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If the first thing on your Christmas list this year is more gigs (and at higher fees, Santa, please), you’ve probably already tried the traditional marketing advice for speakers.
Perhaps you’ve invested hours building your personal brand, shooting YouTube videos, increasing your engagement on TikTok, or making a podcast. You’ve probably perfected your one sheet and sent it to quite a few event organizers. Then followed up—again and again.
Now, that approach isn’t entirely wrong—but it’s not quite right either. It can feel good to build your personal brand online and it can yield some results. But some serious long-term flaws arise when speakers spend too much time on personal branding while doing more and more outbound marketing.
What if the key to building a sustainable speaking career doesn't require any of those things?
What if the fastest and most effective way to earn more gigs, more often—at higher fees—is by tracking just one number?
Now, it might sound like a Christmas miracle, but this method has worked for hundreds of speakers, and it’s exactly how I secured hundreds of gigs during my time in the speaking circuit—without using any direct-marketing techniques. Although I didn’t understand it at the beginning of my career, looking back, I realize what a huge impact it made.
At the start of my career, I was like one of those wind-up toys—buzzing around at full speed, bumping into walls, bouncing off, and then charging headfirst into the next obstacle. I was pretty bruised up and probably wore out the floor with all my zigzags, but, thankfully, after a while, I started to figure out how things work. And I realized why I was booking so many gigs.
You see, it all starts by tracking that one important element: stageside leads.
Unwrapping Stageside Leads
Stageside leads are a type of inquiry that typically happens right after you walk off stage. The conversation usually starts something like this: “Wow! That speech was amazing. Your ideas would be game changing for my company. We have an event in Provo, Utah on April 22nd. Are you available and what’s your fee?”
A stageside lead is also when someone fills out a form on your website in the middle of your speech. It can also come as a phone call from an assistant a week later who says, “My boss saw your speech last week and wants to book you for our annual conference.”
These types of conversations have three important components: (1) the name of the event, (2) the date, and (3) an invitation to speak or connect. Stageside leads are a clear sign your speech is working, because if you’re invited to give it again, that means your audience is finding value in your message.
In fact, stageside leads are the number-one indicator of whether or not your speech can sustain a speaking career. Because if you can consistently earn stageside leads after every gig, you’ll be able to fill your speaking calendar—without using any traditional marketing techniques.
Now, not all stageside leads are guaranteed to become paying gigs. But when you compare stageside leads with other inquiries you get—perhaps from sending your one-sheet to event organizers or posting on social media—stageside leads close faster, with less objections, and at higher fees than any other type of lead. That’s what makes them so valuable.
How do you earn stageside leads? Well, first, you have to avoid this common mistake many speakers make.
The Biggest Mistake Speakers Make…
One of the biggest mistakes speakers make early in their careers is trying to promote themselves the same way big-time famous speakers do. It rarely works. Ask me how I know. 🫣
Those typical “firework” marketing techniques, surface-level sizzle reels, and “jaw-dropping” onstage photos might be enough to land you the gig if you’re Shaquille O'Neal, Hugh Jackman, or Simone Biles. But if you’re not? Well, your event planner will probably need a lot more convincing.
You see, event planners don’t choose famous speakers because of their transformational message. They choose them because fame fills the seats. When a meeting planner is hiring a celebrity, first they pick the person, then the idea they share, and then the actual speech. Famous person. Idea. Speech.
But when you’re not famous, it’s the opposite. They want the speech first—the product and the guaranteed quality of your delivery and performance. Then they want the idea behind the speech, and then you—last. Speech. Idea. You.
If your name isn’t immediately recognized by the general population, don’t try to promote yourself like a famous person. You’ll lose that battle every time. In your case, event organizers don’t want you, they want your speech.
Turn One Gig into 100
Once you realize that what matters most to event organizers is your speech, you can focus on upleveling your speech and using it as your greatest marketing tool.
When you focus on the quality of the speech—and base the effectiveness of your speech on the number of stateside leads you get each time you deliver it—you won't need to market your way into new gigs.
Your speech itself will earn you more speaking opportunities.
Each speech you give will be a stepping stone to new speaking opportunities. And instead of spending your time thinking up new marketing strategies and cold-calling event organizers, you can spend your time doing what professional speakers do—improving, iterating, and rehearsing the speech.
Why More Marketing ≠ More Gigs
Now, the truth is you could market or promote your way into 100 first gigs. It would be time consuming, exhausting, and expensive. But perhaps worst of all, it likely wouldn’t be effective long term. That’s the danger of relying solely on marketing and promotion in your speaking business.
You see, speakers who focus on marketing can land those first gigs. But they often see a precipitous decline in gigs if they’re not actually getting stageside leads and turning them into second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth gigs.
Without focusing on improving their speech, those gigs earned don’t lead to more gigs. And speakers are forced to rely on more marketing to speak more. But it’s unsustainable. Eventually, those marketing efforts will dry up, along with the speakers’ careers.
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