According to the sponsorship organization IEG, global sponsorship is projected to grow 4.7 % in 2016. Just in North America alone the increase is expected to be 4.5%, bringing total spending to over 22 billion dollars this year.

Keep in mind that 70% of all of this sponsorship will be spent in the sports industry, but that still leaves 23% for arts, entertainment and cause sponsorship. This is good news for speakers who are looking to supplement those free speaking jobs with sponsorship. And even better news if you’re a speaker/artist who has a cause topic.

Sponsorship looks like it will outperform advertising and marketing. One reason is because brands are looking for ways to deliver a two-way message instead of just a one way message.

A newspaper, magazine or TV ad is a one way message. The ads don’t talk back. But with social media and sponsorship you can have a two-way conversation that is interactive with your customer. Millennials are especially interested in interacting with brands these days.

Even small businesses, who have typically been left out of the sponsorship game, are starting to realize that they can also sponsor, even if it’s not in the same multi-million dollar game as the big corporations. This is great news, since there are over 25 million small businesses just in the U.S. alone.

With advertising and marketing budgets being cut left and right, sponsorship has still been holding steady for the past few years, and has even increased.

Sponsorship is based on long term, mutually beneficial relationships between a brand (the sponsor), and an a sponsee. Speakers and artists should start developing those relationships as early as possible and nurture them. A speaker or artist can create a whole career with sponsorships alone. The money is there, and the need, according to IEG, will only increase in 2016. So it’s time to jump in the sponsorship game and start getting a piece of that multi billion dollar pie.

Like many other industries, the speaking industry is undergoing a radical transformation. That means that the same ‘ole way of working suddenly isn’t working anymore. Most speakers who have been in the business long enough know this. Most speaker bureaus and meeting planners know it too.

But the good news is that innovation is taking its place and opening up new and exciting avenues for speakers at all levels. You no longer have to be a celebrity speaker to make a good living at public speaking. But it does mean you have to start expanding your horizons and thinking about speaking in a whole new way, which includes where you speak.

When you think of a professional speaker, the first image you have is of a speaker on a stage with a microphone. But there are some speakers who have made a living speaking on buses and planes, in barns, and in shopping malls.

My first paid speaking engagement was in a bowling alley overlooking the lanes. I made $2500 for that first speaking job because I had sponsors and went against what everybody told me was possible.

Here are some examples of other speakers who have spoken in crazy locations: (more…)

No matter where I go these days I’m constantly running into someone who says they are a speaker. At the grocery store today there was one person in front of me and one behind me who got into a conversation about speaking. In L.A. you expect to run into someone who is an actor, writer, director, or all of the above on every corner. But speaker? Hmm, what’s going on?

This is interesting because, according to studies, glossophobia, or the fear of public speaking is the number one phobia Americans have. You would think more people would shy away from it, but I get calls every day from people who say they’ve just become a speaker or they want to become a speaker.

Since I’ve been working in the entertainment industry in some form or another since I was a teenager, I look at the speaking industry as being very similar to the entertainment industry. For example, you have a handful of actors who are on the A list, who make millions of dollars, a lot of actors who make a living some or most of the time, and a lot of wanna-be actors who never make any money from acting, who eventually give up and do other things, maybe acting from time to time as a hobby.

This is because the entertainment industry is full of supply, but not enough demand for all of that supply. It’s the same in the speaking industry. Most actors want to be on the A list, making the big bucks, waiting for someone to write a check so they can focus on their craft and showcase their talent. Most speakers want the same thing. I admit, I’d love nothing better than to just show up and get a big, fat check to be a rock star. Who wouldn’t? But the speaking industry, like the entertainment industry has far more supply than demand. It’s a seller’s market. Far more sellers than buyers.

So, that’s the bad news. The good news is that there has never been a better time in history to be a speaker or entertainer. But, just like the entertainment industry, it’s an incredibly difficult path if you’re simply standing in line with everyone else. Personally, I don’t have the patience to wait in that line. For the past 20 years I’ve been writing, producing and staring in my own productions, either with angel investors, my own money, or with small business sponsorship.

When you go the self-funded or sponsorship route, supply and demand doesn’t matter. You find the demand first, then supply the talent. That means finding niches that need what you have to offer and then finding a way to get paid for it.

A good example of this is historical keynote speaker Lord Scott, who bears an uncanny resemblance to George Washington. He not only looks like him, but is the right size and age to portray Washington. Scott has used this to his advantage, booking educational presentations at schools, 4th of July celebrations, corporate events, and churches.

He has also started his own non-profit “We Make History”, putting on historical events on both the east and west coasts. His team now includes over 200 actors, and continues to expand. Scott has found his niche as a public speaker and performer by thinking outside the box and creating his own speaking career.

As a professional speaker how can you create your own career and bypass the supply and demand problem of the speaking industry?

If you follow this blog you know that Speaker Sponsor specializes in small business sponsorship for niche events. While all the other sponsorship agencies target big corporate sponsors, we have found our niche in the over 125 million small to medium sized businesses in the world, instead of the under 50,000 large corporations. That’s only a rough estimate based on D&B data and other resources. But you get the point. There is much more opportunity in small business sponsorship, especially for speakers and artists.

With the explosion of niche markets of all kinds, small business sponsorship is a goldmine for speakers. I’ve noticed that a lot of speakers tend to gravitate towards general topics, like leadership and customer service. That’s great if you’re only looking to be hired by corporations and organizations who give you a paycheck for speaking on that topic.

But if you want to try something new as a speaker and create your own speaking career without having to wait around for a meeting planner to call you, consider creating your own niche events and finding small business sponsors to fund it. Here are two examples of performers who forged their own path and created their own successful niche events.

If you watch Shark Tank perhaps you’ve heard of Ten Thirty One Productions. This is their simple logline: “We are an entertainment company that creates, owns and produces live attractions in the horror genre”. Period. They don’t put on job fairs, weddings, birthday parties, or conferences. They don’t do comedy, westerns or action. Just horror. Not everyone is a horror fan. But you can bet that those people who are are die hard fans. No pun intended. (more…)

I talked to a speaker recently who was contemplating taking a speaking job where he would have to fly ‘cross country. He would make very little money. Was asked to do a keynote speaking job and a breakout session, for a boring conference in a boring city, in the dead of winter.

Speaking job

I said, “maybe you shouldn’t do it”. “But I really need the money”, he said.

It reminded me of the days I used to do casting for actors. I mostly worked on low budget films. Some of them were very low budget. I happen to love the world of B movies, but we would always get actors who auditioned for us because they were either just getting started as an actor, weren’t getting any roles in big films, had their TV show canceled, were running out of unemployment, or worse.

I could tell they really didn’t want to be there, and would rather be at Cannes promoting their lead role in a studio film rather than auditioning in a dingy theater rental space for “Beach Bunny Zombies, Part 6”.

Actors who wanted to work

And then there were the actors who just wanted to work. It didn’t matter if it was a B movie, a bit part on a TV show, or a medical industrial film. They were happy to be getting paid money for doing something they loved to do.

Public speaking isn’t that different from acting. You’re on a stage communicating to an audience. And that audience can tell if you really don’t want to be there. No matter how hard you try to hide it, there’s just something the audience will pick up on that they may not quite be able to put their finger on. And it’s hard to get them to like you if they suspect you would rather not take the speaking job.

Do what you love as a speaker

Whenever I catch myself copping an attitude about a speaking job that’s not as good as I’d like it to be, I remind myself of my grandmother, slaving away in a dirty, noisy factory her whole life, making little money, or my grandfather who worked in a dark, dangerous coal mine. Then suddenly any kind of job where I actually get paid to do what I love, sounds absolutely awesome.

Hard skills are those skills that are teachable, based in fact, and can be defined and measured. Some examples would include time management, sales training, social media, copywriting, and accounting.

Soft skills are less tangible, often associated with personal traits and character, and are harder to quantify. Some examples would include communication, leadership, teamwork, adaptability, and conflict resolution.

With more companies focused on the bottom line, I asked speakers, meeting planners and speaker bureaus if they were seeing more requests for hard skill topics or soft skill topics in the speaking industry today. Here are their answers:

“Soft skills is the most commonly requested presentation with content, content, content, content. If you have a dynamic, humorous way of presenting the content you will be chosen hands down over the trainer type with content. You want to be motivation with content versus a content motivator.”

Wilene Dunn

Global Speakers Agency

“Conferences in the digital marketing industry always state that they are

looking for experts on the given topic of an event, session or panel —

they say want people who have the hard skills and “know their stuff.” But

what they rarely state — and what they may not even realize consciously

that they want — is that they also want someone with the soft skills that

will enthrall the audience.

People attend conferences because they want to experience something amazing. They want to be star-struck when meeting the celebrities in their field. They want to reconnect with old friends. They want to leave talks with their mouths agape while thinking, “Oh. My. God.” If someone wants “just the facts,” then he or she can read a blog post or watch a webinar.

People go to conferences for the emotional high.The best speakers have both hard and soft skills. A great speaker without substance is fluff, and a renowned expert can be extremely boring.

Personally, this is where I have been seeing conferences going. Conferences

first check that a speaker is knowledgeable and credible and will be

presenting something original.

However, more and more conferences are also insisting on previewing videos or even traveling to see a prospective speaker give a presentation elsewhere. At any serious conference, hard skills and knowledge among the speakers are absolutely necessary first and foremost. But soft skills and the ability to amaze an audience are a very close second.”

Samuel Scott

SEO and Internet marketing speaker

http://www.samueljscott.com/speaking

“Actually, we’re experiencing just the opposite. More than ever companies realize that there’s a direct link from employees’ abilities to the bottom line and they seek us out to learn how to traverse that path. There are many studies and lots of data to support tangible results when hard and soft skills are addressed as a symbiotic relationship in successful organizations.

Marian Thier
Partner

Listening Impact

www.listeningimpact.com

So, it seems that both hard skills and soft skills are needed today, and the speakers who can integrate both, while delivering the information in an entertaining way, will be more in demand.

What do you think? Are you seeing more requests for hard skills or soft skills as a speaker, meeting planner, or speaker bureau?

Speaker Directory

A speaker directory listing is one of the most effective and least expensive ways to get targeted traffic. And it comes from the exact customers you’re trying to reach. Search engines put a lot of weight on topic related backlinks. Being listed in a high ranking speaker site, which is monitored by humans, is invaluable.

Benefits of Being in a Speaker Directory

Keyword focused, quality, one way link

Link building is one of the most powerful things you can do to to drive traffic to your website. But not all links are equal in the eyes of the search engines. A good quality, one way link from a reputable, high ranking directory in your target niche market is one way to assure the search engines will love you. And you can never have too much link love.

Extremely targeted traffic

Just being in a speaker directory with others in your industry helps drive traffic to you. If a meeting planner comes to a site looking for a speaker, she will also see you. Being listed in the same place as your competition can be a good thing. A meeting planner who needs one speaker will also be looking for other speakers. This is one reason being listed on a niche speaker directory is better than a general directory. Expose yourself to new clients every day. In the search engine’s opinion, being on several good, quality niche directories is better than being on 100 general ones.

Much cheaper than advertising

You could easily go through $100 in PPC ads or other forms of advertising, and it’s something you have to continuously keep up. If you run out of money, your ad goes down. With a directory, that same $100 would last you for a whole year and would be driving traffic on autopilot. It reaches exactly the customers you’re trying to reach.

Tax deduction for a Speaker Directory

Being listed on a directory is a business write-off for speakers, authors, consultants and entertainers. Look at it as an inexpensive marketing tool that can be written off on your taxes.

Control

You have the control to change or add content to your online listing whenever you want. You can’t do that with a printed directory.

Thought leadership

Being in a targeted industry directory with other people who are thought leaders, puts you in the same category.

Being listed in a niche directory in your target industry is one of the most important marketing tools you can use as a speaker.

The first job I had when I moved to L.A. was being a bartender at the comedy club The Laugh Factory. As I stood behind the safety of the bar I remember thinking “I’m glad I’m not the one having to deal with hecklers”. But now that I work as a speaker I’m getting a little taste of what it feels like. Though speakers don’t get heckled nearly as much as comedians do, it still happens, and it’s a good idea to be prepared if it does.

I asked comedians and speakers how to handle a heckler:

“There’s a guaranteed way to avoid heckling in the first place – be riveting.
So many comedians get up there and try new jokes at important shows. The
time to try new stuff is in front of drunks at 1 AM in comedy clubs, not at
big paid events.

I have never been heckled per se, but one time in India, a very drunk woman
was yelling out incoherent things after everything I said. I completely
ignored her, and just talked over her. It’s easy to do because the comedian
has the microphone.

After my set, however, I did a T-shirt giveaway and she yelled out “What
size is it?” and without missing a beat, I said “It’s too small for you”.”

Dan Nainan – Dan Nainan

Dan got his start by taking a comedy class to get over the nervousness of speaking on stage in his job as a demo engineer with Intel Corporation. After leaving Intel to pursue comedy, he has toured with Russell Peters and other notable comedians. Dan has appeared on network television including “Last Comic Standing” as well as in feature films, on radio and in an Apple commercial. He just completed a comedy tour of India.

“To handle hecklers, I’ve found a couple of techniques that seem to work:

* During the Q&A session, I make a point of saying, “Any questions
related to the topic we just discussed?” as opposed to saying, “Any
questions?” Now when the heckler wants to take center stage and bring up
another topic, I can respond by saying, “Glad to discuss this offline at the
end. However, right now we are focused on [topic at hand].” (more…)

Remember when we used to say “women doctors” or “women attorneys”? So why do we still say “women speakers”? In looking up male dominated jobs, I found truck drivers, train conductors, airline pilots, and race car drivers. Are you seeing a pattern here? All involve driving large, heavy vehicles. But there’s no reason women can’t do any of those. I work in 3 male dominated industries, manufacturing, inventing, and public speaking. Yes, public speaking is considered a male dominated industry. Yet it involves no large machinery or heavy lifting. So why is it that only 20-30% of paid speaking jobs go to women?

In 2013 at TED Global, Executive producer of TED Media, June Cohen, spoke about why there are so few women speakers at TED. Here’s what she said “Women speakers are harder to find, are more likely to say no, and are more likely to cancel”. She went on to say that the ratio of speaker bureaus are about 80% male speakers and 20% female speakers. I couldn’t get exact statistics, but the numbers are definitely not in women’s favor. I added up the percentage of male to female speakers on Speaker Sponsor. It’s 62% women speakers.

In 2014, the Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative Conference had a whopping total of one woman speaker. In 2015, they had none. All men. Conference organizer, Eric Bradlow, said “we absolutely thought about lack of gender and other forms of diversity on speaker lineup, but in the end decided to stick with our original policy of choosing speakers based on merit.” He also said “We’re committed to diversity”. Yep, it sounds like it. So, was he saying that there weren’t any qualified women speakers? Seems hard to believe.

I dug deeper and found other conference organizers who had commented on the reasons for the lack of women speakers. “Not enough qualified women speakers, women only talk about woman stuff, there are no women speakers who are big enough names, and attendees want to hear people who are like themselves.”

I wanted to find out from the people who hire speakers exactly where the breakdown is. Are there really so few women speakers at bureaus? If so, why? Do the bureaus pitch women, but the clients tend to hire men? Do clients specifically ask for a male or female speaker? Here are some of the answers I got:
Brittany Kreutzer of The Speaker Exchange Agency had this to say:

“I think companies jump at the chance to have a female present for their conferences, but at the end of the day it still has to be the right fit. A client will not just book a speaker because they are female. We are slowly seeing an increase in female speakers, but the challenge we find is that a lot of strong females price themselves very high. We still see the need for strong females in the $7,500-$12,500 range. At the end of the day I do see companies wanting more females, but they won’t just book a female to book one, it still has to be the right fit and the speaker must still provide the takeaway value in order to be booked. There is a lot of room for growth in market share for female speakers in the speaking industry, but don’t expect to just get booked because you are a female. If you don’t have the energy, charisma, content and drive you won’t get booked-male or female!”

James Marshall Reilly of The Guild Agency speakers bureau, echoed something I believe to be true, and that’s that there’s still gender bias in general that’s leftover from decades of male dominated thinking. It’s deeply engrained and is slow to change, including women’s pay. According to James, women speakers tend to make less than their male counterparts.

That’s why The Guild Agency doesn’t post speaker fees, and other things besides money are negotiated. That puts male and female speakers on a more level playing field. He says that speaker bureaus have a lot of power and can submit as many women speakers as they want. Ultimately it’s still up to the client to decide. Says James, “Sometimes they need names to sell tickets, and there tend to be more well known men than women.”

Shirley Hogsett of Destiny Speakers Bureau had this to say:

“I do see more women in male dominated industries stepping up to become speakers. There tend to be fewer female speakers because there are simply fewer women in those fields to begin with. Meeting planners often say that it’s hard to find women speakers in those industries and there’s some truth to that. A lot of women I come in contact with position themselves to speak to only women. Many times people of color also want to speak to audiences of other people of color. So part of the problem is how speakers position themselves. The solution, from a speaker’s point of view, would be to start positioning yourself, not from a gender perspective, but from a knowledge perspective.”

What is your opinion on the topic, as either a meeting planner, speaker bureau or speaker?

The speaking industry is global, which expands a speaker’s opportunities beyond their own country. International speaking can be quite lucrative, and at some point in your career you might want to think about taking that leap. But every country has their own culture, and written or unwritten rules every public speaker needs to know about.

Anthony “Ant” Williams has a unique perspective on the speaking industry, as both a speaker and a speaker bureau owner. If you think being a public speaker is scary and competitive, read on to see how Ant got his start:

Can you give us some info on your background?
I fell in to speaking as a way to support my fascination with extreme sports. Each year I would travel the globe competing in World Championship events in the sport of freediving, a sport where the sole purpose is to see who can reach the greatest depth in the ocean on a single breath of air. But doing a dangerous sport can be expensive. I trained up as a speaker to create a new source of income that would fit around the training and travel.
Where I sympathise the most with other speakers, is with our over-reliance on traditional speaking bureaux to find us speaking work. This is fraught with problems. How do you build a business as a speaker if you don’t build your relationships with event planners directly?

How is the speaking industry different in Australia than the U.S.?
There are two main differences. First, we seem to pay our speakers less in Australia. Our largest booking category is $3,000 – $5,000 and very few bookings come in over the $10,000 mark. In the U.S. top speakers would typically earn more per keynote. Second, we don’t have the same prevalence of speaker’s agents who source the work for speakers. Australian speakers tend to list with as many speakers’ bureaux as possible, create a website, and then wait for the work to come in.

Are there any cultural differences?
Australian audiences love U.S. speakers. We love your accent. We presume people who speak with an accent must be highly intelligent. But we Australians are a modest bunch. A quick way to alienate an Australian audience is to over-state your credentials or come across too flamboyant.

How do you suggest approaching speaker’s bureaus?
We aren’t currently supporting any offshore speakers. Hopefully, in the near future.

What should speakers know about working with a speaker bureau?
Speaker bureaus want to find you work, but you make it difficult! Rather than asking a bureau to find you more work, get busy and write a blog that the bureau can share. Do something interesting and share it on social media with links to your profile on the bureau website so people can find and book you. Content is king. If you want to get noticed by people who book speakers then start creating interesting content that people will share.

Who is your perfect client?
We have a guy on the other side of Australia who books a new speaker with us every month. From the comfort of his desk he selects a speaker for each event, then books them through our automated system. We have an Audience Response System that collects audience ratings and feedback for each speaker. He simply compares speaker feedback and choses the best speaker for his event, at the best price each time.

What is your favorite book on speaking?
That would still have to be “Speak and Grow Rich” by Walters & Walters. It’s an old book now but still has some of the best ever advice in it for a career in keynote speaking. What it lacks, because of its age, is the importance of building a social media presence.

Thanks to Ant for taking time to share his insights with Speaker Sponsor. You can check out his speaker bureau at www.speakerbook.com.au or check out his amazing free diving background at www.antwilliams.com.

Sponsorship Outlook for 2016

The New Speaker Platform Isn’t a Stage

Supply and Demand in the Speaking Industry

Small Business Sponsorship for Niche Events

Do You Really Want to Take That Speaking Job?

Speaking job

Actors who wanted to work

Do what you love as a speaker

Public Speaking – Hard Skills vs. Soft Skills

Benefits of Being in a Speaker Directory

Speaker Directory

Benefits of Being in a Speaker Directory

Keyword focused, quality, one way link

Extremely targeted traffic

Much cheaper than advertising

Tax deduction for a Speaker Directory

Control

Thought leadership

How to Handle a Heckler

How Heavy is a Microphone?

Interview With a Speakers Bureau – Speaker Book