Have you ever wanted to deliver life-changing stories and information from stage, and then go home with a huge check in your pocket? It’s not as hard as you think, and in this article, I’m going to show you how to increase your motivational speaking fees… whether that means getting paid for the first time or increasing your fee by several thousand dollars is up to you.
As a speaker, you are hired to present information to an audience that will provide them a benefit for listening to you. In an ideal world, you would be paid in direct correlation to the value you provide to your audience. Unfortunately, the reality is that you are paid in direct correlation to the perceived value you provide your audience. Therefore, the more you position yourself as an expert, celebrity, and authority, and the more you show those factors in your marketing materials, the higher your speaking fee will be.
The first and best way to increase your fee is to simply ask for a higher amount. Before you write off this idea as basic and useless, really consider it: You make what you make because that’s what you’ve asked for. If you aren’t making anything, it’s because you haven’t asked for anything. No one is going to argue with you if you lowball your fee. If you quote $5,000, no one is going to say, “Nah, we want to pay you 10 grand.” It’s just not going to happen. So, without asking for a higher amount, you never even give the buyer the chance to give you more money.
So, get sick of making so little money. Get disgusted with other speakers who aren’t as good as you, who are out there making more money than you.
The next great way to improve your fee is to improve your image, both your “expert image” and your “marketing image.”
Your expert image is your credentials. Before you go off an try and get a PhD or a masters degree, consider a much easier route. I recommend interviewing a few experts on your subject, recording the interviews, then putting each interview on a CD and making an audio series. Now YOU are the expert! You can also transcribe these CD’s and make the series into a book. This is a very simple way to get a lot of credible expertise very quickly.
Next to improve your marketing image, I highly suggest creating a 4-page brochure. Many speakers will live and die by their ‘one-sheets,’ which I find to be worthless and ineffective. A 4-page brochure, while beyond the scope of this article, is a much more effective route. Essentially, this is an 11X17 bi-fold brochure with specific elements designed to make the audience buy your stuff.
Finally, the last way to increase your speaking fees is to be in such demand that you are forced to do because you can’t handle the demand at a lower fee level. Your market will tell you when this time comes, and utilizing the above steps will expedite the process of making it happen.
Now go put these ideas to use and increase your speaking fees!
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