

The people in the room are the ultimate customer for your talk, and you, my dear speaker, are in the customer service business.

2. Be Great for the Organizers

With the audience firmly in mind, next consider how you can be amazing for the organizers.

"Work to see what the organizer is trying to accomplish. Sometimes, there are specific skills. Other times, it's as simple as them not wanting to look bad in front of their peers. But knowing helps you keep from being completely self-centered." Marc A. Pitman, Author, Ask Without Fear.

Let's start out by taking a look at what the dedicated event organizer is doing to pull together their roster of speakers. I can't speak for everyone, so I'll be really specific here about the process behind the scenes for INBOUND.

FINDING AMAZING SPEAKERS IS HARD WORK

Speaker selection for a 13,000 person event is a complex process. We take it seriously. We're responsible for ensuring our speakers are going to make good use of your time. Our community has high standards for quality, value, and inspiration.

We attend dozens of events to scout hundreds of speakers. We watch thousands of speaker videos. We brainstorm the topics our audience is looking for and emerging trends folks should know about. We pore over community reviews of past speakers and work to consistently bring back the high performers. Regardless of their talent, visibility in the industry or which stage a speaker is on, speakers have to have killed it to be considered again.

We recognize that the INBOUND community makes a significant investment of their time and money to travel to Boston for the event. The quality of every speaker must deliver the return our guests deserve for that investment.

TRYING TO KNOW WHAT WE DON'T KNOW

Even after all of that, there's plenty we don't know. So, while we've already identified, and are just starting to invite, hundreds of speakers we'd like to have at INBOUND this year, we've also opened our 2015 Call for Speakers to identify outstanding speakers we missed in our process.

BE PREPARED

Always do your homework and make it OBVIOUS for the organizers how amazing you will be at the event.

Know what their audience is looking for. Make sure your application states what the audience will get out of your talk. Know the event (and if possible, the stage) you are looking to present on. Invest time in making your speaker proposal amazing.

IT'S NOT A POPULARITY CONTEST

Though it is easy to lose sight of this, never approach getting a speaking gig as if it were a popularity contest. Applying to speak is not a referendum on whether or not you are "good enough" to speak. It's a process of convincing people (people whose careers are affected by your performance, by the way) that you're going to do the work it takes to make them look great.

Decide you're already committed to becoming good enough. It may take a lot of time and work before you're crushing the stages you want to crush, but you do not need anyone's approval or permission to start working towards that goal.

CONSIDER THE FIT

To get the speaking gig you want, you need to find the right fit where your passions, interests, and abilities, connect to the audience's goals. Even if organizers are picking speakers for being "the most popular" instead of for being "the best fit for the audience and goals," trust me: you don't want that kind of gig.

For us, selecting speakers is a process of finding the right topics that our community needs to know, and then identifying the right individuals who are going to put as much heart and soul as we do into making an incredible experience for the audience.

ALL YOUR WORDS MATTER

Never just bang out your session title and abstract and hope for the best. If an applicant is not willing to work hard on their application, what's to make the organizer believe they're going to work hard on their talk?

Speakers who work hard preparing their talks consistently perform well in our audience reviews, indepent of their speaking abilities, experience, and popularity.

While one cannot always predict how prepared a speaker is willing to be, a hasty application is a big yellow flag. If you weren't willing to invest the time in nailing your application, what's to make an organizer believe you will invest time in making sure your audience is delighted when it comes time to speak?

HAVE A SOLID SPEAKER VIDEO

Remember that "Be Prepared" bit? If you do not yet have a good video of you speaking, you're not prepared to apply to speak at the conference of your dreams.

It's not personal. If the organizing team can't see you speak in person, or talk to someone they know well and trust who has, they can't accurately evaluate your ability to serve a room full of listeners. Make a video and show the organizers what you've got. It's 2015 and shooting videos is incredibly inexpensive and simple.

Not having a video doesn't mean you're not an incredible speaker. It does mean that given the number and quality of speakers your target event is having to review, you have not given them enough to go on. This doesn't have to be some fancy "sizzle reel," and that may well not be worth the money. Organizers just want to see if you can hold a room's attention.

Don't make them do the work to discover all your awesome. Show it off, and make it quick and easy to review. Do not send every speaker video of your in existence. Do not send a really long clip where you speak for 30 seconds on a panel.

BE EASY TO WORK WITH

There is a huge difference between high and low maintenance speakers, and you can guess which ones get invited back more often. Try to complete the things you are asked to complete when you are asked to complete them. At the very least communicate clearly and proactively if you know you will not be able to do everything the organizer is asking you to do.

"As a former conference organizer, it made a huge difference to me if the speaker helped me find other quality people to fill my program. I guess the lesson is to be helpful. The other big one is to be timely with materials and send me a session abstract that fits my requirements. Putting together a conference program is (I imagine) like giving birth and having speakers that make it as easy as possible will always get an invite back." Jim Storer, Founder, The Community Roundtable.

To be great for the organizers, you have to understand the realities and challenges they face in bringing their guests the best experience possible at every turn.

3. How to Find Speaking Gigs

SPEAK

First and foremost, humble yourself, and speak. You get chances to speak by speaking. Period.

You don't run a marathon by knowing a lot of marathoners, having a good attitude about marathoning, or by attending a lot of marathons. You run a marathon by getting yourself out there and running, for a long time, on a regular basis.

There is no reason whatsoever for you to not be out speaking. Can't find an event that will have you speak? Find a local networking group. Can't find a local networking group? Find a meeting at your office you can present to. Can't find a meeting at your office? Book an empty conference room, develop a talk, and invite your co-workers. Can't do that? Find a Toastmasters group, no matter how advanced or basic, and show up, and speak. Can't find a Toastmasters group? Set up your video camera on a pile of books on a table and record yourself presenting. Now, watch it, and try again, and watch that. When you've got some speaker video that's working, put that shit on YouTube.

Don't believe me?

Consider the #3 most watched TED talk of all time, at nearly 22 million views. It's by Simon Sinek (INBOUND 2014 keynoter, best selling author and household name). You may already know all that, but even if you've seen his talk before, do me a favor and watch it again.

Tiny room. Humble stage. Simple flip chart. Enormous impact.

Writers write. Runners run. Speakers speak.

So, go speak.

SEARCH

If you're not scrappy enough to invest time in searching for people who need speakers, you're not scrappy enough to get this dream gig you want. No, it's not always easy. That's actually great news for you, because it means you can stand out from the crowd by stepping up.

There are a number of websites that let event planners search profiles of speakers and let speakers search for posted speaking opportunities. Get your profile set up on a few of them. Choose the profile that looks most appealing to you and promote it via your social media profiles or blog if you have one. Sure some people go in for big fancy "speaker" pages on their websites, but that's a nice to have once you get going, not something you should use as an excuse for why you're not ready to start.

Check with your local chamber of commerce, rotary and other civic groups, search for networking groups in your area. Get to know meeting planners who work at your local convention center, and let them know you are always available to cover when an event has a last minute cancellation.

SHOW UP

Attend events, especially your dream conference, and soak up everything you can about why the event exists and what it is trying to do in the world. Who comes? Why do they show up? What are they looking for?

Thank the organizers. Be kind to the volunteers, and thank them for volunteering. Ask intelligent questions of the speakers (questions that are not about you), and thank them for their presentations. Invest in quality networking time with people at the event, and really get to know them.

You never know what's possible. One of my first big gigs was when Guy Kawasaki grabbed me (the night before) for a panel of female tech entrepreneurs at SXSW. It was in this gigantic and cavernous main stage room. The crazy thing? I was not a female tech entrepreneur at the time, so I was terrified. This was a full year before oneforty. I had not started a tech company or even worked at one.

But, I rolled with it. I listened carefully to what was being discussed, and kept my mouth shut when I had nothing valuable to add. When eventually I did have something purposeful to say, I jumped right in. Guy is a masterful moderator and made the panel lively, so there ended up being lots of chances to contribute. And then, holy crap, suddenly I had done the main stage at SXSW my very first year even attending the event. I left the stage and went and hid in the TechSet Lounge until the adrenaline wore off.

You should also know that I was attending SXSW that year on an absolute shoestring. I was literally couch surfing (thanks Whurley and Adele!) as I could neither afford nor find a hotel room. I put the badge on a credit card, used frequent flyer miles to get myself to Austin, and figured out the rest on the fly. (You don't need money for food if you just eat at the parties. You don't need money for cabs if you're willing to walk long distances.)

Trust me on this one. Whatever it takes, show up.

APPRENTICE YOURSELF

"Network with other speakers. Some of my best engagements have come from such referrals." Dave Delaney, Keynote speaker, Author, and Founder, FutureForth.

Invest time and get to know slightly more experienced speakers whose content is in some way related to yours. Engage with their work in a genuine and supportive way. If you can earn their confidence, you can ask if they would consider referring you when they have to say no to a gig. I (still) ask this many times of speakers I look up to. Sometimes it works out.

If you're lucky enough to have people coming to you with too many speaking asks, it's nice to soften a no by providing other names as alternatives. When any event asks HubSpot for me or for one of our executives, we ask very specific questions about the event via http://bit.ly/hubspotspeakers. If it's not a great fit for the speaker requested, we try to offer someone else who could also do a great job. This helps our up and coming speakers get more experience and exposure, and it lets us offer at least something to nearly every event that approaches us.

You should become that up and coming speaker for someone else.

Having to cancel a gig at the last minute is a another uncomfortable no-no for speakers. Everyone realizes that there are times when it will happen, but when it does it's awfully nice to offer an alternative or two who can cover the now empty slot.

ASK

"You have to have the courage to ask" - Alicia Staley, CEO Akarai Health (She asked: Watch her Bold Talk).

"Express a desire to do speaking gigs, both publicly and to organizers individually." Matt Ridings, CEO, Sideraworks.

If you know event organizers, ask them what kind of speakers they are looking for and offer to help them find some. While you're at it, make sure they know you're interested in speaking, and do it in a way that they can see why their audience would benefit.

Make sure you are watching your favorite events carefully so that you know if and when they are putting out a call for speaking proposals. If they don't have a public process, politely inquire how speakers are chosen. Don't make this a lot of back and forth. Package what they might want to know about you (name, job title, talk title, video sample and description of talk) and have it ready to send over before they have to ask you a bunch of questions to get that basic information from you.

4. Hone Your Craft

PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE

Extensive practice at speaking is the absolute best way to improve your speaking skills. While you are getting all that practice, there is a lot else you can do to become better faster. Enroll in Toastmasters. Attend your local National Speakers Association (NSA) chapter meetings. Take speaking classes through local organizations or hire a private coach to work with you. Videotape yourself speaking and then force yourself to watch it and make notes on what you'd like to try differently next time.

WATCH AND LEARN

Observe and learn from the best. Whether you invest the time and money to attend an event with high profile speakers, to go study at an NSA national conference, or whether you just stay home in your pajamas and watch speaker videos online for free, you're can learn a lot. Considering the various techniques others use to win over an audience. Not all of these will be right for you, but you can learn from every speaker. If you don't like what they're doing, what don't you like about it?

GET FEEDBACK

"Anytime someone sees you speak that has spoken at one those organizers events in past hunt them down. Ask for feedback. If positive, then ask if they'd mind mentioning their thoughts to the organizers. If indifferent, ask for two words that they think would make you better." Matt Ridings, CEO, Sideraworks.

If you speak and there's a video, watch the video. I promise it will be hard, but it's worth it to learn what you can change. Ask people you know well what they suggest you work on improving. Find out if the evaluation data will be shared with you after your session, and if so, see what you can learn from it (but have thick skin). As Matt pointed out, bad feedback can lead to improvements, and good feedback can yield referrals. You win either way.

5. Shortcuts

But aren't there any shortcuts Laura? Please, tell me there's a shortcut.

Yes, yes there are. There are absolutely "shortcuts" to landing more speaking gigs. Here is a list of shortcuts that will get you on a stage faster. You might notice that the ones worth doing are really quite difficult.

HAVE YOUR TEDX TALK GO VIRAL

There are many TEDx events now, in nearly every conceivable place. Once you get your speaker momentum really cranking, you will likely be able to find a TEDx willing to give you a shot.

This is where humble can pay off big time: Simon Sinek at TEDx Puget Sound; Brené Brown at TEDx Houston. They didn't hold out for the TED main stage. They just showed up locally to give a talk. They put their hearts into it. Their lives have not been the same since.

I'm being flippant calling this a "shortcut." Both Brené and Simon were doing really great, really earnest hard work long before their talks took off. Both well deserved the reception they got. Maybe once you start connecting to and doing your uniquely right work, something cool is in store for you. Give it a shot.

BE MASSIVELY SUCCESSFUL

The more your career takes off and you become prominent in your company or industry, the more invitations you will get to speak at events. Luckily, if your career takes you to soaring heights, you're often (but not always) going to become a strong presenter in the process. Regardless, speaking well is pretty good skill for career advancement in and of itself.

BUILD A LARGE ONLINE FOLLOWING

Patiently and consistently invest the time to provide useful and unique content to a relevant audience. Commit yourself to genuinely caring about and serving that audience. Understand who they are, what they find compelling and then deliver that. If you can earn a large online following, you become a bit more valuable a speaker. On paper. You still have to deliver the goods.

WRITE A GOOD BOOK THAT DOES WELL

Earn expertise in the trenches or do extensive research. Put together an excellent book that truly helps the reader. Get a publisher or publish and promote it on your own. If your book takes off, people will start seeking you out to speak. Super easy shortcut, right? Hahahaha. By now I hope you're catching on that none of these are truly shortcuts.

PAY TO PLAY

Pay to play, which is a reality, is almost always not the best way to go. You don't want to find yourself onto a stage you're not prepared for. You don't want to put yourself in a situation where you will crash and burn. It will do nothing for your reputation or your confidence to force your way onto a stage and then phone it in. So even if you get a chance to speak somewhere as a by-product of your company sponsoring something, be really sure you're preparing well and making yourself useful to the audience. (HT Adam Zand)

6. Bonus Tips from Experts

I asked my Twitter and Facebook communities for their thoughts. They came through awesome material, some of which is worked in above. Below, a few more insider tips.

"I'm less interested in a canned topic/presentation that you've given lots of places, especially in my space and recently. Most submitters just share their credentials with (aka why they're awesome) and super-generalized topics, which makes me do all the work to figure out how to fit them in.

Another tip that's kind of nuanced: I often say to look at past agendas to figure out a) what kind of content a conference does, but also b) how to offer a fresh spin on relevant topics.

That is NOT the same as emailing and saying "I notice you've never done a panel on xx (your niche topic) which obviously means you've been failing your audience all these years and don't know what you're doing"...of course couched differently but same either condescending or downright negative message. I may indeed think huh, good idea...now, let me go find someone else who has a tiny idea of how to interact professionally to talk about it.

Finally, if you're proposing a panel, for the love of God, propose a diverse panel. Not just demographically, but skills and perspective wise. People propose panels with colleagues who they know they like and will agree with, and that's a super boring panel." Elisa Camahort Page, Co-Founder, BlogHer.

"Start small: when I first started my career, I would attend events, then blog about it. I've done 2800 blog posts in the last 10 years. Next, start to get on panels. Then, start to moderate panels. Then give solo speeches. Then, do keynotes. Then, get a speaker agent, and start marketing."Jeremiah Owyang, Founder, Crowd Companies.

If you don't yet have people to vouch for you, the submission itself is really key. Submissions need to be really specific. What audience problem does your talk address? How does it address it in a different way? What will people actually learn? Perhaps most importantly, why are YOU qualified to talk on that? How does your "domain of authority" relate?

Pro tip: Outline your talk fully before you ever draft a proposal for it. Nothing worse than trying to build a talk to fit a proposal that doesn't actually flow once you start putting it together.

Also, don't start with the big leagues. Start small -- local breakfasts, meetups, regional things. Get your speaking chops, learn your strengths, get known. The first time you do a bigger event, you need to be able to really bring it... or you'll never get there again. Be very, very prepared (and get that way be testing the talk elsewhere first. Multiple times.)

Follow up. Show me you're interested. Tell me you want to speak at my event, then SHOW me that you do." Tamsen Synder Webster, Executive Producer, TEDx Cambridge, and CMO, Oratium

If you're serious about speaking for a specific event, register to attend. Still submit a speaker proposal, but register first. Organizers often have people drop out of panels or smaller sessions, and they'll look the to attendee list to see if there's someone who can cover. If that happens, you'll get your registration fee back!" Kerry O'Shea Gorgone, MarketingProfs.

"Case study < Story; Content < Meaning; Personal experience < Reflection it promotes"Gustavo Reis, TEDx Unisions 2012

"Develop good, interesting, useful content. I see a lot of speakers covering really basic material." Eric T. Tung, BMC Software

"Niche content is very desirable. Some professional connection to the hosting organization. Flexibility on the speaker's part." Jeff Cutler, Writer and Keynoter

"When I have something to say I stay on the lookout for the Call for Speakers/Call for Submissions announcements...and I submit early & often.

Generally I would focus on one industry (in this case Health, Wellness & Inspiration/Personal Growth) - and find a listing of all the conferences in that field. Sometimes I get lucky and know one or more of the organizers and I reach out personally." Erica O'Grady, Writer, Publisher (who was on that same SXSW panel with Guy Kawasaki)

No matter what approach you choose to get yourself closer to your dream speaking gig, give it your all. Don't worry about it if you get turned down, just keep finding new approaches and different stages and work through the process. Temper your enthusiasm with patience and a willingness to work hard, and progress will absolutely follow.

So what do you say? Will we see you at INBOUND?

Laura "@Pistachio" Fitton is Inbound Marketing Evangelist, HubSpot, and Co-Author, Twitter for Dummies. She curates the INBOUND Bold Talks, writes and edits INBOUND, the Blog, and was previously Founder/CEO of oneforty.com, which HubSpot acquired in 2011. Prior to that her firm Pistachio Consulting taught businesses about Twitter (starting in 2007) and coached speakers for a decade before that.

Laura's main stage credits include SXSW, Inc 500, Inc Women, Business of Software, Learning, and Blog World Expo, and she has spoken at hundreds of events including INBOUND, SXSW, LeWeb, Dreamforce, GrowCo, Mesh and Glue. She's also lectured at dozens of universities including Harvard Business School and MIT, and she'll never forget how nervous that first big solo talk at the Women's Business Forum of Bucks Countymade her.

Topics: Events Advice

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