How Do I Get Bookings As A Motivational Speaker?
It’s the question I get asked the most. The one thing on the mind of almost every motivational speaker.
How do I get booked?
While there are many answers to that question, each as unique as the speaker and what they have used to get business – today I want to focus on one thing. And it’s not a thing to add to your list of ways to get booked. It’s a new perspective. And I’m convinced it’s the key to my business growth in these challenging economic times.
Many of us are focused on building a client list. While this is important and still necessary to build a business, I’m going to suggest that you change that sentence. Instead of building a list, build a community.
Let me repeat that in a bigger font, just to make sure you are listening:
It’s not about building clients – it’s about building communities.
Stop focusing so much on getting another person to book you.
Instead, focus on building a community of people who are desperate for your message.
And then make that community bigger. And bigger. And bigger.
That community should trust you, believe you, like you, and want to keep coming back for more of what you do.
And that community will serve you far better than that one client.
I’m just saying.
Today I challenge you to step away from your current business plan, get out a new sheet of paper, and across the top write “My Community.” And spend some time thinking about who they are, what they want, how you find them, and how you can ask them to support you.
Today’s market is not one clean line of decision makers. Today’s market is a web of people who intersect. A web whose strength is determined, not by how many cards you gave out, or whether you met the right people – but about the relationships you fostered – the ways you served – what kind of resource you have become to the people who need your message.
When you focus on building communities in this web, instead of building clients, you become a bigger force, and your name travels all over the web.
Final Food For Thought: A community is not just a certain number of people you got to like your page. It’s not about having found a way to capture thousands of emails – or how many people you got to endorse you. It’s not about how many blog posts you shared or articles you wrote. It’s more than that. It’s about relationships, emotion, and service. Not about selling. And sometimes you can have the smallest community compared to your competitors – but your people buy the most. Because they aren’t just clients. They are part of your community.
Are you building a community? Or are you just building a list of clients?
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Kelly Swanson is an award-winning storyteller, comedian, motivational speaker, Huffington Post Contributor, and cast member of The Fashion Hero television show airing on Amazon Prime. She is also the author of Who Hijacked My Fairy Tale, The Land of If Only, The Story Formula, and The Affirmation Journal for Positive Thinking. She was a featured entertainer for Holland America Cruise Lines, keynote speaker for the International Toastmasters Convention, and has keynoted major conferences and corporate events from coast to coast. She just launched her one-woman show Who Hijacked My Fairy Tale in theaters, and it is being booked all over the country. In July of 2022, she was inducted into the National Speakers Association Speaker Hall of Fame.
Note: Articles by Kelly may contain affiliate links and may be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on an affiliate link.
