Dramatically Increasing Your Income as a Speaker

The problem with the vast majority of people who call themselves speakers is that they don’t make any money. Not REAL money. When I first got started as a speaker,the first thing I did was to find the three or four speaker who were incredibly successful. But before I could do that I had to DEFINE success for myself. To me, the only objective measurement was income.  I looked for those speakers who were making the most money.

Now that I had the definition, I went out to find the folks who were generating the most cash. After all, I wanted to build a speaking BUSINESS, not a speaking HOBBY! I’m certain you feel the same way if you’re reading this article. I quickly identified 3 people who I knew were making a LOT of money. At the time, the three people were, Brian Tracy, Jim Rohn and Tommy Hopkins.

I examined their business models very carefully. They were each very different, but in ONE way they were remarkably the same. They ALL had a ton of “products” that they sold at or after their events. As I attended each of their events, I watched how many audio and video programs were being sold. My guess was that more than 50% of their income was coming from these products. When I later had a chance to chat with them, they told me as much. In the case of one of these folks, products were responsible for over 70% of his income. Amazing.

Not knowing anything about the speaking business, I decided to COPY what I saw these three guys do. I immediately started creating products in my own niche. I started to crank out audio programs like a madman. A number of years later, I then started adding videos to my mix of products offered.

I also noticed something else that these three had in common. They all had books that they sold. It didn’t’ take a genius to see that the books they sold weren’t the real money makers. The BIG money was coming from the much higher priced audio and video “systems” that each of them sold. This led me to put off writing my own books. I thought it wasn’t a very good use of

my time given that they didn’t seem to generate that many dollars.

I was wrong. Dead wrong.

If I had it to do over again, I’d have started writing my books much earlier. Not because of the money the books make, but because of the massive amount of credibility and press that they generate. It’s tough to get asked to be interviewed on a major TV or radio show without a book. And for many years, I did NOT have one.

I trust you will learn from my mistake and not do the same.

Yes, you should be creating audio and video products as a speaker. But get started on your book NOW. Don’t wait. Having a book will get you all kinds of things that you can’t get with just the higher priced products alone. Your book becomes your single best piece of promotional material. Don’t discount it’s importance. It is CRUCIAL to your success as a speaker.

Your long term plan should be to speak as often as you can and then sell as much product as you can. Getting booked to speak without the ability to sell your higher priced products will make your business a lot less money. I’m not saying that you turn down opportunities to speak when they don’t let you sell. BUT, I’d try and do everything I could to be able to make my products available to as many audience members as I possibly could.

So if there is a SECRET to making more money as a speaker, this is it. Create lot of products and sell as many of them as you possibly can. You can only do this when you have a chance to let people know about your great products. If you don’t feel they are great, you’ll have to go back and redo them. The only way you’ll have confidence to sell them is if you think they are worth many times what you are asking people to pay for them.

Follow this advice and you’re headed in the right direction!