How To Get Started As A Speaker

I travel a lot, so I’m used to spending lots of time on the road traveling to a hotel.

And thankfully in today’s world, we have technology like GPS and Google Maps that generally makes that drive a lot simpler.

Generally.

But has this ever happened to you?

You’re going to your hotel (or some other location) and there’s construction or detours or lots of one-way streets that make it a little difficult to get to your destination.

You can actually see your hotel or the building you’re going to, but you just can’t figure out how to get there!

It’s right there! It shouldn’t be this hard!

And yet you circle all around it but are never quite sure how to get inside.

Being a public speaker is kind of like that to a lot of people.

It’s easy to get close to it, to dip our toes in the water and decide we really want more, but it seems like there’s this invisible fence that keeps us on the outside.

And to make matters worse, it seems like there’s no real clear entry point of how to get on the inside.

In order to become a speaker, maybe you’ve wondered if…

• You have to have overcome some tragic life story
• You have to have accomplished something insanely huge like cure cancer or win an Olympic gold medal
• You have to have a huge platform
• You need a best-selling book
• You have to have a massive blog with millions of readers
• You need a huge social media following
• You gotta have a ginormous podcast
• You must be a world-renowned expert on a topic
• You have to be super sales-y to get speaking engagements
• You need to have built a multimillion dollar startup
• You need to be one of the lucky ones who just accidentally stumble into speaking

If you’ve wondered about any of these before, I have two pieces of good news for you.

1. You’re not alone. I’ve wondered these things too.

2. None of these are requirements to become a speaker.

Let that second point sink in for a minute…

Having a tragic life, overcoming a huge obstacle, having a massive platform and being super sales-y are NOT requirements to be a speaker. 

When I got started as a speaker, I had none of these “prerequisites.” I’m a normal guy from the midwest has had a pretty average life (although a really good one I wouldn’t trade).

But I haven’t overcome some massive life obstacle. I don’t have some inspirational life story about how I was supposed to be on a plane that ended up crashing. I’ve never really dealt with death or tragedy.

When I started speaking, I didn’t have a platform. At all. I didn’t even know that was a thing. I had no blog. No book. No podcast. No brand. No online presence. No big name. Literally nothing.

And yet despite not having any of those things, I’ve built a successful business as a speaker. I’ve earned well over a million dollars from speaking fees. I’ve spoken at over 400 paid events. I’ve sold over 30,000 copies of my self-published book. I’ve spoken to audiences as big as 13,000.

And I promise you that if I can do it, so can you. I’m no one special. I was committed to working hard and making this dream of being a speaker a reality.

And I know you’re the same way.

But there’s one more thing you need…

A plan.

It’s just like when you’re driving and can see where you want to end up but aren’t quite sure how to get there.

You have two options…

1. You could just keep circling the area hoping that magically you’ll stumble across some secret passage way that gets you on the inside (doesn’t exist).

2. You could stop, create a plan of where you want to be, and then execute on the plan to move towards where you want to end up.

Got it Grant…I need a plan. Where can I find one?

Well I’m glad you asked 🙂

I put together a free 9-email course called Get Started As A Speaker. Within the course, I’ll teach you…

• How to understand why you want to speak in the first place and how it affects your business
• How to discover what you should speak about
• Getting clear on your ideal audience
• How to create both the sizzle & the steak for your presentation
• Two key tools you need to market yourself
• How to actually find speaking opportunities
• How to contact decision makers even if you hate selling
• How to get paid as a speaker

Here’s why I’m so excited about this email course…because you know you have the potential to be a speaker, but you just need the plan. You need to know how to get started and what to do next.

By the end of this email course, not only will you have the plan, but I promise you’ll have the confidence that you can actually do this. If you really want to become a speaker, all you have to do is to try. You can also check out https://ritubhasin.com/diversity-speaking/ for some tips on how to do your public speking.

I know you can do this. You know you can do this. But you just need some guidance.