Ask the Expert: Get Speaking Gigs Now with Leisa Reid

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Hello, hello amplify you family. Michelle Abraham your hosts here today. I am so excited guys, as I always am. But I'm especially excited to introduce you to Leisa Reid today. So Leisa, Hi, how are you?

Yeah. Hi, thanks for having me on the show. So excited.

You're welcome. Well, we're doing the ask the expert interview today with you, Leisa. And let me tell our audience a little bit more about you. Whether you're a speaker or not, there's no doubt that we all have expertise that can leave an impact in the world. Once it's shared. As the founder of get speaking gigs Now Leisa Reid mentors, business professionals and entrepreneurs who want to make an impact and ultimately attract their ideal clients through speaking as a speaker herself, Leisa has successfully booked and delivered over 500 speaking gigs. Oh my goodness. And in her book, get speaking gigs. Now she shared her seven step system to getting books thing booked and attracting your ideal clients to speaking. Wow. He said, Well, thank you so much for joining us. This is super exciting. And 500 speaking gigs. That's a lot.

It is it is. You know what, I love it. It's a fun way to mark your business just like doing podcasting is fun. You know, it's why you got to find something that really lights you up, when, in my opinion.

Absolutely. Yeah, speaking has definitely been one of the caveats to the success of my business for sure. Over the last couple of years, getting on more stages and getting in front of more people. Sharing my message out there I think is really, really been really main main factor in the success we've had in over the last few years. What I'm curious like when we talk about speaking gigs, are we talking about paid speaking gigs? Are we talking about speaking to salary talking about free speaking, what kind of speaking are we talking about?

For me, I don't categorize them that way. It's funny, very commonly is categorized in those different buckets. For me, I like to work with my clients on what's the best opportunity for you, and getting in front of your clients, and what's the best strategy for your business? For me, that strategy is not really worrying about the speaker fee so much, but am I talking to the right audience? Am I able to give some kind of an offer, even if it's a free offer, I think free offers are amazing. In fact, you're gonna get a free offer later today. How exciting is that? But that's a great way to connect with people that you could really really work with, especially like if you're a coach, or you offer some kind of personalized service, and you work pretty intimately with your clients, I think speaking is just super powerful. So for me, that's what I focus on.

I love that. So what made you get into helping people with finding speaking gigs?

Well, I was hired by a personal development company back in 2013. And you got to appreciate this. Michelle, I was hired to speak on their behalf to fill up their personal development workshops. And I had at that point zero speaking engagements, zero clients, zero email us. Okay, so just setting the stage.

Here, I think all of us can relate to that.

I'm just saying I, you know, and I was 40 years old. So this is a while ago. And so you can start whenever you could start with nothing. It's okay, you can make it happen. That first year I booked 83 speaking engagements in my local area, what we would consider free or speak to sell engagements, right. And with that, I filled up the workshops that they wanted me to fill up and got hundreds of clients in the door. Okay, so we're talking 1000s of dollars, so it works and this is the local area. Now, I had started a group called the OSI speakers network because I'm coming at you live from Orange County, California. So OSI and we used to meet in person we meet virtually now, but people kept asking me all the time. How did you get that gig? How did you get booked? How did you do that? How to do that and I literally Michelle was like putting my hand up going like I don't really have time to share that with you. I'm doing my own thing. I'm sorry. But I that's a lot to explain. It's not just one thing, right? Right. But it was around the baton. I get booked about 200 gigs at one point I people literally just kept asking me so I finally said you know what, let me just take a little inventory here. What is it that I'm doing what that's different than all these other people that are struggling to get on stages. And that's what started get speaking gigs now It wasn't so much about how do I become a speaker? It was like, How do I get on the stage? How do I get people to say yes to me? How do I even where do I look? What do I do? And so I just catalogued everything. And that's what I teach in my book. And in my academy, and everything i Everything I do now is based on like, real stuff that I did, and still do to get engagements and clients.

That's awesome. How are things changed in the last few years? Now there are so many things are virtual? Well, nothing's

really changed. I'm just kidding. Yeah, it's been a big change. I used to give nearly one like 99% of my gigs were in person. And so I changed it along with the rest of everyone else. And I have to say, and I know you're you like probably the virtual because of where you live. I love speaking virtually. I do love speaking in person as well. So it's not that I don't love that one. But virtually, this is great news. If you're thinking of becoming a speaker, audience member because your boundaries are limitless. Now, you can speak in other countries, you can speak another time zones, you can do multiple states in one day, or multiple countries or provinces. And you can still be at home, like I was on a call this morning with a gal who has a newborn baby. But she was able to make the call because it's virtual. Hey, that's great. You know, so so there's a lot to be said with that. Obviously, we've learned how to use the zoom chat. As a speaker, you have to know that for like the biggest adjustment, like you need to have your links in the chat and things like that. And how do you engage the virtual audience?

I love that. Yeah, I am a huge fan of the virtual, the virtual speaking. I mean, I there was a few weeks ago, I spoke in the morning, as at four o'clock in the morning, as on a TV show in the Philippines, and then later isn't something in England. And then there's also something in the US. So like so crazy. Well, from my little off the grid cabin in Canada,

it's awesome. It's great, because I do I do believe work is not it's, if you're an entrepreneur, it's not about working all the time, you still need to take care of yourself, spend time with your loved ones, your animals, your friends, do your hobbies, like those are all part of making a fulfilled life.

I totally agree. And it's interesting because I used to travel quite a bit to different conferences and speak on stages, like we go over, you know, airplanes or whatever. I actually I actually looked at, I think I've been a little bit more successful in my business in the couple years that is actually more economical to to, to speak all over the world right from your home.

You also have more time. One thing I noticed even though most of my gigs were in person in it locally, I live in Southern California, we're known for traffic. So I couldn't I mean, there's only a limited amount of things I could possibly do while I'm driving, I'm not going to be writing content, I'm not going to coach a client. I'm not, you know, not going to be whatever other things, creating new things that I could do when I'm at home at my in my office. And so now I'm like, Wow, all that drive time allows me to create more for my clients, add modules to my academy. Give them more value, and I love and speak more, which is great.

Yeah, the only thing that's really great for those long drives and traffic in California is podcasts I

listen to Yes, I still listen to my podcasts at home. But yes, that was my favorite drive time. I stopped listening to the radio because I just listen to podcasts.

Yeah, I remember my friend, one of my friends, I spent so many years trying to tell my friends about podcasting. They had no clue what I was talking about. I remember one day she said, I listen to podcasts on my drive to work every day. And I was like, yes, we've arrived

so much you can learn while you're driving. It's awesome. Now I'll do it while I'm getting ready in the morning or maybe fixing wedge. And I'm a time and a half gal too. I like to listen on time and a half.

Me too. That's awesome. So what do you think is something that people need to do? Obviously, you have the seven step system to getting books. So can you share a couple of those steps with us?

Absolutely. I definitely say my first step is always get your talk ready to rock and so much so that I have a boot camp about it. And I I do that one on one with my clients. And that means you need to in order to be a speaker, you have to somehow put your stake in the ground of something you need to say like well, this is if you say, Oh, I'm a speaker. The next question is wow, what do you speak on if you if you say you have a podcast or you want to be a podcaster The next question is going to be what what is your podcast about what? And if you don't have an answer you're kind of already done before he got started. That's no fun, right? So you need to I think you have more confidence when you decide this is what I'm going to speak on. This is the title this is this is my what I call product on the shelf and you have a title when you're done with me you have a title, learning points and In the description to your talk, you need those things. And if you're an entrepreneur, you also need to have a monetization strategy that makes sense. So it's not just you talking about your life journey for no reason, just because you enjoy speaking. No, you're intentional about what you speak on. So that's where I start first, because I think that's what catapults people's confidence, to say, Yeah, I'm a speaker, I've got something to share, this is going to be really valuable. I'm excited about it, right. Otherwise, it's just a little hard to, to land to get started. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And the second thing right after that, and it's not that, that there, it has to be chronological. But the second thing is, where's my speaking gig pipeline? Like, who are my people? Where's my audience? Right? And that is different and unique to each person. Some of my clients like parenting audiences, or women audiences, or business owners or more, more corporate management, things like that. So you need to figure out where your audience is, where do they hang out? Where would a group of prospective clients of yours be going to hear a speaker? And that's where you want to start figuring out, okay, let's start putting that list together and see, who who do you know, where can you reach out to? So those are the two starting off points. Yeah.

Yeah, those are great. I mean, obviously, to start with who you know, first, seems like a good It seems like a good a good starting place. And I'm gonna, before I take you off on another tangent, I was gonna ask you back to vote, a vote creating your own story. Is there any, any other any other steps that we should probably think about?

Well, I won't go on to all seven. But the third one that I like, you know, that's on everyone's mind is money. Right? So the third step is monetization. And again, I do believe that is a customizable strategy for every single business owner. So there's templates and things like that, and steps and some proven methods. However, when I work with people closely, I'm really listening intuitively, like, what are you okay with saying, What are you okay, with asking for what feels good to you? What are you excited about? Because honestly, I would say, No one's going to do your push ups for you, and you're on stage, right, Michelle, like, you're up there. And if you're not on board with what you're doling out, you're not gonna offer it, you're gonna run out of time, or forget to say it or mess it up, or whatever, something's gonna happen and get in the way. So you have to be 100% in alignment with your offer. And so I always want to like, and sometimes we have to baby step up to the, to the, to the big guns, you know, that's okay. That's okay. But you got to start somewhere, right? And it's nice to have that evidence of success to

know, do you recommend we have like a mixture of a type of like, you know, speaking for free, you know, all those different kinds of talks that are out there. And to just to kind of get to see what you'd like to do or what you what you what suits? Well, with you.

I recommend when you're starting out, definitely to focus on one talk first. A lot of times people like, oh, I need to have 34567 times. I'm like, no, because then just double tripling quadrupling the work that you have to do. Do one, do it. Well, do it so many times that you're kind of sick of it at the point, you know, like, wow, hasn't everyone heard this? Guess what? No, there's millions of people, billions of people. Not everyone has heard your talk yet. But yeah, that gives you time to fine tune it and get get it in your DNA. And you're going to be tweaking, I always say your talk is kind of an evolving organism, a growing organism, it, it tends to grow, and you get different ideas from different people and maybe use different examples or words as you grow as an entrepreneur. So it's, it's really exciting. As you get more season. Yeah, you're gonna start naturally adding a couple more talks. But even then, you kind of find I think, like, three is a good, a good number most people have because then you have your three different presentations and three choices. If they want you back the same year, you can you have a different option.

Yeah, that's a great idea. And I'm sure that's part of your strategy, too, is getting rebooked on, I read books on stages after you've been on. But I love the idea of like, I feel like I'm always like kind of using similar talks. But I'm kind of recreating it based on who the audience is every time is that that's probably a lot more work strategy. Rather than just having like one standard one that you can just switch a fewers in there and geared towards audience.

Yeah, that's what I recommend, if you can, it doesn't work all the time. But I call it like putting a lens over it or putting a filter over your talk. So for example, when I would speak for the personal development company, my talk was called Creating a winning mindset. So a lot of times I would just that's what it was called. But sometimes they're like, Well, can you make it about realtors? I'm like, Sure, creating winning mindset for real estate, creating a winning mindset for insurance brokers creating winning right you know, so, but it was it was the same talk, but I would come in with a different energy I would use different words examples like this I would talk about listing and buying and prospecting and cold calling and door knocking versus real estate type vocabulary. If I was speaking to a realtor group, versus if I was speaking to a women's business group, it would be I wouldn't use those examples.

That makes a lot of sense. Yeah. And I could see how you're really good at that one talk. And he wouldn't have to worry about stressing out and figuring out a new talk.

Exactly.

I like to do things the hard way, apparently. But I want to circle back to the question I had about. I was thinking of a question when you were speaking about your story. And it's one of the things this is personally I'm sorry, guys, this is this is all about me right now. I have a problem. So I want to ask Lisa, while she's here. I feel like there's a lot of different parts of my story that could be relevant. In How do you choose? Like, is there a way that you have found has been really helpful? How to choose the right parts of the story to tell?

That's a great question. And I will go to Donald, Donald Miller, excuse me on that, which he talks about, you want to create empathy and authority. When you're sharing about your stuff like you are the guide, you're the Yoda right? You're the the the guide for the Luke Skywalker is in the audience. And so even though we've all lived a lot of lives, you know, we have a lot under our belt. It's like what are the key things that they really need to know a to trust you and to know that you know, what you're talking about, that they should be listening to you and be so that they go, Oh, I kind of like that person like I, I really am connecting with that person. They've been where I've been, they get it. And sometimes that doesn't have to be. I think with the stories that can be, it can feel formulaic sometimes, especially for maybe you and I, when we've seen a lot of speakers, and you've been to a lot of things and you know, they're like, Oh, now they're doing my thing. Oh, now they're going and so which is fine. But I also believe in really connecting with your audience in a humanistic way, like address what's going on in the room, connect with people look at them, acknowledge them. And I think that also speaks volumes.

Gotta Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And it doesn't have to be what I'm gathering. It doesn't have to be your most traumatic experience that you're sharing your story. That is what's gonna help you. You know, that doesn't have to be that part of your story.

No, no, I mean, you, you have to think like, it's you just have to pick out the highlights almost like in a movie, like you see a really great movie. And the trailer is just gonna grab a couple highlights. I was at the movies the other day, I saw the new Spider Man movie. And there was a trailer for a movie. And I thought, oh, my gosh, they practically play the entire movie. Like I don't need that much to just giving too much away. So it's almost like a little teaser. Huh? Yeah,

that's great. I like that. That helps give a little bit of clarity in my mind about my story. I mean, there's just so many different angles you could come in, and I guess you need to look at what the outcome what you want. Where are you wanting people to connect with you and how you want them to work with you after the talk as to what exactly you would share during the during the story apart.

Yeah, sometimes I'll even say cuz I know you're from Canada. I'm, even though I'm in California, I grew up in Alaska in Fairbanks. And so sometimes I'll throw that in. And I also really trust my intuition. So there are things that I will share, typically in most talks, but sometimes I'll add a little something special or something different. And it's because I just trust it, I go, maybe someone in the audience needed to hear that. So I might say, I'm from a lot. You know, I grew up in Alaska, I'm very direct. I'm going to tell you, if you you know if I can help you. I'll tell you, if I can't help you. I'll let you know. And I'll pass you on to someone that I trust. So I don't pull any punches. That's just who I am. So I might feel compelled to share something like that, whereas maybe I wouldn't share it in another in another talk.

Right now. I love using your intuition for to cool. Is there any other particular places that you suggest people start looking first for if they want to start looking at getting themselves some speaking gigs?

Well, a great place to start if you're superduper brand new, and you're like how do I break into this app? There's a great tip. There's something called service clubs. I believe they are in Canada as well as the United States. And for example, there are rotary Kiwanis Elks, Lions Clubs like that. And why I bring that up is because they're usually have entrepreneurs or business owners in the groups who are of a philanthropic mindset, a service mindset. And they have typically an outside speaker come in every single week. So they're constantly looking and open for different types of speakers. I say that, that you can, you can end up attracting amazing clients in these types of groups. However, I, they're not typically my target market these days, which is fine. But I definitely, I am such a fan of practicing. Michelle, like, I sometimes I get scared when a new speakers like I'm gonna, I want to speak in front of my ideal audience in this great opportunity. And I'm spending 1000s of dollars to get there. And I'm like, oh, like, if that's your first talk, I'm scared. I'm terrified for you. Because it's probably not going to go as well as you think. I'm not trying to blow anyone's balloons up right now. But you want to be able to get in front of a live audience, that's not a super high risk. For the first few that you do, like 20 do 20 of them like that. Like I think sometimes people don't realize the value in practicing. And I just think that's so valuable.

Agreed. I know like our podcasters if you ask anyone to go back and listen to their first 20 episodes, they probably all sucked because we're just practicing getting our voices and there's a reason podcasters fade out at 20 episodes a lot of them too is because finally get like good at what you're doing. And then you realize to come talk and then their own topic. And yeah, I love that. I love that idea of you know, 2020 talks to kind of get your footing because I think you will probably like resonate, what resonates in your story, what's awkward what needs to change and, and feel more settled with your with your topic. Probably read when you are speaking engagements.

And podcasting is different too. Because if someone's listening, they mean they've already heard I I'm a serial podcaster in the sense that I like to listen to I pick one and then I listen to all the episodes. So if they've already told a story, I'm like, I already know that about you. You don't need to keep repeating it. Right. So he podcasting speaking is also just a slight difference, like you don't want to say necessarily the same content, because someone could have already heard that in other episodes. It's a little bit of a different twist there.

Yeah, exactly. That's true. I love it. So Oh, my gosh, so many great things around speaking. We've talked about you know how to get started, what are some key things to look at where to find people. So anything else that we're not thinking about for our audience that maybe at home, are listening, they they want more visibility? Is this a great strategy for getting more visibility more business into your, into your world?

I think it definitely is speaking is very powerful, you don't have to qualify, you know, you just have to have a message that you're willing to share and ask somebody, can you share it on their stage, that is the ticket for entry, right? You don't have to have a PhD, you don't have to be an author, you don't have to have a podcast now you can start getting all those things. It's okay. And actually speaking is a great way to advertise your podcast, right, or to promote your book or whatever programs or services that you have. Because it really expands your reach in all kinds of ways. And especially virtually now because you can share it and people can share it you can get in front of all these different kinds of audiences. So if you think about, I always say if you're a person who has perhaps dreamt about speaking and you kind of have this dream, you're like, maybe you're, you know, wake in the middle of night like to in the morning, you wake up and you're like, oh, I can I can imagine myself on stage. And this is what I would say. And I would you know, and then they would respond. And then like we kind of speakers sort of have this little fantasy all in common. We just don't talk about it out loud. But it's like, like getting all revved up getting excited, then you should be speaking right? Don't let anything get in your way you should get out there and say something.

Do the butterflies ever go away?

You know, I am not a super highly nervous person in general. I don't get embarrassed super easily. I'm pretty. Huh, I would say brave or tough skinned in that regard. And yes, there are definitely times where I get nervous. And I think nervousness is interesting for different people for different reasons. I will get more nervous. And for people I know, versus people I don't know. Whereas some people are totally opposite. They're like, Oh my gosh, I can't speak in front of strangers, you know. So, and some people are more nervous of a small audience. Some people are nervous of the big audience. It's, you know, our minds are very complex.

Right. That's so funny. Um, I was thinking that, you know, yeah, and we're nervous. I get nervous when there's people I know, rather than know, for sure. And then, you know, I think the butterflies are kind of good, though to like, because I think it feels like you're how we say gun comfortable being uncomfortable. And that's just been helpful to to always be on that pushing that outer outer limits of your comfort.

Yeah, you will say, if you're not growing, you're dying. Right,

right. Yeah, exactly. I have to say like I've contributed to success. My business over the last few years have four things. And that's connecting with people collaborating with people speaking for sure. And so I think those and always a content like being on delivering content, like on podcasts or events, but I think that the speaking has been a really huge, huge needle mover for me. Would you say that that's common for a lot of your clients, too?

I think so. And absolutely, because all of a sudden, you can take that, quote, unquote, free experience of speaking and getting to teach the audience something and have four, figure five figure sales in just an hour of your time. And that can be a regular thing. And that's great. Most of my clients don't love posting on social media, maybe they have a virtual assistant who does that, or, you know, they want to be with people. They want to help people they want to teach people like and that's what's fun about speaking to market your business. So I enjoy it. And then yeah, you get results after the end. That's even better. How cool is that?

Cool. So cool. It's funny, I was on a mastermind call last night and the guest that was on our mastermind his name's Cory Bergen, and he's, like one of the oh, gosh, what's it called the shopping networks like all star are like top top sellers. Who in the way he was able to speak in like present. It was really interesting watching him like his energy was very high. And his likability was very high. And he wasn't doing anything with that. Like he wasn't trying to sell us he was. So it was just the way he was presenting himself, which was super interesting. He said his top sales was $97,000 in a minute. Like that. Wow.

Like that? platform, right? That's so awesome. Oh, I like yeah, the new goal.

Not that it matters how much money he was making. But it was like really cool to see like, how I was just cool to see his stage presence is what I'm getting is I love that. Yeah, his stage presence was really, really interesting. So for our listeners, go go look, Google him and watch one of his home shopping network videos. He's what he's sold, like, so many different things. It's so cool. I love it. So Leisa, anything else that our audience should know, before they start speaking? Or what would you suggest the what are the first couple of steps for them to get started? If they're not already using speaking? Is there an as a platform?

If what's the first couple steps if they're already using speaking as a platform, if they don't, already or not? Okay, so as a as a recap, definitely get your talk ready to rock I have a boot camp for that. So do it yourself course if you want. And that will help you identify your title, your description, your learning points, you have to have that right. Michelle, like if, if you get booked to talk or they say, Oh, well, Michelle, would you be interested in speaking for us? And you say yes, the next thing you're gonna want is those those three things, they need to have that title description, learning points, you have to have that it just can't not have that. So that and then start identifying those places that could maybe have you speak. And if you're not sure, you can always go to I mean, I have a bunch of resources that will share as well. If you want me to share right now, but I can share those. You're certainly welcome to go to get speaking gigs. now.com That's gigs with the s because you want more than one right? You want more than one speaking. So get speaking gigs. now.com. And right away, you'll see a thing to get five top tips to get more speaking gigs. So you're gonna grab that. I'll share it, you'll see that first tip is that get your talk ready rock. So you're like, Oh, she said that already? Yes, I did. And then we have a special bonus for the listeners here today. That isn't available on my website. And that is a masterclass called attract your clients through speaking? Yes, even now. And is this something that I started back in 2020? Because everyone was freaking out, right? We're like, oh, my gosh, how speaking dead? Can we do this anymore? And the answer is, absolutely you can, because we've all done it. Now. You know, back then there was a lot more unknown, but I am here to say it's still true. You can still speak pandemic or no pandemic, you can still do this. And, in fact, you can do it more and more often.

In fact, if you're not doing it, you should be doing

it, right. Yes. 100% Even if you're shy, even if you're an introvert, you just think if you have something to teach, if you have expertise in the same for a podcast, right? It means you have some you have something to say you don't have to be like the gentleman on the chopping net, where you don't have to be a natural, you know, you can learn you can grow. If you have something of value that that other people can benefit from, I would say absolutely go for it.

Very cool. And I thank you so much for giving us your master class they include in our podcasters Toolkit, which we have a link to in the show notes. So guys, make sure you go and grab it and reach out to Leisa, to connect with her and find out more and go get her get speaking gigs and offer to so on her website. So, Leisa, is there anything else you want to share with the audience? Before we let you go today, thank you so much for all the amazing content you deliver. And God has some clarity around our speaking and how to get started and what we should be looking for.

Thank you. No, we're good. I mean, you know, I just say dentists better than perfect y'all, like, get it done. Get it done. You can change it later. But decide on something to figure out what you want to say if you need help with that. You can reach me you know how to reach me.